Following her eloquent look, Mercedes let out a muffled cry.
“So that’s what you went back for, Don?” she gasped. “You—you went into that gas filled room just for those black ledgers? Oh, why did you do it?”
“Cho-San seemed to value them, and I knew he couldn’t have stopped to pick them up,” the young commander answered. “If they do contain the evidence Suzette claims, they’re worth a bigger risk than I took. And, speaking of risks, we’re none of us out of here yet. For all we know the next room to this may be filled with hachet men waiting to jump us.”
“Mais non,” cried Suzette, catching Mercedes’ startled look. “I think Cho-San sent all the hachet men and bodyguards ahead to help them with their getaway. When they leave that secret chamber, they go by some other passage to the outside. No doubt the cars were waiting to take them and their men. Jus’ now this house is safe as any church.”
Mercedes Colby slipped an arm around the little maid’s waist.
“Perhaps you’re right, Suzette,” she smiled, “but even that doesn’t make me anxious to stay here. Lean your weight on me and let’s get going. Fresh air is what we need more than anything, except news from our friends.”
The news that reached them at the local Intelligence Office was better than Don Winslow or any of his three companions had dared to expect. The bullet which had passed through Michael Splendor’s throat had missed the large blood vessels, though coming dangerously near to the spinal cord. The doctors’ first report gave him more than a fighting chance to live.
Count Borg’s wrenched limbs would be useless for the next month, but his agony on the rack had somehow torn the veil obscuring his memory. His first words on regaining consciousness had been an anxious question about Lotus. The girl herself was at the same hospital, suffering from shock, but happier than she had been in her life before.
Red Pennington refused point-blank to be doctored at the hospital. He insisted that Don with a first aid kit could fix up his torn thumbs and bruised head as well as any sawbones. He’d go to the hospital next day, he declared, but as a visitor, not a patient.