CHAPTER IX.
Davis pounded mightily upon the great gate of the half-desertedshipyard. Behind him, Nita was sobbing in spite of her efforts to holdback her tears. Evelyn tried her best to calm Nita, but without realeffect. Gerrod had shot the party out at the gate of the shipyardand darted off in the little motor car on some mysterious errand.Davis pounded again wrathfully, using a huge stone to make his blowsreverberate through the yard. A workman came slowly toward them.
"Hurry! Hurry!" Nita called tearfully. "Please hurry!"
The workman recognized her through the palings. All of Morrison'semployees knew his daughter. The workman broke into a run. The gateswung open.
"Where's Mr. Keeling, the manager?" demanded Nita urgently. "We mustsee him at once."
The workman pointed, and the three of them hurried as fast as theycould walk toward the man he had indicated.
"Mr. Keeling," said Nita desperately. "Father is marooned in our houseup the Hudson. He may be dead by now. We've got to get to him!"
"I don't know how----" began the manager helplessly.
"I want a submarine siren," said Davis crisply. "One that can be tunedto different notes. Also the fastest motor boat you have. Give thenecessary orders at once."
"But the Silver Menace----" began the manager again.
"Don't stand there talking," barked Davis in a tone that securedinstant obedience. "Get the siren and the boat. And hurry! This is lifeand death!"
Galvanized into action, but still confused, the manager gave theorders. A fast motor boat that had been hauled ashore and pot into ashed when the Silver Menace blocked the river was hauled out. A heavysubmarine siren was hastily unearthed from one of the workshops, andDavis drove the workmen to the task of fitting a sling on the boat bywhich the siren could be lowered over the bow. A heavy crane was runup and the motor boat made fast, in readiness to be lifted overboard.Every one worked with the utmost speed of which they were capable.Davis was not his usual good-natured self now. He drove his workmenmercilessly. Hardly had the last of their preparations been completedwhen a heavy truck rumbled into the yard. Gerrod had commandeered thetruck and worked wonders. A grand piano had been lifted bodily intothe big automobile. As the truck stopped he was lifting the lid thatprotected the keys. An electrician stood by the siren, with the tuningapparatus exposed. Hardly had the engine of the truck been shut offwhen they were busy tuning the blast of the siren to match the tinklingsound of the piano. It took a heart-breakingly long time to get thepitches precisely alike, but then the launch swung high in the air andalighted on the surface of the jelly below. The electrician in thelaunch pressed the button that would set the siren at work sending outits blast of sound waves through the water.
Those on the bank watched in agonized apprehension. The siren sankinto the jelly like mass. No audible sound issued from it, once it wassubmerged, but when the curious sound waves issued into the water fromthe giant metal plate that in normal times carried warnings to shipsat sea a change was visible in the jelly. Where ever the curious watersound traveled the silvery jelly clouded and abruptly turned to liquid!Almost instantly the space between the two wharves, in which thelaunch lay, was free of the horrible stuff. Gerrod shouted excitedly.Davis swore happily. Nita pushed anxiously forward.
"We've got to get to daddy!" she cried desperately. "We mustn't waste asecond! Not an instant!"
The four of them piled into the launch. An engineer leaped down andtwisted the motor. The fast launch shot forward, the submarine sirenat the bow sending out its strange water sound that was inaudible tothose on board, but which had such an amazing effect on the microscopicanimals that composed the silver sea. As the launch gathered speed andheaded up the Hudson a high bow wave spread out on either side. Thewater on which they rode was yellowed and malodorous, but it was water,and not the silvery, slime that had threatened the world. The SilverMenace vanished before the launch as if by magic. When the motor boatapproached, with its siren still sounding fiercely, though inaudibly,the jellied surface of the river shivered into yellowed liquid, and thecreeping horror on the banks trembled and became a torrent of waterthat flowed eagerly back into the bed of the stream.
The island on which Morrison had been marooned loomed up ahead,looking like a small mountain of silver. The house at its top was as amonument of shining metal. But as the boat sped toward it the silveryappearance of the coating clouded and melted away. Instead a torrentof evil-smelling water poured down the sloping sides of the island andinto the river again!
They found the servants weeping for joy. Morrison, when the windows ofthe library had broken in under the weight of the mass of the horroroutside, had leaped through the door of the library and slammed thedoor behind him. They had calked the cracks with cloth, and for amoment isolated the Silver Menace in that one room. As window afterwindow broke in, however, they had been forced to withdraw from room toroom, until at last they were huddled together in a tiny linen closet,windowless and without ventilation. They were waiting there for deathwhen they heard the rushing of water all about them and found theSilver Menace, silver and a menace no longer, flowing down to rejointhe waters from which it had come.
As is the way of women, Nita, having sobbed heartbrokenly for sorrowwhen she believed her father dead, now sobbed even more heartbrokenlyfor joy at finding him alive, but she did not neglect, after areasonable interval, to bring Davis forward.
"You know him, daddy," she said, smiling. "Well, he is the person whofound the way to destroy the Silver Menace, and so he's the person youare going to pay that big reward to."
Morrison shook hands with Davis. He knew what was coming next.
"And though it hasn't anything to do with the other things," Nita saidproudly, "he's the person I'm going to marry."
"It would be ungracious," observed Morrison, "to disagree with you. Mr.Davis, you are a lucky man."
"I know it," said Davis, laughing in some embarrassment. He looked atNita, who dimpled at him, and was promptly and frankly kissed for herdaring. She did not seem to mind, however. In fact, she dimpled again.
* * * * *
The last vestige of the Silver Menace was turned to yellowed waterwithin a month. Submarine sirens, carefully tuned to precisely thepitch that would cause the tiny shells to shatter themselves, werehastily set aboard huge numbers of fast steamers, that swept the oceanin patrols, clearing the sea as they went. Whenever the clear note waspoured out by one of the under-water sirens the silvery animalculesdied in their myriads. Slowly, as the evil smell of their bodiesdissipated, the inhabitants of the Atlantic Ocean came back to theirnormal haunts. By shoals and schools, by swarms and in tribes, thefishes came down again from the North. A week after the destroyingsteamers began their patrol rain fell on the Atlantic coast. Theabnormally dry air above the ocean took up water avidly and poured itdown on the parched earth with a free hand. The ocean, too, took upagain its former function of furnishing cool breezes during the dayand warm breezes at night. The seashore became once more a place ofcharm and delight. At least Davis and Nita found it so. Davis was beingwaited upon with decorations and honorary degrees, with the freedom ofcities and medals of honor from learned societies. At each presentationsolemn speeches were made in which he was told how superlatively cleverhe was. Remembering the purely accidental nature of his discovery, hefound it difficult to keep from laughing. These things were tiresome,but were not active nuisances until after his marriage. When hefound that he and Nita would not be left alone, that no matter howscrupulously they concealed their identity it was sooner or laterdiscovered and they were interviewed and written up in special articlesfor the newspapers he grew annoyed.
The climax came on a beautifully moonlit night at a seashore resortwhere they were quite confident they would not be discovered. The beachwas like silver, and the waves were dark and mysterious, except wherethe reflection of the moon glittered on their shining sides. Davis andNita, forgetting the world and devoutly hoping that they were by theworld
forgot, sat and looked at the moon and played idly in the sandand told each other the eternal foolishnesses that are probably thetruest wisdom. They were utterly happy just being alone with each other.
A dark figure looked up over and coughed. They started.
"You are Flight Commander and Mrs. Davis?" said a voice deprecatingly.
Davis groaned and admitted it.
"Our little villagers learned that you are visiting here, and a banquethas been prepared in the pavilion in your honor. Won't you do us thehonor to attend?"
Davis muttered several words under his breath, for which Nita laterreprimanded him, and rose heavily.
The banquet was a great success. The freedom of the village wasgiven them both. Speeches were made, in which Davis was told howsuperlatively clever he was. The band played "See the Conquering HeroComes." Davis sat miserably through it all, with Nita, scarcely lessmiserable, by his side.
The next morning he sent a wire to Teddy Gerrod:
Can we come and spend our honeymoon with you? People won't let us alone.
DAVIS.
Within an hour the answer came:
Come along. We'll let you alone. We're having a second honeymoon ourselves.
GERROD.
Davis showed the wire to Nita.
"Splendid!" she said with a sigh of relief. Then she dimpled and lookedup at Davis. "But, Dicky, dear, we'll never have a second honeymoonlike they are having."
"We won't?" demanded Davis. "Why not?"
"Because," said Nita, putting her face very close to his. "Because ourfirst one is never going to stop."
THE END.
The Silver Menace Page 9
