“It will be done without force,” Klinger explained. “Stump is in our employ. He’s trying to pay his way back to America. I’ll have him in Fangaloa on some plantation work, and let Scott do his own shanghaiing. Scott should be back at Fangaloa to-day unless he had trouble persuading Moanga.”
The portly figure of Mr. Carlson emerged from the palm and banana grove in front of the bungalow. A few seconds later he arrived on the porch, puffing and blowing from his exertions. As the count and the overseer turned to greet him, none too graciously, the figure of a man unrolled itself from the tapa draperies of a window opening on to the porch, and silently withdrew through the kitchen in the rear.
Stump, for it was he, held in his hand a hammer and nails, and unconcernedly told the native cook that he would come back to make imaginary repairs.
After the mate had put several hundreds of yards between himself and the governor’s house, he stopped and called down all manner of vengeance upon Klinger’s head. Then he took a wide détour arriving breathless at the landing, hired a boat and was soon in Commander Tazewell’s cabin.
While Stump retailed the conversation he had heard between the count and Klinger, Commander Tazewell’s indignation mounted higher and higher. When he heard of the plan to rob his government of Tua-Tua as a coaling station and the fact that his contract had fallen into Klinger’s hands, the commander’s brows gathered in a perplexed frown. There must be a spy on his own ship! In no other way could the paper have been stolen from his cabin.
Phil, answering the commander’s summons, was soon informed of Stump’s exciting news.
The commander was disappointed in seeing no surprise in Phil’s face when he heard that the Tua-Tua lease was in Klinger’s hands.
“Then you have suspected that there is a spy on board this ship,” the commander exclaimed incredulously, “and have not confided your suspicions to me! I’m surprised and disappointed in you, Mr. Perry,” he added accusingly.
Phil flushed guiltily. “It was really not a suspicion, sir,” he stammeringly answered, “and has only developed into a suspicion after listening to the news Stump here brings.”
The lad then detailed what had occurred the night the “Talofa” and Captain Scott had entered the harbor, when he had thought he had surprised Schultz, the captain’s orderly, endeavoring to listen to the conversation between Commander Tazewell and the British commander.