HEARD IN THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN DELIGHTS.
Harry did not have long to wait before Ah Lung got up and came to him.
His brother Wun, making a few remarks in Chinese, excused himself and
left.
"You will pardon me, Mr. Brady, for making it necessary for you to
follow me here," said the merchant. "I wanted to find out whether the
gods were propitious to our undertaking, as you would say. I have been
so busy to-day that I got no chance until now."
"And the result?" asked Harry.
"We shall win out in the end, but not without trouble."
"Yon believe in your joss sticks, I see, Mr. Lung?"
"Firmly; and why should I not? For untold ages my people have employed
them to predict the future."
"Does it always come out true as they say?"
"By no means. Just about as often as what is told us by people in this
world comes true."
"Of what use to consult them then?"
"Listen! If you have a friend upon whom you rely, who you have known
for years, and who has never lied to you, then you unhesitatingly
believe him, do you not?"
"Most assuredly."
"It is precisely the same with me. I believe that the movement of the
joss sticks in my case is controlled by the spirit of my dead father. He
never lied to me living. Why should he do so now that he has dropped the
body and is living in the world of spirits?"
"It is too deep for me. It would seem, though, that you must be a
spiritualist."
Ah Lung shrugged his shoulders.
"I know very little about your American spiritualists," he replied, "but
we will not continue the subject. I am ready."
"Where do we go?"
"We will talk of that outside."
"Am I made up to suit you?"
"Yes, yes. As I look at you I fail to see how any one could see through
your disguise."
They passed out of the joss house and walked down Jackson street hill.
"One thing," said Harry. "You must pretend to talk to me with your
fingers deaf and dumb fashion when we come into the presence of others."
"Oh, I can actually do it," replied Wun Lung. "I have a sister who is
deaf and dumb. We were able to put her through the deaf and dumb school.
She knows only English. I am the only one who can talk to her. But I
suppose you cannot do the deaf and dumb finger speech?"
"Indeed I can," replied Harry, with his fingers.
"Then let us begin now," responded Ah Lung in the same fashion, "for we
are liable to be seen by some one whom we may meet in the House of the
Seven Delights."
"And what may that be?"
"A sort of club. A secret society. But I must say no more. You promised
not to press me, you know."
"All right. I am in your hands, but I just want to ask have you spoken
of the princess to any of the members of this club?"
"Why yes, to one or two whom I can trust."
Harry shook his head.
"I am afraid you are the author of your own troubles, then, Mr. Lung,"
he said.
"I shouldn't wonder. It is a matter I should not have spoken about to
any one. I see it now."
They turned up China alley at last, entering the long building into
which Alice had been taken on the night of her capture.
Harry now traveled over the same ground.
They ascended one flight, entered that elevator, and Ah Lung let them
down to the long corridor under ground.
Harry wondered at the many doors.
"What new organization am I up against?" he asked himself.
But of Ah Lung he asked no questions, feeling that he was in the man's
hands for better or for worse.
"Now I don't know whether anything is going to come out of this or not,"
Lung said with his fingers. "I am expecting to meet a certain party on
business. I shall bring the conversation around to the princess. The man
is supposed to be my friend. If he has betrayed me I want to know it. At
all events, it is my only chance of giving you a clew on which to start
your search."
"Right," said Harry. "Lead on."
Lung stopped before a door, on which he knocked three times.
It was immediately opened by a young Chinaman in a white native dress.
The room was quite a large one, well fitted up with comfortable American
furniture.
It looked what it actually was, a club-room. Several Chinamen, mostly in
American dress, were sitting or standing in groups.
One came forward looking questioningly at Harry.
Lung said something, apparently vouching for him as a friend, and the
man walked away.
Nobody else spoke to them.
Going up to a handsome buffet, Lung poured out tea for himself and
Harry, helping him also to sweetmeats and Chinese cakes.
"Is this just a business club?" asked Young King Brady.
"Just that and nothing else," was the reply; "there are several clubs
meeting down here. While the members are all part of one grand
organization, these clubs are organized for different purposes, and a
man may belong to one without belonging to another or knowing anything
about the others. That's the way we work it."
"Is your man here?"
"Not yet. He is expected, however. I must hurry and get you placed."
They now left the club-room, Ah Lung, opening the next door beyond with
a latch-key.
This ushered them into a narrow corridor lighted by colored red
lanterns.
From it opened several small alcoves before which fancy-colored curtains
hung.
Harry saw that they were intended for opium smokers, and that each would
hold two persons. They were provided with soft couches instead of the
usual Chinese wooden bunks.
An attendant in white came forward. Ah Lung spoke to him in Chinese and
gave him money.
"I have engaged two of these rooms," he said. "You must take one now and
pretend to smoke and go to sleep. Watch and listen for me, for I shall
come into the next alcove with my man. I never smoke opium myself, but
he does, and he always prefers to talk business over a pipe."
And this programme was carried out.
Ah Lung left Harry, who lost no time in pretending to go to sleep. The
curtain was drawn before the alcove.
Harry waited an hour and grew so drowsy that at last he actually did
drop off, to be suddenly awakened by hearing somebody give a loud cough.
As he opened his eyes he saw a hand draw his curtain shut.
He was on the alert instantly, for he could hear two men entering the
next alcove.
"And now for business," one said. Harry recognized the voice of Ah Lung.
"Wait till I get my pipe going," replied the second person.
The voice and accent were peculiar.
It seemed to Young King Brady that he recognized both.
"Surely I have heard that voice before," he said to himself. "But
where?"
This was a question that as Harry lay listening he found himself unable
to decide.
The pipe filling was so quickly completed and the smell which arose so
different from ordinary opium that Harry concluded the man must be
merely smoking some sort of opium saturated tobacco.
The talk then began.
It was precisely what Ah Lung had hinted at, a transaction in cheap
opium.
The word smuggled was not used.
Ah Lung bought a thousand dollars worth, which was to be delivered next
day at the store.
There was considerable haggling, the talk lasting all of twenty minutes,
and all this time Young King Brady was puzzling his brains to know where
he had heard that voice before, but memory refused to serve him.
As for the man's English, it was almost as good as Ah Lung's, which
amounts to saying that it was nearly perfect.
Harry heard, although their voices were keyed low. It vexed him to think
that Ah Lung could not have spoken the man's name, but he never did
once.
Now suddenly the conversation took a different turn.
"Ah, my good friend," said Ah Lung with a sigh, "I am in deep trouble. I
know you will sympathize with me when I tell you what it is."
"Of course," was the reply. "I always have sympathy for those in
trouble. What is the matter now?"
"My princess."
"Ah, ha! She is ill?"
"Not that. She failed to arrive on the Manchuria."
"Is it so? Did she not sail then?"
Ah Lung told the story he had given the Bradys.
"It must be very hard for you, Lung," replied the other. "I wish I could
help you. Perhaps I can."
"You? How can that be possible?"
"Listen! I heard it rumored--only rumored by men--you know who--that
there was a Chinese woman of high rank who was a passenger on the Dover
Castle. With her was a man who claimed to be her cousin. The man was
smuggled in, Lung. I saw and talked with him. His name was Wang Foo!"
"You don't mean it!" cried Ah Lung, excitedly.
"Hush! We shall be heard."
"No, no! I tell you the man in the next bunk is deaf and dumb. Besides,
he is a good friend of mine."
"But on the other side?"
"It is empty."
"Sure? Some one may have come in."
"I'll look and see."
Ah Lung did so and reported the alcove empty.
"Go on!" he said eagerly. "You are interesting me greatly. What became
of this woman of high rank?"
"Ah! That I do not know, my friend, but I do know that she did not land
openly. Then she must have been smuggled ashore. Probably she is
concealed somewhere in Chinatown now."
"I must find out. I will employ detectives."
"Do nothing of the sort. If the woman is here, if she really is the
Princess Skeep Hup, then I am the man who can get her for you. What will
you pay, Ah Lung?"
"Pay! I thought you were my friend."
"I am out for the dollars, brother. Out for the dollars every time."
"What is it worth to you then to go to the trouble to make these
inquiries?"
"Nothing to make inquiries, but if this Chinese woman should prove to be
the Princess Skeep Hup, and I am the means of delivering her up to you,
I shall expect half of that money you told me you were going to get with
her, or, in other words, $5,000."
Harry heard Ah Lung give an angry exclamation, and he feared that he was
going to say something which would spoil everything, but the Chinaman
controlled himself.
"Why, this is almost as bad as blackmail," he said, sarcastically. "I
don't mind paying a thousand dollars, but five thousand! It is
nonsense!"
"It has to be or I won't work."
"Come, I'll be liberal with you. I'll make it two thousand. Go ahead and
find out for me."
"Not a cent less than $5,000, Brother Lung."
"Dr. Garshaski, I believe you know something definite, that this is a
deal to blackmail me."
Dr. Garshaski! Harry almost jumped off the couch.
Now he knew whose voice he had been listening to.
He wondered at himself.
How could he ever have forgotten?
"That scoundrel!" he thought. "Alice in his hands? This is terrible, but
it explains her disappearance, all right."
Meanwhile the talk was going right on.
"Have it your own way, Mr. Lung," said the doctor, "but you want to
decide. Do I work or don't I work? Which?"
"I will give up no more than I said. I won't be swindled."
"Very well. Then I won't do anything about your Chinese princess. Your
opium will be delivered. I am going now. Good-night."
"Go," replied Lung. "I shall not forget this, doctor."
"No, I don't think you will," replied the doctor, and Harry heard him
leave the room.
Instantly Ah Lung drew aside the curtain.
But Harry did not wait for him to speak.
"After him!" he whispered. "I know that fellow! He is a scoundrel! No
doubt he is at the bottom of this whole business, and of the
disappearance of Miss Montgomery, too."