EM EM : monthly magazine - 01.09.1941, Síða 35

EM EM : monthly magazine - 01.09.1941, Síða 35
Bm Errt 35 ••vve Diew tfle sare ana urought) up two bars. They were nicely sacked and all that, but they were bars of lead.” Colonel Baird did not say any- thing for a while. Then he turned abruptly to the telephone, called a number in a brisk voice and held a ' -ief conversation. He rose. “Come, lieutenant. President Sazardi wishes tn see us imme- diately.” „ The president of Andegoya was a little man '.vith thick white hair and long white mustaches. Though he was only 60, the care of the state had rested heavily c- ' is shoulders and he looked worn and tired and old beyond his years. I told my story, briefiy and to the point, and President Sazardi did not once interrupt me. Wheil I had flnished, the president sat motionless for a long time, drum- ming nervously on the arms of hia chair. Pinally he sighed and rosft slowly to his feet. “It is too bad,” he said regret- fully. “I have always liked the boy, always believed that he had! a great future, a future of service to our country. rAnd now—well—” He shrugged expressively and turned to a uniformed attendant who stood near the door. He spoke rapidly in Spanish. The man saluted and dashed out of the room. The president tumed back to Baird and me. “I personally am going to place Francisco Carretos under arrest. Do you gentlemen wish to accom- pany me?” r) “I do, sir,” I spoke up quickly. “I’d like to see this thing through to the finish.” “Colonel Baird?” “Yes, indeed, Your Excellency. But now that you speak of it— let me see. What was it Mildred told me this evening? Oh yes, Carretas was giving some sort of a dinner party aboard his yacht. It seems I recall that she was in- vited. Yes, I remember very well( now. They were to have dinner on the yacht and then go for a short cruise outside the harbor. It was to be a very informal dinner, Mil- dred said, just something to geb their minds off the terrible ex- perience they had been through. Sazardi’s black piercing eyes narrowed and his lips formed in a mirthless grin. “Senor Carretos wlll go through just one more ter-; rible experience,” ht said grimly.; “Come gentlemen.” _ Two automobiles loaded withj soldiers preceded us as we drovej at breakneck speed through thel narrow streets to the waterfront.l Thð tlvAai^Ani'a twiova was awaitmg us witn enginsá idling. We climbed in, a dozen soldiers at our heels. The boat swung away from the pier and headed out into the harbor. Then I swore shortly. “My lord, sir!” I cried, “The Liberatad is gone'.” “Gone!” the president exclaimed. “You are certain?” I was certain. For two years I had watched the harbor from my window in the club and I knew the anchorage of every ship in it. “Of course!” I said bitterly. “The Juarto came back and told Carretos that the jig was up. The gimboat must have got in just be- fore we did. She left a couple of hours ahead of us, but we came back at 30 knots.” Sazardi swore mildly in Spanish. “You are a seafaring man, sir. WÍiat do you suggest?” “I suggest that we get aboard the Whipple as fast as this boat will take us there. The anchor watch may have seen whic i way the Liberated went after she got outside the heads. Of course, she’ll run without lights. It’s a hundred to one we’H never be able to pick her up, but it looks like our only chance.” Dick Hoffman, it developed, had himself watched the Liberatad pull her anchor and steam out of the harbor. Not knowing that the yacht belonged to Carretos, he had paid her little heed. He had no- ticed, however, that her running lights and masthead light had been switcheí off immediately she had cleared *•' e heads. “How long ago did she shove off?” I asked quickly. r ~Half an hour, I should say.” , I looked hopelessly at the little group of men in the wardroom. Half an hour! A start of nearly 10 miles! I felt suddenly weak and helpless, and my own feelings were reflected in the faces of the men around me. v / Col. Baird looked dazed; he seemed to know that his daughter, whether willingly or otherwise, was still aboard the Liberatad. The president’s f a c e w a s flushed; I knew the dynamic little man was seethlng with important anger. Hoffman stood shifting from one foot to the other, anxious to do something, but not knowing what to do. Behind him stood the other offlcers of the destroyer, si- lent, eager, excited by the swift drama that had entered their nor- mally monotonous routine. It was one of the junior offlcers jong ao you ».öare tne' waR5" or a ship remains visible on a calm sea?” Hoffman started. So did I. “By the gods!” Dick cried. “On a calm, oily sea a ship’s wake might remain visible for a good hour. If we can pick up that yacht’s wake—” He was out of the wardroom and on his way to the bridge. With her searchlights focussed on the mirror-calm sea ahead, her forced draft blowers roaring, the Whipple shot out of the harbor like a lean greyhound on the trail of a rabbit. A quarter of a mile beyond the heads we pieked up the Liberatad’s wake, a streak of dull water leading straight eastward acror the shining expanse of oily sea. “Hard right!” Dick Hoffman or- dered. “Rudder amidships . . . Steady as you go."4, The destroyer swung onto the yacht’s track. For 20 minutes that dull streak on the glassy ocean bore due east. Then it swung sharply to starboard. | Hoffman chuckled. “They’ve spotted us,” he remarked elatedly. “They’re trying to zig-zag and throw us off the track. They haven’t a chance.” Ten minutes later our search- lights picked up the fleeing yacht. Carretos must have realized then the game was up, for he switehed on his lights and hove to. Hoffman skillfully brought the destroyeri alongside the Liberatad and aj group of us leaped onto the yacht’s! deck. I caught sight of Carretosj on the bridge. The Andegoyan was standing) quietly. There was a saturnine smile on his lips as he watched mel coming toward him. He spokel calmly and not without a certain grudging admiration. "The Lieutenant Leslie again! You have done well. Sir, I salute you. Adios!” As coolly as though he were div- ing into a swimming tank, Car- retos jumped to the rail, poised for an instant and then dove cleanly into the sea. A little trail of phos- phorescence marked the path of his body through the water. Down, down, down—he never came up. The president’s soldiers found a group of white-faced frightened men in the yacht’s cabin. Nine men and a lone woman, Mildred Baird. Some of the plotters were high in their^country’s service. Others. like Pedro Gonzales, one- time servant in the Americaní who offered possible solution to Club, held no offlcial position in the problem. "Look here, cap-‘ :the renuhUc. ' * ' ittlnJi h& orlfiuí ðiwlílAnlu- “tínut

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