“And he will order my instant release as soon as he hears why I am on shore.  Trent, you have made a serious mistake, and you are continuing to make it by keeping me in arrest.”

“Sorry, Cantor; sorry, indeed, if I am doing you an injustice,” Lieutenant Trent answered, with more feeling.  “Yet under the circumstances, I cannot read my duty in any other way.”

“You’ll be sorry,” cried Cantor, angrily.

“I don’t know what to make of this, sir,” Danny Grin reported, a much puzzled look showing on his face.  “That cellar door was shut and bolted in our faces.  We smashed the door instantly, and rushed down the stairs.  When we reached the cellar we found it empty; whoever the man was he escaped in some way that is a mystery to me.”

“Have you thought of the probability of a secret passage from the cellar?” inquired Trent.

“Yes, sir, and we’ve sounded the walls, but without any result.”

“I’ll go below with you,” offered Trent.  “Ensign Darrin, bear in mind that we are in danger of being surprised here, and would then find ourselves in something of a trap.  Take ten men and go into the street, keeping close watch.”

Twenty minutes later Trent came out, followed by his command, with whom marched the fuming Cantor, a prisoner.

“Darrin, there must be a secret passage from the cellar,” Trent told his subordinate, “but we have been unable to find it.  We are bringing with us the body of the sniper that Riley shot on the roof.”

Line was formed and the detachment started back, Danny Grin and two sailormen acting as a rear guard against possible attack.

Arrived at the post-office Trent, accompanied by Cantor and the latter’s guards, hurried off in search of the commanding officer of the shore force.

Fifteen minutes later Lieutenant Trent returned.

“I was sustained,” he informed Dave and Dan.  “It was tough, but the commanding officer directed me to send Cantor under escort back to the ‘Long Island,’ with a brief report stating why that officer was placed in arrest.”

There followed more waiting, during which the sound of individual firing over the city became more frequent.  Cantor’s guard returned from the “Long Island,” with word that Captain Gales had ordered that officer in arrest in his own quarters.

At last orders for Trent’s detachment arrived.

“We are to push on into the city,” Trent informed his ensigns.  “Twenty more ‘Long Island’ men will reach us within three minutes.  We are to silence snipers, and kill them if we catch them red-handed in firing on our forces.  Above all, we are directed to be on the alert for any Americans or other foreigners who may be in need of help.  We are likely to have a busy night.”

Then, turning to his men, he added: 

“Fall in by twos!  Forward, march!”

CHAPTER XX