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Page 20
"Three cheers for the Spanish Admiral right now!" shouted Ridge, and
the yell that instantly rose from the deck of the _Yucatan_ in reply
was heard on shore for a mile inland.
The noise had barely subsided when a voice called for Sergeant Norris.
"Here I am. Who wants me?" replied Ridge, inquiringly.
"Take your belongings ashore, sir, and report back at camp
immediately," was the startling response, delivered in the form of an
order by Major Herman Dodley, who was now on the staff of the
commanding general. "I have a boat in waiting. If you are ready
within two minutes I will set you ashore. Otherwise you will suffer
the consequences of your own delay," added the Major, who, while on
duty at Port Tampa, had received by telegraph the orders he was now
carrying out.
CHAPTER VIII
CHARGED WITH A SECRET MISSION
Having ascertained from the captain of his troop that the order brought
by Major Dodley was one that must be obeyed, Ridge went below with a
very heavy heart to collect his scanty possessions. As he did so his
thoughts were full of bitterness. Why should any one be sent back to
that hateful camp, and for what reason had he been singled out from all
his fellows? It looked as though he were being disgraced, or at least
chosen for some duty that would keep him from going to Cuba, which
would be almost as bad. At the same time he could not imagine what he
had done to incur the displeasure of his superiors. It was all a
mystery, and a decidedly unpleasant one. That the order should come
through Dodley, too, whom he particularly disliked, was adding insult
to injury.
"I'd rather swim ashore than go with that man!" he exclaimed to Rollo
Van Kyp, who, full of sympathy, and genuinely distressed at the
prospect of their separation, had gone below with him. Ridge had told
his chum all about Dodley, whom they had discovered lounging on a
breezy veranda of the great Tampa Bay hotel a few days before, so that
now the latter fully comprehended his feelings.
"It's a beastly shame!" cried Rollo; "or rather it's two beastly
shames, and if you say so, old man, we'll just quietly chuck that Major
fellow overboard, so that you can have his boat all to yourself. Then,
instead of going ashore, you head down the bay for some place where you
can hide until we come along and pick you up."
"That's a great scheme," replied Ridge, with a sorrowful little smile,
"but I am afraid it wouldn't work, and so there is nothing left for me
but submission to the inevitable. I do hate to go with Dodley, though."
Just here Ensign Comly appeared on the scene with his brother, whom he
was bidding farewell.
"I say, Comly!" cried Rollo, who knew him, "why can't you set my friend
Norris here ashore? It wouldn't be much out of your way, would it?"
"Not at all," answered the ensign, courteously. "And I should be
pleased to accommodate any friend of yours. I must go at once, though;
so, if Mr. Norris will come on deck--"
"Oh, but that won't do," interrupted Van Kyp. "He must get off the
ship without any one on deck seeing him." With this he explained the
situation to the ensign, who readily grasped it, and said:
"All right. I'll run my boat in under this sideport, and he can drop
out of it if the sentry will let him pass."
Of course the guard at the wide freight port left open for a better
circulation of air between decks would allow Ridge to pass, for he was
one of their own troop, and knew that the sergeant had been ordered
ashore. To give him further assurance that everything was all right,
Ridge said:
"It is my duty, you know, to go in the first boat that offers, since
Major Dodley undoubtedly left some time since. He said he would only
wait two minutes, and as that was fully five minutes ago, he ought to
be ashore by now."
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