Li Shoon's Nine Lives/Chapter 2

TOPPING at the office of the manager of the hotel, Carrick said: "I wish to send a telegram in your name, and will show it to you in a moment."

"I know it will be all right," said his friend the manager.

Seating himself, after the other had handed him a pad of blanks, the Hound penciled this dispatch:

To this Carrick signed the name of the manager and the name of the hotel.

"Will you have this sent for me at once?" asked Carrick, tendering the money with the telegram.

"With pleasure," responded the manager, after a glance at the sheet.

"Then permit me to telephone it to the Western Union in your name, and at the same time I will call up an official in the company, asking him to see to it that both telegram and reply travel at fastest speed west and east."

Within three minutes, Carrick had secured a pledge that the telegram would be "rushed" in the livest sense of the word. The Hound thereupon turned to his friend the manager.

"When the answer comes, you will phone me at Fleming's laboratory, won't you?" he requested.

"Without fail, Carrick."

Outside, stepping into a taxi, Carrick gave the chemist's address, and was quickly back. Once admitted to the laboratory by Tako, the Hound glanced down at his pipe,, resting on a table, then shook his head.

"It may turn out that I need sleep more," he mused. Removing his coat, Carrick lay down on the sofa, tossing a blanket loosely over him, for outside the winter air nipped in strong contrast to the uniform warmth of seventy degrees within. Sixty seconds after lying down, the Hound slept, nor opened his eyes until, nearly two hours later, he was disturbed by the ringing of the phone bell.

"Answer to your telegram," proclaimed a voice from the hotel, and he recognized the manager's voice. "This telegram is signed: 'J. N. Skinner, caretaker.' The dispatch reads: 'Miss Duveen and mother now absent for five weeks on trip to Hawaii; due to return in about three weeks.'"

"Thank you, old man," was Carrick's fervent acknowledgment. "The money that I left with you paid the charges both ways? Yes? Thank you. Will you be good enough to send that reply up to Miss Dorrance's room, with a copy of the telegram that I sent in your name? Will you kindly explain to Miss Dorrance that I took the liberty of wiring in your name? And will you kindly tell Miss Dorrance that, under the circumstances, I strongly advise against her taking the California trip? I am sure that she will understand."

Having adjusted matters to his satisfaction, Donald Carrick again stretched himself on the sofa, carefully covering himself.

"It must never be forgotten," he murmured to himself, "that Li Shoon is an adept at forgery, or controls the services of such an adept. Nor must it be forgotten that his yellow and brown crew know well how to secure specimens of handwriting that are to be forged. Miss Duveen did not write the letter that Sylvia Dorrance showed to me. Li Shoon did write it, or caused it to be written. Miss Dorrance must have told him something about Miss Duveen, or else Li obtained his information in other ways. Though twice the trick has proved futile, Li Shoon again sought to get Miss Dorrance where she could be easily taken in under his impelling control, and that in order to have a strong hold on Fleming and myself, compelling our remaining passive. If Li wanted Miss Dorrance under his power in California, then Li is also there, or else he used California as a headquarters. Therefore, considering all the other facts that I now know, one thing is certain: Li Shoon is behind and responsible for the vanishment of the two treasure ships. Will another or some more treasure ships vanish from the surface of the sea? Yes, unless I can succeed in interfering in season."

Having reached this conclusion, Donald Carrick closed his eyes. For something like thirty seconds he remained awake; at the end of that brief period he was sound asleep, to be awakened only by the abrupt entrance of Doctor John Fleming, who shook the Hound brusquely by the shoulder. "I've heard," said the chemist quietly. "So Miss Duveen's supposed note was a forgery, committed or inspired by Li Shoon in the hope of getting Sylvia finally in his power. Is there no limit to the ingenuity of that Chinese devil?"

"Apparently not," yawned Carrick, sitting up and reaching for his pipe. "And what I've learned to-day completes my reasons for knowing that Li Shoon knows all about the missing treasure ships."

"A man trained as a chemist," replied Fleming gravely, "would say that you have strong reasons for believing that you know the trend of Li's present activities, but that you lacked anything like logical proof of your suspicions."

"Let it go that way, then," said Carrick, smiling indulgently. "However, Li and his principal men must be at work on the Pacific coast, or else they wouldn't desire to lure Miss Dorrance out there, feeling that for this and the third time they can really hold her from rescue, and that her captivity will still your activities, and, through your friendship, will also induce me to quit looking for the yellow rascal's trail. For it cannot be other than Li Shoon who has conceived the idea of sending Miss Dorrance to California on a most tragic wild-goose chase. Now, my dear fellow, if your chemically trained mind can admit that Li Shoon must be in California, or operating from there, then you must be ready to concede that my next destination must also be California."

"I shall have to grant your reasoning," said Fleming. "More especially as I know you must be right, anyway."

"Ting-a-ling-ling!" called the chemist to the telephone.

"Carrick? Yes, he's here. I'll call him to the machine.

Carrick moved over, listened gravely, then directed quietly:

"Kindly deliver that message to me in writing with utmost speed. Tell the messenger to take a taxi and I'll pay for it."

Turning to the chemist, he asked:

"John, how long will it take you to get ready to go to San Francisco, or some other city in California? Yes, you are to go. Oh, of course, I understand your reluctance to go far away from Miss Dorrance, but look at it in another way. The sooner we can know that sod really holds Li Shoon down in the bosom of Mother Earth, the sooner you may feel that Miss Dorrance is wholly safe. For Li will try to get hold of Miss Dorrance every time that he starts in with any new villainy. He has an obsession that she is a hostage who can be used to make us stay our hands. One of these days Li, if he secures possession of your sweetheart again, will, in an excess of temper, remove her from this earth as a rebuke to us. So the thought causes you to look a bit pale? Then you will surely be glad to go to California with me. For this time we shall surely get Li, and we shall just as surely bring him back to New York. Here he can be convicted of murder and executed. Then, and not till then, will Miss Dorrance be safe, and may we feel that we are through with the yellow wretch and at liberty to pursue happiness in our several ways. So run along and get ready. When you wish, phone Miss Sylvia, of course. Don't forget to tell her that I am going to call on her within half an hour, with her cousin, Mr. Lawrence Semple. You never heard of that 'cousin.' I suppose not. He's in the criminal-investigation line, and a most clever and resolute fellow. Now, don't be jealous, Fleming, even if I am going to ask him to put up at the same hotel, be known as Miss Dorrance's cousin, and escort her about for a while. Semple is middle-aged, a gentleman, bald-headed, and has a wife and four children. He's a decent and cool fellow, and after I leave him at the hotel we may both feel assured as to Miss Sylvia's safety. Phone her now, if you wish, Fleming. I'm going out to meet the taxi."

Nor did Carrick have to wait long at the door. The message was delivered. Carrick, after feeing the boy, carefully read the message before he stepped inside. Then he returned to the laboratory, setting fire to the message and dropping it in the grate.

"The president of the Blue Stack line wired, asking you and me to take up the matter of the disappearance of the Spokane, as the company expects to ship treasure by other steamers of that line," the Hound went on. "You and I are offered our own fees and all expenses to take up the matter on the jump. We can hardly afford, can we, to decline an offer so liberal?"

"I can't," Fleming admitted honestly. "But you? Humph! You own more money now than you will ever spend. You're going to accept the offer, of course?"

"I shall wire my acceptance as soon as I have arranged for the safety of Miss Sylvia Dorrance. And, by the way, Fleming, Semple will be only the outward sign of Miss Sylvia's safety. He will have such help as he needs. It will be part of our expense account for the job that the Blue Stack line will pay. Why not? I shan't attempt to fool the Blue Stack people about it. Now, do you feel like going?"