Li Shoon's Nine Lives/Chapter 11

OW?" demanded General Calvoras, in a somewhat thick voice. "Then these are the two Americans whom you hoped to catch, Doctor Li?"

"The very pair!" cried the international criminal joyously. "They are the two American secret-service agents from whom you have most to fear. They have penetrated the secret of your source of supply in munitions of war. General, you will know what to do with them?"

"I shall have them shot within sixty seconds!" exclaimed Calvoras wrathfully. "Captain Bustanobo, you have heard my pleasure?"

"It shall be done at once, my general, as you say," assented the captain.

"I beg you to let them remain for a moment," pleaded Li Shoon, in sweetest Spanish. "Carrick! Fleming! You are balm against the soreness of my eyes. In my darkest moments I knew that this time would come. It was promised me by Hop How, my soothsayer. I shall reward him for this prophecy, which has come true."

Beginning with his address to the hapless prisoners, Li had dropped into English. He now continued:

"You two should have known that you could not long hope to baffle me. You had your brief triumphs, yet they lasted but moments, after all. And now all the score is settled."

"Li," spoke Carrick steadily, "you can send me to death, but I can take you with us. Your yacht is under the guns of these miscreants. In seven words I can inform this make-believe general that your yacht contains, hidden away carefully, yet discoverable, millions in gold coin that you have stolen from ships that you have afterward sunk. This braggart bogus soldier will forgive you your villainies, all except the fact of your concealing from him the enormous stores of gold coin that you have on the Budzibu. When he hears of the gold he will kill you either before or after he has seized the gold, for which he will hunt like a rat on the scent of grain. Unless you can save us, Li, you are done for as surely as we are. Think! Are your wits quick? Can you save our hides and your own?"

"Do you think I'm fool enough to carry the coin on the yacht?" taunted Li. "That would be more stupid than to smoke in a powder mill."

Calvoras, after listening in a stupid, noncomprehending way, drained another glass of wine, then rose heavily to his feet, breaking in in Spanish:

"I understand, Doctor Li Shoon, that you are talking over old grudges. Let it be so. I will leave you alone for a while. Then I will send my file of soldiers to see that these scoundrelly Americanos are taken out and shot. A quick shooting, Doctor Li, always saves bother."

The door closed, and the three were alone. Had Carrick wished, he could have sprung upon this odious Chinaman and killed him with his own hands. Li was an outlaw, without rights before man, but the Hound's mind was working fast along other lines.

As if he realized his own danger, Li glided to another door, clapping his hands smartly. In came a dozen Chinese, led by Ming, executioner to the Ui Kwoon Ah-how.

"Amuse these gentlemen," said Li, in English, but the gesture was enough, accompanying their leader's evil smile. At a guttural word from Ming, the yellow assistants seized upon both Americans. Immediately there began a series of horrible arm twisting and straining of joints. Fleming had the hardest work of his life in keeping his groans back. He felt like yelling hysterically. Great drops of cold sweat stood out all over his forehead, his cheeks, his entire body. Carrick's face was more immobile; he looked almost calm under the fiendish torture, though his soul writhed under every wrench. But Carrick's was the more imperturbable nature. Besides, he had had years of experience in the Oriental world.

At a word from Ming, the torture stopped. At another word three of the Chinese left the room, soon returning with implements of torture that made the comprehending Carrick shudder visibly.

"Ah! You know what is coming," said Li Shoon, smiling sweetly. "I always strive to give the best of my hospitality. And, after these machines, I have others that provide even more amusement. Oh, we shall have a rare night of it! When it is all over, then General Calvoras may send his firing squad in with the dessert, if he then thinks it worth while!"

Yet even as Ming superintended the sorting and preparation of the torture machines a heavy tread sounded at the door. In strode a Mexican captain, in heavy boots, followed by a sergeant and eight barefooted privates, all armed with rifles.

"It is by General Calvoras' orders that I take these prisoners from you, doctor," he said, with a courteous bow. "They are to be shot at once!"

"But I am not through," Li protested shrilly.

"That I regret to hear, but you will understand that I can only obey my general's orders," said the captain courteously. "Sergeant, take the prisoners! March!"

Quivering with rage at being so coolly deprived of his prized prey, Li Shoon moved swiftly from the room. The sergeant and his squad, surrounding Fleming and Carrick, marched them out of the building, through the courtyard, and up the principal thoroughfare of Mattanegua.

"Shooting is a welcome relief from what was to have been offered us," muttered Carrick. "I have had many meetings with Li, but never saw him in such a fiendish mood as he was to-night."

He will probably have the orders revoked," suggested Fleming. "A messenger with altered orders is likely to overtake us at any moment."

As he spoke, the chemist tried to glance backward down the poorly lighted street, but a soldier jabbed him with a bayonet, forcing him to keep his eyes ahead. As the squad moved along, Mexican rebels and the populace smoked indolently in the streets, hardly turning their heads to gaze after such a familiar scene as an execution party.

Past the town and out into the woods the Mexican captain marched his party. At last he halted in a grove of tall trees.

"You will be tied, each to a tree trunk, gentlemen," he announced, "and four men will hold rifles against each of your chests. Death should be instantaneous and painless. Will you pray, or have you anything that you wish to say before you die?"