CHAPTER VIII. THE DEVIL ON THE DIPSEY
After a troubled night, Roland Clewe rose early. He had made up his mindthat what Sammy had to communicate was something of a secret, otherwiseit would have been telegraphed at once. For this reason he had not senthim a message asking for immediate and full particulars, but had waited.Now, however, he felt he could wait no longer; he must know somethingdefinite before he saw Margaret. Not to excite suspicion by telegraphingat untimely hours, he had waited until morning, and as the Dipsey wasin about the same longitude as Sardis, and as they kept regular hourson board, without regard to the day and night of the arctic regions, heknew that he would not now be likely to rouse anybody from his slumbersby "calling up" the pole.
Although the telephone had been brought to such wonderful perfection inthese days, Roland Clewe had never thought of using it for purposes ofcommunication with the Dipsey. The necessary wire would have been tooheavy, and his messages could not have been kept secret. In fact, thistelegraphic communication between Sardis and the submarine vessel wasalmost as primitive as that in use in the latter part of the nineteenthcentury.
But Clewe had scarcely entered the office when he was surprised by thesound of the instrument, and he soon found that Sammy was calling to himfrom the polar seas. He sat down instantly and received this message:
"Could not send more last night. Gibbs came in. Did not want him to knowuntil I had heard from you. That Pole, Rovinski, is on board. Never knewit until yesterday. Had shaved off his beard and had his head cropped.He let it grow, and I spotted him. There is no mistake. I know him, buthe has not found it out. He is on board to get ahead of you some wayor other--perhaps get up a mutiny and go to the pole himself. He isthe wickedest-looking man I ever saw, and he scared me when I firstrecognized him. Will send news as long as I am on hand. Let me know whatyou think. I want to chuck him into the scuttle-box.
"SAMUEL BLOCK."
"If that could be done," said Clewe to himself, "it would be an end to agreat many troubles."
The scuttle-box on the submarine vessel was a contrivance for throwingthings overboard. It consisted of a steel box about six feet long andtwo feet square at the ends, and with a tightly fitting door at eachextremity. When this scuttle-box was used it was run down through asquare opening in the bottom of the Dipsey, the upper door was opened,matter to be disposed of was thrown into it, the upper door was shut andthe lower one opened, whereupon everything inside of it descended intothe sea, and water filled the box. When this box was drawn up by meansof its machinery, the water was forced out, so that when it was entirelyinside the vessel it was empty, and then the lower door was closed. Forsome moments the idea suggested by Sammy was very attractive to Clewe,and he could not help thinking that the occasion might arise when itwould be perfectly proper to carry it into execution.
Now that he knew the import of Sammy's extraordinary communication, hefelt that it would not be right to withhold his knowledge from Margaret.Of course it might frighten her very much, but this was an enterprise inwhich people should expect to be frightened. Full confidence and heartyassistance were what these two now expected from each other.
"What is it exactly that you fear?" she asked, when she had heard thenews.
"That is hard to say," replied Roland. "This man Rovinski is ascientific jackal; he has ambitions of the very highest kind, and heseeks to gratify them by fraud and villainy. It is now nearly two yearssince I have found out that he has been shadowing me, endeavoring todiscover what I am doing and how I am doing it; and the moment he doesget a practical and working knowledge of anything, he will go on withthe business on my lines as far as he can. Perhaps he may succeed,and, in any case, he will be almost certain to ruin my chances ofsuccess--that is, if I were not willing to buy him off. He would bepretty sure to try blackmail if he found he could not make good use ofthe knowledge he had stolen."
"The wretch!" cried Margaret. "Do you suppose he hopes to snatch fromyou the discovery of the pole?"
"That seems obvious," replied Roland, "and it's what Sammy thinks. Itis the greatest pity in the world he was not discovered before he got onthe Dipsey."
"But what can you do?" cried Margaret.
"I cannot imagine," he replied, "unless I recall the Dipsey to CapeTariff, and go up there and have him apprehended."
"Couldn't he be apprehended where he is?" she asked. "There are enoughmen on board to capture him and shut him up somewhere where he could dono harm."
"I have thought of that," answered Roland, "but it would be a verydifficult and delicate thing to do. The men we have on board the Dipseyare trusty fellows--at least, I thought so when they were engaged--butthere is no knowing what mutinous poison this Pole may have infused intotheir minds. If one of their number should be handcuffed and shut upwithout good reason being given, they might naturally rebel, and itwould be very hard to give satisfactory reasons for arresting Rovinski.Even Gibbs might object to such harshness upon grounds which might seemto him vague and insufficient. Sammy knows Rovinski, I know him, but theothers do not, and it might be difficult to convince them that he is theblack-hearted scoundrel we think him; so we must be very careful what wedo."
"As to calling the Dipsey back," said Margaret, "I would not do it; Iwould take the risks."
"I think you are right," said Clewe. "I have a feeling that if they comeback to Cape Tariff they will not go out again. Some of the men may bediscouraged already, and it would produce a bad impression upon all ofthem to turn back for some reason which they did not understand, or fora reason such as we could give them. I would not like to have to bringthem back, now that they are getting on so well."
In the course of the morning there came from the officers, men, andpassenger of the Dipsey a very cordial and pleasant message to Mr. Cleweand Mrs. Raleigh, congratulating them upon the happy event of whichthey had been informed. Sarah Block insisted on sending a supplementarymessage for herself, in which she was privately congratulatory to asgreat an extent as her husband would allow her to go, and whichended with a hope that if they lived to be married they would contentthemselves with doing their explorations on solid ground. She did notwant to come back until she had seen the pole, but some of her ideasabout that kind of travelling were getting to be a good deal more fixedthan they had been.
The advice which Roland Clewe gave to Samuel Block was simple enough andperhaps unnecessary, but there was noshing else for him to say. He urgedthat the strictest watch be kept on Rovinski; that he should never beallowed to go near the telegraph instrument; and if, by insubordinationor any bad conduct, a pretext for his punishment should offer itself,he should be immediately shut up where he could not communicate with themen. It was very important to keep him as much as possible in ignoranceof what was going on and of what should be accomplished; that, afterall, was the main point. If the pole should be discovered, Rovinskimust have nothing to do with it. Sammy replied that everything should hereported as soon as it turned up, and any orders received from Mr. Cleweshould be carried out so long as he was alive to help carry them.
"Now," said Roland to Margaret, "there's nothing more that we can doin regard to that affair. As soon as there are any new developments weshall have to consider it again, but until then let us give up our wholesouls to each other and the Artesian ray."
"It seems to me," said she, "that if we could have discovered a goodwhile ago some sort of ray by which we could see into each other'ssouls, we should have gained a great many hours which are now lost."
"Not at all," replied Clewe; "they are not lost. In our philosophy,nothing is lost. All the joys we have missed in days that are past shallbe crowded into the days that are to come."