"I think not."
"Young Glory, it"s throwin" your life away ye"ll be; they"ll know you at once."
"We shall see."
"But where shall I hide?" cried Dan.
"Rush to the woods and stay there."
"They will search the woods."
"Not after they"ve heard my story. I"ll put them off the trail. Quick!
Get away!"
Young Glory ran to the door of the hut. Then he came back with a look of dismay on his face.
"Too late!" he cried.
"What!"
"Too late, I said. The Spaniards are coming up by the creek. You can"t get away from this house now without being seen."
It was Dan"s turn to look scared now.
"It"s your own fault," answered Young Glory, impatiently. "You would waste the precious moments by arguing the point, so see what you"ve brought us to. There"s only one thing for you to do now. Under with you."
"Where?"
"Get alongside our friend. Keep him company. Lie still, Dan. It"s your only chance."
Young Glory a.s.sisted in covering Dan up, and this done, he threw off the hat and cloak he was wearing, and secreted them. Then he hastily a.s.sumed some old garments he found in the hut, rubbed some dirt over his face, pulled his hat over his eyes, and with a cigarette between his lips took his station at the door to wait for the soldiers.
Spanish soldiers are not very ceremonious in their treatment of civilians. So Young Glory found himself roughly addressed by the officer in charge of the detachment.
"You live here?" said the officer.
"Yes, senor capitan," answered Young Glory, "this is my poor house."
"Very well. You"re the man I want. Have you seen anybody pa.s.s this way?"
"No."
"Have you been standing here long?"
"Yes, for an hour."
"And you saw no one pa.s.s?"
"I said no, senor capitan."
"They must have pa.s.sed this way," said the officer, in a low voice, to his sergeant. "The fellow"s deceiving us."
"Pardon, senor capitan," said Young Glory. "I have something to say.
Just now I saw two men."
"Two men!" cried the captain, excitedly. "It must be they. Where!
Where!"
"They came out of the wood about two hundred yards below, and seeing me standing at the door they darted back again into the trees."
"Ask him what they were like," whispered the sergeant. "That will test his story."
The officer, pleased with the suggestion, put the question.
"Like! well, now, it wasn"t as if I had many minutes to examine them, and, besides it was too far off for me to tell the color of their hair or eyes."
"Fool!" exclaimed the captain, savagely. "Their dress! that"s the point."
"One of them seemed to be a civilian, a Cuban I should say, capitan. The other, was certainly a sailor, a navy man, the----"
The captain waited for no more.
"Our men," he cried enthusiastically. "They cannot escape us now."
Young Glory threw away his cigarette and smiled as he looked after them.
CHAPTER III.
MORE VISITORS TO THE HUT--DAN DALY ROWS DOWN THE CREEK.
"You can crawl out of your sh.e.l.l, Dan, now," said Young Glory, when the last soldier had disappeared.
"Faith, that"s a comfort. An" what did them sogers want?"
"They were looking for you, Dan. They found me, but didn"t know me."
"It"s great ye are, Young Glory. There"s n.o.body but yourself could decave them. It"s time we have for talkin" now, an" it"s mesilf "d like to know how ye stopped them spalpeens from shootin" me."
"When I saw you taken prisoner, Dan, I determined to save you. The boats went back to the cruiser, but I didn"t."
"Ye stayed on sh.o.r.e?"
"Yes. By good luck I managed to get into a house while everyone was away, and get a change of clothes. Then I came to look after you. Why, I was present when they tried you."