CHAPTER VI New War Clouds
But if a clearing of the international political atmosphere was hoped for or expected in Halifax the following morning, the disappointment there was as sad and deep as it was in a dozen national capitals, all the chancellories of Europe, and in the State Department at Washington. Deep depression seemed to prevail everywhere, and indeed not without good reason.
The two newspapers of Halifax gave little additional news to that of the day before, but even this was of the most discouraging nature. It began to look, in fact, as though the representatives of the Japanese government had been instructed to seek a quarrel.
It turned out later that that was not at all the case, but who could discern the real motives behind the demands of that critical time?
Crowds hung about the local newspaper bulletin boards, but throughout the day they added little to the meagre enough news that had been given early in the morning.
Shortly before noon Jack received another code message from the makers of their machine, and with this the young men eagerly hurried to their hut, where they shut and locked themselves in, to avoid interruption during the process of deciphering, which, under the circumstances, was delayed rather than hastened by their own natural impatience.
But if the message, when finally translated, foreboded serious difficulties ahead, it also bore the seeds of an almost unbounded enthusiasm upon the part of the four young men.
"Consider yourselves in Government service," the message read, "and prepare for eventualities."
Of course, if this seemed to hold some indefinite sort of promise of more adventure, it also was filled with mystery, and might, after all, be entirely meaningless so far as concerned our four young friends, virtually for the time being chained in Halifax.