“Don’t say that,” begged Trent earnestly.  “Bad as he may have been, Cantor was trained in all the traditions of the Navy.  I can believe him wild, or even bad, but I can’t believe him big enough scoundrel to desert to the enemy.”

“It’s a fearful thing to believe,” Darrin admitted, “but what are we to believe?  We found him in the house of that notorious bandit, Cosetta.  Do you feel any doubt, sir, that Cosetta has proposed, or will propose to the Huerta government that he bring his men in under the Mexican flag in return for a pardon?  There is another side to it, sir.  The landing plans were stolen from Captain Gales’s desk.  Doesn’t it now seem likely that Cantor stole the plans, and turned them over to Cosetta, who would be delighted at the chance of being able to turn them over to the commander of the Mexican forces around Vera Cruz?”

“The suspicion seems plausible enough,” Trent admitted, sadly, “yet it is a terrible thing to believe.”

“What’s that?” cried Dan, jumping suddenly as shots rang out in another street close at hand.

First had come three or four shots, almost immediately a crashing fire had followed.

“Ensign Darrin,” ordered Trent, promptly, “take thirty men and locate that firing.  If you run into anything that you cannot handle, rush word back to me.”

Like a shot, Dave Darrin was off, running at the head of thirty sailormen.  Around two corners they dashed, then came in sight of a scene that made their blood boil.

Some forty men stood in the street, firing at a house from whose windows flashes of pistol shots came.  Plainly the defenders were pitifully weak.  Up to this moment the men in the street had not observed Ensign Dave’s party.

“Sprint down close enough, Riley,” Dave directed, “to see whether the men in the street are Mexicans or our own men.  I suspect they’re Mexicans.”

“They’re Mexicans, sir!” panted Riley, returning at a sprint.

“Ready!  Aim!  Fire!” shouted Darrin.  “Charge.  Fire as you need.”

As the volley rang out several Mexicans dropped.  Dave dashed down the street at the head of his men.

A feeble return of the fire came from the Mexicans, who then broke and fled to the next corner.

“Are there Americans inside the house?” called Dave, halting before the open but darkened windows.

“Indeed there are!” came a jubilant voice.  “Are you Americans?”

“From the ‘Long Island,’” Dave answered.  “Come out and join us, and we’ll take you to safety.”

“Now, heaven be praised for this!” answered the same man’s voice, devoutly.  “Come, my dear ones.  We are under the protection of our own Navy men.”

Out into the street came a man and woman past middle age.  Behind them followed a man of perhaps twenty-five, and a woman who was still younger.

“I am Ensign Darrin, at your service,” Darrin announced, raising his cap.