ED STILL ON THE JOB.
Tom Quee seemed as much concerned over the sudden knocking on the door as Ed was himself.
"Who can it be?" he breathed.
As Ed did not know he suggested that it might be a good scheme to answer the knock and find out.
"I shall have to do it," whispered Tom Quee as the knocking continued, "but first to get you out of sight. It won't do to have you seen."
Tom Quee opened the door of a closet and pushed Ed inside.
"Don't make a sound if you value your life," he whispered as he closed the door upon him.
An unpleasant half hour followed.
Two Chinamen came into the room.
Tom Quee seemed to have his hands full with them, whatever it was they wanted.
They gabbled away in Chinese until Ed was sick of listening to them.
Then they seemed to fade away.
He ventured to open the door slightly and peer through the crack.
The room was vacant; the door leading into the secret passage was open; evidently the Chinamen had gone that way.
Ed slipped out and tried the other door, seized with some wild idea of making his escape.
There was nothing doing, however, for the door was securely locked and the key gone.
Glad to get back to his closet, Ed waited there.
At last all three Chinamen returned and Tom Quee let the intruders out, calling Ed when they had gone.
"It's all right now," he said. "You can come out. They were looking for you. Your escape has been discovered. They thought you might have come this way, but I fooled 'em. They will trouble us no more. Now is our time to get out of this."
Just who Tom Quee was or how he came to be there in the secret room Ed never learned.
The Chinaman seemed to know the ropes, however.
He provided Ed with clothes and led him through many winding passages, up stairs and down, until at last they came out up in Pell street.
Tom Quee now led the way to the Bowery.
They went up the Bowery, and stopping in at a restaurant the Chinaman put up for a good meal, which Ed was glad enough to get.
As they ate they talked and it was decided to go at once to the Bronx and start their work, which they did.
Ed now resigned himself entirely to the guidance of the Chinaman.
He had little idea where they went. The ride in the subway seemed interminable, and a long ride by trolley car followed.
At last they came to the water front, where there were docks and factories.
It was now night and Ed was almost tired out.
The Chinaman tried to hire a boat but no one he could find would rent him one.
Tom Quee was a persistent fellow, however.
"If we can't hire a boat we must steal one," he said, as they came to a pier. "Let's go down here and see what we can find."
They explored and found that there were three boats fastened to this pier.
Watching his chance Tom Quee slipped down into one of them and Ed followed.
It was now almost nine o'clock in the evening.
The night was singularly hot and oppressive.
The effects of the drug were still on the boy.
He hardly realized it then, but later he understood why he was so indifferent to all that was passing.
When they got out on the water, he grew so sleepy that he could scarcely hold his head up.
"You want to go to sleep," declared the Chinaman. "You can do nothing at all now. Lie down in the bottom of the boat and take a snooze."
Ed was only too glad to obey.
When he awoke it seemed to him as if he must have been sleeping a long time.
The boat was tied up to a pier and Tom Quee had vanished.
Now, if ever, seemed Ed's chance to escape.
Looking around, the place seemed rather familiar, and he soon came to the conclusion that it was the scene of his adventures the night before.
"Where in thunder is the Chinaman?" he asked himself. "What ought I to do?"
His one idea now was to get away and find the detectives if he could.
And yet he could not seem to give up the thought of the pension agent's money either.
Ed sat in the boat hesitating.
He who hesitates is lost, they say.
At all events the boy determined to make another effort to secure the treasure, for he was satisfied that this was, indeed, the same pier.
But what had become of Tom Quee?
That was the question.
It seemed as if he ought to know that first.
Unhitching the boat, Ed pulled to the standing ladder.
Securing the boat here he climbed upon the pier.
The boy, after some further hesitation, descended to the boat again and undressed.
At last having located his seventh pile, Ed took a dive and swam towards it.
Springing up he dove and swam near to the bottom, where he began his search.
It was soon rewarded.
The other box was where he had left it but it had taken longer to locate it than he expected, and it was necessary now to ascend to the surface again.
The boat was where he had left it and Ed swam to it and climbed in.
That he was far from being master of himself even yet was certain.
But he knew enough to stick to his purpose and presently he made another dive and went down again.
And this time he easily secured the other case.
As his head came above the surface of the water Ed saw something which made his heart stand still.
Two Chinamen were peering down over the stringpiece.
They certainly saw him but they instantly pulled back out of sight.
"The same outfit," thought Ed. "They have captured Tom Quee, that's what. Now I am in the soup."
He dropped under the water, thankful that he had not allowed the hand which held the case to come into view.
Swimming under water to the standing ladder he hastily attached the rope, which still remained fastened to the case, to one of the submerged rungs.
Again Ed came to the surface and all breathless from his exertions, climbed into the boat.
And now again the boy ventured to look up, but he could see nothing of the two Chinamen.
"They are on the job all right though," thought Ed, "and they are watching me now. What on earth shall I do?"
It was indeed a problem.
Sitting quiet for a few minutes, Ed began to dress.
He had no sooner got the undershirt on which Tom Quee had provided for him than the two Chinks appeared at the top of the standing ladder.
"Hello, boy!" called one. "You gettee dlat blox?"
It was Dock Hing all right and he held a big revolver in his hand.
Ed was in despair.
"You again!" he gasped.
"Yair! Me comee 'gain," chuckled Dock Hing, and he came down the ladder, his companion holding Ed covered while Hing descended.
The other came down after him.
Ed was a prisoner once more.
"You gettee blox?" demanded Dock Hing.
"Whatever happens, you shan't get it," thought Ed, and so he denied it.
"You lie," said Dock Hing. "You go dlown into water twice. Me see you. Me tlink you gettee blox."
"No!" persisted Ed. "There is no box."
The Chinaman laughed softly.
"Allee light," he said. "Dlen you dlive again and again and again till you gettee blox, see?"
"It's no use," declared Ed. "There is no box, I tell you. I've looked and I can't find it."
They did not mention Tom Quee. They never asked him how he came to be there.
All they seemed interested in was the box. "You dive again," ordered Dock Hing. "Come now, you be good boy and we give you money so we find money in blox, see?"
He ordered Ed to take off his shirt and make another dive.
There was no help for it.
"This time I'll give them the slip," thought Ed, and as he dove he swam away under the pier, coming up on the other side.
But the wily Chinks were too many for the boy.
As he rose to the surface a voice called, and looking up he saw Dock Hing grinning down over the stringpiece.
"Go back!" cried the Chinaman. "Go back or me shootee you. Go back, you little flaud."
They were everywhere.
Ed was in despair.
Yielding to the inevitable he turned and swam back under the pier.