XXXI
THE SECRET CHAMBER
From then on it was a losing battle for the Scorpion forces. The teargas, now filling the entire room, effectively blinded everyone but themasked raiders. One after another the furious councilmen gave up thestruggle to nurse their swollen eyes.
Don Winslow sensed the turn of the tide. Turning back, he leaped ontothe stage which was still clear of the fumes, and raised his mask.
"Give up, you dupes of Scorpia!" he shouted. "All those who have hadenough, come this way!"
There was an instant rush toward the platform. With streaming, smartingeyes, the men and women of Cho-San's erstwhile audience fought their waytoward the sound of Don's voice, glad to surrender. The only ones whostayed back were the twenty or more who had run into a hard-swung gunbutt, and lay snoring where they had dropped.
Of Hammond's deputies, however, ten men were wounded by knives orbullets, and three had given their lives. Don Winslow and Red each bledfrom knife slashes received in the melee. The old lion, MichaelSplendor, had taken a bullet through the throat, but he still lived by amiracle. Mercedes, with Lotus' help, had just finished bandaging theveteran's wound when Don located them back stage. Count Borg lay nearby, conscious but unable to rise.
The problem now was to evacuate safely both walking persons and wounded.Don himself had just turned back to take charge when the little Frenchmaid, Suzette, appeared suddenly out of the shadows.
"Come with me, _Monsieur_,--you and two others!" she cried, seizing theyoung Commander's arm. "I have locate Cho-San and Scorpion himself intheir secret chamber. They are prepare now the getaway with theirtreasure and secret papers. In a few moments they will be gone!"
Red Pennington and Mercedes were near enough to overhear. Their responsewas instantaneous.
"We're with you, Don!" they said, almost together.
From the other side of the platform a big man was approaching, histommy-gun held across an arm. As the newcomer raised his gas mask, Donhailed him.
"Hammond! Take charge of clearing out prisoners and wounded!" heordered. "Get Mr. Splendor out first. We'll see you topside."
Before the Bureau Chief could answer Don turned, heading into the stagewing at Suzette's heels. Mercedes and Red followed, stowing away theirgas masks as they ran. If more fighting were ahead of them, they wouldneed free hands and clear eyesight.
Suzette led them through a rapid succession of passageways and slidingpanels, without stopping for explanations. Not until all four of themhad crowded into a tiny elevator and shut the door, did she answer anyof the questions in the others' minds.
"We are now descending to the basement of Cho-San's big house," shewhispered. "This is the way he escaped a few minutes ago. I guess wherehe have gone, and follow him by a roundabout way. I listen and hear himtalk with the Scorpion in the secret chamber. Now if we are quick...."
The elevator stopped with scarcely a bump. As the door slid open, Donstepped out, his rifle at the ready. The others piled out after him,into a large, magnificently furnished room.
"This is the Scorpion's study," hissed Suzette. "The hidden chamber isbeyond that tall mirror. Come, and keep your weapons ready."
Once across the big room, the Frenchwoman motioned the others to take uppositions on each side of the long _cheval_ glass. The moment they haddone so, she pressed a hidden spring.
Without a sound the mirror tilted outward from the top to show a small,lighted room beyond. A glimpse of two men in overcoats standing besidean open safe was enough for Don. His rifle swung up to cover them, justas the door mechanism stopped halfway open with a click.
At the sound both men spun around, their hands too full to reach for aweapon. Cho-San's right arm held a bundle of black bound ledgers, hisleft hand a heavy satchel. His leer of fury was devilish. The otherman's face was masked by a purple cloth. Beneath the sleeves of theblack overcoat, his gloved hands gripped a pair of suitcases.
For ten seconds the tableau held, in an atmosphere charged with menace.Strangely enough, it was Suzette's half sobbing cry that broke thetension.
"_Helas, Monsieur!_" wailed the little Frenchwoman. "I cannot make thedoor open more!"
"Never mind, Suzette," came Don's calm reply. "I've got the Scorpioncovered. Cho-San, if you can lower that door from the inside, better doit and give up peaceably. You can't dodge the rifle Pennington has aimedat you."
"Very well, Winslow," the big Chinese growled, letting fall his armfulof ledgers. "I'll have to use a key to release the mechanism."
Coolly Cho-San slipped a hand into his overcoat pocket. As he withdrewit, Don caught the light of a small, shiny object. Without warning itflicked from the yellow fingers, straight toward the half-open door.
Smoke puffed in a sudden cloud, obscuring the whole opening. From behindit came a harsh mocking laugh.
Before the sound died out, Don Winslow slammed his rifle barrel into thecrack of the closing mirror, jamming its machinery. At the same timethere came the clang of a steel door somewhere inside the secret room.
"They're gone!" yelped Red Pennington. "Quick, Suzette! Which way can wefollow 'em?"
"Back! Get back, _Monsieur_!" cried the little French maid, tugging athis sleeve. "That smoke is deadly poison. Quick, everyone--put on thegas masks and come away!"
"She's right, Red!" clipped Don Winslow, whipping out his own mask."Clear out of here before something worse happens! I'll be with you assoon as I get my gun loose."
The smoke had spread out some distance from the jammed doorway, makingobjects near it indistinct. As his friends moved back, Don Winslowplunged straight into it. For a few moments his figure vanishedcompletely.
Just as Red was about to go back for him he reappeared, carrying notonly his rifle but a bundle of black leather-covered books. Withoutlifting his mask, he motioned the others on, away from the spreadingsmoke.
For Suzette, their retreat was barely in time. Unprotected by a gasmask, the courageous French girl had refused to leave the room beforeDon appeared. Now, reeling from a slight dose of the poison, she ledthem through a panel in the farther wall.
In the clean air of an adjoining room she motioned her companions toremove their masks.
"It is over now, my friends," she said faintly, as Red steadied her inthe grip of a muscular arm. "We have lost the Scorpion and his so evillieutenant, but we have failed in nothing else, I think. Thanks toCommander Winslow, we have the evidence which will convict many of ourenemies of their hidden crimes!"
Following her eloquent look, Mercedes let out a muffled cry.
"So that's what you went back for, Don?" she gasped. "You--you went intothat gas filled room just for those black ledgers? Oh, why did you doit?"
"Cho-San seemed to value them, and I knew he couldn't have stopped topick them up," the young commander answered. "If they do contain theevidence Suzette claims, they're worth a bigger risk than I took. And,speaking of risks, we're none of us out of here yet. For all we know thenext room to this may be filled with hachet men waiting to jump us."
"_Mais non_," cried Suzette, catching Mercedes' startled look. "I thinkCho-San sent all the hachet men and bodyguards ahead to help them withtheir getaway. When they leave that secret chamber, they go by someother passage to the outside. No doubt the cars were waiting to takethem and their men. Jus' now this house is safe as any church."
Mercedes Colby slipped an arm around the little maid's waist.
"Perhaps you're right, Suzette," she smiled, "but even that doesn't makeme anxious to stay here. Lean your weight on me and let's get going.Fresh air is what we need more than anything, except news from ourfriends."
* * * * *
The news that reached them at the local Intelligence Office was betterthan Don Winslow or any of his three companions had dared to expect. Thebullet which had passed through Michael Splendor's throat had missed thelarge blood vessels, though coming dangerously near to th
e spinal cord.The doctors' first report gave him more than a fighting chance to live.
Count Borg's wrenched limbs would be useless for the next month, but hisagony on the rack had somehow torn the veil obscuring his memory. Hisfirst words on regaining consciousness had been an anxious questionabout Lotus. The girl herself was at the same hospital, suffering fromshock, but happier than she had been in her life before.
Red Pennington refused point-blank to be doctored at the hospital. Heinsisted that Don with a first aid kit could fix up his torn thumbs andbruised head as well as any sawbones. He'd go to the hospital next day,he declared, but as a visitor, not a patient.
Actually it was two days before the doctors permitted the two youngofficers and Mercedes Colby to visit the crippled veteran. By that timethe danger of wound fever was past, and the "Old Lion" of the NavyIntelligence Service was loudly demanding a sight of his friends.
"Ahoy, Commander!" he greeted, as Don stepped into the white hospitalroom. "They showed me your note about the evidence in those black ledgerbooks. Is it true that it clinches the guilt of all them we took in theraid?"
"It does more than that, sir!" smiled Don, taking the older man's hand."But I'm not going to tell you another thing till you calm down and quittrying to sit up. A man with a bullet hole in his vertebrae ..."
"Whisht, now!" complained the dauntless cripple. "Is that a respectfulway to talk to your elders? Mercedes, child! Tell me what's on CommanderWinslow's mind. Suspense is not good for a sick man, ye know that!"
"Lie down and I'll tell you!" laughed the girl, taking the chair Red hadmoved over to the bedside. "It's just that those ledgers contain arecord of every order carried out by Scorpion agents in the past twoyears. The evidence incriminates hundreds more besides those we capturedtwo nights ago."
"Yeah!" put in Red Pennington with a fighting grin. "With this evidenceas a weapon, the United States Navy is going to make a thorough clean-upon the Scorpion! Am I right, Skipper?"
"I hope so, Red!" replied Don Winslow soberly. "At least we'll make theAmericas and their two oceans an unlucky harbor for the enemies ofpeace. With the aid of all our loyal shipmates, not forgetting Suzetteand Count Borg and Lotus, too, we'll work, we'll live, and if need bewe'll die to make this old world a better place!"
"Amen!" responded Michael Splendor from his sickbed. "Already ye havethe Scorpion and his warmongers on the run, but perilous waters liebefore ye. Commander. The enemy is desperate. He'll use every fiendishtrick to wreck ye, and there'll be a bitter fight when ye overhaulhim--perhaps in some far corner of the earth. Me one regret is that Imust lie here safe and helpless for the next two months while me youngshipmates are riskin' their necks on land or sea or in the air!"
Impulsively Don gripped Splendor's big hand with both his own.
"You old fire-eater!" he exclaimed. "You'll be back with us _inside_ oftwo months, if my guess is right! Not even a bullet nicked spine isgoing to keep you out of our country's fight to wipe war--and the threatof war--from the face of the earth."
"May your words come true!" replied the crippled veteran earnestly. "Andmay victory crown your every venture, Don Winslow of the Navy!"
THE END
_Watch for the next Don Winslow story!_
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