Brandon of the Engineers Part 41

Stuyvesant looked hard at him. "You must recognize that this is a pretty good job, and you're not likely to get another without Fuller's recommendation. Then I understand you were up against it badly when he first got hold of you. You're young and ought to be ambitious, and you have your chance to make your mark right here."

"It's all true," d.i.c.k answered doggedly. "Still, I can't go."

"Then it must be something very important that makes you willing to throw up your job."

d.i.c.k did not answer and, to his surprise, Stuyvesant smiled as he resumed: "It's England first, with you?"

"How did you guess? How much do you know?" d.i.c.k asked sharply.

"I don't know very much. Your throwing out the wine gave me a hint, because it was obvious that somebody had been getting after you before, and there were other matters. But you're rather young and I suspect you're up against a big thing."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you about it yet, if that is what you mean."

"Very well. Stay here, as usual, if you like, or if you want a week off, take it. I'll find a suitable reason for not sending you in the launch."

"Thanks!" said d.i.c.k, with keen grat.i.tude, and Stuyvesant, who nodded pleasantly, went away.

d.i.c.k sent a note to Don Sebastian by a messenger he could trust, and soon after dark met him, as he appointed, at a wine-shop on the outskirts of the town, where they were shown into a small back room.

"I imagine you are now satisfied," the Spaniard said. "The liner has been chased and people on board her have been killed."

"I'm ready to do anything that will prevent another raid. To some extent, perhaps, I'm responsible for what has happened; I might have stopped and seen the mate or captain, but then I'd have lost the man I was after.

What do you think became of my note?"

Don Sebastian looked thoughtful. "The boy may have lost it or shown it to his comrades; they carry a few Spanish stewards for the sake of the foreign pa.s.sengers, and we both carelessly took too much for granted. We followed the spy we saw without reflecting that there might be another on board. However, this is not important now."

"It isn't. But what do you mean to do with Kenwardine?"

"You have no cause for troubling yourself on his account."

"That's true, in a way," d.i.c.k answered, coloring, though his tone was resolute. "He once did me a serious injury, but I don't want him hurt. I mean to stop his plotting if I can, but I'm going no further, whether it's my duty or not."

The Spaniard made a sign of comprehension. "Then we need not quarrel about Kenwardine. In fact, the President does not want to arrest him; our policy is to avoid complications and it would satisfy us if he could be forced to leave the country and give up the coaling station."

"How will you force him?"

"He has been getting letters from Kingston; ordinary, friendly letters from a gentleman whose business seems to be coaling ships. For all that, there is more in them than meets the uninstructed eye."

"Have you read his replies?"

Don Sebastian shrugged. "What do you expect? They do not tell us much, but it looks as if Senor Kenwardine means to visit Kingston soon."

"But it's in Jamaica; British territory."

"Just so," said the Spaniard, smiling. "Senor Kenwardine is a bold and clever man. His going to Kingston would have thrown us off the scent if we had not known as much as we do; but it would have been dangerous had he tried to hide it and we had found it out. You see how luck favors us?"

"What is your plan?"

"We will follow Kenwardine. He will be more or less at our mercy on British soil, and, if it seems needful, there is a charge you can bring against him. He stole some army papers."

d.i.c.k started. "How did you hear of that?"

"Clever men are sometimes incautious, and he once spoke about it to his daughter," Don Sebastian answered with a shrug. "Our antagonists are not the only people who have capable spies."

The intrigue and trickery he had become entangled in inspired d.i.c.k with disgust, but he admitted that one could not be fastidious in a fight with a man like his antagonist.

"Very well," he said, frowning, "I'll go; but it must be understood that when he's beaten you won't decide what's to be done with the man without consulting me."

Don Sebastian bowed. "It is agreed. One can trust you to do nothing that would injure your country. But we have some arrangements to make."

Shortly afterwards d.i.c.k left the wine-shop, and returning to the camp went to see Stuyvesant.

"I want to go away in a few days, perhaps for a fortnight, but I'd like it understood that I'd been sent down the coast in the launch," he said.

"As a matter of fact, I mean to start in her."

"Certainly. Arrange the thing as you like," Stuyvesant agreed. Then he looked at d.i.c.k with a twinkle. "You deserve a lay-off and I hope you'll enjoy it."

d.i.c.k thanked him and went back to his shack, where he found Jake on the verandah.

"I may go with the launch, after all, but not to Coronal," he remarked.

"Ah!" said Jake, with some dryness. "Then you had better take me; anyhow, I'm coming."

"I'd much sooner you didn't."

"That doesn't count," Jake replied. "You're getting after somebody, and if you leave me behind, I'll give the plot away. It's easy to send a rumor round the camp."

d.i.c.k reflected. He saw that Jake meant to come and knew he could be obstinate. Besides, the lad was something of a seaman and would be useful on board the launch, because d.i.c.k did not mean to join the steamer Kenwardine traveled by, but to catch another at a port some distance off.

"Well," he said, "I suppose I must give in."

"You've got to," Jake rejoined, and added in a meaning tone: "You may need a witness if you're after Kenwardine, and I want to be about to see fair play."

"Then you trust the fellow yet?"

"I don't know," Jake answered thoughtfully. "At first, I thought Kenwardine great, and I like him now. He certainly has charm and you can't believe much against him when he's with you; but it's somehow different at a distance. Still, he knew nothing about the attacks on you.

I saw that when I told him about them."

"You told him!" d.i.c.k exclaimed.

"I did. Perhaps it might have been wise----"

Jake stopped, for he heard a faint rustle, as if a bush had been shaken, and d.i.c.k looked up. The moon had not yet risen, thin mist drifted out of the jungle, and it was very dark. There was some brush in front of the building and a belt of tall gra.s.s and reeds grew farther back. Without moving the upper part of his body, he put his foot under the table at which they sat and kicked Jake's leg.

"What was that about Adexe?" he asked in a clear voice, and listened hard.

He heard nothing then, for Jake took the hint and began to talk about the coaling station, but when the lad stopped there was another rustle, very faint but nearer.

Next moment a pistol shot rang out and a puff of acrid smoke drifted into the veranda. Then the brushwood crackled, as if a man had violently plunged through it, and Jake sprang to his feet.