at his apparently contradictory statement. "And we'll find out
what it is, too! But I guess you're right, Blake. We've got to go slow.
I'm going below to see if our stuff is safe."

"Oh, I don't imagine anything can have happened to it--so soon," said
Blake. "At the same time, we will be careful. Now we must remember that
we may be altogether wrong in thinking this Frenchman is working against
us in the interests of our rivals, Sim and Schloss. In fact, I don't
believe that firm cares much about the contract we have, though they
have tried to cut in under us on other matters. So we must meet
Lieutenant Secor halfway if he makes any advances. It isn't fair to
misjudge him."

"I suppose so," agreed Joe. "Yet we must be on our guard against him.
I'm not going to give him any information about what we are going across
to do."

"That's right," assented Blake. "Don't talk too much to
anybody--especially strangers. We'll be decent to this chap, but he is
no longer a guest of our nation, and we don't have to go out of our way
to be polite. Just be decent, that's all--and on the watch."

"I'm with you," said Joe, as Macaroni came back to say that all was well
in their cabin where they had left most of their personal possessions.
The cameras and the reels of unexposed film were in the hold with their
heavy baggage, but they had kept with them a small camera and some film
for use in emergencies.

"For we might sight a submarine," Joe had said. "And if I get a chance,
I'm going to film a torpedo."

By this time the vessel was down in the Narrows, with the frowning forts
on either side, and as they passed these harbor defenses Lieutenant
Secor crossed the deck and nodded to the boys.

"I did not know we were to be traveling companions," he said, with a
smile.

"Nor did we," added Blake. "You are going back to France, then?"

The lieutenant shrugged his shoulders in characteristic fashion.

"Who knows?" he asked. "I am in the service of my beloved country. I go
where I am sent. I am under orders, Messieurs, and until I report in
Paris I know not what duty I am to perform. But I am charmed to see you
again, and rest assured I shall not repeat my lamentable blunder."

"No, I'll take good care you don't run into me," muttered Macaroni.

"And you, my friends of the movies--you camera men, as you call
yourselves--you are going to France also?"

"We don't know where we are going, any more than you do," said Blake.

"Ah, t