CHAPTER XXIV
TICK-TOCK! TICK-TOCK!
The superdreadnaught was so huge a ship, and the divisions of the crewwere so busily engaged in drills and other work, that few, indeed, knewthat the "ghost of the _Kennebunk_" was being investigated by theofficers.
The ship was storming along her course through the sea at a pace whichfairly made her structure shake. Had one been able to be out upon thesea on another ship and watch her pass, her speed would have beenimpressive, indeed.
Routine work went on, and the bulk of the ship's company knew nothingabout that little party of searchers at work deep down in the ship.Whistler was one of those assigned to find the cause of the "tick-tock"noise, and it was he who finally suggested the spot where the mechanismwhich caused the sound might be found.
The party had searched the lumber room and the compartments on bothsides, that above, and the one directly beneath the room in question.Nothing was discovered save that the sound seemed clearer in the lumberroom than elsewhere.
Overhauling the stuff stowed there did no good. They seemed no nearer tothe sound. And as the latter was not continuous it was the morepuzzling.
"Don't you think we ought to open that chest, sir?" asked Whistler ofthe warrant officer who had immediate charge of the work.
"It doesn't seem to come from that box," objected the man.
"It doesn't seem to come from anywhere exactly," Whistler said. "It issort of ventriloquial. One time it seems to be from one direction, thenfrom another. But that chest hasn't been open----"
"Whose is it?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Who does know?" the warrant officer asked.
But nobody seemed able to answer that query. The searchers gatheredabout the chest that had been pulled out of the heap of rubbish. It wasironbound and made of heavy planking.
"It gets me!" murmured the officer.
Just then the sound started again: "Tick-_tock_! Tick-_tock_!Tick-_tock_!"
"It don't come from that box!" declared one man.
Whistler stooped and put his hand on the cover. "Wait!" he saidsuddenly. "Just feel this, sir."
"What do you feel?"
"There is vibration here. And it isn't the vibration of the ship'sengines, either."
The warrant officer rested his hand upon the chest. He looked morepuzzled than ever.
"Get something and break the lock!" he commanded.
"Wait a minute, sir!" cried Whistler. "If there should be some infernalmachine in that box we must take care in opening it. Maybe the carpentercan pick the lock."
"Good idea," agreed the officer.
The carpenter's mate was sent for. He came with a bunch of spare keysand a pick-lock. The latter had to be used skilfully before the lock ofthe chest was sprung.
Then the warrant officer suddenly experienced an accession of caution.He refused to have the cover of the chest lifted until the chest itselfwas carried carefully out upon the open deck.
No sound came from the chest now, if that had been the locality of thetick-tock noise. The vibration could be felt just the same.
The men were ordered to stand back and the warrant officer courageouslylifted the lid of the chest. Nothing happened.
There was an empty tray in the top of the odd chest. That, too, wascautiously lifted out.
There came suddenly a faint buzzing from the interior that startledeverybody near. Then followed the ticking sound, which lasted at least afull minute.
The warrant officer jerked away a layer of pasteboard that hid what wasunder the tray. Several grim cylinders lay side by side in the chest'sbottom. They were connected by wires with a mechanism that hummed likethe purring of a well-piled motor.
"Clockwork!" exclaimed the carpenter's mate, bending over the chest."That's what she is. Ah! It reverses itself. See that spring--windingtighter and tighter? Why, it's almost perpetual motion! Some inventorthat fellow!"
"What fellow?" growled the warrant officer.
"Whoever built this."
"Can you stop it without exploding those cylinders?"
"Great Scott! Do you s'pose that's dynamite under there?"
"Or T N T."
The petty officer thrust an iron bar suddenly into the heart of thecomplicated machine. Something snapped. The mechanism stopped.
"Great heavens, man!" gasped the warrant officer, "suppose you had setit off?"
"No. Couldn't be done till the spring here was wound up to thetop-notch. This machine was arranged to run for weeks. Some ingeniousarrangement, take it from me!"
The discovery and destruction of the infernal machine, and a big one atthat, relieved the tension of feeling aboard the warship. As FrenchyDonahue remarked:
"It's bad enough to have a banshee _tick-tocking_ around the place; butthat tidy little bunch of cylinders would have made a lot more noise ifthey had been exploded."
But the matter was serious. The captain took the opportunity to lecturethe entire ship's company regarding foolish rumors and gossip.
"If there is anything strange comes under your notice, report itproperly," he said. "Don't camouflage it with a lot of superstitiousnonsense so that the officer you report to must disbelieve the yarn.There never was a strange occurrence yet that could not be explained."
"How does he explain Jonah being swallowed by the whale?" whisperedFrenchy.
"He doesn't have to explain it," retorted Torry. "If you don't believe awhale can swallow a man, jump down the throat of the next one you see."
As a whole, the crew of the _Kennebunk_ were not inclined to considerthe incident of the infernal machine carelessly. A serious impressionwas made upon them all.
But the mysterious prospect of what was ahead of them shortly smotheredthe matter of the peril escaped. There might be greater perils ahead.
The superdreadnaught halted but for an hour at a port of the Azores.This was to send mail ashore. Then she picked up speed again andtraveled north.
She passed convoys of merchant vessels guarded by French, British andAmerican destroyers. The _Kennebunk_ exchanged signals with severalcruisers of the United States Navy as well.
Drill at the guns went on daily. Once they spied and shelled a Germansubmarine, but she escaped. This incident greatly enraged the crew ofthe gun that missed her. It was not the gun to the crew of whichWhistler and Torry belonged.
"Can't expect to get the Hun every time," was the soothing remark of oneof the division captains.
"Why not?" asked somebody else. "That's what we are here for, isn't it?I don't believe Uncle Sam wants excuses."
The standard the men set themselves in our Navy is higher than theirofficers require.
The boys from Seacove, as well as Hans Hertig and Mr. MacMasters, kepta sharp lookout for their beloved _Colodia_. But they were fated not tomeet the destroyer until the great event which had brought thesuperdreadnaught into European waters.
The _Kennebunk_ steamed into a certain roadstead one evening where laymore huge battleships, cruisers and smaller armored vessels thanWhistler and his mates had ever seen before. They flew the flags ofthree nations, and they were prepared to move _en masse_ upon the enemyat the briefest notice.