Boy Scouts on Motorcycles Part 35

"The purpose," replied the other, weakly, "was to so entangle your government that it would not dare lend aid to the revolutionary leaders."

"And you were engaged in it?"

A nod of the head was the only reply.

"Yet you pretended to be a.s.sisting the revolutionary party. You were present at their councils. Can it be possible that you were treacherous to both sides?"

There was no answer.

"Suppose," Ned said, "suppose I turn you over to the revolutionary leaders, with a statement of what you have just said? What would be your fate? Remember that the men of the revolution were ready to fight for you not long ago."

Still no reply. The prisoner only looked sullenly down at the floor.

"What government do you represent?" asked Frank. "What nation is it that is protecting the imperial government of China?"

"You need not answer that question," Ned said, with a sigh.

Frank laughed.

"I see," he said. "You don't want to further implicate matters by giving out the name of the power whose seal shows on the wax! All right, old boy, I'll get it yet!"

"No good can come of a representative of the United States Government presenting charges of such a character against another power," Ned replied.

Captain Martin now arose from the chair where he had been seated for a long time. He glanced keenly into the faces of the six prisoners and then turned to Ned.

"Shall I take them in charge?" he asked,

"That would be useless."

"Then what can be done with them?"

"I am going to turn them over to the authorities on the charge of attempted murder, based on the effort they made to kill us in the old house."

"Very well," the Captain said, "now will you tell me how you set this trap so, cleverly?"

"It was only a matter of detail," Ned replied. "I took good care to let the native waiters here know that I had the clues I had found secreted in my room. I also let it be known that I was a heavy sleeper.

"My interpreter, who is by no means as treacherous a chap as his looks would indicate, heard the robbery of my room planned. He heard the hour fixed-a quarter past twelve. So all the rest was easy."

"Oh, yes, easy, but how did you do it?"

"Frank, Jack and Jimmie helped," added Ned. "Jack was at a window over the way. He told me by signals just how many men were to take part in the attack on me.

"Frank, in the next room to mine, told me when the time came to be on guard. I really do not wake easily, and he rigged a cord through the wall so I could rest comfortably until the time for action came.

"Then when all was ready, he told me by means of colored light that all the six were in the corridor, and that the officers I had engaged during the afternoon were on hand."

"And you went to sleep with all this on your mind and slept up to within a quarter of an hour of the time set for action?" asked the Captain in wonder.

"Why, certainly," was the reply. "You see, we have been having some exciting nights, and I needed rest. The other boys slept a good deal this afternoon, so I left them to wake me at night. Nothing odd about that, is there?"

"Nothing save the nerve of it."

Two high officers now made their appearance in the room and beckoned to the prisoners. All arose save the man from whom the disguise had been stripped. He remained in the chair into which he had dropped, seemingly in a stupor.

"Come," said the officer.

The man arose, desperation in his eyes, and moved toward the door. A few days before that miserable night he had been one of the leaders in the statecraft of the world. Now he was being marched to a prison like any ordinary criminal.

The speaker was interrupted by a quick movement on the part of the prisoner, the man he had addressed as Count. There was no one between he desperate man and the still open window. Ned was at the door, Captain Martin was out in the corridor, and Frank, Jack and Jimmie were talking together in a corner.

Handcuffed as he was, the Count leaped to the window and shot down to the hard pavement below. There was a shrill cry as his body hurtled through the air, then a crash.

Below pa.s.sersby drew away from what lay in a b.l.o.o.d.y heap on the pavement. A little crowd gathered, at a distance, but none knew that the body of one of the most distinguished statesmen in the world lay there.

"It is finished!" Ned said, with a sigh. "The whole story of the conspiracy will never be told. It is the story of a treacherous government and a treacherous statesman.

"The doc.u.ments I have will fully prove that the United States had no hand in the gold shipment, and that is all that we care for. The old world may take care of its own political messes."

"It is a mess indeed," Captain Martin, said. "In less than a year China will be red with blood, and the streets of Peking will witness the retreat of the royal family."

How true this prophecy was the readers of the daily newspapers now know.

"Well," Jack said, with a yawn, as the boys and the Captain were left alone in the room together, "I presume it is us for little old New York to-morrow. How do you like this motorcycle-flying-squadron business, boys," he added. "We seem to have flown ahead of the flying squadron."

"Then we ought to fly back and look after the ones who were wounded on the road," Frank said. "Suppose we all go back on our machines, and really see something of the country?"

This was agreed to, and the party separated for the night. In the morning Ned paid his respects to the American amba.s.sador, who greeted him courteously, but wanted to know all about the events of the trip from the coast.

"You have gotten Uncle Sam out of a bad mess," the amba.s.sador said, when Ned had finished his narration, "and you will find that you will be well rewarded when you return to Washington."

The amba.s.sador also requested the boys to visit the other legations, but they did not care to do so.

"Well," he said, then, "you must take a letter from me which may help you on your way. I have been expecting you here all the week, but it seems that you completed your work without my a.s.sistance,"

"Just what I was figuring on," Ned replied.

"I worked under surveillance all the way here, and I desired to show that I could do something on my own account."

The boys left Peking early the next morning, and were not long in reaching the house where the powder trap had been set for them. There they found Hans and Sandy! The boys had followed them on from Tientsin in an automobile which an English merchant was taking through.

Both boys were riding motorcycles, and were already proficient enough to proceed with the others, using the machines which had been ridden by the wounded marines, who were sent on to Peking in charge of Captain Martin.

A week was spent on the road to Taku, and the lads enjoyed every minute of the time. The letter given them by the American amba.s.sador brought them every attention at Tientsin and Taku.

It was late in the fall when they reached New York. On the night of their arrival there were many joyful meetings in the clubroom of the Black Bear Patrol. The next day Ned went on to Washington to file his report. When he returned it was with a very substantial reward.

"Now," he said, with a laugh, "I'm ready for the next trip. I wonder where it will be?"