Part 24 (1/2)

”That boat has been here more than once,” he whispered.

Ruth breathed ”Yes,” but said no more.

Up-stream of the cove was a great ma.s.s of rock--not one rock, but several huddled together and the cracks between overgrown with brush and vines.

Chess brought into use the electric torch again.

He shot the spotlight into the crannies. Was there a path there between two of the big boulders? He drew Ruth's attention to it with a touch on her arm. She saw that some of the bushes were broken--the vines torn away and dead.

”Somebody has been here,” she murmured.

”Of course. That is what we came to find,” said the young man. ”We are on the verge of a discovery, Ruth.”

”I hope we are not on the verge of trouble,” she returned, in the same low tone.

”Don't have a bit of fear,” he told her, in a louder voice.

He was about to mention the loaded pistol in his pocket; then thought better of it. But he went ahead, venturing into the narrow pa.s.sage between the two boulders.

The ray of the torch showed the way. It played on the ground at their feet and upon the rocky sides of the pa.s.sage. Was that an abrupt end to the pa.s.sage ahead of them, or a sharp turn in it? Chess pressed on, Ruth trying to peer over his shoulder, although to do this she had to stand on tiptoe.

”By jove!” uttered the young man in surprise, ”I believe it is a cavern.

It's the entrance to a cave.”

”Then those voices did come from a cavern. Be careful, Chess--do!”

He had reached the turn in the pa.s.sage. A jutting shelf of rock roofed them over. The young man shut off the lamp and they were in darkness. He thrust forward his head to peer around the corner.

As he did so, without the least warning, something swished through the air and Ruth heard the sound of a dull blow. Chess pitched forward, with a groan of pain, falling to his knees.

Ruth uttered a scream. She did not try to retreat, but seized the young man by the shoulders and dragged him back.

Her brave act saved the young fellow from receiving a second and heavier blow. A club was being wielded in the hands of a powerful man who had met them in the pa.s.sage!

Chess was speechless and apparently in a confused state of mind. The electric torch had fallen from his hand. He seemed struggling to get something out of his jacket pocket, but before he could accomplish this a light flashed up in the tunnel ahead.

The same sing-song, chattering voice they had heard so faintly on the summit of the island broke out close at hand. In the red, flickering light of a burning pine torch the frightened girl saw a man in a broad-brimmed hat and loose, flapping upper garment bending over Chess with a club again raised to strike.

”Don't hurt him! Don't hit him again!” she cried.

Other voices--all speaking in that strange, sing-song tongue--broke out, and Ruth suddenly realized that these enemies that confronted them were Chinese.

In the red light she saw clearly now, under the round, broad-brimmed hat, the yellow face and slanting eyes of the man. Ruth did not understand it--she could not imagine why these Orientals should be here on the island. But she realized fully that the calculations of Copley and herself had gone astray. They were in peril--serious peril.

The leading Chinaman glared into Ruth's frightened face and his thin lips curled back from his yellow teeth in a snarl like that of a rabid dog.

His very look was enough to turn the girl cold. She trembled, still striving to drag the half-senseless Chessleigh back.

The Chinaman uttered a long, jabbering howl, turning his face over his shoulder as though speaking to those who crowded behind him in the pa.s.sage. Ruth might still have escaped, but she would not desert her injured companion.