CHAPTER XX
THE GIRL IN THE CAB
As Jack reached the door of the United Service Club he found no one atthe doorway.
"That's strange," he muttered.
But in another moment he looked down the street. A hundred feet awaystood a closed cab. From it a woman leaned, beckoning slightly.
Had she been veiled, Jack would have been instantly suspicious.
But her face showed, and it was a young, fresh, pretty and wholesomelooking face.
"I don't know her, but she is very evidently a lady," thought JackBenson, quickly.
Accordingly, he stepped along the sidewalk, lifting his hat courteouslyas he neared the vehicle.
"You are Mr. Benson?" inquired the young woman.
"Yes, madam."
"I trust you will pardon my calling here, and sending you a message. Butit was very urgent that I see you at once--how urgent you cannot yetunderstand."
"I am here, madam," Jack replied; not knowing what else to say.
"I am going to make another strange request of you."
"It is granted in advance, if possible."
"Will you step inside with me, and drive a little way?" inquired theyoung woman.
Jack glanced quickly at her. Her face was flushed; evidently she wasembarrassed.
"Won't you tell me a little more, madam, about your reason for wishingto see me?" he suggested.
"Yes; but not here--_please!_" she begged. "I do not want to be seenabout here. I shall not detain you long, Mr. Benson. All I ask isthat you sit here beside me, and that we drive a little way, while Isay a few words to you."
Jack hesitated. He did not like the look of the adventure. Yet, onthe other hand, it was hard to see harm or danger in it. The youngwoman was evidently, as he had at first guessed, a lady.
"Then you do not feel able to tell me, here, what you wish to speakwith me about?" he inquired.
"I shall begin as soon as we start on our drive," she promised. "Oh,please do not refuse me. You cannot imagine how much is at stake--forme!"
Though Jack Benson felt the peculiarity of the request from a stranger,he was unable to see how harm could result from his being kind.
"Very good, then," he agreed. "I will do my best by listening to you."
After he had entered the cab, and had taken the seat, beside her, theyoung woman turned to look at him keenly.
Jack, for his part, saw that she was rather better dressed than theaverage. He imagined her to be the daughter of a family in comfortablecircumstances.
"You do not know who I am, of course?" she began.
"No, madam."
"But you do know one in whom I am much interested," she continued.
For some reason that he could not explain to himself, Jack Benson beganto feel very uncomfortable under the witching battery of her handsomeeyes.
"Who is he?" inquired the submarine boy.
"You know him as--"
She paused, as though stricken with sudden reluctance.
"Well?"
"The name by which you know him is Millard."
Had Jack Benson been lashed at that instant with a whip he could not havebeen more astounded.
"Who?" he cried. "What? That in fam--"
He checked himself abruptly.
"It was kind of you to stop as you did," the young woman declared,gratefully. "The man whom you know as Millard is my promised husband."
"I'm sor--I mean, I'm astonished," sputtered Jack Benson.
Then he turned to take another keen look into her face.
"What do you want to say to me about Millard?" he demanded.
"I ask you--I beg you--to aid him to escape from Washington--fromthe country. Yet, to do that, all he needs is to get safely out of theDistrict of Columbia. You know that he is here in Washington, or Iwould not have told you as much."
"Does Millard find it so very difficult to get out of Washington?"queried Jack, grimly.
"If he did not, Mr. Benson, believe me I would never come to the enemyto beseech mercy. Probably I am not telling you anything you do notalready know," she went on, rather bitterly. "But every avenue of escapefrom Washington is blocked by Secret Service men. It is not so difficultto hide in the city, but to get out of it is impossible--to-day."
"Madam," Jack answered, softly, "it would be my desire to give youevery bit of aid and comfort possible. However, what you ask is simplyimpossible. For one thing, it would be in direct defiance of my--"
"Oath" he was about to add, but checked him self. On account of theirknowing that he was to be sought at the United Service Club it waspossible--even likely--that the enemy knew of his actual connectionwith the Navy. Yet, Benson did not propose to supply the other sidewith any gratis information. So he added:
"Contrary to my duty as an American. I am loyal to the Flag, madam,"the boy continued. "Do you know the nature of Millard's offense?"
"No-o-o-o; that is, not exactly."
"Do you wish me to tell you?"
"Why--he--he--told me it was some dispute over international affairs,"stammered the young woman.
"Do you feel yourself a loyal American?" asked Jack, looking at hercuriously.
"Yes!" she answered, without an instant's hesitation, looking straightinto his eyes, almost defiantly.
"And you love this man, Millard?"
"Yes!" Yet her declaration was not so emphatic as it would have been afew moments before.
Jack Benson sighed.
"Would you love a man who had betrayed his country's flag?" he asked,presently, in a very low voice.
"Has Don--has the man you know as Millard offered to do that?"
It was not suspicion, but incredulity that rang in her voice.
Jack Benson knew, now, that he was dealing with a woman who knew herselfto be a patriot--a lover of her country.
"I don't know that I have any right to say anything," Jack answered,evasively. "Mr. Millard is a civil engineer, isn't he?"
"Yes, and a mechanical engineer, too," the girl admitted, withoutattempt at concealment "As you also doubtless know, he served, once,with a revolutionary army in Guatemala. It is in some sort of scrapelike this that he finds him self now. Some trouble that he has gottenhimself into with this government in order to befriend therevolutionists of some Central American republic."
"Did Millard tell you so?" demanded Jack Benson, his eyes now very wideopen.
"He let me believe as much," the girl replied, one hand toying with afold of her dress, while she glanced down. "And that is the truth,is it not?"
"No!" broke, half-angrily, from young Benson. The passion would haverung in his denial, but he remembered that he was talking to this girlabout her betrothed husband.
"You spoke of the Flag a moment ago," cried the girl, suddenly, andgazing searchingly into the boy's eyes. "Do you mean to tell me thatDon--that Mr. Millard would be engaged in any work hostile to hisown country?"
"Is the one we call Millard an American citizen?" asked Benson.
"Yes."
"Then--"
Jack came to an abrupt stop after that one word. He would not tell thedreadful news to this spirited young woman. It was not necessary.
But she became insistent
"Mr. Benson," she cried, "this has gone too far not to have a fullexplanation. Has--has Mr. Millard done aught to betray the UnitedStates? For that matter, how could he?"
"Madam," Benson replied, gravely, "no Central American republic wouldwant charts of our fortified harbors, or notes concerning thefortifications, the harbor mines, and so on, for the very simple reasonthat no Central American republic would ever be equal to the task ofattempting to invade the United States."
"Did Mr. Millard steal such plans--make such notes?"
She hissed the question sharply, her face now deathly white.
"That is the charge against him," Jack nodded.
"Did he do it?"
"I caught him at it, opposite Fort Craven," young Bens
on answered.
A low, smothered cry escaped the girl. Her head rested against the sideof the carriage as though her brain were reeling. But at length shespoke.
"You--you would not deceive me," she faltered. "Yet tell me more."
"I can't;" answered Jack, with a shake of his head. "Further thanthat, I cannot go."
"Oh, I see," she nodded, "and I do not blame you. You feel that,whatever you told me, I would tell him. But I wouldn't!"
Though the girl's face was still fearfully pallid, her eyes, as sheturned to gaze into the submarine boy's face, flashed with a new fire.
Then, after a brief pause:
"Whatever he is, or has done, I am an American," she added, quietly.
"This has been a miserable fifteen minutes for me." responded JackBenson. "I have been torn between the impulse to mind my own business,and the fear that you may be throwing yourself away on a man whom youwould promptly learn to despise."
"I shall never give Donald Graves another thought as a lover," the girlrejoined, promptly. "Nor shall I shelter him. I am going to him now!"
"Then you have an appointment with him? You know where to find him?"
"Yes," replied the girl, looking at the submarine boy rather queerly."Do you care to go with me to meet Donald Graves--the one you knewas Millard? But I am stupid, or worse. That would be to run you intoneedless danger--for such a man as I now know Donald Graves to bewould be desperate."
"I am not afraid of him," retorted Jack quietly. "If you fear onlyfor me, I beg you to take me to him!"