Part 25 (1/2)
”Encamped in the grove,” was the reply.
”They will not be attacked there?” asked Frank, in some amazement.
”Certainly not. All Chinamen hate us, but we are safe except when the revolutionists take a hand in the game. The marines are probably surrounded by a crowd of sullen curiosity seekers, but they will not be molested unless the revolutionists decide to take another chance with them.”
”And the machines are gone for good?”
”No, the American consul is getting them back, or was when I left his office, one by one. The men who were fighting were too frightened to take the machines with them, but the mob got them. They were taken by individual thieves, and will soon be restored.”
”We ought to have come over in our aeroplane,” smiled Frank.
”That would have defeated our purpose,” Ned replied. ”We are here to catch the leaders of this conspiracy, and the only way we can do it is to wait until they show themselves.
”Just see how foolish they are!” Ned went on. ”If they had been content to wait, to manufacture such evidence as they needed to show their innocence, we could never have located them. They would have lied us out of countenance if we charged any one man with being the leader, or any one nation with fostering the conspiracy.
”But they tried to make a clean record for themselves by wiping us off the face of the earth and so showed themselves to us. I am told by police officers that if criminals would keep away from women, away from the scenes of their crimes, and keep their mouths shut when given the famous--and disgraceful--third degree, not one in twenty would ever be convicted.”
”Well,” Frank said, ”here's hoping that the man we want will come within reach again!”
After breakfast the boys headed for the American consulate, where they found the machines which had been stolen.
”That was quick work,” Ned congratulated. ”How did you do it?”
The consul laughed.
”Why,” he replied, ”you might as well try to bide a fifty story building in China as one of those machines! The natives believe the devil is in them!”
”I've known Americans to express the same opinion,” laughed Frank.
While they talked with the consul a message was brought him from the telegraph office. It read:
”Report progress.”
Ned laughed.
”Nothing to report but disaster,” he said.
”Well,” the consul replied, ”we expected something of the kind. You have gained the very point we expected you to gain. You know exactly who is at the head of this mess. Thinking he had you where you would never get away, he talked too much.”
”I think I should know him in any disguise,” Ned said. ”I should know him anywhere, and under any circ.u.mstances. Do you think he would have kept faith with me if I had given up the doc.u.ments and promised never to implicate either his country or himself in the trouble?”
”Certainly not. The fact that he revealed himself to you shows that he meant to have you murdered there. Only for the marines breaking in just as they did, it would have been all off with you, my boy.”
”He must be a treacherous old chap!” Ned commented.
”His life and everything he loves is at stake.”
”Then he should have kept out of the mess! Why should he want to get us into a war?”