“I guess he’s an old hand at the game,” commented the officer. “Probably it wouldn’t be a bad plan to follow his advice. Wait, I’ll summon a couple of my men, and we’ll go along. No telling what we’ll run up against.”
He blew a shrill signal on a whistle he carried and soon two men emerged from the woods on the run. They did not appear surprised to see their chief with the prisoner, and at a word from him they got into the motor boat, the handcuffed Celestial meekly following.
“Now, John, which way,” asked the detective, who introduced himself as Mr. Harkness.
“Up by bluushes,” replied the Chinese, pointing to a clump which grew on the cliff. “Hole behind bluushes, so no can see. Smart trick. Me know.”
“I believe he does,” commented Mr. Harkness. “I’ll unhandcuff him, and he can show us,” and he removed the irons from the almond-eyed chap.
The motor boat was put over to where the Chinaman indicated. It came to a stop at the foot of a sheer cliff, right under the clump of bushes, which grew about thirty feet up from the surface of the water.
“How in the world are we going to get up there without a ladder?” asked Fenn. “We should have brought one along.”
“Here ladder!” suddenly exclaimed the Celestial, who, at a question from one of the officers gave his name as Lem Sing. “Me get ladder.”
Lem Sing took hold of a stone that jutted out from the face of the cliff. He pulled on it, and it came out in his hand. To it was attached a strong cord, extending up somewhere inside the cliff, Lem Sing gave a vigorous yank, and something surprising happened.
The clump of bushes vanished, and, in their place, was a round hole.