Kitabı oku: «The Bradys After a Chinese Princess: or, The Yellow Fiends of 'Frisco», sayfa 4
CHAPTER VII
IN A TORTURE CHAMBER
Alice felt that her situation was bad enough as she passed through the "door of death" without Dr. Garshaski adding to it by clap-trap.
This she was sure he had done, for while the Chinese characters on the other doors were painted directly on the woodwork, in this case it was a piece of red paper, upon which the character had been written with a Chinese pen.
That it had been put there for her special benefit Alice did not doubt.
It was just like Dr. Garshaski, who was forever doing something dramatic in the old days.
He hurried Alice along the empty corridor and down a short flight of stairs.
Coming to a door, he let go his hold and knocked.
It was instantly opened by a very Chinese-looking Chinaman wearing a rich native dress.
The room was rather small, but well fitted up as a bed chamber, partly in Chinese and partly in American style. In the middle of the floor stood the box which was supposed to contain the Chinese princess.
"So you have come at last!" exclaimed the Chinaman in his own language. "I thought you never would."
"Patience, Wang Foo," replied the doctor. "We can't get there all in a moment."
"But the princess may die. She may be dead now. I believe it. She ought to have been released long ago."
"Patience, I tell you. I know my business. She is in no danger of death whatever."
"And the woman you were to bring to look after her. She must have an attendant. She is not to be ill treated. She is of my own blood."
"The woman is here."
"What, a white woman?"
"Yes."
"Of what use can she be?"
"I know her of old. She is an excellent nurse. None better."
"But she cannot talk to the princess."
"There you are quite mistaken. Better be careful what you say to her. She speaks Chinese as well as you do."
Wang Foo stared at Alice and asked her name.
He managed to grasp the Alice part, but the rest was quite beyond him.
"Hurry! Hurry," he cried.
"Alice," said the doctor, "I am going to resurrect the princess now. Sit down in that easy-chair and make yourself at home."
Alice silently obeyed. Thus far there seemed nothing so terrible coming out of the passage through the door of death.
The doctor asked for a screw-driver, and Wang Foo produced one, with which he made short work of opening the box.
There, apparently, in a deep sleep, lay a little doll of a Chinese woman upon blankets carefully fitted into the box.
She was in plain native dress, and her feet were not bigger than those of a good-sized doll.
This alone proved that she belonged to a good family.
The ordinary Chinese women do not compress their feet.
The doctor bent over the box and listened at her heart.
"She's all right," he said. "I'll have her out of this in no time."
He produced a leather medicine case, and, taking a tumbler from the washstand, proceeded to mix small portions of the contents of two different vials.
The result was a reddish liquid, of which he administered a few drops to the princess.
"Now, Alice," he said, "we can talk freely before this man, who is just from China and can't speak a word of English. Our love affairs can hang over a few days. Just now I am going to explain about this woman. She is the daughter of a rich Pekin Mandarin, who has sold her to an equally rich merchant here in Chinatown. They are really in love with each other, and the woman came to California of her own accord, although not in just the way she set out to do. She is also the granddaughter of a rich old Chink on her mother's side, who died in San Francisco at the time of the great fire. He left a pile of ready cash behind him, but no one knows where he hid it. That he did hide it somewhere on the night of the fire is certain. Just before his death, as I have the best of reason for believing, old Gong Schow wrote out this secret of the buried money and sent it to a man in China with instructions for him to deliver the letter containing the secret to his granddaughter on her twentieth birthday. It was done. This funny little midget alone knows where Gong Schow's wealth is buried. She has kept her secret well. She promised her lover to reveal it to him on their marriage day. Wang Foo knows all this. He is my partner in certain business transactions. He is her cousin. He started to escort her to Shanghai from her home in Pekin. There she was to sail on the Manchuria for San Francisco. But Wang Foo deceived her and took her aboard an English tramp steamer, the Dover Castle. He has delivered her to me. She must be made to give up her secret, fair Alice. That was another reason why I kidnaped you. I want you to do the detective act. Get the secret out of the princess as best you can, only get it. Make her understand that if she don't give it up she will surely die. You have followed me in all this, I hope?"
"I certainly have," replied Alice, adding: "At your old tricks, doctor. Forever plotting and scheming. Am I to be kept alone with this Chinese princess then?"
"That's what you are, and it's up to you to work my schemes out to success, for it is I and not Wang Foo who must have this hidden treasure – But she is waking; my drug has done it's work."
It was so. Inside of a few minutes the Chinese princess had fully revived.
She was little, but she made it hot for those around her.
Such a temper Alice never saw displayed in any Chinawoman.
She began by screaming, demanding to know where she was and why she was there.
She turned on Wang Foo with all the fury of a tigress, accused him of drugging her, of kidnaping her, and then began yelling to be taken to Ah Lung.
As for Dr. Garshaski, she did not appear to know him. She seemed to feel an instinctive hatred for him, however. She clawed at his face and tried to hit him when he started to help her out of the box.
She got out herself, however, and promptly tumbled over on her little feet. Like many another Chinawoman of her class, she could scarcely walk.
Wang Foo did not attempt to reply.
At last he and Dr. Garshaski left the room, taking the box away with them.
After a while they returned with two trunks containing the belongings of the princess, whom they found crying in Alice's arms.
"That's right, Alice, that's right," said the doctor, delightedly. "I see you know your business as well as ever. Keep it up, my dear, and see here, I have determined to make you a promise. If you succeed in worming the secret out of that horrid little fright, you shan't marry me unless you really want to – so there!"
"That's certainly kind of you," said Alice with a half sneer. "All right, doctor, I'll see what I can do."
She did nothing of the sort, of course.
During the days of her unexplained absence, Alice remained shut in that room with Skeep Hup, the Chinese princess, an old Chinawoman serving them with their meals and otherwise attending to their wants.
Two Chinamen with drawn revolvers stood outside the door every time it was opened. There was no possibility of escape.
During this time Alice got very close to the princess.
Little Skeep Hup seemed to take a great liking to her from the first, which increased as the days dragged by.
She told Alice about everything she knew except the secret of the hiding-place of her grandfather's buried treasure, which she claimed she knew. She confirmed Dr. Garshaski's story in every particular, and upbraided herself bitterly for having been foolish enough to listen to the lies of Wang Foo.
But where was Wang Foo?
They saw no more of him.
Dr. Garshaski came every day towards night asking as to Alice's success.
She put him off as best she could.
"The princess will not reveal her secret," she said at last, "and who can blame her? The best thing you can do, doctor, is to go and blackmail Ah Lung out of a few thousand and set her free."
This was on the night the Bradys had the call from Ah Lung.
The doctor's face grew dark as Alice said it.
"Do you say so?" he exclaimed. "Well, we shall see!"
He turned on the princess and said:
"Now look here, little woman, to-night you have to tell your secret or take the consequences. Understand?"
Then Skeep Hup flew into one of her rages, and the doctor was getting it good and plenty when he abruptly left the room, saying in English to Alice as he went out:
"This is played out. She shall be made to tell, and you, who I believe have put her up to this, shall see the job done. You will find out that it is no joke to have passed through the door of death."
And this Alice translated for the benefit of Skeep Hup, asking her what she supposed it meant.
"It means torture, that's what it means," replied the princess, promptly. "No matter. They will never get the secret out of me. I will never reveal it to any one but Ah Lung."
And here is what followed:
No supper came that night.
Alice and the princess waited until they were tired, and were just preparing to go to bed when the door was suddenly thrown open and two men wearing hideous paste-board masks after the Chinese style entered the room.
Dr. Garshaski and another followed them, an old Chinaman with a long, drooping mustache. A person Alice had never seen.
"Young women," said the doctor, "you are to follow us to the torture room, unless you, Princess Skeep Hup, instantly reveal what I wish to know, or, rather, give me your promise to do so, for it must be revealed to me alone."
The princess set her lips together, and, throwing intense scorn into her speech, defied him.
They were then led along the passage, through a door at its end, up steps and through another passage, winding up in a room all draped in black, which was dimly lighted by a solitary candle placed within a human skull resting on an old-fashioned coffin, which looked as if it may have been made to fit the princess, judging from its size.
Beyond this was a low table provided with an arrangement of ropes attached at one end to a post at the other to a large wooden jackscrew.
It was a wicked-looking engine.
Alice shuddered.
"We have fallen into the hands of a bunch of yellow fiends," she thought. "I wonder if there is anything too wicked for Dr. Garshaski to do?"
The two masks now seized the princess and laid her down upon the table on her back.
They then proceeded to tie her hands to the ropes attached to the post, while her feet were made fast to those attached to the screw.
The brave little woman never let out a whimper – never said one word.
"You see, Alice," said the doctor, taking his place beside her. "Don't you think of interfering, or you shall get your dose."
"You yellow fiend!" breathed Alice, feeling that such cruelty was beyond endurance. "Wouldn't I like to have the turning of that screw with you on the table! How dare you resort to such barbarous methods as this?"
"Have a care!" hissed the doctor. "That's the rack – the old-fashioned rack, such as your white holy men used to resort to when they wanted to make a man holy in some other way than his own. It is still in use in China for extorting confessions from thieves. Nice contrivance, isn't it? But its use has been by no means confined to the Chinese."
"What you allude to happened two hundred years ago, and you know it," retorted Alice. "It takes yellow fiends like you and your friends here to torture a woman in these days!"
"Bah! They would rack people to death for religion's sake to-day if they dared," answered the doctor.
"But you have your warning, so heed it," he added, and advancing to the princess, he again asked her if she was ready to reveal the secret.
"Never!" she cried. "You can torture me all you will, but you will never learn from me that which will place in your hands what I choose shall belong to my husband, Ah Lung."
"Ah Lung is not your husband nor will he ever be unless you yield to my request," declared the doctor.
She gave him one look and turned her head away.
"Give the screw a twist!" cried the doctor, and the old Chinaman obeyed, the two masks standing on each side reciting something in old Chinese which Alice could make nothing of.
Skeep Hup bore the pain thus inflicted unflinchingly.
She shut her eyes, set her lips, and never uttered a sound.
"Will you tell?" demanded the doctor.
No answer.
"Give it another turn!" he thundered.
The screw was turned again.
The masks chanted louder than ever.
The Chinese princess groaned in her misery. Alice was forced to turn her head away.
They let her lie so for a few minutes before the doctor again put the question.
This time she answered, declaring that never would she tell.
"You fool!" cried the doctor. "Do you realize that I mean to continue to order that screw turned until your limbs are wrenched off?"
"I believe you," replied the princess, "but I shall never tell."
He let her lie there in agony for a few minutes, and then put the request again.
This time there was no answer.
The victim of this yellow fiend was almost past speech.
"Go it again!" thundered the doctor.
"You fiend!" cried Alice. "Release that woman or I'll do something desperate. In the name of humanity! In the name of your mother! Dr. Garshaski, forbear!"
"Interfere at your peril!" thundered the doctor, and as he spoke the screw was turned once again.
If Alice had been in possession of her revolver she surely would have shot the fiend, but that had long ago been taken from her.
Helplessly she turned her head away, stopping her ears that she might not hear the cries which the wretched Chinese woman could no longer keep back.
But the cries suddenly ceased.
"She has fainted," said the torturer.
"You have killed her, poor soul!" moaned Alice. "Oh, you yellow fiends!"
CHAPTER VIII
OLD KING BRADY BLUNDERS AHEAD AS BEST HE CAN
It was undoubtedly the mildness with which the old detective spoke which influenced the young woman to stand her ground.
"Who are you? What are you doing in this room?" she faltered.
"I might put the same question to you, young woman," Old King Brady replied. "I was a witness to your display of rage against a picture. You must be in love with Dr. Garshaski, then?"
"In love with him!" she cried with a hysterical laugh. "I hate him! I am his wife."
"So? In that case I may as well introduce myself. Did you ever happen to hear him speak of Old King Brady, the detective?"
"Yes; many a time. He also was a detective. He once worked for you in New York."
"Yes, for a short time. Were you his wife then, may I ask?"
"Sure I was. I married him five years ago. He deserted me. He has never provided for my support since. I have been living in Los Angeles. I only came to San Francisco day before yesterday. I happened to meet him in the street. I tell you I made it hot for him. He gave me the slip or I would have had him arrested. I learned that he was living here. I have been here again and again, but this is the first time I have been able to get into the room."
"Do you know whose picture that was which you destroyed?"
"Sure I do. A woman he married in New York two years ago. He is living with her here now, but I'll have him arrested. I am his lawful wife."
"You are quite mistaken. He never married her."
"He told me he did. He showed me her picture one time about a year ago."
"He lied. That lady is my partner. Dr. Garshaski so pestered her with his attentions that I had to have him arrested. Then I was told that he went to China."
"So he did. Twice since then. Mr. Brady, I begin to believe you are telling me the truth."
"I certainly am, but let us leave this house. I don't wish the doctor to know I have been here. I should like to talk with you further, Mrs. Garshaski."
"I'll go, but you needn't call me that. I go now by my mother's maiden name. I am known as Inez Reyes."
"Mrs. or miss?"
"Miss."
"Very well, Miss Reyes. Let us get out; that is if you have accomplished your purpose here."
"My purpose!" she replied, grimly. "My purpose is to catch my husband and make him give me money to live on. He is an opium smuggler. He is rolling in wealth. I don't care what he does so long as he gives me money to live on."
"Perhaps I may be able to help in that, but we won't talk any more about it till we get on the street."
They then hurriedly left the house.
As they walked along, Old King Brady explained about the disappearance of Alice.
"You say you heard that Dr. Garshaski had her in his power," he added. "Who told you this?"
"A Chinese woman I know. She is my aunt."
"You are Chinese on your father's side?"
"Yes, I am, and I'm not ashamed of it, either. My father was a good man."
"He is dead?"
"Yes, and so is my mother. She was a Mexican woman. I was born and brought up in Mexico. I wish I had never left it."
"Listen, Miss Reyes," said the old detective. "You say you need money. If through your means I can rescue Miss Montgomery from the clutches of Dr. Garshaski, I am going to give you $200."
"And you will arrest him and send him up?"
"I most certainly shall."
"Then I'll help. My aunt told me that the doctor had Miss Montgomery at the House of the Seven Delights, but she did not say he was holding her a prisoner. She lives there herself. She ought to know."
"Where is this House of the Seven Delights?"
"It runs through from Dupont street to China alley," was the reply, and the woman named the block.
"And what is it?" persisted Old King Brady.
"Oh, a sort of club-house. A lot of different Chinese clubs meet there. There is a big restaurant on the ground floor; there are opium joints and fan-tan joints in it."
"Same place," thought the old detective. "But where are the dungeons of this House of Delights, I wonder?"
"Can you find out in just what part of the house the doctor has Miss Montgomery concealed?" he asked.
"Listen here," replied the woman. "The only thing I can do is to see my aunt and tell her that you have promised to aid me. She hates my husband as much as I do. Still, you know how helpless Chinese women are, so just what she will do I cannot say.
"But we must not be seen together on Chinese alley, Mr. Brady. Where can I find you? Appoint a place."
"How long shall you probably be gone?" asked the old detective.
"Not over half an hour. I will keep on the block on the Dupont street side. Meet me there."
They parted at the alley, Old King Brady pushing on to Dupont street.
He had scarcely turned the corner when he ran into Detective Leggett.
"Well?" he demanded. "What about Volckman?"
"I haven't seen him since," was the reply. "Evidently he has given me the slip somehow."
"Let him go. I have secured evidence against him which will enable us to arrest him at any time," and the old detective went on to explain.
"I want your help in this new business," he said.
"Right," replied Leggett. "Can't we go it alone, thin?"
"I'm going to try it that way, anyhow. You follow me right after I make the start. If I want you to join me I'll let you know."
They separated then, and for more than half an hour Old King Brady paced the block; finally he was joined by Inez Reyes.
She did not stop to talk to him, but merely said as she walked slowly past the doorway in which the old detective was standing:
"We must not be seen together. You follow me."
Old King Brady fell in behind.
Looking back he caught sight of Leggett on the other side of the street, and made a sign for him to join the procession.
The woman rounded the corner and entered the alley, slipping in at the door of the House of the Seven Delights.
She did not ascend the stairs, but passed along the dimly lighted hall till she came to a door under the main stairway. There appeared to be nobody but themselves in the hall. Looking sharply up and down, the woman halted and waited for Old King Brady to come up in response to her signal.
"All I could get out of my aunt," she whispered, "is that this door is one way of getting into the private rooms in this building. It is not the way used by the club members; there are several other ways in and out. She says that Miss Montgomery was still there this evening; she is locked in one of the secret rooms. She won't tell me which one nor how to find it. There seems to be some mystery about it all which I can't fathom, and she is evidently afraid to reveal it. But she says that what you tell me is true, Mr. Brady. Miss Montgomery hates my husband. – It is such a relief to know it. I tried every way I knew to persuade my aunt to help up, but she is afraid to make a move. I don't know what more to do."
"There is nothing more you can do," replied the old detective. "Go and leave me to do the best I can. You will probably see a tall man standing just outside the door. Tell him I want him, please. I am staying at the Palace Hotel. Call there to-morrow and I will give you your money in case I succeed. I shall be glad to do what I can to help you in any case."
She thanked him and left; in a moment Leggett joined the old detective who in the meantime had unlocked the door with his skeleton keys.
Three Chinamen came shuffling through the hall from the Dupont street end, evidently diners from the restaurant going out that way.
Old King Brady with his back to the door talked aloud to Leggett on a different subject.
The men, paying no attention to them, passed on.
"All the young woman has been able to learn is that this stairway leads down to the private rooms," Old King Brady then explained. "I have managed to unlock the door. Let us push right ahead."
He opened it and a long, dark, narrow stairway was revealed.
"This is probably intended for a way of escape in case of fire," said the old detective. "Shut the door, Leggett, I'll get out my flash light and we will go on down."
"It's mighty dangerous business, Mr. Brady."
"Of course. Come on!"
He led the way and they descended the stairs, ending up at a door covered with sheet iron which had neither lock nor knob.
"Balked," breathed Leggett.
"Balked nothing," replied Old King Brady. "This door is controlled by a spring which works in the simplest sort of fashion."
He pressed it and the door flew open.
The long, lighted corridor already described lay beyond.
Old King Brady surveyed its many doors in silent dismay.
"Now we are balked," he whispered. "This is more than a Chinese puzzle. Which door to choose?"
"You may search me," replied Leggett. "What can be the object of all these doors?"
"Stand back!" breathed Old King Brady, and he allowed the iron door which was self-closing to swing almost to.
For out of one of the doors a man now came and that man was Dr. Garshaski.
Hastily closing the door behind him he walked on rapidly along the corridor, opened another door and disappeared.
Old King Brady carefully noted the door and was about to venture in, when the first door opened and two Chinamen emerged.
Both were in American dress. One pointed along the corridor in the direction taken by the Doctor. They halted at the door through which Garshaski vanished.
It was too far off to enable the watching detectives to see their faces plainly, the dim red lights making it additionally obscure.
The two men stood talking for a few seconds then one of them got out what seemed to be a bunch of keys and began fumbling with the lock. As their backs were now turned to the detectives it was impossible to make out just exactly what they were doing.
In a moment the door was opened and they disappeared inside.
Old King Brady was about to press forward, but now came other delays.
A different door opened and four Chinamen came out. They shuffled along the corridor, talking, and entered at still a different door.
At the same time five others came out of that door and for fully ten minutes stood talking in the corridor, vanishing at last through the door out of which the others came.
Again Old King Brady thought he had got his chance, but once more he was balked in the same way.
At last his chance really did come and finding that they had the corridor to themselves he and Leggett pushed on.
Now at the start the old detective had been at particular pains to identify that door.
But did he still remember it? was the question.
He could not feel by any means certain and the worst of it was a quick decision was absolutely necessary.
"I think this is it," he said, pausing before a certain door.
"You want to be sure," replied Leggett.
"I am as sure as I can be. Yes. I think this is it."
The door was locked and the old detective getting out his skeleton keys went at the job of opening it vigorously.
He quickly succeeded.
A narrow, dark staircase leading up lay beyond; leaving the door unlocked, Old King Brady pressed on to the top flight, no great distance, coming out upon a semi-circular platform where there were three doors.
There was no light here.
The old detective flashed his electric lantern around.
