Chapter Fifty-Two
At the Iron Duke – an aeroplane gun – the villains, discovered – Caxton’s revenge – who will be first?
“I had meant only to look in briefly,” Lady Decharles said. “But this does rather alter the situation, does it not?”
Tom looked at the Royal Marine, dead but propped upright in his sentry box. A passer-by might have thought him alive and well. It was only up close that the black marks on his neck were visible.
“What can it mean?” Caxton moaned. “Are there saboteurs? Spies on my ship?”
They looked up at the vast metal shape of the Iron Duke, its iron bulk almost silver in the moonlight. Tom had heard Admiral Decharles curse the ship. Now that he had seen it up close, he did not wonder why. It was a thing of evil. A factory for making death.
“There! A light!” Caxton
