e a ways ahead of us----"

He squinted his eyes and, seeing a number of imaginary lights, decided
that perhaps the other had been imaginary too. He crossed the saloon,
went down the companionway and through the second class cabin
dining-room where the soldiers hailed him pleasantly, and, passing the
stokers' washroom, tiptoed along the dim, narrow passageway.

CHAPTER X

HE GOES BELOW AND GROPES IN THE DARK

There were half a dozen or more staterooms along this passage. At the
end of it was the steep, greasy flight of iron steps leading down into
the engine-rooms. Here, also, was a huge box with a hinged lid, filled
with cotton waste. It was customary for one going down here to take a
handful of this waste to protect his hands from the oily rail, and also
on coming up to wipe his hands with a fresh lot. The very atmosphere of
a ship's engine-room is oily. Here, also, were several fire-buckets in a
rack.

Along the side of the passage opposite the staterooms were electric
bulbs at intervals, but only two of them were burning--just enough to
light one through the narrow passage. Above each closed door was a solid
wooden transom, hinged at its lower side and opened at an angle into the
room.

Tom moved quickly and very quietly, for he feared to be caught loitering
here. He saw at once that only one of these staterooms could possibly
be used for any such criminal purpose as he suspected, and that was the
one with a light directly opposite it in the passage, for the other
light was beyond the staterooms.

For a few seconds he stood listening to the slow, monotonous sound of
the machinery just below him. The vibration was very pronounced here;
the floor thumped with the pulsations of the mighty engines. And Tom's
heart was thumping too.

Within the staterooms all was dark and quiet. He knew the under
engineers turned in early. Not the faintest flicker was to be seen
through any of those transoms. He had been mistaken, he thought; had
jumped at a crazy notion. And he half turned to go up again.

But instead he listened at the companionway, then tiptoed stealthily
along the passage and looked over the oily iron rail, down, down into
the depths of the great, dim, oil-smelling space with its iron galleries
and the mammoth steel arms, moving back and forth, back and forth, far
down there upon the grated floor. A tiny figure in a jumper went down
from one of the lower galleries, paused to look at a big dial, then