Читать книгу Don Sturdy on the Ocean Bottom or The Strange Cruise of the Phantom - Stratemeyer Edward - Страница 7

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With an expression of surprise, Professor Bruce rose from his seat and took the receiver from the captain’s hand.

“What can the fellow want?” he murmured to himself. “I thought I’d seen and heard the last of him.”

“Sounds as if he were in a temper,” observed the captain in a whisper. “Don’t take any nonsense from him. If he tries to pull any rough stuff, hang up.”

“Bruce speaking,” said the professor into the phone. “Oh yes, Mr. Gold. What can I do for you?”

“Plenty,” came the voice from the other end of the line.

“That’s a bit indefinite,” replied the professor, pleasantly enough. “Won’t you be more specific?”

That Gold was complying with this request was evident from the close attention the professor was paying. The burden of the long speech was disclosed by the professor’s reply.

“I shall have to say ‘no’, Mr. Gold,” he said. “I have gone over the matter very thoroughly since you were here, both in my own mind and in conversation with those whose judgment I value. I have decided to accept the Governor’s proposition.—What’s that you say? I’d better fall in with your offer, if I know what’s good for me? How dare you talk to me that way? What do you mean by it?”

Don’s father and the captain exchanged startled glances.

“What’s the fellow doing, threatening you?” cried the captain, jumping to his feet. “By the great horn spoon! I’ll——”

The professor motioned with his hand for silence, and the captain sank back again in his chair.

What was being said at the other end of the line the captain and Richard Sturdy could only conjecture. That it was something that stirred the professor mightily was evident. Surprise, indignation, disgust, uneasiness were expressed in turn by his features. At last he could not contain himself.

“You’re a contemptible blackmailer!” he cried into the phone. “If I had you here, I’d know how to deal with you. But rest assured that your threats are as powerless as your persuasions. Go ahead and do your worst. That’s my final word.”

He slammed the receiver on the hook with a bang.

“What was it, Amos?” cried Captain Sturdy. “What did that rat have to say that’s upset you so? By Jove! I wish I hadn’t let him off so easily this afternoon.”

The professor essayed a faint smile.

“The rascal threatened me,” he said. “Actually had the impudence to say he’d expose me to public scorn unless I promised to head Rust’s expedition.”

“Expose you?” exclaimed Don’s father. “You, who are the soul of honor? You, whose life is an open book? What on earth did the scoundrel mean?”

“He referred to that Marvin matter of some years ago,” replied the professor. “You know, that charge against me of plagiarism in that book I wrote on Polynesia.”

“Oh, that,” snorted the captain. “Why, Marvin didn’t have a leg to stand on. The scientific societies investigated the charge and found that you were entirely blameless in that matter.”

“What was the idea?” asked Don’s father. “That must have happened while I was away on that expedition that met with shipwreck, that time I received the injury to my head. I’ve never heard either of you refer to it.”

“It was an unpleasant affair, and we’ve tried to forget it,” explained the captain. “You see, Amos and Marvin were connected with different parties that were making explorations in Polynesia. After their return, each of them wrote books on the subject. Naturally, as they dealt with the same subjects, there was a certain similarity of thought and at times almost of expression in the discussion of various topics.”

“I should think that might be inevitable,” remarked Mr. Sturdy.

“Amos finished his book first and put it in the hands of his publishers,” went on the captain, “and a little later Marvin did the same with a different firm. Yet, though it was written later, Marvin’s book appeared first, because there was a strike on in the plant of Amos’s publishers which delayed the appearance of his book.”

“I begin to see,” murmured Don’s father. “Sheer luck brought the book that was written last into the public eye before the book that was written first.”

“Exactly,” assented the captain. “Even at that, probably nothing would have happened, if it hadn’t been that the book Amos wrote sold like hot cakes while Marvin’s book was a frost. That made Marvin sore and he tried to get back at Amos by charging him with plagiarism. This had a certain plausibility because Marvin’s book had actually been printed first.”

“Unfortunate,” commented Mr. Sturdy.

“Of course,” went on the captain, “no one who really knew Amos believed Marvin’s charge. But you know how excessively sensitive this old boy is”—he put his hand affectionately on the professor’s knee—“and he was fearfully upset by it. He could hardly do any work for months because of the annoyance the charge caused him. He’s a highly organized machine, Amos is, and it doesn’t take much to throw him out of gear.”

“I know,” said Don’s father. “Still, as you say, the charge was refuted——”

“It was,” interrupted the captain, “not only by the investigation of the scientific societies but by the evidence of the publishers, who testified that every word of Amos’s book had been in their hands before Marvin’s book appeared.”

“That should have settled it, then,” remarked Mr. Sturdy.

“It did with thinking people,” put in the professor, “but no doubt there were hosts of others who saw only the charge but never heard of the refutation. You know the tendency of human nature to draw the worst conclusion. They shake their heads and say that where there was smoke there must have been fire. A lie will go round the world while truth is getting its boots on. The mere fact that a charge is made, no matter how senseless or false it is, is as good as proof to many people.”

“That’s unfortunately true,” agreed Mr. Sturdy. “How did Marvin himself take it? If he had a drop of sporting blood in his body, it was up to him to accept the decision of reputable men and offer an apology to Amos for having made the charge.”

“You would think so,” chimed in the captain, “but Marvin doesn’t seem to have a drop of that sporting blood you spoke about. He’s very pig-headed and prejudiced. Once let an idea get into his head and it’s there to stay. Perhaps he thought the scientific men showed partiality to Amos. Perhaps he thought the publishers lied. Whatever it is, he’s always moped and grouched about it. He probably believes still that something was put over on him and that he’s a much-abused man.”

“Yes,” agreed the professor, “likely enough he thinks he had right on his side. He’s simply so made that he can’t back down when he’s once taken a position, no matter how unjustified that position may be shown to have been.”

“How do you suppose that this rascal, Gold, ever got hold of it?” asked Mr. Sturdy.

“Oh, it was a matter of considerable comment at the time,” replied the captain. “Gold’s probably wanted a club to hold over Amos in case he couldn’t get his assent to go on the Rust expedition and he thinks he’s found it in this Marvin matter.”

“Why, it’s blackmail, pure and simple!” exclaimed Mr. Sturdy indignantly.

“Of course it is,” agreed the captain. “But you see how infernally cunning this Gold fellow is. He doesn’t put it in writing. He doesn’t say it in words before witnesses. No, the coward uses the telephone that leaves no evidence behind it. If he were ever charged with having made this threat, he’d simply lie out of it and Amos would have no way to pin it on him.”

“Well, his shot has proved to be a dud,” observed Mr. Sturdy. “It hasn’t worked. It’s only killed the last chance he ever had that you might accept his proposition. It’s been a boomerang.”

“Yes,” assented the professor with a worried look, “but he still has it in his power to get revenge by spreading a false story that I hoped had been buried forever.”

“Ten to one he’ll never use it,” predicted Mr. Sturdy.

“Just my advice, too,” added the captain. “But if that fellow ever comes within my reach——”

He did not finish the sentence, but his powerful hands clenched significantly.

“Well, we’ll thrust it into the background for the time being, anyway,” declared the professor. “And now to get back, Richard, to what we were talking about before the telephone bell rang.”

“What was that?” asked Mr. Sturdy. “Oh, that matter of Don?”

“Yes,” replied the professor. “How about it? May he go?”