J. S. Fletcher

“ Two of the fishermen ran the boat into the water; Lorrimore and I sprang in.
“This is the most extraordinary affair I ever heard of,” he said, as he sat down at my side in the stern. “You didn't see all these Chinamen? Miss Raven says that you actually suspected my man Wing to be on board.”
“Lorrimore,” said I, “in ten minutes you'll probably see and learn things that you'd never have dreamed of. Whether your man Wing is on board or not I don't know—but I know that that girl and I have had a marvelous escape from a nest of human devils. I can't say for myself, but—has my hair whitened?” ”

“ A significant exclamation from Scarterfield called me to his side—he, aided by one of the bluejackets, was examining the body of Chuh Fen.
“Look here!” he murmured as I went up to him. “This chap has been searched. After he was dead, I mean. There's a body-belt that he wore—it's been violently torn from him, his clothing ripped to get at it, and the belt itself hacked to pieces in the endeavor to find something. Whose work has that been?”
“The work of the man who got away in the boat,” said I. “Of course he's been after those rubies and pearls, Scarterfield.” ”

“ But by that time the boat's crew from the destroyer had crossed the bar and entered the cove, and the vigorously impelled oars were flashing fast in the sheltered waters. The boat disappeared behind the drifting smoke that poured out of the yawl; presently we saw figures hurrying hither and thither about her deck.
“They may be in time to get the fire under,” I said. “Better, perhaps, if they let the whole thing burn itself out. It would bum up a lot of villainy.”
“Here are people coming along the beach,” remarked Miss Raven suddenly. “Look! They must have seen the smoke rising.” ”

“ There was at that time lying at Hongkong a sort of tramp steamer, the Elizabeth Robinson, the skipper of which wanted a crew for a trip to Chemulpo, up the Yellow Sea. Salter Quick got himself into the confidence and graces of this skipper and offered to man his ship for him, and he packed her as far he could—with his own brother, Noah, myself, my French friend, and a certain Chinese cook of whom he knew and who could be trusted—trusted, that is, to fall in with whatever we wanted. ”

“ Lorrimore lifted it—we looked down. Baxter!
“That's the fellow we found right forrard,” said the lieutenant. “He's several slighter wounds on him, but he'd been shot through the chest—heart, perhaps—just before we boarded her. That would be the shot fired by the man in the boat, I suppose—a good marksman! Was this the skipper?”
“Chief spirit,” said I. “He was lively enough last night. But—the rest?”
“They're all over the place,” he answered. “They must have had a most desperate to-do of it. The vessel's more like a slaughter-house than a ship.” ”

“ On Baxter's own showing, the Frenchman had been hanging about the coast for some little time, just when Salter Quick descended upon it. He, like Baxter, if Baxter's story were true, was aware that one or other of the Quicks carried those valuable rubies; even if, the York episode being taken for granted, he had not killed Salter Quick himself, he might be privy to the doings of some accomplice who had. Anyway, he was a doubtful quantity, and the mere fact that he was back again on the yawl made me more resolved than ever to keep awake and preserve a sharp lookout. ”

“ I exclaimed. “I wonder what they'll find.”
“Dead men,” answered Miss Raven quietly. “What else? After all that shooting! I should think that man who's just got away was the last.”
“There was a man left on board who fired at him—and at whom he fired back,” I pointed.
“Yes—and who never fired again,” she retorted. “They must all— Oh!”
She interrupted herself with a sharp exclamation, and turning from watching the bluejackets and their boat, I saw that she was staring at the yawl. From its forecastle a black column of smoke suddenly shot up, followed by a great lick of flame. ”

“ WE WENT off from the yawl, the three of us, in the boat which had brought Lorrimore and me aboard her. The group on shore saw us making for the point whereat the escaping figure had landed in the early morning, and followed us along the beach.
We spread ourselves out along the shore, crossing the spit of sand, now encroached on considerably by the tide, and began to search among the black rocks that jutted out of it thereabouts. Presently we came across the boat, slightly rocking in the lapping water alongside a ledge. I took a hasty glance into it and drew Miss Raven away. ”

“ But that gentle villain who saw us off the yawl said that they were sailing at high water—only waiting until the water was deep on the bar outside there. And they could get a long way, north or south or east, before we could set anybody on to them. Suppose they get rid of Baxter and his Frenchman—what's to prevent them making off across the North Sea to, say, some port in the north of Russia? They've got stuff on board that would be salable any where; no doubt they'll have melted it all into shapeless lumps before many hours are over. ”

“ He turned a quick, eye on the naval officer.
“Then one of 'em's escaped—somehow!” he exclaimed. “There's only five here—and every man Jack is dead! Where's the other?”
“One did escape,” said I. I, too, looked at the lieutenant. “He got off in a boat just as you and your men were approaching the bar yonder—I thought you'd see him.”
“No,” he answered, shaking his head; “we didn't see anybody leave. The yawl lay between us and him most likely.”
Lorrimore and I, giving no heed just then to the detective's questionings about the escaped man, went toward the after part of the deck. ”

“ It was well within probabilities that Wing, being in Limehouse or Poplar, and in touch with Chinese sailormen, should, with others, have taken service with Baxter and his accomplice, and, at that very moment, there, in that sheltered cove on the Northumbrian coast, be within a few yards of Miss Raven and myself, separated from us by a certain amount of deck-planking and a few bulkheads. But why? If he was there, on that yawl, in what capacity—real capacity—was he there? ”

“ I asked him.
“No danger to anybody. You do as I say,” he answered. “All ready for you—nothing to do but come on deck forward, get into the boat, be off. Now!”
Without another word he glided up the stairway and disappeared. For a few seconds I stood irresolute. Was it a trick, a plant? Should we be safe on deck—or targets for Chinese bullets, or receptacles for Chinese knives? Maybe—yet——
I suddenly made up my mind. It was but one step to the door of the little inner cabin. I scraped on its panels. It opened instantly, a crack.
“Yes?” whispered Miss Raven. ”

“ This, of course, would be the Chinese gentleman of whom I had heard—the man who had been seen in company with Baxter and the Frenchman at Hull. So now the three principal actors in this affair were all gathered together, separated from me and Miss Raven by a few planks, and close by were three Chinese of whose qualities I knew nothing. Safe we might be—but we were certainly on the very edge of a hornets' nest. ”

“ Scarterfield looked curiously at the two of us. Apparently his belief in Chinese virtue was not great.
“Well,” he said, “I'm on his track, anyhow, and I propose we get away to the beach. There's nothing more we can do here. These naval people have got this job in charge now. Let's leave them to it. Yet,” he added, as we left the galley, and with a significant glance at me, “there is one thing: Middlebrook, wouldn't you like to have a look inside those two chests that we've heard so much about?” ”

“ The Quicks had seen about as much of the doubtful and seamy side of seafaring life as men could, and all of us could contribute something. Also, the Quicks had money, safely stowed away in banks here and there—they used to curse their fate, left there apparently to die, when they thought of it. And it was that, I think, that led me to tell, one night, about my adventure with the naughty bank-manager at Blyth, and of the chests of old monastic treasure which I'd planted up here on this Northumbrian coast.”
“Ah!” I exclaimed. ”So you told Noah and Salter Quick that?” ”

“ They secured a third trustworthy Chinaman in the person of one Ah Wong, an associate of Chuh's, and the yawl, duly equipped, left the Thames and went northward. By this time, Wing had wormed himself completely into Chuh's confidence, and without even discovering whether Chuh was or was not the actual murderer of Salter Quick (he believed him to be and believed Wong to be the murderer of Noah, at Saltash) , he had found out that Chuh was in possession of the pearls and rubies which—though Wing had no knowledge of that—Salter had exhibited to Baubenheimer. ”

“ Scarterfield looked round, glanced at the shore, shook his head.
“I'm all in the dark—about some things,” he said. “I got on the track of this craft—I'll tell you how later—and found she'd come up this coast, and we got the authorities to send this destroyer after her—I came with her, hell for leather, I can tell you, from Harwich. But I don't know a lot that I want to know. Baxter, now—you're sure that man laying dead there is the Baxter we heard of at Blyth and traced to Hull?” ”

“ William Netherfield, of Blyth, a seaman, and Chuh Fen, a Chinese cook. Yet nearly five years later the Quicks were here in England, and a Chinaman calling himself Chuh Fen had. three years since, visited Lloyds to inquire if the Eliza beth Robinson had ever arrived at Chemulpo. The dectective was anxious to learn something about this Netherfield and to find Chuh Fen. Now, it so happened that a physician in Alnwick by the name of Lorrimore had a very shrewd and able Chinese servant named Wing, who, being consulted, announced his belief he could locate Chuh Fen if he were in England ”

“ Without a doubt, not so long after I'd told them the story, Salter Quick scratched inside the lid of his tobacco-box a rough diagram of the place I'd mentioned, with the latitude and longitude approximately indicated—that's the box I read in the papers there's been so much fuss about, and I'll tell you more about it in due process. But now about that island and the Quicks, and how they and the rest of us got out of it. I told you that the center of this island rose to a high peak, separating one coast from the other. ”

“ Scarterfield showed more doubt.
“I don't think that's likely, Doctor,” he said. “Presumably he's got those jewels on him, and I should say he'd get away from this with the notion of trusting to his own craft to get unobserved on a train and lose himself in Newcastle. A Chinaman with valuables on him worth eighty thousand pounds? Come!”
“You don't know that he's any valuables of any sort on him,” retorted Lorrimore. “That's all supposition. I say that if my man Wing was on this vessel—as I'm sure he was—he was on it for purposes of his own. ”

“ I answered. “It corroborates Baxter's story of the rubies. He didn't mention any pearls. And I think now, Scarterfield, that Salter Quick's murder lies at the door of one of those Chinamen who, in their turn, are lying dead before us.”
“Well, and that's what I think,” said he. “Though however a Chinaman could be about this coast without the local police learning something of it at the time they were inquiring into the murder beats me. However, there it is—I feel sure of it. And I was going to tell you—I got wind of this yawl down Limehouse way. ”

“ Cazalette evidently found it. That's the explanation of that little matter. And now for the tobacco-box.”
“A much more important point,” said I.
“JUST so,” agreed Baxter. “Now, my friend and I first heard of the murder while we were at York. In the newspaper that we read there was an account of a conversation which took place between this old Mr. Cazalette and a police inspector, regarding a certain metal tobacco-box found on Salter Quick's body. Now, I give you my word that that news was the first intimation we had ever had that the Quicks were in England. ”

“ I told you that he joined me at York from Berwick. As a matter of fact, for some little time just before the Salter Quick affair he was down on this coast, posing as a tourist, but really just ascertaining if things were as I'd left then at the ruins in the woods above this cove and what would be our best method of getting the chests of stuff away. ”

“ I asked.
“Quite right—Chuh Fen was the man,” answered Baxter. “A very handy man for anything, as you'll admit, for you've already seen him—he's the man who attended on Miss Raven and who served our supper. ”

“ But there—in the rubies—lies, in my belief, the secret of those murders.”
Then, with a curt politeness, he bade us both good-night and went off on deck, and we two captives looked at each other.
“Strange man!” murmured Miss Raven. She gave me a direct glance that had a lot of meaning in it. “Mr. Middlebrook,” she went on in a still lower voice, “let me tell you that I'm not afraid. I'm sure that man means no personal harm to us. ”

“ I answered. “But—things have happened since Baxter said good-night to us. Listen!” And I went on to tell her of all that had taken place on the yawl since the return of the Frenchman and his Chinese companion. “What does it look like?” I concluded. “Doesn't it seem as if the Chinese intend foul play to those two?”
“Do you mean—that they intend to—to murder them?” she asked in a half-frightened whisper. “Surely not that?”
“I don't see that a man who has lived the life that Baxter has can expect anything but a violent end,” I replied callously. “Yes ”