"But why should Uncle Sam be sending money over there?" asked Ned.
"It is a.s.serted that the money was sent at the command of men high in influence in Washington who understood that it was to be seized while in transit, after reaching Chinese soil, and used to a.s.sist the radical fomentation now going on in China."
"An indirect way, a sly and underhand way, of a.s.sisting the revolutionary party in China to get control of the government, eh?"
asked Ned.
"Aw, that is what is claimed," was the reply.
"And you are to have charge of the expedition?" asked Ned, quietly, his eyes fixed keenly on the face of the visitor.
"Orders," was the slow reply.
"And the Diver has been chosen as the boat?"
"At my request, yes."
"But," Ned then said, by way of protest, "I have made all my trial trips in the Sea Lion."
"You will soon learn to help handle the Diver," was the lofty reply.
"The Diver is no more like the Sea Lion than she is like the Ark," was Ned"s reply. "It will take me another fortnight to learn to run her, I"m afraid."
"You can take lessons from my son on the way over," was the unsatisfactory reply.
"Why, the submarine is not going to sail across the Pacific," said the boy. "As I understand it, we are to take pa.s.sage in a mail steamer at San Francisco and find the submarine in some harbor of the island of Hainan, after she arrives on the other side in a man-of-war which will be detailed to carry her over."
"I have changed all that," said the Captain.
Ned said no more on that phase of the matter at that time, but the boys knew that he had not given up his original intention of making the explorations in the Sea Lion, the submarine which the Secret Service chief at New York had placed at his disposal soon after his return from South America.
"You will be permitted to take one of your--ah, Boy Scouts with you,"
the Captain went on. "Baby bunch, the Boy Scouts, what?" he added, lifting his gla.s.s and surveying the boys grouped about in a manner which brought the hot blood to their cheeks.
"I"m afraid you have never investigated the Boy--"
Ned"s conciliatory remark was cut short by Jimmie.
"Will the Boy Scout who goes with him be allowed to breathe?" the boy asked.
Captain Moore eyed the lad critically through his gla.s.s.
"You needn"t concern yourself about that, bub," he said, after an exasperating silence, "for you won"t be the one to go, don"t you know--not the Boy Scout to go."
Jimmie was about to make some angry reply, but Frank seized him by the arm and marched him to a distant part of the large room.
"You"ll queer the whole thing!" Frank said.
Jimmie shook himself free of the detaining hand and faced the Captain with flashing eyes.
"I don"t care if I do!" he said. "That thing is not going to make ugly remarks about the Boy Scouts without bein" called for it. He"s an old false alarm, anyway. I"ll bet he never heard a real gun go off!"
Captain Moore heard the insulting words and arose.
"If you"ll, aw, come to my office tomorrow morning," he said, to Ned, "we"ll discuss the, aw, mattah. I cawn"t remain here and quarrel with boys who ought to be, aw, spanked and put, aw, to bed as soon as the sun goes down."
Ned did not rise from his chair to escort the Captain to the door. His face was pale and there was a dangerous light in his eyes.
"It won"t be necessary for me to visit you in the morning," he said.
The Captain fixed his gla.s.s.
"Fawncy!" he exclaimed.
"Anything you like!" Ned said.
"Fawncy!" repeated the Captain.
"As you please," Ned smiled. "Fawncy anything you like--anything agreeable, you know."
"And why won"t you come to my office in the morning?" asked the Captain, with a tightening of his thin lips.
"I have decided to withdraw from the enterprise," was the quiet reply.
"I"m out of it."
The boys gathered about Ned with cheers and words of encouragement.
"Go it, old boy!" cried one.
"Don"t let him bluff you!" cried another.
"Dad will buy you a submarine!" Frank Shaw put in.
The Captain stood in the middle of the group, gazing in perplexity from face to face.
"My word!" he said, presently.
"What about it?" asked Jimmie, edging closer.
"Not going?" continued the Captain; "why?"
"I"ve changed my mind," was the unsatisfactory reply.
"But the submarine is waiting," urged the Captain.
"I shall never go to the bottom in the Diver," Ned replied.
"My word!"
The Captain loitered, as if anxious to reopen the whole matter, but Ned turned his back and seemed inclined to consider the case closed.