West of Guam (35 page)

There was a flickering light in Benfeld’s eyes. He said very softly:

“Who would have given it to him, Señor Gar?”

Jo Gar got a brown-paper cigarette from a pocket of his light-colored suit coat. He smiled with his almond-shaped eyes almost closed.

“Ferraro died during the fourth day out from Manila,” he said very softly. “I spent the remaining days in attempting to associate him with some other person on the boat. It was a failure.”

Benfeld frowned. Gray smoke curled upward from his thin lips.

He was silent for several seconds.

“Then, as it stands, Señor Gar—” he said thoughtfully—”you have recovered one of the Von Loffler stones. You are thousands of miles from Manila. And you have completely lost the trail of the others.” Jo Gar closed his eyes. It was peculiar—the way Benfeld regarded the situation. It was almost as though the Dutch insurance representative was pleased. He was certainly extremely inquisitive. He
had
received a cable from Von Loffler, there was no doubt about it. And Jo considered that the German owner of the nine missing diamonds had been foolish, even though he had sent the message in code. But then, this man seated across from him represented the company that had insured the diamonds. That company would suffer a severe loss if they were not recovered.

He had not answered Benfeld’s question—the long-faced one said quietly:

“Of course, I understand that your friend was murdered. Juan Arragon. And also that Señor Delgado wishes to bring to justice the person that murdered his son. And already you have recovered one diamond. But the trail—”

His voice died away; he frowned and shrugged. Jo Gar opened his eyes and smiled at the Dutchman.

“The trail is lost,” he said simply. “There are nine diamonds still missing. They are worth almost two hundred thousand dollars.”

Benfeld cleared his throat and said in a tone that was so careless Jo noticed it:

“If this Ferraro—had only spoken, before he died!”

Jo Gar inhaled smoke from his brown-paper cigarette. He lifted his glass with stubby, brown fingers. He sipped a little of the cool liquid.

“It would have helped—very much,” he said simply.

He looked towards the swaying palm trees and remembered the words that Señor Ferraro had used. Benfeld did not know of those words, and he would not know of them. The man was getting at something.

The Dutchman shook his head and sighed heavily. He said:

“The company will investigate, of course. But it will be very difficult, I fear. And what are
your
plans, Señor Gar?”

Jo Gar shrugged. “The
Cheyo Maru
remains in port until noon tomorrow,” he said. “She will be in San Francisco within six days. I shall make the voyage aboard her. Only a few passengers disembarked here—and I have made quite certain they are not involved.”

Benfeld said slowly: “Of course, you have had much time to learn who was landing.”

Again there was the peculiar tone of his voice. It was almost as though he were slightly amused. But the next second he was frowning, shaking his long head.

“The nine Von Loffler stones!” he murmured. “And diamonds are so simple—to hide away.”

Jo Gar nodded and said wearily: “It will be good to sleep on shore tonight. Ship travel tires me. I think I shall retire, after a brief drive about.”

He waited for the obvious offer. But it did not come. Benfeld lived in Honolulu; he had brought Jo to this garden from the small hotel in which he had taken a room. Yet he was not offering to drive him about for a short time.

Jo Gar waited in silence. Finally Benfeld said:

“I was trying to think of some way—I have an engagement it will not be possible for me to break—”

The Island detective said protestingly: “Do not even consider it.”

Benfeld said suddenly: “Of course, I have it! You will use my car. I shall get other conveyance. In the morning we shall meet again.”

He smiled cheerfully. Jo Gar protested. But Benfeld would not listen to him.

“Better still—” he said, and his voice died away as he frowned thoughtfully. Then he said with a smile: “I have two cars. You will remain here, Señor Gar—and I will drive to my appointment. It is a monthly affair, an important one. I will then send my chauffeur to you, with the other car, the open one. I will drive my own, when I return home, which will be late. In the morning I will come to your hotel.”

Jo Gar bowed a little. “You are very good,” he said softly. “You are very kind.”

Benfeld glanced at his wristwatch and rose to his feet. He called a Chinese waiter and insisted upon paying for the drinks. Jo Gar rose and they shook hands. Jo said:

“Of course you realize you must be discreet about this affair—”

Benfeld said sharply: “Of course, Señor Gar. I think you have done very well. I will have my chauffeur return here within twenty minutes, say. You will not be too chilled in an open car?”

The Island detective shook his head. “I would like an open machine,” he replied. “It is very good of you.”

Benfeld smiled. “You will be able to see more of the Island,” he said. He bowed. “Until tomorrow, then.”

Jo Gar bowed a little. “Until tomorrow,” he agreed.

The Dutchman went slowly from the garden, towards the palm-studded street. He walked erectly, with his shoulders thrown back. He bowed to two men seated at a small table in the garden. Then he was lost from sight behind a high, tropical hedge. Jo Gar reseated himself and called the waiter.

“Iced claret,” he ordered.

He slumped in the wicker and watched the crests of the palms sway in the breeze. It was true that he was many miles from Manila. But other things were not so true. Perhaps he had lost the trail of the remaining nine Von Loffler diamonds—perhaps not. The thing that Benfeld did not know was that Señor Ferraro had used a few words, lying on the floor of his cabin on the
Cheyo Maru.
Most men, when they felt death coming close, used words. And Ferraro had said: “The blind Chinese—Honolulu—you can find—”

That was all he had said. And in the city of Honolulu, with a tremendous Chinese population, there would be more than one Chinese who was blind. But that did not mean that the trail was lost.

The waiter brought the iced claret. Jo Gar sipped it and smoked another cigarette. He thought:

The Dutchman, he is well established here. He perhaps has a fine reputation. But why did he question me so? And he has not a poker face. He is not experienced in these things. There is much that he would like to know, yet he has an important engagement. And my boat is sailing at noon tomorrow.

Jo smiled a little, with his lips pressed together.

“And he feels I would enjoy riding in an open machine,” he murmured softly.

Music from a stringed orchestra reached his ears. It was the soft, lazy music of the Hawaiians. The Manila detective nodded his head very slowly.

“There is a possibility”—he half whispered, looking down at his drink—”that he is correct. I shall very soon see.”

Some twenty minutes later a waiter came to Jo Gar’s table and said that his car was just beyond the garden. Jo thanked him and paid for the drink. He went slowly to the street in which the palms rose. The car was a short distance from the garden entrance. It was a small car, well polished. It seemed of an old make. The driver was a short Chinese. He wore a white coat that was several sizes too large for him, no hat. His trousers were not so clean as his coat. He smiled, showing broken yellow teeth, and bowed awkwardly.

“Señor Gar?” he asked.

Jo frowned. He thought first that Benfeld was a fool, using his name to a servant. And then he smiled with his eyes. He nodded.

“Yes,” he said in English. “You are Señor Benfeld’s chauffeur?”

He spoke slowly and clearly. The Chinese nodded his head. He said:

“It is so—I am—chauffeur.”

Jo Gar nodded. He looked into the rear of the open car. The seat was clean, but the floor mat was not so clean. The top was back, and the sides of the car were low. It was not unlike many other cars Jo had noticed—cars that were hired out to tourists on the Island.

He stepped inside as the driver held the door open. He said:

“I do not care to go far from the heart of the city. Along the beach, and past the old Palace of the—”

He checked himself. The chauffeur was trying desperately to understand his English. He had spoken fast, but not too fast. And this man had spoken first in English.

Jo Gar sighed a little. He said very slowly:

“We will go—where you wish. You have been told—where to take me?”

The driver’s face lighted. He jerked his head up and down, showing his broken teeth again.

“Me told—what do,” he said cheerfully. “Me know—where go.”

Jo smiled and nodded. The driver got into the front seat. When the car moved forward it jerked and made much noise. It reminded Jo of the car owned by himself, back in Manila. And the chauffeur was hardly the sort one might expect Benfeld to have.

The Island detective sat back in the seat. The streets were not too well lighted; as the car moved along the lights grew fewer, and there were not so many hotels. The foliage was thicker. There was a crossroads ahead, and Jo was sufficiently familiar with Honolulu to know that the beach was to the right. But the driver turned the car jerkily to the left. The road grew narrower, and the houses far apart. There was the sweet odor of the foliage, and in the distance the slopes of mountains.

Jo Gar leaned forward and said above the clatter of the machine: “I would prefer—the beach road—”

The driver jerked his head a little and nodded. He said in a shrill, raised tone:

“Me come—back along beach. He tell me—go by mountain road first—”

Jo Gar sat back in the seat and got his Colt from the holster under his left thigh. He smiled a little, but it was a grim smile. Once he turned in the rear seat, raised himself slightly and glanced behind. There were no lights of another car, but he was not reassured. The road on which they were driving was growing narrower. It was rough, and there were no shoulders.

Suddenly the headlights went out. They came on again almost instantly, then were extinguished. Jo’s body was rigid; he could see that the driver was leaning forward slightly, back of the wheel. The lights flashed on. The car was moving slowly up a fairly steep grade. Foliage was thick on both sides of the road.

The Island detective leaned forward and called sharply: “You have trouble—with the lights?”

The Chinese jerked his head around, nodded. His almond-shaped eyes held a hard expression; they seemed to glitter. His lips were drawn back. The car slowed down, halted. The Chinese used the emergency brake gratingly. He turned his head all the way and said shrilly:

“Him go bad. You wait—me fix.”

He slid from the seat back of the wheel, got to the left side of the car. He went swiftly towards the headlights, which seemed to be showing dimly. Jo Gar was leaning forward in the seat, his gray-blue eyes narrowed.

He heard the other machine before he saw it. There was the roar of an engine—the car seemed to be speeding up the far side of the slope on which the car in which Jo was seated was resting. There were no lights, but the engine roar was increasing in sound.

The Chinese heard the roar, too. He stood near the lights, his small body rigid. He called shrilly:

“Me need—stick. Me get—him!”

His body swung around; he moved towards the right side of the road, the thick foliage. As he neared it there was a flare of light beyond the crest of the slope. Headlights of the approaching car had been suddenly switched on. But they slanted high, above the standing car and above the road.

The Chinese driver’s body crashed through the foliage; his back was turned to Jo as he went into it. The Island detective moved with surprising swiftness. In a flash he was out of the car. He ran, in darkness, his small body bent low, to the left side of the road, dived into the thick foliage. Branches and leaves struck against his outflung arms. He went to his knees, let his body drop flat. Back of him the road was suddenly yellow-white with the glare from headlights.

There was the increasing roar of the car engine. And then the staccato beat of the guns. Metal made sound, and there was the shattering sound of glass. The air was filled with the clatter—Jo Gar could hear the bullets pounding into the body of the car.

The engine roar had diminished momentarily. Now it increased in volume. The clatter of the guns died away. There had certainly been more than one gun, and they had been machine-guns. Few bullets had missed the car in which he had been seated.

The engine roar became a hum as the car from which the bullets had been loosed sped back towards the heart of Honolulu. Jo Gar lay motionless, listening to the decreasing sound. His Colt was gripped in the fingers of his out-flung right hand.

He moved about very quietly, pulling his body nearer the road and parting the foliage a little. He could see the machine now. There was light from the stars and crescent moon. The windshield was shattered, both headlights had been shot out. He could see bullet marks along the side facing him. The rear left tire was flat.