[CHAPTER VII—A BREAK FOR LIBERTY]
The heavy iron door closed behind them with a slight grating sound. Jack turned his head. The door could not be distinguished from the wall. Hangings of thick silken stuffs covered it.
“Black George” continued to smile unpleasantly, the Chinaman to regard them inscrutably. Neither spoke. The atmosphere was close and heavy, and pungent with strange Oriental odors and scents. The boys waited for Mr. Temple to take the initiative, and he was sizing up the situation.
Obviously they were trapped. And not for money. The presence of “Black George,” whom they had overheard on the train and who had spied on them since at the Palace Hotel, meant only one thing to Mr. Temple. That was, that the underworld leader suspected them of having learned something of his plans.
Why had he brought them here? Again, there could be only one answer. He wanted to prevent
them from informing on him to the authorities. Either he would hold them prisoner, or intimidate them with threats so that, when released, they would fear to betray him.
How much did he know? Was he aware that they already had conferred with Inspector Burton? Had he shadowed the boys to the inventor’s store? Did he know or suspect the plan to utilize Inventor Bender’s device for locating the radio station at the smugglers’ cove?
Mr. Temple told himself it was not possible that “Black George” knew to what lengths they had gone already. Otherwise, of what use to him to capture them? The damage already was done. And, if he did not know that they already had laid their information before the authorities and that even now the move to locate the smugglers’ radio was launched, then it behooved him and the boys not to tell. For, if they told, “Black George” would be forewarned, and Inspector Burton’s plans to round up the smuggling band would be thwarted.
Mr. Temple glanced quickly at the boys. Would they tell? Each in turn caught his eye and gave him a scarcely perceptible nod of reassurance. It gave him something of a shock, for he realized that their active minds also had been sizing up the situation and, probably, had arrived at the same conclusions
as he. They were letting him know that they could be counted upon.