“What’s all this? Two webfeet sailing into one lone-handed youngster! And he seems to be holding his own pretty well, at that. Let go, you!”
With that, Jordan wrenched Cassidy away and flung him heavily against one of the veranda posts.
The stranger, scowling and nursing a bruise on his chin, was gathering up his blue cap. Cassidy, panting and wheezing, was leaning against the post and glaring wrathfully at the consul.
“That man,” said Bob, pointing toward the mate, “is Cassidy, second in command aboard the submarine. He takes it hard because Captain Nemo, junior, placed me in charge, and he came ashore without authority. Who the other fellow is, I don’t know; but I presume he is some trouble maker the mate picked up.”
“Trouble maker is right,” went on Jordan. “That describes the rascal exactly. I know him. He’s Fingal, master of a shady schooner called theNorth Star, an all-around bad one, and the authorities in a dozen ports in Central America will tell you the same. We’ll land him in the lockup. And as for Cassidy, it’s against regulations for an officer to attack one who outranks him. We’ll puthimin the cooler, too.”
The consul was about to call some one from the house with the intention of sending for an officer, when Bob interposed.
“I don’t want to do anything like that, Jordan. These men have been drinking.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“But Cassidy, when he’s not half-seas over and got a fancied grievance, is a good fellow. He has provedthat to me a hundred times. Besides, Captain Nemo, junior, thinks a lot of him.”
“Well, he can’t think much of the captain,” answered the consul dryly, “or he’d pay more attention to his orders. What do you want to do with the two men?”
“Let Fingal go about his business, if he has any. As for Cassidy, he can go back to the submarine and give his brain a chance to clear. After that he’ll see things differently.”
“I know my rights,” snapped Cassidy, shuffling around belligerently, “and I’m going to hold out for ’em. I’ve been mate of theGrampusever since she was launched. And now that the old man’s laid up, I ought to be master. This here Bob Steele hasn’t been on the submarine more’n two weeks, put together.”
“Did you hear Captain Nemo, junior, say that Bob Steele was to be put in charge of the craft?” queried Jordan.
“I heard it, but——”
“Did the rest of the crew hear it?”
“Yes, only they——”
“Everybody understands the situation, then?”
“I guess they do, if——”
“Then this is a case of all cry and no wolf. You’re making a fool of yourself, Cassidy, let alone showing mighty poor taste. Bob Steele is showing a whole lot more forbearance than I’d ever do, in the same circumstances. You made an attack on your commanding officer——”
“I don’t admit he’s that,” broke in Cassidy fiercely.
“Nonsense, man!” cried the consul, out of patience. “You’d admit it quick enough if you weren’t drunk.”
“What business you got buttin’ into this, anyway?”
Jordan pointed to the flag.
“This is a patch of American soil right in the middle of a foreign country,” said he. “That flag is yours and mine, and I’m here to adjust just such differences as this between my fellow countrymen. Bob Steele is captain of theGrampus, and you’ve heard his orders. If you and Fingal don’t clear out, I’ll call a policeman and have the pair of you taken to the lockup.”
Fingal edged away toward the veranda steps. As he drew close to Cassidy, he muttered something. The mate gave a thick response, and the two lurched down the steps and out of sight along the walk.
“Fingal,” said Jordan, after watching the two out of sight, “is setting the mate up to act as he’s doing. His influence is bad, particularly as the mate appears to be a good deal of a numskull without much reasoning ability of his own.”
“He has always been a first-rate hand,” returned Bob regretfully, “up in his duties and entirely reliable. This sudden move of his is one of the biggest surprises I ever had sprung on me.”
“That’s the way with some people. Give ’em the idea that they’ve been imposed on, and they’re just weak enough in the head to make all sorts of trouble. If you’ve got the rest of the crew with you, though, it will be easy enough to take care of Cassidy. However, if he wanted to he could make lots of trouble for this expedition.”
“I’ll see that he doesn’t do that. If he shows a disposition along that line, I’ll have him locked in the torpedo room. Why he ever came here and set upon me like he did, is a mystery. I guess it was because he was too drunk to know what he was doing.”
“That’s an easy way to explain it,” was the consul’s sarcastic comment. “On the other hand, he may have come here with the expectation of doing something to you that would make it necessary for you to be left in Belize with Captain Nemo, junior.”
“No,” answered Bob firmly, “I can’t believe that.”
“You’re altogether too easy,” proceeded the consul. “If you were left here with a couple of fractured ribs, or a broken arm, Cassidy would be the only one left to command theGrampus.”
Bob shook his head. “Cassidy isn’t a brute,” said he. “I’d like to know, though, why this chap, Fingal, is putting in his oar.”
“He’s got an ax to grind. Drunk or sober, Abner Fingal always has his eye on the main chance.”
“Who is he?”
“He’s a Yank, from somewhere up in Maine, but he’s been in these waters so long he’s about half Spanish. Crooked as a dog’s hind leg—that’s Fingal for you. Sometimes he hoists the flag of Costa Rica, sometimes that of Nicaragua, and now and then the cross of St. George. But no matter what colors he sails under, he’s the same old sixpence. Too bad Cassidy fell in with him! But there’s no use of our wasting any time on those fellows. We’ve got the job of our lives ahead of us, and we’ve got to get the work started. Any arms aboard theGrampus?”
“I thought you said there wasn’t to be any fighting?”
“I hope there won’t be, my lad, and we’ll do everything possible to avoid it, but there’s always a chance of being mistaken in our calculations. How’s the submarine armed?”
“There’s a Whitehead torpedo in the torpedo room.”
“We’ll not use any torpedoes. If there’s a scrap, it will be on the land and hand to hand. Any rifles or ammunition aboard?”
“None that I know about.”
“Then I’ll bring a few guns, merely to be on the safe side. You’ll attend to the other equipment?”
“About all we’ll need is a barrel of gasoline. I can pick that up and have it taken off to the boat.”
“I’ll come aboard, bringing this pilot I was telling you about, and the rest of the plunder, along toward evening. We’ll drop down the coast to-night and start for the rendezvous of the revolutionists in the morning. It will be well, I think, to go up the river with theGrampussubmerged. In that manner we shall be able to hide our approach. However, that is something we can settle later. If you——”
The consul paused, his eyes down the street.
“Well,” he muttered, “here comes your friend, Ferral, and he appears to be in a tearing hurry. I wonder if anything has gone wrong with Nemo, junior?”
This thought was uppermost in Bob’s mind as he sprang to the top of the steps and watched Dick running toward the consulate along the street.
“What’s up, Dick?” he asked anxiously, as his chum came close. “Is the captain all right?”
“They’re bringing him on a stretcher, and the doctor thinks he’ll be all right in a few days,” Dick answered. “It wasn’t that that made me hurry, but something else.”
“What else?”
“Cassidy. As we were coming ashore with the captain, I saw the mate pulling off to a schooner that was anchored half a mile t’other side of theGrampus. There was a man with him in a blue cap and coat. They were aboard the schooner when we hit the landing, and before we started for town, the schooner’s anchor was tripped and she was off down the coast with every rag of sail hoisted and drawing. What does that mean? What’s Cassidy up to?”
Bob was astounded. Turning blankly on Jordan, he saw that his face was clouded and ominous.