Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; Or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam

by G. Harvey Ralphson

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE MAN IN THE CLOSET.

  "If you take my advice," Ned said to Frank, as they reached the studydoor, "you won't say anything to your father about the trouble at theoffice until we have talked with him concerning the raid on the house. Hemight rush off to the newspaper building immediately, without answeringour questions about the visit to his room."

  "That is just what he would do," Frank replied.

  When the boys entered the study, closely followed by Lieutenant Gordon andJimmie, they found three men in the room. One was Mr. Shaw, lying on acouch at the front of the apartment. One was Dr. Benson, who sat in aneasy chair at his side. The third was Pedro, the servant mentioned byFrank as one of his father's favored attendants. He stood by the couch asthe boys stepped into the room, his bold black eyes studying their facesimpertinently as they entered.

  The man was not far from forty, tall, slender, dusky of face--plainly inintellectual capacity and breeding far above the menial position heoccupied in the house. Standing in repose, his figure was erect and wellbalanced, like that of a man trained to military service.

  But even as he stood subserviently by the couch of his employer, hisslender hands at his sides, there seemed to be something of the alertnessof a wild beast in his physical attitude of suppression. Somehow, he gaveNed the impression of one about to spring forth upon an enemy.

  After the presentations were made, it was with the greatest difficultythat Lieutenant Gordon restrained himself from at once taking up the topiche had discussed with Mr. Shaw so unsatisfactorily that afternoon--thesubject of the plot against the Gatun dam. What did the editor know? Whatdid he suspect concerning the raid on his home? Did he believe that theplotters had opened their defense right there in the city of New York?

  However, he curbed his hasty impulse, knowing that the information hesought was not to be obtained in that way. Mr. Shaw was looking upon thematter entirely from the standpoint of an enterprising journalist, andwould be cautious about giving out his own discoveries and impressions.

  "Are you still suffering from the effects of the chloroform?" asked thelieutenant, anxiously.

  "I'm still a little weak," was the reply, "and still a little tippy at thestomach, but Benson tells me that I shall be well again in an hour."

  "You were of course attacked without warning," the lieutenant continued,half hoping that the editor would enter into a full and frank discussionof the event.

  "Entirely so," was the reply. "I was sitting at my desk when the door wasopened and some one entered. I thought it was Pedro, for I had just rungfor him, and did not look around. Then I was seized from behind and ahandkerchief soaked with chloroform thrust into my face."

  "You did not see your assailant?" asked Ned.

  "Now for the cross-examination," laughed the editor. "I have heardsomething of Mr. Nestor's work in the secret service," he added, "andshall be glad to answer any of his questions. Go ahead, my boy. No, toanswer your first question, I did not see my assailant, and do not knowwhether there were two or only one."

  "Did you notice the time?" asked Ned, modestly.

  "Yes, it was nine o'clock. The next I knew, Pedro was lifting me onto thecouch, and a maid was lifting her voice to high heaven out in thecorridor. That, I have since learned, was at ten o'clock, so, you see, theruffians had an hour to work in."

  "They must have mussed the room up quite a lot in that time," said thelieutenant, hoping to bring the editor to the point in which he wasinterested.

  Mr. Shaw made no reply, but turned to Ned with a smile.

  "Go ahead, Ned," Frank cried. "We all want to know what ideas are broodingin that clever brain of yours."

  "I would like to ask," Ned began, modestly, "if you can assign a reasonfor the attack upon you."

  "Why, they came into the house after the emerald necklace," was the reply."They looked here for it first. That is all."

  "But it appears that they knew the necklace to be in Frank's safe," urgedNed. "At least it did not take them long to find it there after the safewas unlocked and he was brought from his room."

  "Oh, well, they probably looked here first," insisted the editor. "Themanner in which they rummaged the place while I was unconscious shows thatthey searched for it here. The necklace was the thing sought, of course."

  "Did they take anything from the room?" asked Ned, and Lieutenant Gordonleaned forward, anxiously awaiting the answer.

  "Not a thing," was the quiet reply. "At least, I have missed nothing."

  "Perhaps the thing they sought was not found," suggested Gordon, no longerable to keep the plot subject out of the conversation.

  "I know what you mean, Lieutenant," the other replied, "and I may as welltell you now that the papers to which you refer are not in the house--werenot here and never have been here. They are perfectly safe, and we willdrop them from the case, if you please."

  "I am naturally anxious about them," said Gordon, "in the interest of thegovernment, of course, for I believe they hold the key to a mystery I amasked to solve."

  "You may be mistaken as to the contents of the papers," laughed Mr. Shaw."Well," he added, "we will eliminate them from the matter in hand. Whatnext, Mr. Nestor? I have great hope of your success in unraveling thismystery of the necklace."

  "With your permission," Ned replied, "and in your presence, I would liketo ask your man a few questions."

  Pedro turned a pair of venomous eyes toward the speaker for just aninstant. Then he stood respectfully looking at his master again. Ned sawthe movement, the quick hostility of the glance, and felt surer of hisground than before.

  "He will, I am sure, be happy to answer any questions you may ask," saidMr. Shaw.

  Pedro nodded, half defiantly, as though he felt humiliated by being placedat the service, even a verbal one, of a boy, and Ned asked:

  "When you saw the men at the head of the staircase, what did you say tothem?"

  The answer came in perfect English, yet there was a something in the voicewhich told as plainly as words could have done that English was not thenative tongue of the speaker.

  "I ordered them from the house," he said.

  "And then they attacked you?"

  "The mark of a hand is on my throat, sir."

  "How many men were there?"

  "Two, sir, and they both piled on top of me."

  "There was no one else in the corridor?"

  "No one."

  "They were armed, I presume?"

  "I saw no weapons in their hands."

  "They might have killed you?"

  "Only for the arrival of Master Shaw they might have done so."

  "Can you describe these men?" asked Ned.

  "I don't think I can, sir. I was too busy to notice their faces or theirclothes during the short time I was with them."

  "Can you say whether one of them was tall and slender, with very blackhair, turning gray in places?" asked Ned, fixing his eyes on those of theservant.

  Pedro looked back at his questioner for an instant, and then his gaze fellto the floor.

  "I can't say," he replied, slowly, while the others, amazed at thecharacter of the question, turned to Ned for explanation.

  "If the description I have given is recognized by you as that of one ofthe men you met in the corridor," Ned went on, "can you tell me whetherhis clothing was wet or dry?"

  There was dead silence in the room. There had been nothing thus far in thecase leading up to this description, and those present looked at Ned withwonder in their faces. To say the least, the questions seemed irrelevant.

  Pedro stood for a moment touching his dry lips with the tip of his tongue,his fingers clasping and unclasping, then his shoulders straightened intofirmer lines and he faced his questioner with a smile of complacency.

  "I don't know what you mean," he said.

  "Perhaps I should have said damp clothing," Ned replied. "The man I havein mind--the man who might have been one of your assailants--entered thehouse just after the rainstorm, w
hich came on close after six o'clock. Hisclothing was soaking wet when he came in, but would not remain so for fourhours."

  Pedro grasped the back of a chair which stood near him and looked out ofthe window to the lighted street in front of the house. While he stoodsilent Mr. Shaw arose to a sitting position on the couch and asked:

  "Why the description, Mr. Nestor? Why the positive statement about thetime at least one of the men entered the house?"

  Every eye in the room was now fixed on Nestor's face. Even LieutenantGordon seemed inclined to think that some huge joke was being pulled off.

  "The man who came in at six," Ned replied, "came in out of the rain, andleft marks showing the height and breadth of his shoulders on a wallagainst which he leaned. These marks show a man tall and slender. Heentered the house dripping with water, moving about like a streetsprinkler and leaving signs of his presence in the places he visited. Heseems to be a person of rather refined tastes, inclined to be neat inpersonal appearance, for he went to Frank's bathroom to clean up. There heused the washbowl and the toilet articles, leaving black hair turning grayin the comb."

  "This is uncanny," shouted Frank. "You couldn't have observed all thisduring the minute you were in the bathroom," he added.

  Mr. Shaw considered the question gravely, his eyes fixed on those of theboy.

  "He sprinkled the closet floor, did he?" he asked, presently.

  "Yes, sir; and stood back against the closet wall, and used Frank's comband brush."

  "Did he come to this room, also?"

  "Yes, sir; the little round spots on the delicate covering of this littletable were made by dripping water. You see, sir, he was in here before thewater dripped off his clothes in the closet, probably soon after heentered the house."

  "But how did he get into the house? How did he get into this lockedroom?"

  "I should say that he was assisted by some one belonging in the house,"was the quiet reply. "After he left this room he mounted the staircase andhid in Frank's closet, evidently waiting for you to return home, or forFrank to come. Perhaps he hoped that one of you might bring home thething, or the things, he had been unable to find in your rooms."

  "The papers concerning the Gatun plot, for instance," said thelieutenant.

  The editor glanced at the officer with a slight frown on his brow, butmade no reply to the remark. It was plain that he was unwilling to take upthat phase of the case.

  "It is a wonder the fellow didn't jimmy Frank's safe and get the emeraldnecklace, without waiting so long for the safe to be opened," he said, ina moment.

  Thus insisting on his previously expressed opinion that the sole purposeof the thieves had been to secure the emerald necklace, furtherdisclaiming any belief that the alleged plot against the government hadfigured in the matter at all, the editor smiled provokingly at theofficer.

  Nestor looked from the lieutenant to the newspaper owner and smiledquietly.

  "I wish I knew," he said, "whether the papers we hear so much about reallyreveal the details of an alleged plot against the government."

  Mr. Shaw did not reply.

  "If they do not," continued the boy, "do they connect some man, or somegroup of men, with a plot which may be forming?"

  The editor glanced approvingly at Ned, as if rather pleased with hiscleverness, but did not speak.

  "I have known newspaper men," Ned went on, "to make mistakes in suchmatters. However, I have no doubt that you have good reasons for thecourse you are taking," he continued, "and therefore I have no fault tofind with you."

  "You're a fine fellow, Mr. Nestor," the editor exclaimed. "Some day, whenyou see the matter in the right light, I'll tell you all about it. I can'tdo so now, for no end of trouble might come from it."

  "Very well," replied Ned. "There is one more question I want to ask you.Will you answer it?"

  "If I can consistently do so, yes."

  "If the men who searched this house to-night were after the necklace, andthat alone, why should they extend their operations to your offices in thenewspaper building?"

  "Did they do that?" asked the editor calmly. "Then I shall have to go downthere and look things over. Will you kindly accompany me?"

  But the search at the offices was barren of clues.