CHAPTER XXXIX.CAUSE FOR ANXIETY.
When Gale returned to the embassy he found an invitation to the dinner awaiting him. Minister Throgmorton had mentioned to Captain Cortrell that he had a guest stopping at his home, and the commander of the warship had been prompt to take the hint. The reporter accepted the invitation with alacrity. As a rule, he was not fond of formal dinners. In the course of his reportorial experience he had attended many of them in an official capacity, and he had come to regard such functions as decidedly boresome. The solid and liquid refreshments were, in his opinion, but poor compensation for the ordeal of having to listen to the long-winded, dry speeches which always came afterward. But he expected to find much to interest him at this dinner on the battleship. What his friend Captain Reyes had told him made him so eager to attend that even if he had not received an invitation he had fully decided that he was going to find some way of being present.
Virginia’s behavior increased his suspicion that there was a peculiar significance attached to the affair. The girl appeared strangely anxious and ill at ease. If she had been a débutante looking forward to her first formal party, she could scarcely have evinced more nervousness and considering that, because of her father’s position, such festivities were common occurrences inher life, her state of mind struck the observant newspaper man as being somewhat remarkable.
A conversation which he overheard between the girl and Lieutenant Ridder a day before the event enlightened him to some extent as to the cause of Virginia’s anxiety. The naval officer had called at the legation, and, on his way out through the garden, he stopped to exchange a few words with her.
“Everything is coming along fine,” he informed her, unaware, of course, that theNewsman, concealed behind some shrubbery, was listening with intense eagerness. “The more I think about the scheme, the more I begin to believe that it is going to work out all right.”
“But suppose Reyes should, at the last minute, change his mind and fail to show up?” Virginia suggested timorously. “That would spoil everything.”
“Yes; that would spoil everything—for the time being,” Ridder agreed. “We should have to postpone the attempt. But why should we suppose anything so gloomy, my dear Miss Throgmorton? He has accepted the invitation, and he has assured you that he will be there.” A smile lighted up his face. “If you want to make absolutely sure that he won’t disappoint us, why don’t you ask him to call for you and escort you to the dinner? If he has any blood in his veins, he would jump at such an opportunity, and once he’s made the engagement he couldn’t be so unchivalrous as to back out.”
Virginia received this suggestion with an ejaculation of delight. “If he escorted me to the dinner, itwould be his duty, of course, to see me home, also,” she murmured, talking more to herself than to her companion. “That is a splendid idea of yours, Mr. Ridder—probably even a better one than you supposed. It has given me a big inspiration. I see a way, now, to change our original plans so as to reduce the danger of accidents to a minimum.”
“What is it?” the naval officer demanded eagerly.
To the eavesdropper’s keen disappointment, the pair walked away from that spot before the girl answered, so he was unable to learn the nature of the inspiration which had come to her. However, incomplete and puzzling though it was, he felt that he had good cause to congratulate himself on the information he had already gleaned.
The next morning, Virginia sent a charmingly worded note to Captain Reyes, and, as Ridder had expected, the Baracoan was much flattered by this fresh proof of Miss Throgmorton’s favor, and eagerly grabbed at the opportunity which her note offered him to be her companion on the trip from the capital to the warship.
Moreover, he triumphantly exhibited the note to his friend Gale, later that day, as a proof of his intimacy with the fair daughter of the United States envoy.
The reporter smiled sardonically as he read the dainty missive. “Doesn’t it strike you as the least bit odd, my dear Ernesto, that Miss Throgmorton should put you to the trouble of coming all the way from the fortress to the embassy to call for her when she hasboth her father and myself to escort her?” he suggested.
Reyes laughed quizzically. “Ah, my unfortunate friend, I cannot blame you for being jealous!” he exclaimed.
Gale shrugged his shoulders, but let the taunt pass without verbal comment. He had suddenly changed his mind as to the advisability of striving to make the army officer see the matter from his viewpoint. The thought had come to him that, after all, it would be better not to interfere with Virginia’s mysterious plans at the present stage of the game. It would be time enough to open Reyes’ eyes when the situation had taken more definite shape.
Resplendent in gold lace and gilt buttons, the Baracoan called at the embassy that evening, so late that he found Virginia on the verge of tears. Her father and Gale had left for the battleship nearly an hour earlier, and ever since then she had been almost frantic with impatience and fear that her escort was not going to show up at all. She received his apologies graciously, however, as they motored swiftly down the steep roads which led to Puerto Cabero. Not for all the world would he have been guilty of such a sad breach of decorum, her penitent companion assured her, if it had not been absolutely unavoidable. His duties at the fortress had made it impossible for him to get away earlier.
“In fact, my dear señorita,” he announced, “if I had not made this engagement with you—which, of course, could not be broken under any circumstances—Ifear I should have had to disappoint our hosts this evening and remain on duty at the fortress. On account of our latest advices regarding the enemy, our commanding officer did not deem it advisable that so many of his staff should absent themselves from the fortress at one time. Half of us were asked at the last minute to send our regrets to theKearsargeand remain on duty, and, at first, I was among those selected to stay behind; but when I had explained to the general about my appointment with you, he agreed with me that I must go.”
“Then I am very glad that I asked you to be my escort,” Virginia declared with a fervor which went to his head like a strong wine. “But what do you mean by advices regarding the enemy? To what enemy do you refer?” she inquired nervously.
He looked at her in astonishment. “To the revolutionists, of course, señorita. That traitor Rodriguez and his band of ruffians have proven somewhat stronger than we had imagined. To-day they overcame a detachment of Federal troops at Santa Barbara and seized the railroad. It is believed that, emboldened by their success, the beggars are now contemplating a forced march on the capital.”
“But surely you do not fear an attack upon the fortress to-night?” Virginia inquired, her voice tense with anxiety.
Her companion laughed contemptuously. “Certainly not. There is no occasion for alarm, señorita. Those fellows will never get within a hundred miles of the capital. When they get up against Villaria’sbrigade they will be annihilated. Still, it would be bad generalship not to be prepared. I believe you have a saying in your language about eternal vigilance being the guarantee of safety. That is why our garrison has been placed on a strictly war basis and half of our staff has found it impossible to be the guests of the American officers this evening.”
What he had said caused Virginia to feel uneasy, but she made a valiant attempt to conceal her state of mind from him. “I am glad to hear that the fortress is in no danger—from the insurrectos,” she said, and her escort was astonished at the emphasis with which she spoke.
He favored her with a searching glance from behind his blue spectacles. From her past actions, he had good reason to believe that she was in sympathy with the enemies of the Portiforo administration. He did not feel any great bitterness toward her on that account. The fact that she was a woman, and a very pretty one, made him inclined to view her past offenses with indulgence. But it chafed him to hear her now expressing views, which, he was compelled to believe, could not be sincere.
“You do not desire the revolutionary cause to triumph, señorita?” he inquired, a strain of irony in his tone.
Virginia shrugged her shoulders. “To be quite frank with you, I don’t care whether they triumph or not. It is all the same to me which side wins,” she replied carelessly.
“Then why are you so glad that the fortress is in no danger of attack?”
“Because,” she answered serenely, “if the insurrectos were to be so inconsiderate as to attack El Torro to-night, I fear it would interfere with our dinner.”
Reyes laughed heartily. “Oh, is that the reason? Well, have no fear, my dear Señorita Throgmorton. I assure you that there is not the slightest danger of our appetites being spoiled by any such interruption.”
A little later they arrived at the seaport, and, alighting from the car, entered one of the battleship’s launches which was waiting at the landing for them. As they stepped to the deck of theKearsarge, Lieutenant Ridder greeted them. That young officer’s face, which, a minute before, had worn a strained, worried expression, was now illuminated by a broad smile. “I’m glad to see you,” he said to the girl. “I was beginning to be afraid that you weren’t coming.”
She smiled in a manner which showed that she appreciated the fact that, while to others his words might have sounded like a compliment, they were intended to be congratulatory. But a second later the smile disappeared from her lips. She glanced furtively at Reyes, and saw that he was occupied at the moment, chatting with one of the ship’s officers, and she eagerly availed herself of this opportunity for a few confidential words with Ridder.
“There is danger,” she whispered. “I am afraid we must give up the idea. I have just learned that they are very much on their guard at the fortress. They are awaiting a possible attack of the revolutionists,and the whole garrison is unusually wide awake. Under the circumstances it would be madness to go ahead to-night. Tell Mr. Hawley——”
The naval officer interrupted her with a deprecatory gesture. “It is no use,” he whispered. “I have already told him. I knew about the danger. Half our guests have sent their regrets, and some of those who are here have told us the reason. I have been trying my hardest to persuade Hawley that, under the circumstances, he couldn’t possibly get away with his scheme to-night, but the plucky old chap won’t listen. He says that we’ve made our plans, and it’s too late to change them now. He insists upon going through with it.”