CHAPTER XVIII.
ON BOARD THE SLOOP.
They had no further opportunity, just then, to comment on theirdiscovery. For, just as Ned voiced it, somebody could be heard fumblingwith the lock on the companionway door. It was the work of an instantfor Herc to replace the removable section of the flooring while Nedslid silently and swiftly back into the cabin he had vacated.
Herc had just time to resume his seat on the locker, together with avacant expression of countenance, when the door was flung open. Itadmitted a gust of fresh, crisp air and a shower of spray.
"Wish I was up on deck inhaling some of that," commented Herc tohimself, as he turned his head to see who the newcomer might be.
It proved to be Herr Muller. He came down the steps slowly, glancingabout him sharply as he came. He seemed somewhat surprised as his eyeslit on Herc perched up on his locker.
"Ah, ha! awake!" he exclaimed.
"You hadn't any reason to suppose I'd be asleep, had you?" inquiredHerc blandly.
"No. You boys are too wide-awake altogether. That is why we have takenyou off on this cruise," chuckled the anarchist grimly.
"Very considerate of you, I'm sure," rejoined Herc. "And this--thiscruise, I presume, it isn't for our health?"
"Hardly," rejoined the other, with a smile; "I mean to make you usefulto us and--to the cause!"
His eyes glittered as he spoke. The glare of a fanatic filled them.
"How is your comrade?" he asked the next instant.
Herc saw the trap instantly. Muller had thought to trap him intoanswering without thought. Had he done so, the crafty anarchist wouldhave known that the boys had been talking together. So Herc assumed hismost unworldly expression.
"What, is Ned on board?" he exclaimed.
"You didn't know it?"
"Not I. You are clever fellows to have trapped both of us."
Herr Muller looked at the lad sharply. He did not know what to make ofthis careless, debonair manner.
"Well, as you observed," he said at length, "we have trapped you."
"But what for? What do you want with little us?" grinned Herc.
"You are making fun of me, Mister Yankee."
"Not any more fun than you make of yourself," parried Herc quickly.
Herr Muller looked more puzzled than ever. Then he frowned suddenly."You do not seem to realize the seriousness of your position," he said.
"Not I. Oh, I'm a care-free sail-o-r-r-r-r oh!" sang Herc. "How do youlike my singing?" he inquired.
"Not very much," replied the other, looking at him with the samepuzzled expression. Herr Muller couldn't make out whether Herc wascrazy or simply light-headed.
"Sorry you don't like it," rejoined Herc; "when I sing in big cities itbrings crowds. Sometimes it brings the police."
"I don't wonder. But I did not come down here to talk nonsense. Whereis your companion?"
"I told you before I didn't know," rejoined Herc, seemingly with allthe carelessness in the world. For the second time the crafty foreignanarchist had failed to trap Herc into an admission that he and Ned hadmet.
"I'll go and get him," said Herr Muller, starting for the cabin.
"I wish you'd bring me a glass of water," said Herc.
"There is water in that stone jug," said Herr Muller, indicating thedrugged receptacle.
"Oh, I drank all that a long time ago," rejoined Herc, "I'm very fondof water."
For a reason we know of, Herr Muller looked surprised.
"You drank _all_ that water!" he exclaimed.
"Sure," rejoined Herc.
"Our water supply has run rather low," said Herr Muller, watching theDreadnought Boy narrowly, "did you notice anything peculiar about thatwater?"
"Ah, now you come to speak of it, I did notice a peculiar taste to it,"said Herc, restraining a desire to chuckle at the other's amazement, "asort of bitter flavor. Is it that which you refer to?"
"Perhaps. But--but didn't it make you sleepy?" queried the other, hiscuriosity overcoming his discretion.
"Never felt more wide awake in my life," responded Herc, "I could singthis instant. I----"
But Herr Muller had fled into Ned's cabin. He found the boy apparentlyjust wakening from a sound slumber, although Ned had enjoyed every wordof Herc's foolish banter.
"Ah, so you are awake at last, Mister Sailor," said Herr Muller; "may Itrouble you to come into the other cabin? I have business of importanceto discuss."
"I beg your pardon," said Ned shortly.
"What do you mean?"
"Just this: that I have no business to discuss with a scoundrel."
The reply was like the crack of a whip. The other grew livid.
"Be careful how you speak," he said, striving to retain controlof himself, "I am not accustomed to being made game of bywhipper-snappers."
"Well, what do you want?" asked Ned, feeling that, after all, he mightlearn something by pretending to fall in with the rascal's plans,whatever they might prove to be.
"Then you are willing to talk business with us?"
"That depends," rejoined Ned, "on whether it's profitable business. ButI warn you," he went on, raising his voice, "my comrade and I want tobe paid in full and well, too, for anything we do."
Herc in the outer cabin heard the heightened tones.
"What's Ned up to now?" he wondered to himself, "I'll bet he's hit onsome plan. I guess that whatever he says I'll follow his lead. I don'tlike playing at being a traitor, though, just the same."
Herr Muller and Ned now emerged into the outer cabin.
"Sit down," said the anarchist, pointing to a place beside Herc. Bothboys instantly simulated great delight and surprise at seeing eachother. Herr Muller looked on somewhat glumly.
"I wonder if they are making fools of me," he thought. "They are bothsharp as steel traps, as they say in this country. It is possible.Well, I shall govern myself accordingly and watch them closely."
"Well," said Ned, when the first apparently warm greetings were over,"what is it you want us to do?"
"Just this," said Herr Muller, "you are a good mechanic and afair draughtsman. I want you to draw me a sectional design of the_Manhattan_. When that is done I've got other work for you to do."
"A design of the _Manhattan_?" repeated Ned slowly as if he had notquite understood. He was in reality trying to gain time to think.
"Yes. You are familiar with her, and I believe she is the finest shipof your navy."
"I can say 'yes,' to both questions," rejoined Ned. "What would youwant this drawing to show?"
"For one thing, I should like to know where her armor is thinnest," wasthe rejoinder.
Herr Muller's eyes narrowed as he spoke, and he gazed sharply at thelad before him.
"You understand?" he asked, as Ned did not reply.
"Perfectly. I was just trying to collect my thoughts. So you wanta sectional plan of the _Manhattan_, showing where her armor isthinnest," he said slowly. "Well, supposing I make one, what is therein it for me?"
"That depends on the success of the grand project," was the rejoinder.
Ned looked puzzled. Into the anarchist's eyes there had come the sameglare of fanatical fire that Herc had noted there before.
"What is this grand project, if I may ask?" he said presently.
"You may ask," was the reply, "but I shall not answer. Theaccomplishment itself shall be your reply--and the world's."
The man had risen to his feet and was pacing up and down the cabinexcitedly. Suddenly he turned sharply.
"I shall ask for your reply in half an hour," he said abruptly, andplunged, rather than mounted, up the cabin stairs.
Ned sat lost in thought after his departure. After a long period ofspeechlessness, Herc spoke.
"What are you thinking about, Ned?" he asked.
"I'm trying to put two and two together," said Ned softly. "If I'mright in my conclusions, this fellow Muller is one of the mostdiabolical scoundrels that ever encumbered the face of the earth."