Thus far the carrying out of his daring plan had been effected with an ease and simplicity which exceeded his most sanguine expectations.
As he had stated to Virginia, he had borrowed his idea from the underworld. That is to say, as he had cruised in Puerto Cabero Bay, cudgeling his brains in an effort to find a way of luring the sentry of El Torro from his post, there had come to his mind an effective trick which New York crooks often work when contemplating a robbery on a green policeman’s beat.
He had never seen this trick done, but he had often heard it described by his friends on the force. They had told him that the wily rogues, in order to make sure of being able to commit their crime without danger of police interference, get some of the pals to start a street fight at the other end of the beat. Attracted by the noise of the brawl, the policeman rushes to the spot, and places the rowdies under arrest. And while he is marching his prisoners to the police station to answer to a charge of disorderly conduct, the burglars have a clear field.
The snapshot adventurer had reasoned that a ruse which was clever enough to fool a New York policeman ought to work equally as well on an El Torro sentry. For his study of the garrison of the fortress had convinced him that its members were not an overintelligent lot, and, as for discipline, it was a matter of common knowledge that the army of Baracoa was one of the worst-disciplined military bodies in the world.
The only thing which had bothered him had been the fact that, in order to get his picture, he would have to set off a flash light, which, of course, was bound to attract the attention of the sentry from Virginia to himself, and, probably, bring the whole garrison rushing out of the fortress. He hoped, however, that as soon as the flash light went off, and the picture was taken, it wouldn’t make much difference how much attention he attracted, because he would be able to make his escape before any of them could get near enough to lay hands on him.
Now, as he saw Captain Reyes and the sentry rushing toward him, and threw himself into the sea before they were anywhere near him, it looked as if that hope was going to be fulfilled.
Pursued by the bullets of Captain Reyes, he dived to dodge the deadly hail, and swam under water while his breath lasted. Presently he rose to the surface, and struck out, with the long, vigorous stroke of an expert swimmer, for the battleship, whose lighted hull seemed just then to be miles away.
He encountered no obstacles in his course, and before he had any feeling of exhaustion, so finely trained was he for the task, his hand grasped the starboard accommodation ladder of the warship, and he lifted himself clear of the water.
Five minutes later, white-faced, and somewhat shaky in the legs, hatless and coatless, and dripping water from head to foot, he stood in the presence of the battleship’s commander, who, recognizing him despite his disheveled appearance, stared at him wonderingly.
“You told me to come back to you, captain, as soon as I got the snapshot,” the Camera Chap began.