CHAPTER XIX
A BOY SCOUT SURPRISE PARTY
When Ned heard the assaults of the midnight visitor on his door helooked at his watch, then slipped over to the window facing the street.Twelve o'clock and the thoroughfare below still teeming with life.Peking has something over three millions of population, according to therecords, but, as a matter of fact, no one knows the exact size of thetown as to humanity, for the Chinese live in densely-packed districts,and there are no census reports given out.
The city is many centuries old. It was a thriving capital threethousand years before Christ was born and during all the years of warand starvation and intrigue it continued to grow.
The hardy races from the North, which overran the country and kept aTartar on the Chinese throne for centuries, are virile and pertinacious.It has been the fate of every civilization we know anything about to bewiped out by hardy races. Rome went down before the Northmen, andEngland had its oversea conqueror. Greece and Italy succumbed to themight of brawny arms, and civilization shrank back for hundreds ofyears. So China fell before the men of the mountains, and her recordswere destroyed.
As in all large cities, there is a night side to the life of Peking. Ifyou traverse the streets at night you will find shops which have beenclosed all day opening for the trade of the night workers. You will seepeople who have slept through all the daylight hours walking through thestreets to their nightly toil. You will see about the same things, onlyon a smaller scale, that you see in the daytime.
This night was no different from any other, except that there were moremen who did not appear to have any particular business there loungingalong the streets. Now and then these loiterers, walking slowly alongthe business ways, slipped unostentatiously into alleys and narrowby-ways and so on into basement and garret halls where others of theirkind were assembled.
When Ned looked out of his window, listening meanwhile to the steadyboring sound at his door, he saw a light at a window opposite to thebuilding in which he stood waving slowly to and fro. There was a longvertical motion, and then the light moved from side to side again.
Ned counted the slow strokes. Left to right, right to left, back againand yet again!
"Six," he mused, "and all in action!"
The mouse-like gnawing at his door continued, the sounds seeminglylouder than before. The intruder was evidently gaining courage!
Presently the boy leaned out of his window, which was on the third floorof the hotel, and watched the entrance below. There appeared to be agreat rush of customers at that time. At least a score of nativespassed in at the large door.
Then Ned turned to the right and studied the window of the room next tohis own on that floor. There was a light in that room, too, but itseemed to be a red light. Then it changed to white, then to blue.
Ned laughed and began drawing on his clothes. Still the boringcontinued, and Ned bent over to see if he could discover any holes inthe stile of the door.
There being no light in his room and, presumably, one in the corridoroutside, he thought he might be able to see when a cut through the stilehad been made. There were no indications of a break yet, and Nedsettled back on his bed to wait.
Just at that moment he hardly knew what he was waiting for. He had beenvery busy all the afternoon, laying plans and conferring with a man whocame from the police bureau, and who appeared to be working underinstructions from the boy. Ned considered his plans as near perfect asany human plans can be, still he did not know exactly what would happenat a quarter past twelve.
At ten minutes past midnight the boy heard a rush of footsteps in thecorridor. They passed his door and the boring ceased. Then they fadedaway in the distance and the gnawing was resumed. There was a littlemore noise in the hotel than before.
Ned smiled at the crude efforts that were being made to enter his room.In New York man disposed to enter for the purpose of robbery would havea skeleton key. He would be inside the room in three seconds afterentering the corridor and finding the apartment he sought wrapped indarkness.
"But this isn't New York," the boy mused. "This is the Orient, and thepatience of the Orient, and the stupidity of the Orient!"
At exactly a quarter past twelve there was a commotion in the corridor.Several people seemed to be moving toward the door of Ned's room. Oncethere was a little cry of alarm.
Ned looked out of his window. The panes where he had observed thesignals, across the street, were dark. There was no light in the windownext his own which had shown red, white and blue but a moment before.
The clamor in the corridor increased, and Ned walked to the door andundid the fastenings. Then it swung open, almost striking Ned in theface.
Facing the boy, in the corridor, were six Chinamen, or men in nativedress, rather. Back of them were a score of stern-faced Chinesepolicemen. To the right, and struggling with all their might to getinto the room were Frank, Jack, and Jimmie, the latter with his nosewrinkled and wrinkling to such an extent that it resembled a small oceanwith the wind undulating its surface.
"Trap's closed!"
That was Jimmie, of course. Frank and Jack stood by laughing. Thefaces of the six men who stood before the door were anything butpleasant to look upon.
They expressed hate, despair, desperate intents. As they stood thereFrank reached forward and snatched a queue-wig from the head of the mannearest him.
"There he is!" Jimmie cried. "There's the old boy, Ned--the smooth ginkwe saw at Taku, at Tientsin, and at numerous places on the road. Iwonder how he likes the scene?"
Ned motioned to the six to step into the room. Three of them objected,then swords flashed in the light of the corridor and they moved on.
They were followed by the three boys and half a dozen policemen, allwith automatics in view. At a motion from the leader of the officersthe six were searched and ironed. Jack nudged Frank in the ribs withhis elbow as the handcuffs clicked on the wrists of the man who had sopersistently followed them from the coast of the Yellow Sea.
"That's a good sport," he said. "I like to see a fellow play the game!"
The prisoner turned a pair of treacherous eyes on the boys and a cynicalsmile curled his thin lips.
"You have the cards now," he said, in English, "but look out for the newdeal. I'll keep you busy yet."
"Go to it!" laughed Jack. "Go as far as you like, only I fail to seehow you're going to get into the game again. Looks like you were allin, just now!"
"Wait!" said the other, scornfully.
There now came a knock at the door and Ned opened it to admit CaptainMartin, who looked as if he had just left his bed after anunsatisfactory sleep. He cast his eyes about the room with amazementshowing in every glance.
"What does this mean?" he asked.
"Surprise party!" Jimmie cried.
"Who are these men?"
The Captain pointed to the six prisoners lined up against the wall ofthe room.
"Our friends from Taku, from the ruined temple, from Tientsin, from thefarm house loaded with gunpowder, and from the tea house," laughed Ned."Do you recognize the fellow with his disguise off? Jimmie gave him ahaircut and shave just now."
"And you have captured them?"
"It doesn't look as if they had captured us," Jimmie broke in.
"But how, when, why?"
"All of that!" grinned Jimmie.
Ned spoke a few words to the officer in charge of the squad and in amoment the room was occupied only by the handcuffed prisoners, the fourboys, and Captain Martin. The latter stood looking at Ned with aquestion in each eye.
"When you get time," he said, "I'd like to have you tell me how youbrought this case to a close so suddenly."
Ned motioned to the man who had been stripped of his disguise to take achair at the table. The fellow did so reluctantly, turning his facethis way and that, as if seeking some opportunity of escape.
"Well," he said. "You have the floor. Go On."
"You were at Taku?"
asked Ned.
"I deny everything!"
"You will deny your own fingerprints, the shoeprints?" asked Ned.
"Well, supposing, for the sake of argument, that I was at Taku, what hasthat to do with this brutal and illegal arrest?"
"You placed the powder under the house where the wounded men lay?"
"No."
"I have something I want to show you," Ned said, taking a paper from hispocket. "Have you a match?"
Almost involuntarily the fellow put his hand to his right vest pocketand brought forth a gold match safe. Ned took it into his hand andtouched the spring which lifted the top.
"There seems to be a new wire in the hinge," he said.
"Yes, the old one wore out."
Ned opened his pocketbook and took out the gold wire he had found in thecellar by the side of the powder. The prisoner started violently whenhe saw it.
"Is this yours?" Ned asked.
"No!"
"All right!" Ned said.
With the point of his knife he pushed the sale and put the old new hingefrom the match safe and put the old one in its place.
It fitted exactly.
"There!" Ned said, "you see the old one did not wear out entirely. Itwore away so that it dropped out. Do you know where I found it, myfriend?"
"It is immaterial to me where you found it."
"Even if I found it in a cellar by the side of a half barrel ofgunpowder to which a lighted fuse had been attached?"
"Hadn't you better make your case--if you can make it at all--in thecourts?" asked the prisoner.
Ned took the state department seal, the sealing wax, and the bits ofparchment from his pocket.
"Who met you in the library at the house you attempted to destroy?" heasked.
There was no reply.
"Were these men present?" with a sweep of the hand toward the otherprisoners.
"What has this to do with my case?"
"This," Ned replied. "You were still conspiring to fix upon mygovernment the crime of interfering in the private affairs of anothernation--with the crime of providing, by a treacherous and despicableroute, the money needed by the revolutionary party of China. You weredoing business in that house with the representatives of another nation.Who were they? What nations did they represent, or pretend torepresent?"
"I have nothing to say to that."
Ned held up the seal.
"This was not used?" he asked.
"It was not used."
"Why not?"
"Because the representative of that nation refused to consider the termsoffered him."
Ned held forth the sealing wax.
"This shows that the seal of another nation was used. Where is thepaper to which the seal was attached?"
"Destroyed!"
"Is that true?" asked Ned.
"It is true, they all deserted me. They all ran away when they knew youwere in the country, but I brought them back, and held them until theincident at the house where you found those things."
"So you are now the only one to look to for the history of this bit ofdeviltry?"
"I stand alone," was the reply. "Alone, with the exception of these menI who were arrested with me. The plot has failed, and we know what toexpect."
The prisoner was about to say more, but just then a clamor in the streetbelow attracted the attention of all in the room.
CHAPTER XX
THE EMPEROR TAKES A HAND
Ned stepped to the window and looked out. The street in front of thehotel was filled from curb to curb with an excited mob.
That the efforts of those below were directed toward the building andits occupants there could be no doubt. Many a shaking fist was thrustup to the lighted panes where Ned stood.
The boy turned to Jimmie, spoke a few words in a whisper, and the littlefellow left the room. With him went the interpreter who had beenengaged that day.
Shouts, howls and groans of rage now came up from the street, and Nedstepped away from the window. As he did so the prisoner who had beenmaking a partial confession when the uproar came, moved forward, as ifto show himself to those below.
Seeing his intention, Ned seized him by the shoulder and hurled him tothe back end of the room. The prisoner smiled and again seated himselfin the chair he had occupied before.
"Your friends are excited," Ned said, drawing the curtain at the window.
The other nodded in the direction of the window and smiled.
"My friends?" he asked.
"Certainly."
"Why do you attribute this outbreak to me?"
"Because those not in league with you and your cause would hardlythreaten American tourists, in the face of the law."
"American tourists!" snarled the other, and Ned laughed.
Jimmie now came bustling into the room, his eyes staring withexcitement. The interpreter was only a trifle less moved by theinformation which had been gained.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"He's crazy with fear again!" Frank put in.
"Say," Jimmie cried, "you'd all better be gettin' out of this place.The people out there are goin' to raid it in a minute!"
The prisoner uttered a defiant laugh and again started for the window.Again Ned forced him back.
"What's the trouble?" asked Frank.
"Why," was the reply, "this gink here," pointing toward the prisonerwhose disguise had been removed, "this gazabo hadn't much confidence inhis own ability to win this fight, so he appealed to the revolutionaryleaders."
"That's fine!" Jack said. "We may have the luck to see a full-fledgedrevolution doing business."
"You are quite likely to."
This from the prisoner, now standing with the others at the back of theroom.
"You arranged for this demonstration in case you should be taken?" askedNed.
The prisoner snarled out some ugly reply.
"You planned this?" demanded Ned, resolved to know the truth.
"Yes," almost shouted the other, "and you will soon discover that it issomething more than a demonstration."
The interpreter drew Jimmie aside and whispered in his ear. Then theboy turned to Ned.
"This boy says he saw a signal given from a window as soon as this bunchwas taken," he said. "Then crowds began forming. Say, but we'd betterbe gettin' out!"
"Save yourselves the exertion," the prisoner said. "They will find you,wherever you go!"
"Possibly," Ned said.
Then he walked to the window and again looked out on the mob. Thestreet was packed. Faces showing rage and desperate bravery wereuplifted. Fists were shaken at the window where he stood. In a momenta stone came hurtling against the wall of the house.
Here and there, on the outskirts of the crowd, policemen in the funnyuniforms the police of Peking wear, were seen trying vainly to forcetheir way to the door of the hotel. The main entrance seemed to beguarded, for the mob did not succeed in forcing its way in.
Presently, however, Ned saw long ladders being carried forward on theshoulders of the rioters. Then they were dropped against the wall andmen with bloody faces--bloody from the acts of their own fellows--foughtto be first to climb.
"In three minutes," the prisoner said, "you will be torn limb from limbif I am not released."
"Your friends certainly do insist on something of the kind," Nedreplied.
"Remove these irons and place me before the window," commanded theother. "That will quiet them."
"And make terms with a pack of rioters?" smiled Ned.
"You can save your life, and the lives of your friends, in no otherway," insisted the other.
Ned went to the window again, although bricks and stones were flyingquite freely. The ladders swarmed with excited men, but no one seemedable to gain entrance at the windows which were attacked.
Instead, a ladder now and then went toppling backward, carrying dozensof rioters to death or injury. When the ladders began falling the mobmoved away from that side of the street.
"You see," Ned said to the prisoner, "that we were on the lookout forsomething like this."
"How could you have been?" gasped the other.
"Our interpreter heard some of the messages sent out by mouth by therevolutionists. I connected your possible capture with the gathering.We were warned and made ready."
"But my men will soon be here!" shouted the other. "They are sworn togo to death for the cause if necessary."
"But I don't see them doing anything of the kind," Ned replied. "On thecontrary, they seem to be taking pretty good care of their yellow oldhides!"
"You'll see!" howled the other.
Directly the heavy beat of marching feet came up to the window, heardabove the roar of the mob below. Far down the street Ned saw theadvancing line, bearing the colors of the Emperor.
The rioters saw the line, too, and the crowd in front of the hotel beganto thin. Then the soldiers arrived and the thoroughfare was empty savefor their presence. By this time the prisoner was in a condition ofcollapse. He had planned this thing carefully, and was now in themeshes of failure.
The street below soon cleared of the few who gathered about to witnessthe arrival of the soldiers. The few prisoners, who had been takenmarched sullenly to prison. In ten minutes the city of Peking was asquiet as if the machinations of the conspirators had never stirred thepeople to riot.
"Well?" Ned said, facing the prisoner. "What do you think we ought todo with you?"
"After all," was the reply, "you have no charges against me. Mygovernment alone can discipline me for what has been done."
"Your government will deny any knowledge of the conspiracy," Nedreplied. "From this time on, you have no government."
"And yet I acted under instructions."
"What was the motive?" asked Frank, who saw a fine cablegram for hisfather's newspaper in the story.
"The purpose," replied the other, weakly, "was to so entangle yourgovernment that it would not dare lend aid to the revolutionaryleaders."
"And you were engaged in it?"
A nod of the head was the only reply.
"Yet you pretended to be assisting the revolutionary party. You werepresent at their councils. Can it be possible that you were treacherousto both sides?"
There was no answer.
"Suppose," Ned said, "suppose I turn you over to the revolutionaryleaders, with a statement of what you have just said? What would beyour fate? Remember that the men of the revolution were ready to fightfor you not long ago."
Still no reply. The prisoner only looked sullenly down at the floor.
"What government do you represent?" asked Frank. "What nation is itthat is protecting the imperial government of China?"
"You need not answer that question," Ned said, with a sigh.
Frank laughed.
"I see," he said. "You don't want to further implicate matters bygiving out the name of the power whose seal shows on the wax! Allright, old boy, I'll get it yet!"
"No good can come of a representative of the United States Governmentpresenting charges of such a character against another power," Nedreplied.
Captain Martin now arose from the chair where he had been seated for along time. He glanced keenly into the faces of the six prisoners andthen turned to Ned.
"Shall I take them in charge?" he asked,
"That would be useless."
"Then what can be done with them?"
"I am going to turn them over to the authorities on the charge ofattempted murder, based on the effort they made to kill us in the oldhouse."
"Very well," the Captain said, "now will you tell me how you set thistrap so, cleverly?"
"It was only a matter of detail," Ned replied. "I took good care to letthe native waiters here know that I had the clues I had found secretedin my room. I also let it be known that I was a heavy sleeper.
"My interpreter, who is by no means as treacherous a chap as his lookswould indicate, heard the robbery of my room planned. He heard the hourfixed-a quarter past twelve. So all the rest was easy."
"Oh, yes, easy, but how did you do it?"
"Frank, Jack and Jimmie helped," added Ned. "Jack was at a window overthe way. He told me by signals just how many men were to take part inthe attack on me.
"Frank, in the next room to mine, told me when the time came to be onguard. I really do not wake easily, and he rigged a cord through thewall so I could rest comfortably until the time for action came.
"Then when all was ready, he told me by means of colored light that allthe six were in the corridor, and that the officers I had engaged duringthe afternoon were on hand."
"And you went to sleep with all this on your mind and slept up to withina quarter of an hour of the time set for action?" asked the Captain inwonder.
"Why, certainly," was the reply. "You see, we have been having someexciting nights, and I needed rest. The other boys slept a good dealthis afternoon, so I left them to wake me at night. Nothing odd aboutthat, is there?"
"Nothing save the nerve of it."
Two high officers now made their appearance in the room and beckoned tothe prisoners. All arose save the man from whom the disguise had beenstripped. He remained in the chair into which he had dropped, seeminglyin a stupor.
"Come," said the officer.
The man arose, desperation in his eyes, and moved toward the door. Afew days before that miserable night he had been one of the leaders inthe statecraft of the world. Now he was being marched to a prison likeany ordinary criminal.
The speaker was interrupted by a quick movement on the part of theprisoner, the man he had addressed as Count. There was no one betweenhe desperate man and the still open window. Ned was at the door,Captain Martin was out in the corridor, and Frank, Jack and Jimmie weretalking together in a corner.
Handcuffed as he was, the Count leaped to the window and shot down tothe hard pavement below. There was a shrill cry as his body hurtledthrough the air, then a crash.
Below passersby drew away from what lay in a bloody heap on thepavement. A little crowd gathered, at a distance, but none knew that thebody of one of the most distinguished statesmen in the world lay there.
"It is finished!" Ned said, with a sigh. "The whole story of theconspiracy will never be told. It is the story of a treacherousgovernment and a treacherous statesman.
"The documents I have will fully prove that the United States had nohand in the gold shipment, and that is all that we care for. The oldworld may take care of its own political messes."
"It is a mess indeed," Captain Martin, said. "In less than a year Chinawill be red with blood, and the streets of Peking will witness theretreat of the royal family."
How true this prophecy was the readers of the daily newspapers now know.
"Well," Jack said, with a yawn, as the boys and the Captain were leftalone in the room together, "I presume it is us for little old New Yorkto-morrow. How do you like this motorcycle-flying-squadron business,boys," he added. "We seem to have flown ahead of the flying squadron."
"Then we ought to fly back and look after the ones who were wounded onthe road," Frank said. "Suppose we all go back on our machines, andreally see something of the country?"
This was agreed to, and the party separated for the night. In themorning Ned paid his respects to the American ambassador, who greetedhim courteously, but wanted to know all about the events of the tripfrom the coast.
"You have gotten Uncle Sam out of a bad mess," the ambassador said, whenNed had finished his narration, "and you will find that you will be wellrewarded when you return to Washington."
The ambassador also requested the boys to visit the other legations, butthey did not care to do so.
"Well," he said, then, "you must take a letter from me which may helpyou on your way. I have been expecting you here all the week, but itseems that you completed your work without my assistance,"
"Just what I was figuring on," Ned replied.
"I worked under
surveillance all the way here, and I desired to showthat I could do something on my own account."
The boys left Peking early the next morning, and were not long inreaching the house where the powder trap had been set for them. Therethey found Hans and Sandy! The boys had followed them on from Tientsinin an automobile which an English merchant was taking through.
Both boys were riding motorcycles, and were already proficient enough toproceed with the others, using the machines which had been ridden by thewounded marines, who were sent on to Peking in charge of Captain Martin.
A week was spent on the road to Taku, and the lads enjoyed every minuteof the time. The letter given them by the American ambassador broughtthem every attention at Tientsin and Taku.
It was late in the fall when they reached New York. On the night oftheir arrival there were many joyful meetings in the clubroom of theBlack Bear Patrol. The next day Ned went on to Washington to file hisreport. When he returned it was with a very substantial reward.
"Now," he said, with a laugh, "I'm ready for the next trip. I wonderwhere it will be?"
THE END
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