"That guy certainly won't try any monkey-shines with me," Muller assured Jack slangily, but with a sincere ring in his voice, and Jack knew he could trust him.
Then he sought out Bill, whom he found in the latter's cabin writing letters.
"Well, Bill," he began. "I've solved the mystery of Mr. Johnson."
"The same person. He's an old friend of yours. You were not mistaken when you said that you thought you recognized his voice."
"The dickens you say?" Bill was all attention now. "And who is he?"
"Why,--as the nickel novels say,--none other than our old college chum, Herr Professor Radwig."
"For gracious' sake!" Bill's expression left no doubt as to the genuineness of his astonishment. "Old Earwig turned up again, eh?"
"Yes, and from some not very complimentary remarks he made about me, Bill," continued Jack, "I don't think he'd be averse to doing me some mischief, if he could."
"He'd better not try." Bill doubled his fists pugnaciously.
"The trouble is, I didn't overhear enough to find out just what his little game is."
"That's too bad. It's a shame we didn't know his identity earlier. We would have earned the thanks of that English cruiser."
"We certainly would. De Garros told me that Radwig is accounted a very clever and dangerous man. He has invented explosives and is active in the entire German military movement."
"By the way, where is de Garros?" asked Bill.
"I don't know any more than you do. After we left him at the depot in New York on our return from Bar Harbor, I lost sight of him. In fact, things have gone on with such a rush since then, that I haven't had time to think of him till now. He told me, though, that he would take the first ship possible to France."
"What would be the good? He has committed no crime. If he wants to travel under a false name that is not our business so long as he does not interfere with us."
"That's true, but just the same, if we are boarded by another British cruiser, I'll have something to whisper in the boarding officer's ear," said Bill, truculently.
"I wish we knew who this Schultz was," confessed Jack.
"Does that name appear on the passenger lists?"
"On none of them. Besides, if it had, the man would have been questioned by that officer from the _Berwick_. He quizzed everybody with a name that even sounded German."