Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

AMERICANS ‘¢ Senor?” “Get into the wireless-house quick! If there’s nobody on duty, stay there and keep every one out. If there is any one there, see that he doesn’t work the ap- paratus. Where’s the engine-room? I see!” -And having apparently taken over the boat for his own purpose these I&st twenty seconds, he was gone! He had been aboard the Pavoroso on the day of. her first coming, when the reception was tendered, and he had agreed heartily at the time that Guanama had acquired the fastest thing in destroyers —and he remembered the general layout. So it came that, reaching the chief en- gineer’s office in rather less than another twenty seconds, Mr. Hemmett walked in and snapped his fingers at the portly, ornately uniformed official who smoked in the easy chair! ‘You, Rodero! How much steam have you?” “Steam, senor? Oh, it is the Senior Hemmett?” said the Pavoroso’s chief, and the queer insolence he had seen in other quarters was before Hemmett again. “TI had thought, sehor, that you had left Guanama. No?” “Steam! Steam!” “What? A pound or two, perhaps. No more. The fires are banked, senor, and— Why do you ask?P” “ Because I’m interested. Snatch down that telephone and tell ’em to have a running head of steam in those boilers as quick—”’ “Oh, but my-good Senor Hemmett!” the chief smiled flatly and impudently. ‘““How can it be that one accepts orders from yourself? Our new president has appointed you the secretary of the navy, perhaps, or given you command of the Pavoroso?” ‘“‘T’ll tell you how it can be that one accepts orders from me,” the caller ex- plained as his automatic pressec. directly over the chief’s heart, as the chief himself turned white abruptly, raised heavy arms hastily. ‘I can’t waste time explaining AFTER ALL. 393 the matter, Rodero, but I can tell you one thing: you'll have this boat running under a full head of steam without losing more than one second, or I'll kill you and take charge of this end myself! Which?” He was, of course, insane! The chief engineer, who entertained a hearty respect for armed lunatics, did indeed snatch down his telephone; and the sincerity of the words he uttered into it almost warmed Hemmett’s chilling heart. And, having uttered them, he dropped back in his chair, scared and perspiring, and the cold blue of Edward Hemmett’s eye drilled through his very soul! ‘“‘ El] Fuego has just started out of the harbor, bound for—I don’t know where,” said the owner of the eye. ‘“ We're going to overhaul her or blow up this boat; and if through any fault of yours we do neither, you will not come back! You know me pretty well, Rodero. If you want to take a chance on any tricky stuff, take it!” Below coal was rattling and shovels scraping—and if Rodero knew Mr. Hem- mett it was more certain that Hemmett knew Rodero. In the well-filled ranks of full-blown Guanaman cowards -Rodero was among the brighter lights. Judging by his present expression, the odds that ‘he would try disobedience were perhaps one to five hundred, and Hemmett ac- cepted them with a grunt and hurried back to the deck. Girton, after a fashion, had taken command. Some thirty of the crew were standing there, regarding him silently as he addressed them—too silently and in a surly fashion that was far from reas- suring. Touched by the unusual mood that had grown so curiously prevalent, the crowd looked downright ugly. Girton turned to his friend and snapped, in English: ‘“‘ Safe to risk it with this gang?” “Ts there any other way of risking it?” “But yes, senor!” Alvarez put in un- expectedly. “ There is indeed another way, for even I can be of assistance! comicloool C©