"Don't worry!" laughed Don Winslow, exchanging glances with Red. "We've heard plenty about your famous country house, Mr. Splendor, and we're not refusing! It's more like a palace than an ordinary dwelling, I understand."
"That's fine, Commander," said Splendor, wheeling himself around toward the door. "And now, if ye'll just hand me that code letter from the desk, I'll be shovin' off."
Red Pennington stepped over to the desk, only to stand staring in blank surprise.
"The paper--are you sure you left it here, Don?" he asked, stooping to search the deck beneath. "I'd swear you didn't pick it up again!"
With a puzzled exclamation, Don Winslow joined him in a hunt for the missing letter.
Every scrap of paper on the desk was examined; every inch of the desk's interior was covered. Don's own pockets were turned inside out. Frowning, Don turned to Michael Splendor, who had been watching them in silence.
"It seems to have vanished!" he declared helplessly. "That letter just isn't here; and yet, there's no place it could have gone...."
"Don't be too sure, Commander!" said the cripple, calmly pointing to the half-open door. "It _could_ have gone that way, with no more trouble than a sneak thief would take to lift it. There were several minutes, ye mind, when none of us was watching that side of the cabin. 'Tis me own fault, for I should have been on guard. Not even a Government vessel is safe from Scorpion spies!"
Like a picture ship on a blue enameled sea, the gunboat _Gatoon_ steamed quietly on her way. Not even a ground swell disturbed the level of her white decks, or raised an extra dash of spray from her cutwater.
Yet storm and violence, in human form, were already aboard her. Within the vessel's narrow confines, loyal officers and citizens of a great nation were pitted against the unknown agents of a fiendish power. Each side now stood on its guard, ready for the battle to open; but when or where the first blow would be struck, only the Scorpion himself could tell.
The strain of waiting was hardest, of course, upon Don and his friends, who at this moment were gathered under an awning on the _Gatoon's_ after deck. They knew that one or more of Scorpia's agents were on board, disguised no doubt as members of the gunboat's enlisted crew.