Li Shoon's Nine Lives/Chapter 13

HE gods have sent your spirit back to torment me!" gasped Li Shoon. For an instant Li's face was as near pallid as a Chinaman's may be.

But the click of a bolt as Fleming cocked one of the rifles and stood back to cover the yellow trio, was accompanied by the chemist's jeering retort:

"Spirits don't use rifles; at least, I never heard of a case."

Having tucked away the map, Carrick, too, presented the muzzle of a rifle for the inspection of the momentarily baffled ones. "But you two were shot!" protested Li, his voice still a bit shaky. It was difficult, indeed, for him to overcome his belief that the Hound and the chemist had been duly executed.

"We came to life again," said Carrick briefly. "We came back long enough to have our reckoning with you. Doctor Li, of course you are aware that you are an outlawed man, and, therefore, any man's lawful prey."

"In America, perhaps, but not around Mattanegua," Li retorted mockingly. He had found his nerve again, though neither he nor his companions ventured to dash against rifles held by men whom they knew to be full of resolution.

"Mexican rebel law could have no terrors for me," declared the Hound coolly. "Doctor Li, have you any reasons to offer why I should not kill you?"

"Only that you do not dare kill me," mocked Li Shoon. "A single shot, and you will bring down upon you the soldiers—my friends. I will make you a proposition. Give me back the map and I will let you go."

"A wonderful favor!" exclaimed the Master Hound, with biting irony. "You will let us go—where? We are hundreds of miles from our own country, and all the Mexicans for scores of miles obey Calvoras. Wherever we go, if discovered, we are killed. It would take us weeks, even if not caught, to walk to our own country and safety."

"Is it as bad as that?" queried Li, with huge satisfaction. "You did not follow me by sea, but came overland? Then, truly, you may as well drop your rifles and ride back with us to Mattanegua. You can only be shot to death; therefore, why not be done with it?"

"Fleming, step back about six paces and cover these wretches!" commanded Carrick calmly. "If one of them stirs, kill him. Do not mind the noise of the shot. And, for preference, kill Li Shoon."

"To do so will afford me great pleasure," replied the chemist coolly.

Carrick darted east to the road. There, at the edge, he found the car. Moreover, in the tool kit he found a file and a monkey wrench. For a brief time he filed industriously against the steering rod of the motor car. Then, adjusting the wrench tightly to the rod, he snapped it.

"That is all," announced Carrick, coming back to where his friend held the yellow trio at bay. "Li, you and your friends will walk back to Mattanegua. Whoever attempts to follow us will be killed. By daylight, if we have good fortune, we can be a dozen miles from here, and farther in the jungle. Doctor Li, in the patter of this country, adios!"

At a run, Carrick and his friend disappeared, going northeast. After some three minutes of running, Carrick halted, abruptly throwing himself to the earth, where he listened with his ear against the ground, while Fleming peered behind him into the depths of the forest, through which they had come.

"I do not believe we are being followed," the Hound whispered, in his friend's ear. Now, we will see if we can find the spot on the coast for which we should aim."

For Carrick, in landing, had given orders that the Vulcan should attempt to pick them up at a point some miles north of Mattanegua, instead of south of it.

Shaping his course once more by the stars, Carrick trudged on ahead, Fleming following some dozen feet to the rear. The latter carried two of the three rifles. Carrick wore the bandolier of reserve cartridges.

Despite the season, it was almost stiflingly hot in here among the trees. Both men were bathed in perspiration by the time they reached the coast, at the point for which the Hound had aimed.

"This cannot be the place," Carrick murmured. "We are too far south, probably by at least two miles. Come in under the trees again. It would not do to walk on the beach."

So they continued on, for nearly an hour more. Then, through the trees, they beheld a little bay lighted only by the stars.

"There is our place," Carrick murmured. "We will go down to the edge of the trees and wait. If you are as footsore as I am the rest will be welcome to you."

"Welcome, indeed," murmured Fleming.

Still in the lead, Carrick had not more than emerged from under the trees when half a dozen Mexican rebel soldiers leaped to their feet, aiming their rifles.

"Para! Quién vive?" (Halt! Who goes there?) came the sharp hail.

"Company, halt!" called Carrick deliberately. Doctor Fleming, just in time, called: "Company, halt!"

Fleming made noise enough with his own feet to give some idea of men halting under the trees. From the beach he was invisible.

"Put down your guns, my men!" ordered Carrick confidently. "You are outnumbered by an American naval party. You do not wish to be wiped out? Then attempt no resistance. Obey my orders and your lives shall be spared."

As the rebel soldiers hesitated, Carrick motioned impatiently, frowning, as though he could not credit such stubbornness.

"If you do not at once drop your rifles, my men will fire and sweep you from the earth!" he cried angrily, still in Spanish. "Have none of you men families or sweethearts, that you would throw your lives away? Down with your rifles! On the ground! Now, march away from your pieces, hands up! That is right. Halt!"

Sheer bluff had won. Cowed, the Mexicans had obeyed. They now stood with the nearest a hundred feet distant from his rifle.

"Lieutenant!" hailed Carrick sharply.

"Aye, aye, sir!" from the chemist.

"Send the sergeant down here to bind these men."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Then, as the chemist appeared, Carrick added:

"You can tie their wrists behind them with their own sashes, and leave ends sufficient to tie them to the trunks of small trees.

Doctor Fleming accomplished that with a speed born of some knowledge of the art of tying. He soon had the men tightly lashed.

"Now, march!" commanded Carrick, leading the way, while Fleming, with rifle at the ready, brought up the rear. Fully six hundred feet up the wooded slope the men were led, then lashed to trees.

"It will be of equal value to gag these men," Carrick declared, so the gagging was accomplished by cutting pieces from the men's clothes and stuffing into their mouths, the tying being done with knotted strips cut from their jackets. Patiently as dumb animals these men submitted, preferring the humiliation to the loss of their lives.

"One doesn't feel pleasant about despoiling these poverty-stricken fellows of their only clothing," murmured Carrick in English. "Fleming, have you any gold pieces?" "A few," admitted the chemist.

"Then slip one into the trousers pocket of each prisoner," Carrick begged, next adding in Spanish his apologies to the men, and informing them that the gold was to be used in providing themselves with whole clothing.

The task ended, Carrick, striking and shading a match, glanced at his watch.

"It lacks but two hours of daylight," he announced. "If we are to escape, after all, we have but little time in which to do it."

Down the slope they ran, but soon slowed down, going on tiptoe, as they heard some body of men moving through the forest.

"Li must have got back and given the alarm!" whispered Carrick. "If so, and if this be a searching or relief party, and our gagged friends are found, then all we can do is to die game."

Dropping to the ground, moving the three rifles before them, and placing the bandolier so that either could reach for reserve cartridges, the Master Hound and the chemist awaited developments.

Up in the forest above could be heard, not very plainly, the sounds made by moving bare feet through the undergrowth.

"They're halting now," whispered Carrick. "If they try to communicate with the missing outpost at this point, guess what is going to become of us."

"I never bet on sure things," Doctor Fleming replied grimly.

"Picture to yourself how the tied and gagged soldiers are struggling to free themselves that they may give the alarm at once. And they know the direction that we took!"

"Mexico is one huge trap!" sighed the doctor. "Easy to get into, but hard to get out!"