the game isn’t worth the candle.”
O’Grady cursed Schneider viciously, but had only a mocking laugh for response, I wrote out the formula and handed it to Schneider; he took it with triumph glittering in his eyes.
“Back in a minute,” he said, and crossed the courtyard to the main building where French lay.
He was as good as his word. In less than a minute he reappeared, laughing, and waved his hand.
“All right,” he sang out. “Climb into the saddle, Breck, and be on your way.”
I obeyed, heart-heavy.
IX
Even as I clambered into the saddle, however, there came from the stables a voice that made me pause, the voice of Yu.
“Wait a minute, master! Wait a minute!”
I glanced around, but saw nothing of the boy. Schneider, at the words, came striding across the courtyard.
“Who’s that?” he demanded, hand at his gun.
“My boy Yu,” I responded. “He must have been asleep.”
“Here I am,” said Yu’s voice.
I looked around again at the door of the rear building, and sat petrified, staring in astonishment. Schneider’s mouth opened, stark amazement seizing him, and a terrible light of recognition blazing in his dark eyes.
From the doorway came, not Yu, but James Sze Kohler, smiling and fingering a cigar.
“Hello, Schneider!” he said casually. “Have you had a good time? It’s a pity that you prevailed on Breck to hand you over that formula; otherwise, you might have gone free. How’ve you been since we last met?”
Schneider recovered from his stupefaction. He snapped an order at his two men; then, as their rifles lifted, those rifles were suddenly trained upon Schneider himself. Kohler uttered a low laugh.
“No use, Schneider, no use at all! These are my men, you know.”
“Kohler!” I exclaimed. “How in the name of all that’s holy did you get here?”
Kohler glanced at me and chuckled softly.
“My dear chap, I came all the way with you! Didn’t I make a presentable coolie, with the beard and all? Now, master, everything is ready, and we can start if you like.”
It was the voice of Yu that issued from Kohler’s throat. He chuckled again at my look.
“You see, Breck, I needed to be shielded and forgotten; and everything worked out very well. By the way, just how did Mr. Schneider propose to torture a woman?”
Schneider stood there with sweat streaming out on his oily face. He knew now how he had been trapped; he perceived that his men were really Kohler’s men; and I think that in Kohler’s glance he read no mercy at all.
At all events, before I had started to speak, a curse fell from his lips. Regardless of the two Chinese, his hand leaped to his pistol. As he jerked it forth, the rifles cracked pitilessly. Schneider spun around and fell in a heap.
There was a moment of silence.
“Just as well,” said Kohler quietly. “Just as well. Better, perhaps, this way—since he knew the formula.”
“Good heavens, Kohler!” I exclaimed. “You wouldn’t have murdered him merely because he had learned that secret?”
Kohler’s eyes dwelt speculatively upon me.
“My dear Breck,” he said, in his gentle voice, “I might not have done so, and again I might. But if he had threatened harm to Janet French, I certainly would have done so. As it is, all’s well. You’ve done your work excellently, all and more than I had counted on; I think we may say that the campaign has been very successful.”
O’Grady, who had been staring hard at Kohler, suddenly broke into a laugh.
“By the rock o’ Doon!” he cried out gaily. “So you’re Kohler, are you? Well, I’m out o’ this game; you’re too deep for me. Faith, if I’d guessed that the boy Yu was really James Sze Kohler—What dev’lish chances I’ve missed, what?”
Kohler chuckled. “Exactly, my dear O’Grady! Your attention was quite centered on Mr. Breck, just as I figured. May I have the pleasure of taking you to the coast with me and sending you home to Japan?”
O’Grady shook his head, drew a deep breath, laughed again, more freely this time.
“Not me, thanks! No Japan for me. I’m done with sellin’ my honor among devils.”
“Then,” suggested Kohler, “suppose we journey to the coast together—and I may find some employment for you. Would such a course appeal to you, or do you class me with devils?”
“D’ye mean it?” cried O’Grady, his eyes widening.
“I do,” said Kohler calmly.
“Good! It’s agreed!” responded the Irishman promptly. “When do we start?”
“In an hour,” said Kohler.
At this, I intervened.
“But see here, Kohler!” I protested. “French is in no shape to travel just yet! You’ll have to give his shoulder a chance to mend, you know! And we can’t all run off and leave him alone here with Miss French.”
Under Kohler’s slow, sleepy smile I checked myself.
“My dear Breck,” he replied, “I don’t intend doing anything of the kind. French remains here with his sister, until he’s able to travel. Perhaps you remember the precise matter in which I engaged your services? It was to bring French to the coast. When that is done, your present task is ended, and you begin your work on my private staff.”
“What!” I said. “You mean that you’re going to leave me here with them, to bring them down to the coast?”
“Exactly,” said Kohler, and chuckled. “Do you object? If so, Mr. O’Grady—”
“Damn O’Grady!” I said hastily, “no, I’m tickled to death to stay! That is, if Miss French—”
I broke off in some confusion, for O’Grady was laughing, and in Kohler’s eyes I read a complete understanding of all that I had not said.
“Suppose you go in and ask Miss French for yourself,” said Kohler, amusedly.
I did so.
That’s why it was two months before we reached the coast again, and as everyone knows, a tremendous lot of things can happen in a period of two months. They did, at least, in my particular case; and O’Grady was best man.
But I never saw my perfect servant, Yu, again!
YELLOW INTRIGUE
CHAPTER
