CHAPTER II.
THE BOYS MEET AN OLD FRIEND,--AND AN ENEMY.
As the boys hurried from the office of the Secretary of the Navy theyalmost collided with a plump faced, spectacled young man in anaggressively loud suit of light summer clothes who was just rushing in.
"I say, look out where you are coming, can't you?" he was beginning whenhe broke off with a cry of delight.
The next minute the boys were wringing the hand of Billy Barnes theyouthful newspaper reporter who had been with them in Nicaragua andwhose life they had saved when he was a captive among the Nicaraguans.Boy fashion the three slapped each other on the back and went through acontinuous pump-handle performance at this unexpected meeting.
"What on earth are you doing here?" asked Harry when the firstenthusiasm of the greetings had worn off.
"Working," replied Billy briefly. "I'm on the Washington Post."
"But I thought you were going to take a holiday after you had realizedyour money on the sale of your share of the rubies we found in theToltec cave;" said Frank wonderingly.
"Well," rejoined Billy, "of course the money I got for my two rubieslooked good and it feels pretty nifty to have a check-book in yourinside pocket; but I guess I can't be happy unless I'm working. I boughtmy mother up the state a pretty little place in Brooklyn and tried tosettle down to be a young gentleman of leisure but it wouldn't do. Iwasn't happy. Every time I saw the fire-engines go by or read a goodthrilling story in the paper I wanted to be back on the job, so I justgot out and hustled about for one and here I am."
"But what are you doing at the office of the Secretary of the Navy,"demanded the boys.
"Ah, that's just it," rejoined Billy mysteriously, "I'm on the track ofthe biggest story of my career and I think it's a scoop. Can you fellowskeep a secret?"
"We can do better than that," laughed Frank, "we can tell you one. Whatwould you say if we could tell you your errand here?"
"That you are pretty good mind-readers," retorted Billy promptly. "I canguess yours though. You are here to try to sell the government anair-ship."
"Wrong," shouted Frank triumphantly. "But you--William Barnes--" he wenton, making a mysterious pass at the other boy's head, "you are here tofind out about Lieutenant Chapin."
"How on earth did you know that?" gasped Billy, "you are right though.Do you know anything about it?" he inquired anxiously.
"Everything," replied Frank.
"Oh, come off, Frank," retorted Billy, "that's too much. How on earthcan you--?"
"That matters not, my young reporter--we do," struck in Harry.
"Give me the story then, will you?" begged Billy.
"No, we can't do that," replied Frank in a graver tone.
"Oh, of course I wasn't trying to worm it out of you," said Billyabashed somewhat.
"We know that, Billy," said Harry kindly. The reporter looked at himgratefully.
"I just thought you might have something to give out," went on Billy. "Isee that you are in the confidence of the naval department."
"No, Billy," continued Frank, "we can't give you anything forpublication. But we can do better than that, we can tell you we areabout to start on what may prove the most exciting trip we have everundertaken."
"What do you mean?" questioned Billy seeing clearly by Frank's mannerthat something very unusual was in the wind.
"That we are going to try to find Lieutenant Chapin and the men whokidnapped him," replied Frank; "but come along, Billy, we've just anhour before train time and if you feel like having a bite of lunch comewith us and we can talk it over as we go along."
The young reporter gladly assented and, linked arm in arm, the threeboys passed out onto the sunny avenue which was glowing in the brightlight of a late May day.
Frank rapidly detailed to Billy the gist of their conversation with theSecretary of the Navy, having first called up that official on thetelephone and secured his permission to enlist Billy as a member of theexpedition. For Frank had made up his mind that the reporter was to comealong almost as soon as the boys encountered him.
The young journalist could hardly keep from giving a "whoop," whichwould have sadly startled the sedate lunchers at the Willard, as Franktalked. He resisted the temptation, however, and simply asked eagerly:
"When do you start?"
The boys told him. They could see the eager question framing itself onBilly's lips.
"Say, Frank, couldn't you take me along?"
Frank feigned an elaborate indifference.
"Well, I don't know," he replied, winking at Harry as Billy's face fellat this apparent refusal, "we might, of course, but really I think weshall have to go 'without a chronicler.'"
The boys might have kept the jest up but Billy's face grew so lugubriousthat they had not the heart to keep him in suspense any longer.
"If you would care to come we were sort of thinking of taking you,"laughed Harry.
"If I would care to come?" gasped Billy, "Jimminy crickets! If I'd careto come! Say, just wait a minute while I go to 'phone my resignation."
"What an impetuous chap you are," laughed Frank, "we don't start forthree weeks yet and here you are in a hurry to throw up your jobto-day."
"Well," replied Billy somewhat abashed, "I was a bit previous. But it'sso white of you chaps to take me along that I hardly know what I'mdoing. How I'm to wait three weeks I don't know."
"How would you like to help us build the _Golden Eagle II_?" asked Franksuddenly.
"Say, Frank," burst out Billy earnestly, "you are a trump. That was justthe very thing I longed to do but I didn't have the nerve to ask youafter you were so decent about taking me with you to Florida. I don'tknow how to thank you."
"It won't be all a picnic," laughed Frank. "We've got a lot of hard workahead of us and we'll all have to pitch in and take a hand, share andshare alike."
"You can count on me," exclaimed the reporter eagerly.
"I know we can," replied Frank, "or we would not have asked you toaccompany us."
"What are your plans?" asked Billy eagerly.
"At present so far as I have thought them out," replied Frank, "we shallsail from New York for Miami about the middle of June. I think it willbe best to go by steamer as we can keep a better watch on any suspiciousfellow passengers in that way than if we went by train. The key on whichthe Mist was wrecked is on the opposite coast from there, I understand,and the men who kidnapped Chapin and stole the plans must have enteredthe Everglades by one of the numerous small rivers that lead back fromthe coast at the Ten Thousand Island Archipelago.
"My idea, then, is to establish a permanent camp from which we can work,the location of course to depend entirely on circumstances, that mayarise after we reach our destination. We are going into this thingpractically blindfold you see, and so we shall have to leave thearrangement of a host of minor details till we arrive there."
"You mean to strike right back into the wilderness?" asked Billy.
"As soon as possible after our arrival at Miami," was the businesslikerejoinder. "Every minute of our time will be precious. Oh, there's heapsto be done," broke off Frank.
All the boys had to laugh heartily at the wave of the hands with whichFrank accompanied his last words. But their merriment was cut short by asharp exclamation from Billy.
"I say, Frank," whispered the young reporter, "have you noticed thatfellow at the next table?" He indicated a short dark sallow-faced mansitting at a table a few feet from them and to whom most of theirconversation must have been audible.
"He's not a beauty," remarked Harry in the same low tone; "what abouthim, Billy?"
"Well," said the reporter seriously, "I may be wrong and I may not--andI rather think I'm not,--but if he hasn't been listening with all hisears to what we've been saying I'm very much mistaken."
Frank bit his lip with vexation. In their enthusiasm the youthfuladventurers had been foolishly discussing their plans in tones which anyone sitting near could ha
ve overheard without much difficulty. The boysrealized this and also that if the man really turned out to have been aneavesdropper that they had involuntarily furnished him with muchimportant information about their plans.
The object of their suspicion apparently saw that they had observed him,for as they resumed their talk in lowered tones he called for his billand having paid it with a hand that flashed with diamonds, he left thedining-room.
"Have you seen him before?" asked Frank of Billy.
"I was trying to think," replied the reporter. "It seems to me that Ihave. I am almost certain of it in fact. But I can't think where."
"Try to think," said Frank, "it may be very important."
Billy cudgeled his brains for a few minutes and then snapped his fingersin triumph.
"I've got it," he exclaimed joyously. "I've seen him hanging around theFar Eastern embassy. I was up there the other day to report a receptionand this fellow was wandering around as if he hadn't got a friend in theworld."
"He might have had an object in that," said Frank gravely. "There is nodoubt that he was listening to what we were talking about."
"And not much question that he heard every word of it," put in Harry.
"Well, it can't be helped," said Frank in an annoyed tone, "we shallhave to be more cautious in the future. I see that the secretary wasright, this place is swarming with spies."
"I should say it is," replied Billy, "Washington is more full ofeavesdroppers and secret-service men of various kinds than any othercity in the world."
If the boys had seen the bediamonded man hasten from the hotel direct toa Western Union telegraph office where he filed a long telegram, theywould have been even more worried than they were. If in addition theyhad seen the contents of the message they would have been tempted, it islikely, to have abandoned the expedition or at least their presentplans, for the message, which was addressed to "Mr. Job Scudder, Miami,To Be Called For," and signed Nego, gave about as complete an account ofwhat they intended to do as even Billy Barnes with his trained ear forcatching and marshaling facts could have framed. There was a veryamiable smile on Mr. Nego's face as he left the telegraph office anddrew on a pair of light chamois gloves that gave a finishing touch offashion to his light gray spring clothes, whose every line bore evidenceto the fact that they had come from one of the best tailors inWashington. He had done a good morning's work.
The boys of course had no means of knowing that, even as they hurried totheir train, the wires were rushing to Florida the news of their comingthree weeks before they planned to start and even if they had been awareof it they could not then have stopped it. With Billy Barnes they dashedup to the Pennsylvania depot in a taxi-cab just as the big locomotive ofthe Congressional Limited was being backed up to the long train ofvestibuled coaches. They had their return tickets so that there was nodelay at the ticket window and they passed directly into the depot, andhaving found their chair car deposited themselves and their hand-baggagein it. Billy stayed chatting with them till the conductor cried "allaboard." As the reporter rose to leave he gave a very perceptible start.He had just time to cry to Frank:
"Look behind you," when the wheels began to revolve and Billy onlyavoided being carried off by making a dash for the door almost upsettingthe colored porter in his haste.
As the train gathered speed Frank glanced round as if in search ofsomebody. He almost started, as had Billy, as his eyes encountered thedirect gaze of the very black orbs of the man whom they were certain hadoverheard their conversation at lunch and who had signed the telegram"Nego."