In silence they fitted the shore end of
the wire to the battery.
Then one of the pair seized the handle to pomp the fatal electric spark
along the wire to the hidden mine under the "Benson's" hull.
"Remember what happened to the 'Maine'!" this wretch chuckled hideously.
CHAPTER XIX
A JOKE ON THE SECRET SERVICE!
"What's that noise?" wondered Williamson.
He stopped, listening intently, for he was still below.
Against the bottom of the "Benson's" hull he heard a steady, slow,
monotonous bumping. As he listened, his face took on an anxious look.
"We're in a friendly port," muttered the machinist. "It can't be
anything very wrong, and yet--"
That slow steady bumping continued.
"Anything bumping against the bull of a boat at anchor, in that fashion
may be wrong," concluded the man, swiftly.
His mind made up to this much, the rest was not difficult to decide. The
cause of that bumping required instant investigation. Williamson caught
up the tool that came quickest to hand, a pair of nippers, thrust them
into his jumper and raced up to the deck.
"If it's any real mischief," he muttered, "I hope I won't be too
slow--too late!"
With that he dived overboard, at the starboard rail, the side nearest
the gunboat.
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