Gerald Breckenridge

“ Big Bob laid a hand on his father’s shoulder.
“Don’t take it so hard, Dad,” he said. “We aren’t dead yet.”
“No,” said Frank, his spirits rebounding, “and we are not likely to be dead, either, for some time to come. Why, Uncle George, we have bested this rascal at every turn so far. It’s true, we are his prisoners. But, without his knowing it, we already have set the machinery of the government in motion to put an end to his smuggling of Chinese coolies. And in the fight, we most certainly got the best of him and his Chinese friend.” ”

“ Jack and Frank found Matt Murphy sleeping heavily. One look showed an automatic in an ammunition belt suspended from a nail above his head. With one swoop Jack caught the weapon and belt to him. The movement disturbed Murphy, who was lying fully clothed on his berth, the bandaged arm across his chest. He looked at them, then with a roar raised up, but Frank pushed him back on his pillow. Jack drew the weapon and presented it at him.
“Quiet now,” he said, in a low voice. “We don’t want to hurt you. But our lives are in danger from the crew and we mean to protect ourselves.” ”

“ Frank was at the porthole with his back turned and the headphones of Jack’s ring-radio set clamped to his ears. Jack’s thoughts flew at once to the ring, and he remembered having taken it off before retiring and placing it on a stand against the wall. He looked. It was not there. Obviously, Frank, on awaking, had noticed it and had been impelled to take the parts from Jack’s bag and make an attempt to listen in on the ether. ”

“ And, if their surmise was correct, the smugglers had been informed by signal from the radio plant that he was coming, and Charley Lung, moreover, was leading the naval force into a trap.
“What could they do? What could they do?”
That was the question in each mind. Instinctively, as always in a crisis, the others turned to Jack.
“First of all,” said Jack, “we have got to find who is in the radio station, and capture him. It won’t do to leave an enemy in our rear.”
“What if there is more than one,” objected Frank.
“Not likely,” said Jack. “One man to spy and give the signal would be sufficient. ”

“ It was a ticklish situation for young heads.
“Ensign Warwick told you not to leave the boat, didn’t he?” asked Jack.
Robbins nodded.
“It probably would be foolish for all of us to go chasing off up the canyon without knowing any more than we do, anyhow,” said Jack.
“Look here, you fellows,” said Frank. “What’s the matter with our going scouting up the trail, the three of us? We know there is danger ahead and have a pretty good idea of what it is, and so we ought to be able to guard against it. Three men would make a likely reinforcement in case we find our friends hard pressed.” ”

“ Presently Inspector Burton joined them.
“Well, boys,” said he in a kindly tone, “not worried about the outcome, are you?”
“Oh, no, sir,” answered Frank. “Just talking over what might happen.”
“That’s right, don’t worry,” said the Secret Service man. “Probably there will be no fighting. These fellows may not have any force at their hangout to speak of. Perhaps, only the crew of the trawler from which you escaped will be on hand. If we have luck, we can surprise them. And I doubt very much whether they will put up any resistance against Uncle Sam’s men.”
“How many men have you?” queried Jack. ”

“ Ensign Warwick leaped aside, as the bullet struck the deck at his feet. A shot rang out from the Sub Chaser. The revolver spun from “Black George’s” grasp, and he jumped up and down grasping the stunned wrist in his other hand.
“Who did that?” queried the naval officer.
“I did, sir,” said Jack. “I merely shot his weapon away to disarm him.”
“Pretty shot,” approved Ensign Warwick, while several of the sailors also murmured approval.
“Folwell, a machine gun is trained on your deck and you cannot escape,” the naval officer continued. “Our men are waiting ashore, and you cannot escape by swimming. ”

“ Washington in mid-summer is at its deadest, for then the legislators and major government officials have fled to seashore or mountain, the city is depopulated, and those remaining stir abroad no more than necessary. In its ring of hills, drowsy, somnolent, the governing center of the nation takes a summer siesta and waits for the coming of crisper autumn when the wheels once more will begin to revolve.
For the President to be at the White House was unusual, but urgent business having to do with a crisis in a little-known corner of Latin America had demanded his presence. ”

“ The revolver had been taken from the receptacle.
“Oh, well,” said Jack, “we’ll have to keep our eyes open and our wits about us, that’s all. In a shipload of armed men, it would be strange if we couldn’t come by a weapon somehow.”
“Or, maybe, make a friend who will come over to our side,” said Bob suddenly. The big fellow was slower in his mental processes than his two chums, but when he spoke it usually was to the point. ”

“ It came, he believed, from a point not far to the right, on the other side of the wooden bulwark of the companionway.
He held his breath, straining painfully. Whoever they were, they were speaking in English. Yet neither voice was that of Matt Murphy. Who could they be? He had to see.
Slowly, slowly, scarcely moving, yet edging forward all the time, Jack peered around the bulwark. Presently he saw them. They were two in number, and one was the little fat doctor who looked after “Black George.” ”

“ As they started out of the salon and up the companionway stairs, Bob pressed a revolver into Frank’s hand.
“Take this,” he whispered. “I have the knife.”
“But Bob——”
“But nothing. If it comes to fighting at close quarters I’ve got more beef than you. You keep them off with that revolver, d’you hear? Don’t let them get near you.”
Frank, the smallest of the three chums, pressed Bob’s hand gratefully, grasped the revolver, and followed in the wake of his big comrade, thus bringing up the procession headed by Matt Murphy. ”

“ Matt Murphy leaned close, revolver in hand.
“One word and you are all dead men,” He said. Then he waved toward a clump of shadowy figures ahead, which the boys and Mr. Temple could discern as their eyes became more accustomed to the darkness.
“Chinese,” he said, “an’ awful quick with their knives. I’m warnin’ ye. That’s all.”
Thereupon Murphy fell silent, standing beside Mr. Temple. And the group ahead, between the prisoners and the dark mouth of the alley exit to the streets of Chinatown, also was motionless. ”

“ Now its engines were stilled, its screw was not turning, and except for a slight rolling motion it lay as calm as in a harbor. Could it be they had reached the smugglers’ cove during the night? It was this alarming thought which sent Jack to the porthole.
But a look at the outer world convinced him to the contrary. There was no land in sight. And as he was on the landward side, he considered this a pretty good indication that they were not in port anywhere. Of course, the trawler might have swung about, so that her starboard side lay toward the land. He sniffed. ”

“ Temple shook his head.
“I should think you would have had enough adventures on the Mexican border,” he said, “to last you the rest of your lives. Yet here you are lamenting because you can’t have more. Besides, this matter can be of no particular concern to you.”
“Just the same,” said Frank, “it is. We have a personal interest in the matter. We started it by overhearing the plotters. Then we found this inventor with his sound detector that probably will enable the Secret Service to locate the smugglers’ radio plant and secret cove. Now we are calmly shouldered out of the way. ”

“ A distant sound of firing, followed by a pandemonium of high-pitched yells, shattered the silence.
“They’re attacking,” cried Ensign Warwick. “Come on. Ambush or not, we must go forward. Every man for himself and watch the sides of the canyon. On the run now, fellows. Let’s go.”
Turning he plunged ahead. Behind him came Inspector Burton and the three chums. Close on their heels were the fifteen or eighteen young sailors. ”

“ The answer came quickly, not in bullets, but in a knife that whizzed unpleasantly close to Jack’s head, burying itself inches deep in the bulwark behind him, where it stuck quivering, and in another that struck the deck at Frank’s feet and would have caught him in the stomach had he not leaped backward in the nick of time.
“Fire a couple of shots to scare them, Frank,” panted Jack, whose chest was laboring with the excitement. “Keep them down while I help Bob. We’ve got to get under shelter.” ”

“ It disappeared with its bearers, looking in the darkness like some gigantic spider, into the mouth of the alley across the court. Murphy joined them.
“Come,” he said. “An’ remember. One cry out o’ ye an’ ye are all dead.”
“Was that the old Chinaman?” whispered Frank.
Murphy, a talkative man himself, already had noted that irrepressible quality in Frank. He chuckled grimly.
“Ye’d talk in hell, youngster, wouldn’t ye?” he said. “No old Wong Ho stays here. That was the Big Boss.”
They were moving across the courtyard, obedient to Murphy’s command. The guard of Chinamen had closed around them. ”

“ Those who have read The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border are familiar with Mr. Temple and the three chums. Living in country homes on the far end of Long Island, they had been drawn by a web of circumstances into international intrigue on the Mexican Border. Jack’s father, representative of a syndicate of independent oil operators, had been kidnapped by Mexican rebels seeking to embroil the government with that of the United States. The boys had gone into Mexico and rescued him. Now Mr. Temple, a New York importer, was making a business trip to San Francisco and taking them with him. ”

“ With that, he descended to the boat, which at once forged away from the float. The boys stood at the rail, waving farewell to Mr. Temple until his figure dwindled and was lost to sight in the growing darkness landward.
“Good old Dad,” remarked Bob, feelingly, as they at last turned away from the rail and made their way forward. “He’ll be worried about us all the time. But he put his feelings aside, just the same, and let us go.”
“He’s a peach,” said Jack.
“You bet he is,” Frank echoed, emphatically. ”

“ Temple were on their way by auto to the unique city within a city which constitutes San Francisco’s Chinatown, a quarter housing more than 30,000 Chinese. Oriental in every characteristic, with narrow alleys and courts, cellars, sub-cellars and sub-sub-cellars, the dragon roofs of Chinatown lie just below Nob Hill, the old aristocratic quarter of San Francisco with its veritable palaces of stone. ”

“ No whites happened to be passing, and as for the Chinamen they scurried away without looking back.
“In with you,” repeated Murphy, pushing the boys and Mr. Temple into a taxicab with blinds drawn, which stood at the curb. It was the same in which they had approached Chinatown, although they did not realize that fact.
A motor van stood behind. The palanquin had been placed in it with the ends of the supporting poles resting in leather thongs dependent from the sides. This was calculated to break any shocks of the passage to the pain-wracked form of “Black George.” ”

“ After lunching, the entire group retired to the sitting-room of Mr. Temple’s suite to await the arrival of Inventor Bender, who had been summoned by telephone.
“You boys have been of such tremendous assistance so far,” said Inspector Burton, “that the least I can do in return is to let you know what the inventor has discovered. He ought to be here shortly.”
Presently from their windows overlooking the park-like grounds of the hotel, they saw a huge, dust-covered automobile roll up to the porte cochere, and recognized Inventor Bender beside the chauffeur. ”

“ For, since Inspector Burton had telephoned him to descend from the mountains and confer at the hotel, he had picked up another message in code in which, moreover, occurred the words “Santa Cruz” several times.
“So there you are, Inspector,” he said. “That’s what the Bender sound detector discovered. Human ingenuity could do no more.”
“You certainly have done wonders, Mr. Bender. It is your opinion, then, that the smugglers’ radio plant is on Santa Cruz Island?” ”

“ Accordingly, he called the inventor back to the workroom while Bob telephoned Mr. Temple, and explained they were inviting a man to come up and talk to him about the sound detector.
“I can’t tell you any more than that now, Mr. Bender,” said Jack. “But I promise you, of course, that your invention is not in any danger of being stolen. On the contrary, the man we have asked to come here may put you in the way of making your fortune.” ”

“ A cruel man like Folwell must make some enemies among his men, especially if they have finer instincts and are not content merely to get their pay and carouse.”
“I was thinking of Matt Murphy,” said Bob.
“Speak of the devil,” said Frank, but so low his words were not heard.
For at that moment, Murphy put his head in through the door.
“We’re off,” he said. And it was true. The engines began to clank, the screw to churn. The trawler quivered and headed out into the channel. “In ten, fifteen minutes, we’ll be passin’ through the Golden Gate,” said Matt Murphy. ”

“ For out of the forecastle, aroused by the shouts, seemed literally to boil a dozen Chinamen.
Throwing up his revolver, Frank fired over their heads to scare them. Jack did likewise. Then both boys leaped to the deck beside Mr. Temple, who, oblivious of all but the danger to his son, was bending over the latter as he threshed about at grips with “Black George.”
Some of the Chinamen sprang behind the derrick. Others flung themselves down behind coils of rope, several of which lay about the deck. In a twinkling the deck was cleared. Not a human mark was left to shoot at. ”