Rear-Admiral Gibbons, Captain Dunham and several other officers were seated in a room on the lower floor of the hotel at which the banquet that had ended so disastrously for the inventor, Varian, had taken place. Herc shifted uneasily on his feet. He felt alarmed before this glittering court of inquiry that had convened as soon as it became apparent that the absence of Henry Varian, discovered shortly before midnight, was no mere accident. "Yes, sir," he replied to Captain Dunham, who had put the question. "Can it be possible that the man Strong was in league with the miscreants? The circumstances seem very suspicious," put in the rear-admiral. "I think, sir," said Captain Dunham, "that we shall find, when the mysterious affair is sifted, that young Strong acted the part of a United States sailor in the matter. I have kept a careful eye on him, and should be loath to believe him anything else than an upright, honest young fellow of uncommon capability." "Good for you," thought Herc to himself. "And what were you doing all this time?" inquired one of the officers of the embarrassed witness. "Picking stickers out of myself, sir." "What! Be careful, young man; this is no time for levity." "Well, sir, I guess if you had fallen into a tack-tus bush you'd have been picking those vegetable tenpenny nails out of your system for a while, too," replied Herc in an aggrieved tone, while suspicious twitches appeared about the corners of the mouths of several of the assembly. Rear-Admiral Gibbons got up and gazed out of the window for a moment to conceal his smiles at the naïve rejoinder of the red-headed youth. Suddenly he turned, with a sharp exclamation. "Gentlemen," he exclaimed, "here comes the automobile, or one just like it, that those two precious rascals, the Pulsifers, used. I've seen it before. As it was the only one in Guantanamo, I remarked it especially." The officers crowded to the window, and Herc would have joined them, but a marine barred his way. "Get back, young feller," he warned, suggestively pointing his bayonet. "Huh! I guess you never had a friend in trouble," grunted Herc, going back to his witness chair in high dudgeon. But the auto, instead of coming up to the hotel, turned off two blocks below. "Possibly I was mistaken," said the admiral. "Those two figures in it didn't look like the two scoundrels, but at the distance it is impossible to tell." "In any event, sir, they cannot escape from Cuba," spoke up one of the officers. "Every port has been telegraphed. Their capture is almost certain."