Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/236

 "Yes. There was a time when I doubted you a bit. And when you made arrangements to arrest Cyrus Felton I about concluded that the case was to prove after all an ordinary affair. But you have redeemed yourself, Barker. You have proved that the detective I have long admired in the pages of fiction is not a myth, but has his prototype in real life."

"Indeed?" grunts Barker. "Go on."

"Yes; just before you descended upon your victim with a triumphant swoop, said victim gave you the slip. Undaunted by such a trifling discouragement, you struck a bee line for Havana, and there"

"Come, stow your chaff. I'd like to know whose tom-*foolery prevented Felton's arrest in New York. By thunder, if I could have got your ear a moment after I discovered Felton's departure for Cuba, I'd have given you a dressing-down that would have knocked some of the self-sufficiency out of you."

"Well, you can consider yourself forgiven," says Ashley, soothingly. "What's up at Jibana? Anything special?"

"Yes; a rather important bit of work. This morning Capt. Alvarez, to give him the name he chooses to sail under, learned that a large force of insurgents under El Terredo were encamped somewhere between Cadoza and Jibana. He wired the fact to Havana and not ten minutes later received instructions to intercept a courier for the rebels who was on his way from Santiago to Jibana, presumably with dispatches to El Terredo. Although only his orderly, I am pretty close to Alvarez. The chap has taken quite a fancy to me, and to give him his due he is a devilishly clever fellow, with more pluck and fighting blood in him than a dozen Spaniards. American blood will tell, my boy."

"Well, what's the plan for the night?"

"This: We are to flag the train about a mile below Jibana and do the trick quietly, as the feeling about here is pretty strong against the Spanish; arrest the courier, secure the papers, and wire Havana that the road is clear, as I understand the dispatches relate to the big