Wayne was red-faced with rage. As he calmed, a cruel glint came into his eye. “All right, Swift, you’ve outsmarted me this time. But no more. I have someone here who’ll help us make sure that you do just what I say from now onl”
CHAPTER XIX
THE RUBY WEAPON
THERE was a cold ruthlessness in Wayne’s tone that chilled Tom and Bud.
The boys looked at each other uneasily. Who was the “someone” Wayne had referred to?
The hulking blond-mustachioed engineer turned to Gursk. He muttered an order in some European language. Gursk grinned and hurried off.
Tom and Bud waited tensely. Meanwhile, Wayne struck a match, lit a cigar, and eyed them with a malicious smile. Soon they heard footsteps coming back through the tunnel. Gursk prodded another man into the laboratory with his rifle-a thin young man in rumpled clothes with his hands tied behind his back.
“Ed!” Tom and Bud gasped out the name of Tom’s cousin together.
“Another gullible fool who blundered right 174
THE RUBY WEAPON 175
into our hands!” Wayne chuckled, enjoying the two youths’ discomfiture. Ed was as dismayed at finding Tom and Bud prisoners as they were at seeing him a captive, although the boys were thankful that he seemed to be unharmed.
Wayne smirked as he related the story behind Ed’s capture. “The rubies from the mine,” he said, “are being sold through various agents-one being the jeweler at the Teheran bazaar.” Another was the bookseller in Shirabad. But all buyers Avere cautiously watched to keep the secret of the mine from leaking out. This vigilance covered also the fearful bookseller in Shirabad.
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