"But I tried to tell you, Herr Captain," declared the frightened clerk. "You would not listen, Herr Captain!"
"Silence!" commanded Chester. "Leave the room, and not one word about this matter as you value your life. We shall take charge of your other guest here. I've no doubt we shall all be good friends in the morning."
Still the clerk hesitated, but Hal settled the argument. He stepped quickly toward the clerk.
"Get out!" he commanded sharply.
The hotel clerk vanished.
In the meantime the man in the bed had been gazing at the two lads in astonishment. With his captured revolvers still in his hands, Chester approached him.
"Well," he said, "and what are you doing here, if I may ask?"
"By George! I don't see that it is any business of yours what I am doing here," was the reply in English. "I might ask the same of you."
"And you might get the same answer, Mr. Stubbs," said Hal. "Threatened to shoot us when we came in, didn't you?"
"And why shouldn't I?" demanded Anthony Stubbs, war correspondent of the New York Gazette and companion of Hal and Chester on many a perilous venture. "When a man breaks into another man's room the first thing the man in the room naturally thinks about is something with which to protect himself. I had those guns under my pillow and when I heard you come in, I pressed the electric light button and grabbed the guns."