Drowned Gold/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII
THERE followed days of anxiety and suspense, as the Nation gathered itself solidly for the acceptance of a challenge to its honor; days in which neither Jimmy nor I could devote ourselves to our separate tasks. And then the Nation suddenly declared itself through its President, and all private pursuits were at an end, thrown into the universal and prodigious effort of preparation. The United States went to war in earnest.
I cabled Monsieur Périgord asking him to release me from my contract, telling him that in the hour of my country's need all that I had to give, myself included, must be given, and by return received his reply:
- "I do not release you for longer than the duration of the war. I urgently request you to keep in communication with me as opportunity offers at regular intervals. I shall postpone my return to France until the war is finished, which, please God, may be soon now that your nation has also entered the conflict on the side of justice.
Jimmy was with me when it was received.
"Well," he said, "the old chap means well, and maybe we shall want a friend or two after it's all over. Now, of course, we must go to Washington with the plan for the light. It will be invaluable to our country. We must make it a gift; our contribution. Everything else is off."
I was glad to hear him express himself thus. I had wondered what his attitude would be regarding his invention.
"Our Government accepts no gift of that character," I said, quietly, "without recompense. Jimmy, you will be a wealthy man."
"You mean we shall," he insisted. "But the recompense is secondary now. I suppose you will get the plans from the safety deposit box to-morrow, and we will start at once?"
"Assuredly," I replied, as we walked toward his rooms. Still talking and planning, we climbed the stairs and he turned the key and switched on the light. His exclamation reached me as he did so. The room was in complete disorder. Not an article of its contents had escaped. The upholstering of chairs had been ripped off and thrown on the floor. His garments had been ripped. The wall-paper had even been torn off in one corner where it was loose. Not a scrap of paper was visible, as if everything, even to spare memoranda, had been taken. His waste-basket had not been spared. The carpet had been torn up and thrown in a heap in the corner. The German agents had dared wait no longer and had made their final search.
"Could they have secured anything important?" I asked, in perturbation.
"No. I have carried the rough drawings of the secondary invention in my pocket," he said. "And the plans for the light are in your possession, you know. Fortunate, wasn't it? All they got would be of no use to them, and not vital to me,"
He chuckled as if at a good joke, and we rearranged his apartment as best we could, but, deciding that it was no longer tenable, packed a suit-case for traveling, and returned to my hotel, where he passed the night.
We were at the safety deposit vaults when they opened, and took therefrom the precious plans. We guarded them as if our lives depended upon their security all the way to Washington, and up to the Naval Building, where I was confident I could gain a hearing. Nor was I mistaken in that, for we did, and gained the ear of one who had been my superior and friend in the old days. And it was to his astonished hearing that I told the story of the light, and its possibilities; of how the plans had once been stolen; of the attempt to steal them .in New York, and that we had now brought them to be used by our country.
"If it were other than you telling me this, Mr. Hale," he said gravely, "I should declare it incredible. Now I will give orders that I am not to be disturbed, and with your consent have a look at them."
He did so, and we spread out on his table drawing after drawing, which Jimmy explained in his slow, methodical way.
"We have also the formulæ and close calculations on a separate sheet which no one but I could understand," he said in conclusion. "They, of course, are the key to the entire set of plans. One without the other would be so incomplete as to be almost useless. They were purposely compiled in that manner. Let me see. Those sheets are—"
He began to move the plans about, sheet by sheet. The admiral and I attempted to assist him.
"My God!" Jimmy exclaimed, sinking into a chair. "They aren't here! I must have left them in that old trunk of mine when I gave you the others, Tom, and now—now they're gone! Stolen! Lost! They've all got to be done over again!"
The German Government had gained something that was useless to its purpose, but had won an incalculable victory in that it had prevented our Government from using one of the most effectual devices for waging war until, by laborious research and experiment, it could again be brought to perfection.
And it was on this work that Jimmy engaged, with all means and protection afforded him by the Navy Department, while I returned to the service and the sea. I think that but for anger and hatred of Germany, he might have despaired of his task; but these incentives and the admiral's encouragement started him doggedly on his quest. As for me, with all my hopes of bringing to our country's arms a most formidable weapon crushed, I threw myself into my work, and was grimly pleased when ordered to join a battle cruiser in the North Sea where, until the war was over, I waited in feverish hope that Jimmy might be inspired to complete his work speedily—more speedily than was human.