THE BRADYS GET TOGETHER ONCE AGAIN. BUT THE PRINCESS SLIPS THROUGH THEIR FINGERS.
Urged by Harry, Ah Lung jumped to the outer door of the smoking room as this part of the House of the Seven Delights was called.
Young King Brady hastily adjusting his clothes—he had taken off his coat and vest after the manner of opium smokers—prepared to follow him, but Ah Lung was back before he could get ready.
"Well?" he demanded.
"I know where he went," replied Lung. "Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Then come with me."
They passed out into the corridor.
There were the "two Chinamen" seen by Old King Brady and Leggett.
"Where did he go?" demanded Harry.
"Listen," replied Lung. "We—the organization, I mean—don't make use of all this big building. Our part is only on this side. There are rooms on the other side which we rent, some to secret societies, others to individuals; most of them are vacant just now. The Doctor went in through a door leading to a suite of these supposed-to-be vacant rooms and here it is."
He paused before the door which Dr. Garshaski had called the "Door of Death."
It carried no red paper on it now, but a Chinese character painted on the panel.
"What does that say?" asked Harry, pointing to it.
"Flat to let," replied Ah Lung, "but I strongly suspect that our janitor is allowing the Doctor to use it for purposes of his own. Otherwise why should he be going through that door? Still it may have been rented to him for all I know. Anyhow that's where he went. What do you think of it? Shall we attempt to follow him up?"
"By all means," replied Harry. "Let me tell you something. I know this Dr. Garshaski. He is an infamous scoundrel."
Ah Lung shrugged his shoulders.
"We meet all kinds," he replied. "They are necessary to make up the world. But you heard what was said; you heard him try to blackmail me. Do you believe he really knows anything about the princess, or is it all bluff? There was nothing that he said he had not heard from me before."
"I don't believe it was bluff and I do believe he has the princess," replied Harry, "and I'll tell you why."
He went on to explain about Alice, and this while he was trying his skeleton keys.
"I believe he has Miss Montgomery a prisoner in the rooms you speak of," he declared, "and it would not surprise me a bit if the princess was there too. Hello! I've got the door open now. Shall we go exploring and see what we find?"
"Surely. If that is your belief. I am with you, of course," replied Ah Lung. "But lock the door behind you," he added. "We don't want anybody prowling after us."
Harry scarcely saw the necessity of it, but he locked the door.
The long corridor was dimly lighted by a solitary gas jet.
"Why this is strange," said Ah Lung. "I never was in this part of the building before."
"This corridor surely leads in under the next building," said Harry.
"Of course, it does, I never knew of its existence. I shall inquire into this."
"Sure you've got the right door?"
"Positive. Come on."
At the end of the corridor they made the same turns Alice took and at last found themselves up against three doors.
The ones on the right and the left were locked, but the middle one stood slightly open.
Harry pushed it wide open and flashed his light inside, having already drawn his revolver in case of emergency.
The room was entirely unfurnished.
Ah Lung stepped in and looked around.
"Nothing here," he remarked, when the door shut with a bang.
Harry sprang to it, but all too late.
Somebody must have been watching them, for now somebody had bolted that door on the other side.
"Well, upon my word!" cried Ah Lung, "we have walked right into a trap."
"That is certainly what we have done," replied Harry disgustedly, "and the worst of it is here I've been talking. I suppose every word we have spoken has been overheard."
"Every word, Mr. Young King Brady," spoke a voice above them.
"Garshaski, you villain! What do you mean by this?" shouted Ah Lung, recognizing the Doctor's voice.
"Business," was the reply. "You would not accede to my very modest request so I have to do the best I can for myself. So Young King Brady was your deaf and dumb friend in the next alcove, was he? Say, Lung, I'm going to read you a lesson. I'm going to teach you how dangerous it is to muss with me. As for little Brady he knows how I love him and what good reasons I have for my extreme affection. But you are dead wrong if you think the fair Alice is here, Harry."
"Did you kidnap her, Garshaski?" demanded Harry.
"Did I? Why sure I did," was the reply. "Who else? And I bagged your princess, too, my bold Lung. Listen, brother Chink; the plot was all mine. It was I who put up the job with Wung Foo. He brought your little would-be bride over to the boat on the Dover Castle. Same boat we brought that hop on, Lungy, old man! To avoid trouble, for Wang Foo had to be smuggled in as well as the hop, I drugged your pretty princess and boxed her up. Then in butted the Bradys after their usual fashion, but I watched my chance and got there and, Harry, I got your Alice, too. That pleased me more than all."
From where was the man speaking?
The sound of his voice seemed to be from above.
At the beginning of it Harry shut off his flash light and they had been standing there in the dark, but now he turned it on again and flashed it around.
There was no one to be seen. He could see no opening in the ceiling overhead.
"Hide and seek! You can't find me!" cried the voice with a chuckle. "Say, Lungy, old man. I know why you were so stuck on marrying Skeep Hup. I know her secret! Did you think I'd sell out for any $5,000? No, not for five times five. I'm out for bigger game."
"Has she betrayed the secret to you?" cried Ah Lung quickly.
There was no answer.
Again and again the merchant repeated the demand, but it was just the same until all at once the voice fairly shouted:
"Now, Ah Lung, I've got you! It was myself who kidnapped your princess! The secret of Gong Schow's hidden treasure is mine. Now you die!"
As he spoke these ominous words three shots were fired in quick succession through some hole in the ceiling.
Instantly Harry shut off the light.
Probably he was not quick enough to prevent the would-be murderer from taking some sort of aim, for Ah Lung with a deep groan dropped to the floor.
At the same time a violent banging was heard overheard.
Harry held his breath and waited, not daring to turn on the light.
"Lung, are you badly hurt?" he breathed.
There was no reply.
"Lung! Speak! Where are you hit?" persisted Harry.
Still no answer.
The banging kept right up.
"He is dead," thought Young King Brady. "Merciful heavens! What about Alice's fate in the hands of that yellow fiend?"
Just then came a crash. Hurrying footsteps were heard overhead.
"Why there is nobody here, Leggett!" Old King Brady's voice exclaimed.
"Upon my word!" thought Harry. "And just in the nick of time!
"Governor! Oh, Governor!" he shouted.
"Harry, my dear boy, where are you?" cried Old King Brady, for like Harry and Ah Lung, he and the Secret Service man had penetrated into a seemingly vacant room.
"I fancy I am in the room below you!" replied Harry. "So? Who fired those shots? You?"
"No, that yellow fiend, Garshaski!"
"As I supposed. You are not hurt, I judge from the way you speak."
"I am not, Governor, but poor Ah Lung who is here with me got it in the neck and I greatly fear he is dead."
"Well, well, that's a bad job. Do you know anything of Alice?"
"Only that Garshaski said she is far enough away if you can believe him, which is more than I can. Can't you come down here?"
"I must try to get there. Are you locked in?"
"Bolted in, most securely."
"There seems to be but one door here; I daresay there is another, a secret door. But I am going to take the back track and try it another way."
"I don't care what way you try it as long as you get here. I'm in a bad enough fix. I have no doubt Ah Lung is dead."
All this talk took place in the dark.
Harry was so rattled that he did not turn on his flash light. He never even thought of it until now, and he flashed it on Ah Lung.
Evidently the Chinaman had been hit in the head for his face was all covered with blood.
He was breathing, however. There seemed to be some slight hope.
Meanwhile Old King Brady, who had broken the door down after several attempts, returned to the semi-circular hall outside.
"This is a great piece of business, Leggett!" he exclaimed. "We must make haste and get Harry out."
As he said it there came a loud pounding on the door at their left and Alice's voice called:
"Mr. Brady! Oh, Mr. Brady!"
"Well, upon my word!" exclaimed Leggett.
"Alice, are you all right?" cried the old detective with deep anxiety in his tone.
"As right as I can be under the circumstances," replied the voice behind the door, "but they have taken the poor little princess away. This is Garshaski's work. Perhaps you don't know?
"Oh, I know. I had as soon see you in the clutches of the arch fiend himself as in that man's power."
"Yes, he's a fiend, all right, and don't you forget it," replied Alice, "and a yellow one at that. I have a lot to tell you, Mr. Brady, but if Harry needs you, do attend to him first."
"He can wait. Patience a moment. I have unbolted the door. I shall soon find a key to fit."
The old detective was trying his skeletons and in a moment he had the door open.
It was the same room in which Alice had passed those dreary days with the princess.
But now she was alone and the room was all in disorder.
As for Alice herself she was tied in her chair, being bound hand and foot.
She had been gagged also, she explained, a handkerchief having been tied over her mouth, but this she managed to work off.
"I heard you when you called murder," she said, "but I couldn't speak then. Who fired? Who was killed?"
"Ah Lung," replied the old detective, and he explained as he cut Alice's bonds.
"As for my story, it is too long to tell now," she said. "Go for Harry."
"If we can get there. We seem to have taken another door than the one we intended."
"From that long corridor?"
"Yes."
"I came in at the Door of Death as they call it. It has nearly been the death of me."
She shuddered at the recollection of the cruelties she had witnessed in the torture room.
They hurried down stairs and passed out into the corridor again.
Alice could see no "Door of Death" now.
"This next door says To Let," she said. "Suppose you try that."
"Yes, and I think it is the one," replied Old King Brady, again working his skeleton keys.
Fortunately they found themselves with the corridor at their own disposal.
In a moment they had the door open.
"This is the road I travelled," Alice instantly declared.
This lengthy cross corridor seemed certain to lead them away from the room in which Harry was confined, but Alice explaining its windings they determined to try it.
They were a story lower than the room in which they had been before and when they came to the semi-circular hall with the three doors exactly like the arrangement above Old King Brady felt that they must be right.
"Harry!" he called in a low voice, for he had no desire to bring the Chinks down upon him.
"Here," replied Harry instantly. "Behind the middle door."
Old King Brady shot the bolt and threw back the door, which was not locked.
Ah Lung was sitting up leaning on Harry.
He certainly was a horrible looking object with his face all bathed in blood.
"Not dead!" exclaimed Old King Brady.
"Not dead, but in a mighty bad way," gasped Lung. "The princess!" he added. "I see you have Miss Montgomery all right."
"I'm sorry to say we have seen nothing of the princess," replied the old detective. "I haven't had time to ask Miss Montgomery about her yet. What has become of her, Alice?"
"Dr. Garshaski carried her off," replied Alice.
"Did—did she give away what he wanted to know?" asked Ah Lung.
"I'm afraid she did. They tortured the poor creature terribly."
"We must get you out of here without delay, Ah Lung," interrupted the old detective. "As for the rest it will have to keep. Where shall we take you—home?"
"Wait," said Ah Lung. "Connected with this place is a club of which I am a member. I have a room here where I sometimes sleep. Take me there first and go for Dr. Gim Suey on Sacramento street."
"Oh, you better have an American doctor," protested Harry.
"Not at all," replied Ah Lung, decidedly. "I have doctored both ways, I greatly prefer the Chinese treatment. Dr. Gim Suey will save my life if it can be saved."