e berth in the captain's
quarters, where he sank into unconsciousness with the moaning of the
stricken woman in his ears.

Casey went down to his partner and his instruments; Riley and King, with
their _confreres_ of the other watch, went down to the engines to "nurse
them"; and Forsythe, after Jenkins had been lifted out of the wardroom
and forward to a forecastle bunk, searched the bookshelves and the desks
of the officers, and, finding what he wanted, went forward to study.

He was apt; he was a high-school graduate who only needed to apply
himself to produce results. And Forsythe produced them. As he had
promised, he took a meridian observation that day, and in half an hour
announced the latitude--thirty-five degrees forty minutes north.

"Now, Casey," he called, after he had looked at a track chart. "Got your
fake message ready?"

"Only this," answered Casey, scanning a piece of paper. "Listen:

"Stolen destroyer bound north. Latitude so and so, longitude so and
so."

"That'll do, or anything like it. Send it from latitude forty north,
fifty-five west. That's up close to the corner of the Lanes, and if it's
caught up it'll keep 'em busy up there for a while."

"What's our longitude?"

"Don't know, and won't until I learn the method. But just north of us is
the west-to-east track of outbound low-power steamers, which, I take it,
means tramps and tankers. Well, we'll have good use for a tanker."

"You mean we're to hold up one for oil?"

"Of course, and for grub if we need it."

"Piracy, Forsythe."

"Have pirates got anything on us, now?" asked Forsythe. "What are we?
Mutineers, convicts, strong-arm men, thieves--or just simply pirates.
Off the deck with you, Casey, and keep your wires hot. Forty north,
forty-five west for a while, then we'll have it farther north."

Casey jotted down the figures, and departed to the wireless room, where,
at intervals through the day he sent out into the ether the radiating
waves, which, if picked up within fifty miles by a craft beyond the
horizon, might be relayed on.

The success of the scheme could not be learned by any tangible signs,
but for the next few days, while the boat lay with quiet engines and
Forsythe studied navigation, they remarked that they were not pursued or
noticed by passing craft.

And as the boat, with dead engines, rolled lazily in the long Atlantic
swell, while the men--all but Forsythe, the two cooks, and the two
wireless experts