To carry Red’s limp body across to the warehouse and through a small door at one side was a short job. A second telephone call completed the business. Immediately the pair of mobsters drove away, the bigger one still groaning about his sore jaw.
Meanwhile, in the living room of the comrades’ quarters, Don Winslow was getting the real story of the beautiful Scorpion spy, Lotus. The girl had thrown away all pretense. She said she hated Scorpia and its evil plots to stir up war among the nations.
As for her own part in it, ever since she had been old enough to know right from wrong, her girlish instincts had rebelled against a life of spying and deceit. Yet her fear of Cho-San, and especially of that mysterious personage who called himself the Scorpion, had forced her to obey their orders. Even if she had dared to break with their dreaded organization, she had nowhere to go, no one to protect her from the vengeance of Scorpia.
At least, Lotus intimated, that was the situation until she had met Count Borg. André was not the criminal type she had known. He never spoke of his past life, even after she came to know him well, but he had evidently been a man of honor and high culture until joining the ranks of Scorpia.
The lonely girl had fallen desperately in love with him, though he had never acted as anything more than a kind friend to her. Whenever she whispered to him her longing to be free from Scorpia, André would show only a passing interest. Once he had half promised to take her away from Cho-San’s jealous guardianship, but it never came to anything.
“And now that André is no longer one of Scorpia, he has forgotten me!” Lotus finished tearfully. “Now I will never be free, for there is no one who will help me!”
“Nonsense,” exclaimed Don gruffly, trying to hide the feelings her story had roused in him. “Listen, Miss Lotus! You have a lot more real friends than you ever had before. I’m one of them, and I know of another right here in this underground stronghold of Scorpia. When you get clear, there’ll be others—Uncle Sam’s trusted officers and agents, men and women—who’ll stand ready to protect you until we’ve wiped the Scorpion and Cho-San off the slate. You’ll pick up your friendship with Count Borg on better terms than before. He’ll be needing you this time, Miss Lotus—needing someone who really cares!”
“Don Winslow,” answered the girl solemnly, “you’ve given me a hope to live for. That’s something so priceless, something so far beyond any thanks, that I won’t try to say more. Except that you’re going to stop calling me Miss. Promise me that, Commander!”
“Plain Don, to you!” amended the young officer, gripping the strong little hand she offered him. “All right, Lotus; we’re shipmates from now on. In the name of the United States Navy, I welcome you to the ranks of peace. But remember this, always:—The things worth living for are also the things worth dying for! You and I and Suzette—yes, she’s a shipmate, too!—may have to give our lives this very night for the cause of world peace!”