CHAPTER XXIV.THE SNAPSHOT.
The night which Hawley and Virginia had selected for their assault upon El Torro proved an ideal one for their purpose; for the moon was obscured most of the time by a steady procession of dark clouds which made the waters of the harbor as black as ink, save for an occasional phosphorescent streak on the surface of the wavelets, the sight of which made the girl shudder.
“I’m afraid there are many sharks in the bay to-night,” she whispered fearfully to the Camera Chap, as he cast loose the painter of the launch, and took the oars—they had decided to row at the start, instead of using the motor, for fear that the noise of the latter might attract attention on shore.
“I guess it’s only your imagination which makes you think that, Miss Throgmorton,” Hawley responded cheerfully. “Of course,” he added solicitously, “if you’re really alarmed, we’ll turn back this minute; but there’s no danger so far as the sharks are concerned. They won’t come near the boat.”
Virginia gave him an indignant glance. “Of course, I know that they won’t come near the boat,” she said. “Do you suppose that I am scared on my own account? It was to your danger that I was referring. I really don’t think that I have any right to let you do this thing, Mr. Hawley. Much as Iwould like to see poor President Felix freed, and my dear friend the señora made happy, it scarcely seems fair to encourage you to run such a terrible risk. To think of you attempting to swim in that water makes my blood run cold.”
“Then I beg you not to think of it,” he said laughingly. “Turn your attention to the sky instead. Did you ever see such a black night? I haven’t, since I’ve been in Baracoa. It certainly looks as if we’ve got our luck with us. I haven’t much doubt, now, that I’ll be able to get up to the fortress unobserved.”
All the while he was talking, he was rowing, his strong arms pulling at the oars so vigorously that the motor boat moved through the water almost as easily as if it had been built to be propelled in that manner. But presently he stopped rowing, and shipped his oars. “Guess we can start the motor, now,” he remarked; “we’re far enough from the shore to escape attention. See those lights twinkling over yonder? That’s theKearsarge. And those two little lights to the east of her are on El Torro. Notice how near to the fortress she is anchored. You see, I shan’t have much of a swim, after all.”
Virginia smiled at him reproachfully. “Do you think I am as easily deceived as all that? Those lights may not look far apart, from here, but I happen to know that the distance between the battleship and the fortress is nearly half a mile. However, Mr. Hawley, I’m not going to try to persuade you to give up this mad undertaking, because I realize that I stand no chance of making you listen to reason.” She sighed.“It does seem unfair, though, that you should be running all the risk, while I——”
“All the risk!” Hawley interrupted protestingly. “Well, I like that! I suppose you’re not running any risk at all? Why, you plucky girl!” he exclaimed, deep admiration in his tone. “As a matter of fact, you’re doing the lion’s share of the work. If our efforts to-night result in setting President Felix free, he’ll have you to thank for it more than anybody.”
“Nonsense!” the girl protested, much pleased, nevertheless, by his praise. “You know very well that I shan’t be in the slightest danger. Portiforo can’t do anything to me, even when he finds out the trick I’ve played his soldiers. If you thought that he could, you would never have taken me as your assistant. Don’t you suppose that I realize that?”
“But it’s going to get you into trouble with your father,” Hawley reminded her dryly. “I don’t imagine that Minister Throgmorton is going to be exactly pleased when he hears of his daughter’s escapade—especially when he finds out that her fellow conspirator is aSentinelman.”
“Yes; I suppose my father will be angry,” Virginia agreed demurely. “However, that can’t be helped. I never have been able to understand his great friendship for Portiforo,” she went on, frowning. “It is a mystery to me why he is so persistently blind to the grossness of that tyrant. Possibly,” she suggested archly, “it is because Portiforo flatters him. Father is very susceptible to flattery.”
“Probably that is the reason,” the Camera Chapacquiesced. “Think you’ll be able to manage this boat all right after I leave you?” he inquired anxiously. “She runs very smoothly, and all you’ve got to do, you know, is to keep her headed straight for the fortress landing.
“That will be easy,” she assured him. “Fortunately I’ve had some experience with motor boats.”
“And you haven’t forgotten your instructions? You know just what you are to do after you land? Remember, everything depends upon your ability to keep the attention of the sentry focused on you until after I’ve got my picture.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Virginia confidently. “He’ll have to be an automaton if he’s able to turn a deaf ear to my heart-rending screams of distress.”
Hawley, busy with the motor, echoed her laugh. A little later the launch, running now under its own power, had drawn so near to theKearsargethat they could hear her bells striking the hour. The Camera Chap abruptly changed their course. “We don’t want to get any nearer to the warship,” he explained to his companion. “They might take it into their heads, you know, to throw a searchlight on us, and just at present we’re not at all eager to bask in the limelight.”
Virginia gazed wistfully at the shadowy outline of the big vessel. “If only we could get them to help us,” she murmured. “With a hundred sturdy bluejackets from that ship, we could take the fortress and bring back President Felix himself, instead of merely his photograph.”
“A hundred!” exclaimed Hawley, with a laugh. “I venture to say that half a dozen would be enough. But I’m afraid that’s out of the question. For the present I guess we’ll have to be content with the picture.”
“If we get it,” said the girl, in a sudden fit of depression.
“We’re going to get it,” the Camera Chap declared confidently.
The motor boat was heading, now, straight for the fortress. Presently Hawley slackened her speed and motioned to Virginia to take his place at the wheel. “I guess the psychological moment has arrived,” he announced. “We won’t risk going any nearer.” He took off his coat and shoes, and threw them overboard. Then he fastened around his waist a belt to which was attached a water-tight bag, which contained his photographic apparatus.
“Au revoir,” he said lightly, extending his hand to the girl. “Sure you don’t feel scared?”
“Not a bit—at least, not on my own account,” she answered, pressing his hand with a warmth which in his opinion more than compensated him for any risk he was about to run. “Please be careful, Mr. Hawley. If anything should happen to you——”
“Nothing will,” he assured her. “Nothing ever happens to me. I guess I was born under a lucky star.”
The moon had emerged from behind a black cloud, and he ducked hastily to the bottom of the boat, fearingthat he would be seen from the fortress. For half a minute he remained there; then, as another fleeting cloud once more plunged the sky in darkness, he left his hiding place and poised himself on the boat’s gunwale.
“Try to manage to make a wide sweep so as to give me a chance to reach the shore about the same time you do,” he said to Virginia.
The girl nodded. “But I don’t like to see you venture among those horrid——” she began. Before she could finish the sentence, the Camera Chap had dived, entering the water so easily that she could scarcely hear the splash.
As he struck out for the shore, Virginia saw a phosphorescent streak in the water close beside him, and she uttered a scream of terror which was not prompted by her realization of the part she was to play.
A lone sentry at El Torro heard that scream, and, ceasing his pacing up and down his post, gazed out to sea with great curiosity.
Above the sound of the waves lapping the shore, he could hear the chug-chug-chug of a motor boat, first faint, then rapidly becoming more distinct. Realizing that a craft of some sort was approaching the fortress, he brought his rifle down from his shoulder to a horizontal position, and stood prepared to challenge the unseen visitor.
Then, suddenly, there came to his ears a repetition of the weird scream he had heard, followed by a series of screams in quick succession. The moon appearedfrom behind a cloud, and by its light he caught sight of a launch heading toward a point of the beach about two hundred feet to the east of where he stood. Simultaneously he became aware of the fact that the sole visible occupant of the boat was a woman, and that it was she who was responsible for the cries of terror or distress he had heard.
Now, fortunately for the Camera Chap and Virginia, and the righteous cause for which they strove, there was not in the whole army of Baracoa a more chivalrous man than this particular sentry. Naturally a man cast in such a sentimental mold was not the sort to turn a deaf ear to the call of beauty in distress. From where he stood he could not as yet see that the woman in the motor boat was beautiful, but he took that for granted.
Clubbing his rifle, he ran along the beach to the point where the launch was about to land. As he came near, he saw that he would not have to draw upon his imagination in order to class the craft’s agitated occupant as young and very fair. With added zest he hastened to assist her to disembark.
“What is it, señorita?” he demanded sympathetically. “If you will tell me what has happened——”
“Oh!” gasped Virginia, stumbling out of the boat and into his arms, according to schedule. “Oh, it was terrible. I——” Her eyes closed, and she would have fallen if he had not held her.
According to the rules and regulations, it was his duty to summon the guard, but he was too busy just then to give thought to rules and regulations. Hewas struggling with the dead weight of the girl, who had become as limp and inanimate as a rag, when a tall, dark-faced young man, who wore the fatigue uniform of a captain, ran out of the fortress and approached the pair.
“What have we here?” he demanded sternly. Then, as his gaze rested on the girl’s face: “Good heavens! It’s Miss Throgmorton! What is the matter with her, Sanchez?”
“I think she has fainted, captain,” the sentry replied, allowing his fair burden to drop gently to the sand in order that he might salute his superior officer. He pointed to the motor boat. “She came ashore in that, a minute ago.”
“Alone?”
The sentry nodded. “She was screaming as though in great terror.”
“It is strange—very strange,” muttered Captain Ernesto Reyes. “I wonder if——”
He was interrupted by a dull report and a vivid flash of light which came from the beach, about four hundred feet from where they stood.
The sentry and his superior officer exchanged glances of mingled mystification and dismay. Leaving the girl, both of them started to run frantically toward the spot from which this startling interruption had come. Through the gloom they saw dimly a man step to the edge of the beach, and hurl himself into the water.
With an exclamation of joy, Virginia opened hereyes and rose to a sitting position. “Victory!” she murmured. “He has done it.”
But a second later her exultation gave place to horror and dismay, as she heard the bark of a revolver. By the spurt of flame which accompanied the report, she saw Captain Reyes standing at the water’s edge, shooting savagely at the fugitive.