Chapter VIII - Page 2

office and asked them to rush it. Evidently they did so, for just as Cappy Ricks arrived in the office the following morning, word was received from the telegraph company that owing to the departure of the Narcissus from Pernambuco the night before, the Blue Star Navigation Company's cablegram had not been delivered.

"Well, Skinner," Cappy chirped as he sat in at his desk and lighted a cigar, "what's the news around the shop this fine morning? Any word from Murphy?"

"Yes--and no," Mr. Skinner replied, and laid his information before Cappy for perusal. Cappy read it all twice, then slid out to the edge of his chair, placed his hands on his knees and looked at Mr. Skinner over the rims of his spectacles.

"Skinner, my dear boy," he said solemnly, "this is certainly hell! Cable the American consul in Pernambuco and ask him if Murphy received the cablegram we sent in care of the consulate. And, in the meantime, don't whisper a word of this disquieting information to Matt Peasley. Time enough to cross a bridge, Skinner, when you come to it."

Mr. Skinner promptly filed a cablegram to the American consul, and just before the office closed they got about forty dollars' worth of reply, informing them that Captain Murphy had appeared at the consulate greatly excited the night previous; that he had declared the cablegram awaiting him might mean life or death--certainly a large sum of money; that he had been given the cablegram and had gone aboard ship to look up his cipher key. He had not returned and the ship was not in the harbor.

"Let me see the carbon copy of the cablegram you sent Murphy in care of the American consul," Cappy demanded. Mr. Skinner with a sinking heart obeyed.

"Skinner," said Cappy, "do I understand you sent this message in cipher, which necessitated on the part of our captain a trip back to his ship before he could decipher it? Why didn't you send him the message in regular code? He would then have decoded it right in the consulate, or at best he could have gone to the cable office and borrowed a code book from them."

"I sent it in our secret cipher," Mr. Skinner faltered. "It was delicate business--quite--er--an international complication, as it were, and in the event of unpleasant developments--Well, how did I know but that some German might be on the key at the cable office when the message arrived there for Murphy--"

"Quite right, Skinner, my boy, quite right," Cappy interrupted sadly. "The only trouble with you, Skinner, is that you're too danged efficient. You look so far into the future you're always gumming up the present." He sighed.

"Why, what do you think--" Skinner began, but Cappy silenced him with an autocratic finger.

"I do not think, Skinner, I know. Had it not been for your