The Submarine Boys' Lightning Cruise Part 37

"Why, Admiral," replied Captain Driggs, honestly, "I have no knowledge that there was an extra torpedo aboard. Yet, of course, there's a place where such a thing might have been hidden."

"Take us to it," requested the Admiral.

Captain Driggs led the visitors below. There, in the cabin floor, he pointed to a well-concealed trapdoor. It opened upon a very considerable s.p.a.ce between cabin floor and keel.

"This s.p.a.ce certainly _would_ accommodate a torpedo," declared Admiral Townsley. "Mr. Rhinds, if we could prove that you had a torpedo in this s.p.a.ce the other day, there would be an almost complete case, wouldn't there?"

"But I didn't have," cried Rhinds, with cunning insistence.

"Mr. Driggs," pursued the admiral, "we shall want you as a witness at the investigation on board the 'Oakland.' My aide will hand you a subpoena. This, I believe, gentlemen, is all we have to do here."

Looking years older, yet holding up his head in a certain kind of bravado, John Rhinds returned to sh.o.r.e with the party.

No sooner had Rhinds entered the hotel than a bell-boy moved over, drawing him aside and saying something in a low tone.

"I'll wager that talk would interest us, if we could hear it," remarked Jack Benson, sarcastically, to his friends.

Rhinds, however, turned and hurried off. In five minutes he was back in the lobby. Eagerly he glanced about for the Farnum party, and located it. Then he moved over to where Farnum and his submarine boys sat.

"Farnum," breathed the old man, anxiously, "I've a favor to ask of you."

"That's strange," replied the s.h.i.+pbuilder, coolly.

"I won't term it a favor, then," went on the other, restlessly. "I will put it another way. As a simple act of justice will you meet two people whom I want you to hear?"

"I've heard a good deal, lately," answered Farnum, reluctantly.

"I ask this as a matter of justice. Won't you and young Benson step down the corridor with me?"

"How long will this interview take?" demanded Farnum.

"Only a very short time."

"Well, lead on, then."

Farnum and Captain Jack stepped down a corridor in the wake of their enemy.

Rhinds led them into the ladies' parlor. Farnum and Jack caught sight of two anxious faced women--one, a refined woman of middle age, the other a beautiful girl of sixteen.

"Mr. Farnum, and Mr. Benson, my dear," announced John Rhinds, in oily tones. "Gentlemen, my wife, and my daughter, Helen. Both have something to say to you, gentlemen. Be seated, won't you?"

With that Rhinds slipped away. Like many another cur, in the hour when he finds himself driven to the wall, John Rhinds had sent for his wife and daughter. He proposed to escape from the consequences of his rascally acts by hiding behind the skirts of pure and good women who had the strange fortune to have their lives linked with his.

"What is all this that I have heard, sir?" asked Mrs. Rhinds, tears filling her eyes fast, as she turned to regard the Dunhaven s.h.i.+pbuilder.

It was the hardest hour Jacob Farnum had ever spent, and the same was true for Jack Benson.

This wife and daughter had the most absolute faith in the goodness of John Rhinds. They pleaded gently, eloquently, for these two enemies to have faith in their husband and father.

"You surely don't believe that Mr. Rhinds was at the bottom of any such scoundrelly plot as the papers are talking about?" asked Mrs. Rhinds, tearfully, at last.

"Madame," replied Farnum, in the gentlest tone he knew how to use, "I'll admit I don't like to believe it."

"And you'll come out in a public interview, saying you're convinced that the whole story is a monstrous lie, won't you?" pleaded the wife.

Jacob Farnum choked.

"I--I can't promise that, Mrs. Rhinds. You'll never believe how hard it is for me to refuse you."

"Then you do believe my husband guilty?" demanded Mrs. Rhinds, in a voice full of agony.

"Oh, I wish I could say what you want me to, Mrs. Rhinds, but--well, all I can do is to remain silent."

"Can't I say something--something?" asked Helen Rhinds, appealingly.

Her moist eyes turned first on Mr. Farnum, then on Captain Jack.

"Ladies," confessed the Dunhaven s.h.i.+pbuilder, "you've already said enough, as I looked at your faces, to make me almost feel that I am one of the worst men alive."

"Oh, no, no, no!" protested the girl. "You are going to prove yourself the most generous."

Then, turning, the girl caught at one of Benson's hands appealingly.

"You urge him!" she begged.

"When the chief has spoken I must be silent," Jack answered, clearly, though in a low voice.

"What can you say to us, Mr. Farnum? What will you say?" cried Mrs.

Rhinds, desperately.

"Madame," replied the Dunhaven s.h.i.+pbuilder, "all I can say is this: I will not, of myself make any effort to bring your husband before a court. I will make no effort to have the investigation carried any further. That is all I can say. Jack, if you have anything to say to these ladies that will soften my words, then, in the name of mercy, say it."

"Ladies," spoke Captain Jack Benson, looking mother and daughter full in the eye, in turn, "you have heard the extent of Mr. Farnum's promise.

He is a man who lives by the rules of justice. You are the only two in the world who could have wrung from him such a promise as you have secured."

With that Farnum and his young captain succeeded in taking their leave--making their escape, as they felt, from a most trying situation.

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION

Within two hours John C. Rhinds had his head up once more.

He felt as though the battle had been already won. There was nothing to fear from Farnum pus.h.i.+ng the situation that had been created against the owner of the "Thor," for Farnum had promised. It was strange that John Rhinds, who had no regard for the moral value of his own given word, felt certain that Jacob Farnum would not break a promise.