CHAPTER III
WHAT THE BOX CONTAINED
"All right," Oliver encouraged. "Let's go out and make a throw atfinding him, anyway! He may be in the garage, or the carriage houseright this minute."
Jimmie and Oliver rushed away to find Terance, the coachman, andundertake the search suggested, while Ned, Jack, Frank and Teddy satat the open windows looking out on the street.
"Chang Chu was at liberty to go into the attic at any time?" askedNed, tentatively.
"Oh, yes," Jack answered, "the other servants sent him about onerrands. He is a handy man about the premises--or was, rather."
"Is he a man to do such a thing as we are accusing him of?" Ned thenasked.
"I never thought so," was the puzzled reply. "I hope you don't thinkthat he was beaten up by the man who secured his blue clothes! Thatwould be tough on the fellow."
"I have been thinking of that," Ned responded, "and while the boysare looking for the Chinaman in the outbuildings suppose we look forhim in the upper part of the house."
"But if the sneak could get into the upper part of the house withoutthe use of the disguise," reasoned Jack, "he wouldn't need it at all,would he?"
"He might have been surprised while at work by the Chinaman," Nedsuggested. "In that case he might have taken the clothes as anafterthought. Suppose we look and see?"
Leaving Frank and Teddy sitting by the window, looking out on aperfect May night, Ned and Jack climbed the staircase to the atticand entered the room directly over the Black Bear Patrol clubroom. Itwas a large room, more of a storeroom than an attic, with a hardwoodfloor and papered walls and ceiling.
A great sack upon which clothing and odds and ends of alldescriptions were hanging stood at the south end of the apartment,while a long row of boxes and packing trunks occupied the floor atthe north end. The rug, which had been thrown down on the floor nearthe hole bored through a plank, was still there where the servantshad seen it. The listener had, at least, a good notion of personalcomfort!
"Where was this rug taken from?" asked Ned.
"It was on the rack the last time I saw it," Jack answered.
"Was it clean at that time?" Ned continued, examining the rug with aglass.
"What do you mean by clean? It was dusty, of course, like everythingelse here."
"Were there any stains on it--stains like blood?" Ned went on,dragging the rug under the electric lights which had been switchedon.
"Why, of course not. It was originally in the little den off thelibrary, but father became tired of it and told Terance to bring ithere."
"How long ago was that?"
"Oh, a month or two. I can't be exact as to the date, you know."
Ned handed his chum the glass and indicated a certain portion of therug.
"What do you call that?" he asked. "What does it look like?"
"It looks like a spot of blood," Jack declared. "And it is wet, too!What do you make of this, Ned? Was Chang Chu attacked and killed bythat sneak thief?"
"That is for us to find out," Ned answered. "At the present moment,it looks as if Chang Chu wouldn't be found on Pell or Doyers street.What is there is those boxes--the large ones sitting against thewall?"
"About everything, I take it. I never looked into them. Why?"
"We may as well see what they contain," Ned replied, advancing to thelargest box and throwing up the cover. "What do you think now?" heasked, as a huddled figure stirred in the box and opened a pair ofsuffering eyes. "This is the Chink, I suppose?"
Before Jack could reply, Ned had the man out of the box, with thecords cut from his hands and feet, the cruel gag removed from hismouth. His blue blouse was gone! Chang Chu tumbled over on the floorwhen Ned tried to stand him on his feet. There was a small cut on hishead.
"Chang velly much bum!" he said, with his hands on his stomach.
"Chang never forgets a word of slang," Jack laughed. "He willremember the slang word for anything when he forgets the real word!What did they do to you, Chang?" he continued, addressing theChinaman.
Chang pressed his hands to his nose significantly and dropped hishead back.
"Chloroform!" Ned declared, sniffing at the contents of the box.
The Chinaman could not describe the man who had attacked him. He hadbeen alone in the attic, putting away old clothes, when he had beenstruck and seized from behind by a man he described as a giant forstrength, stripped of his blouse, and lifted bodily into the box.There he had been bound, gagged and rendered unconscious by the useof the drug.
"The man who did it," mused Ned, "is an adept at crime, resourceful,daring. The chloroform would have attracted the attention of theservants at once if it had been administered in the open air. Thenhis taking the Chink's blouse as a disguise shows that he is quick totake advantage of his opportunities. A clever man."
"And he left no clue!" Jack complained. "Just our luck, Ned!"
"All we know is that he is tall, has light brown hair, and is verystrong," Ned replied. "But there are ten thousand people in New Yorkthis minute who answer to that description."
"How do you know he is tall?" demanded Jack.
"When he lay on the rug," Ned explained, "he stretched out on hisstomach to look through the hole, if he could. He couldn't; he couldonly listen, for the cut was made so as to be hidden by theornamental brass piece that circles the rod from which the chandelierswings. The marks of his elbows and toes were on the soft fiber ofthe rug, showing him to be a man at least six feet tall."
Ned walked over to the large box again and bent over it.
"Crumbs!" he exclaimed, in a second. "Crumbs!"
"Then he must have brought a lunch up with him," Jack exclaimedexcitedly. "There is no knowing how long he was here!"
"Some one in Washington has leaked!" Ned declared, angrily.
"Why Washington?" demanded Jack. "Why not New York?"
"Because no one in this city knows about our being engaged to huntdown the abductor. My instructions have all come in cypher, and someof them have, as you know, been addressed to this house. And thereyou are!"
Chang Chu arose limply, rubbing a small wound in his head from whichblood had come, and tottered off toward the staircase. As he did so,Ned noticed that his pigtail was very black, very long, and verygreasy.
"Did he take you by the cue?" asked the boy. "Did he pull your hair?"
"Velly much lough-neck pull--dam!" answered the Chinaman.
Ned went back to the box where the Chink had been hidden and begantaking out the articles it held, slowly and one by one.
"The cloth he poured the chloroform on must be here," he said. "Hewould naturally throw it into the box before shutting down the cover,as there might still be enough of the drug in it to put the Chink tosleep."
"Here it is," Jack said, reaching into the box and lifting out a ragand smelling of it. "Here is the dope cloth, all right and prettystrong yet."
"That's it, all right," Ned answered. "A worn white handkerchief,eh?"
"Name or mark on it?" asked Jack, passing the cloth to Ned.
"Nothing of the sort," was the answer, "but there's something better.When the fellow pulled at the Chink's greasy pigtail he got his handsmeared with oil. Then he grasped this white cloth fiercely, andthere you are! See! The mark of the thumb couldn't be plainer if ithad been printed on. Observe the long cicatrice on the ball of thethumb? I'll take this down and photograph it."
"Tall, strong, blonde, scar on the thumb!" laughed Jack. "We aregetting on."
"It would be interesting to know how he got into the house," Nedmused.
"If we could only catch him and shut his mouth," Jack muttered, "wewouldn't have such a rotten bad time in the mountains."
"It is not what he knows," Ned suggested. "It is what his master asWashington knows. We might put this chap under ten feet of earth, butthe opposition from Washington would go right on."
"When was the child abducted?" asked Jack. "When and how?"
"He was taken from in front of the embassy early
in the morning. Theambassador brought him out for a spin in his automobile and left himout in front a moment. When he went back to continue his morning ridethe automobile and the boy were nowhere to be seen! This was beforenine o'clock Monday morning. Yesterday, along about noon, the boy--ora lad very much resembling him--was seen by a lieutenant of infantryin a motor boat, speeding up the Potomac."
"Why didn't he catch him, then?" asked Jack.
"Because he did not know at that time that the prince had beenkidnapped. The authorities kept everything quiet! I presume theythought the thief didn't know that he had committed a crime, and wereafraid the newspapers would tell him about it!"
"Tell that to Frank!" laughed Jack. "He'll go up in the air!"
The boys found Jimmie and Oliver in the club-room when they wentdown. The garage and carriage house had been searched--in vain, ofcourse, for the boys had encountered the Chinaman on his way down tothe basement as they ascended the stairs, the elevator being closedfor the night.
"I believe that Chink had something to do with it, all the same,"declared Jimmie. "He ought to be watched every minute of the time!"
"Now, here's another point I don't understand," Jack said, going backto the conversation he had had with Ned in the attic. "Why do theauthorities think the boy has been taken to the mountains?"
"Because that would be a natural place for the thieves to hide," Nedanswered. "The mountains are easily within reach of Washington, andthey are virtually inaccessible to known officers of the law--atleast so it is reported. The mountains run from central Pennsylvaniato central Alabama, a distance of about a thousand miles, and affordmany desirable hiding places."
"Yes, and we're likely to get our crusts split down there!" Teddygrinned. "We will if they find out that we belong to the SecretService!"
"The Potomac river rises in West Virginia," continued Ned, "and theprince may have been taken to the foothills in the launch he was seenin."
"Are we going in a motor boat?" asked Jimmie.
"We are going by rail as far as we can go," Ned answered, "and thentake shank's horses for the wild country, with mules to tote thebaggage. In the eastern part of West Virginia, we are likely totravel forty miles without seeing a cabin."
"Where do we get our eatings?" demanded Jimmie. "It makes me hungryto climb mountains. We'll have to have a relief expedition sent afterus if we don't get plenty of eatings," he added, with a wink atTeddy.
"Plenty of game up there," Ned grinned. "Plenty of deer, turkeys,coon, rabbits, birds and bears! We can dodge the game laws! Also afew wildcats are reported to have been seen there. And there is saidto be plenty of moonshine in the caves, too. Oh, we'll have a sweetold vacation, boys. And we start tomorrow!"