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He raised his finger to his lips and came closer to me. "I think I've found out
who's doin' the mischief," he whispered, and nodded his head toward the girl's
room. "I seen her sneakin' from the crew's room just now," he went on. "She'd
been in gassin' wit' the boche commander. Benson seen her in there las' night,
too, but he never said nothin' till I goes on watch tonight. Benson's sorter slow in
the head, an' he never puts two an' two together till some one else has made four
out of it."
If the man had come in and struck me suddenly in the face, I could have been no
more surprised.
"Say nothing of this to anyone," I ordered. "Keep your eyes and ears open and
report every suspicious thing you see or hear."
The man saluted and left me; but for an hour or more I tossed, restless, upon my
hard bunk in an agony of jealousy and fear. Finally I fell into a troubled sleep. It
was daylight when I awoke. We were steaming along slowly upon the surface, my
orders having been to proceed at half speed until we could take an observation
and determine our position. The sky had been overcast all the previous day and
all night; but as I stepped into the centrale that morning I was delighted to see
that the sun was again shining. The spirits of the men seemed improved;
everything seemed propitious. I forgot at once the cruel misgivings of the past
night as I set to work to take my observations.
What a blow awaited me! The sextant and chronometer had both been broken
beyond repair, and they had been broken just this very night. They had been
broken upon the night that Lys had been seen talking with von Schoenvorts. I
think that it was this last thought which hurt me the worst. I could look the
other disaster in the face with equanimity; but the bald fact that Lys might be a
traitor appalled me.
I called Bradley and Olson on deck and told them what had happened, but for the
life of me I couldn't bring myself to repeat what Wilson had reported to me the
previous night. In fact, as I had given the matter thought, it seemed incredible
that the girl could have passed through my room, in which Bradley and I slept,
and then carried on a conversation in the crew's room, in which Von Schoenvorts
was kept, without having been seen by more than a single man.
Bradley shook his head. "I can't make it out," he said. "One of those boches
must be pretty clever to come it over us all like this; but they haven't harmed us
as much as they think; there are still the extra instruments."
It was my turn now to shake a doleful head. "There are no extra instruments," I
told them. "They too have disappeared as did the wireless apparatus."
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