“I am sure he has,” said Tommy. “He has been active all day, with half a dozen men going and coming under his orders. He missed you this afternoon.”
“I had a date to view the scenery up the Chagres river,” laughed Ned.
The patrol leader went back to the room where he had left Frank, George, Glen, and Peter. Tony had left for his father’s camp and George Tolford had gone with him.
“I would give considerable to know what Chester and the Japs, as they are called, quarreled about to-night,” he said, but of course the boys could give him no information on the subject.
As a matter of fact, Ned thought he knew, but the thing was so incomprehensible to him that he doubted, for a time, his own reasoning. It was now nine o’clock, and it seemed to him that the time for action had come. Whether he was right in his deductions or not, he could not afford to ignore the plans he had made for the night. He did not like the idea of accepting responsibility for the important move he was determined to make, but Lieutenant Gordon was not to be found, and there was nothing for him to do but to go ahead.
“Now, boys,” he said to his chums, “we are going into a game to-night that may lead to bloodshed. Again, it may prove a farce. I have only my own judgment to go on, but the matter is so serious that I’m going to take a risk. I should prefer to have Lieutenant Gordon with us, but that seems to be impossible. Get your guns ready, and I’ll arrange for a railroad motor car to take us to Gatun.”
“I just believe Lieutenant Gordon is in trouble,” Peter said. “He was in the hotel this afternoon, just before they carried the sick man out, but has not been seen since.”
Ned sprang to his feet, all excitement.
“When did they carry a sick man out?” he asked.
“Oh, it must have been about five o’clock,” was the reply. “He was plumb sick, too, for they carried him out in a wheel-chair, with a sheet over his face.”