"Very good, sir. Good night, sir."
Able Seaman Runkle was shown out by Ensign Dalzell, who locked the door of the room after the departing sailorman.
In the meantime a spy who had followed Runkle back to the Hotel dell' Orso had telephoned, in a foreign language little understood in Naples, the information concerning that sailorman's reporting to his officers, and had added the suggestion that very likely the sailor would be sent out to the fleet with a written report.
"I think it highly probable that the sailor will be sent with a written report," agreed Mender, at the other end of the telephone wire.
"And if the sailor does try to get out to the fleet?" insinuated the spy.
"If the man leaves the hotel to go to the water front," commanded Mender, in a voice ringing with energy and passion, "see to it that he is laid low and that the letter is taken from him. At any cost I must have turned over to me any written report that Ensign Darrin tries to send to his commanding officer. Nor am I through with Darrin himself!"
CHAPTER XIII
ORDERS CHANGE IN A MINUTE
"Hullo! What does that fellow want?"