Boy Scouts on Motorcycles; Or, With the Flying Squadron

by G. Harvey Ralphson

  CHAPTER XV

  WHY ESCAPE WAS SO EASY

  As Sandy finished speaking two figures dropped down the ladder, notstopping to descend rung by rung. As they landed on the floor the boyssprang toward them, ready to make a battle for their liberty. Then cameanother surprise.

  Instead of making hostile demonstrations, the two newcomers, Chinamen sofar as appearances went, threw up their hands and dropped back againstthe wall. Then shouts of laughter echoed through the place.

  Directly the newcomers seemed to forget to keep their hands up, for theygripped their waists with them and roared. There was something aboutthe laughter, too, which was not at all like the Orient.

  "Go it!" Jack exclaimed.

  "Have your fun before we come to settlement with you," Frank threatened.

  "Let me soak heem!" Hans pleaded.

  Sandy stood by with wonder showing in his face.

  "What kind of a play house is this?" he asked. And still the otherslaughed, bending over, now, and covering their faces with their hands.The change from tragedy to comedy had been so sudden that for a time theboys did nothing at all to solve the mystery of the sudden outbreak oflaughter.

  Then Frank stepped closer and peered down at the larger of the twofigures. Then he turned his searchlight on the bowed head.

  Then a smile came over his face and he reached out a hand and took thebobbing pigtail into his hand and gave it a quick jerk. The result wasamazing.

  The pigtail came away in his hand, and with it a bunch of coarse hairand an odor!

  "Look here, kids!" Frank cried. "Look who's here!"

  It was Ned, and the shaking figure by his side was that of Jimmie. In amoment both were out of their disguises and making an inspection of thetunnels and the underground chamber.

  "You've got Herlock Sholmes beaten to a frazzle," said Jack, as Nedstooped over to examine the knocked-out Chinamen.

  "How did you do it?" demanded Frank. "We thought you were on the roadto Peking until we heard some of the Chinks talking, not long afterdaybreak, then we thought you might be in trouble."

  "It was long after daybreak when we mixed with the bunch," Jimmieanswered. "Anythin' you heard before eight o'clock was fright an' notfact."

  Sandy was now presented and his share in the adventures of the nightgiven proper recognition.

  "I thought he was a sneak at first," Jack explained, "but he showed usthe way out in the end."

  "What did you go an' sit down there an' wait for?" asked Jimmie. "Whydidn't you get a move on?"

  "They did the very thing they should have done," Ned remarked. "If theyhad tried to fight their way out they might have been killed,' as therewas, I am told, a strong guard here at daybreak."

  "But how did you get here?" asked Frank.

  "When we got out of the old temple," Ned replied, "we had no motorcyclesto go on with, so we came back to hunt up more. There was little use ingoing on by any way other than the one mapped out for us.

  "The scamp we almost captured had been kind enough to tell us that youboys were in trouble and perhaps that had something to do with ourcoming back."

  "But how did you get here?"

  "Easy," laughed Ned. "We knew that you boys had been captured, and itwas easy to see who had had a hand in it. The people at the telegraphoffice would know more about the matter than any one else.

  "So we went to the American consulate and got into these disguises. Theconsul says he never saw anything smoother, though he must be prejudicedin our favor, for he helped get up the disguises himself.

  "Then we went to the vicinity of the telegraph office and waited. In amoment we saw that something unusual was going on. Directly a messengerstarted off in this direction and we followed him. I knew then, as wellas I know it now, that you boys had been detained in the hope of keepingus all out of Peking, so I bought some strong opium on the way and dopedthe pipes of the guards after I mixed with them."

  "How could you mix with them?" asked Jack. "You know about as muchChinese as a robin."

  "Oh, they thought we were sullen brutes sent down from theirheadquarters, and took us into their confidence all right. We were justready to explore the underground places when we heard the scrap below."

  "And now what?" asked Frank.

  "Now, we're goin' to Peking!" cried Jimmie.

  "You said that before!" Jack taunted.

  "Well, we didn't get tied up in a hole we couldn't get out of," retortedthe little fellow.

  "I guess you'd have been in the old temple until now if you hadn'ttraveled with an escort," Jack cut in.

  The boys, laughing and "roasting" each other, passed up the ladder andto the half earthen, half-board floor of the mud hut. There they foundthe woman Chee moving about with a swollen face.

  She tried to talk with Ned, but as neither could understand what theother said, little progress was made. However, she finally managed tomake Ned understand that she wanted him to take the unconscious men outof the cellar, also the man who had been tied up by Jack and Sandy.

  Ned finally made her understand that she could call the police half anhour after their departure. This seemed to satisfy her, and the pieceof silver Ned presented was received with many gestures of gratitude.

  "Won't the finding of them men there get her into trouble?" asked Sandy,as the lads walked away.

  "I'll explain the matter to the American consul," answered Ned, "and askhim to inform the authorities. You see, these people who are making usall this trouble are about as afraid of the officers as they are of us.The government is keeping a sharp lookout for the revolutionary leaders,and some are captured every day."

  "What do they do with them?" asked Jack.

  "They are never heard of again."

  "Murdered? Without trial?"

  "That is the belief."

  "Then why don't we ask this good, wise, benevolent, sane, and all therest of it government to keep the revolutionary party off Uncle Sam?"asked Jack. "We represent Uncle Samuel, you know."

  "Because," was the reply, "there are spies in every branch anddepartment of the government. While the traitors who are serving thegovernment while seeking its destruction may not be powerful enough tosecure the release of such confederates as are caught, they areundoubtedly able to send out reports calculated to assist their party."

  "And every move we made under the protection of the Chinese governmentwould be noted and reported," mused Jack. "I see how it is! Guess thepeople at Washington knew what they were about when they issuedinstructions regarding the trip to Peking."

  "Yes, I think they did," Ned replied. "Observe how they tested us. Wedid not know about the cablegram at the office here when we started onour long ride. If we had weakened in any way we never should have knownabout it, but would have been ordered back home."

  "Land flowing with milk and honey, and breakfast foods, and choice beefcuts at a dollar a pound!" Jack exclaimed now. "Are we never going toget anything to eat?"

  "I haf one vacancy!" observed Hans, laying a hand on his stomach. "Ihaf a misery!"

  "You had a good breakfast, Jack!" reproved Frank.

  "What! Where! What was it? Yes, I haf a breakfast two days ago. Thismorning I haf cellar air for breakfast. It isn't nourishing. Where isthere an eatery?"

  Before long Ned stopped at a little tea house where an American signhung in a window, and the boys ordered such viands as the placeafforded. It was not much of a meal, as Jack insisted, but just ateaser for a dinner which would be procured later on.

  "Where are the marines?" asked Frank, as he and Ned seated themselves ata little table apart from the others.

  "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 therevolutionists take a hand in the game. The marines are probablysurrounded by a crowd of sullen curiosity seekers, but they will not bemolested unless the revolutionis
ts decide to take another chance withthem."

  "And the machines are gone for good?"

  "No, the American consul is getting them back, or was when I left hisoffice, one by one. The men who were fighting were too frightened totake the machines with them, but the mob got them. They were taken byindividual 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 tocatch the leaders of this conspiracy, and the only way we can do it isto wait until they show themselves.

  "Just see how foolish they are!" Ned went on. "If they had been contentto wait, to manufacture such evidence as they needed to show theirinnocence, we could never have located them. They would have lied usout of countenance if we charged any one man with being the leader, orany one nation with fostering the conspiracy.

  "But they tried to make a clean record for themselves by wiping us offthe face of the earth and so showed themselves to us. I am told bypolice officers that if criminals would keep away from women, away fromthe scenes of their crimes, and keep their mouths shut when given thefamous--and disgraceful--third degree, not one in twenty would ever beconvicted."

  "Well," Frank said, "here's hoping that the man we want will come withinreach again!"

  After breakfast the boys headed for the American consulate, where theyfound 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 buildingin China as one of those machines! The natives believe the devil is inthem!"

  "I've known Americans to express the same opinion," laughed Frank.

  While they talked with the consul a message was brought him from thetelegraph office. It read:

  "Report progress."

  Ned laughed.

  "Nothing to report but disaster," he said.

  "Well," the consul replied, "we expected something of the kind. Youhave gained the very point we expected you to gain. You know exactlywho is at the head of this mess. Thinking he had you where you wouldnever get away, he talked too much."

  "I think I should know him in any disguise," Ned said. "I should knowhim anywhere, and under any circumstances. Do you think he would havekept faith with me if I had given up the documents and promised never toimplicate either his country or himself in the trouble?"

  "Certainly not. The fact that he revealed himself to you shows that hemeant to have you murdered there. Only for the marines breaking in justas 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 usinto a war?"

  "My boy," replied the consul, "we are sure to have a war with some greatEuropean nation before many years."

  "Because the people are getting too thick over here. Because they aregoing to America in droves. Because the governments of Europe desire toretain control of their people after they leave the confines of theirown countries. They want English, German, Russian, Italian, Frenchcolonies held under their hand instead of a mass of their subjects doingreverence to a foreign flag."

  "And they will fight for that?"

  "Of course. The only way we can keep out of a great and disastrous waris to abandon the Philippines, throw our island possessions to the dogs,and tumble the Monroe doctrine into the sea. Then these foreign nationscan buy, steal, or conquer all South and Central America. We don't wantthe land there, and we can't afford to fight for the dagoes who livethere."

  "There is too much jingo in our country to ever do what you suggest,"Ned suggested.

  "I'm afraid you are right," the consul replied. "But now to business.Get your machines here and mount them! You are to leave for Pekingto-night."

  "And I'll not come back until I reach the town!" declared the boy.

  "By the way," said the consul, "where are the papers you took from thecaptain of the Shark--the boat you fought with your submarine?"

  "I have them here," was the reply.

  "Better leave them in my safe."

  Ned consented to this, and later, on the march to Peking, he was veryglad that he had done.

  At twilight the boys joined the flying squadron, and were all off forthe imperial city, little suspecting that the perils before them weregreater than any they had encountered.