Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone: or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam

“I am afraid Ned wouldn’t like that,” Frank said.

While the boys discussed ways and means a dusky youth of perhaps twenty was seen approaching the cottage on a run. His dress was half American and half native, but his face was wholly Spanish. He paused when he discovered the boys on the porch and held out his hands, as if to show that his mission was a peaceful one. Frank motioned to him to approach and opened the screened porch door for him to enter.

“Good-morning, gentlemen,” he said, in excellent English. “I am from Lieutenant Gordon.”

“Then I think you’re the fellow we are looking for,” Jack said.

“He wants you to join him up at the Culebra cut,” the youngster continued. “The two who left the cottage last night are there waiting for you.”

“Glory be!” shouted Jack. “We were just wondering what had become of them.”

“They wandered out to Gatun and came upon the lieutenant,” said the messenger.

“In the night?” asked Peter, suspiciously.

“A little while before daybreak,” was the ready reply.

“We’ll go and get ready for the journey,” Frank said, but at the door he beckoned to Jack and they walked away together.

“What do you think of him?” asked Frank.

“Why, he seems to be all right,” was the reply. “At any rate he knows about the boys going away in the night and not coming back.”

“The man they followed away would know that, too,” Frank said.

Jack looked his friend in the face for a moment and scratched his head.

“Say,” he asked, “do you think this is a stall?”

“I don’t like the looks of the fellow,” was the reply. “Besides, what would the boys be doing up at the Culebra cut?”

“If you think it is crooked we won’t go,” Jack observed.

“Another thing,” Frank went on, “we were to have nothing to do with Lieutenant Gordon while on the Isthmus. We were to roam about at our own sweet will and pick up what information we could. So it doesn’t seem likely that he would send for us all to meet him at the Culebra cut. Does it, now?”

“No, it doesn’t look reasonable,” Jack admitted.

“You know what we were saying about Ned’s theory?” Frank asked, in a moment.

“You mean our talk about criminals pointing the way to their own destruction by unwise activity in defensive methods? Of course I remember it. If what we suspect is true, though, Ned rather overplayed it in this case, and got caught.”

“We don’t know yet whether he got caught or not. We only know that he is unaccountably missing. Well, what if we accept Ned’s theory here and go with this messenger? If he is on the square he’ll take us to Ned. If he is crooked he’ll take us to people who know why Ned did not return to the cottage.”

“It may be easier to get taken to the people you speak of than to get away from them,” Jack said, dubiously.

“I’m game to try it, anyway,” Frank continued, “but I think we ought to leave one behind at the cottage, for Ned may return, possibly, though I doubt it. Anyway, it will do no harm to leave some one here.”

“Suppose,” suggested Jack, “we don’t leave any one at the cottage, but instruct one of the boys to remain here when we go with this fellow and then follow on immediately, sort of keep track of where we are taken?”

“That’s a fine idea,” Frank replied. “I’ll go with the messenger and take the boys with me. You remain here and see where we go – that is, you remain here when we leave and then trail on after us, like a Sherlock Holmes.”

“I would rather go with you,” Jack replied, “but I’ll do the sleuth act if you prefer to have me. You’ll need a rescuer, all right,” he added, “for Lieutenant Gordon never sent that chap after us. Never in the world.”

The cook soon called the boys to breakfast, but there was not much eaten, greatly to the disgust of the cook. When they left the table the messenger asked if they were ready to go.

“All ready,” cried Frank, but Jack threw himself into a chair and took up a magazine, watching the face of the messenger over the pages as he did so.

“You are to give up the cottage,” the messenger said, with a frown of disapproval. “No one is to be left here.”

“It will be all right for me to remain here until the others come,” Jack said, with a smile. “I don’t feel like a walk this morning.”

“There is a motor car just over the hill.”

“No inducement,” laughed Jack. “I’m going to remain here.”

The messenger said no more, though it was plain that the arrangement did not please him. In a few moments the boys were off, the messenger leading the way and keeping up a running fire of conversation.

“What do you think of that?” asked Jack of the cook, as the party disappeared in the thicket.

“I don’t like it,” was the reply. “I overheard what Frank told you about the disappearance of Ned and Jimmie, and was anticipating something of the kind.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“It was not for me to interfere,” was the reply.

The cook, known as Tommy, was looked over critically by Jack.

“I believe you’re all to the good,” he said. “You wouldn’t be here if you wasn’t. Now, what do you say to exchanging clothes with me?”

“I have no objections, only I don’t exactly see – ”

“We’re just about the same size,” Jack went on. “Same black hair and black eyes, same ugly smooth face – glad you have no whiskers. You’re tanned up a little, but I can put some stain on my face. There you are. The cook goes to Gatun and Culebra and Jack Bosworth remains at the cottage. They won’t think of molesting the cook.”

“I would rather go with you.”

“But some one ought to remain here,” urged Jack.

Tommy thought over the proposition for a moment and smiled.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll remain here, as long as necessary,” he added.

The exchange of clothing was quickly made and Jack managed to darken his face with a stain made of crushed leaves which Tommy gathered for him.

“Now, you’ll stay right here, won’t you?” Jack asked, as he passed out of the doorway. “Ned and Jimmie may return, you know.”

“Yes, I’ll stay right here,” the cook said with a grin.

But as Jack entered the thicket he added: