Part 7 (1/2)

”I say, Comly!” cried Rollo, who knew him, ”why can't you set my friend Norris here ash.o.r.e? It wouldn't be much out of your way, would it?”

”Not at all,” answered the ensign, courteously. ”And I should be pleased to accommodate any friend of yours. I must go at once, though; so, if Mr. Norris will come on deck--”

”Oh, but that won't do,” interrupted Van Kyp. ”He must get off the s.h.i.+p without any one on deck seeing him.” With this he explained the situation to the ensign, who readily grasped it, and said:

”All right. I'll run my boat in under this sideport, and he can drop out of it if the sentry will let him pa.s.s.”

Of course the guard at the wide freight port left open for a better circulation of air between decks would allow Ridge to pa.s.s, for he was one of their own troop, and knew that the sergeant had been ordered ash.o.r.e. To give him further a.s.surance that everything was all right, Ridge said:

”It is my duty, you know, to go in the first boat that offers, since Major Dodley undoubtedly left some time since. He said he would only wait two minutes, and as that was fully five minutes ago, he ought to be ash.o.r.e by now.”

Thus it happened that while the messenger who had been ordered to fetch Sergeant Norris of the Rough Riders was still fuming over the unpardonable delay of the trooper, and threatening all sorts of unpleasant things for him when he did appear, Ridge gained the railroad wharf without being observed from the deck of the transport. There, finding an empty train just starting for Tampa, he was able to present himself in camp half an hour later. From it he was sent to headquarters, with orders to report to Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, who had come ash.o.r.e early that morning. This Ridge hastened to do, without waiting to answer any of the eager questions showered upon him by his recent comrades of the camp.

At the hotel occupied as headquarters an orderly conducted him to the office of the commanding general, where, upon admittance, he found himself not only in the presence of his own superior officer, but of a group of distinguished looking men in uniform, who, as he afterwards discovered, were Generals Miles, Shafter, Lee, and Lawton, and Lieutenant Boldwood of the navy, now in command of the despatch boat _Speedy_, recently arrived.

”General,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, addressing the commander-in-chief, ”this is Sergeant Norris of my regiment, the man whom I recommended for your purpose, and for whom you sent less than an hour ago.”

”Where were you when ordered to report here?” asked General Miles, turning abruptly to Ridge.

”On board the transport _Yucatan_, lying off Port Tampa, sir.”

”Then you are one of the few men whom I have discovered among our volunteers who have learned the lesson of _prompt_ obedience,” remarked the general, with a slight scowl on his still handsome though deeply lined face.

”Umph!” snorted General Shafter, who was a big man, weighing about three hundred pounds, and whose hair was sadly rumpled, as though by much perplexity.

General Lee, also a large, fine-looking man, smiled approvingly at the prompt young trooper, while General ”Iron” Lawton, spare of figure and with a reputation as a fighter, gave him a penetrating glance, that Ridge knew had indelibly fixed his face upon the soldier's memory. The naval man also regarded him with interest, and our hero, greatly confused at being thus observed, was relieved to have General Miles proceed, to question him further.

”I understand that you speak Spanish like a native.”

”I do, sir.”

”Have you ever been in Cuba?”

”No, sir.”

”Or travelled in Spain?”

”Yes, sir.”

”Acquainted with its princ.i.p.al cities?”

”I am, sir,” replied Ridge, wondering in what direction these questions were tending.

”Are you willing to encounter great risks and undergo great hards.h.i.+ps in your country's service?”

”Certainly I am, sir,” answered the young trooper, with flushed face, for he began to suspect that some more important duty was to be required of him than simply remaining in camp.

”In that case I am going to offer you the chance of winning your country's grat.i.tude, and possibly with it an ignominious death. It is deemed imperative that some one intrusted with grave secrets should immediately set forth on an important mission to Cuba. If his ident.i.ty is discovered before the task is completed, his fate will undoubtedly be that of a spy. Knowing this fact, are you ready to undertake it?”