"This is one of several hidden retreats established by my secret society," Mindoro explained.
Ham had carried his sword cane throughout the excitement. He used it to punch the soft upholstery of a chair, as if estimating its comfort.
"How did you come to organize your political society in secrecy?" he asked. "That has been puzzling me all along. Did you expect a thing like this Tom Too menace to turn up?"
"Not exactly," replied Mindoro. "Secrecy is the way of the Orient. We do not come out in the open and settle things in a knock-down-and-drag-out fashion, as you Americans do. Of course, the secrecy was incorporated for our protection. The first move in seizing power is naturally to wipe out those who are running things. In the Orient, secret societies are not regarded as the insidious thing you Yanks consider them."
"Our first move is to find how things stand here," Doc put in.
"I shall secure that information," Mindoro declared. "I intend to depart at once."
"Can you move about in safety?"
"In perfect security. I will not go far — only to dispatch messengers to my associates."
Before departing, Mindoro showed Doc and the others three hidden exits from the room for use in emergency.
"These walls are impervious to sound," Mindoro explained. "You can play the radio. We have more than one broadcasting station here in Mantilla."
One of the concealed passages swallowed him.
DOC clicked on the radio. It was powerful. He picked up broadcasts from Australia, from China, from Japan, as he
ran down the dial. He stopped on one of the local Mantilla stations. An announcer was speaking in English.
"We interrupt our musical program to read a news bulletin issued by the chief of police concerning the sinking of the liner Malay Queen in the Mantilla harbor not many minutes ago," said the radio announcer. "It seems that a group of four desperate criminals were trapped aboard the liner. They resisted arrest. Although many of the liner's passengers joined in the attempt to capture them, the four criminals took refuge in the hold. There they exploded a bomb which sank the vessel."
"Holy Cow!" Renny burst forth. "They've explained the whole thing with a slick bunch of lies!"
"This Tom Too is smooth!" clipped Ham, with the grudging admiration of one quick thinker for another. Ham himself was probably as mentally agile a lawyer as ever swayed a jury.
"Due to the foresight of brave Captain Hickman of the Malay Queen, the passengers were all taken ashore in safety before the four desperadoes exploded the bomb which sank the liner," continued the voice from the radio. "Several Mongols and half-castes among the passengers, who sought courageously to aid in subduing the four bad men, were slain."
"They're even making Tom Too's gang out as heroes!" Renny groaned.
"Flash!" suddenly exclaimed the radio announcer. "We have just been asked to broadcast a warning that the four killers reached shore from the sinking Malay Queen! They are now somewhere in Mantilla. Their names are not known, but their descriptions follow."
Next came an accurate delineation of how Doc, Ham, Renny, and Mindoro looked.
"These men are desperate characters," finished the radio announcer. "The police have orders to shoot them on sight. And Captain Hickman, skipper of the ill-fated Malay Queen, is offering a reward of ten thousand dollars for the capture of each of these men, dead or alive, preferably dead."
Music now came from the radio. Doc turned over to the short wave side and soon picked up the station of the MantilIa police. Mantilla seemed to have a very modern police department. The station was repeating descriptions of Doc and the others, with orders that they be shot on sight.
"It looks kinda tough," Renny suggested dryly.
"Tough!" snorted Ham. "It's the dangedest jam we were ever in!"
MINDORO was long-faced with worry when he returned.
"The situation is indeed serious," he informed them. "My associates succeeded in trapping one of Tom Too's Mongols. They scared the fellow into talking. The information they secured was most ominous. Tom Too is ready to seize power!"
"Exactly how is it to be managed!" Doc ('questioned.
"The physicians who attend the president have been bribed," Mindoro explained. "The president will be poisoned, and the physicians will say he died of heart failure. The moment this news gets out, rioting will start. The rioters will be Tom Too's men, working under his orders.
"Tom Too will step in and take charge of the police, many of whom are his men, or in his service because of bribes They will put down the rioting with an iron hand — a simple matter since the rioting will be staged deliberately. Tom Too will be touted in newspapers and over the radio as the iron man who took charge in the crisis. He will ride into power on a wave of public good will."
"That is the sort of plan which will work in this day and age!" Ham declared savagely.
"It doesn't sound like pirate methods!" Renny grunted.
"Tom Too is a modern edition of a pirate," Doc pointed out dryly. "If he should sail into port with his warships, as buccaneers did in the old days, he wouldn't get to first base. For one thing, the Luzon Union army and navy would probably whip him. If they didn't, a few dozen foreign warships would arrive, and that would be his finish."
A messenger, a husky patrolman on the Mantilla police force, whom Mindoro trusted, arrived bearing a change of garments for all four of the refugees.
Doc studied the patrolman with interest. The officer's uniform consisted of khaki shorts which terminated above the knees, blouse and tunic of the same hue, and a white sun helmet. The man's brown feet and legs were bare of covering.
"Have Tom Too's men sought to bribe you?" Doc asked.
"All same many time," admitted the officer in beach English. "Me no likee. Me say so."
"They tell you who to see in case you changed your mind?"
"They give me name fella come alongside if I want some Tom Too's dolla'," was the reply.
"They told you who to see if you wanted on Toni Too's pay roll, eh?" Doc murmured.
"Lightee."
Doc's golden eyes roved over his fellows.
"Brothers," he said softly, "I have an idea!"
Chapter 15
RESCUE TRAIL
SOME thirty minutes later, a husky Mantilla policeman could be seen leaving the vicinity of the secret room to which Juan Mindoro had led Doc Savage, Ham, and Renny.
The cop twiddled his long billy in indolent fashion, as though he had no cares. Yet he covered ground swiftly until he reached a sector of Mantilla given over almost entirely to Chinese shops and dwellings.
Here, he approached the driver of a small, horse-drawn conveyance known as a caleso. The driver was leaning sleepily against his mangy pony. The cop accosted him with an air of furtiveness.
"Alee same come by change of mind."
"No savvy," said the surly caleso driver.
"Me likee many pesos," continued the cop patiently. "Tom Too got. Me want. Me get idea come to you chop chop. You likee."
The caleso driver's evil face did not change.
"Seat yourself in my lowly conveyance, oh lord," he said in flowery Mandarin.
The cop hopped into the vehicle with alacrity, crossed his bare brown legs and settled back.
The caleso clattered down many streets that would not pass as decent American alleys. These were swarming with people either coming from the excitement at the bay front, or going. The inhabitants of Mantilla were of every conceivable nationality, not a few of them a conglomerate of all the others. Mantilla seemed to be a caldron in which the bloods of all races were intermingled.