Dave Darrin at Vera Cruz | Page 3

that taxicab," cried the stranger, desperately.
"Too late," smiled Dave, as he saw the taxicab turn the next corner. "You won't learn the number. I happened to see it, though," he added incautiously.
"Give it to me, then," commanded the other. "I'll overlook what you've done if you truthfully give me the number of that taxicab. Find that girl I must, and as early as possible. Though I know her well, and her family, too, I do not know where to look for them in New York."
Dave, without a word, turned as though to walk toward Broadway.
"Give me that taxi's number," insisted the stranger.
"I won't," Dave returned, flatly.
"Give me that number, or-----"
"Or what?" drawled Darrin halting and glancing contemptuously at the furious face before him.
"Or I'll pound the number out of you!" came the ugly challenge.
"Go ahead," Dave invited, coolly. "I don't mind a fight in the least, though perhaps you would, for I see a policeman coming up the street. He would be bound to arrest both of us. Perhaps you have better reasons than I have for not courting the activities of the police."
It was plain that a fearful, even though brief struggle, took place in the stranger's mind before he made reply to Dave's taunt.
"I'll find you again, and the next time you shall not get off so easily," muttered the other. "Depend upon it, I shall see you again!"
With that the stranger walked toward Broadway. Smiling, Dave strolled more slowly after him. By the time the naval ensign reached the corner of that great artery of human life, the stranger had lost himself in the crowds of people that thronged Broadway.
"If I see him again within twenty-four hours, I think I shall know him," laughed Darrin. "My first blow put a red welt on his cheek for purposes of identification."
Then Darrin finished his walk, turning in at the Allsordia.
Dan Dalzell had also finished his bath, and lounging comfortably in his pajamas, was reading a late edition of the evening newspaper. "Have any fun?" asked Ensign Dalzell, glancing up.
"Just a little bit of a frolic," smiled Darrin, and told his chum what had happened.
"I'm glad you punched the scoundrel," flared Danny Grin.
"I couldn't do anything else," Dave answered soberly, "and if it weren't for the shame of treating a woman in such high-handed fashion as that fellow did, I'd look upon the whole affair as a pleasant diversion."
"So he's going to look for you and find you, then settle up this night's business with you, is he?" demanded Dalzell, with one of the grins that had made him famous. "Humph! If he finds you after ten o`clock to-morrow morning, it will be aboard one of our biggest battleships and among fifteen hundred fighting men."
"I'm afraid I shall never see him again," sighed Dave. "It's too bad, too, for I'm not satisfied with the one blow that I had the pleasure of giving him. I'd like to meet the fellow in a place where I could express and fully back up my opinion of him."
"I wonder if you'll ever meet him again?" mused Dalzell, aloud.
"It's not worth wondering about," Dave returned. "I must get into my bath now. I'll be out soon."
Fifteen minutes later Darrin looked into the room, saying good night to his chum. Then he retired to his own sleeping room; five minutes later he was sound asleep.
No strangers to our readers are Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell "Darry" and "Danny Grin," as they were known to many of their friends. As members of that famous schoolboy group known as Dick & Co. they were first encountered in the pages of the _"Grammar School Boys Series."_ All our readers are familiar with the careers in sport and adventure that were achieved by those splendid Gridley boys, Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Greg Holmes, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton. The same boys, a little older and twice as daring, were again found in the pages of the _"High School Boys Series,"_ and then immediately afterward in the _"High School Boys' Vacation Series."_
It was in the _"Dick Prescott Christmas Series"_ that we found all six of our fine, manly young friends in the full flower of high school boyhood. A few months after that the six were separated. The further fortunes of Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes are then found in the _"West Point Series,"_ while the careers of Darrin and Dalzell are set forth in the _"Annapolis Series,"_ just as the adventures of Reade and Hazelton are set forth in the _"Young Engineers Series."_
At Annapolis, Darrin and Dalzell went through stirring times, indeed, as young midshipmen. Now, we again come upon them when they have become commissioned officers in the Navy. They are now seen at the outset of their careers as ensigns, ordered to duty aboard the