CHAPTER III.
THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR.
There was silence on the unsteady porch of the nipa hut for somemoments, and then Frank Shaw asked:
"Is there any proof at all that any government is trying to arm thenative tribes against the United States?"
"If there is," the Captain replied, "I do not know of it."
"It may be simply a commercial conspiracy," said Jack.
"Go on!" exclaimed Jimmie. "If anybody should ask you about it, it isthe Japs, or the Chinks!"
"When a play fails in New York, or a man jumps off one of the East Riverbridges, if you leave it to Jimmie, the Japs or the Chinks are at thebottom of it."
This from Jack, who ducked low to avoid a blow from the newsboy, andwandered off down the stairs leading to the porch.
"Yes," the Captain said, "it may be a conspiracy for the acquisition ofwealth. I am not an anarchist, but it is my belief that there are manycorporations in the world who would set the nations at each other'sthroats if a profit could be made out of it. But, after all, there is noneed of guessing. You boys are here to find out what is going on, andyou may now do it in your own way."
Ned left the Captain talking with Frank and Jimmie on the porch and wentinto the one room of the hut. Everything was in disorder there, as hasbeen said, and Ned moved about cautiously in order that nothing might bedisturbed. The Major and Captain Godwin, on their visit of the morning,had been careful to leave the place just as it had been on the discoveryof the strange happening.
There was a rough table in the center of the room, and three bamboochairs were overturned beside it. It was in front of one of the chairsthat the spots of blood had been found. The light matting which hadcovered the floor here was torn and twisted, as if a heavy person hadclung to it and had been dragged away by superior strength.
Under the edge of this piece of matting Ned found long scratches, as ifshoe heels had slipped there and protruding nails had furrowed thefloor. There were also various oblong papers and numerous match ends. Onthe floor, under the rolling back of another chair, were the scatteredremnants of a pack of playing cards. Mixed with these, and lying betweenthe ace of clubs and the jack of diamonds, were half a dozen pieces ofgilt paper, seemingly torn from an official seal.
In a corner of one of the alcoves, where it had been thrown or wafted bythe fan which swung from the ceiling at the middle of the room, was atwisted piece of letter paper burned at one end. It seemed to the boythat the paper had been twisted in the form of a torch and lighted togive a more satisfactory illumination than that provided by the matcheswhich had been burned. It was about half consumed.
After spending half an hour in the room Ned went back to the porch andsat down.
"What about it?" asked Frank.
"The mud is settling," laughed Ned.
"But not so the bottom can be seen?" asked Captain Godwin with a smile.
"Not yet," was the reply. "Perhaps a little talk with the servant whowas sent here with Lieutenant Rowe last night might help to clear thecase," he added.
Captain Godwin beckoned to a short, squatty Filipino who stood leaningagainst a tree not far away and the fellow advanced deferentially up thebamboo stairs, evidently much in awe of the Americanos.
"Tag," the Captain said to him, as he stood with one brown hand clingingto one of the roof supports, "this gentleman wants to ask you a fewquestions about what took place last night."
"Yes; I have been waiting."
The English was almost perfect, and the fellow's appreciation of thegravity of the situation was apparent. It was later explained to Nedthat Tag, as he was called by the Captain, had been educated in anEnglish school at Manila, and had lived in army circles nearly all hislife until he had taken service with Captain Godwin.
"First," the Captain put in, "I want to say that it was not my faultthat Lieutenant Rowe did not lodge in my own quarters last night. Iproposed that to him, and he said that he had a great deal of work todo, should be moving about more or less during the night, might bedetained here several weeks, and so preferred to set up a smallestablishment of his own. This was the best that could be provided on amoment's notice."
"He was served with supper at your house?" asked Ned.
"Yes; and he was to have _desayuno_ there this morning. That is, he wasto have his first breakfast with me. Later he was to arrange for a tableof his own."
"You came here with them?" asked Ned of the Filipino.
"I came on in advance to clear up the place."
"I see. Who came with you?"
"Two servants."
"Did they come into this room--the room occupied by the Lieutenant andhis companions, I mean?"
"No; they were working the fan from the porch."
"Are those men in the place to-day?"
"Yes; but they know nothing."
"But they were to remain here during the night?"
"They did, but they slept."
"Drugged?"
"I don't know. From the complaints they have of their heads I suspectthat they were."
"And you were to remain here during the night?"
"Yes, that was the understanding, but I was sent away about midnight."
"By whom?"
"By Lieutenant Rowe."
"Did he give any reason for sending you away?"
"He said they were going to bed and would not need me."
"And did they go to bed as soon as you left? You, of course, remainedabout the hut for a short time?"
"Yes, I remained about the hut for half an hour. They did not go tobed."
"What were they doing?"
"The Lieutenant was working over papers and the others were playingcards."
"Could you hear what they were talking about?"
"Yes, until the other man came."
Ned and the others bent forward with new interest. Here was a freshfeature in the case--a man who had not been referred to before cominginto the hut about midnight.
"Who," asked Ned, "was this other man?"
"An Americano."
"Had you seen him about the place before?"
"Never. He came in the night and went in the night."
"Was he in uniform--the uniform of a soldier?"
"No; he wore citizen's clothes."
"Which way did he come from?"
"I don't know," was the surprising reply. "I first saw him when he wasclimbing in at the window."
"Climbing in at the window!" repeated Captain Godwin. "If he climbed inat the window when the others were awake, he must have been expected!"
"Yes; I should think so."
"I can't understand this at all!" exclaimed Captain Godwin, hisgood-natured face looking anxious. "Lieutenant Rowe said nothing to meabout expecting company. And why should he conceal the fact from me?Why, indeed, should a visitor come crawling in at a window at midnight?Are you sure it wasn't one of the three men I conducted to the hut thatyou saw at the window?" he added, turning to the Filipino.
"Oh, yes; I am quite sure it was a fourth man. He mounted to thewindow-ledge on a ladder, pushed the screen aside and vaulted over thesill."
"And how was he received?" asked Ned.
"He was welcomed, and given a chair at the table. But first he went backto the window and made some sort of a signal to those waiting outside."
"Oh, so there were others waiting outside!" grated out the Captain. "Whydidn't you come and tell me what was going on? Why didn't you tell meabout this the first thing this morning? That is the trouble with thesemade-over men," he continued, half angrily as he looked at Ned. "You canteach them to do things by rote, but when an emergency comes they arelike putty."
"I had no instructions to report what I saw at the hut--no orders toplay the spy," answered Tag, indignant that his conduct should becriticized. "And this morning you gave me no chance to talk with you."
"How many people were there outside?" demanded the Captain.
"I don't know," was the reply. "There was the flash of a match
to showthat the signals from the hut were understood, and then I went to bed.There is no accounting for the freaks of these military Americanos, so Iwent to my bed. If I sat up at night taking note of the movements of thesoldiers sent here, I should get no rest at all, besides laughing myselfsick over the foolishnesses of them."
Ned was watching the fellow with interest. He had no doubt that he wastelling the truth about what he had seen there the previous night--thatis, the truth so far as he went in the recital. Still, Ned did not trustthe fellow. He believed that he had seen more than he had described,even if he had not been a party to what had taken place.
"What else did you see here last night?" he asked.
"Nothing--nothing at all."
"And you say you went to bed without satisfying your natural curiosityas to what you had seen?" roared the Captain. "I don't believe it! Buckup now, and tell us what was done after the fourth man entered the hut,or I'll send you to the military prison at Manila."
"I have told everything," said Tag with a sniffle. "You Americanosexpect us to see everything and know everything! If we are so wise andcapable, why don't you permit us to govern ourselves--send away yoursoldiers and let us handle the situation here?"
The Captain frowned and fumed about for a moment, and Ned was afraid hewould carry out his threat of placing the Filipino under arrest. This,he believed, would be about the worst move that could be made. Seekingto conciliate the fellow, he said:
"There is a great deal of sense in what you say, and I honor you for notplaying the spy on the officers. Captain Godwin will not send you toprison, I am sure, as we need you here. For instance, we want the storyof the men who worked the fan. Will you talk with them and tell us whatthey say?"
Tag hastened away, somewhat mollified, and Ned turned to the Captain.
"The fellow knows more than he pretends to," he said. "We must keep himhere, and make him think that we trust him."
"I can talk with the fanmen myself," grunted the Captain, not very wellpleased with Ned's interference. "I know the lingo."
"Of course," Ned replied, "but I want to know if Tag will tell us thesame story, as coming from them, that they will tell you under a rigidcross-examination. In other words, I think Tag, as you call him, willshape their stories to suit his own purposes."
"And so you want to set a trap for him? All right! Go ahead, lad, andmake what you can out of this mess. What do you think those visitorscame here for at midnight? And do you believe they are responsible forthe disappearance of Lieutenant Rowe and his companions?"
"Here comes Tag," Ned said. "Suppose we wait and see what he says of theexperiences of the fanmen."
The Filipino had in a measure recovered his good humor and was veryrespectful to the Captain. He addressed him instead of Ned when hespoke.
"They say they were given drink after the fourth man arrived and went tosleep."
"That accounts for the strange odor about the place!" cried the Captain."Now, what the dickens does it all mean?"
"Cripes!" broke in Jimmie. "I wish I had as many dollars as times Idon't know. Say, when we goin' to get a ride in the _Manhattan_? Me forthe rollin' deep whenever you get this thing doped out."
"It looks like we had work cut out for us here," Ned replied. "Now,Captain," he went on, "it looks as if the late arrivals last nightdrugged the servants and took the secret service men away by mainforce."
"Main force!" roared the Captain. "Why didn't they shoot, or yell, ormake some sort of a row that would have brought help? I've got a lot ofold women here who could have stood off an attacking party!Force--nothing! Lieutenant Rowe was in the deal. He wanted to disappearwith something he had in his possession, and he worked the abductiondodge."
"You may be right," the boy replied, "still, that does not change thefact that there were enough men about this hut last night to make justsuch a capture--with the assistance of a clever man on the inside--a manpretending to be friendly to the Lieutenant--say, for instance, thefourth man, or--Tag."
"How do you know how many men there were about here?" asked the Captain.
"If you will go to the river bank a few rods south of the pier," was thereply, "you will discover that a large canoe beached there last night.You will see that it was drawn far up into the thicket, a task whichmust have taxed the strength of at least eight men. Then, about the hut,and especially under the windows which the visitor entered, there areplenty of footprints."
"Footprints!" echoed the Captain. "My people don't wear footgear thatleaves prints!"
"There were at least three pair of European shoes in the group," Nedwent on, "Now, the next query is this: Why did the visitor enter by thewindow? If you will notice the floor in there, below the two frontwindows, you will see that the shades were drawn there last night, andthat they were pulled down when this other wreck was produced and tornfrom the rollers."
"I hadn't noticed that," the Captain said.
"This shows that some one in this hut was expecting a visit, and alsothat the visit was to be kept a secret from you. The front windowsoverlook your quarters, and the window entered is the one most protectedfrom view from your place. Now, this precaution may have been taken bythe midnight visitor, coming here as a friend, or by an enemy, for thepurpose of concealing from you what went on here."
"And that is why the Lieutenant did not sleep under my roof!" said theCaptain. "He was expecting the fellow. Well, what do you say, did thefellow betray his confidence and bring enemies to carry him away?"
"His friend might have been followed here," Ned replied. "He might havebeen the person sought by the intruders. The next question is: Who wasthis visitor?"
Boy Scouts in the Philippines; Or, The Key to the Treaty Box Page 3
