“You mean,” asked Mercedes, as the little party sat sipping their after dinner coffee on Splendor’s wide veranda, “that you actually approve of Don’s risky plan? To me it seems like taking a hundred-to-one chance. There are so many traps he might walk into whichever way he turns!”

“Aye, there’s no denyin’ the dangers,” Michael Splendor agreed solemnly. “But there are ways of lessening them, I think. Take that treacherous radioman, for instance, he is only too anxious to talk, and he knows a great deal that will be useful to Don Winslow. The other captives have not been persuaded to loosen up.”

“Then you’ve interviewed them all?” queried Red Pennington, in surprise. “Gee, you must have been busy while Don and I were pounding our ears this afternoon! But how’re we gonna get hold of Corba again? I heard Captain Riggs sayin’ that he was shovin’ off again in the morning.”

“And so he is,” said Splendor. “But tonight, some time durin’ the wee, small hours, another closed car will be comin’ out here from Port-au-Prince. Inside of it will be Corba and our new friend, Count Borg, under guard, of course. We’ll have a talk with them tomorrow, providin’ Headquarters okays Commander Winslow’s scheme. We should be hearin’ any minute from the phone call I put through to Washington.”

As he spoke, there came the faint ringing of a telephone bell, somewhere in the villa’s spacious interior. A moment later a soft-footed native servant approached Michael Splendor’s chair.

“C’est pour, M’sieu’ Don Winslow!” the man murmured in soft Haitian speech.

“There’s your call. Commander!” the young officer’s host interpreted. “I put it through to Captain Holding in your name. Tell him the whole scheme as ye worked it out, and add that I’m helpin’ ye with the details. Here’s hopin’ ye persuade him!”

With a sober nod Don followed the servant through the wide doorway into the house. When he had gone, Mercedes turned to Splendor with a troubled frown.

“How do you know,” she said, “that this telephone conversation won’t be overheard? There is such a thing as wire tapping, you know. And couldn’t a radiophone message be intercepted by anyone who turned in to the right wave length? If the Scorpion’s agents should get wind of Don’s plan, it would be worse than useless to go ahead!”

“Your reasoning is excellent, my dear,” the man in the wheel chair answered. “I believe, however, that the chance of our friend’s words being overheard is less than if he and Captain Holding were sitting in the same room. Commander Winslow is sitting this minute in a soundproofed booth. The wire is connected with me own private radio room, where it is hooked up with a powerful radio beam transmitter. If an airplane with its radio tuned just right should blunder into that beam between here and Washington, the pilot might do a bit of eavesdroppin’. But the chance is one in a billion, I fancy!”

Reassured, Mercedes sank back in her chair.

“I guess it’s foolish for me to worry about such things,” she admitted. “You seem to have thought of every detail in advance, Mr. Splendor. I don’t see any armed guards patrolling about, but I suppose we’re safer here in your wild Haitian hills than we were on the high seas, aboard the Gatoon!”

Enthusiastically Red Pennington took up the same theme. He had seen enough of Michael Splendor’s shrewd planning to believe the veteran capable of handling any situation, on land or sea or in the air.

That private beam radio was the last word in preparedness, the chubby lieutenant stated. As for guards about the premises, what good would they be, he asked, if they simply strutted back and forth in plain sight like any cop on a beat?

Starting from there, he became really talkative. He praised his host’s magnificent grounds and living quarters, and especially his kitchen staff. In the meal they had just eaten all Red’s dreams of earthly happiness had come true, he declared. With a cook like that, he didn’t see how Michael Splendor could bear to miss a single meal at home!

“Sure, I’ve other duties than stuffin’ me face, Lieutenant!” retorted the older man with a laugh. “I admit that I do meself well, though, back here in the hills, and 'tis a grand place to rest up after a long trip. I hope ye and the Commander and Admiral Colby’s daughter will enjoy your stay with me; be it long or short!”

“I’m afraid,” spoke Don Winslow from the doorway, “that it’s going to be short, so far as I am concerned, Mr. Splendor! I’ve just finished talking with Captain Holding at the Navy Intelligence Office. He’s ordered me to leave at once, by plane, for San Francisco!”

“You—you mean, Don, he’s approved your taking the place of Count Borg?” gasped Mercedes, starting up from her chair.

“Sure, Skipper, I knew he’d do that!” Red Pennington chimed in. “But what did he say about me? If you’re bound for 'Frisco, I’m going right along with you, y’know. You can’t scuttle a shipmate in mid-voyage!”

There followed a lively argument, with Red and Mercedes trying to beat down the protests of Don and the crippled Intelligence chief. The latter pointed out, quite logically, that two disguises would be more than twice as dangerous as one. Besides there was no real need, they said, for Red to risk his life as a bodyguard for the pretended Count Borg. If Don should be discovered in that disguise, a whole platoon of fighting men couldn’t save his life.

In the end, however, Red won his point. It was agreed that he should accompany the pseudo Count as his valet, at least as far as the Empire Hotel in San Francisco. After they registered there, of course, anything might happen.

At present, the main task for all four friends lay in getting the two young officers started on their long flight to the West coast. Captain Holding had urged haste, yet there were many things to be done.

Among these was the job of pumping the Scorpion radioman, Corba, for every scrap of information about the real Count Borg. Michael Splendor volunteered to do the pumping, so that Don and Red might rest up for the hard trip ahead.

Meanwhile, it was decided Panama would be overhauling Splendor’s big, new cabin plane for a nonstop flight. The following night it would be ready, in its hangar behind the villa, for the supposed Count Borg to “steal.” When that was done and the “escaping prisoner” was well on his way, the alarm would be spread. No mention, of course, would be made of Lieutenant Red Pennington’s disappearance at the very same time!

With Don and Red taking turns at the cabin plane’s controls, they should arrive at San Francisco fresh enough for whatever adventures lay in store for them. The plane would be abandoned outside the city. An hour or two later, “Count Borg” would register at the Empire Hotel, with his valet, “Penny,” and the dangerous game would begin.