Then, changing his tone, Alvarez, as he glared at the boy, went on:
“Once you were good enough to ask me what I would do to you if I had you in Honduras. Well, I shall show you, for you are bound for that fine little country!”
CHAPTER XXIV—CONCLUSION
Young Halstead started and paled, as any one else would have done at such awesome information. Then he forced a sneer to his lips.
“Are you foolish enough to think, Don Emilio, that you are going to be allowed to escape to-night? You will sink the ‘Meteor?’ Perhaps, but what will you do with that United States cruiser over there off the port bow?”
As he pointed and spoke, Don Emilio and the two seamen rushed to the port rail. Tom was quick to seize the chance that he had made. Sooner than trust himself in Don Emilio’s hands, he would risk the dangers of the deep.
When Don Emilio turned back Halstead was no longer on board. Leaping to the starboard rail, Tom had sprung as far out as he could, and the waters had closed over him.
In taking this desperate leap Tom had calculated, as well as he could, on avoiding the suction of the tug’s propellers. As he struck the water he fought against that suction, and soon felt himself beyond it.
When he came to the surface the fast-going tug was so far ahead that Alvarez could not make out so small an object as the boy’s head through the darkness and at the distance.
“Oh, the young fool has preferred drowning to going to Honduras!” cried Alvarez, turning to the seamen. “Very good; let him have his choice.”