The officer scrutinized him curiously for a moment and apparently was satisfied, for he only added, speaking rather harshly, “You’d better be careful where you go at night and keep away from the ropes.” With this he wheeled about and strode away.
For a minute or two Tom stood rooted to the spot where he stood, his heart pounding in his breast. He would not have been afraid of a whole regiment of Germans and he would probably have retained his stolid demeanor if the vessel had been sinking, but this little encounter frightened him. He wished that he had had the presence of mind to tell the officer why he had doffed his white jacket, and he wished that he had had the courage to mention how his Uncle Job had fought at Gettysburg and been buried with the flag over his coffin. Those things might have impressed the officer.
As he lay in his berth that night, his feeling of fright passed away and he was overcome with a feeling of humiliation. That he, Tom Slade, who had been a scout of the scouts, who had worked for the Colors, whose whole family history had been one of loyalty and patriotism, should be even—— No, of course, he had not been actually suspected of anything, and he knew that the government had to be very watchful and careful, but—— Well, he felt ashamed and humiliated, that’s all.
He made up his mind that if he should see that officer again, and he did not look too forbidding, he would mention how his mother had taught him to sing America, how his father had played the Star-Spangled Banner on his old accordion and how Uncle Job had died in the Soldiers’ Home. Those were about the only good things he could remember about his father and Uncle Job, but weren’t they enough?
And since the government was so very particular, Tom got up and hung his coat across the porthole, though no clink of light could possibly have escaped, for his little stateroom was as dark as pitch and even when he opened his door there was only the dim light from the inner passage.
CHAPTER VIII
HE HEARS SOME NEWS AND IS CONFIDENTIAL WITH FRENCHY
The next morning there was a rumor. Somebody told somebody who told somebody else who told a deck steward who told Tom that a couple of men had gone very stealthily along the dimly lighted passageway outside the forward staterooms below, looking for a lighted stateroom.