"All right," Tom Reade laughed. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Away he raced at a dog-trot, chuckling. The contrast between bulky Sambo
and little Nicolas and the big negro's comic fear of the slim little
fellow kept Reade laughing.
"But where on earth did Nicolas learn that trick?" Tom wondered. "I shall
have to get him to show it to me. Plainly that trick is worth more than
all the muscle that I spent so many years in piling on."
Tom headed his course for the shore end of the wall. Here he would find
men in abundance. Moreover, now that the big black was a prisoner the men
would hardly be needed on the wall.
"I think I know just how Sambo worked it, too," the engineer reflected, as
he ran. "He swam out into the Gulf, towing that little scow behind him.
Neither his black head nor the little scow would be seen far on the water
on a dark night. Sambo, when he got near enough, could take one of the
metal tubes, swim in under water to some point where no watchman was near,
and stick the tube fast into the wall. Then another tube, and
another---all under water where they would not show to a passing watchman.
"Then, when he had all in place, and while no patrolling watchman was too
near, Sambo could begin to attach the wires. That would take but a few
minutes. Whenever any one came too near Sambo had but to swim out a little
way and tread water until he could return to his job. When, at last, all
was complete, Sambo would attach a wire from the bombs to a wire moored at
a stated point under water, and then swim in, work his magneto, and touch
the whole thing off from a safe hiding place on shore. The explosion
itself would shatter the last length of wire. Oh, but it was all slick
and easy!"
Not increasing his speed, but keeping steadily at the jog-trot, Tom was at
last near enough to the wall to raise his voice and shout.
"Hullo!" came back the answer.
"This is Reade, the chief engineer," Tom answered, through the night.
"We've caught the fellow that has been blowing up the wall. A half a
dozen of you men hurry over here with your lanterns. Come on the run."
The man who had answered summoned several of his comrades as quickly as he
could. As the men had to come in from the wall, however, it took a little
time. Then six men reported, almost breathless, to Reade. Still behind
them came Corbett on the run, summoned from the boat.
"What's this I hear, Mr. Reade?" puffed the foreman. "You've solved the
mystery and caught the fellow who has been dynamiting the wall?"
"Got him and he's tied up, waiting for his ride to jail," Tom chuckled.
"How did it happen, sir?" asked Corbett, staring with his eyes very wide
open.
"I caught the fellow---a huge giant of a negro, the same fellow who got
Hazelton the other night," replied Tom. "But before the fight was over the
black 'got' me, instead, and had me tied up. Then Nicolas came along and
put the negro out of the fight, and---"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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