Chiaja.
As they passed one of the larger buildings, Mender, looking down upon
the avenue through the blinds of a window of a room at the hotel, saw
the three as they drove past an arc light.
"What can be the matter with that simpleton Dalny?" muttered the
arch-plotter. "Did he, at the last moment, fail in the courage
necessary to lead the Americans into the trap that I had baited for
them?"
Ten minutes later Dalny, closeted with his chief, was relating to that
astounded leader the story of what had happened in the Strada di Mara.
"I cannot understand it," muttered Mender.
"No more can I," rejoined Dalny. "The Americans are demons when it
comes to fighting."
"At some point, my good Dalny, you must have bungled the affair."
"Why not say that the fault must have been with your choice of
bravos?" jeered the subordinate. "Why did you pick out alleged bravos
who would allow themselves to be put to flight by unarmed men?"
"I must wait until I have a fuller report of this night's
misadventure," declared Mender. "I dare say that, within a few hours,
I shall have more exact information."
In this belief Mender was quite right. Before daylight he was visited
by the leader of the bravos of the Strada di Mara, who announced that
he must be paid two thousand _lira_ (about four hundred dollars) as
extra money to be divided among his outraged followers.
In the case that this extra money was not forthcoming, declared the
leader of the bravos, Mender and his friends might find Naples much
too dangerous a city for them.
CHAPTER XII
EVIL EYES ON SAILORMAN RUNKLE
In the center of a huge room in the Hotel dell' Orso, overlooking the
Chiaja, Dave Darrin and Dalzell came to a halt.
Below they had just left Dalny in the carriage, and had come straight
up to their room, which they had engaged when first they came ashore.
They had not, as one might suspect, overlooked the opportunity of
finding whither Dalny drove after leaving them. For a short,
broad-shouldered young man, Able Seaman Runkle, U. S. S. "Hudson," had
been on the lookout for them on the sidewalk.
Runkle, by special order of Captain Allen, U. S. N., was not in
uniform, but in civilian attire. In another carriage Able Seaman
Runkle, at Dave's order, followed the conveyance that took Dalny back
to the appointed meeting place with Mender. The sailorman's carriage
did not, of course, stop when Dalny's vehicle did, but kept slowly on.
"Shadow
|