CHAPTER II
A little later, sitting in the plain but convenient office opposite thegreat man he had come to see, Lawrence was impressed by the power andforce in the steady eyes that looked so straight into his own, and inthe kind mouth and forceful broad brow saw a promise of clean dealingand deep wisdom.
"I cannot get over my surprise at your youth," said Mr. Ridgeway. "Itseems a foolish procedure to give such a great enterprise into the handsof a boy like you. Are you sure," he added, laughing, "that you have nota father or brother to whom I should be talking?"
"No, sir; I am the one you sent for," replied Lawrence. "I have beenfooling with airplanes and balloons ever since I graduated from kites."
"How old are you?" asked Mr. Ridgeway.
"I don't know, sir," said Lawrence, a flush mounting to his brow. "I ama waif. I do not know my own name, or my age. I was taken from one ofthe worst parts of the city to the Home where I was partly brought up. Ihave no hope of ever finding anyone belonging to me."
"Have you no clues?" asked Mr. Ridgeway.
"I fear not, sir," he replied. "At least they are too slight to beconsidered. I speak of this because I think you ought to know thatwhatever becomes of me, there is no one to rejoice and no one togrieve."
"I am sorry," said Mr. Ridgeway simply. "Yet for my purpose, thatsimplifies everything. You will embark on a desperate enterprise if youattempt what I have in mind for you to do. And I cannot tell you, indeedI cannot guess the outcome. It depends largely on your own daring,caution and ability. Your youth is your best safeguard because no onewould ever believe you to be embarked on anything like this."
"I am willing to take the risks," said Lawrence simply.
"Then you may try it," decided the great man. "I believe there were twoother men coming to see me this morning on this same errand. Step intomy private office until I see them. Perhaps one or both will do to workin as mechanicians."
Still in the dark as to what Mr. Ridgeway wanted him to undertake,Lawrence was about to go into the other room when a clerk rapped on theouter door and entered without waiting for a summons. His face was pale,and his eyes rolled wildly. "M-m-m-ister Ridgeway, sir," he stuttered,"those two gentlemen who were waiting outside for you, they are bothasleep."
"Both _what_?" asked Mr. Ridgeway sharply.
"Both asleep, and we can't wake either of them."
"Drugged!" exclaimed Mr. Ridgeway, glancing at Lawrence. "Come on, youmay as well see this thing out before you decide to cast your fortune insuch dangerous places." He rushed to the door, followed by Lawrence andthe agitated clerk.
On a broad settee in the waiting-room two men were sprawled. Mr.Ridgeway took one keen glance at their pallid faces and half closedlids, between which their pupils, contracted to pin points, glaredstrangely.
"Drugged!" he said again. Then stepping to the telephone, he called theoffice of the great building and asked sharply, "Office, is the housedoctor there? Ask him to come to Mr. Ridgeway's office, nineteenthfloor, immediately."
He returned to the settee, where the men still sprawled. "Lay them flaton the floor," he ordered.
Scarcely had this been done when the doctor, a small, keen young man,entered with a little bag in his hand. His sharp eyes swept the groupand he nodded to Mr. Ridgeway as he hastened to the two men on the floorand dropped on one knee beside them.
"Drugged," he said, glancing up.
"I thought so," said Mr. Ridgeway. "They couldn't get enough whiskey inas dry a land as this is now to affect them like this. Besides, theirpupils; do you see them?"
"Contracted to nothing," said Doctor Lansing. He prepared a hypodermicneedle and made an injection in each left forearm.
"If there is no response of the heart action after fifteen minutes," hesaid, "I will know that they are suffering from one of the three newlydiscovered anesthetics which are so deadly in the hands of a criminal."
"Don't you think we had better get them to the hospital at once?" askedMr. Ridgeway.
"Not until the fifteen minutes pass," said the doctor. "If the needletakes effect, they will be all right in an hour or two; at least theycould be taken home, but if it is the other, we will have a long tusslewith them."
"Well, this settles one thing," said Mr. Ridgeway decidedly. "We havehad every office building in this and every other large city suppliedwith house physicians for the last three years, but another law must bemade requiring every building over a certain size to equip a hospitalroom for first-aid."
"It would be a great thing," said Doctor Lansing, his keen eyes on histwo patients, "both for the patients and the doctors. I have had to sendmany a sufferer home or to the hospital when some slight surgical orelectrical care would have finished the matter within a short time, andwith a great deal less suffering." He took out his stethoscope, listenedto each heart, and rose. "Well, Mr. Ridgeway, these men are sufferingfrom administration, by themselves or others, of one of the new poisons.Do you know who they are?"
"Yes," said Mr. Ridgeway. "I can tell you about them, but first get themto the hospital." He called for an ambulance, and as soon as he had seenthe unconscious victims of an unknown villain's dastard hand carriedaway, he turned and beckoned Lawrence to follow him into his privateoffice. Sinking down in his chair, he passed a hand through the thickmasses of grey hair and sighed.
"There you have it, Lawrence," he said.
"I don't believe I understand," replied Lawrence.
"Sit down then," said Mr. Ridgeway, "and I will explain."
"In the first place," he commenced, "young as you are, you must havefelt the dangerous mood the whole world is in. Of course the adjustmentafter a world war necessarily takes several generations. But to us whohappen to be on hand during that adjustment comes the task of hurryingthe thing along as much as we possibly can. For this comes the need forabsolutely safe transportation of papers, messages and money. Often,too, there is the need for the transportation of millions of dollars'worth of jewels--jewels enough to ransom whole principalities, let alonea king or two.
"We have worked this thing out with the greatest difficulty, trying onemethod after another, sending our papers in disguised packages, withtrusted messengers, and using the most intricate codes. But all the timethere are leaks. For instance, a short time ago a message to the King ofMorania, sent under a triplicate code, that is, a code that must betranslated three times, was intercepted and only the fact that it was afalse message sent to try out a new system kept us from the brink of afresh war.
"These things are only known to the inner circles, you understand. Itwould not do to frighten and agitate the public with intimate affairs ofstate. But we absolutely _must_ find a means of transportation that isas free from danger, free from spies and thieves, as it is possible toinvent.
"As a last resort, we are going to make use of the dirigible. This ofcourse is where you come in.
"In my private business I have used planes, hydroplanes and one or twodirigibles and as they are well known to be used exclusively forpassenger and freight service, they have never been interfered with inany way. I am not known to be working with the government, and my onehope was that we could take the new dirigible that has just beencompleted for me and make use of it for the transportation of thesepriceless documents that mean so much to the peace of the world.
"What has happened this morning troubles me more than I can tell you.Someone suspects us, or else those two men are the victims of a privateenemy."
The telephone bell jingled. Mr. Ridgeway lifted the receiver andadjusted the delicate needle point on the desk pad by means of which alltelephone conversations were recorded, a new invention which Lawrencehad heard of but had not seen. Mr. Ridgeway listened with a frowndarkening his brow.
"I will be right out," he said finally, and replaced the receiver.
"Well, the new dirigible was wrecked in the night," he said. "That lookslike business! Come on; we will go out and look the ground over. Thatis, if you care to cast you
r lot with such a dangerous game."
"Of course," said Lawrence simply. "I shall enjoy it."
"Good!" said Mr. Ridgeway. "We will draw up the necessary papers thisafternoon. I want you on your past record as an airman, and your youthis a good safeguard to you. Also you are not afraid. Your duties will bewhatever the moment calls for. You may have to drive the car, you may besimply a passenger, a messenger, or a boy idling around the hangars. Iwant you to be ears and eyes and hands and brain for me. Rather a largeorder? Well, you will be paid well for it." He paused and then named asum that made Lawrence catch his breath, so large was it.
"All our transactions are confidential," he said.
Entering a small but perfect roadster, Mr. Ridgeway drove rapidly out ofthe city to the aviation field, where he found a group of excited menaround the new dirigible.
Well guarded as the place evidently was, someone had entered in thenight and completely destroyed the delicate machinery. The propellerstoo were unscrewed, and the blades hacked.
Lawrence was shocked, and the men around were furious. It ratherreflected on their care when such an outrage could occur inside of anarea where watchmen were supposed to patrol incessantly. Mr. Ridgeway,however, showed no signs of anger. He ordered an investigation and toldthe head mechanician to see what could be done with the wreck. Then,pleasant as ever, he drove back to the city. "I am certainly glad thathappened," he said as they left the field behind.
"Glad?" said Lawrence in astonishment. "Glad? Why, it seems _terrible_to me!"
"Not at all," said Mr. Ridgeway. "The point is this. Now we know that weare suspected. We know that this spying is a serious matter. Theknowledge arms us. As for the dirigible--" he paused, and to Lawrence'samazement laughed a merry, whole-souled laugh as though the loss of amachine worth many thousands of dollars was a matter of no consequenceat all.
"Being my right hand man, Lawrence, I will tell you a secret," he saidafter a moment. "That dirigible was not as new as it looked. It was anassembled machine, made up of about a dozen old ones that had beenpicked up here and there. I took good care, however, that all the papersheld long accounts of the wonderful new machine that was being built forHamilton Ridgeway, and as I own a lot of the papers, I assure you theaccounts were glowing. Well, whoever tackled that bunch of junk in thenight was unable to use more than a small glow from a pocket flash, so,as all the brass work was carefully polished and every part looked spickand span, there was no way for even a tried machinist to tell that thedirigible was not just what had been so widely advertised andphotographed: Hamilton Ridgeway's new dirigible for passenger serviceand light commercial enterprises." He laughed again.
Then as though from force of habit he looked over his shoulder.
"I declare, the only place I like to talk confidences is in a ten acrelot," he said, "but there is no place for anyone to hang on behindhere." He leaned toward Lawrence. "The new machine, safe and sound lastnight at least, is back on the sand hills in New Jersey, south ofBarnegat. Two fishing launches are there in the inlet, but under thetarpaulins are small but effective machine guns. The fishermen foolingaround in them are _not_ as peaceful as they look. They are secretservice men. In a hut back on the rise of ground to the west three otherfishermen are smoking and lounging. They too have badges under theirsmocks. So we fooled 'em this time anyway," laughed the great man.
Lawrence was silent. He felt the thrill of the old knight when he wentgalloping forth in quest of a dragon. This monster, threatening hiscountry, was as dangerous and mysterious a dragon as any of the two- orten-headed monsters that sent the fighting men of a long past agescouring over the downs and moors of merry old England.
Being younger, he was not so much inclined to laugh as Mr. Ridgeway. Hewondered where the leak was that made it so easy for the dragon toapproach.
Parking the car, they went to luncheon and then returned to Mr.Ridgeway's office, where they found a thick-set man pacing the floor ofthe waiting-room and showing a good many signs of impatience. As theyentered he walked quickly over to Mr. Ridgeway and said in a quick tone,"I tried to beat you in from the field, Mr. Ridgeway, but of course webusted a tire and had to stop, and then your man told me he thought youhad gone to lunch, so I just stuck around."
He looked curiously at Lawrence, and Mr. Ridgeway said,
"Come into my office, O'Brien. You may tell me anything you have to saybefore this young man. He is in my employ now."
"Sort of a young kid for our work, isn't he, Mr. Ridgeway?" askedO'Brien, smiling a wide, mirthful Irish smile at Lawrence.
"Pretty young," admitted Mr. Ridgeway, "but I don't think it will hurthim."
"It is something he is sure to get over, give him time," said theIrishman whimsically. Then as the heavy door closed, "Well, Mr.Ridgeway, I am the bearer of news. The watchman that has the beat fromtwo until four was sick last night and I took his place, swearing him tosilence about the change. He went to bed in my room, and I went out onthe beat. At about three I sneaked close to the hangar and thought Icould hear something making a sort of scratchin' noise inside. I had aauger hole all fixed a good while ago, and I peeked."