Читать книгу Kidnapped in the Jungle - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 6

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It was after midnight when Hal and Cody concluded an interview with the captain. A kind, considerate man, he had patiently listened to the recital of both young men and weighed the circumstances well before giving advice.

“It’s clear that you’ll have to give yourself up, Walters,” he told Coly. “Keen is willing to stake you to your transportation down and back, so that eliminates my company in the matter, but I’d give myself the benefit of the doubt where the police are concerned, if I were you. I’d nip this thing in the bud and tell them just what you’ve told me.”

“It’ll make it look good for you, too, Coly,” Hal said when they were on their way back to the stateroom again. “To give yourself up before they know even that you’re on board this ship will be that much in your favor. It’ll show that you didn’t run away but really followed that fellow here before you realized what you were doing.”

“I guess you’re right, Hal—I guess the captain’s right, too,” said Coly. “Only one thing—I don’t like it that you’re shelling out your money like this for my passage down and back so’s to keep me from being charged as a stowaway—it’s too much! Maybe it’ll be a year or even two before I can pay it back.”

“I don’t care if it’s sixty, Coly,” Hal said with a ring of feeling in his voice. “Don’t worry about it, because I’m not. Uncle Denis can give me some cash when I get down, and my mother can send me some more before I’m ready to come back, so don’t worry about leaving me short. Another thing, Uncle will make me an extra present, he’ll be so glad I was able to help you out. And as far as the rest of this business goes, I’ll see the purser in the morning and see if he can let me in on the secret of who came aboard early and who didn’t come aboard.”

“And if the captain sends that radiogram right away my mother ought to know where I am around about breakfast time, huh?”

Hal nodded and for a moment they loitered at the rail for the rain had stopped and the air felt fresh and invigorating. Coly inhaled it in quick deep breaths as if he would have done with his worries and problems in just that manner. For a second his glance rested on the shadowy amorphous bulk of a vent rising from the forward deck.

“That’s where I hid when I first came up from below,” he said. “I was so hungry I couldn’t think of anything else but now since we’ve talked and planned so much, I don’t know which hurts me the most, worry or hunger?”

“Gosh, Coly, I’d almost forgotten,” Hal said apologetically. “You must be starved—and how! Nothing to eat in twenty-four hours almost. I’ll see if I can rout out the steward somewhere, so you go on in and undress, and I’ll bring something in the way of food back with me, if I have to break open the kitchen myself.” Then, catching a glimpse of Coly’s feverish eyes, he added: “Quit worrying, kiddo, everything will be O.K.—you see if it won’t. I’ve an idea the captain will radio your story to Clear Brook just as you told it. He’s a good scout and he wants to see you get just as fair a deal as I do, and I bet anything he’ll wire for orders to question and watch his male passengers for the cause of the Wainwright case.”

“I hope he does, Hal, I hope he does!” said Coly anxiously. “It’s my only chance to identify that fellow and make him come clean. He must know something about it!”

“But the mystery is—why did he come to your house last night and ask you where the place was that the map showed?”

“I’ve asked myself that too, and the only answer I seem to get is a sort of a hunch that those other two double-crossed this fellow I’m looking for. Now he’s going down there to look for them if they’re to be found. Usually that kind knows where to hunt for their double-crossing friends, and they were all crooks, Hal—just plain criminals. The more I think of their faces, the more I’m confident of it.”

“They must have been, Coly,” said Hal kindly. “Now scoot on in to that stateroom—you look half sick, that’s a fact. I’ll be back with some milk and sandwiches in a sec, or my name isn’t what it is.”

“You’re a brick, Hal. Gosh, I’ll never forget....”

“Forget it. If I couldn’t help out an old friend, I’d be a heck of a gink, wouldn’t I? Now toddle along.”

Hal looked relieved when the stateroom door had closed behind Coly. Then he started around the vent in search of the steward and had taken but two or three steps when he saw a shadow emerge before him. In two seconds the figure was lost in the darkness of one of the many staterooms. He thought he heard a door closing softly but he could not be sure.

Hal stood, perplexed and bewildered, looking from the shadowy vent to the spot where the fleeing figure had disappeared. One thing was certain—whoever it had been, he had heard every word uttered by himself and Coly. And somehow it struck him that a chance eavesdropper would never have sought to escape in such a furtive and extraordinary manner; this man’s purpose was deliberate.

But why?