“You get out of here,” said Jennison through his teeth. “I’ll go with you to the gangplank—”
He stopped, as the disadvantages of that plan came home to him. His right hand went swiftly to his pocket. Inspired, John Quincy seized a filled water bottle and hurled it at the man’s head. Jennison dodged; the bottle crashed through one of the windows. The clatter of glass rang through the night, but no one appeared. John Quincy saw Jennison leap toward him, something gleaming in his hand. Stepping aside, he threw himself on the man’s back and forced him to his knees. He seized the wrist of Jennison’s right hand, which held the automatic, in a firm grip. They kept that posture for a moment, and then Jennison began slowly to rise to his feet. The hand that held the pistol began to tear away. John Quincy shut his teeth and sought to maintain his grip. But he was up against a more powerful antagonist than the red-haired sailor, he was outclassed, and the realization of it crept over him with a sickening force.
Jennison was on his feet now, the right hand nearly free. Another moment—what then, John Quincy wondered? This man had no intention of letting him go ashore; he had changed that plan the moment he put it into words. A muffled shot, and later in the night when the ship was well out on the Pacific—John Quincy thought of Boston, his mother. He thought of Carlota waiting his return. He summoned his strength for one last desperate effort to renew his grip.
A serene, ivory-colored face appeared suddenly at the broken window. An arm with a weapon was extended through the jagged opening.
“Relinquish the firearms, Mr. Jennison,” commanded Charlie Chan, “or I am forced to make fatal insertion in vital organ belonging to you.”
Jennison’s pistol dropped to the floor, and John Quincy staggered back against the berth. At that instant the door opened and Hallet, followed by the detective, Spencer, came in.
“Hello, Winterslip, what are you doing here?” the captain said. He thrust a paper into one of the pockets of the green ulster. “Come along, Jennison,” he said. “We want you.”
Limply John Quincy followed them from the stateroom. Outside they were joined by Chan. At the top of the gangplank Hallet paused. “We’ll wait a minute for Hepworth,” he said.
John Quincy put his hand on Chan’s shoulder. “Charlie, how can I ever thank you? You saved my life.”
Chan bowed. “My own pleasure is not to be worded. I have saved a life here and there, but never before one that had beginning in cultured city of Boston. Always a happy item on the golden scroll of memory.”
Hepworth came up. “It’s all right,” he said. “The captain has agreed to delay our sailing one hour. I’ll go to the station with you.”
On the way down the gangplank, Chan turned to John Quincy. “Speaking heartily for myself, I congratulate your bravery. It is clear you leaped upon this Jennison with vigorous and triumphant mood of heart. But he would have pushed you down. He would have conquered. And why? The answer is, such powerful wrists.”
“A great surf-boarder, eh?” John Quincy said.
Chan looked at him keenly. “You are no person’s fool. Ten years ago this Harry Jennison are champion swimmer in all Hawaii. I extract that news from ancient sporting pages of Honolulu journal. But he have not been in the water much here lately. Pursuing the truth further, not since the night he killed Dan Winterslip.”
XXII
The Light Streams Through
They moved on through the pier-shed to the street, where Hepworth, Jennison and the three policemen got into Hallet’s car. The captain turned to John Quincy.
“You coming, Mr. Winterslip?” he inquired.
“I’ve got my own car,” the boy explained. “I’ll follow you in that.”
The roadster was not performing at its best, and he reached the station house a good five minutes after the policemen. He noted Dan Winterslip’s big limousine parked in the street outside.
In Hallet’s room he found the captain and Chan closeted with a third man. It took a second glance at the latter to identify him as Mr. Saladine, for the little man of the lost teeth now appeared a great deal younger than John Quincy had thought him.
“Ah, Mr. Winterslip,” remarked Hallet. He turned to Saladine. “Say, Larry, you’ve got me into a heap of trouble with this boy. He accused me of trying to shield you. I wish you’d loosen up for him.”
Saladine smiled. “Why, I don’t mind. My job out here is about finished. Of course, Mr. Winterslip will keep what I tell him under his hat?”
“Naturally,” replied John Quincy. He noticed that the man spoke with no trace of a lisp. “I perceive you’ve found your teeth,” he added.
“Oh, yes—I found them in my trunk, where I put them the day I arrived at Waikiki,” answered Saladine. “When my teeth were knocked out twenty years ago in a football game, I was brokenhearted, but the loss has been a great help to me in my work. A man hunting his bridge work in the water is a figure of ridicule and mirth. No one ever thinks of connecting him with serious affairs. He can prowl about a beach to his heart’s content. Mr. Winterslip, I am a special agent of the Treasury Department sent out here to break up the opium ring. My name, of course, is not Saladine.”
“Oh,” said John Quincy, “I understand at last.”
“I’m glad you do,” remarked Hallet.
