When the Russian awoke some time later it was with the feeling that he had been prodded in the side. The first sensation to greet him after that was the savory smell of cooked meat. Unable to believe his senses, he opened his eyes and sat up. Before him was a tin pan partly filled with strips of reddish-brown meat and squares of fried fat. The dish was still hot.
Like a dog that fears to have his food s.n.a.t.c.hed from him, he glared about him and a sort of snarl escaped his lips. Then he fell upon the food and ate it ravenously. With the last morsel in his hand, he looked about him for signs of the human being who had befriended him. But in his eye was no sign of grat.i.tude, rather the reverse--a burning fire of suspicion and hate lurked in their sullen depths. His gaze finally rested for a moment on the meat in his hand. Then his face blanched. The meat had been neatly cut by an instrument keen as a razor.
The steam-whaler, Karluke, a whole year overdue, pushing her way south through the ice-infested Strait, her crew half mutinous, and her food supply low, was subjected to two vexatious delays. Once she halted to pick up a man who signaled her from the top of a shattered tower of wood which topped an ice pile. The man was a Russian. Again, the boat paused to take on board a youth, whom they supposed to be a Chukche hunter who had been carried by the floes from his native sh.o.r.es.
The Russian paid them well for his pa.s.sage to Seattle. The supposed Chukche was sent to the galley to become cook"s helper.
This Chukche boy was no other than the j.a.p girl. She realized at once the position she was in; a perilous enough one, once her ident.i.ty was disclosed, and she did all in her power to play the part of a Chukche boy. She drew maps on the deck to show the seamen that she was a member of the reindeer Chukche tribes, who spoke a different language from the hunting tribes, thus explaining why she could not converse freely with the veteran Arctic sailors who had learned Chukche on their many voyages. She was fortunate in immediately securing a cook"s linen cap.
This she wore tightly drawn down to her ears, covering her hair completely.
One thing she discovered the first night on board: The Russian had in his stateroom a bundle. This had been hidden when she searched him on the ice. To have a look into that bundle became her absorbing purpose.
Three times she attempted to enter his stateroom. On the third attempt she did actually enter the room, but so narrowly escaped having her linen mask torn from her head and her ident.i.ty revealed by the irate Russian, that she at last gave it up.
Upon docking at Seattle both the Russian and the girl mingled with the crowd on the dock and quickly disappeared.
The clerks in Roman & Lanford"s department store were more than mildly curious regarding an Eskimo boy, who, entering their store that day and displaying a large roll of bills, demanded the best in women"s wearing apparel. They had in stock a complete outfit, just the size that would fit the strange customer, who was no other than the j.a.p girl.
Johnny Thompson and Hanada, after two weeks of fruitless watching and waiting in Nome, took a steamer for Seattle. Johnny had not been in that city a day when, while walking toward the Washington Hotel, he felt a light touch on his arm, and turned to look into the beaming face of the j.a.p girl.
"You--you here?" he gasped in amazement.
"Yes."
"Why! You look grand," he a.s.sured her. "Regular American girl."
She blushed through her brown skin. Then her face took on a serious look:
"The Russian--" she began.
"Yes, the Russian!" exclaimed Johnny eagerly.
"He is here--no, not here. This morning he takes train for Chicago.
To-night we will follow. We will get that man, you and I, and--Iyok-ok."
Her lips tripped over the last word.
"Hanada," Johnny corrected.
"He has told you?"
"Yes, he is an old friend."
"And mine too. Good! To-night we will go. We will get that man. Three of us. That bad one!"
"All right," said Johnny. "See you at the depot to-night."
"Wait," said the girl. Her hand still on his arm, she stood on her tiptoe and whispered in his ear:
"My name Cio-Cio-San; your friend, Hanada friend. Good-by." Then she was gone.
Johnny walked to his hotel as in a dream. He had hoped to return to his den, his job and to Mazie in Chicago, and in a quiet way, all mysteries dissolved, to live his old happy life. But here were all the mysteries carrying him right to his own city and promising to end--in what?
Perhaps in some tremendous sensation. Who could tell? And the diamonds; what of them? He put his hand to his inner pocket; they were still there. Was he watched? Would he be followed? Even as he asked himself the question, he fancied that a dark form moved stealthily across the street.
"Well, anyway," he said to himself, "I can"t desert my j.a.p friends.
Besides, I don"t want to."
"Chicago," said Hanada some time later, as Johnny related his conversation with Cio-Cio-San. "That means the end is near."
The end was not so near as he thought. When it came it was not, alas! to be for him the kind of end he fancied.
"All right," he said. "To-night we go to Chicago."
On the trip eastward from Seattle, Johnny slept much and talked little.
The j.a.p girl and Hanada occupied compartments in different cars and appeared to wish to avoid being seen together or with Johnny. This, he concluded, was because there might be Russian Radicals on this very train. Johnny slept with the diamonds pressed against his chest and it was with a distinct sense of relief that he at last heard the hollow roar of the train as it pa.s.sed over the street subways, for he knew this meant he was back in dear old Chicago, where he might have bitter enemies, but where also were many warm friends.
CHAPTER XIV
THE MYSTERY OF THE CHICAGO RIVER
Johnny Thompson dodged around a corner on West Ohio street, then walked hurriedly down Wells street. At a corner of the building which shadowed the river from the north he paused and listened; then with a quick wrench, he tore a door open, closed it hastily and silently, and was up the dusty stairs like a flash. At the top he waited and listened, then turning, made his way up two other flights, walked down a dark corridor, turned a key in a lock, threw the door open, closed it after him, scratched a match, lighted a gas lamp, then uttered a low "Whew!" at the dust that had acc.u.mulated everywhere.
Brushing off a chair, he sat down. For a few moments he sat there in silent reflection. Then rising, he extinguished the light, threw up the sash, unhooked some outer iron shutters, sent them jangling against the brick wall, and drawing his chair to the window, stared reflectively down into the sullen, murky waters of the river. At last he was back in Chicago!
The time had been when the fact that Johnny Thompson occupied this room was no secret to anyone who really wanted to know. Johnny had roomed here when he first came to Chicago as a boy, working for six dollars a week. When, in the years that followed, it had been discovered that Johnny was quick as a bobcat and packed a wallop; when Johnny began making easy money, and plenty of it, he had stuck to the old room that overlooked the river. When he had heard his country"s call to go to war, he had paid three years" rent on the room and had locked the door. If he never came back, all good and well. If he did return, the old room would be waiting for him, the room and the river. Now here he was once more.
The river! The stream had always held a great fascination for him.
Johnny had seen other rivers but to him none of them quite came up to the old Chicago. In its silent, sullen depths lay power and mystery.
The Charles River of Boston Johnny had seen, and called it a place of play for college boys. The Seine of Paris was a thing of beauty, not of power. The Spokane was a noisy bl.u.s.terer. But the old Chicago was a grim and silent toiler. It bore on its waters great scows, lake boats, snorting, smoking tugs, screaming fire boats and police boats. Then, too, it was a river of mysteries. Down into its murky depths no eye could peer to discover the hidden and mysterious burdens which it carried away toward the Father of Waters.
Yes, give Johnny the room by the old Chicago! It was dusty and grim; but tomorrow he would clean it thoroughly. Just now he wished merely to sit here and think for an hour.
The time had been when Johnny had not cared who saw him enter this haven; but to-day things were different. Since he had got into this affair with the Russian and his band he had had a feeling that he was being constantly watched.
There was little wonder at this, for did he not carry on his person forty thousand dollars" worth of rare gems? And did they not belong to someone else?
"To whom?" Johnny said the words aloud as he thought of it.
His mind turned to his j.a.panese comrades, the girl and the man. He had told neither of them about the diamonds. Perhaps he should have done so, and yet he felt a strange reticence in the matter.
He was to meet Hanada at eight o"clock. Hanada had never told him why they were pursuing the Russian; why he could not be killed in Siberia; why he must not be killed or arrested if seen now, until he, Hanada, said the word. He had not told why he thought that the Secret Service men had committed a blunder in offering a reward for the Russian"s capture.