CHAPTER XX

CAPTAIN JACK PULLS A NEW STRING

Radwin did not return.

Though looking outwardly composed, John C. Rhinds passed the next few hours in a condition of internal unrest.

Why did Chief Ward want to see Fred Radwin?  And why had the latter tricked himself off out of sight?

These questions tormented Rhinds the more because he could not even invent satisfactory answers to them.

“Is the chief of police acting on anyone else’s orders?” quavered the old man.  “Has Fred betrayed himself in anything he has done?  Is he a fugitive from justice?  Oh, mercy!  What a situation just when I am trying to put the deals through that shall make the Rhinds Submarine Company the richest concern of its kind in the world!”

By the middle of the afternoon Rhinds heard the newsboys calling something excitedly down in the street.

“What’s that?  What’s that?” gasped the old man, holding one hand to his ear.  “Sounds like ‘Dastardly plot—­submarine mystery.’  Can it be anything to injure our chances?”

As he looked down into the street, from the altitude of the third floor window, Rhinds saw that, whatever the news, the boys appeared to be selling papers fast.

For a few seconds Rhinds wavered.  Then he crossed the room to the telephone.

“Send me up the latest editions of the newspapers,” he ’phoned the clerk in the office.  After that he lighted a big, black cigar—­and waited, mopping the perspiration from his forehead.

After a few moments there came a knock at the door, and Rhinds opened it.  He noticed that the bell-boy looked at him somewhat queerly as the papers were handed over.  Then, having closed the door and locked it, John Rhinds sank into a chair, holding up three newspapers, in turn, and scanning the big, black headlines.

Yes; here it all was—­the whole story in every essential detail.  It told of the mysterious attempt to destroy the “Hastings” at the end of the lightning cruise.  The stories contained Lieutenant Danvers’s statement that the “Thor” had been headed toward the “Hastings” just a few seconds before the torpedo passed the Pollard boat’s bows.  There was an account of the naval party’s search of the “Thor,” and the fact that the latter craft was found to have her full number of torpedoes on board was set forth in all fairness.  Oh, yes!  The story was fair enough!  No newspapermen could have been fairer than had the chroniclers of this exciting submarine news.  There were no accusations against Rhinds or his associates—­nothing but the fair, unbiased telling of facts.  And yet, in almost any reader’s mind the opinion would be quick to form that only from the “Thor” could the treacherous torpedo have been fired.

“Oh, it’s—­it’s awful!” cried John Rhinds, waving the papers over his head like a madman.