_. "And yet
we must not refuse to believe that the secret agents of Germany are at
work in the most impossible places. If they could sink this great, new
vessel in mid-ocean! Mr. Smith," to his first lieutenant, "have that
part of the ship searched. Find out what causes the sound which has been
heard before you make your report. We'll investigate this matter to the
very bottom."

CHAPTER XXIV

TICK-TOCK! TICK-TOCK!

The superdreadnaught was so huge a ship, and the divisions of the crew
were so busily engaged in drills and other work, that few, indeed, knew
that the "ghost of the _Kennebunk_" was being investigated by the
officers.

The ship was storming along her course through the sea at a pace which
fairly made her structure shake. Had one been able to be out upon the
sea on another ship and watch her pass, her speed would have been
impressive, indeed.

Routine work went on, and the bulk of the ship's company knew nothing
about that little party of searchers at work deep down in the ship.
Whistler was one of those assigned to find the cause of the "tick-tock"
noise, and it was he who finally suggested the spot where the mechanism
which caused the sound might be found.

The party had searched the lumber room and the compartments on both
sides, that above, and the one directly beneath the room in question.
Nothing was discovered save that the sound seemed clearer in the lumber
room than elsewhere.

Overhauling the stuff stowed there did no good. They seemed no nearer to
the sound. And as the latter was not continuous it was the more
puzzling.

"Don't you think we ought to open that chest, sir?" asked Whistler of
the warrant officer who had immediate charge of the work.

"It doesn't seem to come from that box," objected the man.

"It doesn't seem to come from anywhere exactly," Whistler said. "It is
sort of ventriloquial. One time it seems to be from one direction, then
from another. But that chest hasn't been open----"

"Whose is it?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Who does know?" the warrant officer asked.

But nobody seemed able to answer that query. The searchers gathered
about the chest that had been pulled out of the heap of rubbish. It was
ironbound and made of heavy planking.

"It gets me!" murmured the officer.

Just then the sound started again: "Tick-_tock_! Tick-_tock_!
Tick-_tock_!"

"It don't come from that box!" declared one man.

Whistler stooped and put his hand on the cover. "