“Didn’t you expect it?” the girl asked. “You knew something must have happened to them when they failed to return to the boat.”
“Yes, we expected it, but I think both of us had a hope that they had merely been pursued into the wood and were working their way back to the Grampus.”
“The men General Pitou had set to watch the path from the Purgatoire were the ones who captured them. Mr. Jordan had time to fire just one shot before they were seized, but that bullet wounded a captain, one of the general’s best men. Pedro says General Pitou is very angry, and that he is going to keep all the prisoners and not release them until the United States government gives up my father.”
“The government will never do that,” said Bob. “Our country is too big to be bullied by a handful of rebels, ’way down here in Central America.”
“Then General Pitou says the prisoners will all be killed.”
There was little doubt in Bob’s mind but that this irresponsible rebel general would be reckless enough to carry out his threat.
“Oh, but we’ve made a mess of this, all right,” growled Dick. “We come down here to rescue Coleman, and, instead of doing that, we leave Jordan, Speake, and Tirzal in the enemy’s hands. A nice run of luck this is!”
Bob was equally cast down.
“Tirzal is to be shot as a spy,” went on Ysabel.
“Poor chap! But what could you expect? I hope the president of this two-by-twice republic will capture every man-jack of the rebels and hang every last one of them! That’s what they’re entitled to, from General Pitou down.”