"Oh, Jack, I see what you're going to do now," cried Ned. "Come on. We don't want to lose a minute."
The boys dashed up the stairs three at a time. The Senator followed at a more discreet pace. They entered the wireless room with a bang and a shout.
Jack fairly flung himself at the key and began pounding out the Southern Star's call. In reality it was only ten minutes, but to those in that room it seemed hours before he got a reply. When he did, he summoned the captain through the operator.
"Have I got authority to use your name, Senator?" asked the boy while he waited for the announcement that the captain was in the wireless room.
"You have authority to use the name of the most powerful institution in the world, my boy, the United States Government," said the Senator solemnly. Then, as if he had suddenly thought of something, he hurriedly left the room. Downstairs he once more applied himself to the telephone, but this time he talked to the Secretary of the Navy.
Fifteen minutes after Jack had spoken to the Captain of the Southern Star that craft was anchored in the Chesapeake River waiting the arrival of a gunboat hastily detailed by government wireless to proceed at once up that river and take three prisoners off the Southern Star. This latter order was the result of Senator Rivers' call to the Navy Department.
Jack's happy task was then to break the good news to Captain Simms, which he lost no time in doing, and the captain's deep gratitude, which was none the less because he expressed it in few words, may be imagined.
"I declare," he said, "you boys have been my good angels all through. You have helped me as if your own interests had been at stake. I don't know how to thank you."
The code was yielded up by Judson without a struggle, which procured him some leniency later on. But both he and Jarrow met with heavy punishment for their misdeeds. Donald was allowed to go free on account of his youth and the government's disability to prove that he had actually anything to do with the theft of the code. After the news of his arrest spread, the long threatened disaster to Judson's company happened and it went into bankruptcy. Donald, the pampered and selfish, had to go to work for a living. The boys heard that he had gone west. They were destined to meet him again, however, as they were Thurman.
One of Jack's proudest possessions is a framed letter from the Secretary of the Navy thanking him for his great aid and that of his friends in the matter of the Navy Code, but he values the friendship of Captain Simms as highly. Not long after the successful tests of the detector, there was a joyous gathering on board the old Venus, to which queer home Uncle Toby had returned. All our friends were there and Jack was able to announce a joyous surprise. He had been able to secure, through Captain Simms' influence, the command of a fine new sailing ship for Captain Dennis. She was a full-rigged bark, plying between New York and Mediterranean ports.