This was true enough, as far as it went. The two battleship boys and their comrades found themselves in a typical city of the tropics. It was a large one, and there were many improvements that would scarcely have been looked for. But a number of European firms, including many Germans, were in business, and this accounted, in part, for the up-to-dateness.
“But I don’t see any signs of a revolution,” declared Ned.
“Maybe they’ve cleared it all away,” Frank suggested. “Don’t you think, though, Ned, that there is a sort of air of expectancy about the people—as though they were looking for something unpleasant to happen, as we were last night on board?”
“Well, maybe you’re right, Frank,” Ned admitted, as he looked into the faces of the inhabitants. There were furtive glances cast at the men from the United States battleship, but, back of that, there seemed to be something else. And more than once Ned and Frank saw little knots of men gathered on the street corners. And they would look and point in the direction of the hills, where the big guns had made great holes in the earth.
“I wonder what they’d say if they knew you had a hand in making the dirt fly?” said Ned.
“Well, not much more of a hand than you had, Ned. We all had a finger in the pie, even if I actually did fire the big gun. I couldn’t have done that unless you fellows had helped. But I guess there’s no danger of ’em knowing what I did. Not that I care. Though they don’t seem much concerned at what we did.”
“No, and that’s the odd part of it. You’d think they’d be angry at us.”
“Unless these people in the city belong to the party we’ve come here to protect,” Frank suggested. “It may be that, you know. The revolutionists may have jumped out for the time being.”
“Yes, that’s so. Well, it’s a queer go however it is. Say, I wonder if we couldn’t go out and take a look at those holes the projectiles made?”
“I guess so. We’d better find out how far it is, though, and if we’ll have time to go and get back.”
But when Frank spoke to the commanding officer the latter shook his head.
“It’s too far out there to begin with,” he said, “and for another thing—” he paused and looked around as though to make sure no one else was listening. “For another thing,” he added, “we’d rather none of our men went out there—just now.”