LUNG & LUNG.
It is needless to dwell upon the anxiety of the Bradys over the strange
vanishing of their accomplished partner.
They were otherwise very seriously inconvenienced.
The Secret Service people, satisfied with the very valuable haul the
detectives had made in the line of smuggled opium, now called them off.
The Bradys are not regular Secret Service men.
They have, however, an arrangement with the Government under which their
services can be claimed at any time.
The day after Alice's disappearance Old King Brady was notified by Mr.
Narraway that the regular force would finish up the matter, inasmuch as
he felt satisfied that the heavy loss they had sustained must have
bankrupted the smugglers.
Thus under ordinary circumstances the detectives would have made haste
to cross the continent and get back to their own business in New York.
As it was, they had no idea of leaving San Francisco yet awhile, of
course.
Each day was devoted to the search for Alice.
Even the police took a hand in the game, much as Old King Brady dislikes
to have them mix up in his affairs, but as we have said before, it was
all in vain.
On the morning of the fourth day before the Bradys had yet left the
hotel, a page announced that a Chinaman wished to speak to the old
detective, and at the same time he handed in a business card printed in
English on one side, and in Chinese on the other.
The English side read thus:
LUNG & LUNG,
GENERAL IMPORTERS,
1015 Dupont Street,
San Francisco, Cal.
Ah Lung
Gee Lung
Wun Lung.
"The whole Lung family," remarked the old detective, looking at the
card. "Show the man up."
It proved to be Ah Lung who came.
He was a very much Americanized proposition, California born and college
educated.
In short, both in dress, intelligence and manner he was as perfect a
specimen of a Chinese gentleman as the Bradys had ever seen.
Before proceeding further we must pause to explain that while the Bradys
through their influence had been able to keep the matter of Alice's
disappearance and the boxed-up princess off the police blotter, and so
out of the papers, it was an open secret among the force.
Consequently it was no surprise to the detectives to have this Chinaman
at once allude to it.
"Mr. Brady," he began, "I want you if you will to take up an important
matter for our firm, which you will find upon investigation, if you are
not already aware of it, stands high in San Francisco commercial
circles."
Old King Brady had heard of the firm of Lung & Lung, and said so. He
doubted, however, if he cared to take up a case for them.
"It is work you are already engaged in," replied Ah Lung quickly. "It
concerns the Chinese princess, Skeep Hup, who disappeared along with
your Miss Montgomery the other day."
"What do you know about that?" demanded Old King Brady, "and who told
you?"
"My information comes through my cousin, who is interpreter at police
headquarters," replied Ah Lung. "I am prepared to tell you what I know
of the Chinese princess. I suppose the information will interest you in
any case."
"It certainly will," said the old detective. "Fire away, Mr. Lung. This
puts altogether a different face on the matter."
"It is this way," continued Ah Lung. "I have had frequent occasion in
the course of business to visit China, and, being a merchant, am allowed
to come and go as I please. When in Pekin, some three years ago, I was
introduced to this Chinese princess, as you have called her. She is not
actually a member of the Imperial family, but the daughter of a very
wealthy Mandarin. I fell in love with her, and it was finally arranged
that we should marry. It was my intention to go to China after her, but
the illness of my brother Wun prevented it, so she started to come to
me. I supposed her to be a passenger on the Manchuria, the last steamer
in from China. I was so informed by letters I received, but when I went
to meet her at the wharf, I was surprised to learn that her name was not
on the passenger list. Both the purser and the steward informed me that
she had not been seen on the steamer.
"I immediately cabled to China, but it was only to be told that she had
started for Shanghai with the intention of taking passage on the
Manchuria, and that it was supposed by the family that she had done so.
She traveled from Pekin in company of a man named Wang Foo, a cousin of
hers. This person was to return to Pekin after seeing the princess off.
He had failed to put in an appearance at the time the answer to my
cablegram was sent, nor had anything been heard from him.
"You can imagine my anxiety, gentlemen. I was quite at a loss to know
what to do when my cousin told me the story of your adventures with that
bunch of opium smugglers. That was late last night, and not wishing to
disturb you, I put off my call until this morning. If you can find my
intended, you will probably also solve the mystery of the disappearance
of your partner. It is up to you."
"Oh we will take up your case, of course, Mr. Lung," said Old King
Brady. "Have you any idea what the motive for all this can be? Any
starting clew to give us?"
"None whatever. I am just as much in the dark over the matter as you
are."
"Suppose this Wang Foo wanted to marry the princess?"
"Would he box her up and treat her as he has if he loved her?" put in
Harry, speaking for the first time.
"Listen," said Ah Lung, "Chinamen are not all fiends, as you may think."
"I don't think so," retorted Harry. "There are white fiends as well as
yellow fiends."
"You are more liberal-minded than most of your race," replied the
Chinaman, "but we will leave the white fiends out of the question.
Yellow ones there certainly are in this town, and I greatly fear that it
is into their hands the princess has fallen."
"Is there money coming to the man who marries her?" demanded Old King
Brady, abruptly.
"That's just it. There was $20,000 of what you call dowry to go with the
princess. As you are probably aware, among my people women rarely carry
with them dowry. On the other hand, men who want to marry have to pay
for their wives--buy them, you call it, though I never could understand
where the difference comes in between paying for husbands, as is done
right along in America. However, that is not the point. In this case it
is different. The Princess Skeep Hup had in her own right $10,000, given
to her by her mother. As our women do not take care of their own money
matters, that money was to come to me. It was sent to me by mail in the
form of a draft on the Bank of California, and I have it now, so that
can't be the reason for kidnaping the princess, you see."
"All of which makes the mystery additionally puzzling," said Old King
Brady. "But now listen, you, Mr. Lung. There is but just one thing
certain in this case outside of the fact that a voice from that box told
Miss Montgomery that the Princess Skeep Hup was inside, which I, knowing
her knowledge of Chinese, believe."
"So do I," declared Ah Lung, emphatically. "I know Miss Montgomery by
reputation, and can well believe it. But this one thing you speak of!"
"Is the fact that the matter was managed by opium smugglers. If we can
catch on to who these people were we may stand some chance of success in
our chase after this Chinese princess."
Ah Lung sat silent for some time.
"What you say is true," he said at last. "I could help you in that
if----"
"Well, if?"
"If I could feel sure that the Secret Service people would not interfere
with me."
"In other words, Lung & Lung sometimes deal in smuggled hop."
"I make no statements. What I want is a guarantee."
"Assure me upon your honor that you are not mixed up with this gang and
you shall have it."
"Oh, I do, Mr. Brady; indeed I do. The worst Lung & Lung have ever done
is to buy cheap opium without asking questions."
"Very well, I accept that. Do what you will. I want to help you out and
to help myself out at the same time. Now then, what do you propose?"
"Listen here," said Ah Lung, lowering his voice. "You Secret Service men
captured a lot of that opium the other night, but you didn't get it all
by any means. There was another boat load which ran in ahead of the one
you captured."
"I can well believe it. The people in that boat fired at me in the fog."
"I am told that Young King Brady is very successful in masquerading as a
Chinaman."
"Who told you that?" demanded Harry.
"My cousin at Police Headquarters."
"And what about it?"
"Can you meet me to-night at eight o'clock at our store on Dupont street
so disguised?"
"I could, of course. But why?"
"I must not tell, but you can guess. I have an appointment. I want you
with me."
"I'll go, but there is one thing you must understand, I can't speak
Chinese. I always play the dummy when I disguise that way."
"That will be all right. I was born in San Francisco, and, as it
happens, brought up in a part of the city where I associated only with
English-speaking children. My own knowledge of the Chinese language is
very poor. I never speak it unless I am obliged to. I won't speak it in
this interview. You can and shall be a witness to all that is said. I
know you play the dummy when in Chinese disguise. I want you to play it
to-night."
"Settled then," said Harry, "I will be on hand."
There was some further talk, but as it developed nothing, it is not
worth recording.
Soon after Ah Lung left.
"A lucky thing this matter came up, governor," observed Harry.
"It promises well," replied the old detective. "That's about all we can
say for it, but we must work ahead just as though it had not come up."
It was a busy day the Bradys put in, but nothing came of it.
Towards five o'clock Harry turned up at the hotel, where he found a note
from Old King Brady, reading:
"DEAR HARRY: I have just had a call over the 'phone from Leggett.
He wants to see me at the Harper House, on Mission street, and
that's where I am going now. Don't know what for, but I suppose it
relates to Volckman. Don't wait for me. Be very careful of yourself
to-night.
"O. K. B."
Was the caution needed?
It certainly was.
For a detective to mix up with Chinese opium smugglers in Chinatown, San
Francisco, is always dangerous.
But Young King Brady felt confidence in Ah Lung.
Not only had he taken a liking to the man, personally, but having gone
to the trouble to look him up in a business way, he found that the
standing of the firm in white circles was very high.
"Half a million capital invested," one person stated.
"Good for anything they want to buy here," another firm declared.
"Squarest Chinese house in San Francisco," said another, and so on.
So Harry made his Chinese disguise, and at eight o'clock turned up at
the handsome new store on Dupont street, near Sacramento, where the Lung
Brothers held forth.
Inquiring for Ah Lung, he came up against his brother Wun, who was quite
a different proposition, being in native dress and speaking broken
English.
"Ah, him go joss house," he said. "Say, you comee longer me. Meetee him
dlere."
Harry assented, and to the new Jackson street joss house, the most
important Chinese temple of America, they went.
The big hall contained many Chinamen, most of them standing around with
their hats on talking business, for this joss house has a good deal of
the character of a Chinese commercial exchange.
But there were worshipers there before the idols, if they can be so
called.
Really, it bears no resemblance to Christian worship.
When a Chinaman gets down on his knees before the idols and throws joss
sticks out of a box just as a gambler would throw dice, he is consulting
the spirits of his ancestors as to what course to take in business, love
or pleasure. Just this and nothing more.
There were about twenty Chinamen thus engaged when Harry entered the
Jackson street joss house, and among them he spied Ah Lung throwing the
sticks for all he was worth.
"Dlere he be. We waitee," said Wun Lung. "Him findee out what go to
happen to-night."
So Harry stood waiting while the joss stick throwing went merrily on.