Chapter II: Don Ramon Ortega

The object which had so startled the Dutch boy was the figure of a middle-aged man, sprawled at full length on the floor matting. His hands were secured behind him and his feet were bound at the ankles with twisted towels. Over the lower part of his face another towel had been tied, thus effectually preventing outcry.

Carl's own troubles faded into the background. As he slowly got the whip hand of himself, he struck another match and stepped to the man's side. The man gurgled incoherently behind the gag and his dark eyes pleaded for immediate release.

"Dere iss some dricky pitzness here, you bed you!" exclaimed Carl. "Don'd be schared oof me," he added to the man, "I vas a friendt, und I vill helup you. Schust vait a leedle undil I ged some pedder lighdt as vat I haf."

There was an oil lamp on a table, and Carl stepped to it and applied a match to the wick. In the glow that presently flooded the room, the Dutch boy returned to the man, knelt down beside him and removed the towels.

"_Ay de mi!_" stuttered the man, attempting to rise and falling helplessly back again.

"Vas you hurt some blace?" asked Carl solicitously.

"Hurt?" echoed the man, speaking good English, although with a very perceptible foreign accent. "Not at all, señor; only my limbs--they are so cramped from confinement that I cannot stand. Soon they will be all right. But who are you?" and suspicion suddenly flamed in the dark eyes. "How does it happen that you know of my trouble and have come here? Are you a confederate of the rascally Don Carlos?"

"Ton Garlos?" repeated Carl. "I don'd know dot feller from Atam. I vas a shdranger in dis blace, und all I know iss der Amerigan consul, Misder Hays Chordan und Toctor Armsdrong, und----"

"You are American?" interrupted the other eagerly.

"Yah, so; Amerigan mit a Dutch accent."

"How do you happen to be here?"

"Id vas a plunder, dot's all," answered Carl. "A pulltog chaced me und pooty near caught me, doo. I got ofer der vall from der odder site und couldn't get pack some more. Vat a high vall iss aboudt der blace! Und so smoot' und shlippery as I can't dell."

"What were you doing in the other yard?"

Carl didn't want to mention that part of it, but it seemed necessary in order to convince the man of his harmless intentions.

"Vell," he answered diffidently, "I vent der mit meinseluf to serenate a yoong laty py der name oof Miss Sixdy----"

"Miss Ysabel Sixty?" the other again interrupted, even more eagerly than he had done before.

"Yah, so!" beamed Carl. "You know der laty?"

"Indeed, yes. But she does not live in the next house, señor. An English captain lives there--an officer in charge of the constabulary. Miss Sixty is staying with friends a block farther down the street, and around the corner."

"Vell, I t'ought I hat made some misdakes," said Carl, vastly relieved. "A parrel oof vater vas tropped on me, und I vas run off mit a pulltog, und--und---- Blease, haf you some clot' patches und some neetles und t'read? I vouldt like to be respectaple vonce more."

The man got to his feet slowly and then, his eyes gleaming ominously, caught Carl's arm in both hands.

"Let us not think so much of ourselves now, señor," he said thickly, "but of others!"

"Vat aboudt id?" inquired Carl, wondering whether the released gentleman was crazy or excited.

"I am Don Ramon Ortega," answered the man.

This was another surprise. Carl had heard of Don Ramon Ortega. He was the Spanish consul in Belize, a man of high lineage and of much importance.

"How keveer dot I shouldt come py your house like vat I dit, Ton Ramon!" muttered Carl. "I hope," he added, in a tremor, "dot der laties von't come----"

"There are none here but ourselves," cut in the don. "My family and all the servants have gone to Mexico. I myself was intending to go in the morning, but now I shall not leave Belize until I make that scoundrelly Don Carlos Valdez answer for this rascally work he has done!"

"Ton Carlos Valdez?" repeated Carl. "I don'd know der feller. Vat has he dit?"

"I will tell you," answered the don. "Come, let us sit down for a moment. My limbs are not strong yet, and there is much to be done."

Carl, excited and curious, dropped into a chair. The don, after giving a cautious look outside, closed the door and returned to Carl. Drawing a chair close, he seated himself.

"Tell me," said he, "do you know of a submarine boat in the harbor called the _Grampus_? You are American, and the boat is owned by Captain Nemo, Jr., an American. You should know of her."

"Vell, py chiminy Grismus," boomed Carl, "you bed you! Vy, ton, I vas vone oof der crew oof der _Grampus_! I come mit her ven she arrifed, und I vas mit her ven she got der American consul avay from der repels in der rifer Izaral. Vy, Modor Matt, who vas boss oof der poat ven she dit dot, iss my friendt, my bard! Und so iss Tick Ferral! Know der _Grampus_! Py chincher, I know her insite und oudt, oop und down und sitevays. My name is Pretzel, Carl Pretzel."

Don Ramon Ortega was astounded, but happily so. Reaching out his hand, he clasped Carl's convulsively.

"Ah, what good fortune!" he murmured, "what amazing luck! Destiny is at work in all this. Fate guided you to me to-night, _amigo mio_!"

"A pulltog hat more to do mit it as fate," answered Carl simply.

"Listen!" proceeded the don hurriedly. "I was here alone in the early evening. Some one rang the bell at the gate. I went out and admitted"--anger throbbed in the Spaniard's voice--"Don Carlos Valdez! He is, what you Americans call, a trouble maker. I call him a pestilence, an evil spectre who stalks through the devoted countries and helps revolutionists overthrow established governments. I am Spanish, but I love law and order! I hate violence and bloodshed! I am for peace! But Don Carlos is always for war, and more war, for in that he finds unholy profit. Well, it was he who called on me to-night. He declared that he wanted a passport, for he was going abroad. I told him to go to my secretary, at the legation. He said he had been there, but that the secretary was not in. I could not refuse him the passport if his intentions were peaceable and he paid the fee, so he came back into the house with me. As I seated myself and leaned over the table, the demon struck me from behind. I fell unconscious. When I recovered, I was bound as you saw me, and I have laid so for hours. But Don Carlos had not left when I regained consciousness. He and I have long been at swords' points, and he taunted me with the base plans he intended to carry out."

Don Ramon writhed in his chair in a spasm of fierce anger.

"Vat it vas he iss going to do?" asked Carl.

"He has designs on the submarine!" proceeded the don. "He thinks the boat would be valuable to the revolutionists to the south of us. They are threatening Port Livingston, at the mouth of the Izaral, and are seeking to secure the fort there. The lawful authorities of the state will send ships of war to defeat the revolutionists, and Don Carlos wants the submarine to destroy the war vessels."

"Himmelblitzen!" gasped Carl. "Aber," he added soothingly, "don'd you be vorked oop, ton. Der schemer von't ged der supmarine. Captain Nemo, Jr., iss sick, aber Modor Matt iss on der chob, und you bed you he von't let Don Carlos haf der _Grampus_ to helup oudt der repels."

"_Diable_, no! Motor Matt will not hire the boat to the rascally Don Carlos, but he is a serpent for craft. He intends to get the boat away from Belize by a ruse--_and will use my name_, my honorable name, to help him prosecute his villainous plot! Think of that, _amigo_!"

"How vill he do dot, ton?"

"I do not know, but such is his miserable intention; he flaunted it in my face as I lay on the floor at his feet, helpless to move or to speak. We must prevent him from carrying out his contemptible designs. I have told you so much, because it was necessary that you should understand. Come! Let us go at once to Motor Matt! Let us warn him, and put him on his guard."

"Dot's me, ton!" agreed Carl heartily, "aber haf you a pair oof drousers vat I couldt vear?"

"That is a small matter, Señor Pretzel," demurred the don on his way to the door, "and we have other and larger matters to claim our instant attention."

"Some more drousers iss kevite imbortant mit me," insisted Carl. "Id von't dake more as a minude, ton."

Rather than waste time arguing, Don Ramon flung off into a neighboring room. He returned presently with a pair of white duck trousers, and Carl climbed into them. They were too long and too narrow, but the Dutch boy contrived to make them serve.

"Now, ton," said Carl, "ged der key by der front gate und lead der vay."

The don took a key from the drawer of the table.

"Come, _amigo_," said he, hurrying from the door.

"Id's a funny pizness," remarked Carl, following, "dot dis Carlos feller vouldt leaf der door oben und lock der gate."

"The gate locks itself when it is closed," explained the don.

"I don'd t'ink, anyvay, dere iss mooch use being in some takings aboudt der poat," proceeded Carl, as the don unlocked the gate. "Dot Carlos feller vill haf his hants full pulling der vool ofer Modor Matt's eyes."

"You do not know Carlos as well as I," answered Don Ramon ominously. "He is plausible, he has many tricks, and then he is impersonating _me_! Motor Matt must know me by name, although I have not the pleasure of his personal acquaintance. I am fearing the worst, ah, yes, the worst!"

The gate clanged shut behind them and the don and Carl raced for the International Hotel. Matt and Dick stayed at the hotel while they were ashore. Carl had not seen either of his chums at supper, and he had not spent much time looking for them. The serenade was uppermost in Carl's mind, and he was afraid Matt or Dick might propose something that would interfere with his plans.

In the hotel office they learned that Matt and Dick had gone out to the submarine early in the evening to arrange some stores that had been taken aboard. They had not come back, so the inference was that they were staying the night on the craft.

There was nothing left for the don and Carl to do but to hurry on to the wharf. There, at the landing from which sailboats usually carried the _Grampus'_ crew to the anchorage, half a mile out in the bay, they met a policeman.

"What are you looking for, Don Ramon?" inquired the officer respectfully, touching the don on the shoulder as he and Carl were gazing off across the surface of the bay.

"For the riding lights of the submarine boat, _amigo_," answered the don.

"You won't see them, sir. The submarine left the harbor four hours ago, bound south."

"_Carramba!_" cried the don. "We are too late! Tell me, did she have any passengers?"

"Motor Matt and the boat's usual crew were aboard anyhow, I saw Motor Matt and his friend, Ferral, going out."

"Did any one else go out to the boat?"

"Yes, Don Carlos Valdez and four or five negroes. They----"

The don whirled away and caught Carl's arm.

"Too late!" he whispered hoarsely. "But perhaps there is still something we can do. Come! We will call on the American consul; we will tell him what we fear!"

Carl was in a daze. That serenade of his, which had proved a farce, seemed to be leading up to something tragic.