"Yes, I regret to say that is what my officer reports to me. It is too
bad; but I will at once send out word, and they may be traced and
apprehended. I'll at once send word to the authorities." This he did by
the same messenger who had brought the intelligence that the Frenchman
and the German had secretly left.
When this had been done, and the boys had got themselves ready to go
ashore and report, Captain Merceau told them how it had happened. He
had given orders, following the report made by Blake and his chums, that
Secor and Labenstein should be kept under careful watch. And this was to
be done without allowing them to become aware of it.
"However, I very much doubt if this was the case," the captain frankly
admitted. "They are such scoundrels themselves that they would naturally
suspect others of suspecting them. So they must have become aware of our
plans, and then they made arrangements to elude the guard I set over
them."
"How did they do that?" asked Blake.
"By a trick. One of them pretended to be ill and asked that the surgeon
be summoned. This was the German. And when the guard hurried away on
what he supposed was an errand of mercy, the two rascals slipped away.
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