CHAPTER XVII.
A SURPRISE PARTY WITH A VENGEANCE.
For what Ned judged to have been half an hour, or possibly a little longer, the car plunged along. Then, as suddenly as it started, it came to a stop. The conversation of the occupants of the car was now perfectly audible, and Ned’s heart beat wildly as among them he recognized the tones of Channing Lockyer. The inventor had then recovered his senses, which, as the boy knew from what he had overheard, must have been lost following the blow from Gradbarr.
“Look here, Ferriss,” Ned from his hiding place could hear Mr. Lockyer saying, “what you are doing is not only dastardly, but senseless. I tell you now once and for all that whatever you may do to me, I shall never sign any paper or make any agreement with you concerning the submarine.”
“We’ll see about that,” a gruff voice, which Ned supposed must be that of Ferriss, responded. “But I warn you now, Lockyer, not to give us too much trouble. You are absolutely in our power. We are about to take you to a lonely island where we could hide you for ten years without any one being the wiser. We shall keep you there till you have had time to reflect whether it is better to accept our terms for your craft, or to let her rot uselessly while you are reported missing.”
“Missing!” gasped Lockyer.
“Yes. Your friends will all believe that you have been drowned. You don’t think that we are such simpletons as not to have provided for that, do you? We have set the boat in which you were rowed ashore to-night adrift. She is bottom up, and any one finding her will imagine that she has capsized. Under one of her thwarts we have placed your hat, so that there will be no doubt as to your fate. Your friends will mourn you for a time as drowned, and then both you and the Lockyer boat will be forgotten.”
“Good heavens, Ferriss!” exclaimed the inventor, as the full purport of this cleverly concocted plot burst upon him. “Are you a man or a monster?”
“A little of both,” rejoined the other complacently. “The Far Eastern nation of which I told you before needs your boat. We have contracted to get it for them. We’ll do it, too.”
“But even if I signed your papers what good would that do you?” asked Lockyer. “Who would believe you had authority?”
“Everybody,” was the calm rejoinder. “We would arrange to have you kept a prisoner till we were safe in the East with your plans and specifications. The power we have mentioned as being interested in your boat has the reputation of being a good friend to those who befriend it. They would take care that we came to no harm, no matter what steps you took after your escape.”
“But the United States——”
“Has far too much to attend to to go to war over one inventor, my friend. Besides, we have influence at Washington that you know nothing of. No, Lockyer, your best plan is to draw for us a complete set of plans, and then you are at liberty to go.”
“And let you reap the benefit of my years of work and thought?”
“We intend to pay you as I told you. Of course, we should also require a receipt from you. That receipt of payment alone would absolve us from any guilt in connection with the transaction. It would show, don’t you see, that you sold out your government willingly.”
“Great heaven!” groaned the unhappy inventor, as he saw the web being drawn more tightly about him.
“But come, we’re wasting time here,” struck in another voice, that of Watson Camberly, although, of course, Ned, burning with indignation in his hiding place, did not recognize it. “We must get over to the island. Will you come with us willingly, Lockyer, or shall we have to bind you?”
“You need not bind me,” was the bitter reply. “I cannot see how I could well be more helpless.”
“I am glad you realize at last that we have the whip hand,” snarled the voice of Ferriss.
“Gradbarr, you stay here and guard the car,” ordered Camberly the next moment, after an interval, in which Ned could feel them leaving the auto. “We’ll take the boat out to the island and return before long.”
Ned listened to their retreating footsteps for a few minutes. As they died away, he heard Gradbarr walking about the car, doubtless trying to keep warm, for the fall air was sharp as it blew in off the Sound. But still as he lay, the lad’s mind was hard at work. Presently, and very cautiously, he raised the leather flap which hung in front of his place of concealment and peeped out. The guardian of the car was leaning against the front wheel with his back to Ned. He was whistling in a low key. Any one seeing him would little have imagined what nefarious business he was engaged in. Ned’s mind was made up in a flash. He must act now, or not at all. Before long, there was no doubt from what he had heard, that the others would be back.
Gripping his weapon tightly, he noiselessly slipped out of the tonneau, the side door of which had been left open. Before Gradbarr could make any preparations, or indeed was even aware of what was happening behind his back, the ruffian was startled by a sudden voice in his ear.
“Don’t move an inch, Gradbarr, or there’ll be trouble.”
“What!” roared out the startled rascal, and would have said more, but that at that instant he felt a certain chilly disc pressed against the back of his neck, which instinct told him was the muzzle of a pistol.
“Now do as I tell you,” ordered Ned crisply. “Get up on the seat of that car and drive back into Grayport.”
“Into Grayport?”
Gradbarr began to whimper like the coward he was, as he echoed the words. Also he had recognized Ned’s voice and knew the lad was not to be trifled with.
“That’s what I said,” ordered the Dreadnought Boy sharply. “Don’t hesitate, or I’ll give you a lesson in navy tactics.”
“Oh, but I’ll be arrested,” whined the ruffian, still not daring to turn.
“You certainly will,” Ned assured him. “You have been going a long time, Gradbarr, but here is where your career reaches a sudden termination.”
“Come on now.” To emphasize his words, Ned pressed the muzzle of the revolver more closely to Gradbarr’s neck. The fellow moved forward, cringing and whimpering, but before he had taken a step something happened which completely turned the tables.
Ned felt himself suddenly enwrapped from behind by a pair of powerful arms, while at the same moment a harsh voice grated out:
“Just in time it seems.”
Gradbarr whipped round at the sudden interruption and gave a cry of delight. He laughed aloud as he saw Ned struggling desperately, but ineffectually in the arms of his captor.
“Good work, Mr. Camberly,” he exclaimed with a chuckle. “I guess I won’t go back to Grayport to-night, after all.”
As he spoke he aimed a vicious blow at Ned. The rascal’s fist struck the Dreadnought Boy full in the face.
“You scoundrel,” flared out Ned. “Set me free and see if you dare to strike me.”
“Set you free,” sneered the voice behind him, the owner of which still held the boy’s arms tightly pinioned. “Not to-night, my boy, and perhaps not for many nights. Gradbarr, get that rope that we meant for Lockyer out of the tonneau. We’ll truss this young turkey cock up and take some of the fight out of him.”
Raging furiously within, Ned was compelled resistlessly to submit to the indignity of being bundled up hand and foot in the rope by Gradbarr. The former machinist thoroughly enjoyed his job, as was evinced by the way he grinned and chuckled as he viciously drew the cords tight.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” he jeered. “It looks as if I was going to get even at last for the other night when you thought you had me bottled up at the boat yard. Take that, you young sneak!”
He aimed another hard blow at Ned’s face, but this time Camberly checked him.
“That will do, Gradbarr,” he warned. “Wait till we get him to the island if you have any old scores to pay off. You can attend to them there at your leisure.”
“Won’t Anderson be tickled to death when he sees him,” muttered Gradbarr. “The dirty young spy. Just think he was hiding under those cushions in the tonneau all the time we were driving out here.”
“We’ll make him tell us just how he got there later on,” said Camberly. “For the present just run that car into that brush at the side of the road. We don’t want to leave it standing where it will attract attention.”
It only took Gradbarr a few seconds to obey, and then he came back to gloat once more over Ned. But once more Camberly cut him short.
“You take his feet. I’ll take his head,” he ordered. “Come on, quick march for the boat.”
“Oh, guv’ner, ain’t this a treat,” chuckled Gradbarr, as he obeyed. “But how did you ever come to show up in the nick of time?”
“Why, we found when we reached the boat that one of the spark plugs needed tightening up,” responded Camberly, with a snicker. “I volunteered to come back to the car for a wrench. Luckily I came softly, and arrived very opportunely for you.”
“I should say so,” agreed Gradbarr. “It seems that this young rooster had it all cut and dried to send me to prison.”
“And you’ll get there yet, you scoundrel,” Ned burst out, and was angry at himself the next minute for his exhibition, for Camberly broke into a brutal laugh.
“My, isn’t somebody mad,” he chortled. “Well, we’ll see if a little solitary confinement won’t prove a good cure for a fit of bad temper.”
In a moment more Ned felt himself being lifted from the ground and carried rapidly through the woods toward the shore. As they emerged on the beach, a voice hailed them. It was Ferriss.
“What on earth have you got there?” he demanded, peering through the darkness at the bundle Gradbarr and Camberly were carrying.
“Why, a young man who has just accepted an invitation to a surprise party,” laughed Camberly. “We’re the hosts.”