Li Shoon's Nine Lives

Front matter

by Irving Hancock

I. The Hand of the Dead

CHAPTER I.

THE HAND OF THE DEAD?

SIX weeks after they were back from their Colorado adventure, Donald Carrick, seated in the carpeted section of Doctor John Fleming's wonderfully compact laboratory, uttered an exclamation of wonder. As the chemist whirled about, he beheld Carrick drawing very hard at his pipe and staring steadily through one of the windows."

"What's going on outside, to draw such an outburst from my calm friend?" Fleming asked.

"Nothing in the gardenette before this window," responded Carrick briefly, continuing to send up great clouds of pipe smoke.

Fleming, who had started to join his friend, now turned back to a bench on which stood a test-tube rack containing liquid in a dozen test tubes, to which he had just added as many reagents.

For at least three minutes Carrick continued looking out of the window, though he saw no near object. At last, picking up the newspaper, he resurveyed what he had been reading.

"That's strange," he muttered.

"Is it permissible to ask what is so strange?" Fleming inquired lightly, as he reached to an upper shelf over the bench and brought down a two-liter bottle of tenth-normal acid.

"Why, the Spokane, of the Blue Stack line, is missing—nine days overdue, and not sighted anywhere," replied Carrick. "She's a freighter, last stop San José de Guatemala, bound with general cargo to San Francisco. I own a bit of stock in the Blue Stack line."

"I see," said the chemist, nodding. "Looks, as if she had been lost. How do you relish a slump in the returns from and value of your stock?"

"Not particularly pleased over the prospect," responded the Master Hound, "though at the moment I was not thinking of that. Incidentally, Fleming, the Spokane carried in her strong room something over two million dollars in gold, shipped from South American banks to meet collections in San Francisco."

"But if the Spokane was wrecked," Fleming argued, the line is hardly responsible for the value of the money."

"The value of the money, in any event, will come out of the pockets of the underwriters at San Francisco," retorted Carrick.

"Let's see," mused Doctor Fleming, clamping to a stand the burette he had just filled with acid solution, and turning around, "wasn't the steamship Halcyon, of the Red M line lost about three weeks ago in the Pacific, with two million and a half in gold on board? You are beginning to see light, I believe, Fleming," said Carrick.

"Not the light that is illuminating or irritating your mind, I fancy," replied the chemist, with a smile. "If the San Francisco underwriters have to face a loss of four million and a half dollars, it must make them peevish. Yet how does it affect you? You haven't any funds invested in marine insurance, have you?"

"Not a penny," Carrick declared promptly.

"Then2"

"But see here, Fleming," went on the Master Hound quickly, "neither steamship can have been lost in a gale, for there was no gale along the Pacific coast at the time either craft was last seen, nor for many days after. Both boats are American owned, had no munitions aboard, so could not have been blown up by submarines. Besides, none of the warring nations have submarines in those waters. It seems highly probable, therefore, that both the Spokane and the Halcyon foundered in smooth seas."

"Did neither craft carry wireless?"

"Both did," Carrick went on, his eyes gleaming. "That makes the mystery all the more dense. No distress signals were received anywhere from either craft."

"But there is only one class of men who rob ships and then sink them, destroying their crews," the chemist objected. "Such men used to be called pirates, and pirates are extinct in these days of steam."

"That doesn't mean that a new breed of pirates couldn't spring up," Donald Carrick interposed, speaking almost impatiently for one of his equable temperament. "In fact, if piracy has been committed in these two instances, then we are bound to admit that pirates exist, or reëxist. The point, Fleming, is right here. For weeks there have been no other losses in the Pacific, from Panama up, and the only two vessels to vanish are, curiously enough, the only two that carried* notable lots of gold coin."

"Does the newspaper say anything that could throw more light on the double mystery?" the chemist inquired.

"Here's the article," replied the Master Hound. "You may read it for yourself."

Hastily the chemist scanned the printed paragraphs, then shook his head, for he had really learned nothing that his friend had not already told him.

"If it weren't a flat impossibility," Carrick went on musingly, "I should be tempted to say that the vanishing of the two ships has many of the earmarks of the uncanny work of the dread Li Shoon. But that can hardly be, since we saw Li and his satellite, Weng-yu, leap to death over the edge of that Colorado precipice. More, we saw their mangled bodies lying crushed in the gully below."

"That would be proof enough of the death of most men," laughed John Fleming. "But would even such proof hold good in the case of an archfiend and a piece of cleverness like our Chinese friend, Li Shoon?"

Once more Donald Carrick picked up the paper, studying it attentively through eyes one-quarter closed.

"I could almost swear that Li was behind this job," he grumbled.

Fleming sprang to answer the telephone, but quickly swung around to say:

"Telegram for you, Carrick."

The latter moved to the instrument, listening intently. At last he said briskly:

"Send that telegram here in writing, and deliver it as speedily as you can." Resuming his chair and his pipe, Carrick smoked harder than ever, sending up clouds of smoke, yet uttering no word. Knowing his friend well, Fleming asked no questions, but continued letting a drop at a time fall from the stopcock of the' burette into a flask underneath.

Within ten minutes Tako, Fleming's Japanese servant, knocked, then entered, handing a telegram to the Hound, then silently withdrawing. Tearing off the end of the envelope, Carrick read twice through the message on the yellow page.

"See what you think of this, Fleming," he said finally, and the chemist read:

Your two Chinese fugitives who were supposed to have leaped over the precipice several weeks ago, it turns out, did nothing of the sort. Their supposed remains in the gulch difficult of access were inspected closely yesterday. Proved to be only two stuffed dummies, in Chinese garb, that were thrown down from cave in face of cliff near top. The fugitives really jumped after fastening around their waists concealed ropes tied to roots of big bushes at edge of cliff. Bushes show marks of ropes. Signs in cave, which opens into cliff less than ten feet from top of cliff, show that four or more men, presumably Chinese, lived in cave at least two days, then regained top of cliff and escaped. Nothing has been heard from any of them. Any instructions? Do you mean to come out here to take up clews beginning at cave and gulch?

The telegram was signed by Bowers, sheriff of the Colorado county in which was the mountain precipice from which Carrick and Fleming believed they had witnessed the suicide of Li Shoon and Weng-yu.

"I never did a more foolish thing than not to investigate the two supposed bodies at the bottom of the gully," remarked Carrick, rather bitterly when he saw his chemist friend lay the sheet down.

"It would have taken hours to have reached that gully," Doctor John Fleming responded, "and the scene laid out for us was so real that I do not wonder that even you, Carrick, were fooled. Confound Li Shoon! He appears to possess the nine lives of a cat."

"Li Shoon would make a cat look foolish by comparison," retorted Carrick, more bitterly. "It seems impossible to slay him. I never really thirsted for any man's blood—not even Li's—but I am certain that it would not grieve me greatly if I were to see him cut into small pieces. Only then could I feel certain that he had ceased to girdle this suffering earth with his villainy."

"Are you going to do anything immediately in this matter?" Fleming asked.

"Nothing more than to think about it, if you mean the disappearance of the two treasure ships."

"I have finished this bench work," Fleming continued, as he lifted three racks of test tubes and some other bits of apparatus and stacked them neatly at the back of the bench. "So now, if you do not need me, I thought I would run up to Sylvia's hotel and chance a visit. If she is out, I will come right back."

"What if she has already vanished?" suggested Carrick, though he smiled, for he regarded the chance of that as slight. It was enough, though, to cause Fleming to turn a bit pale. With a spring he was at the telephone, calling up the hotel where Miss Dorrance lived. He soon heard that young lady's voice at the wire.

"If I arrive in about fifteen minutes," inquired the lover, "do I stand a good chance of being able to have a little time with you?"

"An excellent chance," laughed Sylvia.

"Ask if I may call with you?" suggested Carrick. Fleming did so, though he frowned slightly over the request. Lovers have sometimes been known to be impatient of the presence of third parties.

"You are wondering why I wish to go," Carrick continued, as Fleming hung up the receiver. "I shall not dally long, John, but I wish to warn Miss Dorrance, in my own way, against any efforts that Li Shoon's emissaries may make to lure her once more into captivity such as she was forced to endure on two other occasions."

"That will be as well," smiled the chemist thoughtfully. "Though, after what I have said to Sylvia on that very subject, I doubt if she would be likely to be trapped by anything less than downright force."

For five minutes Fleming busied himself with his toilet. Then, passing his own inspection in a mirror, he turned away just as Tako came in to report that the doctor's motor, which he had ordered brought round, stood at the door. Fleming and his friend went out, the former taking his place at the steering wheel. Quite punctually to their appointment, they presented themselves at the hotel desk to have their names telephoned up to Miss Dorrance's rooms. Two minutes later, the callers were received by the elder and the younger Miss Dorrance.

"We did not know but that you had already vanished," smiled Donald Carrick. "Unfortunately, we have news that Li Shoon, though officially dead, is again at large."

"You cannot mean it!" gasped Sylvia Dorrance, much of the color fading from her lovely face.

"It is true," replied Fleming, while Carrick pleasantly inquired:

"Has Li made any effort to get you away from your hotel again, to some point at which you might again fall into his power?"

"No," said Sylvia Dorrance, regaining most of her composure. "On the contrary, in yesterday afternoon's mail I received a much pleasanter letter and one which auntie and I have been wondering if we could not accept. It was from Elsie Duveen, one of my school chums. She and her mother are at Citrusville, California, and they have invited us to spend a few weeks with them."

"California?" quickly inquired Carrick, barely concealing his deep interest.

"Here is the note," said Miss Dorrance, rising, going to a desk, and returning with a folded, scented sheet of paper. "Perhaps you can read Elsie's horrible scrawl. I used to tell her that she had never really learned to write."

"And this is her writing—her own writing?" Carrick inquired, as he glanced at the letter.

"There can be no mistaking Elsie's handwriting," said Miss Dorrance.

"Thank you," said Carrick, passing back the sheet after having read it through. "Miss Dorrance, may I advise you not to think of starting to California until I am able better to advise you?"

"Why—what—do you really think?" asked the young woman, in astonishment.

"Later to-day I shall be able to tell you just what I think," Donald Carrick replied, rising. "And when I advise you, I shall know!"

Most courteously he took leave of the ladies, next nodding cheerily to Doctor John Fleming, who, despite the little that he knew of the Hound's thoughts, now appeared to be a bit mystified.

As he dropped in the elevator to the office floor, Carrick said to himself:

"At present I suspect old Li Shoon of knowing all about the disappearance of the treasure ships. Inside of two or three hours I think I shall know positively whether that yellow scoundrel is now after the yellow metal of ships on the Pacific!"

II. Smoke from the Blue Stack

CHAPTER II.

SMOKE FROM THE BLUE STACK.

STOPPING at the office of the manager of the hotel, Carrick said: "I wish to send a telegram in your name, and will show it to you in a moment."

"I know it will be all right," said his friend the manager.

Seating himself, after the other had handed him a pad of blanks, the Hound penciled this dispatch:

Miss Elsie Duveen, Citrusville, California.

Highly important to know if you recently sent Miss Sylvia Dorrance an invitation to visit you in your present home. Kindly wire answer immediately, collect.

To this Carrick signed the name of the manager and the name of the hotel.

"Will you have this sent for me at once?" asked Carrick, tendering the money with the telegram.

"With pleasure," responded the manager, after a glance at the sheet.

"Then permit me to telephone it to the Western Union in your name, and at the same time I will call up an official in the company, asking him to see to it that both telegram and reply travel at fastest speed west and east."

Within three minutes, Carrick had secured a pledge that the telegram would be "rushed" in the livest sense of the word. The Hound thereupon turned to his friend the manager.

"When the answer comes, you will phone me at Fleming's laboratory, won't you?" he requested.

"Without fail, Carrick."

Outside, stepping into a taxi, Carrick gave the chemist's address, and was quickly back. Once admitted to the laboratory by Tako, the Hound glanced down at his pipe,, resting on a table, then shook his head.

"It may turn out that I need sleep more," he mused. Removing his coat, Carrick lay down on the sofa, tossing a blanket loosely over him, for outside the winter air nipped in strong contrast to the uniform warmth of seventy degrees within. Sixty seconds after lying down, the Hound slept, nor opened his eyes until, nearly two hours later, he was disturbed by the ringing of the phone bell.

"Answer to your telegram," proclaimed a voice from the hotel, and he recognized the manager's voice. "This telegram is signed: 'J. N. Skinner, caretaker.' The dispatch reads: 'Miss Duveen and mother now absent for five weeks on trip to Hawaii; due to return in about three weeks.'"

"Thank you, old man," was Carrick's fervent acknowledgment. "The money that I left with you paid the charges both ways? Yes? Thank you. Will you be good enough to send that reply up to Miss Dorrance's room, with a copy of the telegram that I sent in your name? Will you kindly explain to Miss Dorrance that I took the liberty of wiring in your name? And will you kindly tell Miss Dorrance that, under the circumstances, I strongly advise against her taking the California trip? I am sure that she will understand."

Having adjusted matters to his satisfaction, Donald Carrick again stretched himself on the sofa, carefully covering himself.

"It must never be forgotten," he murmured to himself, "that Li Shoon is an adept at forgery, or controls the services of such an adept. Nor must it be forgotten that his yellow and brown crew know well how to secure specimens of handwriting that are to be forged. Miss Duveen did not write the letter that Sylvia Dorrance showed to me. Li Shoon did write it, or caused it to be written. Miss Dorrance must have told him something about Miss Duveen, or else Li obtained his information in other ways. Though twice the trick has proved futile, Li Shoon again sought to get Miss Dorrance where she could be easily taken in under his impelling control, and that in order to have a strong hold on Fleming and myself, compelling our remaining passive. If Li wanted Miss Dorrance under his power in California, then Li is also there, or else he used California as a headquarters. Therefore, considering all the other facts that I now know, one thing is certain: Li Shoon is behind and responsible for the vanishment of the two treasure ships. Will another or some more treasure ships vanish from the surface of the sea? Yes, unless I can succeed in interfering in season."

Having reached this conclusion, Donald Carrick closed his eyes. For something like thirty seconds he remained awake; at the end of that brief period he was sound asleep, to be awakened only by the abrupt entrance of Doctor John Fleming, who shook the Hound brusquely by the shoulder.

"I've heard," said the chemist quietly. "So Miss Duveen's supposed note was a forgery, committed or inspired by Li Shoon in the hope of getting Sylvia finally in his power. Is there no limit to the ingenuity of that Chinese devil?"

"Apparently not," yawned Carrick, sitting up and reaching for his pipe. "And what I've learned to-day completes my reasons for knowing that Li Shoon knows all about the missing treasure ships."

"A man trained as a chemist," replied Fleming gravely, "would say that you have strong reasons for believing that you know the trend of Li's present activities, but that you lacked anything like logical proof of your suspicions."

"Let it go that way, then," said Carrick, smiling indulgently. "However, Li and his principal men must be at work on the Pacific coast, or else they wouldn't desire to lure Miss Dorrance out there, feeling that for this and the third time they can really hold her from rescue, and that her captivity will still your activities, and, through your friendship, will also induce me to quit looking for the yellow rascal's trail. For it cannot be other than Li Shoon who has conceived the idea of sending Miss Dorrance to California on a most tragic wild-goose chase. Now, my dear fellow, if your chemically trained mind can admit that Li Shoon must be in California, or operating from there, then you must be ready to concede that my next destination must also be California."

"I shall have to grant your reasoning," said Fleming. "More especially as I know you must be right, anyway."

"Ting-a-ling-ling!" called the chemist to the telephone.

"Carrick? Yes, he's here. I'll call him to the machine.

Carrick moved over, listened gravely, then directed quietly:

"Kindly deliver that message to me in writing with utmost speed. Tell the messenger to take a taxi and I'll pay for it."

Turning to the chemist, he asked:

"John, how long will it take you to get ready to go to San Francisco, or some other city in California? Yes, you are to go. Oh, of course, I understand your reluctance to go far away from Miss Dorrance, but look at it in another way. The sooner we can know that sod really holds Li Shoon down in the bosom of Mother Earth, the sooner you may feel that Miss Dorrance is wholly safe. For Li will try to get hold of Miss Dorrance every time that he starts in with any new villainy. He has an obsession that she is a hostage who can be used to make us stay our hands. One of these days Li, if he secures possession of your sweetheart again, will, in an excess of temper, remove her from this earth as a rebuke to us. So the thought causes you to look a bit pale? Then you will surely be glad to go to California with me. For this time we shall surely get Li, and we shall just as surely bring him back to New York. Here he can be convicted of murder and executed. Then, and not till then, will Miss Dorrance be safe, and may we feel that we are through with the yellow wretch and at liberty to pursue happiness in our several ways. So run along and get ready. When you wish, phone Miss Sylvia, of course. Don't forget to tell her that I am going to call on her within half an hour, with her cousin, Mr. Lawrence Semple. You never heard of that 'cousin.' I suppose not. He's in the criminal-investigation line, and a most clever and resolute fellow. Now, don't be jealous, Fleming, even if I am going to ask him to put up at the same hotel, be known as Miss Dorrance's cousin, and escort her about for a while. Semple is middle-aged, a gentleman, bald-headed, and has a wife and four children. He's a decent and cool fellow, and after I leave him at the hotel we may both feel assured as to Miss Sylvia's safety. Phone her now, if you wish, Fleming. I'm going out to meet the taxi."

Nor did Carrick have to wait long at the door. The message was delivered. Carrick, after feeing the boy, carefully read the message before he stepped inside. Then he returned to the laboratory, setting fire to the message and dropping it in the grate.

"The president of the Blue Stack line wired, asking you and me to take up the matter of the disappearance of the Spokane, as the company expects to ship treasure by other steamers of that line," the Hound went on. "You and I are offered our own fees and all expenses to take up the matter on the jump. We can hardly afford, can we, to decline an offer so liberal?"

"I can't," Fleming admitted honestly. "But you? Humph! You own more money now than you will ever spend. You're going to accept the offer, of course?"

"I shall wire my acceptance as soon as I have arranged for the safety of Miss Sylvia Dorrance. And, by the way, Fleming, Semple will be only the outward sign of Miss Sylvia's safety. He will have such help as he needs. It will be part of our expense account for the job that the Blue Stack line will pay. Why not? I shan't attempt to fool the Blue Stack people about it. Now, do you feel like going?"

III. The Apparition of the "Budzibu"

CHAPTER III.

THE APPARITION OF THE "BUDZIBU."

LI has learned to keep under cover well," grumbled the Hound, nearly a month later.

"It is time he did," agreed Fleming placidly. "He appears to have nine lives, but even nine may be lost in time. Besides, there are no more treasure ships sailing. The steamship companies have secretly instructed their masters not to accept specie shipments."

"They will resume presently," declared Carrick, rather moodily. "There will be a ship start up the coast with a whopping treasure as soon as I have found the slightest clew to Li and his scheme of operations. It would be murder and robbery to have treasure brought up the coast with a practical certainty that crew, money, and ship would be lost. But don't think I have been idle, Fleming."

"I know full well that you haven't been idle," was the chemist's grave answer. "We've put in breathless days in San Francisco, and have raked Chinatown with a fine-tooth comb. We have been in Spokane and Seattle; we've been m Los Angeles, fairly taking up the carpet of that town, prying underneath, and now we've been ten days in San Diego, and they've all been busy ones."

The two friends sat just inside the balcony of a parlor in the Del Coronado Hotel at San Diego. Of the suite, two of the rooms were chambers. There was also a dining room and bath. The balcony overlooked the salt water. Near the door to the balcony stood a mounted telescope of unusual power. Two pairs of strong field glasses rested on a table.

"Li Shoon cannot operate unless on the sea," Carrick went on reflectively. "Naturally he would not ship on a treasure craft itself. Hence he must have some vessel of his own. That vessel would have to possess speed, for, on account of the disturbances in Mexico, several United States war craft are sailing up and down the coast. Li or his lieutenants, if overhauling a treasure ship, would need speed. If, while the operation of boarding and robbing was going on, a United States war vessel were to appear, Li would have to have a good deal of speed in order to get away from some of our long-range guns. A craft of from twenty-eight to thirty knots would be needed, or safety could not be secured. That would mean a yacht, for none of the coasting vessels possess such speed. I have had all the yacht registers examined, and cannot find the slightest reason to believe that Li has chartered any craft along this coast. Where, then, did he get his vessel?"

"A submarine, perhaps?" hinted Fleming.

"There are no private ones," returned Carrick, with a shrug of his shoulders. "True, one could be built, but one could not be hidden. It would have to put in somewhere for supplies, and then its existence, even though it had been built secretly, would almost surely be known."

"There are little ports or bays along the western coast of Mexico where it could be hidden," Fleming suggested. "Mexican rebel officials could be bribed to keep the secret, and could sell supplies at outrageous prices."

"A Mexican rebel official might be bribed for most things," Carrick returned, "but it would be difficult indeed in the case of a submarine. The Mexicans of all factions are daily looking for a possible war with this country. They have no submarines, but would sell their souls to own one, for in the event of our making war upon them, their coasts would be blockaded. They would prize a submarine that they could send out on a mission of sinking blockading craft. No, there is hardly a shade of a chance that Mexican rebels would protect Li Shoon in running into one of their smaller bays or harbors, or even in appearing along the open coast. Besides, a submarine does not possess speed enough to make sure of her overtaking a liner. The chance would be too much of a hit or miss to please Li Shoon's longing for sure things. Fleming, we must find Li's craft in some above-water craft, and she must be an unusually swift one—therefore a yacht."

The chemist did not argue further. He knew that his friend was generally right in his deductions. Instead, the chemist, rising, sauntered close to the balcony, while Carrick, lounging back in his chair, blew smoke lazily toward the ceiling.

"I wonder if a yacht like that one could be fast enough?" said Doctor Fleming, a few minutes later.

Instantly the Master Hound was upon his feet, snatching up a glass and gazing intently.

"If that boat's engines match her lines," cried Carrick eagerly, "she should be good for thirty knots an hour. See! She's making for the harbor: going to put in here. I'll know in a jiffy what craft she is, and my new friend at the customhouse will hold his tongue about my inquiry, too."

Carrick seated himself at the telephone table and called for one of the officials at the customhouse. A short conversation ensued, to which Fleming did not pay much heed, for he was busy with the field glasses that he had snatched up.

"Carson will find out as speedily as possible all about that yacht," Carrick announced at last. "I shall remain here until he calls me."

"Do you wish me to motor over to the harbor?" Fleming inquired.

"No, for if that yacht be really commanded by Li Shoon or one of his lieutenants, what more could you do than show yourself and perhaps put the Chinese on their guard?"

So Fleming continued to watch. Presently he reported that the yacht had run into the harbor and had moved as though going to a pier, but obstacles prevented his seeing either the craft or her possible berth.

"She went in under good speed. I noticed that much," the chemist added.

Twenty minutes later, the phone bell rang. Carrick jotted down the information that the yacht was the Budzibu, of Dutch Sumatran register, with a Mr. Ronnvald aboard as owner, with a party of guests. A customs inspector had reported that he saw no Chinese in the crew or among the guests. The yacht had put in for oil fuel and supplies, and would put to sea again as soon as these had been obtained. The owner was cruising for pleasure, and had not decided upon his course or next port of call.

"That's unusual," Carrick added, after he had told Fleming the news he had received. "I'm going to note that craft a little closer."

Calling the office, Carrick ordered a car with closed body to be at the hotel entrance immediately.

"Come along, Fleming," requested the Hound, after examining his automatic revolver and glancing at a set of papers that he drew from an inner pocket.

The car swiftly bore them to a point from which they could examine the wharf at which the Budzibu lay. It was plain that great activity was being displayed in the loading of the yacht.