ed to be allowed to serve us. Let's get busy." He rose as he spoke
and the boys saw that he had dressed himself with scrupulous care
again, in a suit of light flannel, yachting cap, and immaculately white
canvas shoes.

It was a merry party that gathered around the cabin table, which, with
its elaborate setting of crystal and silver, would have been a credit to
any domestic establishment. Washington, in a white coat and apron, his
face wide ajar with a happy grin, served them skillfully. After dessert
had been cleared away and O'Connor had secured permission from the
ladies to smoke his cigarette, Mason, who had been for many hours
impatiently waiting to hear the story of his comrades' adventures, saw
his opportunity, and rising and bowing to the company with his funny,
grave expression, said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, and our distinguished host: Little as I am
accustomed to public speaking, I wish right here to say that I consider
that I have been very shabbily treated. Fickle fortune robbed me of an
opportunity to become a hero, and it looks as if I would now be denied
even the poor gratification of enjoying the thrilling adventures of my
brave comrades by word of mouth. I know I'm little and perhaps my suit
would not have fitted Miss Juanita as well as my friend Hamilton's, but
it was not because of my size that unkind fate singled him out for the
hero part and left me not so much as an understudy. It was pure hard
luck, and now I demand, as the slighted party, that the story of the
rescue from the Spanish prison be told in the minutest detail for the
benefit of the assembled company by those who acted the principal parts.
Captain Dynamite, I leave it to you if it is not due to a disappointed,
would-be hero?"

O'Connor laughed heartily at the boy, who kept a serious and sober face
during his harangue.

"Your position is well taken, Master Mason," he said. "I propose that
Master Hamilton begin the story at the point where he and his companion
fell into the hands of the Spaniards."

After some urging Harry told in an easy narrative style the story of his
and Bert's adventures, to which Mason listened breathlessly, while
Washington, who had been permitted to stand behind O'Connor's chair,
alternately grinned and stared in amazement. The story of the misfortune
of Villamonte seemed to amuse him greatly, and as Harry described his
expression as he lay bound and gagged in the prison, the negro slapped
his leg in glee,