Tom, standing upon the after deck, gazed quietly around him. He felt that the situation was strained. There was something threatening in the pose of Boldig after all. This was no tramp steam freighter with half a crew. No, indeed! She was a well found and well furnished passenger craft. Where were the crew and passengers that should be aboard of her?
And just then he saw a white hand beckoning at the after cabin companionway. He remembered the woman he had observed from the wreck of the Zeppelin standing at that doorway. Swiftly Tom crossed the deck behind Boldig’s back and reached the door which was open more than a crack.
The hand seized his own. The touch thrilled him before he heard her voice or caught a glimpse of Ruth Fielding’s face.
“Tom! Tom Cameron!” she murmured. “You are saved and have been sent to me.”
“Ruth!” He almost fell down the stairway to reach her. He took her in his arms with such ardor that she could not escape. In that moment of reunion and relief she met his lips with as frank and warm a kiss as though she had really been his sister.
“Tom! Dear Tom!” she murmured.
“Great heavens, Ruth! how did you come here? What is the meaning of this business? Those Germans out there——?”
“And there are only two faithful men aboard—the first officer and the radio chief. Both locked in their rooms, Tom. We are four against eleven of these pirates!”
“Pirates!”
“No less,” the girl hastened to say. “I cannot tell you all now. The others escaped in the small boats; but Mr. Dowd, Mr. Rollife, and I were left. Then the German members of the crew, and this officer, Boldig, came back and took the ship. They expect a big submarine with an extra crew to pick them up.”