Jack uttered an exclamation of mingled surprise and delight.
“Good for you!” he ejaculated. “That settles it, I should say! The pretended sick man is Adolph Tuessig all right; and he’s in thick with this boastful naturalized American citizen who wears Old Glory in his buttonhole and tells how much he wishes he were a younger man so he could enlist under Uncle Sam. It makes me sick!”
“As they say in the story books, the plot thickens,” Tom continued. “Somehow or other Adolph doesn’t seem to take much stock in our crossing over to fly for the country we in America admire above all others just now. He thinks all Yankees must be mercenary, and that I’m carrying the completed design of father’s wonderful invention with me, to sell it for a vast sum to the Allies.”
“Tom, after this you’ve got to be more careful than ever how you hang over the side of the boat when dark sets in,” cautioned Jack. “It would be easy enough for a strong and desperate man to throttle you, search your person, and then chuck you overboard. Such men who could remorselessly sink women and babies aboard the Lusitania wouldn’t hesitate about sacrificing one single life in the interest of the Fatherland.”
“Oh, come, let’s quit this sort of talk for a while, Jack. It’s beginning to wear on our minds too much. We’ll exercise all reasonable caution, and they’ll find it a tough job to catch either of us napping. I challenge you to a game of deck quoits. That ought to keep us busy for an hour or so.”
Jack, nothing loth, laughingly accepted the bantering offer, and so they were soon tossing the covered rings back and forth in the endeavor to drop them one after another over the stake that represented the goal. It was not a very exciting amusement, but sufficed to divert their minds and keep them from worrying about the things they wished to forget temporarily.
When the hour was up Jack declared he had had quite enough, and was so far behind that there seemed no possible chance for him to catch up that time.
“I’ll give you another turn to-morrow,” he told Tom. “That is, if everything goes on well and we haven’t run afoul of one of those slinkers with the torpedo tubes that are waiting for us to cross their path. I’ll step down to our room, and get a fresh handkerchief. You see I insisted on Bessie taking my other to dry her tears with, and, well, she carried it away when she left me so suddenly.”
Jack walked away and Tom again sought his chair, and lay back to glance across the heaving waters once more, although not in the expectation of making a discovery.
The afternoon was almost done. With the approach of night it was commencing to get chilly again, so that the youth was glad to tuck his steamer rug about his legs as he reclined at his ease.