“So we would have, because of the service you did us in showing us where to place the—the little matter you know of. But you have been well rewarded. Why repine? As for putting it off, what time like the present? Mainwaring is away and those cursed little rats of spies, Boy Scouts, as you call them, are with him. We are safe.”
But Jared only cowered and quivered the more. As for Alverado, who had uttered the words just recorded, he lit a fresh cigarette and regarded the whining youth with scorn.
Merritt’s blood almost froze as he looked on at this strange scene. He had a quick mind, and from almost the first he had guessed what that paraphernalia on the table meant, what the “patriots,” as they doubtless called themselves, were waiting for. But the Boy Scout did not wait. He ran, as if on wings, from that hut in the hollow, his pulses beating like snare drums and a fearful doubt assailing his mind.
“Would he be too late?” That was the fear that pounded at Merritt’s brain as he raced along for the “gold-men’s” row of houses. At the summit of the little hill, leading up from the hollow of the hut, he stumbled over something, something that entangled his foot. He leaned to examine it and then gave an astonished cry. The next moment he had whipped out his scout knife and cut his foot loose of the encumbrance. After that for some reason he went more slowly, but still he ran, ran to summon aid for Uncle Sam against a gang of foul plotters.
* * * * * * * *
Half an hour later the scene in the hut was not much changed, but a tense silence had fallen over its inmates. On every face was a strained, anxious look, yet underlaid by an expression of exultation. Jared alone was missing. In an agony of fear and remorse he had broken from the hut a short time before. They had not tried to check him.
“Ready?” said Estrada, who held a watch. He was deadly pale.
The strange young man by the table shoved back a stray lock of black hair with long, thin fingers. One hand trembled on that brass key that Merritt had noticed.
“Let the invader! the usurper! the tyrant take warning from to-night!” cried Alverado solemnly in a declamatory tone.
Suddenly there came a crash outside. The door was carried inward off its hinges. A crowd of men, in the uniform of the Gatun police, burst into the room.