The Ocean Wireless Boys And The Naval Code. Goldfrap John Henry

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      "Oh, just three brats who are summering here," scoffed Donald Judson. "They appeared to think they owned the bay, and I guess it was up to me to show them they didn't. I guess Jack Ready will be on the market for another boat before long and – "

      "Hold on, hold on," exclaimed the strange man. "What was that name?"

      "Ready, Jack Ready. He thinks he's a wizard at wireless. Why, do you know him, Jarrow?"

      Jarrow, at the sound of the name there, brought into Jack's mind the recollections of the rascally partner of Terrill & Co., who had financed his uncle's treasure hunt and had then tried to steal the hoard from him. It was Jack who had overthrown the rascal's schemes and made him seek refuge in the west to escape prosecution. Yet he had apparently returned and in some way become associated with Judson. Noddy, too, as had Bill, had started at the name. Both nudged Jack, who returned the gesture to show that he had heard and understood.

      "So Ready is here, eh?" growled Jarrow. "Confounded young milksop."

      "You appear not to be very fond of him," interjected the elder Judson.

      "Fond of him! I should think not! I hate him like poison."

      "What did he ever do to you?"

      "He – er – er – he upset an – er – er – business deal I was in with his uncle."

      "The one-legged old sea captain?"

      "That's the fellow. He trusted me in everything till Jack Ready came nosing in and spoilt his uncle's chance of becoming a rich man through his association in business with me."

      "I've no use for him either," exclaimed Donald vindictively. "I'll give him a good licking when I see him."

      "Well, well, let's get down to business," said the elder Judson decisively. "You have been to Washington, Jarrow?"

      "Yes, and found out something, but not much. The new naval wireless code is not yet completed. I found out that by bribing a clerk in the Navy Department and – "

      "This business is proving pretty expensive," grumbled Judson.

      "We're playing for a big stake," was the reply. "I found out that the code has been placed in the hands of a Captain Simms, recently attached to the revenue service, for revision. I believe that it is the same Captain Simms against whom I have a grudge, for it was on his ship that I was insulted by aspersions on my business honesty, and that, also, was the work of this Jack Ready."

      "Pity he didn't tell them that he was in irons at the time," thought Jack to himself.

      "Where is this Captain Simms?" asked Judson, not noticing, or appearing not to, his companion's outbreak.

      "That's just it," was the rejoinder. "Nobody knows. His whereabouts are being kept a profound secret. Since it has become rumored that the Navy wireless code was being revised, Washington fairly swarms with secret agents of different governments. Simms is either abroad or in some mighty safe place."

      "Our hands are tied without him," muttered Judson, "and if I don't get that code I don't stand a chance of landing that big steel contract with the foreign power I have been dealing with."

      "I'm afraid not," rejoined Jarrow. "I saw their representative in Washington and told him what I had learned. His answer was, 'no code, no contract.' I'm afraid you were foolish in using that promise as a means to try to land the deal."

      "I had my thumb on the man who would have stolen it for me at the time," rejoined Judson, "but he was discharged for some minor dishonesty before I had a chance to use him."

      "The thing to do is to locate this Captain Simms."

      "Evidently, you must do your best. The wind has died down and I guess we'll stop at the hotel till to-morrow. Anyhow, it's too long a sail back to-night. Come on, Donald; come, Jarrow." The bench creaked as they rose and made off, turning their footsteps toward the hotel.

      Not till they had gone some distance did the boys dare to speak, and even then they did not say much for a minute or two. The first expression came from Jack. It was a long, drawn-out:

      "We-e-l!"

      "And so that is the work that Captain Simms has been doing in that isolated retreat of his," exclaimed Billy.

      "And these crooks have just had the blind luck to tumble over him," exploded Noddy. "Just wait till they take a look at the hotel register."

      "Maybe by the time they enter their names the page will have turned," suggested Billy.

      "No," rejoined Jack, "our names were at the top of the page and there would hardly have been enough new arrivals after us at this time of night to have filled it since."

      "We must find Captain Simms at once and tell what is in the wind," decided the young wireless man a moment later. "I guess the instinct that made us follow Jarrow was a right one."

      "I wonder how the rascal became acquainted with Judson?" pondered Billy.

      "Mixed up with him in some crooked deal or other before this," said Noddy.

      "I shouldn't wonder," said Jack.

      They began to walk back to the hotel. They did not enter the lobby by the main entrance, for the path they followed had brought them to a side door. They were glad of this, for, screened by some palms, they saw, bending intently over the register, the forms of the three individuals whose conversation they had overheard.

      CHAPTER VII.

      THE NAVAL CODE

      "Now that you boys know the nature of the work I have been engaged on, I may as well tell you that confidential reports from Washington have warned me to be on my guard," said Captain Simms. "It was in reply to one of these that I sent a code dispatch to-night."

      It was half an hour later, and they were all seated in the Captain's room, having told their story.

      "But I should have imagined making up a code was a very simple matter," said Billy.

      "That is just where you are wrong, my boy," smiled Captain Simms. "A commercial code, perhaps, can be jumbled together in any sort of fashion, but a practical naval code is a different matter. Besides dealing in technicalities it must be absolutely invulnerable to even the cleverest reader of puzzles. The new code was necessitated by the fact that secret agents discovered that an expert in the employ of a foreign power had succeeded in solving a part of our old one. It was only a very small part, but in case of trouble with that country it might have meant defeat if the enemy knew even a fragment of the wireless code that was being flashed through the air."

      "Have you nearly completed your work?" asked Jack.

      "Almost," was the reply, "but the fact that these men are here rather complicates matters. At Musky Bay, the name of the little settlement where I am stopping, they think I am just a city man up for the fishing. I do not use my right name there. By an inadvertence, I suppose it was habit, I wrote it on the hotel register to-night. That was a sad blunder, for it is practically certain that these men will not rest till they have found out where I am working."

      "At any rate I'm mighty glad we followed that Jarrow," said Jack.

      "And caught enough of their plans to put you on guard," chimed in Billy.

      "Yes, СКАЧАТЬ