Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/129

 this mess," he told her, "and get out of it in the right way."

"But what way?" she asked, puzzled by his unheralded change of front.

"The quick way, and the sure way," he answered, swinging across the cabin until he stood before his switch-lever. His hand hovered about the apparatus as he went on. "I mean our way out is to get the Princeton now, to-night, before she's out of touch with us! I mean it's best for us to play our card at once, when it's not too late! The Princeton has already passed us on her way to Culebra, to replace the gunboat Eagle; she's leaving us farther and farther behind every hour!"

"But what do we gain by getting the Princeton now?" Alicia Boynton demanded.

He was at the key by this time, and the "crash—rash—rrrrash" of the great spark as it leaped and exploded from the discharging-rods filled the cabin with a peremptory and authoritative tumult of sound. The woman stood watching him, spellbound. A moment later McKinnon's left hand was fidgeting above his tuner, while his right pressed a 'phone-receiver close to his ear.

"What we've got to do is to get that cruiser to Puerto Locombia," he hurriedly went on, as he waited there, without looking up. "She will