Li Shoon's Nine Lives/Chapter 12

HAVE a few courteous words, captain, that I would like to say to you and your men," Carrick replied gravely.

"Courteous words to executioners are rare, gentlemen," said the rebel captain, fondling his mustache.

"What I wish to say," Carrick went on, "is that I appreciate the fact that you are soldiers. Therefore, you must obey your orders, and I bear you no ill will. I have one request to make, and that is that you take full pains to make our deaths instantaneous. I am going to reward you for doing it, for I have gifts that our first captors overlooked. I have with me twelve hundred dollars in American gold, worth nearly twenty-eight hundred dollars in Mexican silver, and worth more than a shipload of your paper currency. I propose, captain, that this gold shall go to you and your soldiers."

As he spoke, Carrick fumbled dexterously with his clothing. In a twinkling, then, he brought forth his money belt. His nimble fingers ran along the catches over the pockets, opening them.

"Some of this money is in coin and some in American gold notes, which are as good as gold coin at any bank in the world. Captain, I propose to give your men a merry scramble for it!"

As he spoke, Carrick swiftly took hold of the belt by one end, twirled it, and hurled it far into the bushes.

As the belt flew, a golden shower of coins could be heard dropping to the earth. Gold notes fluttered against the faces of some of the soldiers, as, with stifled cries, they raced after the fortune. Nor could even the captain resist the lure. These Mexicans had been too long without real money and on scant food.

"We've about seven seconds!" whispered Carrick, striking Fleming's arm. "Follow me like a streak."

But Fleming dallied for at least four of the precious seven seconds. He had noted that several of the soldiers had dropped their rifles to join in the hot scramble after the money. Like a hawk the chemist pounced upon the three nearest rifles and also a bandolier of cartridges that one of the soldiers had carried on his arm. Then the doctor fled.

"Good work and a happy thought!" panted Carrick, as he relieved Fleming of two of the rifles. "Now we can at least die fighting!"

But the fugitives were out of sight ere the Mexican rebel captain realized he was a victim of trickery. While still searching nervously for coins or notes, he called to his men to look after the prisoners. Each eager soldier, however, left obedience to be rendered by his fellows. When the captain finally, by the use of many curses, brought his soldiers to their senses, the captives had long vanished, and leaving not so much as a guiding sound.

Again the Master Hound had to have recourse to the stars, when he could espy them through the thick treetops. He took a generally northerly course through the thick forest, in which there was not a trace of a path to be found.

Behind them two rifle volleys crackled out. Fleming halted for a moment to chuckle noiselessly.

"I know our Mexican neighbors well enough to know what is happening and will happen," he whispered to Fleming. "The captain and his men have fired that they may be able to back up the tale they are going to tell of the execution. They will even lay out two mounds, then go back and report that we are dead. But they will search that forest until no more money can be found. Captain and men will hold their tongues as to what really happened, for they possess a secret that would hang them all."

More deliberately, now, the Hound led the way through the forest, listening all the time. When he halted again it was to say:

"Fleming, the snatching of these rifles and the cartridges was a stroke of genius! At the worst, we fear no one now, for we can go down giving as good as we get."

It was soon plain that to the north of Mattanegua, at least where the forest ran, that no rebel outposts had been stationed. Carrick, after half an hour of flight, walked with less caution until he heard the noise of an automobile moving slowly somewhere to the southeast of them. He halted to listen.

"There must be a road parallel with our course," Fleming whispered. "That car is coming our way, and seems likely to pass us within a stone's throw."

Getting his bearings, Carrick led the way forward once more, shaping his course so as to approach gradually the road that he believed to lie to the east of them.

"It's a poor enough road, judging by the car's noise," Fleming whispered, as the car passed them, to the eastward, going north. "I wonder who can have a car over here."

A minute later the car stopped. Carrick, though he did not halt, moved with greater stealth, an example that the chemist at once imitated. Soon they heard the murmur of voices, dead ahead. And next the unctuous tones of Doctor Li Shoon came to them. The wretch was talking in English, presumably that no passing Mexican should understand. Li preferred, when useful, the modern tongues to Chinese.

"I brought you here, Weng," Li was explaining, as the Americans drew near, "that there might be no danger of Calvoras knowing what I have to say. Though they apparently understand only Spanish, I am always suspicious that some of the general's officers may know too much English for our good. While I do not expect to die, I am always aware that fate may be about to press the cup to my lips. I have good news—wonderful! We now have four and a half million dollars in gold coin. You know where it is hidden."

"Yet I could not go to it," objected Weng-yu.

"I am coming to that," Li went on, with a wave of his hands. "But the news! You know that Sing Yen just came ashore from the yacht with a wireless telegram for me. It was sent from San Francisco, in our Chinese code that not a soul in the world could read outside of the Ui Kwoon Ah-how. And that code message—it is exhilarating. Barely more than a hundred miles to the south of here the steamer Sea King is proceeding slowly north against difficulties with her machinery. She has wirelessed San Diego for aid, though she can keep slowly under way unless a further break occurs in her machinery. And the San Francisco newspapers express grave concern, for the Sea King carries in her strong room the sum of eight million dollars in gold! Think of it, Weng!"

"Truly, the thought is enough to drive one out of his mind!" quivered Weng-yu. "That, with four and a half millions already hidden, is one-fourth of the whole sum needed to launch the Ui Kwoon Ah-how on its glorious work of subduing all of Asia to Chinese rule!"

"We would have had the entire fifty millions ere this, had it not been for that dog of a Carrick and his hardly less dangerous friend, Fleming," uttered Li bitterly. "The gods of our ancestors be praised that both of the meddlesome Americans now sleep in their last beds! By to-morrow forenoon, Weng, that eight millions should be ours, and all traces of our work lost under the waves. The Sea King carries fifty passengers, as well, but what are fifty more lives when the glory of Ui Kwoon Ah-how thrills our hearts?"

"Nothing whatever," declared Weng-yu, snapping his fingers. "I would kill all on the American continent to see the Ui Kwoon triumph!"

There was a third in the group—Ming. But that Mongol stood by in grave silence. His were only the deeds of blood; not his to use his brain but his hideous tools.

"Yet the gods of our ancestors may call me before my work is done as I would see it," Li Shoon continued musingly. "I have had that thought, for, though I have boasted of possessing nine lives, the number may be nearly run. Therefore,- Weng, I am giving you, now, to be hidden securely, a copy of my map showing where the four millions and a half in gold are hidden. You have seen the spot, but have not followed the navigating map closely. You know the little bay when you see it, six miles below Cape Marca on the coast of Lower California. You know as well the three trees whose trunks form a triangle. Yet you could not reach the spot again, with surety, without this map. If the gods put the cup to my lips, then you will go there and get the hidden gold, as well as that which is to be taken from the Sea King to-morrow. You know what is to be done with it. You know, also, that you are to succeed me as head of the Ui Kwoon."

Weng-yu stretched forth his hand to receive the precious paper. Before his fingers could close upon it, it was snatched away by Donald Carrick, who sprang from behind a tree.