While they talked with the consul a message was brought him from the telegraph office. It read:
"Report progress."
Ned laughed.
"Nothing to report but disaster," he said.
"Well," the consul replied, "we expected something of the kind. You have gained the very point we expected you to gain. You know exactly who is at the head of this mess. Thinking he had you where you would never get away, he talked too much."
"I think I should know him in any disguise," Ned said. "I should know him anywhere, and under any circumstances. Do you think he would have kept faith with me if I had given up the documents and promised never to implicate either his country or himself in the trouble?"
"Certainly not. The fact that he revealed himself to you shows that he meant to have you murdered there. Only for the marines breaking in just as they did, it would have been all off with you, my boy."
"He must be a treacherous old chap!" Ned commented.
"His life and everything he loves is at stake."
"Then he should have kept out of the mess! Why should he want to get us into a war?"