“He was wearing them as late as this morning,” Virginia informed him, with a gleam of comprehension of the Camera Chap’s apparently irrelevant interest in the eyesight of the custodian of President Felix. “I met him to-day on the Avenida Juarez, and he told me that his eyes were giving him a lot of trouble, but are greatly improved since he has worn the glasses. The specialist has ordered him to wear them both night and day.”
“Night and day!” the snapshot adventurer echoed joyously. “That’s better than I dared hope for. Of course, I ought to be ashamed of myself for gloating over another man’s misfortune, but I can’t help regarding this as a gift from the gods. But tell me,” he added, a shade of anxiety flitting across his face, “is Reyes still at the fortress, or have they put him on the sick list?”
“He is still on duty,” Virginia announced. “I asked him, this morning, why he didn’t lay off until his eyes were better, and he told me that his superiors had urged him to do so, but that he had insisted that he was capable of attending to his duties, and that they had let him have his way in the matter.”
Hawley exhaled a deep breath of relief. “Now I know that we’re going to win out,” he chuckled. “Fortune wouldn’t have put so many things our way if she weren’t on our side.”
“But what do you expect to gain by those blue spectacles?” Lieutenant Ridder demanded. “I can’t see how they’re going to help us free Felix.”
The Camera Chap gave a start of surprise, and turned, with an inquiring glance, to Virginia.
“I—I felt that I had to tell him,” the latter stammered contritely. “I thought—I didn’t know that you were coming back, and it was necessary to have somebody to help me.”
“That’s all right, Miss Throgmorton,” Hawley assured her. “I’m glad Ridder’s been initiated into the order. If you hadn’t told him, I should have done so myself. For in order to put through the little scheme I have in mind, old man,” he announced, addressing the lieutenant, “I shall need your help.”
“I shall be glad to do whatever I can,” Ridder replied. “The story which Miss Throgmorton has told me about Felix has got me so agitated that I’m ready to go the limit in order to help free him.”
“What I want you to do,” said Hawley, “is to make arrangements for a dinner to be held on board the Kearsarge.”