CHAPTER XXV. A BOX OF MATCHES.

The change from the bright sunlight without to the dim and dusty interior of the store was, at first, almost blinding to Herc. Before entering he had taken the precaution to pull the front of his soft hat down over his eyes, for, as will be recalled, he was wearing civilian clothing. This did not help to make things clearer to his vision in the gloom.

His first impression was of a large apartment, bare of floor and wall, with a set of dusty show cases placed at one side behind a rickety counter. It did not look like a store where much business of the kind it ostensibly catered to was transacted.

All this confirmed Herc's growing suspicions that the place was conducted as a blind. That[Pg 201] it was nothing more than a haunt for Japanese spies and those allied with them in their schemes against Uncle Sam.

A soft voice, a voice with a purring inflection as silky as that of a cream-fed cat, broke on his ears.

"What will the gentleman please to 'ave?"

Herc saw that a small, spectacled Japanese had glided rather than stepped in behind the counter, and now stood regarding the new customer with a face that might as well have been a mask for all the expression it conveyed.

It is a curious fact, but Herc, who up to that moment had acted the part of a bold investigator, suddenly found himself embarrassed. He struggled to find an answer to the simple question that had been put to him. This Jap behind the counter regarded him with growing suspicion.

"You come in for something—a cigar, maybe?" he purred.

[Pg 202]

"Yes—oh, yes,—give me—give me a box of matches," blurted out Herc desperately.

"A box of matches? Veree well."

The Jap turned deftly to the show cases behind him, and inserting a long fingered hand in a drawer, drew out the required article. Herc fumbled in his pocket for the change necessary, but in so doing he drew out a navy button, cut from his first uniform, with the small silver.

As he extended a nickel across the counter, with no very clear idea as to what he was to do next, he had the misfortune, for so he presently perceived it to be, to drop this pocket piece.

It fell with a jingling sound and before he could pick it up, the Jap was out from behind the counter and had grasped and was extending it to him.

"A navee button," said he suavely. "The honorable gentleman is in the service of the so estimable Uncle Sam?"

There was one thing that Herc could not do,[Pg 203] at no matter what cost, and that was to lie. Yet he had important reasons for not wishing his service to become known to the Jap. So he compromised.

"Yes, it's a navy button," he said pocketing it.

"Ah; it is a fine service," said the Jap, with a swift appraising look at Herc, and at the red hair that showed under his pulled-down hat. "I often deplore that I am Japanese and so cannot to enter it."

"Yet there are Japs in the navy," said Herc, and then with one of those incautious bursts which Ned so often deprecated, he rushed on, "one came in here just now,—Saki, do you know him?"

From behind the spectacles a swift look of comprehension flashed into the Jap's eyes, and then died out again like a suddenly extinguished fire.

"Saki? I no know heem," he said.

"Humph, I am on the right trail," exclaimed[Pg 204] Herc to himself. "This fellow knows all about Ned. I'm afraid, also, that he is suspicious of me, but that can't be helped now."

"If you will wait one minute, I will bring you change," came the silky voice of the Jap. "Matches are one penny, you give me one nickel."

"All right, get the change. I'll wait for you," said Herc, trying to mask his anxiety to penetrate the secrets of this place under an appearance of indifference.

The Jap, with one swift backward glance at Herc, glided off and up the same stairway that Herc had seen Saki and Kenworth ascend. So he was going to join them and doubtless tell them of his suspicions. Herc was in a quandary.

If he left the place to give the alarm to the authorities, by the time he came back the birds might have flown and with them all clew to Ned. On the other hand, he could not, single-handed, face the whole nest of them.

But the next instant came another thought. After all, the place was not on the outposts of[Pg 205] civilization. It was policed just as any other well-ordered district. Not a block away were gay summer cafés and promenaders. What harm could come to him here?

It was while his mind was busied with these reflections that Herc's eye fell on the door at the end of the store, already mentioned.

Where did it lead to? Perhaps to Ned's prison place. Herc glanced about him. The store was empty. Outside someone passed along whistling gaily. After all, he had nothing to fear and all to gain, if he could ascertain something concerning Ned's fate.

With half a dozen swift strides, Herc was across the store and at the rear door.

He fumbled with the latch an instant and then the portal swung open. Beyond was a dark passage. This rather surprised Herc, who had surmised that the door gave on to a back yard or another street, and who had thought that in case of emergency it might be utilized as a means of escape.

[Pg 206]

It was at this moment that a murmur of voices reached his ears. Several persons were seemingly descending the stairway up which the spectacled Jap had passed to procure change.

Herc was about to dart for the front door when he heard a sudden sharp clicking sound.

As if by intuition he guessed what it meant. By some mechanical means a bolt had been shot and he was trapped. He sped back again to the rear door. Darting through it, he dashed into the dark passage beyond. Then he suddenly checked himself. Why not secure that rear door from the inside?

But a second's fumbling in the dark showed him that there was no means of doing this.

The voices grew louder. They swelled to an angry clamor. Herc hastily slammed the door and plunged forward into the blackness. As he ran, he heard the trample of feet behind him and knew that the hunt was up and that he was the quarry.