In the shocked silence which followed Splendor’s words, Riggs pushed back his chair. The captain’s face had the look of a man just charged with murder.
“In other words, you accuse me, Mr. Splendor!” he said hoarsely, rising to his feet. “By George, sir! If you were not a cripple, I would....”
“Please, Captain Riggs!” the voice of Michael Splendor rang sharp as a trumpet call. “I am accusing no one of us—least of all yourself. Now, look me in the eye and smile, me friend; for in faith I would sooner accuse meself than anyone in this cabin!”
Slowly the color came back into Captain Riggs’ cheeks. Sinking back into his chair at the head of the table, he did his best to smile, though it was a hard attempt.
“I believe you, Mr. Splendor!” he said huskily. “But the way you put the evidence gave me an ugly start, sir. It seemed to point to me alone as the attacker, or at least as the one person whose whereabouts were unaccounted for at the time of the attack on Winslow.”
“Indeed it did, Captain,” admitted the man in the wheel chair, apologetically, “and sorry I am for not choosing me words more carefully! I was just tryin’ to show all of ye how closely we are being spied upon. I meself could have sworn that no one was in earshot of our party this afternoon. Yet our every speech was heard and noted by the enemy. Our future plans must be told in whispers behind locked doors, I fancy.”
Throughout the rest of the meal there was a lively argument about dictaphones and other means of eavesdropping which the spy might have used. It all proved highly amusing to the Scorpion spy, who was listening in on every word, by the aid of a clever electrical “ear.”
Small and easily concealed as a man’s wrist watch, the device was a powerful amplifier of ordinary sounds. These were transmitted over threadlike wires to an earphone, palmed in the spy’s hand.
Turned toward a ship’s ventilator or porthole, or toward a party conversing on deck, the mechanical “ear” could pick up even whispered speech without the slightest difficulty.
But while this comparatively harmless eavesdropping was in progress, a far more sinister drama was being enacted below decks. It was the old, old game of death, which has been played since life began upon the earth, and the first killer stalked his unsuspecting prey.