“My father received an official dispatch a short time ago,” Virginia informed him, “but of course I don’t know what it contained. Are you a very great friend of Mr. Hawley’s?” she inquired.
Lieutenant Ridder smiled. “Well, that depends on what you mean by friend. We’ve only met a few times, but—well, you see, he saved my life once. That was the first time we met. A gang of toughs had me down and pretty nearly out. They would have finished me, I guess, if Hawley hadn’t come along. There were at least six of them, but he sailed into the bunch and routed them all. He’s the gamest, whitest chap I’ve ever met, and now that he’s in trouble I’d go the limit to help him.”
Virginia regarded him with interest. “I wonder just how far you really would go,” she said, a challenge in her tone. “If all other measures failed, would you be willing to land a rescue party to the jail and get him out by force?”
The naval officer smiled sheepishly. “Are you a mind reader, Miss Throgmorton? Ever since last night,” he confided to her, “I’ve been figuring whether that very thing couldn’t be done, if things should come to a pinch. I know I could pick out at least a dozen men on the Kearsarge who would be eager to help me. The only difficulty is that if I took them in on the scheme it would get them into trouble.”
“It would get you into trouble, too,” the girl reminded him. “I am afraid that, at the very least, it would cost you your commission.”
Ridder smiled. “Possibly it would,” he said simply, “but—well, didn’t Hawley risk more than that when he sailed into that bunch down in Chinatown and saved me from being beaten to death? As I said before, I’m willing to go the limit to help him.”
“I feel sure that you would,” said Virginia, noting with admiration the breadth of his shoulders and the strong set of his jaw. “Mr. Hawley is indeed fortunate to have such a loyal friend so near at hand. Let us hope, however,” she added, “that such desperate measures will not be necessary. I have an idea, Mr. Ridder, that my father has gone now to the national palace to interview President Portiforo on behalf of our friend. When he returns he may have good news for us.”
CHAPTER XXXI.
PORTIFORO’S WAY.
As he told Virginia, Minister Throgmorton had been to the arsenal early that morning to talk with the Camera Chap, but the interview was brief. Finding the prisoner evasive and uncommunicative, the United States representative had left in a rage, mistaking Hawley’s attitude for brazen indifference to his fate.
With the exception of this visitor and Lopez, the prisoner was permitted to receive no callers. Lieutenant Ridder, who had visited the arsenal shortly after his friend’s arrest and demanded to see him, was politely but firmly informed that, according to the rules and regulations, Señor Hawley, by the nature of the charge against him, was strictly denied visitors, and although the naval officer resorted to both pleading and threats, he was unable to change this decision.