“Why was that?”
A flush ran through the girl’s haggard face.
“My uncle wants me to marry General Pitou, a Frenchman who is in command of the revolutionists. When I marry”—the words came spitefully and with a stamp of the foot—“I shall marry to please myself, and not some one else.”
“Good for you!” approved Dick. “Don’t let ’em bullyrag you into marrying a Frenchman, anyhow.”
“I heard that my uncle was expected to reach the camp soon,” went on the girl, “and I ran away last night. Pedro, a Mexican who used to be a sailor on my father’s brig, helped me to get away. He fixed that little tent for me, and this morning, when he brought me breakfast, he told me some news.”
“What was that?” inquired Bob, scenting something of importance.
“Why, Pedro said that my uncle, together with another man named Cassidy, had come over from Port Livingstone on a little gasoline boat which they had stolen from the customhouse officer in the town. They brought information that a boat that travels under water was coming to release the American prisoner. Of course”—now the girl smiled a little—“I knew who it was that was coming in that under-water boat, so I made Pedro tell me everything he knew.
“He said the boat was coming from Belize, and that the American consul to British Honduras might come with it. He told me that Fingal informed the general that it would be possible to entrap the other consul, and that this would give the rebels two valuable prisoners to hold until the American government would exchange Captain Sixty for them. The plan was to capture the under-water boat and all on board. Fingal and this man Cassidy were to have the boat, and Fingal was to be allowed to do whatever he pleased with all the prisoners except the consul.”
“We know what that meant,” said Dick, making a wry face. “He wanted to make us walk the plank for the part we played in the capture of Jim Sixty.”
“Pedro said,” went on Ysabel, “that General Pitou doubled the guards all around the camp so that those who came to rescue Coleman would not only fail, but would be captured themselves.”