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!