CHAPTER X
THE DARK ROAD TO PEKING
Half an hour later the American consul, Captain Martin, and Ned sat in aprivate room at the consulate. The marines and Jimmie and Hans were inthe large outer room.
The cablegram from Washington lay open on a table with a translation byits side. It read:
"Proceed to Peking immediately and report to the American ambassador.Keep within reach of the flying squadron. Avoid complications with thenatives. Look out for plots to delay your party. Important that youshould reach Peking at once. Wire conditions."
"Not much news in that," said Ned. "Guess we've met all the trouble theWashington people anticipated."
"Shall you go on to-night?" asked the Captain.
"Certainly."
"It is a dark, rainy night," the consul warned, "and the highways ofChina are none too safe, even in daylight, for American messengers whoare insufficiently guarded."
"We'll look out for our part of the game," Captain Martin laughed.
"We'll, keep close together," advised the consul. "You will meettrouble on the way. The men who bribed the telegraph people will notget into the discard now. You'll find their hirelings waiting out onthe dark road to Peking."
Ned pointed to the dispatch.
"We've got to go," he said. "I can't tell you how thankful I am to havemet a true American here," he added, extending his hand to the consul."I shall tell the story of to-night in the State department atWashington when I get back."
"Well, get it straight," laughed the consul. "Say that a blunderingGerman boy, who said he was a Boy Scout from Philadelphia, nearlydragged me out of bed about midnight and informed me that other BoyScouts were in trouble at the telegraph office. I knew that Ned wasexpected here, and so lost no time in getting down. That's all. Themarines did the rest."
"Save for that beautiful bluff of yours!" laughed Ned. "But how in theDickens did Hans ever get to you? How did he know where to go? How didhe get to Tientsin, anyway?"
"Give it up!" smiled the consul. "You might as well ask me who got themarines out just in the nick of time."
"Jimmie did that, of course," replied Ned. "I think I know all about itnow," he added. "We saw Hans in a room opening on the court. Thelittle fellow burglarized the window and found Hans. I don't know howHans got there, but Jimmie found him, anyway. Then the kid told hisstory and Hans went to the consul and Jimmie went after the flyingsquadron. I have a notion that this is the way it came about."
In this supposition Ned was exactly right, for Jimmie had found Hans inthe room off the court and the two had planned their movements just asNed explained. The only mystery was as to how Hans got to the Tientsinhouse and the room where he was found.
"We'll learn all about that in time," Ned added. "Now we must be off.By the way, I wonder where Jack and Frank are? I haven't seen themsince I left the camp. In the rush of events I quite forgot to ask forthem."
"Just wait until I talk with one of the boys out here," the Captainsaid. "Probably Jimmie is already telling them of his adventures."
But when the door was opened and Jimmie questioned he opened his eyeswide in wonder. The Captain drew him into the private room.
"Say," the boy said, excitement in voice and manner, "didn't you leaveFrank and Jack at the camp when you left?"
"Why, I left when you did," was the reply. "They were there then."
Jimmie sprang to the door and beckoned the second in command into theroom. By this time both Ned and the consul were on their feet.
"Where did you leave Frank and Jack?" asked Ned, as the officer enteredthe apartment.
"They left us," replied the officer, with hesitation. "We made our bedsof blankets and tumbled in, leaving one man on guard. When I turned inthe boys were in their bunks. When Jimmie awoke us, they were nowhereto be seen. They probably sneaked off to have a look at Tientsin bynight--and a beautiful time they will have."
"Didn't you see them when you went back?" asked Ned of Jimmie.
"No; I looked for them, and one of the marines told me they had gone onahead. I'm goin' out an' dig 'em up!"
"You'll make a sweet fist of digging them up in this man's town, at thishour of the night," the consul declared, anxiety showing on his face."You'll have to leave them, Mr. Nestor," he went on, "and I'll rake thecity with a fine tooth comb but I'll find them."
Ned hesitated. There was the cablegram on the table. A delay of anhour or two might not prove serious, but this search for Frank and Jackmight occupy days, if not weeks!
It was inconceivable that the boys, disregarding all instructions fromthe Captain and all warnings from Ned, should have stolen off into thecity for a night ramble. They both knew how much depended on the partykeeping together and keeping prepared for action.
"They must have had some reason for leaving the camp," Ned said, after along pause. "They never would have gone away without some object otherthan amusement, or love of adventure in their minds."
Captain Martin went to the door and stepped out into the main office,facing the marines.
"Boys," he said, in as matter-of-fact tone as he could assume, "what didFrank and Jack say when they left the camp?"
Nine of the men looked up in wonder, but the tenth hastened to answerthe question.
"Not a word," he said. "I was on guard, and I saw a young chap comeinto the little bit of light there was about the old house where we werestopping."
"Who was it?" Ned interrupted.
The marine shook his head.
"I didn't ask him who he was," he said. "He asked where the boys were,and said he was a Boy Scout from Boston, and wanted to see some one fromhome. I knew that the lads would be as glad to see him as he would beglad to see them, and showed him where they had bunked down in a littledog-house of a shack just outside the house."
"And they went away with this fellow?" asked Ned, anxious to get thestory in as few words as possible. "Why didn't you notify the officerthen in charge of the squad?"
"I didn't think it was necessary," was the reply. "Well, the kid wentto the shack where Frank and Jack were, and I saw them talking togetherthere for a few minutes. Then I saw the three of them pass through thecircle of light, walking toward the city, and that's all I know aboutit. I wasn't under orders to tell them when to go, or where to go, orwhen not to go. It wasn't for me to interfere."
"Bonehead!" exclaimed Jimmie.
The marine glanced up at the little fellow with a frown.
"Don't you go to abusing me," he said. "I won't stand for it. I wasraised a pet!" he added, with a smile, as the boy grinned.
"Stop that!" commanded the Captain, sharply. "If you have told all youknow about the matter you may go."
"'Wait," Ned said, as the marine moved toward the door, "I would like toask a question. Would you know this lad you speak of if you should seehim again?"
"I don't think so. It was dark, and he didn't look me squarely in theface."
"That's all," Ned said, turning to the consul. "You'll do what you canto find them?" he asked.
"Sure I will!"
"I can't remain and help you," Ned went on, and there was a tremble inhis voice. "I've got my work to do."
"I understand."
"And we'll start right away," Ned continued, "if you are ready, Captain.We ought to be in Peking early in the morning."
"It is a bad road," the consul said, "and you'll find, echoes of thescrap you had here waiting for you along the way. In the language ofthe cablegram, keep together!"
When all were mounted there were still two vacant cycles--those themissing boys had ridden. Ned pointed to one and spoke to Hans:
"Can you ride?"
"Sure!"
"Then you may take one of the machines and come along with us."
Hans sprang onto one of the motorcycles just as he had observed theothers do. Under the impetus of the leap the machine trundled along fora few feet and tipped over, landing Hans on his back with the rear
wheelscraping acquaintance with his nose.
"Ouch!" he shouted. "Dake him off! He bites! Vot issit if I handhimone? Vot?"
While the others were laughing at the plight of the German, he made aneffort to arise and the machine promptly slid down an incline andsparked and gyrated until Hans' hair fairly stood on end with fright.
"Catch heem!" he shouted. "Catch heem! He runs py the road avay!Dunner! Vot a streets!"
"You mustn't tickle his ribs with your heels when you get on," advisedJimmie. "That always makes him buck. It is a wonder he didn't trampyou when you were down."
"Holy schmoke!" cried Hans. "Vot a nose I vill haf! Me for the walksto Peeging!"
"I guess you'll have to give up going with us"' laughed Ned. "You mayremain with the consul until we return. And help him hunt Frank andJack, will you?"
Hans willingly agreed to this, and, with many handshakes and well-wishesfrom the consul, the boys were off for Peking. By this time the streetswere rather quiet, although they knew that before they could pass beyondthe limits of the great, sprawling town with its million of inhabitantsdawn would be showing in the sky.
The swift ride through the city was a revelation to the American boys.All was strange with an atmosphere of age and decay. The habitations,save those occupied by foreigner--and these were grouped together--weremostly old and mean. The streets were in bad condition--worse thanusual because of the softening effects of the rain--and the lights were,in places, infrequent.
Watchmen patrolling the thoroughfares in the idle manner peculiar to allalleged guardians of the night, gazed menacingly at the machines as theywhirled by, talking in their spark language, as Jimmie expressed it, butthe uniforms kept them at a respectful distance. Here and there werelittle tea shops, and before these were groups of natives, circled closetogether.
It seemed to Ned like a ride through a cemetery, the occupants of whichhad been awakened to life for an instant and would go back to theirgraves and their dreamless sleep again as soon as the machines hadpassed. The weight of ten thousand centuries seemed to hang over theplace.
There was a faint line of dawn in the direction of the Yellow Sea whenthe boys came to the suburbs of Tientsin. Before them lay nearly eightymiles of rough road to the capital city. With good luck, they figuredthat they could make that in four hours.
Now, at dawn, the road which curved like a ribbon before them, startedinto life. From field and village streamed forth natives carrying anddrawing all kinds of burdens. In that land the poor are obliged to beearly astir, and even then the reward of their labors is small.
It was autumn, and the produce of the field was ripe for barter. Therewere loads attached to horses and loads drawn in carts; there were'rickshaws, and bundles on backs, and on long poles carried over bentshoulders.
The strange procession of the motorcycles and the marines caused many asurprised halt in the procession of industry. Chinamen stood at oneside while the steel horses shot by them, and then gathered in littlegroups by the wayside to discuss this newest invention of the foreigndevils.
The sun rose in a cloudless sky and the earth steamed under its rays,sending back in eddying mist the rain which had poured upon her withsuch violence the night before. It would be a hot day, notwithstandingthe lateness of the season, and the eyes of the boys soon turned to ashaded grove not far from the highway.
"Me for breakfast!" Jimmie declared, and the marines looked as if thelad had echoed their own thoughts.
"We may as well halt a little while," Captain Martin said to Ned, "as myboys are beginning to look empty. They have had a hard night of it, andwe can't afford to cultivate any grouches!"
Ned, although he was anxious to go forward, saw good judgment in thisand ordered a halt. In five minutes little fires were burning in thegrove and the odor of steaming coffee soon rose softly with the mists ofthe morning.