Canton Charlie's
"You've come a long way, lads," Keaton-Yeats said. "From golden mice to
blue sheep and back to golden mice again. I must say, you should be
thoroughly familiar with the animal kingdom by now."
"They very familiar with animal world," Chahda agreed. "Also, sometimes
become part of that world by making jackasses of their selves. Like when
shooting blue sheep."
The boys had each bagged a blue sheep, but at considerable risk to life
and limb. In the process, they had gotten themselves marooned on a rock
ledge high above Korse Lenken, from which Sing, with the help of the
bearers, had managed to rescue them.
"Never mind," Carl Bradley said. "They got their sheep, even if it
almost took their necks to do it. Those heads will make nice trophies by
the time the taxidermist is through with them."
The heads were in a Hong Kong shop, being mounted. Bradley had promised
to ship them back to Spindrift by sea.
Canton Charlie made his way through the empty tables, followed by a
Chinese who carried a tray laden with glasses.
"More dragon's blood, meaning coke," Zircon said with a smile. "I
suggest we drink a toast to success and then get down to business. Carl,
you've kept us waiting long enough to hear your story."
"It's the sort of tale that should be heard on a full stomach," the
ethnologist said. "That's why I've made you wait. Now that we've filled
up on Charlie's excellent chow, we'll talk. We have a little while
before the mob gathers."
Bradley had insisted that all of them, including Keaton-Yeats, dine with
him at the Golden Mouse before swapping experiences and completing the
story of the heavy water. They had eaten real Cantonese food, each using
chopsticks, and they were full to the ears.
Scotty grinned at Canton Charlie. "We owe you an apology," he said.
The proprietor of the Golden Mouse shook his head. "The other way
around. Carl and Chahda told me you would come. If I'd kept a better
lookout while waiting for Carl to come after I sent him a message, that
Portuguese would never have had a chance to tip off Long Shadow, and the
Chinese who dropped the message would have been caught in the act."
After talking it over, they had decided that the Portuguese seaman who
had been giving himself a manicure with a dagger probably had been the
one who tipped off Long Shadow about three Americans who had asked for
Chahda. Of course Long Shadow knew of Chahda's connection with Bradley
because of the incidents in Singapore.
Canton Charlie grinned evilly. "That Portuguese won't do any more spyin'
for Long Shadow."
His meaning was clear. Rick's eyes met Scotty's.
"Pull up a chair, Charlie," Carl Bradley said. "We'll drink a toast in
coke to our former pals. Long Shadow and Worthington Ko."
Zircon lifted his glass, then took a sip. "Long Shadow said he and Ko
were finished," he recalled. "And you said as much in your note, or
implied it. But I'm hanged if I know why they're finished. They were
healthy enough when we left them at Korse Lenken."
Bradley smiled without mirth. "To understand their punishment, you must
understand what has happened. Suppose I start at the beginning?"
"Best place," Chahda said. "Better start at Singapore, boss. Plenty I
don't know, too."
"All right, Chahda. To begin with, I first heard about heavy water in
Singapore from an informant with whom I deal. I'm no physicist, of
course. I wouldn't know heavy water if I were served coffee made with
the stuff. But I saw the implications right away and I sent a cable to
Washington. You know about that because Steve Ames contacted Hartson
Brant, if I'm right."
"You're right," Rick agreed.
"At the time I knew nothing except that heavy water had appeared in
Singapore. I continued investigations at top speed. I managed to locate
the house which was headquarters for the heavy-water dealers, again with
the aid of an informant. At first I thought the stuff was coming
overland, down the Malay Peninsula. Then I learned it was being shipped
in by boat from Hong Kong."
Customers were starting to come into the Golden Mouse. Bradley lowered
his voice so as not to be overheard. "At the same time, the dealers
spotted Chahda and me. It wasn't hard to do for an expert such as we
were up against. I walked into our hotel room and was jumped by
Worthington Ko and some Chinese thugs. We had it hot and heavy for a
while and some blood was shed." He grinned. "Not mine, I'm happy to say.
I managed to get clear and decided I'd better drop out of sight. So I
became a Eurasian seaman. It's a disguise I've used before, and it's
quite safe."
Rick studied Bradley's face. He had a bone-deep tan, and his face,
although pleasant, had no really distinguishing features. It was easy to
see how he could become a Eurasian. Disguise, after all, was just
putting yourself into a part. It wasn't a matter of make-up.
"I hurried to Hong Kong," Bradley went on, "sure that Chahda would piece
together the story enough to follow me. I stopped at Saigon on the way
and contacted our legation there. The minister had received the cable
sent to all missions in the Far East giving your names, descriptions,
and time of arrival in Hong Kong."
"The timing must have been close," Scotty said.
"It was. The legation had received the cable only hours before my
arrival. It probably was the day you left New York."
"Also I think it was day I left Singapore," Chahda said.
"I got to Hong Kong and contacted Charlie," Bradley continued. "Tell us
what you found out, Charlie."
Charlie shrugged. "No trouble. I got in touch with a pal in the Chinese
Beggar's Guild. He checked up and found out that a lot of coolies
carrying goatskin water bags were crossing from China to Kowloon and
from Kowloon to the island. Of course a lot of that goes on, anyway. But
some of the coolies weren't selling their water. I got my hands on one
of the coolies and we sort of told him he ought to sing us a song about
where the water came from." Charlie grinned. "He sang all right. He
yodeled real good, about Korse Lenken. He also said Long Shadow had been
at the monastery."
"Do you know Long Shadow?" Rick asked Bradley.
"Yes. I'd never met him, but I knew him by reputation."
Charlie stood up. "Got to take care of the customers. See you later."
As he left, Bradley continued, "Next step was to get a line on the
source of the heavy water. We had the name of Korse Lenken, but that was
all. I assumed it was being produced industrially somewhere on the
Tibetan border. But that would take equipment, of course, so I put the
consulate commercial section to work finding out if Long Shadow had been
dabbling in industrial equipment. That's routine for a consulate. Well,
he hadn't. But what turned up but the fact that he had imported some
Nansen bottles."
"I begin to see how it shaped up," Zircon said.
"It wasn't difficult, really," Bradley admitted. "Just took plugging. At
that time, Chahda arrived from Singapore, bringing Long Shadow with him,
although he didn't know it."
"Unhappy me," Chahda complained.
Bradley smiled at the Hindu boy. "Don't be unhappy. Long Shadow is the
best in the business. Well, I told Chahda to go to Korse Lenken, then
dropped my disguise. As I had hoped, Long Shadow started following me,
dropping Chahda. Once Chahda was on his way, I ditched Long Shadow and
became the Eurasian once more. We had given Charlie instructions about
you. He got in touch with me the moment you showed up, but I was
delayed. Meanwhile, you had been spotted, probably when you asked for
Chahda. Long Shadow must have figured the odds were piling up. He'd lost
me, so he probably decided to keep the odds down by removing all of
you."
He nodded at Keaton-Yeats. "Thanks to our young British friend, we found
you before you'd been knocked in the head. Then I took off after Long
Shadow, as you know. Somewhere between times I'd gotten the consul to
get a Nansen bottle, a rubber boat, and that other stuff for you. I
didn't know why you'd need the rubber boat, but I figured a Nansen
bottle meant water and you'd better be prepared."
"If we hadn't been trapped in the caverns, we could have used the rubber
boat," Rick said. "But it was at camp with Sing when we needed it."
"Fortunes of war," Bradley said. "Well, while you were sneaking around
through the caves, I kept busy. You probably know that the Far East is
the happiest spying ground in the world. There are so many spies they
have to spy on each other." He turned suddenly to Keaton-Yeats. "Isn't
that right, colleague?"
The young Englishman's expression never changed. "And some are almighty
good," he said calmly. "Like Bradley. Soon as I knew he was on the case,
I reported to my superiors and we dropped the thing like a hot potato,
just to avoid being at cross-purposes. We knew that the Americans would
tip us off as soon as they had a definite answer."
The boys stared at Keaton-Yeats. "But you're a bank clerk!" Rick
exclaimed.
"He's also a British intelligence agent," Bradley said, grinning.
"That's why I insisted he come tonight. We've already informed the
British, through channels, that the heavy-water menace no longer exists.
Keaton-Yeats is here tonight to get the details."
"You chaps would be simply amazed at how much valuable information one
picks up in a bank," Keaton-Yeats said. "Astounding. Although I must say
having lads ask for golden mice is a bit unusual."
Scotty shook his head. "And you looked so innocent," he complained. "We
believed everything you said."
The young Englishman grinned. "I am innocent," he replied. "No woolly
little lamb could be more so. And I did tell you the blessed truth, you
know, even though I didn't mention I had a bit of a job to do as well as
having an interest in your welfare. Our own chaps had discovered heavy
water was coming into Hong Kong, too, so naturally we were interested.
But since Bradley was already on the job, and we co-operate with you
Americans on matters atomic, we sat back and waited."
"I'm astonished," Zircon admitted. "But get on with your story, Carl."
"Right. As I said, spies spy on each other. I contacted a French agent I
know, and in the course of having lunch with him I casually asked how
much he had paid for the information about an atomic pile. I was just
fishing, of course. Well, he took the bait. He leaped at it like a
striking tuna. I knew I had something then. From there on, it wasn't
hard to uncover the whole business, just by making contact with the
espionage agents of various countries."
The JANIG man wet his throat with another sip of coke. "And business is
just what it was. I can't say how long ago Long Shadow found out there
was heavy water in the Caves of Fear. I did find out that in his younger
days he was something of a scientist and that he explored the Korse
Lenken region thoroughly. That was shortly before the discovery of heavy
water in Lake Baikal. I think we can assume that he pieced the story
together and realized that the lake in the caverns had the same
possibilities. It would have been only a matter of scientific curiosity
then, but with recent developments in the atomic field, the
possibilities took on a new light."
He paused as a Filipino brushed by, then resumed, lowering his voice so
only those at the table could hear. "He's a smart one. I've known about
him for a long time, as one of the best free-lance agents in the Far
East. He has a good reputation for accuracy, and he sells--or
sold--information to the highest bidder. He was riding on his reputation
in this deal, because as soon as the facts became known, as they had to
sooner or later, he was all washed up as a spy."
"I don't get it," Rick complained.
"I'll explain. He was selling a story to every country that was
interested. He would contact the embassy, consulate, or chief espionage
agent of, say, country X. He would report that country Y had a secret
atomic pile--nuclear reactor, that is--in the mountains of West China.
You can imagine the excitement. He would sell that information for a
reasonable price. Then, for a considerably higher price, he would
undertake to collect a sample of the deuterium they were using. Once he
collected the sample, which of course came from Korse Lenken, he would
contract to give them the location of the reactor for a very high price
indeed. He made the rounds country by country, changing his story as
needed. Of course he collected in advance for the location, which was to
be delivered later, after he had risked his life getting it. That was
the story he used--and some of the best agents in the Orient fell for
it."
The daring ingenuity of the thing made Rick shake his head. "But they
were certain to catch up with him!"
"Of course. He knew it. But he intended to stall in giving them the
final location until he had tapped every possible source. Then I believe
he intended handing them some phony location in West China, after which
he would disappear and live on the proceeds. He collected enough to make
him very wealthy. He hadn't reached us yet, but you can bet that if I
hadn't stumbled on the story, he would have made a sale to one of our
embassies or consulates."
"Ours, too," Keaton-Yeats said. "He took advantage of all the interest
in atomic weapons. And of his reputation, of course."
"What about Ko?" Scotty asked.
"Ko had a side line," Bradley explained. "He was selling heavy water to
various institutions and schools all over Asia for normal experimental
purposes. He claimed to be importing it from England. That was why they
were bringing so much out."
"That is also how we got interested," Keaton-Yeats said. "We got queries
about more heavy water at a lower price from one of the schools that had
bought Ko's product. Naturally, we knew no heavy water was coming from
England, so we got interested very quickly."
"We sure dropped a monkey wrench in a gold mine," Rick said.
"Evidently," Zircon agreed. "But you haven't explained why Long Shadow
and Ko are finished."
Keaton-Yeats laughed grimly.
Bradley stretched his legs out. "Easy. The story had already spread
about heavy water at Korse Lenken. Ronnie and I got the good word
circulating right after we received your cable from Chungking. By now
all the countries he sold his story to--and that is most countries--know
they've been done in the eye, as our British friend would say. Do you
know the penalty for a double cross in the espionage racket?"
"A bullet, a knife, or a blunt instrument," Keaton-Yeats said. "It's as
certain as tomorrow's dawn."
Bradley nodded. "Also, the lamas won't permit the two of them to remain
after their wounds are healed. They are evil men, and the lamas know it.
Sooner or later, they'll have to leave the mountains and enter
civilization. I know their type. They might survive if they wanted to
live alone in the mountains like two wolves. But they won't."
Rick shuddered. He knew from experience what it was like to be hunted.
Ko and Long Shadow would be hunted by agents of a dozen countries or
more once they set foot in civilization. After that, it was only a
matter of time. The two couldn't escape for long.
"Now," Bradley said, "let's have the details of your trip."
A burly English seaman brushed past.
"I'll be quick," Zircon said. "You know...."
Bradley let out a yelp as the seaman stepped squarely on his foot.
"Watch out where you're going, you big ox!" he exclaimed.
The seaman stopped short. "Who you callin' a ruddy ox, you little
blighter?" He grabbed Bradley by the collar.
The JANIG man's hands moved in a blur of speed. One struck the seaman's
hand away. The second caught him just above the solar plexus. The seaman
rocked backward, stumbled over a table occupied by three Portuguese, and
crashed to the floor, taking the table with him. One Portuguese clubbed
the seaman over the head with a bottle. The second threw a glass at
Bradley. The third picked up a chair.
"Look out!" Scotty yelled. He flung his coke into the face of the chair
wielder, then jumped to grab the chair. The Portuguese, who had swung
the bottle, threw it at Scotty, missed, and knocked the glass out of the
hand of a Sikh seated at a near-by table. The Sikh rose with a battle
yell and leaped.
Rick lost track after that. For a moment he stood amazed, then jumped to
help Chahda, who was being tackled from behind by one of the Portuguese.
Canton Charlie's was in an uproar. The fight had spread like fire in
dead leaves. Rick hadn't been aware of the place filling up, but it was
definitely full. Bottles and glasses flew.
He ducked a wild swing with a chair, then as he stood up he brought the
table with him, dumping it over on three Chinese who were struggling
with Scotty. A fist caught him behind the ear. He kicked backward, then
whirled, his elbow catching a Filipino sailor in the chest. The Filipino
sprawled backward.
A bottle whizzed past Rick's ear. He ducked, then rushed to Zircon. The
big scientist was holding a British seaman in each hand, busily knocking
their heads together. Scotty rose out of his path, swinging. A Eurasian
who had been about to swing with a bottle stopped short, swaying, as
Scotty's fist connected. The bottle dropped on Chahda, who was crawling
out from under a table.
An American sailor rushed past, one arm catching Rick and sending him
sprawling. Rick swung wildly, and pulled his punch just in time to keep
from bashing Keaton-Yeats, who was busy with a swarthy man with gold
rings in his ears. The place was a madhouse. Bradley went headlong at
Rick's feet, jumped up again like a rubber ball, and plunged into the
fray. Rick saw with amazement that he was grinning from ear to ear.
A Portuguese rose from nowhere and aimed a roundhouse swing at Rick's
head. He ducked, then put all his weight into an overhand chop, missed,
and fell against the Portuguese. The man threw him off and caught him
behind the ear with a short hook. Rick shook his head, dazed. Another
punch caught him on the cheek. He lost his temper then and flailed out.
One fist connected solidly. The Portuguese vanished, to be replaced by
someone else. Rick swung until his arms were leaden. Then, in the midst
of the turmoil, came a stentorian bellow.
"Here! Listen!"
He turned. Canton Charlie was standing on the bar, and a sawed-off
shotgun roamed impartially over the crowd. "The first man who pulls a
knife gets this!" he shouted.
There was a roar from the mob, and the instant of silence dissolved into
a melee again. Rick turned back to see how his friends were doing and
saw a fist coming at him. He tried to bring his hands up, but he was too
slow. The fist got bigger and bigger and bigger and exploded into bright
lights. His knees buckled. He drifted off into peace and quiet.