Irving Hancock

“ A craft of from twenty-eight to thirty knots would be needed, or safety could not be secured. That would mean a yacht, for none of the coasting vessels possess such speed. I have had all the yacht registers examined, and cannot find the slightest reason to believe that Li has chartered any craft along this coast. Where, then, did he get his vessel?"
"A submarine, perhaps?" hinted Fleming.
"There are no private ones," returned Carrick, with a shrug of his shoulders. "True, one could be built, but one could not be hidden. ”

“ Carrick returned, "but it would be difficult indeed in the case of a submarine. The Mexicans of all factions are daily looking for a possible war with this country. They have no submarines, but would sell their souls to own one, for in the event of our making war upon them, their coasts would be blockaded. They would prize a submarine that they could send out on a mission of sinking blockading craft. No, there is hardly a shade of a chance that Mexican rebels would protect Li Shoon in running into one of their smaller bays or harbors, or even in appearing along the open coast. ”

“ But don't think I have been idle, Fleming."
"I know full well that you haven't been idle," was the chemist's grave answer. "We've put in breathless days in San Francisco, and have raked Chinatown with a fine-tooth comb. We have been in Spokane and Seattle; we've been m Los Angeles, fairly taking up the carpet of that town, prying underneath, and now we've been ten days in San Diego, and they've all been busy ones." ”