NO SURRENDER
Mrs. Forbes, a slim, elegant woman, looked as if she were her daughter's
elder sister. Although driven by hay fever to the seaside regularly at
the beginning of the London season, she was far from being a _malade
imaginaire_. She did not go willingly. Each year she hoped against hope
that the annoying ailment would not make itself felt, yet no sooner was
the month of May well established than for six or seven weeks she had
either to drag her husband and daughter away from the metropolis or live
by herself in some South Coast hotel.
She had tried Brighton, whence Mr. Forbes could travel to the city, but
soon discovered that the daily train journey was not good for his
health. After that, she insisted on adopting the self-denying ordinance
of leaving Evelyn with her father in the town house from the middle of
May till the end of June, when all three went to the Highlands.
She, of course, had not the remotest knowledge of the terrors
threatening her household; a thunderbolt out of a Summer sky would have
astonished her less than the indignities she endured when haled away
from Eastbourne in the luxurious car which Wong Li Fu had at his
command.
Theydon had been in the house nearly half an hour and was exchanging
experiences with Forbes and Handyside--the latter, by virtue of his
extraordinary share in the day's adventures, being admitted to the full
confidence of the others--when Evelyn brought her mother into the
library.
"Here is some one who positively refuses to retire for the night until
she has met you, Mr. Theydon," said the girl, radiant with joy and
relief, now that the shadow of death had passed, apparently forever,
leaving her dear ones unscathed.
Mrs. Forbes, an aristocrat to the finger tips, greeted her guest with
marked cordiality.
"I have been living during the past few hours like one of the characters
one sees in the fearsome little plays produced on the stage of the Grand
Guignol in Paris," she said, gazing at him with frank brown eyes
singularly like her daughter's, "but I have contrived to gather one
definite impression among the whirl of things, and that is that were it
not for Mr. Frank Theydon, my daughter and I would now be in as bad a
predicament as two women could possibly face anywhere."
"I was lucky enough to be of some little use, but Mr. Handyside is the
lion of today's contest," said Theydon.
"I am grateful to both of you, how grateful I can never find words to
tell, but Mr. Handyside rivals you in modesty, Mr. Theydon. He assured
me that you were the _deus ex machina_, though he obtained the machine
itself, and rode sixty miles to rescue me from my dragon. By the way,
where is the motor cyclist--what is his name?"
"Jackson, ma'am," put in Handyside. "He went back to Eastbourne--thought
nothing of it. I fixed him all right. He's coming to London next week.
I've hired him for a trip round the island."
"In a side-car?" laughed Evelyn.
"No; I guess we'll run to something more roomy."
"Jim, dear," said Mrs. Forbes to her husband, "get Mr. Jackson's
address. Our thanks to him, at least, can take a tangible form. No,
Evelyn, I'm not going to bed. I mean to sit up and talk. I want to hear
everything. You men must smoke big strong cigars, please. If I breathe
tobacco smoke I shall not fancy I want to sneeze."
"I, for one, am simply aching to hear what happened to you," said
Theydon.
Mrs. Forbes was equally ready to retail her trials.
"When a man who resembled a tall and well-built Japanese came to me on
the Downs," she said, "I really believed him to be what he said he
was--assistant to an Eastbourne doctor. I never dreamed he was Chinese,
not that it mattered at all where I was concerned, only one becomes
quite accustomed to meeting well-dressed Japanese men in society, but
hardly ever a Chinaman. I thought, too, I remembered his face, which is
quite possible, since my husband tells me that this Wong Li Fu was once
an attache at the Chinese Embassy. He spoke excellent English, with a
strongly marked lisp; when he said that my daughter wished to see me at
the Royal Devonshire Hotel, and that a Dr. Sinnett had sent a car for my
convenience, I was mainly concerned in getting him to admit the real
cause of his presence, because I naturally assumed that Evelyn had met
with an accident. No sooner had the car started than he seized my
wrists, and gave them a queer twist, which seemed to render me powerless
for a few seconds. 'If you scream or resist I hurt you--so--only very
bad,' he said. I was that astonished I hardly realized what was taking
place before he had my wrists and ankles strapped, tightly, but not
painfully, and had placed a gag in my mouth. 'Now, you keep quiet,' he
said, and showed me a horrible-looking knife, which he put on the seat
between us. 'If you move at all when we pass through towns,' he went on,
'I stick this into you very deep.' Somehow, I knew that he meant to
carry out his threats to the letter. At first I was more angry than hurt
or even alarmed. Then I began to believe that I had fallen into the
clutches of a lunatic, and grew horribly afraid. I saw that we were
following the London road, and it oppressed me like a dreadful sort of
nightmare to be speeding through a familiar district, a countryside
dotted with the houses and estates of personal friends, and be unable to
stir or utter a sound. It seemed to be almost stupid to see policemen in
the streets of Tunbridge Wells, one of whom gazed into our car sharply,
because, I suppose, we were traveling rather fast, and feel that no one
could begin to guess at my predicament. You all appreciate the fact, of
course, that I knew nothing whatever of any quarrel between my husband
and a faction in China?"
"Your husband adopted the policy of the ostrich, Helena," said Forbes,
grimly. "It may or may not be a fable as regards ostriches--I don't know
enough about them to feel certain, but it is unquestionably too often
true of mankind. I believed my head was hidden and imagined the
remainder of my body was safe in consequence. Now I learn that my
opponents have been tracking me steadily for half a year. The one fact
which stands out clearly above all others during the past forty-eight
hours is the phenomenal range and completeness of Wong Li Fu's plans."
"I didn't mean my comment as a reproach, dear," and Mrs. Forbes gave him
a look which told plainly that these two were lovers after many years of
wedded happiness. "Thank God, we have all escaped--thus far!"
"Oh, mother," laughed Evelyn nervously, "you are not anticipating more
horrors, are you?"
"A few hours ago I would have scoffed at any one who said that a handful
of Chinese could tear aside our cloak of civilized security as though it
were a spider's web," was the serious reply. "But I have interrupted my
own story. I began to think that I would be taken to some awful den in
the East End, and held there till some huge sum of money was paid by way
of ransom, when the car suddenly quitted the main road and bumped over a
rough surface. I knew I was near Croydon--the last place I would have
suspected as a brigands' stronghold. Then we halted, and that wretched
man lifted me out, carried me into a back room of an old-fashioned
house, put me in a fairly comfortable chair, tied me in with ropes, and
left me. I couldn't speak. I was looking at a blank wall and
smoke-stained ceiling. I was sure then that he was after money, and
began to calculate the time which must elapse before my husband would
hear from him and arrange for my release. I wondered how much he would
ask--ten, twenty, fifty thousand pounds. How much would you have paid,
Jim?"
Mrs. Forbes took her trials so cheerfully that they all laughed.
"That's hardly a fair question, is it?" she continued, stealing another
glance at her husband. "At any rate, being a banker's wife, I knew how
extraordinarily difficult it would be to raise any considerable sum of
gold at such a late hour, and I resigned myself to remaining a prisoner
all night. Then I think I wept a little, but not for long, because I
felt that they meant to keep me alive, and as I look more delicate than
I really am, even a Chinaman would see that he was taking some risk by
denying me food and all liberty of movement. Then--very soon, it
seemed--I heard an outer door being forced off its hinges and English
voices, and the door of my room was broken open, and I saw a police
inspector and some constables. Hitherto I have never properly
appreciated our policemen. From this day I become their most ardent
admirer and enthusiastic helper. I could have gone down on my knees to
those big, kind-looking men in uniform. In fact I nearly did. When they
released me I could hardly stand. After that, Mr. Handyside came, and
accompanied me here, with a detective sitting next the driver, and my
husband and Evelyn have told me something of the extraordinary things
which have been going on in London while I was gadding about at
Eastbourne."
"Was the detective a man named Furneaux?" inquired Theydon.
Mrs. Forbes hesitated, and her husband answered for her, as he alone,
among the members of the household, had met the Jersey man.
"No," he said. "He belonged to the Croydon force, and was sent as an
escort. Furneaux seems to have been swallowed alive since three o'clock.
Everybody is inquiring for him, and no one appears to know anything
about him."
"I wonder whether Wong Li Fu is aware I have been liberated?" said Mrs.
Forbes. "It's rather odd, is it not, that nothing has been heard from
him or his gang if I was to be held a prisoner in order to extort
terms?"
"I fancy he meant to add significance to his demand for a reply by
advertisement in tomorrow's Times," said Forbes. "You see, Helena, he
meant to carry off Evelyn as well as you."
Mrs. Forbes smiled again at that.
"What in the world should each of us have thought if we had both been
bound and gagged in that car?" she cried.
"I know what I think," said her husband emphatically. "You are going
straight to bed now, and you'll take ten grains of bromide before lying
down. Evelyn, I appoint you nurse. Don't leave your mother till she is
sound asleep."
Mrs. Forbes rose at once. She admitted, though reluctantly, that a
night's rest was necessary to steady her nerves.
"Ah!" she sighed, "I shall be so glad when all this turmoil is ended,
and we are settled for the season in Sutherland."
"Sutherland, ma'am," inquired Handyside. "Isn't that in the far north of
Scotland?"
"Yes."
"It would be, just as the North Foreland is in Kent."
Theydon explained his friend's theory of geographical names in the
British Isles, and on that lightly humorous note the ladies disappeared.
When they were gone Forbes quickly gave a sinister turn to their talk.
He produced a letter from his pocket.
"Listen to this," he said.
"Y. M. is pleased to inform James Creighton Forbes that Mrs. Forbes is a
prisoner, and will remain, without food or drink and unable to move, in
an empty house until Y. M.'s demands are granted."
His face was white with fury while he read, and his fingers moved
convulsively as if he could feel them twining around Wong Li Fu's
throat. The other men maintained a sympathetic silence. They understood
why that ghastly message had been withheld from the cognizance of the
lady who had just quitted them.
"It was delivered by a messenger boy shortly before you arrived,
Theydon," said Forbes, when his passion had subsided and he could trust
his voice again.
"Have you informed Scotland Yard?" said Theydon.
"No. I dared not use the telephone. I could not leave my wife. She is
far more shaken than she thinks. Ever since her return she has followed
me if I even walked across the room. It was pitiful. I had to lie to her
when the butler brought this infernal note. She saw it was typed, and
believed my explanation that it was a mere record of an office
cablegram."
"Give it to me," said Theydon. "Mr. Handyside and I must leave you now.
We'll take it to Scotland Yard. Mr. Winter ought to know of it. In all
likelihood he is arranging to remain in the Croydon house tonight, and,
if Wong Li Fu is telling the truth, which is highly probable, the local
police can watch the place adequately."
"Yes. You're right, of course. I should have seen that an hour ago, but
my brain is on fire owing to the torture these fiends have devised."
"Are you quite safe here? It is an absurd question, but I would like to
feel assured on that point. Shall I return, and strengthen your guard?"
"I'm exceedingly obliged to you, but, in addition to two of my servants,
thoroughly trustworthy men, a detective sergeant and constable have come
from Scotland Yard. They are now having supper. When the household
retires for the night two will remain in this room, with the door open,
and two in the butler's room, which commands the other staircase.
Moreover a constable will patrol this side of the square, and a second
one the back of the premises, until long after daybreak."
"Tell you what," said Handyside, when he and Theydon were in a taxi, and
had made certain they were not being followed, "tell you what, son,
you've struck a bonanza in this Chinese drama."
"What do you mean?" said Theydon.
"Well, I guess you're the curly-haired boy where Miss Evelyn is
concerned."
"Like most Americans, you jump at conclusions," was the ungracious
reply.
"And, like most Americans, I'm right nearly all the time," said
Handyside dryly.
"Surely one can hardly discuss such a matter."
"Why not? If a proposition sounds hard, chew on it, and may be you'll
get your teeth into it somehow."
Theydon nearly allowed himself to become angry. Was his hopeless
admiration for Evelyn Forbes so patent that a sharp-eyed stranger could
discern it after a brief hour in their company?
"Millionaires' daughters marry poor men only in novels and on the
stage," he said bitterly. "In real life, and in England, they take unto
themselves titles and landed estates."
"I guess Wong Li Fu will have to round you up some more," was the
cryptic answer, and Handyside forthwith plunged airily into some wholly
different topic.
At Scotland Yard they inquired for Furneaux, and were told he had not
reported at headquarters since the early afternoon. So Theydon was
introduced to another representative of the department, and handed over
the typed note; the detective promised that its purport should be
telephoned to Croydon without delay.
When the two reached the Embankment again, Theydon felt unaccountably
tired, and was minded to take leave of his companion then and there. But
Handyside placed an unerring finger on the cause of his weariness.
"Say, Mr. Theydon," he cried, "I don't know what food product
arrangements you've made all day, but I couldn't have eaten less since
breakfast if Wong Li Fu was sitting over me with a pistol. How about a
square meal? Come to my hotel, and I'll start the chef on a nice little
menoo while we're having a wash and a brush up."
"By Jove! Now I know what is the matter with me," was the astonishing
answer. "I have lunched and dined on a cup of tea at Eastbourne."
"Guess I'm fifteen years older than you, so I knew my trouble all the
time. Those people in Fortescue Square were so rattled that they never
thought of asking us to eat. Come right along. It's only a step."
"I'll come with pleasure. I owe you some money, too, which I was nearly
forgetting."
"What do you owe for?"
"Railway tickets, and taxis, and motor-cycles, to begin with."
"No, sir," said the American decisively. "I've had the cheapest day's
amusement I've ever dreamed of. On balance I owe you one sovereign. As
for those half-tickets from Eastbourne I wouldn't sell them for dollars
and cents. When I get back to my home, 21,097 Park Avenue, Chicago, I'll
have those bits of cardboard framed, and when some particular friend
asks the reason I'll tell him, suppressing names of course, and he'll go
away thinking that George T. Handyside is the biggest liar in the State
of Illinois, which is some pumpkin, you bet."
"What beats me," rejoined Theydon, "is how you remember where you live.
You must have a marvelous head for figures."
So they dined well, and wined moderately, and Theydon walked to
Innesmore Mansions, thinking of little else in the world except of the
moment when he held Evelyn Forbes in his arms, almost in an embrace, and
he had dared, nearly, if not quite, to kiss her.
As he drew near Innesmore Mansions, however, he kept his wits about him.
One of the most remarkable features of a series of remarkable crimes was
the thorough command of the resources of civilization exhibited by the
Young Manchus. A few days earlier he would not have dared to introduce
into a story of his own an association composed exclusively of Chinamen
which adapted to its needs the motor car, the messenger boy, perhaps the
telephone and telegraph, to say nothing of the advertising columns of
the daily press.
It was monstrous to imagine that a number of Orientals--marked men,
every one, no matter what disguises they might adopt--should dare bid
defiance to the forces of the British Constitution in order that they
might wreak vengeance on those more enlightened compatriots who wished
to see their country rescued from the effete control of a puppet
Emperor.
But Theydon was now some days older and many degrees wiser. He knew that
the wildly improbable had become dogged fact, that Chinese fanaticism,
tigerish in its crafty and utter cold-bloodedness, was setting at naught
not only the ordinances of the law, but the brightest intellects whose
duty it was to make that law respected.
It behooved him, therefore, to lend a sharp eye to his own safety, and
never a vehicle or pedestrian came near while he traversed the quiet
streets in the neighborhood of Innesmore Mansions that he did not give
the closest attention to cab or wayfarer, as the case might be.
As it happened, that quarter of London was singularly deserted. The
first flight of people homeward-bound from the theaters was well over;
the later contingent, supping in restaurants, had not begun to arrive.
Save for the slow-moving figure of a policeman the long front of the
mansions themselves was devoid of life.
Nevertheless, it was with a feeling of relief that he turned the key in
the lock of No. 18, and heard the scraping of a chair on the kitchen
floor as Bates rose to meet him.
"Hello, Bates!" he cried wearily, "here I am again, you see! Anything
new or interesting during my absence?"
"Mrs. Paxton--" began the valet, stopping when his master uttered a
sharp exclamation. Theydon had completely forgotten Miss Beale and his
sister.
"Yes," he said. "Sorry I interrupted you. What of Mrs. Paxton?"
"I saw her, sir, as you ordered, and she promised to call on Miss Beale.
She kem here about an hour ago--"
"Who? My sister?"
"Yes, sir. She was anxious to see you. From what I could gather, sir,
the two ladies had bin puttin' their heads together, and agreed that
this Chinese business has a nasty look, an' you'd better keep out of
it."
"What Chinese business, Bates?"
"Well, sir, Miss Beale will 'ave it that Mrs. Lester was killed by a
Chinaman, an' one of the police on duty in this district told me a
little while ago that he saw no less than three Chinamen prowlin' round
here last Monday between dusk and dark."
Theydon drew a deep breath. If there was gossip going on about
"Chinamen" in connection with the murder in No. 17 the newspapers would
soon be getting hold of it. The arrest of Len Shi by Furneaux must be
reported. Possibly some newspaper correspondent in Eastbourne would hear
of the kidnaping exploit, and describe the Eastern aspect of its chief
actor, Mrs. Forbes's name would "transpire" in the paragraph, and, by
putting two and two together the lynx-eyed journalism of London would
ferret out a good deal of the truth.
"Ladies very often talk nonsense about such things," he said sharply.
"Why should any Chinaman single out poor Mrs. Lester as a victim? I
think the inquiry may be left safely to Scotland Yard. Have you seen the
evening papers? I'll bet you sixpence nothing was said at the inquest
concerning Chinamen?"
"No, sir. That's true. However, Mrs. Paxton wants you to ring her up."
"Why?"
"She wants to be sure you are safe home."
Theydon laughed. "How can I?" he cried. "She is not on the telephone."
"Mrs. Paxton left a number, sir. If you give them a call it will be
taken to her."
Theydon shook his head good-humoredly but obeyed. A voice at the other
end answered:
"Will you oblige me by telling Mrs. Paxton that I took an American
friend to Eastbourne this afternoon and returned by a late trains," he
said.
"Who is it, please?"
"Mr. Theydon, Mrs. Paxton's brother."
"O, I have a message for you. Miss Beale is staying with Mrs. Paxton
tonight. There was a Chinaman in her hotel, and she didn't like it."
Theydon controlled his feelings sufficiently to thank his informant. He
really wanted to say something crude.
"Gad!" he muttered, when he had rung off, "these women have Chinamen on
the brain. Look here Bates," he added emphatically, "I hope you won't
lend an ear to this nonsense. You've seen no Chinamen, I supposed?"
"No, sir."
"If you do see one, tell me, and I'll get to know his business, pretty
quick."
"Yes, sir."
"Any letters?"
"Three, sir, and a small parcel. I put them on your table. Shall I get
you something, sir?"
"No, thanks. I've just had a huge supper. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, sir. Any orders for the morning?"
"Let me sleep as long as I like, unless I'm wanted."
Theydon entered the sitting room. He opened the letters. Two were of no
moment; the third was a request from the editor of a magazine that the
"copy" of his article on the "Forbes Peace Propaganda" should be
forwarded as speedily as practicable. What a mad world it was, to be
sure! Here was an important periodical waiting impatiently for the views
of the millionaire on the best means of securing peace on earth and good
will to all men, while that same master mind was obsessed with fear of a
few Chinese bandits. Society was looking to Forbes for a promised
panacea against war and its evils; Forbes himself was wondering whether
bolts and locks and armed servants and policemen would protect him and
his from the claws of the Young Manchus!
Theydon heard Bates locking and bolting the outer door of the flat with
a certain thankfulness. He was thinking of the sheer impossibility of
any marauder gaining access to No. 18, when he opened the small parcel
which the valet had spoken of. He speculated idly as to the nature of
its contents, because he could not remember having ordered any article
which would be contained in so tiny a package.
He took out a piece of stout paper, folded twice, and a little white
object fell to the table and rolled over several times, finally coming
to rest with a curious suddenness. It was a small, carved, ivory skull!