Part 31 (1/2)
”Say, but this is fearfully careless of good old Hal,” muttered Jack Benson, uneasily, as he glanced at his watch. ”We've no time to go back to look for him, either, for we've barely time to reach the Secretary's office.”
”We'll have to go in without Hal, then,” grumbled Eph. ”It makes me feel like a fool, too!”
Had the two lads but known it, there was still plenty of time. For the Secretary of the Navy may make an appointment with an understrapper, and then find that he must first see some more important personage.
There were ”big” callers ahead of the boys that day, so that it was nearly two o'clock when Lieutenant Jack and Ensign Eph were admitted to the presence that they were to leave shorn of their brief rank and command.
”Good afternoon, Lieutenant Benson. Good afternoon, Mr. Somers,” was Secretary Sanders's swift greeting. ”You were most successful, and I must congratulate you heartily. But--where is Mr. Hastings?”
”We don't know, Mr. Secretary,” Jack admitted. ”He left us for a short time, as we thought, and, since then--”
Mr. Sanders wheeled sharply as the door opened and a clerk came in.
”Pardon me, sir,” apologized the clerk. ”But a note has just come for Lieutenant Benson, sir, and the messenger was insistent that it was a most important matter--”
”You may take your note and read it, Lieutenant,” suggested the Secretary of the Navy.
Young Benson gave a start when he recognized, in the address, the handwriting of Hal Hastings.
In another instant Jack gave a much more violent start. For these were the words that met his astounded gaze.
_”Dear Jack: I am in a Was.h.i.+ngton police station, feeling like a number-one idiot. Soon after leaving you I ran into Millard, face to face, There was a policeman within two hundred feet at the moment. I let out a full siren yell and dashed at Millard. He held on to me until the policeman reached the spot. I let him hold me, thinking that the easiest way. But Millard produced a paper--a request from the military authorities at Fort. Craven, to arrest and hold anyone pointed out by the bearer. I talked--some--to that policeman, but it did no good.
He took me to the station house, and here I am! Millard vanished, after saying that he'd wire the news of my arrest to Fort Craven.
You'll have to explain me out of this. Yours disgustedly, Hal.”_
”May I read this to you, Mr. Secretary?” begged Jack Benson.
”Do so, Lieutenant.”
”I will be back in a moment,” muttered the Secretary of the Navy, rising, and hastily quitting the room.
The instant that high official was gone Eph caught at his sides with his hands.
”Oh, wow! Woof! Umpah!” chuckled young Somers, his face distorted with glee. ”Some one catch me! I'm choking! Great Scott, what wouldn't I have given to see that? Hal, the quiet, the dignified? Oh, dear! Oh, dear. Hal pounces on the fellow, to arrest him, and Hal is the one who gets pinched Woo-oo! I can see Hal's face right now I'll wager an anchor to a fish-hook that the astonished look is stamped on Hal's face so hard that it won't come off for a week. Oh--woof!”
Eph was laughing so hard that the tears streamed down his face.
”Quit that!” commanded Jack, stepping over to his comrade, his own face stern. ”It's no laughing matter.”
”Why, they won't hang Hal!” sputtered Eph, as soon as he could talk.
”Hal will be at liberty almost at once. But fancy the shock! Imagine the dear old fellow's astonishment, and the jolt to his feelings.”
Again Eph Somers went off into a paroxysm of laughter. It seemed uncontrollable, for Eph had a strong sense of the ludicrous, and Hal's face, as Somers pictured it, must have been a tremendously funny sight at the instant when Millard so neatly turned the tables.
”Come, quit your nonsense!” grumbled Jack, disgustedly.
”I can't,” roared Eph, going off into still another burst of laughter.
Just at that instant Somers gave himself the lie. The door opened, admitting the Secretary of the Navy. In a fraction of a second Ensign Eph had straightened up, while his face was solemn enough for an Indian chief's countenance.