Colonel Minturn’s papers had been placed in the safe while he was ashore!
Jarrold had taken a desperate chance and won out.
In half an hour’s time he would be at sea beyond the possibility of pursuit, for the Endymion was far faster than any craft in the vicinity of Kingston.
[CHAPTER XXXIV—BAD NEWS FOR THE COLONEL]
The gardens of the hotel were brilliantly lighted, and the colored lamps, strung among the trees, glowed down on a gay throng, when into the midst of the merry-makers there burst an odd figure.
It was hatless, its white duck clothes were bedaubed with mud. Few would have recognized in this panting, wild-eyed apparition the usually natty Jack Ready.
But Jack it was. A waiter stretched out an arm to stop him as he dashed into the garden, but he shoved the man aside with a force that sent him spinning. Men and women stared at the boy as if he were a madman as he rushed about, searching frantically for Colonel Minturn.
He found him at last, chatting with a group of ladies and gentlemen.
Despite Jack’s condition, the colonel recognized him at once.
“What, my boy, what has happened?” he exclaimed. “You look——”