Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 49: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AMERICANS every company of the army Jones has spies. Now he will kill me!” “ And darned little loss to anybody!” Mr. Hemmett observed. “I'll settle with you later, Domez. Just now— Who’s that?” Some one else, to be sure, had arrived —-some one who came into the house with a bound, spoke swiftly to Elenida, apparently, dashed into their very midst. “ Alvarez!” Girton cried. It was indeed Alvarez, their friend— Alvarez, who had been their friend years ago, when first they came to Guanama. He had been a very young man in those days; now he had prospered, and the Alvarez docks, eventually, bade fair to handle the bulk of Puerto Carlo’s com- merce! But he was the same old Alvarez, hon- est and open as the day, devoted to themselves as he had been in the earlier times; and now he stood with hands outstretched, in wildest excitement. “‘ Senores!”’ he cried gaspingly. ‘‘ The Senhora Hemmett—the lovely Senorita Tesoro—the Senora Barton, I think! I have seen—I have seen—”’ “Seen them?” Girton said. Alvarez gripped himself hard, well aware of time’s value. ‘“‘T have seen them!” he said swiftly. “ At this minute they are being taken from Puerto Carlo on the torpedo-boat destroyer, El Fuego!” CHAPTER XIV. CONCERNING THE NAVY. FE, VENTS had pressed very swiftly this late afternoon. False though they knew it to be, the impression of the women being taken to the hills still lingered in three brains. Hence, three men stared blankly at Alvarez, while the fourth, which was Domez, huddled down in a corner of the room and gazed fear- fully at the windows. . “El Fuego?” Hemmett stammered after a second or two. AFTER ALL. 391 ‘““El Fuego, to be sure, senor—the swift, the racer, El Fuego! it with my own eyes!” ce How?” “From the roof of my No. 2 dock, where men were working and where I went to see the progress they had made! . I stood there, Senor Hemmett, gazing across the harbor, and as I gazed there left the yacht-club dock a speedy tender and—”’ “How long ago?” Girton shot at him. ‘‘ Six minutes, perhaps seven; it cannot be longer! I came here so swiftly, Senor Girton, that police from one end of town to the other screamed at me and sought to pursue my little car. I stood there, then, and watched the tender, and in it I saw women struggling violently—two of them, that is, while -tthe third, the Senora Barton, sat and wept!” A groan escaped her husband. “T stood astounded, Alvarez raced on dramatically. ‘‘ Havora, the contractor, was there as well, enjoying his view with his binoculars. I snatched them from him! I looked more closely! IT am here!” “And it’s the last place for us to be!” Hemmett snarled as he dashed into the library—and out of the library—and to the terrace overlooking the harbor. When, with the exception of Domez, who still cowered in his corner, they came to his side, Hemmett’s glasses were focusing on mid-harbor. Nor had Alvarez erred! Ten ‘seconds and the powerful lenses were cutting cleanly the deck of El Fuego, first of the new destroyers. Smoke belched from the three short funnels; anchors were already up, and the boat already in motion; and on the deck, in plain sight of all who cared to look, was the brilliant spot that must be Carmen’s opera-cloak. And there, gowned in gray, was the form of a middle-aged woman, too—yes, and just coming into sight, led by a white man who could be none other than William Jones, was a young woman in a comicloool I have seen unbelieving!” C©