CHAPTER IV.
AH SIN'S CLUE.
The Chinaman came scuffling down the ladder in his wooden sandals. Hewore an old slouch hat pulled low over his ears, and when he steppedfrom the last rung to the floor of the periscope room, he shoved hishands into the wide sleeves of his blue silk blouse and stood lookingaround him in gaping amazement.
"I'm Mr. Glennie," said the ensign impatiently. "Do you want to see me?"
"Allee same," answered the Celestial. "You makee that, huh?" he added,pulling the crumpled handbill from one of his sleeves and holding itin front of the ensign's eyes. "You givee fitty dol if China boy tellwhere you findee Japanese man?"
"Yes," replied Glennie, stirring excitedly.
"Givee fitty dol. China boy know."
"I don't pay in advance. Savvy the pidgin? Tell me where Tolo is, then,if I find him, you get the money."
The Chinaman was silent.
"Who are you?" demanded Glennie.
"Me Ah Sin."
"Where's Tolo?"
"My wanchee fitty dol first. Me tellee, you no givee. My savvy pidginallee light?"
"You're an insolent scoundrel!" cried Glennie hotly. "I'm an officerand a gentleman, and if I say I'll give you fifty dollars, I'll do it."
Ah Sin ducked humbly, but he remained firm.
"Melican men plenty slick," said he, with a gentle grin, "but China boyplenty slick, too."
"If you won't trust me," returned the puzzled ensign, "how can I trustyou?"
It seemed like a deadlock, and Ah Sin wrinkled his parchment-like face.
"How you likee hire China boy?" he cried. "My cookee glub, blusheeclo's, makee plenty fine man. Workee fo' twenty dol. Tolo him no stayin Tlinidad; him makee sail fo' Pala."
"Para?" burst from Glennie.
That was the port to which the important papers were consigned. If Tolohad gone there with them, it may have been for the purpose of treatingwith the consular agent direct.
"All same," pursued the Chinaman. "You makee hire China boy, takee himby Pala, pay twenty dol fo' wages, then givee fitty dol when you findeeTolo. Huh?"
"How do you happen to know where Tolo is?" demanded Glennie skeptically.
"My savvy Tolo. Makee work on landing when he takee boat fo' Pala. Himmakee come on one boat flom Ven'zuel', makee go chop-chop on other boatfo' Pala. Ah Sin makee chin with Tolo. Him say where he go in Pala."
Glennie grabbed at this straw of hope like a drowning man. Ah Sin'sinformation might not be dependable, but it was the only clue that hadcome Glennie's way, and he decided to make the most of it.
"There's your twenty dol," said he, throwing a gold piece to theChinaman. "You're hired. Make yourself scarce out there while I talkwith the skipper of this boat."
He nodded toward a door in the forward bulkhead, and Ah Sin, aftergrabbing the coin out of the air and biting it to make sure it wasgenuine, faded from the room.
"We've got enough hands aboard," said Matt, "without taking a Chinamanon."
"You don't understand the situation, Mr. King," returned Glennie, "andI shall have to explain to you."
It was hard for the ensign's pride to be compelled to confess theloss of the packet. But, if he had Matt's help--which, in thecircumstances, was necessary--it followed that he would have to letMatt know the details connected with the missing dispatches.
Matt listened attentively.
"The Chink may be fooling you, Mr. Glennie," he said, after the ensignhad finished.
"Possibly," was the answer; "but I can't afford to pass up hisinformation. The submarine was to call at Para, anyway, and we mightjust as well carry the Chinaman that far. You must realize what itmeans for me to recover those papers. Suppose I had to report that theywere lost, and could not be found? Good heavens!" and Glennie drew ashaking hand across his forehead.
"I'm willing to help you, of course," said Matt.
"You're in duty bound to do that! If I had to report the loss of thepapers because you refused to give me your aid, it wouldn't sound verywell, eh?"
"Do you want me to put all this in the log?"
"No, certainly not! I want you to keep quiet about it--in theevent that the dispatches are recovered. If they're not found,then--then--well, everything will have to come out."
"Were the dispatches important?"
"They must have been, or they would have been sent by mail and notentrusted to me."
"What does the Jap want with them?"
"Probably it's a play for money. That's the way I size it up."
"But he pulled out of La Guayra. If he had wanted money he would havehidden himself away in that place and opened negotiations with you."
"The Chink says Tolo has gone to Para. That may mean that he isintending to open negotiations with Brigham. Great Scott! We've got toget away from here in short order. Can't you start for Brazil at once?"
"I had planned to lay over here for the rest of the day, andto-night----"
"But everything may depend on the quickness with which we get toBrazil!"
"Well, I'm willing to start just as soon as Dick gets back with thegasolene. We'll get along, after that, until we reach Rio, unlessthere's some extra cruising in the Amazon."
"I'm obliged to you, Mr. King."
Glennie half extended his hand, but Matt did not seem to see it. Nowthat the ensign wanted aid in his time of trouble, he appeared anxiousto get on the friendly footing which Matt had mentioned a little whilebefore. But Matt, once rebuffed, wasn't going halfway to meet him onthat ground.
"It seems to me, Mr. Glennie," said he, "that there is somethingmore behind this than just a desire, on the Jap's part, to sell hisdispatches to the highest bidder. The Japs are wily little fellows, andas brave as they are wily."
"What else can you make out of it?" queried Glennie, with a troubledlook.
"Nothing; only the theft strikes me as queer, that's all. If the paperswere so important, I should think you ought to have kept them in yourpossession every minute."
"I did," protested Glennie, a gleam of resentment rising in his eyesover the implied rebuke. "They were under my pillow, and Tolo, who cameand went in my room just as he pleased, must have taken them while Iwas asleep."
"Speake has been doing the cooking for us," remarked Matt; "but ifwe've got to have the Chinaman along we'll make him earn his pay andtake the cooking off Speake's hands."
"I'm more than willing to have you consider Ah Sin one of the crew.He'll probably be useful to me in Para, and not until we get there."
"There are not many Japs in La Guayra, are there?" queried Matt, with asudden thought.
"Tolo is the only one I saw," answered Glennie.
"Then it's a little queer he should be there at the same time you were.There was a Japanese war vessel in Belize a day before we left theharbor, and I understood she had called at Venezuelan ports. Do youthink Tolo could have deserted from her?"
"The Japs never desert."
"Was Tolo a sailor?"
"He said he was a servant, and that he had come to La Guayra fromCaracas."
"But the authorities told you he had been a waiter in a hotel inPort-of-Spain?"
"That was wrong, for the proprietor of the _fonda_ didn't know anythingabout Tolo."
"Could you find out anything about him in Caracas?"
"No."
"Then it's a cinch the Jap wasn't telling you a straight story. It's myimpression he hired out to you just to get the packet of papers."
"Bosh!" scoffed Glennie. "You're giving him credit for more cunningthan he deserves. Take it from me, he just saw how careful I was ofthose papers and made up his mind, on the spur of the moment, that hecould make a few dollars by stealing them and selling them back to me,or else to Brigham at Para."
"There's more to it than that," averred Matt.
The king of the motor boys was somewhat worried, for, if there was aplot, it was possible it was not aimed at Ensign Glennie alone, butperhaps at the _Grampus_ as well. This suspicion was only vaguelyformed in
Matt's mind, but it was one of those strange, inexplicable"hunches" which sometimes came to him and which events occasionallyproved to be warranted by results.
It must have been generally known in Belize that the _Grampus_ hadbeen sold to the United States Government for a large sum, conditionalupon her safe delivery at Mare Island; and perhaps it was equally wellknown, on the _Seminole_, at least, and maybe in La Guayra, that EnsignGlennie was to accompany the submarine on her passage around the Horn.All this knowledge, of course, could have been picked up, and perhapsused by unscrupulous persons. But what could such unscrupulous personsbe hoping to gain by any crooked work?
Matt's thoughts were carrying him far afield. Not only that, butthey were bumping him into a stone wall. Giving over his uselessspeculations, he once more turned to the ensign.
"As I said before, Mr. Glennie," he remarked, "this cruise of ours isnot going to be a picnic. A whole lot depends on its success, and everyman on board must be----"
At that moment he was interrupted by a sudden roar from below--adetonation that shook the steel fabric of the submarine in every part.The peculiar smell of burned gasolene rolled into the periscope roomthrough the open bulkhead door.
"Great Moses!" gasped Glennie, leaping up. "What was that?"
A tramp of heavy feet on the deck proved that those outside the shellhad heard the noise and were rushing toward the conning-tower hatch.
Matt, without pausing an instant, darted through the door and droppeddown the hatch leading to the tank room and the motor room.
Motor Matt in Brazil; or, Under The Amazon Page 4