MacFinney started forward with an oath.
“If they’re up to any monkeyshines, I’ll fix ’em.”
Doctor Marley ran after him, laying a hand on his arm.
“Oh, do be careful, Mr. MacFinney,” he pleaded, all a-twitter with fear, as Jack could observe. “Please be careful. What—what would I do, if anything happened to you?”
MacFinney regarded him scornfully.
“So it’s yourself you’re thinking of. What might happen to me doesn’t matter on my account. But you need me for protection, hey?”
“Oh, Mr. MacFinney. Oh. You mustn’t think that. But it’s those boys that Mr. Folwell brought aboard. They injured Wong Ho. I bound up his head before I left. And he’s their leader, he’s——”
“Yes, yes, I know,” interrupted the engineer, impatiently. “But don’t delay me. If what you suspect is true, and I wouldn’t put it past them Chinks, it’s high time I was gettin’ below.”
Jack waited to hear no more. He did not want to be discovered by Doctor Marley, if the latter chose to return at once. Retreating noiselessly down the companion, he re-entered the salon. It was just as he had left it. But when he opened the door of his cabin, he received a surprise.
Frank was at the porthole with his back turned and the headphones of Jack’s ring-radio set clamped to his ears. Jack’s thoughts flew at once to the ring, and he remembered having taken it off before retiring and placing it on a stand against the wall. He looked. It was not there. Obviously, Frank, on awaking, had noticed it and had been impelled to take the parts from Jack’s bag and make an attempt to listen in on the ether.