Then they were all laughing and talking at once while the cook hastened to prepare a meal. In a few moments Chahda was attacking a high-piled plate and talking between bites.
"Good you came now," he said. "I got plenty worry. You find Bradley?"
Zircon told him of the meeting in the hotel.
Chahda nodded. "Good. I think he show up soon."
"Start at the beginning," Rick demanded. "There"s a whole lot we don"t know. In fact, if you come right down to it, we don"t know anything."
"Okay." Chahda took a sip of coffee. "I start at start. In Bombay."
Chahda had been visiting with his family in Bombay when Bradley arrived in the Indian city. The two had met by accident. Chahda had gone to the Taj Mahal Hotel to write a letter to the boys, because there was no paper or ink at home. Bradley, who happened to be in the lobby, had noticed the address on the envelope as Chahda handed it to the desk clerk.
Once the scientist discovered that Chahda knew the Spindrift group and had been on expeditions with them, the rest followed naturally. Bradley, realizing that the clever little Hindu boy would be of great value in his undercover work, had hired him. Chahda didn"t say so, but Rick could understand that such was the case.
Chahda"s duties had been those of general a.s.sistant. He had cared for baggage, run errands, acted as secretary, and on a few occasions had been a.s.signed to follow people in whose destinations Bradley was interested. The two had gone from Bombay to New Delhi and Calcutta, then to Singapore. At Singapore, while following up another matter, Bradley accidentally had discovered that heavy water was being sold.
"He was much excited," Chahda said. "I did not know why. Heavy water? I asked myself what is heavy water. I knew about ice, which is frozen water and which is heavy. But who would have much excitement about ice?
The Sahib Bradley hurried to the Consulate of America and he sent a cable to Washington."
Then the scientist had a.s.signed Chahda to watch a certain house in Singapore, the place from which the heavy water was being taken to unknown destinations. Chahda had watched for three days without relief, and he had seen Worthington Ko. Then, since Bradley had not come for him, he deserted his post long enough to return to their quarters, a room in an obscure Chinese hotel in Singapore. There he had found evidence of a fight and bloodstains on the floor. There was no sign of Bradley.
It was then, Chahda guessed, that Long Shadow had found him. He saw the shadow several times while he hunted for Bradley. Then, while searching for his boss in the Tamil quarter, he had been attacked by Chinese thugs led by Worthington Ko. They had beaten him into insensibility, hustled him into a taxi, and were carrying him somewhere into the inland of Malaya when he regained consciousness. He escaped by going headlong through a window while the car was traveling and then taking cover in the jungle alongside the road. Going by a roundabout route, he reached Singapore again. There he found that their luggage was held by the hotel and the room had been rented to someone else.
Chahda polished his plate with a biscuit and groaned expressively. "I say to myself then, Chahda, now is time to think real hard. What to do?"
He knew that the cable Bradley had sent asked for Hartson Brant to be a.s.signed to the job. And he knew also that from Singapore they were to head for Hong Kong. He knew nothing about Hong Kong, but he did know that Bradley was acquainted at a place called the Golden Mouse because he had heard him mention it to a Chinese the scientist used for undercover work now and then.
"The Long Shadow came again while I was thinking," Chahda continued. "I saw it in front of the hotel. So I went quick-fast out the back, and ran through many places until I was sure he could not find me. I went to where many Indians live in Singapore, and I found a friend."
The friend, another Indian, had gone to the United States Information Library in Singapore and borrowed a copy of _The World Almanac_. Chahda already had decided he would cable the boys, and how he would do it. He knew, because of what they had told him, that they would be able to figure out a book code and that they would realize his choice naturally would be the _Almanac_. Knowing the annual by heart, he naturally also knew the table that converted Roman numerals to Arabic numbers and had used the letter L as a clue to the right volume.
"But how did you know about nulls?" Rick asked.
"Oh, that was very lucky. I learned how to put Sahib Bradley"s messages in code, and there were many nulls." He grinned impishly. "Of course I did not know if you also knew what are nulls. I was thinking, they are two who are good with science. But are they also good with code? Maybe not. But, anyway, they are plenty smart to read a book. That will tell them about nulls."
"We didn"t have to read a book," Scotty said. "Dad told us about them."
"Scientist father also plenty smart even without books," Chahda agreed.
"Anyway, I make the message and I send cable."
Rick interrupted again. "How did you know Ko had a gla.s.s eye?"
Chahda smiled. "When they capture me, I fight like maybe ten wild elephants. I kick honorable Mr. Ko in the face. And what happens? His gla.s.ses fall off and one of his eyes falls out! Also, it breaks when it falls and I see it is gla.s.s. I am so surprised I forget to fight and someone hits me from the back of my neck, and then all is dark. I did not know Mr. Ko"s name then. My boss tells me it later."
"No more questions for the moment," Zircon ordered. "I want to hear the rest of this. Go ahead, Chahda."
The Hindu boy had used his friend as a go-between and had arranged for the consul general to advance him funds. Since the official knew he worked for Bradley, that was not difficult. Then he had arranged for their baggage to be shipped and held at the airport in Hong Kong, and had taken a plane there himself.
At the Golden Mouse, Canton Charlie had given him quarters. In another day, Bradley showed up. The scientist had been caught in the Singapore hotel room by Ko and company, but had fought his way clear. There wasn"t time to leave a note for Chahda at the hotel and he didn"t dare return to the room for fear of having the enemy locate him again. So he had depended on Chahda"s wits to tell him the next step and had gone ahead to Hong Kong, hoping to find more information about the heavy water.
At Hong Kong, Long Shadow had shown up again.
Bradley, in the meanwhile, had not been idle. Through his various sources of information he had determined that the source of the heavy water was in the neighborhood of Korse Lenken. Chahda was instructed to go there at once and start reconnoitering while they waited for the party from the States. Bradley deliberately dropped the disguise he had been using, that of a Portuguese seaman, and let Long Shadow locate him.
Then he had started out, hoping to draw the enemy away from Chahda long enough for the boy to get clear and start for Korse Lenken. Bradley was to shake the enemy when he could and resume his investigation. Finding the source of the water was not enough, he had said. It also was necessary to find out how it was reaching Singapore, and what its ultimate destination might be.
Chahda had experience with Buddhist monasteries dating back to the time when he had worked in Nepal. Also, many Indians were Buddhists. There were some in almost every monastery, and of that number a few could be depended on to speak Hindi, or Hindustani as it was called, which was Chahda"s language. He also knew a little Tibetan from his years in Nepal.
"I came here easy," Chahda finished. "There was a big lot of pilgrims and they took me in." He grinned. "They thought I was a monk. And I found Indians, like I had thought. They hid me, so I do not think Long Shadow knows I am here. And now I know where the heavy water comes from."
Zircon gave an exclamation. "Chahda, you"re a marvel! Where does it come from?"
"Tomorrow I show you," Chahda promised.
"Who is Long Shadow?" Rick demanded.
Chahda shrugged. "Not knowing. We never see him. Only the shadow."
Scotty stirred up the fire a little. "How come Canton Charlie didn"t turn you over to the enemy as he did us?"
"What?" Chahda was astonished.
Scotty quickly outlined their adventures while Chahda listened thoughtfully. When he had finished, the Indian boy shook his head.
"Something bad wrong. Charlie is one of Bradley"s men. My boss pays him, and he is friendly. You say Charlie told you to go to this junk?"
Rick thought back. Charlie himself actually had not told them. They had not seen Charlie when the note was dropped on their table.
"Charlie himself didn"t tell us," he stated. "It could have been one of Long Shadow"s men. Or one of Ko"s. And that Portuguese with the knife could have been one of Long Shadow"s men, too. I"ll bet he was the one who put the finger on us. He must have heard us ask for Chahda. Long Shadow and his men knew Chahda, of course, and they would certainly try to get rid of reinforcements like us."
"Right," Zircon agreed. "Perhaps the fault was ours in not waiting for Charlie to tell us himself, although I don"t see how we could have known."
"I think that is it," Chahda said. "Charlie is a friend. So the men on the junk with purple sails were Long Shadow"s, and you plenty lucky you get out with your skins, believe me."
Zircon rubbed his chin. "Chahda, our instructions from Bradley were to bring a rubber boat and a Nansen bottle. That must mean the heavy water source has something to do with a lake or river. Is that true?"
"Don"t know about those things," Chahda said. "I know only that the heavy water comes from a place near here. I know how to get there and I will take you. I do not think we will like this place much. It has a bad name."
"What kind of bad name?" Scotty asked.
"In English," Chahda said, "it is "The Caves of Fear"!"
CHAPTER XIII
The Black Buddha