It was Terry's turn to shrug his shoulders. He hesitated for a long
moment. If Horta had tried to apply pressure, he'd have turned obstinate
on the instant. But there was no pressure. First the girl and now Horta
tried to lure him with mystery and assurance of interest in high places.
"And _La Rubia's_ involved in the secret?" demanded Terry.
"Innocently," said Horta promptly. "As you are."
"Thank you for faith in my innocence," said Terry with irony. "All
right. If I'm involved, I'm involved. I'll try to devolve out of being
involved by playing along."
He turned to the workshop space at the back of the store. He found boxes
to pack his working tools and the considerable stock of small parts
needed to make such things as burglar alarms, submarine ears and the
assorted electronic devices modern business finds increasingly
necessary. He began to pack them. Surprisingly, Horta helped. Any man of
Spanish blood is apt to be sensitive about manual labor. If he has an
official position his sensitiveness is apt to be extreme. But Horta not
only helped pack the boxes with Terry's stock of parts; he helped carry
them to his car outside. He helped to load them.
Terry turned the key in the door and handed it to him, with the nearly
complete inventory of the shop's contents.
"Jimenez having run away, I leave the shop in your hands," he observed.
Horta put the key and document away. He started the motor of his car and
drove along the Calle Enero. He drove with surprising moderation for a
police officer authorized to ignore traffic rules on occasion. Presently
the dock-area of Manila was left behind, and then the rest of the
commercial district, and then for a time the car tooled along wide
streets past the impressive residences of the wealthy. Some of the
architecture was remarkable. A little further, and the harbor--the
bay--appeared again. The car entered the grounds of Manila's swankiest
yacht club. The design of the clubhouse was astounding. The car stopped
by the small-boat pier. There were two men waiting there. Without being
given any orders, they accepted the parcels Horta handed out. Also
without orders, they carried them out to the float. They loaded them
into the brass-trimmed motor tender which waited there.
"They knew we were coming," said Terry shortly. "Would I have been
brought anyhow?"
"_Pero no_," said Horta. "But there are telephones. When we left the
shop, one was used."
The men who'd carried out the parcels vanished. Terry and Horta stepped
aboard. The tender cast off and headed out into the harbor. There was a
Philippine gunboat and a mine-layer and an American flattop in plain
view. There were tankers and tramp steamers and a vast array of smaller
craft at anchor. A seemingly top-heavy steamer ploughed across oily
water two miles distant. The tender headed for a trim sixty-five-foot
schooner anchored a mile from shore. It grew larger and seemed more trim
as the tender approached it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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