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Updated: June 1, 2025
"I am ordered to return her to Manila and to place the boys under arrest." This was encouraging, for Ned knew that they would be safer under the guard of the captain of the gunboat than that of Carstens. Everything could be explained if they were taken back to Manila, and not shot like dogs, without a trial.
Did I hear rightly? I hope, for the sake of the honor of this fair city, that my ears deceived me." Here came a long and impressive pause, during which the auctioneer, suddenly abandoning his dramatic manner, chatted familiarly with a gentleman who stood near him. The only one in the crowd whom he had impressed with the fact that the honor of the city was at stake in this sale was Erik Carstens.
"What sort of a reputation does this man Carstens bear in army circles?" asked Ned, presently, seeing that it was of no use to argue with the sailor, who was afraid of being brought into trouble if he tried to aid the boy. "First-class," was the reply. "He is known as a brave and dependable officer." "And any action he might take here would be endorsed at Manila?" "Yes; I think so."
It is not making an extreme statement to say that, as long as the family remains under active care or until the missing man is proved to be dead, the effort to find him should not be abandoned. Mr. Carstens, in discussing this point, says: To carry on this search persistently is the great safeguard.
We have all we can do to keep them decent when they have no arms at all." "You sailed from Manila with Carstens?" said Ned, putting his statement in the form of a question. "Yes, I left Manila on the Clara. He seemed to be all right until after we picked up the boxes on the China coast.
"Next," Ned went on, encouraged by the words and manner of Captain Curtis, "I want you to have the cabin of the Clara searched." Lieutenant Carstens approached the speaker in a threatening manner, but Curtis stepped in front of him. "Why shouldn't the cabin of the Clara be searched?" the latter demanded. "You shall pay for this indignity!"
"I protest against this!" he roared, his face bloodless with passion or fright. "By the way," Captain Curtis said, lifting the steel box high in the air, "this appears to be quite heavy. Suppose we open it here?" "There is no key," Carstens replied. Ned held up the odd-shaped key he had found on the island first visited.
At any rate, he would have some time to invent ways and means; for his father, Captain Carstens, was now away on the great annual drill, and would not return for some weeks. As a mere matter of form, he resolved to try the mare before bidding on her; and slipping a coin into the groom's hand he asked for a saddle.
Among the crowd of schoolboys who followed the equine procession, shrieking and yelling with glee and exciting the horses by their wanton screams, was a handsome lad of fourteen, named Erik Carstens. He had fixed his eyes admiringly on a coal-black, four-year-old mare, a mere colt, which brought up the rear of the procession. How exquisitely she was fashioned!
The Filipino boy stepped forward, as if anticipating a friendly greeting and then drew back in confusion. Lieutenant Carstens had looked him fairly in the face and had not recognized him. Ned did not step forward to present his side of the case to the man pointed out to him, for there was no need to do so.
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