He fired one shot in the air. This was not muffled, like the report in the closed cabin. It could be heard far — across the waters of the bay. It was a signal to all who might hear that something was amiss upon the yacht Sepia.
NO green eyes were sparkling now, from beneath the hat which The Shadow wore. The members of the Wu-Fan realized they were tricked. The crew of the yacht went wild with fury. With one accord, a dozen men precipitated themselves upon this lone figure that had come upon them.
Revolvers and knives were coming into view, but not a single weapon could avail. Quick, staccato shots rang out, but all came from The Shadow’s guns. Men were falling — some clutching at The Shadow’s feet. Others were groveling by the rail.
Only two escaped. At the rear of the attacking horde, these men, both members of the Wu-Fan, leaped to the rail and gained the motor boat that had brought them there. Hastily they set the motor in action. They were chugging away to safety.
But then The Shadow acted. His shots were used; but with a gun borrowed, unasked, from a victim, he stood by the rail and blazed into the night.
One man gasped and slumped to the bottom of the boat. The second succumbed to another bullet. Chugging onward, the motor boat continued, swerving crazily, with no hand at its wheel.
The shots had aroused cries from other boats anchored in the distance. Lights were gleaming. The long rays of searchlights were being focused on the Sepia.
Dimly, from the distance, these rays revealed the figures sprawled upon the deck. But they did not show the form of The Shadow.
The master of the night had returned to the night. A little motor boat was picking its elusive way back across the bay toward San Francisco.
That boat was guided by the hand of The Shadow!
CHAPTER XXIII
CLEVE GETS CREDIT
RIDING eastward on the Mountain Limited, Cleve Branch was reading the accounts of the great dope ring and its exposure. All the news was there. His name was emblazoned in screaming headlines.
For Cleve Branch had played a part, after all. Recovering his senses in the hospital, he had answered questions relating to the Bureau of Investigation badge that had been found beneath his coat. Then he had lapsed back into unconsciousness.
Another agent had been summoned. At the police station, he had learned of Cleve’s mumbled words. He had started for the bay, there to find the Pung-Shoon, a smoldering derelict.
Reports were coming from the Oakland side of the harbor — reports of the dead men on the yacht Sepia, among them Joseph Darley. Revenue men had learned of the opium. Cutters were on their way.
Thus Cleve’s part had been passive. It was believed that the schemes of the plotters — Americans and Chinese — had been upset by quarrels that had started on the junk, and then ended on the palatial yacht.
It was the next day that Cleve had told his illuminating story, which had gone far to clear the mystery. A burned body drawn from the Pung-Shoon was recognized by Cleve. It was the squat form of Ling Soo.
Badges were found upon many of the dead men at the yacht. Cleve had led the way to the secret meeting place beneath the Mukden Theater, where the dead body of Foo Chow had been discovered.
Piece by piece, the story was unfolded.
The mystery of Green Eyes had been revealed by a strange freak. When Darley’s body had been found, the eyes were open, bulging toward the ceiling of the cabin. When someone forced the lids shut, gleaming spots of green had appeared.
The Shadow — as a last mocking touch — had affixed the stones to Darley’s dead eyelids, that the man’s secret might be told in death!
But this fact was not mentioned. Indeed, Cleve Branch himself had not dwelt upon the factor of The Shadow. He said that a man had taken the part of Foy, and had rescued him; but be could not give any clew to the identity of that personage.
Darley’s list had been found in the cabin. Its Chinese characters described the distribution of the opium. The members of the Wu-Fan had not identified Darley with Green Eyes. They had been sent to the yacht, to find the man in charge. The paper was the order which they were to follow, in case of difficulties in the removal of the dope.
The end of the dope ring! Its tentacles unraveled, through Cleve’s account of his investigation of the Wu-Fan. It was a great triumph for Cleve Branch, on his way to Washington.
But though he was forced to take the credit, he knew that it justly belonged to one whom he did not know.
The end of the Wu-Fan, the death of Ling Soo, the disclosure of Green Eyes — all these had been accomplished by the hidden hand of The Shadow!