Through the crack of a slightly opened doorway the face of Cosetta, the bandit, appeared, his evil eyes glittering strangely.

Dave looked up swiftly, his eyes turned straight on those of the bandit.

“It’s a plot, sure enough!” gasped the young ensign to himself.  “We shall be attacked, and the crowd is too big for us to handle”

He was not afraid for himself, and he knew well that Seaman Rogers was “aching” for a chance to turn his hard fists loose on this rascally lot of Mexicans.  But a rush would probably secure the bag of money for the bandits, and the woman herself might be roughly handled, It was a ticklish situation.

“You are from an American warship, are you not?” inquired the woman.

“From the Long Island, madam,” the young officer informed her.

“I am an American citizen, too,” she claimed.

“No matter to what nationality you belonged, we would protect you to the best of our ability,” Darrin added, raising his cap.

Whump! whump! whump! whump!  It was the sound of steadily marching feet.  Then around the corner came a boatswain’s mate and eight keep even a crowd of rascals in order men from one of the American warships.  It was a shore duty party returning to a ship!

“Boatswain’s mate!” Dave shouted.  “Here!”

“Aye, aye, sir!”

On the double quick came the shore duty party.  Dave Darrin found himself surrounded by blue jackets.

“This lady is very nervous, and with good reason,” Dave explained to the boatswain’s mate.  “She just had a handbag of money snatched from her by a thief.  The bag has been returned, and now she wishes our escort to the dock, that she may not be attacked again.  She is on her way to board a ship that will take her back to the United States.  Boatswain’s mate, I wish you would ride in the carriage at her side, while the rest of us walk on the sidewalk close to the carriage.”

“Aye, aye, sir!” responded the mate, saluting, then turning and lifting his cap gracefully to the woman.  He helped her into the carriage, then took his seat beside her.

Dave and the nine seamen remained on the sidewalk, but kept close to the carriage as the horses moved along at a walk.  Darrin had no further fear that another attempt would be made to seize the money by force.  Eleven men from the American Navy are guard enough to keep even a crowd of rascals in order.

“Since Cosetta was looking on from the doorway, that must have been one of his jobs, engineered by him, and carried out by his own men,” Dave told himself, swiftly.  “Most of the men in the crowd must have been his own men, too, posted to take the money again, under pretense that a fight with sailors had started.  So I’ve been the means of blocking another profitable enterprise for that fellow, Cosetta.  By and by the scoundrel will feel a deep liking for me!”

The first thief, he whose wrist Seaman Rogers had broken, had promptly vanished.  Unmolested, the blue-jackets escorted the carriage out on to a dock next to the one at which the launch from the “Long Island” lay.