ot it," said Bell. "Here are two items for you. Miss Canalejas
just said she suspected I was Secret Service. I convinced her I
wasn't. She says she has important information for a Service man."

* * * * *

The brawny figure of the stoker growled.

"Damn women! She was told somebody'd be sent to see her father. She
was shown a recognition-knot with the outsider's variation. Given one,
for father. That'll identify you to him. But she shouldn't have
talked. Now, be careful. As nearly as we know, that chap in the
straight-jacket was given some poison that drove him insane. There are
hellish drugs down there. Maybe the same thing happened to others.
Look out for yourself, and give me the information Canalejas gives you
as quickly as God will let you. If anything happens to you, we want
the stuff to get back. Understand?"

"Of course," said Bell. He carefully did not shiver as he realized
what Jamison meant by anything happening to him. "The other item is
that Ortiz, ex-Minister of the Interior of the Argentine, is scared to
death about something. Sending radios right and left."

"Umph," growled Jamison. "One of our men vanished in Buenos Aires.
Watch him. You're friendly?"

"Yes."

"Get friendlier. See what he's got. Now shoo."

Bell swung up the ladder again. Mist opened before him and closed
again behind. He climbed over the rail to the promenade deck, and felt
a little flare of irritation. There was a figure watching him.

He slipped to the deck and grinned sheepishly at Paula Canalejas. She
stood with her hands in the pockets of her little sport coat,
regarding him very gravely.

* * * * *

"I suppose," said Charley Bell sheepishly, "that I look like a fool.
But I've always wanted to climb up and down that ladder. I suppose
it's a survival from the age of childhood. At the age of seven I
longed to be a fireman."

"I wonder," said Paula quietly. "Mr. Bell"--she stepped close to
him--"I am taking a desperate chance. For the sake of my father, I
wish certain things known. I think that you are an honorable man, and
I think that you lied to me just now. Go and see Senor Ortiz. Your
government will want to know what happens to him. Go and see him
quickly."

Bell felt the same flare of irritation as before. Women do not follow
rules. They will not follow rules. They depend upon intuition, which
is sometimes right, but sometimes leads to ungodly error