"This man Keene might have been with the party, but I"m not sure of that. I don"t know the date when he left Manila, or when he took charge of the _Clara_ as Lieutenant Carstens."
"I was not there!" Keene gritted out.
"Oh, yes, you were!" insisted the senator"s son. "You were in command of the _Clara_ at that time, with Lieutenant Carstens locked up in his cabin."
"That is a falsehood," Keene said, turning to Ned. "I was there at Penalty Island, but I was not at that time in command of the _Clara_."
"And only for me," Clem went on, "the Lieutenant and his men would have been shot instead of being taken prisoners."
Keene settled back into his chair without replying to this.
"Why did you go to Yokohama?" asked Ned.
"So you recognized me?" growled Keene. "You knew me when you saw me in the tea house? Well, I went there to kill Brown!"
The a.s.sertion was made so savagely, so recklessly, that the listeners gazed at the speaker in wonder.
"Brown," continued Keene, "was blackmailing me. He was at Penalty Island and was threatening to reveal what he knew unless I gave him a large sum of money. He went to j.a.pan and I followed and caused him to be killed."
"And then you went back to Manila and went aboard the _Clara_?" asked Ned.
"Yes; and came down to witness the signing of the treaty."
"Where did you get the guns?" asked Ned.
Captain Curtis gave a quick start at the question.
"The guns?" he asked. "What guns?"
"The guns which were unloaded here to-night," was the reply, "and turned over to the chiefs. If you will look through Keene"s pockets again you will find drafts in payment for them."
"Where did you get the guns?" demanded the Captain.
"Stole them from the government!" was the reply. "We caused them to be loaded on board at Manila, before Carstens went aboard. He never knew they were in the hold. We were to pick up a lot of tinned provisions on the China coast--left there by a wrecked supply boat--and carry them to natives supposed to be on the verge of starvation. I took Carstens"
place just before we reached the place where the tinned goods were. What I want to know is this," he added. "How did you learn so much about what we were doing, and intended to do?"
"This young man," pointing to Clem, "had a battle with one of the men at the nipa hut," was the reply. "He was not so strong as his opponent, and was dragged about the floor. If you will look at his heels you will see three large nails protruding from the right one. I saw them when he first came out of the cabin, when he lifted his shoe to strike a match for his cigarette.
"During this struggle his right hand was injured a bit, cut so that the blood ran from the wound. Now, after getting the prisoners to the canoe, he opened the treaty box in order to place therein the original instructions given to the messenger. If you will look at the paper you will observe a slight smear of blood.
"When he opened the box he took from it a very rough draft of the treaty and threw it away, after burning it about half up. I found what was left of it, bearing his mark, the b.l.o.o.d.y smear, and so learned what was in the box--beyond all reasonable doubt. He lost his key there, and I found it. The other key was in the possession of Keene, as you know."
"But why did you go to Yokohama?" asked Keene.
"I followed Brown there. At least I followed you and him to Manila.
There you both disappeared, and I was told that Brown had gone to Yokohama. Do you remember of having trouble with him in a saloon at Manila, and threatening him? Well, I found that out, and I found out that you had been having trouble with him ever since returning to the city.
"It was easy to get his description, and so I followed him to Yokohama, believing that I could get his confession. He fled to j.a.pan because of his fear of you, I take it?"
"He went to j.a.pan because I promised to meet him there and give him a large sum of money," was the sullen reply. "I went there to kill him!"
"And then you got the _Clara_, and circulated about the islands in her launch, and conferred with the native chiefs. I frightened you away from a couple of the conferences, as you know. You were betraying your country, and trying to place the crime on the hands of Lieutenant Carstens!"
"I should have succeeded, and got away with a fortune only for you!"
growled the fellow. "Well," he added, "it is all in the game. I lost out and you won out. Good luck to you!"
They were too late to stop the sudden lifting of the hand to the mouth, and when they lifted him from the floor of the cabin he was dead. The senator"s son stood over the body for a moment and turned to Captain Curtis.
"You know all about it now," he said. "If I am under arrest, take me to Manila. I can get bail there."
The guns were reloaded on the _Clara_, the ammunition on the _Martha_, and the ships sailed at once for Manila, with half a dozen native chiefs who had come to receive the arms locked up in the cabin formerly occupied by Lieutenant Carstens. The removal of the arms and the capture of the leaders brought the conspiracy to a close and the matter was hushed up. Tag and his companions were arrested and punished.
The young man who claimed to be the son of a senator pleaded guilty to receiving stolen arms, stolen from the government, and was sentenced to a long term in a federal prison. When it was all over, after Major John Ross had condescendingly admitted the great value of Ned"s services, after the government had paid the boy a large sum for his work, the five lads, Ned, Frank, Jack, Jimmie and Pat, arranged to spend a month among the islands in the _Manhattan_.
"Bounding from isle to isle!" Jack cried. "Lying in the boat when you don"t know whether the sea is the sky or the sky is the sea, both being so blue!"
"Well," Jimmie said, "I"ll go along to see that you don"t get captured again."
"I"d like to know whatever became of that man French," Ned said, laughing.
"Oh, he ducked," Frank said. "I heard Captain Curtis asking about him last night. He was just a paid thief, and jumped his parole."
"And we"ll take Pat along," Jack said, "to leave signs in gra.s.s and send up smoke signals of distress. How did you get the two columns to working, Pat?" he added.
"The natives are lazy and didn"t like to work, so I offered to bring the wood for them and build a fire. Well, I built two fires, as you know, and they suspected something and tied me up again."
"You"re a handy Irishman, all right!" laughed Jack. "What have you done with the Filipino Boy Scout? I saw him with you last night!".
"He"s going back to Washington," was the reply. "We may meet him over there."
On the following morning the boys would have been away in the _Manhattan_, but that night Captain Curtis visited them and left a sealed envelope with Ned.
"You are to open that at Portland, Oregon," he said.
Ned did not look altogether pleased when he read the papers contained in the sealed envelope.
"There"s going to be trouble up in the Northwest," he said, "and we"re going there on government service. And we"re going to have aeroplanes!
Think of it!"
There was a shout, and Ned was almost buried under a collection of legs and arms.
"Whoop--ee!" cried Jack. "Me for the aeroplanes!"
THE END.