CHAPTER IX.
THE BRADYS GET TOGETHER ONCE AGAIN. BUT THE PRINCESS SLIPS THROUGH THEIRFINGERS.
Urged by Harry, Ah Lung jumped to the outer door of the smoking room asthis part of the House of the Seven Delights was called.
Young King Brady hastily adjusting his clothes--he had taken off hiscoat and vest after the manner of opium smokers--prepared to follow him,but Ah Lung was back before he could get ready.
"Well?" he demanded.
"I know where he went," replied Lung. "Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Then come with me."
They passed out into the corridor.
There were the "two Chinamen" seen by Old King Brady and Leggett.
"Where did he go?" demanded Harry.
"Listen," replied Lung. "We--the organization, I mean--don't make use ofall this big building. Our part is only on this side. There are rooms onthe other side which we rent, some to secret societies, others toindividuals; most of them are vacant just now. The Doctor went inthrough a door leading to a suite of these supposed-to-be vacant roomsand here it is."
He paused before the door which Dr. Garshaski had called the "Door ofDeath."
It carried no red paper on it now, but a Chinese character painted onthe panel.
"What does that say?" asked Harry, pointing to it.
"Flat to let," replied Ah Lung, "but I strongly suspect that our janitoris allowing the Doctor to use it for purposes of his own. Otherwise whyshould he be going through that door? Still it may have been rented tohim for all I know. Anyhow that's where he went. What do you think ofit? Shall we attempt to follow him up?"
"By all means," replied Harry. "Let me tell you something. I know thisDr. Garshaski. He is an infamous scoundrel."
Ah Lung shrugged his shoulders.
"We meet all kinds," he replied. "They are necessary to make up theworld. But you heard what was said; you heard him try to blackmail me.Do you believe he really knows anything about the princess, or is it allbluff? There was nothing that he said he had not heard from me before."
"I don't believe it was bluff and I do believe he has the princess,"replied Harry, "and I'll tell you why."
He went on to explain about Alice, and this while he was trying hisskeleton keys.
"I believe he has Miss Montgomery a prisoner in the rooms you speak of,"he declared, "and it would not surprise me a bit if the princess wasthere too. Hello! I've got the door open now. Shall we go exploring andsee what we find?"
"Surely. If that is your belief. I am with you, of course," replied AhLung. "But lock the door behind you," he added. "We don't want anybodyprowling after us."
Harry scarcely saw the necessity of it, but he locked the door.
The long corridor was dimly lighted by a solitary gas jet.
"Why this is strange," said Ah Lung. "I never was in this part of thebuilding before."
"This corridor surely leads in under the next building," said Harry.
"Of course, it does, I never knew of its existence. I shall inquire intothis."
"Sure you've got the right door?"
"Positive. Come on."
At the end of the corridor they made the same turns Alice took and atlast found themselves up against three doors.
The ones on the right and the left were locked, but the middle one stoodslightly open.
Harry pushed it wide open and flashed his light inside, having alreadydrawn his revolver in case of emergency.
The room was entirely unfurnished.
Ah Lung stepped in and looked around.
"Nothing here," he remarked, when the door shut with a bang.
Harry sprang to it, but all too late.
Somebody must have been watching them, for now somebody had bolted thatdoor on the other side.
"Well, upon my word!" cried Ah Lung, "we have walked right into a trap."
"That is certainly what we have done," replied Harry disgustedly, "andthe worst of it is here I've been talking. I suppose every word we havespoken has been overheard."
"Every word, Mr. Young King Brady," spoke a voice above them.
"Garshaski, you villain! What do you mean by this?" shouted Ah Lung,recognizing the Doctor's voice.
"Business," was the reply. "You would not accede to my very modestrequest so I have to do the best I can for myself. So Young King Bradywas your deaf and dumb friend in the next alcove, was he? Say, Lung, I'mgoing to read you a lesson. I'm going to teach you how dangerous it isto muss with me. As for little Brady he knows how I love him and whatgood reasons I have for my extreme affection. But you are dead wrong ifyou think the fair Alice is here, Harry."
"Did you kidnap her, Garshaski?" demanded Harry.
"Did I? Why sure I did," was the reply. "Who else? And I bagged yourprincess, too, my bold Lung. Listen, brother Chink; the plot was allmine. It was I who put up the job with Wung Foo. He brought your littlewould-be bride over to the boat on the Dover Castle. Same boat webrought that hop on, Lungy, old man! To avoid trouble, for Wang Foo hadto be smuggled in as well as the hop, I drugged your pretty princess andboxed her up. Then in butted the Bradys after their usual fashion, but Iwatched my chance and got there and, Harry, I got your Alice, too. Thatpleased me more than all."
From where was the man speaking?
The sound of his voice seemed to be from above.
At the beginning of it Harry shut off his flash light and they had beenstanding there in the dark, but now he turned it on again and flashed itaround.
There was no one to be seen. He could see no opening in the ceilingoverhead.
"Hide and seek! You can't find me!" cried the voice with a chuckle."Say, Lungy, old man. I know why you were so stuck on marrying SkeepHup. I know her secret! Did you think I'd sell out for any $5,000? No,not for five times five. I'm out for bigger game."
"Has she betrayed the secret to you?" cried Ah Lung quickly.
There was no answer.
Again and again the merchant repeated the demand, but it was just thesame until all at once the voice fairly shouted:
"Now, Ah Lung, I've got you! It was myself who kidnapped your princess!The secret of Gong Schow's hidden treasure is mine. Now you die!"
As he spoke these ominous words three shots were fired in quicksuccession through some hole in the ceiling.
Instantly Harry shut off the light.
Probably he was not quick enough to prevent the would-be murderer fromtaking some sort of aim, for Ah Lung with a deep groan dropped to thefloor.
At the same time a violent banging was heard overheard.
Harry held his breath and waited, not daring to turn on the light.
"Lung, are you badly hurt?" he breathed.
There was no reply.
"Lung! Speak! Where are you hit?" persisted Harry.
Still no answer.
The banging kept right up.
"He is dead," thought Young King Brady. "Merciful heavens! What aboutAlice's fate in the hands of that yellow fiend?"
Just then came a crash. Hurrying footsteps were heard overhead.
"Why there is nobody here, Leggett!" Old King Brady's voice exclaimed.
"Upon my word!" thought Harry. "And just in the nick of time!
"Governor! Oh, Governor!" he shouted.
"Harry, my dear boy, where are you?" cried Old King Brady, for likeHarry and Ah Lung, he and the Secret Service man had penetrated into aseemingly vacant room.
"I fancy I am in the room below you!" replied Harry. "So? Who firedthose shots? You?"
"No, that yellow fiend, Garshaski!"
"As I supposed. You are not hurt, I judge from the way you speak."
"I am not, Governor, but poor Ah Lung who is here with me got it in theneck and I greatly fear he is dead."
"Well, well, that's a bad job. Do you know anything of Alice?"
"Only that Garshaski said she is far enough away if you can believe him,which is more than I can. Can't you come down here?"
"I must try to get there. Ar
e you locked in?"
"Bolted in, most securely."
"There seems to be but one door here; I daresay there is another, asecret door. But I am going to take the back track and try it anotherway."
"I don't care what way you try it as long as you get here. I'm in a badenough fix. I have no doubt Ah Lung is dead."
All this talk took place in the dark.
Harry was so rattled that he did not turn on his flash light. He nevereven thought of it until now, and he flashed it on Ah Lung.
Evidently the Chinaman had been hit in the head for his face was allcovered with blood.
He was breathing, however. There seemed to be some slight hope.
Meanwhile Old King Brady, who had broken the door down after severalattempts, returned to the semi-circular hall outside.
"This is a great piece of business, Leggett!" he exclaimed. "We mustmake haste and get Harry out."
As he said it there came a loud pounding on the door at their left andAlice's voice called:
"Mr. Brady! Oh, Mr. Brady!"
"Well, upon my word!" exclaimed Leggett.
"Alice, are you all right?" cried the old detective with deep anxiety inhis tone.
"As right as I can be under the circumstances," replied the voice behindthe door, "but they have taken the poor little princess away. This isGarshaski's work. Perhaps you don't know?
"Oh, I know. I had as soon see you in the clutches of the arch fiendhimself as in that man's power."
"Yes, he's a fiend, all right, and don't you forget it," replied Alice,"and a yellow one at that. I have a lot to tell you, Mr. Brady, but ifHarry needs you, do attend to him first."
"He can wait. Patience a moment. I have unbolted the door. I shall soonfind a key to fit."
The old detective was trying his skeletons and in a moment he had thedoor open.
It was the same room in which Alice had passed those dreary days withthe princess.
But now she was alone and the room was all in disorder.
As for Alice herself she was tied in her chair, being bound hand andfoot.
She had been gagged also, she explained, a handkerchief having been tiedover her mouth, but this she managed to work off.
"I heard you when you called murder," she said, "but I couldn't speakthen. Who fired? Who was killed?"
"Ah Lung," replied the old detective, and he explained as he cut Alice'sbonds.
"As for my story, it is too long to tell now," she said. "Go for Harry."
"If we can get there. We seem to have taken another door than the one weintended."
"From that long corridor?"
"Yes."
"I came in at the Door of Death as they call it. It has nearly been thedeath of me."
She shuddered at the recollection of the cruelties she had witnessed inthe torture room.
They hurried down stairs and passed out into the corridor again.
Alice could see no "Door of Death" now.
"This next door says To Let," she said. "Suppose you try that."
"Yes, and I think it is the one," replied Old King Brady, again workinghis skeleton keys.
Fortunately they found themselves with the corridor at their owndisposal.
In a moment they had the door open.
"This is the road I travelled," Alice instantly declared.
This lengthy cross corridor seemed certain to lead them away from theroom in which Harry was confined, but Alice explaining its windings theydetermined to try it.
They were a story lower than the room in which they had been before andwhen they came to the semi-circular hall with the three doors exactlylike the arrangement above Old King Brady felt that they must be right.
"Harry!" he called in a low voice, for he had no desire to bring theChinks down upon him.
"Here," replied Harry instantly. "Behind the middle door."
Old King Brady shot the bolt and threw back the door, which was notlocked.
Ah Lung was sitting up leaning on Harry.
He certainly was a horrible looking object with his face all bathed inblood.
"Not dead!" exclaimed Old King Brady.
"Not dead, but in a mighty bad way," gasped Lung. "The princess!" headded. "I see you have Miss Montgomery all right."
"I'm sorry to say we have seen nothing of the princess," replied the olddetective. "I haven't had time to ask Miss Montgomery about her yet.What has become of her, Alice?"
"Dr. Garshaski carried her off," replied Alice.
"Did--did she give away what he wanted to know?" asked Ah Lung.
"I'm afraid she did. They tortured the poor creature terribly."
"We must get you out of here without delay, Ah Lung," interrupted theold detective. "As for the rest it will have to keep. Where shall wetake you--home?"
"Wait," said Ah Lung. "Connected with this place is a club of which I ama member. I have a room here where I sometimes sleep. Take me therefirst and go for Dr. Gim Suey on Sacramento street."
"Oh, you better have an American doctor," protested Harry.
"Not at all," replied Ah Lung, decidedly. "I have doctored both ways, Igreatly prefer the Chinese treatment. Dr. Gim Suey will save my life ifit can be saved."
The Bradys After a Chinese Princess; Or, The Yellow Fiends of 'Frisco Page 9