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Updated: June 1, 2025
"But only as a piece of property placed in my possession as a sacred charge," the young man answered. "I didn't know what it contained. This man Keene, who has been posing as Lieutenant Carstens, alone knew what was in the box." "That is false!" shouted Keene, "for you wrote the treaty, and witnessed the signing of it.
Though, as I have said, Captain Carstens lacked the acuteness to discover how much he owed to Lady Clare, he acknowledged himself in quite a different way her debtor.
"Then where were the guns and the ammunition taken on?" asked Ned. "That is what gets me," was the reply. "Tinned goods were also put into the Clara?" Ned asked. "Yes; and they are going to take them out." "Thought they'd get the guns out first," said Ned. "Don't you see," he added, "that this man Carstens is a traitor!
From time to time the watchman called out that the two boats were rapidly nearing the harbor, and Ned listened to the reports with varying emotions. Now he was certain that the officer in charge of the gunboat would understand the situation; now he was almost sure that the officer and Carstens had had an understanding with each other from the first.
"First," Ned began, "I ask you, Captain Curtis, to take charge of the box just given to Lieutenant Carstens." Captain Curtis extended his hand for the box, but the Lieutenant drew back. "This is unusual," the lieutenant said, "irregular and discourteous." "I waive the point for the present," Captain Curtis said, "but I insist that the box shall not leave your hands until it passes into mine."
Lieutenant Carstens would not have entered the cabin if one of the officers of the gunboat had not crowded him down the stairway. "This is an outrage!" he shouted. The senator's son now came hastily down the steps, his face red with rage, his fingers working convulsively, as if already playing about the throat of an enemy. "That box is mine!" he cried. "I demand that it be returned to me unopened.
"See here, Curtis," Carstens said, roughly, "these fellows are my prisoners, and I am here with special orders. That will be all." "Hardly all," was the cool reply, "for I have my gunboat in the harbor." Encouraged by this statement, Ned stepped forward and raised his bound hands. "May I speak a word?" he asked. "Certainly not!" said Carstens.
Two chiefs, evidently men of distinction among the native tribes, now approached the Lieutenant and spoke to him in Spanish. After replying Carstens turned to the son of the senator. "Clem," he said, "perhaps you would better bring the box from the cabin. These men are satisfied with the goods they have received, and are ready to sign."
"And then you got the Clara, and circulated about the islands in her launch, and conferred with the native chiefs. I frightened you away from a couple of the conferences, as you know. You were betraying your country, and trying to place the crime on the hands of Lieutenant Carstens!" "I should have succeeded, and got away with a fortune only for you!" growled the fellow.
Lieutenant Carstens appeared to be astonished and decidedly out of temper when the commander of the gunboat stepped out on the north Tusk. He was nervous, too, and cursed roundly at one of the men who crossed his path as he advanced to meet the officer. The three boys, who did not now act like prisoners, flocked off the Manhattan and gathered around Ned and Frank.
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