"Why do you say that?"
"Because I rather think," smiled the young submarine captain, "that I may attempt to pay that pair back in their own coin--somehow. By the way, do either of them know you well when they see you?"
"They might remember me as a newspaper writer," replied Graham. "So I"ll keep out of the way."
"It won"t be necessary for me to keep out of the way," added Hennessy.
"I don"t know either Mlle. Nadiboff or her companion; and, besides, I"m here openly as a reporter interested in the submarine craft."
By this time the three had returned to the upper air.
"I"ll vanish, now," proposed Mr. Graham. "But you, Hennessy, if Captain Benson doesn"t mind, might as well go along with him. You may get a good look at the Nadiboff woman. You, too, may think her very young.
She has a knack of keeping so. Yet she"s at least twenty-eight or thirty. Good-bye, for the present!"
Graham turned, losing himself from their sight amid the ruins. Hennessy walked with Jack back to where Hal and the woman awaited them.
Jack"s mind was rapidly revolving plans for teaching some one a lesson that would not be forgotten.
CHAPTER VIII
EVEN UP FOR MR. KAMANAKO
"This is Mr. Hennessy, one of the newspaper men who visited our boat yesterday afternoon," said Jack, on rejoining his companions. "Mr.
Hennessy has been returning good for evil. While I am unable to tell him any of the things he wants most to know about our boat, he, on the other hand, has been telling me much of interest about these ruins."
"There are a lot of legends about this old wreck of a castle," laughed Hennessy. "Most of them are too silly to consider for a moment. One of the old stories has to do with a secret pa.s.sage. Some of the guides hereabouts show what they solemnly explain was one of the outlets of the secret pa.s.sage in bygone days. Do you care to devote five minutes to looking at the ridiculous thing?"
Mlle. Nadiboff smilingly accepted the suggestion, so Hal and Jack also agreed. The reporter led the way across a field, pausing at last before a fringe of weeds and low bushes.
"Now, just step through this wild hedge," Hennessy proposed, smilingly, "and you"ll see how little it takes to start a yarn. Look out, though, that you don"t fall down."
As they stepped through the fringe cautiously the members of the party found themselves peering down the shaft of what appeared to be a very ordinary well. It was circular, in shape, and had been laid, on the inside, with a masonry of stones.
"There is water at the bottom, isn"t there?" inquired the woman Spy.
"Yes," replied Hennessy. "It was never anything more than a well. Yet, day before yesterday, one of the local guides brought me here and insisted on telling me all about its having been an outlet of a famous secret pa.s.sage from the castle. I had some fishing tackle in my pocket, so I rigged up a line and weight, and let it down. I satisfied myself that there were about four feet of greenish, slimy water at the bottom of a well. I wish you could have seen the guide"s face!"
"Here come some visitors, now," nudged Hal.
Two men and four women, led by a guide, approached the place.
"This shaft looks dark and mysterious enough," began the guide, reeling off a well learned lesson, "to be as full of historic interest and mystery as it really is. This shaft is what is left of one of the outlets of the famous secret pa.s.sage to and from the castle."
While the new visitors crowded about, asking questions and offering remarks, the party that Hennessy was guiding stepped into the background, secretly enjoying the guide"s buncombe.
"If people would only stop to use their good sense a bit," whispered Hennessy, "they"d know, at once, that the shaft is only a long disused well."
"Great Scott!" whispered Jack. "Here come Mr. Farnum and Eph with a guide. Let"s see if they will be buncoed."
Guide number two came up, with the shipbuilder and Somers in tow.
Greetings were exchanged. Then the last arrived pair stepped forward in the guide"s wake. Farnum listened with an amused smile.
"Oh, pshaw!" grunted Eph. "Is this the best you can show us? This is nothing but an old well, with ten feet of malaria at the bottom. Show us, for a change, something that we can believe."
Hal began to laugh quietly. Then all hands stepped forward for another look down the shaft. As they stepped outside again Benson happened to turn just in time to see a familiar figure coming along a path near by.
It was Kamanako, better dressed than he had been earlier in the morning, and carrying a bulging dress suitcase.
"Hullo!" muttered Jack Benson, in a tone loud enough to carry to the ears of the newcomer. "There"s that infernal j.a.p spy--that scoundrelly thief of other men"s secrets!"
Kamanako halted as abruptly as though he had been challenged by a sentry.
As he saw the young captain a dark, red flush crept into the cheeks of the little, brown man.
"You talk much," sneered the j.a.panese his anger rising.
"I say what I think about spies and fellows who would steal other men"s secrets," retorted the young submarine captain.
"You will hold tongue better, if you please," snapped Kamanako.
"I? Hold my tongue for any scamp like you?" taunted Jack Benson.
The taunt had the effect for which Jack wished. Kamanako, looking furious, dropped his dress suit case and ran angrily forward.
Just in time, as the j.a.panese bounded through the fringe of weeds, Captain Jack dodged adroitly to one side.
So Kamanako plunged past him--and, the next instant, there came a smothered yell from the inside of the well shaft.
"Oh, that was a shame!" came indignantly, from one of the women in the party of strangers.
But Jack, paying no heed to her, had stepped back to the edge of the well shaft. Dimly, down at the bottom, he could make out Kamanako, standing in slimy water that reached nearly up to his arm-pits.
"Is the water fine, eh?" Jack called down, laughingly.
"I show you--some time!" came the answer, in smothered rage.
"You showed me j.a.panese jiu-jitsu," mocked Benson "so I had to do something to return your courtesy. What I have just shown you is called--American strategy!"
By now Kamanako had succeeded in pulling himself part way out of the water, using his hands and feet on projecting bits of the old masonry.
"You"ll get out, in time, for you"re a patient fellow," Jack called down, in a tantalizing kind of encouragement. "Don"t forget the name that I have just given you--American strategy. And, the next time a fellow tries to make you mad, don"t let him do it until you"ve looked the ground over. American strategy--yes, that"s the name."
Laughing, as he straightened up, Jack turned away from the shaft
"And aren"t you going to throw him down a rope, or do something to help the poor fellow out?" demanded the same indignant woman.
"Not in view of his line of offense, madame," Benson replied, raising his cap.