“Let me up,” broke in Cantor, angrily, and Dave released him.  “Ensign Darrin, I order you in arrest for attacking your superior officer.”

“You won’t observe that arrest, Darrin,” spoke Trent, coldly.  “I’ll be responsible for my order to that effect.  Now, then, Cantor, what explanation have you to offer for being in the house of Cosetta, the bandit?”

“I’ll give no explanation here,” blazed Cantor, angrily, as now on his feet, he glared at Trent and Darrin—–­Dalzell was not there, for just at this instant the bolted cellar door, under his orders, was battered down, and Dan, with several sailormen at his back, darted down the stairs, by the light of a pocket lamp.

The cellar was deserted.  There was no sign of the means by which the fugitive had escaped.

“Trent,” said Cantor, with an effort at sternness, “you will not question me, here or now.”

“I’ll question you as much as I see fit, sir,” Lieutenant Trent retorted, crisply.  “Lieutenant Cantor, you are caught here under strange circumstances.  You will explain, and satisfactorily, or-----”

“Lieutenant Trent,” retorted the other, savagely, “while you and I are officers of the same rating, my commission is older than yours, and I am ranking officer here.  I direct you to withdraw your men and to leave this house.”

“And I tell you,” retorted Lieutenant Trent, “that I am on duty here.  You have not said that you are here on duty.  Therefore I shall not recognize your authority.”

“Trent,” broke in the other savagely, “if you-----”

“I do,” Lieutenant Trent retorted, stiffly.  “Just that, in fact.  In other words, sir, I place you in arrest!  Coxswain Riley, I shall hold you responsible for this prisoner.  Take two other men, if you wish, to help you guard him.  If Lieutenant Cantor escapes, or attempts to escape, then you have my order to shoot him, if necessary.”

“Darrin,” snarled Cantor, “this is all your doing!”

“Some of it, sir,” Dave admitted, cheerfully.  “I heard you and another man talking in here, and I sent for Lieutenant Trent.  As it happens, I know this to be the home, or the hanging-out place of Cosetta, and as I heard you talking just inside the door, I reported that fact to Lieutenant Trent.”

“You will find nothing in this house, and I have not been, intentionally, in the house of a bandit, or in the house of any other questionable character,” snarled Cantor, turning his back on Darrin.  “And you are making a serious mistake in placing me in arrest.”

“If your companion had been a proper one he would not have run away when American forces burst in here,” Lieutenant Trent returned.  “Both on Ensign Darrin’s report, and on my own observation and suspicion, I will take the responsibility of placing you in arrest.  I shall report your arrest to the commanding officer on shore, and will be guided by his instructions.  You will have opportunity to state your case to him.”