CHAPTER VIII
THE MESSAGE FROM WASHINGTON
"Surely," the marine officer said, in answer to the boy's exclamation,"that is a genuine, feathered owl. No boy could make so perfect animitation."
"It's Dutchy, all right," insisted Jimmie. "I've heard him make thatnoise before. Now, how did he ever get to Tientsin, and how did helocate us?"
"It doesn't seem possible that it is Hans," Ned said. "How could hemake the journey on foot, through a country suspicious of everyforeigner? And how comes it that he chanced on this building?"
"Didn't he know that you were expecting instructions from Washingtonwhile on the way to Peking?" asked the officer.
"I did not know, myself, that I was to receive instructions while on theway until I met you," Ned replied. "If Hans is indeed here, he haseither blundered into his present position or gained pretty accurateinformation from some one unknown to me."
"If he is here?" repeated Jimmie. "Of course he is here. I'm goin' outin the court an' give him the call of the pack!"
"What does he mean by that?" asked the officer of Ned. "Call of thepack?"
"The call of the Wolf pack," answered Ned. "We both belong to the WolfPatrol, of New York."
"And you think Hans, if it is he, will understand?"
"Of course!" scorned Jimmie.
The little fellow was about to step out of the low window to the floorof the court when a mist of light appeared at one of the glazed windowson the opposite side. The three watched the illumination with absorbinginterest for a moment.
"Hans must be up there," Ned, muttered, "although I would almost as soonexpect to find him up in a balloon."
"I reckon you'll find an owl with wise eyes and feathers up there, ifyou wait," said the officer, with a smile. "The boy you refer to nevercould have traveled here alone."
"You just wait," advised Jimmie.
Presently the mist of light centered down to three small flames,apparently coming from three narrow twists of paper, burning in a row infront of a window on the second floor. Jimmie grasped Ned's arm as thethree tiny columns of flame showed for an instant and then vanished.
"There!" he said. "Do you know what that means?"
"It is a warning of danger," Ned muttered.
"Say that again," exclaimed the officer. "What kind of a game is this?"
"It is a Boy Scout warning," Ned replied. "In the forest three columnsof smoke express the warning. How did this German boy learn all this?"he continued, turning to Jimmie.
"Don't you ever think the Philadelphia Boy Scouts are slow!" answeredthe boy. "Hans has been out in the forest with them, and knows allabout woods work, an' signs, an' signals. Give it up, now?"
"Yes," replied the officer, "I give it up. You boys must have awonderful organization."
"We certainly have," Ned replied.
The three waited for a moment, but no more signals came from the window.Instead a heavy footfall sounded outside the door and a man they had notseen before stepped into the room.
He was a heavily built man, with broad shoulders, black hair and eyes,and a wicked mouth. His face looked hard and repulsive, like the faceof a reckless, intolerant, whisky-drinking captain of police in agraft-ridden district. He closed the door with his back as he entered.
"You are Ned Nestor?" he asked of the officer. The latter pointedtoward Ned.
"That child!" exclaimed the newcomer.
Jimmie restrained himself with an effort, for he knew that this was notime to engage in a quarrel. He turned his back to the group and lookedout of the window into the court.
There was now no light at the window from which the warning had beengiven, but there were flickers of uncertain candles at some of theothers. The hooting of the owl had undoubtedly attracted the attentionof the occupants of the building.
As Jimmie looked, however, the sash of the window he was watching waspushed up and a tousled head appeared. Other sashes were pushed up inan instant, and pigtailed heads and slanting, evil eyes were in view.
"I guess they're keepin' cases on the kid!" Jimmie thought, as he madean almost imperceptible motion toward Hans. "It would be pretty poor, Ireckon, if I could get up there," he added, not meaning that it would be"pretty poor" at all, but, on the contrary, a very good move indeed.
While the lad watched the window, from which the tousled head had nowdisappeared, some of the other windows closed. The natives wereevidently in no mood to lose their sleep because of a foreign-devilnoise in the middle of the night.
The little fellow was certain that the head he had for a moment seen wasthat of Hans, the Philadelphia Boy Scout who had been so strangelyencountered during the visit of the submarine to an island off the coastof China. He knew, too, that the German understood that somethingunusual and hostile to his friends was going on below.
He did not stop to consider the means by which Hans had reached the cityof Tientsin and that particular building. He accepted it for grantedthat he was there, and wondered just what steps he, the German, would beapt, or able, to take in the emergency which threatened the failure ofthe mission to Peking.
Presently the voices of the marine officer, the official who had beensummoned by the assistant manager, and Ned reached his ears. Theofficer was clearly in an angry mood and Ned was trying his persuasivepowers on the newcomer.
"Are you an officer of the telegraph company?" the officer asked, in anangry tone.
"I am not," was the equally discourteous rejoinder. "I am a privatedetective employed, by the manager here. It is my duty to look afterjust such cases as this."
"Well," Ned said, calmly, "ask any questions you desire and we willanswer them frankly. I came to China at the request of the Washingtongovernment, and am to receive instructions here. The operator tells methat there is a cablegram here for me, but refuses to deliver it on theground that I may be an impostor."
"I think he has you sized up right," grated the detective.
"Then we may as well be going," Ned said, still coolly. "There isnothing for us to do now but try to establish our identity before theAmerican consul."
The boy moved toward the door as he spoke, but the brawny detectiveobstructed his passage to the outer room. Ned drew back with a smile onhis face.
"You can't leave here just at present," said the detective. "You willremain in custody until morning."
"Why morning?" asked Ned, with alight laugh.
"Because your accuser will be here then."
"Why didn't you say something of an accuser before?" asked Ned.
"It was not necessary."
"What does the accuser say?"
"He only warns us against delivering important papers to a youthanswering your description."
"Now I understand why all this rumpus has been kicked up!" cried themarine officer. "The man who warned you is Lieutenant Rae?"
The detective nodded.
"Then he is causing us to be delayed for purposes of his own," theofficer stormed. "He aims to get to Peking in advance of us. We mustbe permitted to depart immediately."
He moved toward the door, but the detective stood in his way. Without aword he seized the fellow by the shoulder whirled him around, put hisbeery face to the wall, and passed out of the room. Ned was about tofollow him when the strange attitude of the detective caught hisattention and he stood waiting while a scuffle on the outside told of aphysical complication there.
"Much good that break will do him," said the detective, straighteningout his twisted coat collar. "He will find a squad of police at thestreet door."
"European police?" asked Ned.
"Native police," with a snarl of rage as the commotion in the outer roomcontinued.
Knowing that it would be no trouble at all to secure the release by anyAmerican officer taken into custody by Chinese police, Ned turned to thewindow and looked out on the court. He understood, too, that his ownarrest would mean a long delay in prison while his identity was beingestablished. So
he thought best to keep out of the squabble thehot-headed officer had engaged in.
How sane this decision was only those foreign citizens who had beenarrested and cast into prison in China or Russia can appreciate. Whilean accredited officer of a foreign power may almost instantly regain hisliberty, a plain citizen, such as Ned was forced to appear, might bekept in jail for any number of days, weeks, or months.
The detective stood glaring at the two boys for an instant, as ifanxious to inflict physical punishment upon them, but, as they remainedat the window and said no more to him, he was obliged to take adifferent course. After rapping out several insulting observationsconcerning school children who ought to be spanked and put to bed, heflung himself out of the room.
"You saw Hans?" asked Ned, then.
Jimmie opened his eyes in amazement.
"Did you?" he asked.
"I saw the tousled head you saw," replied Ned.
"I thought you were looking another way," commented the little fellow."That was Hans, all right.'
"But why does he remain inactive? He knows there is something doingdown here, else he would not have shown the signal of warning. He oughtto be out of that window by this time."
"This is a country of hard knots," laughed Jimmie. "They may have tiedup his fat little trotters."
In spite of the serious situation, Ned laughed.
"The tying up in this case makes it seem like a cheap drama on the lowerEast Side in New York," he said.
"I think I might get up to that window," Jimmie suggested.
"How?" asked Ned.
"By the lower window frames an' castings. If you'll manage to keep theChinks off me I'll try."
"It is worth trying," Ned mused.
The other windows opening on the court were now closed. The sleepynatives, possibly doped with opium, had wearied of watching the figuresin the rear room of the telegraph office and tumbled back into bed, orback on such miserable heaps of dirty matings as they chose to callbeds.
The sounds of conflict had already died out in the front office, andanother visit from the evil-faced detective was momentarily expected, soJimmie was urged to make the proposed attempt to reach Hans at once.
He passed out of the window, crossed the beaten earth floor of thecourt, and began to climb. Ned was pleased to see that he had littledifficulty in ascending to the window. Once there he heard him rap onthe pane. There was a pause, and then the boy pushed up the sash andclambered inside.
Ned was glad to see that the boy had the good judgment to draw the sashdown, as soon as he was in the room. What he would discover there thewatcher had no idea.
He might find Hans there under guard. He might discover, when it wastoo late, that the German had been, unwillingly, used as a decoy bycunning natives into whose hands he might have fallen.
Still, there were the signals! The natives could not have known of theBoy Scout system of warnings, and Hans would certainly have volunteerednothing in the way of allurement.
He watched the window for what seemed to him to be a very long time.The pane remained dark.
"If the lad finds the situation favorable," Ned thought, "he may notreturn here at all. I should have instructed him to leave the room bythe main stairway, if possible, and return to the marines. It wouldlook comfortable, just now, to see that file of bluecoats marching intothe telegraph office."
However, there was now no help for the omission, and Ned waited withvarying emotions for some sign from the window. None came, butpresently the door of the rear room was opened and the detectiveblustered in.
"Where is the other prisoner?" he demanded, looking keenly about theroom. "He was here not long ago. Where is he?"
"Didn't you see him crowd out with the marine officer?" asked Ned.
"He was here after that fellow left," was the reply. "But he can'tescape from the building," he added, "for every avenue is guarded, andthe chap the cablegram belongs to has just asked for it!"