“What is to be done? Think of the lieutenant being carried off from this hotel in the daytime. It will ruin us.”
“First,” Ned replied, “you must make up your mind to keep what has been done a profound secret. You may tell the proprietor if you see fit to do so, but no one else must know.”
“But the secret service men must be told.”
“Not now,” Ned replied. “I have an idea that I can restore the lieutenant to his friends without any row being made over the matter.”
“But how? I don’t understand.”
“At least,” Ned urged, “wait until two o’clock to-morrow morning. I am going out now on an expedition which may reveal many things, if I succeed. If I fail, why, then you must notify the secret service men and look for me in some of the pools about Gatun.”
The clerk finally consented to this arrangement, and in ten minutes Ned and his chums were speeding toward Gatun on a railroad motor car.