As they jumped on the train, he glanced behind him, and saw that Lopez and his companion were evidently determined not to lose him, for they, too, got aboard, taking the precaution, however, of entering a car at the other end of the train.
If there had been time to take such a step, Hawley would have gone to the trouble of endeavoring to throw his shadowers off his trail before proceeding to his hotel, but, realizing the necessity of getting the picture finished and into the hands of the commander of the battleship without delay, he decided that he must run whatever risk lay in having them at his heels.
While the spies were only two in number, he had no fear of an attempt on their part to adopt violent tactics in order to get possession of the negative; he apprehended, however, that as soon as they reached the capital they might be joined by reënforcements, and with grim satisfaction he patted a pocket of the coat with which Captain Cortrell had supplied him from his own wardrobe, to replace the garment he had lost. In that pocket reposed a loaded forty-four. With this toy, plus the moral and physical support of his friend, Lieutenant Ridder, he felt confident that Portiforo was going to have quite a time getting that plate away from him, even though he sent a whole regiment to do the job.
As soon as he and the naval officer arrived at his room on the top floor of the Hotel Nacional, he took the precaution, after locking the door, of piling up all the furniture of the room against it. Having thus guarded against surprise in that direction, he stationed Ridder on the balcony outside the one window of the room. With the alert lieutenant crouching there, revolver in hand, he felt confident that there would be no invasion from that quarter.
As he had told Captain Cortrell, he had in his trunk a ruby lamp, and all the other materials necessary for developing a plate, and make a print from it by artificial light. It was not often that he did his own developing, but he had brought them with him, foreseeing the possibility of just such an emergency as the present one.
By the light of the ruby lamp, he opened the waterproof bag which contained his camera, and was relieved to find that, despite its exposure to the sea, not a drop of moisture had touched its contents. Removing the plate holder from the camera, he withdrew the negative and plunged it into the developing bath. With intense eagerness he leaned over the shallow hard-rubber tray, waiting for the first dim outline to show itself on the glass, probably more nervous than he had ever before been in his eventful life.
Five minutes later, the young naval officer on guard on the balcony heard an exclamation of dismay from within the room.
“What’s the trouble?” Ridder whispered hoarsely. “Need any help in there?”
There was no answer, and an anxious expression came to his face. The shade of the window was drawn, and Hawley had warned him that under no circumstances must he disturb it while the work of developing the picture was in progress, as the admission of the slightest ray of moonlight into the room might spoil the negative. Still, he scarcely felt like waiting there when, evidently, something had happened to the Camera Chap.
“What’s wrong in there?” he repeated, tapping impatiently against the glass. “May I come in, Hawley?”