Top-Notch Magazine/Volume 27/Number 4/Shadows Tremendous/Chapter 16

N hour later, the secretary of the navy leaned easily against the starboard rail of the warship, his keen eyes roaming over the waste of rock and sand stretched out before him.

“Its very simple, Darrell,” he said, reaching for his cigarette case. “Saltus relayed your wireless to me at Panama, and I realized in an instant how serious the affair was likely to be. Happily the Pacific squadron had sailed only a few hours before, and it was an easy matter to order the Wyoming to put back at once. The world at large will suppose, of course, that I am merely making an unwarrantable display.” He smiled and extended his case. “The conservative newspapers will roar against the sinful waste of utilizing a first-class battleship for such a purpose. But that is one of the minor annoyances one has to put up with.”

The secret-service agent selected a cigarette from the extended case, and lit it. For a moment he stood silent, staring idly forward across the empty stretch of water to the spot where Harrington Ives' yacht had lain anchored two days before.

“If there should ever be another occasion,” he said lightly, “I hope you won't time your arrival quite so close. I told this head Jap that you'd show up yesterday, and I was really beginning to be afraid you were going to make me out a pretty bad guesser.”

The secretary stared. “You told him we were coming!” he repeated, in astonishment. “How did you know?”

Darrell shrugged his shoulders. “I knew you simply had to come if you got our message,” he said, smiling. “I played that card as a bluff, but you considerately slipped it into my hand when the show-down came. I did not tell them it would be the Wyoming. I said the Chicago was coming. But I guess that was near enough.”