The Camera Chap gave a start of surprise, and turned, with an inquiring glance, to Virginia. “I--I felt that I had to tell him,” the latter stammered contritely. “I thought--I didn’t know that you were coming back, and it was necessary to have somebody to help me.” “That’s all right, Miss Throgmorton,” Hawley assured her. “I’m glad Ridder’s been initiated into the order. If you hadn’t told him, I should have done so myself. For in order to put through the little scheme I have in mind, old man,” he announced, addressing the lieutenant, “I shall need your help.” “I shall be glad to do whatever I can,” Ridder replied. “The story which Miss Throgmorton has told me about Felix has got me so agitated that I’m ready to go the limit in order to help free him.” “What I want you to do,” said Hawley, “is to make arrangements for a dinner to be held on board the _Kearsarge_.” “A dinner?” “A banquet to be given by the officers of the visiting battleship to the officers of the fortress,” the snapshot adventurer explained. “I believe such affairs are not unusual?” “Generally it is the other way around--the other fellows wine and dine us first, and then we return the compliment,” the navy man said. “However, I guess I won’t have any difficulty in persuading the captain to reverse the usual order of things in this case. But what’s the idea? Is this dinner part of your scheme for rescuing Felix?” “A very important part of it,” the Camera Chap informed him. “If you can bring it about and manage to have our friend of the blue glasses among those present, I have every hope of success. I’ll outline the idea to you. I am confident that you’ll both be as enthusiastic over it as I am.” But, greatly to his surprise, when he told them what he had in mind, they failed to display the amount of enthusiasm which he had expected. “It would be sheer madness for you to attempt such a desperate thing,” was Virginia’s verdict. “You would surely be caught. Anxious as I am to see President Felix set free, I must beg you to give up all thought of carrying out this plan, Mr. Hawley.” “It’s a clever scheme,” declared Ridder. “I take off my hat to you, old man, for your ingenuity in having thought of it, and your grit in being willing to put it through; but I agree with Miss Throgmorton that it is much too risky a proposition. You might stand a slim chance of getting the picture, but you’d stand a much greater chance of being backed up against an adobe wall with a firing squad using you for target practice. Besides, it isn’t fair that you should do the whole thing all by yourself. Now that you’ve taken me into the secret, we ought to divide up the work and the danger.”