CHAPTER XIII. ANOTHER WATCHER.

By mid-afternoon the Seneca was well down the Sound. Several times she was in communication with the Red flagship, but no further orders came to Trevor, who was at the key.

Nor had the flagship heard anything of the whereabouts of the Blues. It was generally believed that they had rallied off the Virginia Capes and were playing a game of hide-and-seek with their opponents.

Ned knew the spot to which he had been directed for the mine test very well. Already he had planned just how he would proceed. From the mainland at this point there runs out a long finger of land, on one end of which is perched Fort Schuyler.

It was his intention to leave the Seneca anchored[Pg 105] in a bay far up the Sound and then proceed on one of the submarines, under cover of night, himself commanding the diving boat. But when they had almost reached the snug bay that Ned had decided upon as a good anchoring place for a craft on such an errand, Trevor hastened out of his wireless box with a message in the secret code.

Ned took it below and speedily read it off. He made a wry face of chagrin as he did so. It appeared that other work than going down with the submarine had been laid out for him. He was to get ashore somehow, land on the neck in the early morning, and make certain observations of the work of the diving boat.

"Pshaw!" exclaimed Ned to himself; "too bad! I don't see the object of it all, but I suppose they know best. Well, Herc will have to take command of the submarine, of course, and I will have to do what's laid out for me."

His mind at once began to busy itself with[Pg 106] plans for the morrow's work when Trevor suddenly interrupted again. There had been a mistake in transmitting the details of the last message, it appeared.

The submarine was not to make the tests the next day at all. Through other sources the flagship had learned that the mines had not yet been laid. Ned was to contrive to be on the watch during the process and note carefully where each was planted from a quartermaster's department tug. This was very important, as the mines were to be laid just as they would be for actual defenses. When Ned had secured all this information, the submarine test would come. If they succeeded in dodging the torpedoes, it would be several points for the Red side.

When they reached the bay that Ned had in mind, the Seneca was guided inside, and then, while her crew speculated as to what the next move could possibly be, she lay swinging at her anchor, idly waiting for darkness to fall. For[Pg 107] Ned had decided not to let his crew know of the plans. Herc, of course, was familiar with them, but none of the others, except Trevor, the wireless operator.

It was not long before dusk when Midshipman Kenworth presented himself before Ned. He saluted respectfully and appeared much more obsequious than he had been since the arrival of the boys on board.

"Beg your pardon, sir," he asked, "but would there be any objection to my going ashore to-night? Some of my people live at Oakhurst, about nine miles inland, and I'd like to take this opportunity of seeing them."

Ned thought a moment. Then he decided that if Kenworth was spying about the Seneca with the object of injuring her young skipper, the further off he was during the next day the better.

"Very well, Kenworth," said he, "you may go, but be sure to report on board to-morrow night at four bells."

[Pg 108]

"Yes, sir," said the midshipman, saluting. He turned away and not long after reappeared on deck with his suit case. The shore boat was ordered away and was soon skimming off over the water.

"Confound the fellow," said Ned to Herc as they watched the craft making its way over the bay, "I didn't want to let him go; but after all, I'd rather have his room than his company any day."

"I'd have kept him aboard and worked him up to the king's taste," said Herc with positiveness. "I've no more use for him than I have for a snake in the grass, or for what I compared him to before."

"After all, though, there is no possible way he could injure us," declared Ned. "Such fellows as he is generally end by hurting themselves more than the folks they have it in for."

"That may all be as true as a preacher's words,[Pg 109] Ned," declared Herc, "but we owe it to ourselves to look out for him."

"Oh, that part of it is all right. But come on now, I'm going to get ready for the trip that I'm going to take to-night myself."

"I wish I were going with you," said Herc.

"Just think, you'll be able to lord it over the ship as a skipper all the time I'm gone," laughed Ned.

"I'm afraid a skipper with a red head won't get as much respect as you do, Ned, but I'll do my best."

After dark that night, Ned, clothed in an old suit of civilian clothes, and carrying in a small handbag some necessary instruments and a sketch block for recording his impressions, clambered down into the gig and was rowed ashore by two members of the crew who had been sworn to secrecy.

Once ashore, where there was a community of summer cottages and hotels, he engaged a gasoline[Pg 110] launch to take him to a small island known as Civic Island, not far from the Neck, to which it was joined, in fact, by a bridge.

Going ashore at Civic Island, Ned turned in at a hotel and early in the morning rose, secured some provisions which he placed in his small handbag, and then set out on foot for the scene of his observations.

The Neck was a lonely place and very little frequented. On one end of it was the fort, between which and some wooded heights in which it terminated, stretched the sandy, brush-covered peninsula of the Neck, scrawny and thin as that of a giraffe.

Ned was provided with field glasses, of course, and having reached a point from which he could command a clear view of the fort, he surveyed it for some time to get his bearings. Meanwhile, of course, he concealed his body behind some bushes.

He could see the tug perfectly plainly. There[Pg 111] was a big crane at its bow and it was hoisting on board large metallic shapes of globular form that he knew were mines.

At the top of the mast floated the flag of the quartermaster's department, so that Ned knew that he had the right craft spotted.

"Well, they are in no hurry, anyhow," he said to himself, as he watched the leisurely way in which the craft was being loaded. "I reckon I'll sit down and take a rest. I didn't sleep much at that hotel last night, and I'd be glad of a seat in the shade. I can keep my eyes open just as well under this bush here as standing out there in the sun."

But alas for good intentions! As he cast himself down in the shade, Ned appeared to slip gently out of the present and into the land of Nod. How long he slept he had no idea. But it could not have been very long, for when he opened his eyes again the tug, loaded with the[Pg 112] big, black bulks of the submarine mines, was just leaving the fort.

"Gracious! Lucky I woke up in time! A fine thing it would have been if I had blissfully slept right on!" exclaimed Ned to himself in mortified tones.

He jumped to his feet. The next instant he threw himself just as hastily down again.

He was not alone on the Neck. Not far off was a figure intently watching the tug as it slowly steamed out from the dock.