"Yes, colonel. You can find out by telephone easy enough."
"How many men were there on the Juan Lopez? And how fast is she?"
Alfaro answered:
"There were fifty or sixty men on board when I saw her at Balboa yesterday. Perhaps more were taken on in the bay last night. I know something about filibustering expeditions. She would carry not less than a hundred men. And of course there are plenty of guns in her. Her speed is slow. She will go eight or nine knots, I think."
"Will General Quesada fight?" The colonel asked the question with distinctly cheerful intonation, as if for the moment he was more soldier than engineer.
"He may fight for his neck," said Devlin, "and if he has a chance to get away. He knows that he is caught with the goods. But without Captain Brincker, he is a lame duck."
"And you are sure that young Goodwin is in serious danger?"
"Why not?" and Devlin pounded the desk with his hard fist. "Quesada has motives enough for losing him somewhere."
"I agree with you. And, besides, I should like to recover those commissary stores."
The colonel gazed at the opposite wall, composed and thoughtful. Devlin eyed him wistfully, afraid that he might consider the case as beyond his jurisdiction. Then with a quick glow of heat, the anger of a strong man righteously provoked, the colonel said sharply: