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"It is quite hopeless, Chevalier," laughed Jack Benson, shaking his head. "The honor is quite enough to turn our heads, but we can serve only the United States." The Chevalier d'Ouray made a low bow, then turned away, for others were approaching. "Where is Hal?" asked Jack. "Crickety! Look at him over there, talking to that little Japanese," muttered Eph, inclining his head toward a corner.
"There isn't money enough across the Atlantic to hire us," Jack answered, bluntly. "And ze honneur " "Honor? What would that word afterwards mean to Americans, Chevalier, after they had left their own country to serve another?" The Chevalier d'Ouray began to look as though he realized he had a harder task before him than he had expected.
Is zat posseeble?" cried the Chevalier d'Ouray, a disappointed look coming into his face. "Yes; it's true," nodded Jack. "But you did not come to any terms wiz him?" "Oh, no!" "Ah, zen, ze coast is steel clear," cried the little Frenchman, delightedly. "So, as to w'ere we can meet and mek ze one talk " "We can get that all over with, right here," Jack replied.
"Now, young gentlemen," continued the Frenchman, "I am ze Chevalier Gari d'Ouray." "Glad to meet you, Chev," volunteered Eph, with suspicious amiability, holding out his hand, which the Frenchman took daintily. "I'm a 'shoveleer' myself, and this awkward, gawky looking boy with me is our engineer."
Eph had a tight grip on the stranger's hand, by this time, and was surely making it interesting for the Frenchman. The Chevalier d'Ouray was doing his best to retain his politeness, but Somers's hearty grip hurt the foreigner's soft little hand. "What can we do for you, Chev?" demanded Eph, holding to the Frenchman's hand so persistently that Hastings gave his friend a sharp nudge in the back.
As Benson entered the reading room once more he came upon Eph and another whose face was decidedly familiar. It was the Chevalier d'Ouray. "Just in time, Jack," nodded Eph. "Tell the Chev. for me, please as he doesn't seem to understand my talk, that we wouldn't even give the slightest consideration to his idea that we should enter the French naval service in the submarine division."
Eph felt somewhat ashamed of his late nonsense, and, to prove it, hit the Chevalier d'Ouray a friendly slap on one shoulder that set the Frenchman to coughing. "Say," muttered Jack, as the three now hurried along the street, "I begin to wish I had a good umbrella." "Humph! You'd look great with one," retorted Hal.
"Let us go somewhere," urged the Frenchman. "Some place were we can sit down and have ze talk about important matters. I have ze message for you zat I cannot deliver upon ze street." "Now, don't say, please," begged Eph, "that you have heard we are wanted in the French Navy." The Chevalier d'Ouray looked intensely astonished. "Parbleu! You are one marvel!" gasped the Frenchman.
"I will leave you, now, zen, gentlemen," replied the Frenchman, in a tone of disappointment. "But I shall not go away before to-morrow. If you change ze mind or weesh to hear w'at I have to mek ze offer " "Thank you," nodded Jack. "But don't waste any more time on us, Chevalier. And now good-bye!" The Chevalier d'Ouray shook hands with them all most gallantly.
Captain Jack Benson quickly detailed the meetings with Radberg and d'Ouray. "The Frenchman didn't look a bit like a 'shovelee' either," muttered Eph. "If anything, that looked more in the German's line." "Well, you'll have a chance to get rid of nonsense, now, for a while," went on Mr. Farnum, after having enjoyed a few laughs with the boys.
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