A PRISONER IN THE SECRET DENS OF PELL STREET.
If Harry was not hung there in that shaft, where then was he?
This must now be explained.
There were two secret panels in that room, as Alice had suggested.
Harry got into the other one.
They caught him suddenly from behind.
The Chinamen, we mean.
He did not see them; he did not hear them. The first he knew a hand was clapped over his mouth and some fearful thing clutched his throat.
It was nothing less than a big pair of nippers which seemed to have been constructed for that very purpose, so well did they suit it.
Harry thought he was a goner.
He could not cry out at first on account of the hand.
The next instant the nippers had him—he could not even turn.
He was dragged backward and knew that he was going through a secret panel near the chimney breast.
Two Chinamen had him captured.
Behind the panel was a shallow space, but it was wide enough for them to stand three abreast.
This trap had been most cleverly constructed.
One of the Chinks pulled a handle and the floor began to descend.
Half strangled, Harry almost lost consciousness, and his head fell forward.
Evidently his tormentors did not intend to go but just so far for immediately the pressure was relaxed.
For a moment things seemed dim and misty.
When Young King Brady recovered himself he was standing in an underground passage leaning against the wall.
Three Chinamen were with him now.
In the third, who held a revolver, Harry recognized a man whom he knew.
It was one Joe Ding, a notorious highbinder.
Only a few months before the Bradys had captured him in connection with a tong shooting affray.
As there did not seem to be much evidence to connect the man with the affair, he had been set free, and that at Harry's suggestion.
Joe Ding knew this, and he had expressed the greatest gratitude at the time.
It was something of a relief to recognize him now, nevertheless it is never safe to trust a highbinder, for murder and robbery is their trade.
"So it's you, Brady," said Joe Ding, who, although now in Chinese dress, did not usually appear so, and what is more he spoke as good English as one could wish.
"Joe Ding!" gasped Harry.
"Yes, as you see. What are you doing here?"
"Why do you ask me that question—you who captured me?"
"I didn't capture you, Brady. It was my friends here."
"But why?"
"Oh, they want to ask you a few questions, and as they don't speak English, I must do the asking."
"Hurry up, then. Can't those infernal nippers be taken off my neck?"
Joe Ding seemed to think so, for he now removed them.
"You are trying to find money sunk in the sand, you and Old King Brady, aren't you?" he demanded.
"Who told you that?" asked Harry.
"Do you deny it?"
"I have said what I have to say."
"You answer my question by asking another. It won't help you any, Brady. Believe me, you better do what I tell you if you expect to get out of this scrap alive."
"Would you kill me after what I have done for you, Joe Ding?"
"I might; it is hard to say," replied the Chinaman with a grin. "However, if it is going to help matters along, I'll answer your question. Follow me."
He clutched Harry's arm and led him forward a few feet.
They had now come underneath an open shaft.
Here there was a rope attached to a ring.
Joe Ding tried to untie it, but did not seem to succeed.
Losing his patience, he pulled out his knife and cut the rope in spite of the protest of one of the other Chinks.
Immediately the rope ran up over a pulley above, apparently, and that with great rapidity.
Evidently something heavy was attached to the other end.
Needless to say it was the corpse of Fen Wix, the informer.
It came down into a sort of niche and stood there leaning against the wall.
Harry shuddered as he looked at it.
"So you have hung the old man?" he gasped.
"As you see," replied Joe Ding. "Is he the man who blabbed to Old King Brady about Pow Chow and this treasure business?"
"Now that he is dead I suppose I may as well admit it. Yes, he is the man."
"I thought so! Then we have made no mistake. Hold on a minute, Brady, till I tell my brothers here."
It looked to Harry as if he should probably have to hold on a good many minutes before he got clear of this outfit if he ever did.
He shuddered as he stood there listening to the gabble of the Chinamen, and wondering what his own fate might be.
"I don't know that I have any further questions to ask you now, Brady," said the Chinaman at length. "You may have a few to ask on your own account, however. If so, now is your chance, for I am in the mood to answer any reasonable question as it happens."
"Why have you captured me?" demanded Harry. "That is the main question."
"And it shall be answered. I have captured you on general principles. I know what you Bradys are. Once you put your hand to a case you never let up. I want to give Old King Brady something else to think of, so as to turn his attention away from this treasure business. Naturally he will now turn his attention to finding you, but take my word for it he won't succeed."
"Joe," said Harry, "you take my word for it, you will do well to let me go."
"Wait, Brady, I'll tell you something you don't know by and by," whispered the Chinaman. "I'm doing you a big favor if you only knew it."
He winked and looked wise.
Harry stopped talking then.
He came to the conclusion that one at least of the other Chinks understood English.
It seemed best to fall in with the situation for the present at least.
The usual programme in such cases was now carried out.
Young King Brady was blindfolded and led through passages, up steps and down, in and out until he finally landed in an underground room decently furnished in Chinese style.
There was nothing notable about the room except a handsome gilt scroll hanging against the wall which represented the Chinese dragon. It was really a handsome piece of work.
Here the eye bandage was removed and Harry was left to his own reflections.
They were anything but pleasant, for once again he found himself a prisoner in the secret dens of Pell street.
"But why didn't they take Alice?" he asked himself. "Why was it only me?"
He was soon to learn, if Joe Ding was to be believed, for within an hour the Chinaman came to him alone, unlocking the heavy door behind a pair of portieres which had resisted all Harry's efforts.
He might, indeed, have managed to open it if he had been left his skeleton keys.
But as we should have mentioned, he was searched at the start, and these with his revolver, watch and what money he had about him, were taken away.
The Chinaman locked the door behind him and came forward with a look of mystery on his face.
"I suppose you are feeling very sore toward me, Brady," he said.
"Well, I must admit, Joe, that I am not especially happy," replied Harry. "But what is it you have to say? Let's have it, quick!"
"It's just this," replied the Chinaman, "I've saved your life."
"How do you figure that out?"
"Easy. You have bunked up against one of the most dangerous tongs in Chinatown, and all the more dangerous on account of its being so little known. I refer to the Brotherhood of the Red Door."
"I have known this long time that such a society existed in San Francisco, but I didn't know they had a lodge here in New York."
"Well, they have."
"Are you a member?"
"Now don't go to asking questions. It is enough for you to know that your death has been decreed by this tong. It is the same with Old King Brady. You want to tell him that."
"How can I tell him when I am a prisoner here in this secret den?"
"Wait! You may get out of this. Now let me tell you that I helped capture you for a purpose. I haven't forgotten what you did for me. I persuaded them to lock you up in this room till night. Then they mean to kill you, run your corpse out in a wagon, and dump it into the river, but I am here now to set you free."
Joe Ding seemed sincere.
Harry responded heartily.
Thanking the Chinaman, he promised that he should be well paid if he carried out his plan.
"I hope you will let up on that money business," Joe said. "I warn you, it is at the risk of your lives if you follow it up."
"Look here, Joe," replied Harry, "that's all right. I can only promise to tell Old King Brady what you say. He will do as he pleases, but there was a boy mixed up in that business. What about him? Is he alive or dead?"
"Ask me nothing," replied Joe Ding. "I can tell nothing, nor will I. I am here to help you, and that is just as far as I'm going—see?"
Harry gave up then, as there seemed to be no other way.
Joe Ding now unlocked the door, and telling Harry to wait, went out through the passage and was gone for some moments.
At last he returned and announced that the coast was clear.
"Come along," he added. "If I can only get you safe out on Pell street it is all I ask, but understand one thing, if we are spotted, I beat it. You will have to look out for yourself in that case. I have my own life to save."
"All right," said Harry. "Lead on."
They hurried along the passage and came to a flight of rickety wooden steps.
Joe Ding stopped to listen.
"It is all right," he said. "You don't hear anything, do you?"
"Not a sound."
"Good! Come!"
They started up the steps then.
Joe Ding, we should have mentioned, carried an ordinary lantern.
The Chinaman was ahead, and no sooner had he reached the top of the steps than he ran against trouble.
Instantly three Chinamen rose up from the floor and flung themselves upon him.
Such another snarling scrap for a moment there never was. It was like a cat fight.
Harry jumped in to help.
There was no chance.
The lantern went down and was extinguished.
At the same instant someone came tumbling down the steps.
Whoever it was bowled Harry off his feet and he went down, too.
The man sprang up and chased off along the passage, but poor Harry hit his head as he fell, and half stunned, was slow to rise.
Before he could get on his feet the enemy was upon him.
A flashlight was displayed.
Harry was seized and thrown down again.
There were five Chinks in it now.
Joe Ding was not among them.
Two bent over Young King Brady, one choking him until he was helpless.
Another producing a bottle, forced him to swallow some vile tasting stuff.
This settled it.
Young King Brady's brain quickly began to whirl.
In a very few moments he was unconscious.
Joe Ding's plan had failed.
True to his threat, he promptly "beat it" when trouble came, leaving poor Harry still in the power of the Chinese of the secret dens of Pell street.