Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/237



was two hours later that a great wide-shouldered figure in white duck passed quietly along the empty bridge-deck. This ghost-like figure cautiously tried the door of the wireless room, but found it securely locked. Then it crept about to the half-open shutter and stood there, minute after minute, in an attitude of listening. Beyond the unbroken drone of the electric fan there was nothing to be heard from within. And the cabin itself was in utter darkness.

The man at the window waited for still an other space of time, peering back and forth along the deck to make sure that his movements were unobserved. Then he raised a cautious arm and slid the barred shutter farther along its groove.

The damp wood rasped and stuttered a little, for all his caution, as he pushed it, and he drew quickly back from the window. For he had heard the sound of a sudden half-articulate