CHAPTER XII.ON THE RIGHT TRACK.
The Camera Chap stared at the girl with as much incredulity written on his face as if she had just told him that she had been present when Columbus landed in the New World. “You have seen him!” he exclaimed. “Surely you can’t mean that you have been inside El Torro?”
“Yes, I do!” the girl declared, smiling slightly at the effect her announcement had upon him. “I mean just that. I have been inside El Torro, and I have seen President Felix.”
“When was this?” Hawley demanded.
“Several months ago. I saw him only once—and then only for one brief second. Since then I have been trying my hardest to get in there again, but I haven’t been able to manage it.”
“How did you manage it that time?” the Camera Chap inquired, his manner still slightly incredulous, although he did not intend it to be so. “I shouldn’t imagine that it was an easy thing, even once.”
Virginia hesitated. She was debating with herself as to whether this prepossessing, frank-looking young man from her own country could safely be taken into her confidence. “I feel that I can trust you, Mr. Hawley,” she said suddenly. “If I didn’t I shouldn’t tell you what I am going to tell you now. For if it were to become known to others the consequences might be serious.”
She glanced around her in all directions, and even when she had ascertained that there was nobody within earshot, lowered her voice almost to a whisper. “There is a certain young man of my acquaintance,” she began, “who is an officer in the Baracoan army. His name is Reyes—Captain Ernesto Reyes. You must promise me to forget that name as soon as you have heard the story, Mr. Hawley.”
“I have forgotten it already,” the Camera Chap assured her.
The girl smiled. “I met him at an embassy ball, about a year ago, and we became very good friends. He was attached to El Torro and had charge of the prison guard. It was through him that I was able to visit the prison.”
“He permitted you to enter the prison?”
“Yes; he smuggled me in there. He was running a great risk, of course.”
“So I should imagine,” said the Camera Chap. “He must be very fond of—President Felix,” he added dryly.
Virginia blushed. “No; I’m sorry to say that isn’t the case. If it were so it would make things so much easier for us. It wasn’t out of any consideration for President Felix that Captain Reyes allowed me to visit his prison. It—there were other reasons. Captain Reyes is far from being a Felix sympathizer. On the contrary, he has a deadly grudge against him. I guess that is why Portiforo has put him in charge of El Torro prison; he knows that there is no chance of Felix being allowed to escape while he is in charge.”
Hawley frowned. “Why is he so bitter toward Felix?” he inquired.
“He has cause, I must admit,” the girl explained, her face clouding. “Captain Reyes’ father was a colonel in the Baracoan army when Mr. Felix first became president. He was caught conspiring against the government, and Felix ordered him to be shot. I don’t know anything about the merits of the case, but, right or wrong, I suppose it is only natural that the son should hate the man who signed his father’s death warrant.”
Hawley nodded. “But if he feels that way about it, whatever could have possessed him to consent to your communicating with the prisoner?” he exclaimed.
Virginia’s blue eyes twinkled. “He didn’t consent to any such thing,” she said demurely. “He didn’t have any idea that I desired to see President Felix, or that I had the slightest interest in him. He supposed that my anxiety to inspect the dungeons was prompted solely by morbid curiosity.”
“Still, I can’t understand his being so rash as to let you in there,” said Hawley.
The girl’s face dimpled. “He couldn’t help himself; I called his bluff,” she announced, laughing apologetically at her own frank use of American slang.
“His bluff?”
“Like most of his countrymen, Captain Reyes has the habit of indulging in very extravagant language when he is talking to women,” Miss Throgmorton explained naïvely. “One evening when he was at our house he was assuring me, with his hand on his heart,of his readiness to lay down his life for me, and I laughed at his protestations and told him that in my native land that brand of talk was known as ‘hot air.’ He urged me to put him to the test, and, after pretending to consider for a while, I told him that I wouldn’t ask him to risk his life, but that if he really wanted to show that he was willing to take chances for my sake, he could do so by taking me on a tour of inspection through El Torro prison.”
Hawley chuckled. “Clever work! You knew, then, that President Felix was there?”
“I had heard the rumor, and I thought it was a good chance to find out whether it was true. I could see that poor Captain Reyes was startled by my request. He protested that it was against the rules to admit visitors to El Torro. He begged me to put him to some other test. But I insisted that it must be that or nothing. I taunted him with being afraid to take a chance, and at last I got the poor man so worked up that he gritted his teeth and said that he would do it, no matter what the consequences might be.”
“Good for him!” said Hawley. “He must be a pretty plucky chap.”
“He is no coward,” said the girl soberly. “I hated to demand such a sacrifice of him; for although I didn’t let him know it, I realized that I was making him do something which, if he had been caught, would have meant the ruin of his career—and, perhaps, worse. But it was for a good cause, and I considered myself justified. Anyway,” she added brightly, “thank goodness, nothing like that happened.”
“He got away with it, all right?”
“Evidently; for that was several months ago, and he is still in command of the prison guard; which wouldn’t be the case, of course, if even a hint of my visit to El Torro had reached the ears of Portiforo.”
“So he is still in charge of the prison guard!” murmured the Camera Chap, inwardly resolving to make the acquaintance of Captain Ernesto Reyes at the earliest possible opportunity. “Do you mean to say that he took you all over the prison—even to the cell in which they’ve got Felix locked up?” he continued wonderingly. “Surely it would have been an easy matter for him to avoid showing you that particular cell.”
The girl laughed. “He didn’t find it so easy. He did attempt to hurry me past that cell, but, to borrow your own expression, he couldn’t get away with it. I peeped through the hole in the panel before he had a chance to stop me.”
“The hole in the panel?”
“They have put sheets of tin over the bars of President Felix’s dungeon to prevent anybody in the corridor from getting a glimpse of him,” the girl explained. “But the tin had rusted, and there was a tiny hole in one corner which evidently had escaped the attention of the prison officials. It was through this hole that I got my peep at the unfortunate man.”
“How did you know he was in there?” the Camera Chap queried.
“I didn’t know, of course. I merely guessed it.As soon as I saw that covered door it flashed through my mind that it would most likely be the place where they would have him. And Captain Reyes’ manner confirmed my suspicions. When I inquired of him why the door of this cell was covered with sheets of tin instead of being grilled like all the other doors on that gloomy corridor, he became perceptibly nervous. He explained that the cell was unoccupied, and was used as a storage room; but while he was talking I heard the sound of somebody coughing behind that screened door, and I knew that he had lied to me. Captain Reyes heard it, too, but evidently he was in hopes that it had escaped my ears, for he tried to hurry me away by telling me that he had something exceedingly interesting to show me in another part of the prison. But I broke away from him and stepped close up to the door. It was then that I discovered the tiny peephole which the rust had eaten in one part of the tin, and before he could stop me I had put my eye to it.”
“And you saw?” The Camera Chap’s voice was tense with eagerness.
Virginia shuddered slightly. “I saw a man seated at a rough wooden table reading a book. Just at that moment he happened to look up, and I got a good view of his face. He had changed terribly since I had last seen him. His hair was snowy white, his face was pitifully thin, and looked as if it didn’t have a drop of blood in it. His eyes were sunken. But it was President Felix; I am absolutely positive of that.”
The Camera Chap’s face was grim. “You say that he was reading. Was his cell light enough for that?”
“Oh, yes; there was plenty of light, and air, too. I must say in justice to Portiforo that he has made his prisoner as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. The dungeon is much bigger than the other cells, and there is a large window, barred, of course, which commands a view of the sea.”
Hawley’s face lighted up with excitement. “I rather like the idea of that window!” he murmured, as if to himself. “Our friend Portiforo is much more accommodating than I dared hope.”
Guessing what was in his mind, Virginia shook her head. “I’m afraid you won’t be so optimistic when I tell you that there is a sentinel on guard every hour of the night and day outside of that window,” she said. “You couldn’t possibly get to him in that way.”
Hawley received the announcement cheerfully. “I expected that,” he informed her. “I didn’t suppose for a minute, you know, that Portiforo would be so careless as to leave the window unguarded. Still, it’s easier to tackle the problem of a flesh-and-blood sentry than an inanimate stone wall. But go on with your story, please. What happened after you took that peep at Felix? Captain Reyes saw what you were up to, of course?”
The girl smiled. “Of course; and the change that came over him was truly startling. His face went white with rage, and his voice trembled as he accused me of being a spy, and of having tricked him. I was actually afraid at first that he was going to orderpoor little me arrested and put in irons. It was a great relief to me when he apologized.”
Hawley smiled. “You made him apologize?”
Virginia nodded, and her blue eyes twinkled. “When he was through with his violent outburst,” she said demurely, “I decided that it was my turn to become indignant. I told him haughtily that I didn’t see why he should make such a fuss just because my curiosity had got the best of me. I complained tearfully that I was sorry now that I had consented to come to his horrid old prison, and that I had been through jails in my own country, which I found much more interesting. I guess my words and my manner must have satisfied him at length that I had not recognized the prisoner, for, after he had asked me a few questions, he suddenly became very remorseful for his rough treatment, and begged me to forgive him. Later on, when we were good friends again, I inquired of him carelessly as to the identity of the man I had seen in that cell, and he informed me glibly that he was a political agitator named Pedro Velasquez, who had been in captivity for the past fifteen years. He was even ingenious enough to tell me that the poor fellow had gone out of his mind, and had hallucinations that he was President Felix. I smiled at this and replied that there certainly wasn’t much resemblance between the prisoner and President Felix as I remembered him, which was literally true.”
The Camera Chap bestowed upon her a look of frank admiration. “You’re a wonder, Miss Throgmorton!” he declared impulsively. “I don’t know anygirl who could have handled the situation more cleverly. I suppose,” he added anxiously, “you told your father of your discovery?”
Miss Throgmorton shook her head. “No; I decided that it wouldn’t do to tell dad a word about it. He thinks so highly of Portiforo that I felt sure that he would only laugh at my story, and tell me that my imagination had got the best of me. Besides, I had to consider Captain Reyes. I was afraid that if I told my father of my visit to the prison he might mention the matter to President Portiforo, and thus get Captain Reyes into trouble. I haven’t confided my secret to anybody except yourself and Señora Felix. By the way!” she exclaimed. “Speaking of the señora reminds me that I have a message for you from her. She told me to assure you that she has the greatest confidence in your ability and discretion, but she wishes to urge upon you the necessity of being most careful. On no account must you attempt to see her at her father’s house. The place is watched by spies all the time. If for any reason you should wish to communicate with her, she suggests that it be done through me.”
The Camera Chap bowed. “A very sensible arrangement,” he said, “and one that is eminently satisfactory to me.”
The girl laughed, and her color deepened. “I think we’d better be getting back,” she suggested. “The parade must be over, for people are beginning to come into the park.”
As they stepped outside the Botanical Gardens theyencountered Gale. That young man frowned at the sight of them. “Why, here you are!” he exclaimed reproachfully. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I thought you promised to wait for me outside the Hotel Nacional.”
“We got tired of watching the parade, so we thought we’d walk around a bit,” Hawley replied. “Did you get the information you wanted about the attempted assassination of Portiforo?” he inquired quizzically.
Gale nodded. “I found out the fellow’s name and business,” he replied. “That’s all I needed. It’s a peach of a story. I’m going to put it on the wire in a little while. Would you like to send it to your paper, too, old man?”
Hawley smiled. He knew from past experiences that when Gale offered to share a story with a rival newspaper, it was never out of motives of altruism, but because the story was so much the product of his imagination that it gave him a greater sense of security to have his statements backed up by another sheet. “No, thanks,” he said dryly. “I guess I won’t touch it. I’m a snapshotter, and sending stories is somewhat out of my line. Besides, I’m on my vacation, so why should I work?”
Gale looked at him searchingly. “Of course, you wouldn’t think of working on your vacation, would you?” he rejoined, with an ironical smile.
When, a few minutes later, the Camera Chap took his leave, theNewsman turned eagerly to Virginia.“Did he happen to drop you any hint of what he’s doing in Baracoa, Miss Throgmorton?” he inquired.
The girl’s blue eyes opened wide in childlike wonder. “A hint?” she said innocently. “Why didn’t he tell us outright that he’s spending his vacation here?”
Gale smiled sapiently. “Vacation or no vacation, that fellow didn’t come here to study the scenery!” he declared. “He is here for a purpose, and before I’m many days older I’m going to find out what it is.”