A VISIT TO CHUAN KAI's
On Monday afternoon Mr. Stevens and the new football captain journeyed
to the thriving young city. They went first to Stanley Square. Starting
from the yellow brick market building with the tower and the clock,
Teeny-bits attempted to retrace the steps that he had taken on that
night when he fled from the place where the Orientals had held him
prisoner. They went down one street and up another, turning this way and
that, until Teeny-bits finally stopped and said:
"I'm afraid I can't remember just which way I came. I was pretty excited
and I ran down these streets as fast as I could and it was dark, and I
didn't think much about remembering where I came."
"Well," said Mr. Stevens, "there's one thing we can do. We'll ask the
officer over there on the street corner where the Chinese places are,
and perhaps that will lead us somewhere."
"At any rate," said Teeny-bits, "it must be very near where we are now,
because I know I came from this general direction and I covered about
the same amount of ground that we have covered since we left the
square."
In answer to their inquiry the police officer informed them that there
were four Chinese establishments in the city--two laundries and two
restaurants.
The laundries proved to be near the center of the town, one on Main
Street, the other on Clyde Street. Mr. Stevens, and Teeny-bits looked
both of these establishments over, but Teeny-bits quickly announced that
neither of them could be the place they were seeking. They were small
and both were across the electric car tracks from Stanley Square.
Teeny-bits remembered that on the night of his escape he had crossed no
tracks until he reached the square.
The first of the restaurants which they visited backed up to the
Greensboro River, a shallow stream which wound through the town. There
was an alley in the rear which to Teeny-bits looked somewhat like the
one down which he had hastened while the two Chinese had come pattering
after him, but he did not remember that he had seen any water. They went
inside, however, and questioned the wrinkled yellow man who, thinking
them customers, came to take their order. He answered them in pidgin
English, and Teeny-bits became convinced, after they had looked about
the place, that this was not the scene of his imprisonment on Friday
night.
They then went to the Oriental Eating Palace of Chuan Kai, but at Mr.
Stevens' suggestion, before entering the restaurant, made a complete
circuit of the building and examined its outward appearance. In the rear
there was an alley.
"This looks like it!" declared Teeny-bits, and then he added: "But I
couldn't swear that it's the one."
"Why don't we go up those stairs there and see what we find," said Mr.
Stevens. "It's trespassing, I suppose, but all in a justifiable cause."
Quickly they let themselves in the rear door and began to mount the
steps.
"That night," said Teeny-bits, "I remember that I came down two flights;
this might be the place, but of course I didn't stop much to look
around."
At the top of the second flight Mr. Stevens and Teeny-bits came to a
narrow hallway from which opened two doors. Mr. Stevens knocked softly
on the one at the right and, receiving no answer, pushed it open. They
had expected to find no one in the room; to their surprise, a Chinese
who had been lying on a "double-decker" bunk jumped down to the floor
and stood looking at them with astonishment and fear in his face.
"This isn't the room, and I don't think I ever saw this fellow before,"
Teeny-bits whispered to the English master.
"We're looking for two Chinese who were in one of these rooms last
Friday night," said Mr. Stevens to the Oriental. "Perhaps they're in the
other room."
It was evident that the Chinaman who confronted them with startled eyes
did not understand much English. He made no reply and continued to stare
at them as if he thought it inexplainable that two white men should
suddenly invade his sleeping quarters.
Mr. Stevens backed out of the room and somewhat to Teeny-bits' surprise
immediately tried the other door. It opened upon a small square room,
empty except for a table and four chairs which were arranged as if for a
game of cards. Teeny-bits had expected to see a mattress lying on the
floor, but nothing of the sort greeted his eyes and no one was in the
room.
"This looks like the place, but somehow it seems changed," he said to
Mr. Stevens.
At that moment they both heard a cry in Chinese and, as they whirled
round, an answer came from the floor below and the sound of feet
pattering down the stairway.
"There!" exclaimed Mr. Stevens, "I'm afraid your friends are running
away. That fellow in the other room has given the alarm. Let's go down
to the restaurant quickly and see what we can find."
Chuan Kai met the two with an inscrutable countenance. There was
something about his eyes, however, that suggested to Teeny-bits and Mr.
Stevens that he was not wholly unprepared for their call.
"Last Friday night," said the English master, "this young man was kept
for several hours in one of the rooms upstairs. We should like to talk
to the two Chinese who were kind enough to permit him to escape."
"No unne'stan'," said Chuan Kai, wrinkling his lips in a manner that
showed his yellow teeth.
Mr. Stevens was patient. He repeated his request, laid his hand on
Teeny-bits' shoulder, pointed toward the ceiling as he mentioned the
room above and then held up two fingers as he spoke of the Chinese who
had been present when Teeny-bits escaped. The only answer was a puzzled
frown on Chuan Kai's wrinkled features; either the old man was
bewildered by the request of his visitors or he was a good actor.
Suddenly Mr. Stevens decided the latter, for he spoke rapidly and with
considerable force:
"I think you understand English all right. Now tell me, where are those
two men of yours? If you will let me see them quickly perhaps we can
agree not to trouble you further. Now then, where are they?"
Chuan Kai smiled with such ingenuousness as he could summon. "Ai," he
said. "You like to see my boys?"
He turned away from them quickly and cried out something in Chinese, at
the same time throwing back a door which led to the kitchen.
"Come, look, _see_," he said as he turned back to Teeny-bits and Mr.
Stevens. "You like see all boys."
In the kitchen which was disclosed to view were four Chinese in
loose-sleeved shirts and aprons. They were engaged in cutting up meat
and in mixing food over the fire. Among them Teeny-bits did not
recognize either one of the Orientals who had acted so strangely at the
sight of the knife mark.
"I don't think they're here," he said to Mr. Stevens. "As I remember it
they were bigger than these fellows."
The English master turned to Chuan Kai and said, "We don't intend to
cause you any trouble. This young friend of mine has a mark on his
shoulder which looks like a knife. Two of your men acted strangely when
they saw it. What can you tell me about it? Don't be afraid to speak
up."
Chuan Kai and his four employees looked at their American visitors with
every semblance of frank amazement and bewilderment.
"Well, we'll try one thing more," said Mr. Stevens. "Pull off your coat,
Teeny-bits, and let them take a look at that mark."
Teeny-bits quickly threw off his coat and unbuttoned the soft collar of
his shirt until he could pull back the linen and show the mark of the
knife. The effect was more than the English master or Teeny-bits
expected. The four Chinese, who had been observing in apparent
astonishment this sudden performance on Teeny-bits' part, gazed at the
mark and began to jabber among themselves in a manner that showed
plainly enough their excitement and agitation. One of them even took a
step nearer as if to obtain a clearer view. Chuan Kai, however, quickly
brought their demonstration to an end. He exclaimed sharply in his
singsong language and stepped toward them in a manner that had only one
meaning,--a threat of violence. Instantly the four Chinese resumed their
work over the meat and the kettles, and although they rolled their black
eyes furtively toward Teeny-bits and the English master they said
nothing more, nor could they be induced to show further sign of
excitement.
Chuan Kai himself muttered in Chinese. Finally he smiled craftily,
shrugged his shoulders and said to Mr. Stevens, "Where did boy get mark?
These fellas (pointing to the four Chinese) think it's funny."
"Why do they think it's funny?" asked Mr. Stevens. But the Oriental had
no answer to that and took refuge again in his assumed or actual
unfamiliarity with English. For several minutes Mr. Stevens tried to get
something further from the Chinamen but was unsuccessful and finally
said to Teeny-bits who had buttoned his shirt and put on his coat:
"Well, I guess we've found out as much as we are able to from these
fellows. Let's be going."
Chuan Kai, following them out to the street, was obsequiously polite. He
even gave them a little box of Chinese nuts and candied fruit and
pressed it upon them when they at first refused to accept it.
The result of the visit had not been satisfactory. Teeny-bits had been
unable to discover either of the Orientals who had held him prisoner.
Perhaps, as Mr. Stevens had suggested, these two had escaped down the
alley when the young Chinese whom they had encountered in the upper room
gave his cry of warning. The only significant incident had been when the
four Chinese had shown excitement on viewing the mark on Teeny-bits'
back.
"Of course, we could swear out a warrant and have the police investigate
this whole matter," said Mr. Stevens, "but I am afraid that that would
get us nowhere, for as you say, it would be pretty difficult for you to
identify those men and we couldn't even prove that it was at Chuan Kai's
place that you were held prisoner. I guess the next thing for us to do
is to wait for some word to come from Tracey Campbell."
But no word of explanation came. For a few days Tracey Campbell lay in a
semiconscious condition; he then grew rapidly better and at the end of
the week was removed to the Campbell home.
The leather dealer, who had been away on a business trip at the time of
the Ridgley-Jefferson game, had, of course, been summoned back to
Greensboro by telegram. Twice he came to Ridgley School for a conference
with Doctor Wells. His attitude on the occasion of his first visit was
one of indignation and arrogance. He indicated to the Head that Ridgley
School was responsible for the whole tragic incident and that
explanations were in order. When he learned that his son was under
accusation and that there was evidence to give weight to the case, his
attitude underwent somewhat of a change. He was still in a warlike mood,
however, and left Doctor Wells with the promise of getting at the root
of the whole matter and exonerating his son. On the occasion of his
second visit, however, his attitude was quite different. He now wished
to hush up the whole affair and treat the thing as an unfortunate
incident which could not be too quickly forgotten. Tracey Campbell would
not return to Ridgley School. As soon as he recovered sufficiently to
travel his father intended to send him to Florida. From certain remarks
that the leather dealer made, it was evident to Doctor Wells that Tracey
had confessed his part in the theft of the trinkets and money. In regard
to the charge of being implicated in the kidnapping of Teeny-bits, Mr.
Campbell declared that nothing had been proved against his son and in
his opinion it was doubtless "all a story made up by that young
Teeny-bits fellow in order to curry favor and win popularity."
And so the matter was left as far as the Campbells were concerned,
though it was said that Mrs. Campbell called Doctor Wells on the
telephone and in her shrill voice denied vigorously that her son had
acted in any manner unbecoming to "the son of a gentleman" and that for
her part she thought that the school was a poor one and that she wished
they wouldn't have such games as football "which work the boys up to
excitement and get them into a dangerous state of mind." No one took the
pains to ascertain whether Tracey Campbell was actually expelled from
the school or had merely been withdrawn. At any rate Ridgley School
would see him no more and as the days went on, it seemed less and less
worth while to investigate the circumstances which preceded the
Jefferson game by calling upon Tracey Campbell to confess further
details.
The visit of Bassett Senior to the school--Blow-Hard Bassett as he was
known in certain sections of the West--was sadder and more pathetic. He
was a big man who dressed gaudily; even the tragedy had not served to
remove wholly from his appearance the garish quality that proclaimed his
type. To Mr. Stevens and Doctor Wells his visit was a startling
exemplification of that old saying: "Like father, like son." When they
talked to him it was as if they were talking to Whirlwind Bassett grown
into a man of fifty. His visit was an unpleasant incident,--he showed so
plainly that he had made a failure of his duties as a father and he
groped so helplessly in his grief for the reason why his boy, whose body
he would carry back to the West, had by his own acts brought an unhappy
termination to his career.
"I never understood him," he said to Doctor Wells, "and I suppose I
haven't been just the right kind of father for him. He didn't have any
mother after he was four years old, and even when he was a little feller
I never seemed to have much luck in making him mind me. He was always
doing something to cause a commotion of some sort, like running away or
getting into mix-ups--nothing very bad, you know, just such things as
young fellers are apt to do. Sometimes I talked to him but it never made
much impression."
As Blow-Hard Bassett looked out of Doctor Wells' shaded windows there
was a hint of moisture in his eyes. "He was a determined little feller,"
he remarked after a moment, "and when he'd get a notion in his head it
seemed like nothing would shake it out. I remember one time when a
mongrel dog that they had out on a ranch where we were staying bit him
on the wrist and the little chap--I guess he was only eight years
old--came bawling to me and says, 'He bit me, Pa; you've got to kill
him!'
"I said, 'Don't you see, it was your fault; the dog wouldn't of bit you
if you hadn't been teasin' him,' but he kept on begging me to kill the
mongrel and when I wouldn't do it, he decided to take matters into his
own hands--and what do you suppose he done? He got a six-shooter out of
a holster that one of the cowboys had left lyin' around an' come up
behind that dog while he was sunnin' himself beside the ranch house and
blowed out his brains! You see, he just made up his mind to settle with
that dog, and nothing that any of us could say made a bit of difference.
I always thought he was going to be a smart man, but I never could get
close to him, so to speak. It was just as if he belonged to some other
man, and now, of course, I can't help wishing that I had somehow got to
understand him better."
There was not much that Doctor Wells could say after that except to
extend his sympathy and to express the wish that it had been possible
for others as well as the father to understand and help the youth who
had come to his untimely end.
November, with each day crisper than the last, slipped into December and
one morning the school awoke to find a thin sifting of snow over the
brown grass of the campus and the bare branches of the maple trees. The
Christmas vacation suddenly became the subject of conversation, and to
Teeny-bits it seemed that every one had a plan that promised pleasure
and recreation. He felt a little lonely at the thought of seeing all
these friends of his depart for the holidays and leave him to spend the
vacation alone in the quiet little village of Hamilton; and then one
evening after the last mail, Neil Durant came into his room with two
opened letters in his hand.
"A couple of invitations," he said. "It's all fixed up, Teeny-bits.
You're going home for Christmas with me and we're going up to Norris'
place in the mountains for some winter sports. You remember he spoke
about getting together, after the game. I thought then that I'd like to
renew old times and now he writes that he wants us to come up to his
place, which is a wonder, way back in the hills where there's great
skiing and snowshoeing."
To Teeny-bits it seemed suddenly as if he had been dreaming and hoping
for a long time that this very thing would happen. It was a wonderful
chance for a good time--but it was to prove more than that for the new
captain of the Ridgley football team.