A VANISHING DIPLOMAT
Ned turned to the Captain as the men in slate-colored robes lifted their
hands after the manner of fake mystics the world over. He was not
uninterested, but he was anxious.
They were now some distance from the grove in which the camp breakfast
had been prepared, and the grove, in turn, was some distance from the
highway. They were also some feet under ground, where any calls for
assistance that might be necessary would be muffled by the hewn stone
and the damp air and earth.
Besides, the alleged priests had mapped out this scene before the
arrival of the boys, as Ned believed. Therefore they might have half a
hundred natives within call, prepared to do murder if necessary.
The marines had been ordered by the Captain to gradually surround the
temple, to guard every entrance that could be discovered, and to force
their way in if anything of a suspicious nature occurred. Ned did not
know the men as well as he knew the Captain, therefore he asked:
"The men will obey your orders to the letter? You see, we are in a box
here!"
"They will obey," said the officer. "What do you make of the mummery
now going on?"
The "mummery" consisted in slow, gliding motions, in whirlings about
intended to be graceful, in slow liftings of the hands upward, and in
the beating of the drums.
"I don't make anything of it," Ned replied. "I take it they are waiting
for time. Perhaps they got us in here with less trouble than they had
figured on, and are waiting for confederates."
"What a land!" mused the Captain. "What a way to seek the destruction
of any enemy! An Italian would have stabbed us in the back on the way
in here, a Frenchman would have set a band of bullies upon us in the
grove, an American would have walked up and made observations with his
bare fists!"
"This is Oriental!" smiled Ned. "I wish we were well out of this hole
in the ground!"
"I see," began the man with the star on the breast of his dirty gown,
"that you are in trouble of mind concerning the loss of two companions."
"Correct!" shouted the irrepressible Jimmie. "Come across with them--
right soon, old hoss!"
"I see," continued the other, not noticing the interruption, "that you
are here in a weighty matter--a matter affecting the peace of nations."
Jimmie was primed for another outbreak of conversation, but Ned caught
him by the arm and ordered him to remain silent.
"I see," the alleged seer went on, "that you have met with difficulties
and perils on the way. Is this true?"
"All true," Ned answered.
"Then approach. Enter the holy room and receive instruction which shall
be of benefit."
Ned hesitated a moment.
"And my friends?" he asked.
"The spirit speaks to but one," was the reply.
"What a lot of rot!" whispered Jimmie. "You go on, an' I'll be there in
a second if there is anything like rough house."
With a warning look in the Captain's direction, the boy advanced to the
platform of rock. From there he was directed to a door cut in what,
seemed to be soft earth and framed with timbers. The timbers were new.
He saw that at a glance, and drew his own conclusions.
Ned was glad to see that the man who had done all the speaking was the
only one to accompany him into the side room. In a contest of muscles,
he thought he could hold his own pretty well with this fellow.
Ned was prepared for almost anything, but what took place next filled
him with astonishment. The room was just a hole out in the earth. It
did not appear to have been a part of the old temple. There were in it
a board table, roughly put together, two chairs, and a square box,
perhaps five feet in length by one and a half in the other proportions.
As soon as the door was closed the alleged priest threw aside his
slate-colored robe, snatched a wig and beard from his head and face,
and stood forth a handsome man, dressed in the costume of a modern
Englishman or American. At first Ned did not recognize the smiling face
which confronted him.
Then there came to his mind the memory of a time in Canton when he had
watched a meeting of men he believed to be in conspiracy against his
country. This face certainly had been there.
The voice was low, smooth, musical. Ned stood looking at the subtle
countenance, but said not a word.
"You are caught at last!" came next.
Still Ned stood silent, saying not a word, only wondering if the time
for final action had arrived--if the Captain outside was in such peril
as threatened himself.
"Rather a bright boy," sneered the other, "only not bright enough to
understand that men of the world are not to be defeated in their
long-cherished plans by the kindergarten class. Do you know where your
two friends are--the two who accompanied you here?"
"I presume that they are quite capable of taking care of themselves,"
Ned replied.
"They are on the road to a dungeon in Peking."
"From first to last," Ned said, "from my first connection with this case
up to this hour, I have come upon only bluffers and liars. You seem to
be making good in both lines."
"Not so rude, kid," laughed the other. "You've certainly got nerve to
address such words to one who holds your life, and the lives of your
friends, in his hand."
"If you do," Ned said, "if you really have the power of life and death
you claim to have, there is no hope for any of us."
"Figure it out in your own way," said the other, "but, so far as the
power of life and death is concerned, you hold the lives of your friends
in your own hands."
"I understand what you mean," the boy replied, "but I'm not for sale.
Go ahead with your procession! Death looks pretty good to me, as
compared with the disgrace of asking a favor from one of your stripe."
Ned's words, purposely designed to enrage the fellow, struck fire at
last, and he said what he never would have said in calmer moments.
"I'll show you that death is not so pleasant a thing as you seem to
imagine!" he almost shouted. "I'll show you how to learn the lesson of
supplication! When the future of a nation is at stake, human lives do
not count. What are the lives of a dozen or more to the prosperity of
millions? You have information which is needed, in the interest of
humanity, and even torture shall be resorted to if it can be obtained in
no other way."
"And so," Ned replied, calmly, "you are not merely a tool. As I
supposed, you are one of the men at the head of the conspiracy. You are
the man I came upon at Canton. You are the wretch who is trying to
involve two continents in war. Well, I hope to meet you under less
trying circumstances!"
The other laughed harshly and walked to the door. Listening with his
ear against the rough boards for an instant, he opened it a trifle and
glanced out. Ned heard sounds of a struggle there, and was about to
spring forward when his captor faced him with a provoking smile.
"By the way," he said, "I neglected to inform you that one threatening
movement will mean instant death to you. I am opposed to any bully-like
display of weapons, preferring to discuss this question with you without
coercion, but I took the precaution to place a rifleman at an opening in
one of the walls of this room. He has you 'covered,' as the saying is,
and so it is advisable for you to remain passive."
"What is going on out there?" demanded Ned.
"Your people seem to be protesting against leaving the place under
escort," laughed the other. "The two you left at the camp in the
cornfield were not so hard to control."
"You seem to have a good knowledge of a our movements," said Ned. "You
have a spy system well in hand here."
"That is refreshing, as coming from the mouth of a spy," retorted the
other. "If you are ready to talk business," he added, closing the door,
"I am ready to make a proposition."
"If your time and your breath are worth anything," the boy replied, "you
may as well save both."
"You have possession of certain documents taken from a certain wreck in
the Pacific Ocean?"
Ned made no reply.
"You possess certain information concerning an alleged plot."
Still no response from the boy.
"Without you, your government can make no headway in the investigation
now on foot."
Ned dropped into a chair and turned his face away with a well assumed
air of indifference. Really, he was anxious for the man to go on, to
say just how important were the papers and the information.
"We have it in our power to prevent the information you possess ever
reaching your government, but the documents you have we cannot get in
the usual way. Therefore we are offering you terms."
"Naturally," Ned smiled.
"Promise to restore the papers and forever remain silent as to what you
have learned since you undertook this case, and you shall all go free,
with more money than you ever dreamed of having in your hands."
"You have not stated the case fully," Ned said, when the other
concluded, with a superior air. "You have not mentioned a certain
alleged diplomat. You want me to forget all that he has said and done in
the matter."
"Naturally. I said that you were to forget everything connected with the
case."
"I prefer," Ned replied, "to see you on the gallows for murder."
The other started violently.
"Then this is final?"
There came a sound resembling the report of firearms from the outer
room. At the same time Ned caught a movement behind the south wall of
the room. The gunman mentioned by the diplomat was evidently leaving his
post for the purpose of joining in any struggle which might be taking
place.
The boy thought fast for a moment. If the marines had fought their way
into the outer room they would soon be knocking at the rough door that
separated the two apartments. In that case the man before him would do
one of two things.
He would try to fight his way out of the room, or he would try to escape
by some exit not at that time in sight. In the first instance he might
wound or kill one or more of the marines. In the latter, he might be
able to conceal himself in some underground passage and finally escape.
It seemed to Ned that the one thing for him to do was to attack the
fellow and endeavor to disarm him. The noises of conflict in the outer
room grew more distinct, and Ned, observing that the diplomat was
glancing restlessly about, as if seeking some means of escape, sprang
upon him.
Instead of turning and defending himself, the fellow struggled to
release himself from the boy's hold, and to make his way toward a
section of the wall on the south. The statement that a rifleman had
been stationed somewhere there now came back to the boy's mind, and he
knew that there must be a passage behind that wall.
The man with whom Ned was struggling was evidently unarmed, for he
fought only with his hands and feet. He tried by all the tricks known
to wrestlers to break away from the boy, or to hurl him to the floor,
but Ned had skill as well as strength, and all such efforts proved
unavailing.
While this silent struggle was going on, the rough door came crashing in
and a score of Chinamen, evidently fleeing from an enemy, rushed in and
flocked toward that south wall. Ned and his enemy were trampled under
foot for a moment, then the room was clear save for a half dozen marines
who stood in the doorway, their smoking guns in their hands.
Ned's head whirled from a blow he had received, and there was a numb
feeling in one of his arms, but he arose to his feet and glanced around.
Jimmie stood with the marines, a grin on his freckled face.
"Gee whiz!" he shouted, "how that man did go!"
"Which man?" demanded Ned. "Why didn't some one follow him?"
"He just went through that wall," Jimmie answered. "When I tried to
follow him I bumped me nose! Say, but he went right through that old
wall!"
"Where did the Chinks go?" asked Ned.
"Down through the floor!" was the reply. "But, say, did you ever see
anythin' like that vanishin' priest? I'll bet a pie he's forty miles
away right this minute."
When Ned and the marines took up the search for the diplomat and the
Chinese, it did seem that they were forty miles away! There were
numerous passages under the old temple, and in these the fugitives must
have hidden.
"How did you know?" asked Ned of the marines who had broken into the
underground rooms. "How did you know there was danger inside?"
"That little imp of a Jimmie," one of the men said, "came to the
entrance and shouted fit to wake the dead. They were trying to carry
the Captain and the kid away. Bright boy, that!"
Two of the marines had been slightly wounded by knives in the hands of
the Chinese, but they declared themselves quite well enough to go on
with the journey.
"The Chinks didn't fight," one of them said. "They just threw knives
and ran! We never hit one of them! Sheep, that's what they are! Just
sheep!"
"Well," Ned said, "we've lost our chance on the road to Peking, the
fellow we want having escaped, so we must go ahead and set the rat trap
once more."
"You'll walk if you do," one of the marines said, showing from the
outside, "for the Chinks have made off with the motorcycles!"