Irving Hancock

“ Doctor John Fleming responded, "and the scene laid out for us was so real that I do not wonder that even you, Carrick, were fooled. Confound Li Shoon! He appears to possess the nine lives of a cat."
"Li Shoon would make a cat look foolish by comparison," retorted Carrick, more bitterly. "It seems impossible to slay him. I never really thirsted for any man's blood—not even Li's—but I am certain that it would not grieve me greatly if I were to see him cut into small pieces. ”

“ Two minutes later, the callers were received by the elder and the younger Miss Dorrance.
"We did not know but that you had already vanished," smiled Donald Carrick. "Unfortunately, we have news that Li Shoon, though officially dead, is again at large."
"You cannot mean it!" gasped Sylvia Dorrance, much of the color fading from her lovely face.
"It is true," replied Fleming, while Carrick pleasantly inquired:
"Has Li made any effort to get you away from your hotel again, to some point at which you might again fall into his power?" ”

“ No distress signals were received anywhere from either craft."
"But there is only one class of men who rob ships and then sink them, destroying their crews," the chemist objected. "Such men used to be called pirates, and pirates are extinct in these days of steam."
"That doesn't mean that a new breed of pirates couldn't spring up," Donald Carrick interposed, speaking almost impatiently for one of his equable temperament. "In fact, if piracy has been committed in these two instances, then we are bound to admit that pirates exist, or reëxist. The point, Fleming, is right here. ”