Home > Authors Index > H. Irving Hancock > Uncle Sam's Boys as Lieutenants > This page
Uncle Sam's Boys as Lieutenants, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
||
Chapter 21. American Women In Peril! |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER XXI. AMERICAN WOMEN IN PERIL! Slowly Captain Foster read off the numbers, writing them down in a notebook that he carried. As the older officer glanced up he met the burning gaze of Lieutenant Hal Overton. "Captain," cried the Army boy hoarsely, "I don't know by what juggling trickery this was done, but I never have handled that money, though it would seem that I must have been carrying it around in my holster." "Bah!" sneered Ruggles. Had it not been for Captain Foster's quick leap between the pair Hal would have knocked the purple-faced fellow down. "Careful, Mr. Overton," warned the captain. "Violence will injure your case, not help it. Mr. Ruggles, I will hold this money as evidence, but I will give you a receipt for it." "On that receipt will you enter the numbers of the bills?" demanded the purple-faced one craftily. "Certainly," and Foster made the receipt out in that form, handing it to the promoter. "Sergeant of the guard!" called Captain Foster. Hal stiffened, his face turning ghastly. He felt that it would be better to die than to live a life of disgrace. The thought that he had been easily but cleverly tricked made his blood boil within him. "Sergeant, conduct the prisoner Ruggles to the guard-tent, where the Mexicans are. Instruct the guard that they are to make absolutely sure that this prisoner doesn't escape." "Doesn't your young man go to the guard-tent, too?" demanded Ruggles, as he stepped toward the sergeant. "I will be responsible for the lieutenant," rejoined the captain coldly. "Thank you, Sergeant Raney. You may go. Of course you will be discreet." When the two officers had the tent to themselves Foster turned his grave look on Hal Overton. "My boy," said the captain, in a voice that shook, "I can't realize, even yet, that you have forfeited your honor as an officer." "Nor have I, sir," returned Hal. "And I am even bold enough to hope that I can yet find some way of throwing the whole lie back in that fellow's throat with more proof than even he will care to swallow." "I hope you can, Overton, with all my heart," responded the older soldier, resting a hand on his white-faced junior's shoulder. "Do you believe me guilty, sir?" asked Hal, looking straight into his commander's eyes. "Heavens knows I don't. To me, Overton, the whole thing seems absurd and incredible. But I am your commanding officer. A charge has been made that apparently destroys your honor. Some seeming proof against you has been found. There is only one course open to me. I must detain you in camp until I have communicated through the usual military channels." "Am--am I under arrest?" asked Hal somewhat huskily. "No, no, Overton!" exclaimed the older soldier quickly. "But you must give me your parole--not to go beyond camp limits at any time or for any purpose without my express permission." "You have my parole, sir. It shall be rigidly observed." "And now, Mr. Overton, I suggest that, as you have nothing else to do, you lie down and sleep through the night." "_Sleep_, sir?" echoed Lieutenant Hal bitterly. "Rest, then, at all events." For two or three hours the Army boy lay and tossed. Toward morning, however, he secured some real sleep. When he opened his eyes it was to find Noll in the tent. "I've heard the news, old bunkie," cried Terry, coming forward as soon as he saw his comrade's eyes open. "All rot! Forget it. It'll come out all right. When Prescott and Holmes heard the news they laughed aloud over the absurdity of it." "I wish I was as sure of every one's faith in me," quivered the Army boy, returning his chums' hand-grip. "Get up and dress. Captain Foster has had his meal, but the others are all waiting for you to hurry through to the table." Three other young officers had crowded into the tent before Hal had finished dressing. "The whole thing is absurd, Overton," declared Lieutenant Dick Prescott. "Holmesy and I have told Captain Foster so. We had you under our eyes in the Thirty-fourth during most of your more than three years of service. We know you too well to believe a word of any such fool charge against you." "Even in the face of the money found in my holster?" asked Hal smiling wistfully. "Huh!" retorted Lieutenant Greg Holmes. "It wouldn't shake our belief in you, old man, if the whole United States Treasury had been found hiding in your holster! Now, forget it all, as well as you can, Overton. Leave it to your friends, who will be cooler-headed, to find the way out from under this toy cloud. Why, even Foster knows it's all so absurd that he doesn't order you under arrest." "Thank you all, fellows," replied Hal, his eyes gleaming as he shook hands with all three of his Army comrades and with the friend from the Navy. "I'll brace and fight every inch of the way. But," he could not help adding, wistfully, "I wish I could see how I am going to be able to clear myself so that not even a trace of a taint of suspicion can rest against any name." The youngsters tried to make breakfast a merry meal, though they were not wholly successful. During the night, following the taking of the prize, Skipper Tom Halstead, it seemed, had been entertaining the four young officers left aboard the "Restless" with several exciting tales of his own wholly exciting life as a motor boat master. Most of these tales are already familiar to the readers of the "MOTOR BOAT CLUB SERIES." "What's Halstead's home port?" asked Hal, rather absently, for, naturally, his mind was rather full of his own troubles. "Some little place near the mouth of the Kennebec River," Prescott answered. "Then isn't he a long way from home?" asked Hal. "Halstead often is a long way from home," nodded Lieutenant Holmes. "Not so very long ago Halstead commanded a yacht on the Pacific Ocean, and had some of his most rousing adventures at that time." "It's young fellows like Halstead, Joe Dawson and that queer genius, Hank Butts, who are needed to build up the American merchant marine once more," Prescott continued. Having been up all night most of the young officers were now glad to turn in for a few hours of sleep. Lieutenant Hal passed a wretched day of it. Toward four o'clock in the afternoon an orderly brought in the afternoon mail from the village. With the mail came two telegrams, one for Captain Foster and the other for Lieutenant Prescott. That latter young officer tore open his telegram eagerly, and read:
"LAURA BENTLEY."
"I'm afraid I don't like that," muttered Dave, his brow darkening. "We'd better wire the girls begging them to get away from the border as soon as they know how." "Who's that you're going to order away from the border, Mr. Darrin?" inquired Captain Foster, coming up and catching only a few words. "No one that we can very well _order_, sir," replied Darrin. "I may as well tell the captain. You see, sir, Laura Bentley and Belle Meade are the two girl sweethearts that waited for us until we got settled in the service. They were on their way West to Fort Clowdry, for both girls wanted a military wedding, and there was nothing of that sort to be had in the home town. So Prescott wired them, aboard their train, that he was ordered to Holmesville, and that I was going along with him, and that we'd be back at Fort Clowdry at the earliest moment. But the girls took it into their head to change their route to Holmesville. Maybe you can get away, Dick; in any case I'll hire an automobile and get up to Holmesville as quickly as I can." "I am afraid there may be some difficulty about your getting into Holmesville, or the young ladies getting out," replied Captain Foster. "What do you mean, sir?" demanded Prescott, noting how serious was the look on the captain's face. "A few weeks ago, gentlemen, a mob burned a Mexican at the stake up at Holmesville. The Mexican was a worthless fellow, but of course an effort has been made to fasten the crime on the Texan residents of the town. As a matter of fact it is generally understood that the man lynched was burned by his own countryman as a result of some row among themselves. But the Mexicans on this border are in an ugly frame of mind, just now, as the most disorderly ones are all behind the revolution that's trying to get a start across the border. This telegram is from Washington, and informs me that the Mexicans have just turned loose at Holmesville. There are hundreds of them; they have been drinking and are armed. They greatly outnumber the Americans, and they are at present trying to get the upper hand in Holmesville." "Riot and killing?" gasped Lieutenant Prescott, while Darrin's dark face went suddenly white. "Yes," nodded Captain Foster. "Then Prescott, we must get under way at once." "You'll find it quite hopeless," remarked Captain Foster. "No man owning an automobile will take you into or near Holmesville until the rioting stops. The War Department advises me to have all in readiness to despatch troops by the river in case the governor of Texas calls for the help of United States troops." "We ought to start an expedition up the river at once," groaned Lieutenant Dick Prescott, thinking of his and his friend's sweethearts in awful danger there. "Unfortunately we can't start troops," replied the captain, "until the orders come. There are as yet no orders, and may not be." "Then I must get under way alone," almost moaned Darrin. "You, too, Prescott, if you can get leave by 'phone from your commander." "You can't get an auto," replied Captain Foster. "You'll have to walk, or go in saddle. Either course will take you nearly all of the night." "But one of your boats, sir?" cried Prescott. "You're an officer, Prescott, and you must realize that I can't legally release one of my boats from the duty here without an order or permission." "And all the time Belle and Laura may be trying to hide from a blood-thirsty mob!" gasped Darrin in a frenzy. "You stay here, Dick," broke in Greg Holmes. "I'll run to the nearest 'phone, get Captain Cortland at the other end of the wire, explain the situation to him and get leave to absent ourselves." "But even at the best it will take hours to reach Holmesville," muttered Prescott, through blanched lips. "Oh, Dave, Dave, this is awful!" "We'll get there, somehow--at least I will," muttered Ensign Darrin, in a quivering voice. "If you don't get leave within ten minutes, Dick, I'm going to start alone and try to run all the way to Holmesville. Captain Foster, you'll loan me a revolver and two boxes of cartridges, won't you?" "Certainly," replied Foster, going into his tent and coming out with the articles named. "I would like to make a suggestion, sir," broke in Lieutenant Hal. "Go ahead, Mr. Overton," responded the captain. "Why not send two men at once to the telegraph station? Order the telegraph office manager to remain open all night for military telegrams. If one comes, one of our men can start here at once on the run, leaving the other soldier to wait for a second despatch that may come in its wake." "An excellent idea, Mr. Overton," and Captain Foster immediately sent two soldiers off on that errand. "Sir, I request permission, if it can possibly be granted, to go with Darrin, Prescott and Holmes," broke in Lieutenant Noll. "You may have that leave, certainly, Mr. Terry," replied Captain Foster. "And I, also, Captain," broke in Hal eagerly, "since this affair involves the lives of the intended brides of two officers, and is most certainly a service affair." "I fear you have forgotten something, Mr. Overton," replied Captain Foster gently. "You are now confined to camp, under charges." Hal fell back, going suddenly white and staggering as though he had received a blow. In truth he had. "I forgot," he assented wretchedly. "And, oh, this is hard, sir. I am wholly innocent of the charge, and yet of course you have no right to take my mere word. This, in the face of a desperate expedition that I want to join more than I ever wanted anything in my life as a soldier!" _ |
||