"FOREIGN TRADE" BECOMES BRISK
The cab horses were browsing quietly by the roadside.
Miss Daisy looked anything but perturbed.
In fact, she had passed all uneasiness of spirit on to the cab driver.
That worthy had come back to his senses, but Miss Huston had compelled
him to sit on the ground, his back to a tree. She stood a few yards
away, watching the surly fellow and holding the pistol as though it were
not the first time she had had such a weapon in her hand.
"Oh, I'm so glad you've come, Mr. Benson!" cried the girl, with true
feminine relief. "I was so worried about you. But you're not
hurt--badly. I hurried a horseman on to you. He reached you?"
"Yes, thank you," nodded Lieutenant Benson. "And now, Miss Huston, I
must inform you that we have Millard--your Donald Graves--a prisoner
and manacled. I must first find a way of getting you back into town.
Then I must turn Millard over to the authorities."
"Why can't he go back in the same cab with me?" asked Miss Huston,
quickly.
"You--could you endure that?"
"Yes," replied the girl, bravely. "I took you to him. I sent the
assistance that enabled you to take him prisoner. Do not fear for me,
Mr. Benson."
"By Jove, but you're clear grit, Miss Huston!" Lieutenant Jack cried,
admiringly.
"Clear American, I hope," retorted the girl. "Why should men be the
only ones who can do or dare for the Flag?"
"Will you let me have the revolver, Miss Huston?"
"Gladly."
"Thank you. Now, if you will get inside he cab again."
"And you?"
"I'll sit with the driver and watch him,"
Jack kept his eye on the surly fellow until Miss Huston was inside the
cab.
"Now, fellow, you get up on the box, and handle the reins from the left
side," ordered the young naval officer.
"I always drive on the right side o' the box," came the sulky retort.
"Undoubtedly; but you're driving on the left side this afternoon,"
returned Benson, with a look of significance. "By the way, did I
mention the fact, yet, that I have an uncertain and bad temper? Now,
climb up into your place, and don't you attempt to start until I'm
beside you and give the word!"
A moment later Jack Benson sat beside the driver, holding the revolver
in his right hand.
"Now, back to the house," spoke the young naval officer.
Without a word the driver turned his horses about, heading back.
"Here we are!" came, cheerily, from Lieutenant Abercrombie, R.N.
Millard was sitting up, a black scowl on his face as Jack and the others
appeared.
"Now, I've got to get this outfit back into Washington, somehow," mused
Jack, after noticing that Abercrombie had allowed the other thug to
crawl away to safety.
"Why, of course, dear old fellow, you under stand that I'm helping,"
hinted the British officer.
"That's mighty good of you," murmured Jack. "Then we can do it easily."
Daisy Huston had stepped from the cab. She stood regarding the scowling
captive.
"I'm glad I know you, Donald; glad I found you out in time," she said,
quietly, gazing hard at him.
"I thought you a friend," Millard retorted, bitterly. "Great Heavens,
Daisy, if you had been on my side through thick and thin, in good report
and ill, I could have defied all these idiots in Washington. What an
ally you would have been! But you chose to be an enemy."
"An enemy to my country's enemies, yes," replied the girl, steadily.
"Do you hate me, Daisy?"
"I don't know," the girl answered, thoughtfully. "Do you hate me, now,
Donald Graves?"
"I wish I knew," uttered the man. "But it's hard to turn love like mine
into hate at a moment's notice. Daisy, the nights are coming when you'll
wake up with a frightened start, and sob as you remember how you turned
me over to--"
"To the officers of the country that you have done your best to betray,"
broke in the girl, firmly. "No, no, Donald! Do not imagine that I
shall shed any tears for you, seen or unseen. Mr. Benson, I am ready,
if you wish to place--your--your--prisoner in the cab beside me."
"It seems like a beastly outrage to do it," muttered Jack, full of
misgivings.
"Not at all," declared the girl, steadily. "I am glad to see this man
on his way to the bar of justice."
Jack assisted Daisy Huston, with the utmost deference, to a seat inside
the vehicle. Then he turned to motion to handcuffed Millard--or
Graves--that he was to take the seat beside the woman he had hoped
to make his wife.
"I'll ride close alongside, to make sure there's no unpleasant conduct
toward Miss Huston," volunteered Mr. Abercrombie.
Jack Benson again climbed to the cab box.
"You know I have the pistol," muttered Jack, showing the driver the
weapon. "There's no need to ride through the town with the weapon in
my hand. But, if you try to cut up any tantrums, you may be sure
you'll find your own wrists inside of handcuffs."
"I know when I ain't got no show at all," growled the sullen driver.
"Drive ahead, then--into Washington, and straight to police
headquarters."
Lieutenant Abercrombie, R.N., jogged his own mount steadily alongside,
so that he could at all times command a view of the interior.
Millard--Donald Graves--would have opened some conversation with
Daisy Huston, but the disdainful girl cut him short.
As the cab rolled into the busier streets of Washington Lieutenant
Abercrombie drew a little further away from the cab, in order not to
attract attention, though he still remained actively on guard.
The prisoner's manacled hands did not show to the people passing on the
sidewalks.
So, altogether, no passersby thought to turn to look after the cab.
Just as the little procession turned a street corner to drive direct
to the door of police headquarters, Abercrombie waved a hand carelessly
to three pedestrians on the sidewalk.
"Abercrombie!" cried Lieutenant Ulwin. "And there's Benson on the box
of that hack!"
"Come right along into headquarters," whispered Abercrombie. "Don't
make any noise."
Wondering until they were fairly agape, Ulwin, Hal and Eph drew up at
the cab door as Jack, after only a brief nod to them, opened the door
and handed out Miss Daisy Huston.
Lieutenant Abercrombie, having given his horse to a boy down the street
to hold, now came forward, raising his hat, to take charge of the
young lady.
"Come along, Millard," called Jack Benson, quietly, and the prisoner
got out, while the British officer stepped down the street with his
fair companion to find another carriage in which she could return home.
Inside Jack marched his prisoner up to the railing in one of the rooms.
The young naval officer at once produced his credentials and displayed
them to the police official in charge.
"Now, with your permission, sir," Jack went on, courteously, "I will
use your telephone, and inform the Navy Department of the prisoner who
awaits their action here."
Five minutes later this had been done. Benson turned to Lieutenant
Abercrombie, saying:
"I must apologize for not having thought to return your revolver as
soon as we entered."
"I would beg you to keep the weapon, dear old fellow, if it would be
of any use to you," replied the British officer.
And now Hal and Eph found chance to explain that they, worried by Jack
Benson's disappearance, had at last started down to headquarters to
see if they could learn of any mishap to him, or of any other explanation
for his long absence.
"Well, it's all over now," muttered Hal. "Millard--or Graves--or
whatever other name the fellow may be using at this moment--is safe
in a cell downstairs."
"We thought, once before, that we had him bottled up safely," chuckled
Lieutenant Jack. "Mr. Abercrombie, how am I ever going to express my
thanks to you?"
"I should feel extremely insulted, dear old fellow, if you thought it
necessary to thank me," retorted the Briton, heartily.
"It will be dark, soon," interposed Lieutenant Ulwin. "I suggest that
the best thing any of us can do is to turn toward the club. I feel
certain that the chef will have a famous dinner there to-night."
"We haven't any evening clothes, either citizen or uniform, in
Washington," interposed Jack Benson, who knew something of the
formalities of the service during the dinner hour.
"Come, just the same," begged Ulwin. "The members don't expect too
much of fellows who are traveling."
Jack was glad of the walk, because it helped to take the stiffness out of
the knee that had been struck.
"You let the cab driver go, did you!" asked Eph, as the submarine boys
walked along together.
"Yes," nodded Jack. "I had no orders concerning anyone like him. He's
only some worthless character hired for the job. He didn't have any
hand in the bigger job of collecting and selling harbor defense plans,
you may be sure."
As the party re-entered the club they found a large attendance. Nor
was it many moments before a be-moustached German officer approached
the group.
"Oh, Herr Ulwin," he asked, "can you oblige me by excusing Herr Benson
for a moment or two? And will you come with me, Herr Benson, to meet
a friend who wishes to shake your hand?"
Jack slipped away with the German officer, who conducted him to another
room.
"I think you have met my friend before," explained the German, and
wheeled the submarine boy straight up in front of Herr Professor Radberg.
"You see," smiled the professor, "we meet again."
"It is a great pleasure, surely," declared Jack, as he shook hands. The
officer stepped a few paces away.
"And now, when, my dear young friend, are you going to give me your
word that you and your comrades will enter the German torpedo service?
I have somewhat better terms to offer you than when we last met. I have
since been authorized to promise you that you shall enter the German
service as commissioned officers, and that you shall all three be in
line for promotion as merit earns it. So, then, it is all settled, is
it not!"
Herr Professor Radberg rubbed his hands with a self-satisfied air.
"Yes," Lieutenant Jack admitted, "it is all settled. But not the way
that you would wish, Herr Professor Radberg. There may be soldiers
of fortune who follow any flag, for hire. But we submarine boys would
not enter your German naval service if you created all three of us
high admirals at the outset."
"Admirals?" cried Herr Professor Radberg, protestingly. "Oh, but that,
my dear young friend, would be quite impossible."
"You are wasting your time with us, sir," Jack continued, firmly. "We
may, one of these days, be asked to enter the American service
permanently. We would not enter any other country's service, no matter
what the bait. Do not give the matter any further thought, please, for
we won't."
The German officer had been standing a few paces away, twirling his
moustache and frowning. Now, he came forward.
"Herr Benson," he broke in, "I fear that you are so young that you do
not fully understand the honor and dignity of being officers in the
German service."
"Very likely we do not, Captain," Jack returned, with a bow. "And it
is absolutely certain that we shall never find out from experience."
Lieutenant Jack excused himself, turning to seek his friends. As
Benson entered the reading room once more he came upon Eph and another
whose face was decidedly familiar. It was the Chevalier d'Ouray.
"Just in time, Jack," nodded Eph. "Tell the Chev. for me, please as
he doesn't seem to understand my talk, that we wouldn't even give the
slightest consideration to his idea that we should enter the French
naval service in the submarine division."
"It is quite hopeless, Chevalier," laughed Jack Benson, shaking his
head. "The honor is quite enough to turn our heads, but we can serve
only the United States."
The Chevalier d'Ouray made a low bow, then turned away, for others
were approaching.
"Where is Hal?" asked Jack.
"Crickety! Look at him over there, talking to that little Japanese,"
muttered Eph, inclining his head toward a corner.
Hal and a Japanese were talking earnestly. At any rate, the little
brown man was. Hal was listening, occasionally shaking his head.
Then Hastings happened to espy his chums. He turned to the Japanese,
to take his leave, but the little brown man followed him across the
floor, still talking in low tones.
"Captain Nakasura has been trying to interest me in the idea that we
three go over to Japan, under a three years' contract, to act as
instructors and advisers in submarine work," Hal told his comrades.
"And I have high hope that you will see matter same as I do," smiled
the Japanese attache persistently.
"We shan't," Jack declared, shaking his head, emphatically. "Captain,
you are the third, representing also the third nation, that has just
approached us on this matter. We shall serve no other country than
our own."
"But my government," urged the Japanese officer, "will make you most
handsome offer."
"Do you remember the day when we were leaving Dunhaven, and you tried
to overtake us in a gasoline launch?" asked Jack, with a smile.
"Yes; very well," admitted Nakasura.
"Do you remember that we hoisted the signal, N.D.? That meant 'nothing
doing,' Captain. Our answer is the same, and will be, to-morrow and
the next year."
"Ah, here you are!" cried Lieutenant Abercrombie, as he hurried up and
Captain Nakasura vanished beyond middle distance. "Benson, dear old
fellow, I want just a word with you before dinner is served," continued
the Briton, thrusting his arm through Jack's and drawing him away after
a nod of apology to Hal and Eph. "Benson, I've had something on my mind
all day; something I have had instructions to broach to you. I have
been waiting for the right moment. Now, I must breathe just a word or
two, and then let you think it over during dinner, don't you know?"
"See here," smiled Jack, standing back, sudden suspicion in his eyes.
"Don't tell me you've been instructed to see whether I'll enter the
British submarine service."
"Just that, dear old chap!" beamed Abercrombie, enthusiastically. "But
how could you guess? Fact, though! And not only you, but Hastings
and Somers as well, don't you know!"
"You're the fourth to spring this on us tonight," answered Jack Benson,
soberly. "And the answer will have to be the same for all of you."
"The same for all of us, dear chap?" demanded Abercrombie. "How can
that be?"
"The answer in every case is the same," retorted Jack. "If our own
government doesn't want us, no other government can have us. We stand
by our own Flag."
"Eh? What is this?" muttered Lieutenant Ulwin, coming unexpectedly upon
the pair. "Foreign government competing for you lads, Benson? This
won't do!"
"Which is what I have just had the honor of telling Mr. Abercrombie,"
smiled Jack, earnestly.