AMERICAN WOMEN IN PERIL!
Slowly Captain Foster read off the numbers, writing them down in a
notebook that he carried. As the older officer glanced up he met the
burning gaze of Lieutenant Hal Overton.
"Captain," cried the Army boy hoarsely, "I don't know by what juggling
trickery this was done, but I never have handled that money, though it
would seem that I must have been carrying it around in my holster."
"Bah!" sneered Ruggles.
Had it not been for Captain Foster's quick leap between the pair Hal
would have knocked the purple-faced fellow down.
"Careful, Mr. Overton," warned the captain. "Violence will injure your
case, not help it. Mr. Ruggles, I will hold this money as evidence, but
I will give you a receipt for it."
"On that receipt will you enter the numbers of the bills?" demanded the
purple-faced one craftily.
"Certainly," and Foster made the receipt out in that form, handing it to
the promoter.
"Sergeant of the guard!" called Captain Foster.
Hal stiffened, his face turning ghastly. He felt that it would be better
to die than to live a life of disgrace. The thought that he had been
easily but cleverly tricked made his blood boil within him.
"Sergeant, conduct the prisoner Ruggles to the guard-tent, where the
Mexicans are. Instruct the guard that they are to make absolutely sure
that this prisoner doesn't escape."
"Doesn't your young man go to the guard-tent, too?" demanded Ruggles, as
he stepped toward the sergeant.
"I will be responsible for the lieutenant," rejoined the captain coldly.
"Thank you, Sergeant Raney. You may go. Of course you will be discreet."
When the two officers had the tent to themselves Foster turned his grave
look on Hal Overton.
"My boy," said the captain, in a voice that shook, "I can't realize,
even yet, that you have forfeited your honor as an officer."
"Nor have I, sir," returned Hal. "And I am even bold enough to hope that
I can yet find some way of throwing the whole lie back in that fellow's
throat with more proof than even he will care to swallow."
"I hope you can, Overton, with all my heart," responded the older
soldier, resting a hand on his white-faced junior's shoulder.
"Do you believe me guilty, sir?" asked Hal, looking straight into his
commander's eyes.
"Heavens knows I don't. To me, Overton, the whole thing seems absurd and
incredible. But I am your commanding officer. A charge has been made
that apparently destroys your honor. Some seeming proof against you has
been found. There is only one course open to me. I must detain you in
camp until I have communicated through the usual military channels."
"Am--am I under arrest?" asked Hal somewhat huskily.
"No, no, Overton!" exclaimed the older soldier quickly. "But you must
give me your parole--not to go beyond camp limits at any time or for any
purpose without my express permission."
"You have my parole, sir. It shall be rigidly observed."
"And now, Mr. Overton, I suggest that, as you have nothing else to do,
you lie down and sleep through the night."
"_Sleep_, sir?" echoed Lieutenant Hal bitterly.
"Rest, then, at all events."
For two or three hours the Army boy lay and tossed. Toward morning,
however, he secured some real sleep. When he opened his eyes it was to
find Noll in the tent.
"I've heard the news, old bunkie," cried Terry, coming forward as soon
as he saw his comrade's eyes open. "All rot! Forget it. It'll come out
all right. When Prescott and Holmes heard the news they laughed aloud
over the absurdity of it."
"I wish I was as sure of every one's faith in me," quivered the Army
boy, returning his chums' hand-grip.
"Get up and dress. Captain Foster has had his meal, but the others are
all waiting for you to hurry through to the table."
Three other young officers had crowded into the tent before Hal had
finished dressing.
"The whole thing is absurd, Overton," declared Lieutenant Dick Prescott.
"Holmesy and I have told Captain Foster so. We had you under our eyes in
the Thirty-fourth during most of your more than three years of service.
We know you too well to believe a word of any such fool charge against
you."
"Even in the face of the money found in my holster?" asked Hal smiling
wistfully.
"Huh!" retorted Lieutenant Greg Holmes. "It wouldn't shake our belief in
you, old man, if the whole United States Treasury had been found hiding
in your holster! Now, forget it all, as well as you can, Overton. Leave
it to your friends, who will be cooler-headed, to find the way out from
under this toy cloud. Why, even Foster knows it's all so absurd that he
doesn't order you under arrest."
"Thank you all, fellows," replied Hal, his eyes gleaming as he shook
hands with all three of his Army comrades and with the friend from the
Navy. "I'll brace and fight every inch of the way. But," he could not
help adding, wistfully, "I wish I could see how I am going to be able to
clear myself so that not even a trace of a taint of suspicion can rest
against any name."
The youngsters tried to make breakfast a merry meal, though they were
not wholly successful. During the night, following the taking of the
prize, Skipper Tom Halstead, it seemed, had been entertaining the four
young officers left aboard the "Restless" with several exciting tales of
his own wholly exciting life as a motor boat master. Most of these tales
are already familiar to the readers of the "MOTOR BOAT CLUB SERIES."
"What's Halstead's home port?" asked Hal, rather absently, for,
naturally, his mind was rather full of his own troubles.
"Some little place near the mouth of the Kennebec River," Prescott
answered.
"Then isn't he a long way from home?" asked Hal.
"Halstead often is a long way from home," nodded Lieutenant Holmes. "Not
so very long ago Halstead commanded a yacht on the Pacific Ocean, and
had some of his most rousing adventures at that time."
"It's young fellows like Halstead, Joe Dawson and that queer genius,
Hank Butts, who are needed to build up the American merchant marine once
more," Prescott continued.
Having been up all night most of the young officers were now glad to
turn in for a few hours of sleep. Lieutenant Hal passed a wretched day
of it.
Toward four o'clock in the afternoon an orderly brought in the afternoon
mail from the village. With the mail came two telegrams, one for Captain
Foster and the other for Lieutenant Prescott. That latter young officer
tore open his telegram eagerly, and read:
"Received, en route, your telegram stating you were ordered to
Holmesville. Belle and I at once changed our route and are here
at Holmesville, Eagle Hotel. Mother with us. Find you not here,
and no troops here, and that we will not be allowed to join
your command. What shall we do?
"LAURA BENTLEY."
"What a queer girl's freak that was," murmured Prescott, and called
Ensign Dave Darrin over to read the despatch.
"I'm afraid I don't like that," muttered Dave, his brow darkening. "We'd
better wire the girls begging them to get away from the border as soon
as they know how."
"Who's that you're going to order away from the border, Mr. Darrin?"
inquired Captain Foster, coming up and catching only a few words.
"No one that we can very well _order_, sir," replied Darrin. "I may as
well tell the captain. You see, sir, Laura Bentley and Belle Meade are
the two girl sweethearts that waited for us until we got settled in the
service. They were on their way West to Fort Clowdry, for both girls
wanted a military wedding, and there was nothing of that sort to be had
in the home town. So Prescott wired them, aboard their train, that he
was ordered to Holmesville, and that I was going along with him, and
that we'd be back at Fort Clowdry at the earliest moment. But the girls
took it into their head to change their route to Holmesville. Maybe you
can get away, Dick; in any case I'll hire an automobile and get up to
Holmesville as quickly as I can."
"I am afraid there may be some difficulty about your getting into
Holmesville, or the young ladies getting out," replied Captain Foster.
"What do you mean, sir?" demanded Prescott, noting how serious was the
look on the captain's face.
"A few weeks ago, gentlemen, a mob burned a Mexican at the stake up at
Holmesville. The Mexican was a worthless fellow, but of course an effort
has been made to fasten the crime on the Texan residents of the town. As
a matter of fact it is generally understood that the man lynched was
burned by his own countryman as a result of some row among themselves.
But the Mexicans on this border are in an ugly frame of mind, just now,
as the most disorderly ones are all behind the revolution that's trying
to get a start across the border. This telegram is from Washington, and
informs me that the Mexicans have just turned loose at Holmesville.
There are hundreds of them; they have been drinking and are armed. They
greatly outnumber the Americans, and they are at present trying to get
the upper hand in Holmesville."
"Riot and killing?" gasped Lieutenant Prescott, while Darrin's dark
face went suddenly white.
"Yes," nodded Captain Foster.
"Then Prescott, we must get under way at once."
"You'll find it quite hopeless," remarked Captain Foster. "No man owning
an automobile will take you into or near Holmesville until the rioting
stops. The War Department advises me to have all in readiness to
despatch troops by the river in case the governor of Texas calls for the
help of United States troops."
"We ought to start an expedition up the river at once," groaned
Lieutenant Dick Prescott, thinking of his and his friend's sweethearts
in awful danger there.
"Unfortunately we can't start troops," replied the captain, "until the
orders come. There are as yet no orders, and may not be."
"Then I must get under way alone," almost moaned Darrin. "You, too,
Prescott, if you can get leave by 'phone from your commander."
"You can't get an auto," replied Captain Foster. "You'll have to walk,
or go in saddle. Either course will take you nearly all of the night."
"But one of your boats, sir?" cried Prescott.
"You're an officer, Prescott, and you must realize that I can't legally
release one of my boats from the duty here without an order or
permission."
"And all the time Belle and Laura may be trying to hide from a
blood-thirsty mob!" gasped Darrin in a frenzy.
"You stay here, Dick," broke in Greg Holmes. "I'll run to the nearest
'phone, get Captain Cortland at the other end of the wire, explain the
situation to him and get leave to absent ourselves."
"But even at the best it will take hours to reach Holmesville," muttered
Prescott, through blanched lips. "Oh, Dave, Dave, this is awful!"
"We'll get there, somehow--at least I will," muttered Ensign Darrin, in
a quivering voice. "If you don't get leave within ten minutes, Dick, I'm
going to start alone and try to run all the way to Holmesville. Captain
Foster, you'll loan me a revolver and two boxes of cartridges, won't
you?"
"Certainly," replied Foster, going into his tent and coming out with the
articles named.
"I would like to make a suggestion, sir," broke in Lieutenant Hal.
"Go ahead, Mr. Overton," responded the captain.
"Why not send two men at once to the telegraph station? Order the
telegraph office manager to remain open all night for military
telegrams. If one comes, one of our men can start here at once on the
run, leaving the other soldier to wait for a second despatch that may
come in its wake."
"An excellent idea, Mr. Overton," and Captain Foster immediately sent
two soldiers off on that errand.
"Sir, I request permission, if it can possibly be granted, to go with
Darrin, Prescott and Holmes," broke in Lieutenant Noll.
"You may have that leave, certainly, Mr. Terry," replied Captain Foster.
"And I, also, Captain," broke in Hal eagerly, "since this affair
involves the lives of the intended brides of two officers, and is most
certainly a service affair."
"I fear you have forgotten something, Mr. Overton," replied Captain
Foster gently. "You are now confined to camp, under charges."
Hal fell back, going suddenly white and staggering as though he had
received a blow. In truth he had.
"I forgot," he assented wretchedly. "And, oh, this is hard, sir. I am
wholly innocent of the charge, and yet of course you have no right to
take my mere word. This, in the face of a desperate expedition that I
want to join more than I ever wanted anything in my life as a soldier!"