“What have I got left to live for?” growled Cassidy, looking up into Bob’s face. “I turned against the best friend I ever had just because he had sense enough to put a better head than mine in charge of theGrampus.”
“You took to drinking,” said Bob. “That, I think, was at the bottom of what you did. But I don’t harbor any grudge, and I don’t believe Captain Nemo, junior, will, either.”
“He’ll never overlook this,” muttered Cassidy, shaking his head. “An’ it was him that pulled me out of the gutter, up there in Philadelphia, set me on my feet, and done everything possible to make a man o’ me. I ain’t fit to live!”
“When a man’s not fit to live,” said Bob, tempted to be out of patience, “he certainly is not fit to die. Look this thing square in the face, Cassidy, and live it down.”
“But you don’t know all I done.”
“I guess I do, pretty near.”
“No, you don’t. I began plannin’ to do some underhand work, the minute I heard what the cap’n was going to do for you. Whenever I git a drink in me, I’m ripe for anything. That’s why I sampled that brandy I was bringing to the cap’n. I wanted to nerve myself up for what I was plannin’ to do. I listened to you when you was reading the sealed orders. I heard it all, and I knew I had something then that was valuable. As soon as you and Ferral left theGrampus, I got away, too. As I stepped outo’ the sailboat at the landing, this Cap’n Fingal spoke me. We went into a drinkin’ place by the wharf and we spilled a lot of rum down our throats. That was enough to set us both going. I told Fingal what I knowed, and he told me a lot about himself. He said he’d make it right with me if I could get you disabled so you couldn’t manage theGrampus, and would have to be left behind. That, as Fingal and I both figgered, would put me in command. It was to handle you rough, and land you in a hospital, that we trailed you to the consulate. When we failed there, we come back to the landing, and Fingal says for me to jump aboard his schooner with him and then lay for theGrampusup the Izaral. I told Fingal I thought it was the Rio Dolce, but he laughed and said if you’d read it that way you was stringing me.
“I was about ready to quit on the business, after what happened at the consulate, but Fingal got more rum down me, talked about how I’d been imposed on, and told what a fine thing it would be if we could make you fail in the work you had come down here to do.
“That kind of pleased me, too. If I could have fixed it so you’d fall down on the job the cap’n had laid out for you, then, I thought, the cap’n would think he had made a mistake in not putting me up as boss of the submarine. Funny how a feller’s idees will git squeegeed that away as soon as he gets a little grog under hatches.
“Well, anyway, I went with Fingal. We left the schooner at Port Livingstone, and Fingal told the mate of the schooner to go down to Barrios and stay there till Fingal joined him. Then we stole the motor boat and hustled up the river to that outfit of ragamuffins that’s hopin’ to grab the country and turn it over to another dictator. I was disgusted with thelot of ’em, and with old Pitou more’n any of the rest. I wouldn’t go near Coleman, and when our information worked out, and Jordan and the half-breed was captured, I felt sore enough at myself; but it was Speake that cut me up the worst. Him and me had always been friendly on theGrampus, and there I was, after betraying him into the hands of his enemies. Oh, I tell you, Bob, I felt bad enough to go down to the river and jump in. Then, when old Pitou made up his mind to send the prisoners down the river in the launch to another of his hangouts where he thought they’d be safer, and app’inted me as one of the guards to go with ’em and see that none of ’em got away, I felt about as respectable as a horse thief. Of course, when you bumped us on the bottom with the submarine, I couldn’t sink into the river and never come up; oh, no, I just naturally had to land right on the deck, without so much as getting my feet wet. I don’t know how I ever can go back to Belize and look the cap’n in the face. That’s honest.”
Cassidy’s regret for what he had done was so profound that it made a deep impression on Bob.
“You’re not a bad fellow at heart, Cassidy,” said he. “Captain Nemo, junior, knows that, as well as all the rest of us. Besides, it was a little bit rough to jump a fellow like me over the head of an old hand like you, and——”
“It wasn’t!” growled Cassidy; “not a bit of it!” He lifted his fierce eyes. “Think I’ve got the head to do what you done? No, not in a thousand years! The cap’n knowed what he was about, and I didn’t have sense enough to see it.”
“Well, you buck up and go to the captain. You didn’t cause any great harm, anyhow, the way things have come out. The captain will be so pleased overwhat’s been accomplished that he’ll overlook a good deal. I’ll say a good word for you, Cassidy.”
“You will?” demanded the mate incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s a heap more’n I deserve.”
“You’ll be the mate to help us back to Belize. I’m in charge until we get there, and I order you to go below and go on duty.”
“Orders is orders, I reckon.” Cassidy hoisted himself up and followed Bob to the tower hatch and down into the periscope room. The room was fairly crowded, and a roar of delight went up at the sight of Bob. It died away suddenly as Cassidy showed himself. A glitter came into Speake’s eyes as he regarded the mate.
“Better lock Cassidy up somewhere, Bob,” suggested Jordan.
“Yes,” grunted Speake venomously, “or tie his hands and feet an’ throw him overboard.”
“You’re wrong in your drift, friends,” said Bob quietly. “Cassidy is a good fellow at heart, and Fingal twisted him around his fingers. I haven’t any fault to find with Cassidy, and he’s going back to Belize as mate of theGrampus.”
“Well, that’s playing it kind of rough on some of the honest men that stood by the ship!” protested Dick.
“Vat a foolishness, Bob!” exploded Carl. “Dot feller come pooty near being der finish of you.”
“Better think that over a little, Bob,” suggested Jordan.
“Him planty bad man,” said Tirzal, climbing up into the tower in order to do his steering from the lookout.
“If he stays, mate, I resign!” snapped Speake.
“No, you don’t, Speake!” answered Bob. “I’mmaster of this boat until we get back to Belize. Cassidy’s mate, and you’re in the torpedo room.”
“You see how it is, Bob,” muttered Cassidy.
“It’s as I want it, Cassidy,” said Bob firmly, “as far as Belize.”
“But, look here,” began Speake, disposed to argue the point, “here’s a man, holdin’ the responsible position of mate, as goes——”
“Forget that for a while, Speake,” interrupted Bob, “and remember the number of times Cassidy’s pluck and friendship have been a help to all of us. Put all the fine things Cassidy has done into one side of the scale, and this one black mark in the other, and there’s still more than enough left to entitle him to our confidence.”
“I’m obliged to you, Steele,” said Cassidy. “I’ll go on as mate as far as Belize, and then the cap’n can settle the matter as he thinks right. Just now, though, I’m tired and I guess I’ll go to the torpedo room and take a rest.”
“All right,” said Bob. “You go to the torpedo room, too, Speake.”
Speake hesitated, then followed Cassidy out of the room.
“You’re a queer jigger, Bob Steele,” remarked Jordan.
“But he’s right, all the same,” said Coleman.
“Oh, yes, Jerry,” Jordan interposed, grinning, “you stick in your oar! You’re sort o’ chesty for a chap who’s been stowed away in the jungle with revolutionists for a couple of weeks or more, eating mule meat, and making all kinds of trouble for the state department of your native country! How’d you get run away with, in the first place?”
“That was too easy, Hays,” laughed Coleman. “Icame across from the Pacific to Port Livingstone, and while I was there, the revolutionists gobbled me.”
“I believe you said they’d treated you well?”
“The best they could. I played poker with Pitou, and I learned, before I had been two days in the rebel camp, that it wasn’t safe to beat the general. As long as I allowed him to beat me, I was treated to the best he had. Whenever I beat him, my rations—even the mule meat—were cut down.”
Coleman turned to Ysabel, who had been sitting quietly by.
“I’m mighty glad, little girl,” said he, “that you are able to get clear of Pitou and Fingal.”
“So am I, Mr. Coleman,” answered Ysabel. “If it hadn’t been for Bob Steele I’d be still in the camp.”
“Bob Steele again!” laughed Coleman.
“Always Bob Steele!” chimed in Jordan, with a quizzical look at the youth.
“He iss der feller vat does t’ings, you bet,” declared Carl.
“Let’s hear about what happened while Speake, Tirzal, and I were away from the boat,” suggested Jordan.
“Not now,” answered Bob. “I’m hungry, whether the rest of you are or not. Speake,” he called through the tube leading to the torpedo room, “see if you can get something in the way of breakfast.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” answered Speake heartily.
For some time theGrampushad been heaving and tossing in a way that made it difficult for those in the periscope room to keep their seats. Bob took a look into the periscope.
“Ah!” said he; “we’re out of the river and heading for Belize.”
“And glad I’ll be to get back there,” remarked Jordan, with satisfaction. “You’ve made me a lot of trouble, Coleman.”
“I seem to have made a lot of you a good deal of trouble,” returned Coleman, “and I’m mighty glad I’ve ceased to figure as an international issue.”
“We all are, for that matter,” said Jordan.