The Frenchman, for that he unmistakably was, laughed in the utmost good humor. The boys found themselves much inclined to like this stranger.
"Now, young gentlemen," continued the Frenchman, "I am ze Chevalier Gari d"Ouray."
"Glad to meet you, Chev," volunteered Eph, with suspicious amiability, holding out his hand, which the Frenchman took daintily. "I"m a "shoveleer" myself, and this awkward, gawky looking boy with me is our engineer."
Eph had a tight grip on the stranger"s hand, by this time, and was surely making it interesting for the Frenchman. The Chevalier d"Ouray was doing his best to retain his politeness, but Somers"s hearty grip hurt the foreigner"s soft little hand.
"What can we do for you, Chev?" demanded Eph, holding to the Frenchman"s hand so persistently that Hastings gave his friend a sharp nudge in the back.
"Let us go somewhere," urged the Frenchman. "Some place were we can sit down and have ze talk about important matters. I have ze message for you zat I cannot deliver upon ze street."
"Now, don"t say, please," begged Eph, "that you have heard we are wanted in the French Navy."
The Chevalier d"Ouray looked intensely astonished.
"Parbleu! You are one marvel!" gasped the Frenchman. "You read my most secret thought. But yes! You have made ze one right guess. However, I cannot more say upon ze street. Let us go somewhere."
"All right," nodded Eph. "You go along, now, and we"ll be along in an hour."
"Wiz pleasure," nodded the chevalier, eagerly. "But we"re shall I go?"
"Anywhere you like," suggested Eph, cordially.
"But, zen, how will you know w"ere I am to be found?"
"Oh, we"ll take a chance on that," proposed Eph, carelessly.
"But, unless I am able to say, now, w"ere I shall be--" the Frenchman started to argue.
"We"ll guess the meeting place as well as we did your errand," proposed Eph.
"Ten thousan" thanks!" cried, the chevalier. "Yet, for fear we mek ze one mistek, suppose I say--"
Eph Somers had struck such a streak of "guying" nonsense that Jack Benson felt called upon to interpose, for he and Hal both liked the twinkling eyes and good-humored face of this dandified little Frenchman.
"Pardon me, sir," Jack accordingly broke in, "but, if we happened to guess your errand, it was because we have just gotten away from the agent of another government."
"How? Is zat posseeble?" cried the Chevalier d"Ouray, a disappointed look coming into his face.
"Yes; it"s true," nodded Jack.
"But you did not come to any terms wiz him?"
"Oh, no!"
"Ah, zen, ze coast is steel clear," cried the little Frenchman, delightedly. "So, as to w"ere we can meet and mek ze one talk--"
"We can get that all over with, right here," Jack replied. "We can make you the same answer that we gave the other man. We are Americans, and would never think of serving any other flag, even in peace time.
Chevalier, I can save your time by telling you that any arrangement to engage our services away from the United States would be utterly hopeless."
"But ze money--" began the Frenchman, protestingly.
"There isn"t money enough across the Atlantic to hire us," Jack answered, bluntly.
"And ze honneur--"
"Honor? What would that word afterwards mean to Americans, Chevalier, after they had left their own country to serve another?"
The Chevalier d"Ouray began to look as though he realized he had a harder task before him than he had expected.
"So you see, sir," Jack went on, "it will not be in the least worth your while to try to tempt us. Come what will or may, we are under the American flag for life. You yourself, Chevalier, wouldn"t leave the French flag to serve this country, Great Britain or Germany."
"No; but zat is deeferent, for I, monsieur, am French."
"And we are American," Jack responded.
"I will leave you, now, zen, gentlemen," replied the Frenchman, in a tone of disappointment. "But I shall not go away before to-morrow. If you change ze mind--or weesh to hear w"at I have to mek ze offer--"
"Thank you," nodded Jack. "But don"t waste any more time on us, Chevalier. And now--good-bye!"
The Chevalier d"Ouray shook hands with them all most gallantly. Eph felt somewhat ashamed of his late nonsense, and, to prove it, hit the Chevalier d"Ouray a friendly slap on one shoulder that set the Frenchman to coughing.
"Say," muttered Jack, as the three now hurried along the street, "I begin to wish I had a good umbrella."
"Humph! You"d look great with one," retorted Hal. "You, who have stood on the platform deck of a submarine for hours, steering unconcernedly, when the skies were trying to drown you."
"But I feel," remonstrated Jack, "that it"s soon going to rain foreign agents. I"d like to get in out of the international wet."
"Oh, we won"t see any more of these fellows," smiled Hal.
"Now, there"s just where I believe you"re wrong, messmate," Jack contended. "These foreign governments hire detectives to watch each other. When we hear from one, we"re likely to hear from the whole lot at once. Look around you, Eph. Do you see a j.a.p anywhere?"
"Not a solitary jiu-jitsu fiend," responded Eph, after halting and staring both ways in turn along the street.
"Well, j.a.pan is about due," laughed Benson. "And now, let"s get in through the gate of the shipyard. If any more of these foreign agents show up--well, there are two boats in the harbor that are in commission.
We"ll find an excuse to put to sea in one of them."
"Just the youngsters I was going out to try to find," hailed Grant Andrews, foreman of the submarine construction work, as he hurried across the yard. "Mr. Farnum told me to get out and find you. He"d have sent some one else, but I guess the business is rather on the quiet."
"Is he in his office?" queried Jack.
"Yes."
"Thank you; we"ll go right in, then."
"Now I wonder what country it is whose agent has gotten hold of Mr.
Farnum?" asked Eph, plaintively.
"Nonsense!" mocked Jack.