red to astonish him a good
deal, for he sat knitting his brows over it for some moments.

"Washington says some ding-gasted sneak has been cutting up funny
tricks. Looks like you have been talking.

"TOBY READY."

This characteristic message occupied Jack for some moments till he
thought of a reply to its rather vaguely worded contents. Then he got
Siasconset and shot this through the air:

"Have talked to no one who could have seen Washington. My last
letter to the Secretary of the Navy was that I thought I was on the
road to success.

"JACK."

No reply came to this and Jack went off watch with the matter as much of
a mystery as ever. But as Thurman came in to relieve him a sudden
suspicion shot across Jack's mind. Could Thurman have----?

He recalled the night he had caught him examining the device with such
care! Jack had since removed it, but in searching in the waste basket
for a message discarded by mistake he had since come across what
appeared to be crude sketches of the Universal Detector. If Thurman had
not drawn them, Jack was at a loss to know who had. But for some
mysterious reason he only smiled as he left the wireless room.

"If you've been up to any hocus-pocus business, Mr. Thurman," he said to
himself, as he descended to dinner, "you are going to get the surprise
of your life within a very short time."

After dinner he came back to the upper deck again, but as he gained it
his attention was arrested by the scream of the wireless spark. It was a
warm night and the door of the cabin was open. Jack stopped
instinctively to listen to the roaring succession of dots and dashes.

"He's calling Washington," said Jack to himself as he listened.

"He's got them," he exclaimed a minute later.

"Hullo! Hullo! I guess I was right in my guess, then, after all. Oh,
Thurman, what a young rascal you are."

He listened attentively as Thurman shot out his message to the National
Capital. Jack repeated it in an undertone as the spark crackled and
squealed.

"Do--I--get--my--reward--right--away?"

Jack actually burst, for some inexplicable reason, into a hearty laugh.

"Oh, Thurman! Thurman!" he exploded to himself. "What a badly fooled
young man you are going to be."

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE "SUITABLE REWARD."

The arrival of the _Columbia_ at her dock the next day was in the nature
of an ovation. A band played "Hail Columbia," and a dense crowd blocked
the do