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Dave Darrin at Vera Cruz, a novel by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 14. A "Find" Of A Bad Kind |
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_ CHAPTER XIV. A "FIND" OF A BAD KIND In the nature of timings it could not be a long chase, for Ensign Dave Darrin was a swift runner, of many years' training. Rogers, slim and lithe, was also an excellent runner. Less than a block's distance, and Darrin had gripped the fleeing Mexican by the collar. His left hand reached for the bag, and in a moment Dave had it in his custody. Not a man of the Vera Cruz police force was in sight, to whom to turn the wretch over, so Darrin flung the fellow from him. That the handbag had not been opened Darrin was sure, for he had kept his eye upon it through the chase. Going to the ground in a heap, the Mexican thief was upon his feet instantly. A knife glittered in his right hand as he rushed at the young ensign. But Seaman Rogers was too quick for the fellow. One of his feet shot up, the kick landing on the Mexican's wrist. That kick broke the fellow's wrist and sent the knife spinning through the air. "We must go back to the woman from whom this was taken," Dave declared, and he and Rogers faced about, walking briskly back to the carriage. The woman was completely unnerved, and trembling with fright. Her coachman stood beside her, and already a crowd of a dozen curious natives had gathered. "Is this your property, madam?" Dave Darrin inquired, holding up the bag. "Yes, it is!" she cried, in excellent English. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" Hastily she opened the bag, disclosing a thick roll of bills. "It is all I have in the world," she murmured, her eyes now filling with tears. "It looks to me like a whole lot and then plenty more," uttered Seaman Rogers under his breath. "Whee! There must be a fortune there." "I am afraid you will not be safe in the streets of Vera Cruz with so much money in your possession," Dave assured her gravely. "I am going only as far as the docks," the woman answered. "If I may have escort that far-----" "You shall," Dave offered. Another score of natives had hastened to the spot, and were looking on curiously with sullen, lowering faces. Darrin began to fear that the plot to rob this woman of her money was a well planned one, with many thieves interested in it. Through the crack of a slightly opened doorway the face of Cosetta, the bandit, appeared, his evil eyes glittering strangely. Dave looked up swiftly, his eyes turned straight on those of the bandit. "It's a plot, sure enough!" gasped the young ensign to himself. "We shall be attacked, and the crowd is too big for us to handle" He was not afraid for himself, and he knew well that Seaman Rogers was "aching" for a chance to turn his hard fists loose on this rascally lot of Mexicans. But a rush would probably secure the bag of money for the bandits, and the woman herself might be roughly handled, It was a ticklish situation. "You are from an American warship, are you not?" inquired the woman. "From the _Long Island_, madam," the young officer informed her. "I am an American citizen, too," she claimed. "No matter to what nationality you belonged, we would protect you to the best of our ability," Darrin added, raising his cap. Whump! whump! whump! whump! It was the sound of steadily marching feet. Then around the corner came a boatswain's mate and eight keep even a crowd of rascals in order men from one of the American warships. It was a shore duty party returning to a ship! "Boatswain's mate!" Dave shouted. "Here!" "Aye, aye, sir!" On the double quick came the shore duty party. Dave Darrin found himself surrounded by blue jackets. "This lady is very nervous, and with good reason," Dave explained to the boatswain's mate. "She just had a handbag of money snatched from her by a thief. The bag has been returned, and now she wishes our escort to the dock, that she may not be attacked again. She is on her way to board a ship that will take her back to the United States. Boatswain's mate, I wish you would ride in the carriage at her side, while the rest of us walk on the sidewalk close to the carriage." "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the mate, saluting, then turning and lifting his cap gracefully to the woman. He helped her into the carriage, then took his seat beside her. Dave and the nine seamen remained on the sidewalk, but kept close to the carriage as the horses moved along at a walk. Darrin had no further fear that another attempt would be made to seize the money by force. Eleven men from the American Navy are guard enough to keep even a crowd of rascals in order. "Since Cosetta was looking on from the doorway, that must have been one of his jobs, engineered by him, and carried out by his own men," Dave told himself, swiftly. "Most of the men in the crowd must have been his own men, too, posted to take the money again, under pretense that a fight with sailors had started. So I've been the means of blocking another profitable enterprise for that fellow, Cosetta. By and by the scoundrel will feel a deep liking for me!" The first thief, he whose wrist Seaman Rogers had broken, had promptly vanished. Unmolested, the blue-jackets escorted the carriage out on to a dock next to the one at which the launch from the "_Long Island_" lay. Dave himself assisted the woman to alight from her carriage on the dock, at the end of which lay an American steamship. After she had thanked the young officer earnestly, Darrin, cap in hand, remarked: "I am afraid I shall have to trouble you, madam, for your name. I shall have to turn in a report on this occurrence on my return to my ship." "I am Mrs. Alice Black," replied the woman. "My home is in Elberon, Ohio, and I shall probably go there soon after I reach New York. This steamship does not sail immediately, but my money will be safe on board with the purser." Darrin gave his own name. "You have done me the greatest service possible, Mr. Darrin, for you have saved me from utter poverty." "Then I am very glad indeed," Dave assured her, and promptly took his leave. Before going off the dock Darrin secured the name of the boatswain's mate, also, for inclusion in his report. Then, with Rogers, he returned to the launch and was speedily back on his own ship. The packet of papers entrusted to him by the consul were at once handed over to Captain Gales. The launch was left fast to a swinging boom, and soon after was employed to take ashore Lieutenant Cantor, who had received shore leave for a few hours. For the first time in several days, Dave and Dan had time to chat together that afternoon. That was after Darrin had turned in a brief report on the assistance rendered an American woman ashore. "Cantor seems to have let up on you, apart from being as grouchy as he knows how to be," Danny Grin observed. "That is because there is nothing he can really do to me," Dave answered, with a smile. "Just the same," urged Dan, "I would advise you at all times to keep your weather eye turned toward that chap." "He really isn't worth the trouble," Dave yawned, behind his hand. "And, fortunately, I shall not always be compelled to serve under him. Officers are frequently transferred, you know." "If Cantor found the chance, you might last only long enough to be transferred back to civil life," Dan warned him. "Dave, I wish you would really be more on your guard against the only enemy, so far as I know, that you have." "I'm not interested in Cantor," retorted Dave. "It would do me a heap more good to know what reply General Huerta will finally make to the American demand for satisfaction over the Tampico incident." "Huerta won't give in," Dan predicted. "If he did, he would he killed by his own Mexican rabble." "If Huerta resists, then he'll have to fight," Dave exclaimed, warmly. "And if he fights most of the Mexicans will probably stand by him," Dalzell contended. His only hope of saving his own skin lies in provoking Uncle Sam into sending a spanking expedition. At the worst, Huerta, if badly beaten by our troops, can surrender to our commander, and then he'll have a chance to get out of Mexico alive. If Huerta gave in to us, he would have all the Mexican people against him, and he'd only fall into the hands of the rebels, who would take huge delight in killing him offhand. It's a queer condition, isn't it, when Huerta's only hope of coming out alive hangs on his making war against a power like the United States." "Open for callers?" inquired Lieutenant Trent's voice, outside Dan's door. "Come in, by all means," called Ensign Dalzell. Lieutenant Trent entered, looking as though he were well satisfied with himself on this warm April day in the tropics. "You look unusually jovial," Dan remarked. "And why shouldn't I?" Trent asked. "For years the Navy has been working out every imaginable problem of attack and defense. Now, we shall have a chance to apply some of our knowledge." "In fighting the Mexican Navy?" laughed Dave. "Hardly that," grinned the older officer. "But at least we shall have landing-party practice, and in the face of real bullets." "If Huerta doesn't back down," Dave suggested. "He won't," Danny Grin insisted. "He can't---doesn't dare." "Do you realize what two of our greatest problems are to-day?" asked Lieutenant Trent. "Attack on battleships by submarines and airships?" Dave inquired, quietly. "Yes," Trent nodded. "Huerta hasn't any submarines," Dan offered. "We haven't heard of any," Trent replied, "Yet how can we be sure that he hasn't any submarine craft?" "He has an airship or two, though, I believe," Dave went on. "He is believed to have two in the hands of the Mexican Federal Army," Lieutenant Trent continued. "I have just heard that, if we send a landing party ashore on a hostile errand, on each warship an officer and a squad of men will be stationed by a searchlight all through the dark hours. That searchlight will keep the skies lighted in the effort to discover an airship." "And we ought to be able to bring it down with a six-pounder shell," Danny Grin declared, promptly. "There is a limit to the range of a six-pounder, or any other gun, especially when firing at high elevation," Trent retorted. "An airship can reach a height above the range of any gun that can be trained on the sky. For instance, we can't fire a shell that will go three miles up into the air, yet that is a very ordinary height at which to run a biplane. Have you heard that, a year or more ago, an English aviator flew over warships at a height greater than the gunners below could possibly have reached? And did you know that the aviator succeeded in dropping oranges down the funnels of English warships? Suppose those oranges had been bombs?" "The warship would have been sunk," Darrin answered. "Huerta's bird men might be able to give us a surprise like that," Trent suggested. "That may prove to be one of the new problems that we shall have to work out." "Oh, I've worked that out already," yawned Danny Grin. "All we have to do is to equip our funnels with heavy iron caps that will not interfere with the draft of the furnaces, but will keep any oranges---bombs, I mean---from dropping down the funnels." "All right then," added Lieutenant Trent. "We will consider Dalzell has solved the problem of keeping bombs out of our funnels. What is Dalzell going to do about contact bombs that might be dropped on deck or superstructure of a battleship?" "All I can see for that," grinned Dan, "is to call loudly for the police." "One biplane might succeed in sinking all the warships gathered at Vera Cruz," Trent continued. "Was that the thought that made you look so happy when you came in here?" Dan asked, reproachfully. "The thought that you could scare two poor little ensigns so badly that they wouldn't be able to sleep to-night?" "That was far from my plan," laughed Trent. "What I am really happy about is that, the way affairs are shaping, we shall soon be studying real war problems instead of theoretical ones." "The question of uniform is bothering me more," Dave responded. "Do you realize, Trent, that we have only blue uniforms and white ones on board? If we land, to capture Vera Cruz, are our men to be tortured in heavy, hot, blue uniforms here in the tropics? Or are we to wear these white clothes and make ourselves the most perfect marks for the enemy's sharpshooters?" "You should have more confidence in the men forward," half jeered the lieutenant. "Our jackies are taking care of that problem already. They are soaking nails and scrap iron in water, and dyeing their white uniforms yellow with iron rust." "Say, that is an idea!" exclaimed Dan, sitting bolt upright. "I'm going to do that very thing to-night. I have one white uniform that isn't in very good shape." "I suppose you fellows have heard the word?" inquired Lieutenant Holton, looking in. "Not war?" asked Trent. "No," uttered Holton, disgustedly. "Worse than that. Shore leave has been stopped for officers and men alike. And I was counting on a pleasant evening ashore to-night!" "It won't bother me any," Dave announced. "I'd rather stay on board and sleep against the stirring times, when we won't be able to get sleep enough." "What's the idea, anyway, in stopping shore leave?" asked Trent. "Is the admiral afraid that we'll start a row on shore?" "I don't know," sighed Lieutenant Holton. "I only wish that I had got ashore before the order was handed out." At that very moment Lieutenant Cantor, who had returned to ship, and had just heard the order, was standing before Captain Gales in the latter's office. "But, sir," stammered the young officer, "It is absolutely necessary that I go ashore again to-morrow. It is vital to me, sir." "I am sorry, Cantor," said Captain Gales, "but the admiral's orders leave me no discretion in the matter." Captain Gales, as he spoke, turned his back in order to reach for a report book behind hum. Ten minutes later Commander Bainbridge was summoned in hot haste to the Captain's office. "Bainbridge," announced Captain Gales, his face stern and set, "at three o'clock a bulky envelope lay on my desk. That envelope contained the full plan of the Navy landing in Vera Cruz, in case such landing becomes necessary. All that we are to accomplish, and even the duties of the different officers and detachments from this fleet were stated in that letter. Not later than within the last half-hour that envelope has disappeared!" Instantly Commander Bainbridge's face became grave indeed. "Have you been out of the room, sir?" asked Bainbridge. "Only once, and then, so the marine orderly at the door informs me, no one entered here." "This is serious!" cried the executive officer." "Serious?" repeated Captain Gales in a harsh tone. "I should say it was." "Let us search the room thoroughly, sir," begged the executive officer. Though no search could have been more thorough, the missing envelope was not found. "Summon the officers---all of them---to meet me in the ward-room in five minutes!" rasped Captain Gales. And there every officer of the "_Long Island_" reported immediately. After the doors had been closed Captain Gales announced the loss. Blank faces confronted him on all sides. "Has any officer any information to offer that can throw the least light on thus matter?" demanded the Old Man, in a husky voice. There was silence, broken at last by Lieutenant Cantor asking: "May I make a suggestion, sir?" "Certainly." "How many officers, sir, visited your office after the time you are certain of having seen the missing envelope on your desk?" "Five," replied Captain Gales. "Lieutenant-Commander Denton, Lieutenant-Commander Hansen, Lieutenant Holton, Lieutenant Trent and yourself." "Were there any enlisted men in your office, sir?" "None since before the letter came aboard," replied Captain Gales. "Then I would beg to suggest, sir," Lieutenant Cantor continued, "that each of the five officers you have named, myself included, request that their quarters be thoroughly searched. If the missing envelope is not found in their quarters, then I would suggest that the quarters of every other officer on board be searched." To this there was a low murmur of approval. The executive officer was instructed to take the chaplain, the surgeon and two other officers beside himself, these five to form the searching committee. In the meantime, the officers were to remain in the ward-room or on the quarterdeck. Dave, Dan and Trent seated themselves at the mess table. Time dragged by. At last the searching committee, looking grave indeed, returned. "Is this the envelope, sir?" asked Commander Bainbridge, holding it out. "It is," replied Captain Gales, scanning it. "But the envelope has now no contents." "We found only the envelope, sir," replied Commander Bainbridge, while his four helpers looked uncomfortable. "We found the envelope tucked in a berth, under the mattress, in the quarters of an officer of this ship." "And who was the officer in whose quarters you found it?" demanded Captain Gales. "Ensign Darrin, sir!" replied the executive officer. _ |
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