Big Sam smiled blandly. "It is nothing in the way of treason, whichever
paper you may choose."
"Quite innocent," I said, looking in his half veiled eyes. I read that
he was under no delusion that he had deceived me. I rose to go.
"One moment, Mr. Hampden," he said. "You have asked a trifling favor of
me. May I ask a much greater one of you?"
"Certainly."
"This girl--I am perplexed to know what to do with her."
"Is there a more proper custodian than her father?"
"Father?"
"The old man--you know."
Big Sam laughed--a most unpleasant laugh, too.
"Quite as near a relation as yourself, Mr. Hampden. He is merely the
custodian for his tong."
"Then his pitiful tale to the police--"
"Oh, we do not want for the inventive faculty."
"Then what better guardian could you suggest than yourself," I said, "or
what better place than in your own home--or one of your homes?" Big Sam
was reported to have one white wife and two Chinese wives, and it seemed
to me that he might provide for her safety with one of the three, in
case he did not wish to add to his matrimonial blessings.
"I have thought of that, but there are difficulties," he said, as a man
considering. "I shall excite less enmity if I can provide for her
safety in another way."
"The Mission--" I suggested.
"I should have both tongs at my throat at once," he laughed. "She must
be where she can be returned at my will. And it is best that she should
be with some good white woman."
"I'm afraid that the good white woman you have in mind would not care to
take her in charge on those terms," I said.
Big Sam looked at the girl thoughtfully.
"Well, then, I must let my benevolent plans for her welfare go. It is a
pity, too. I do not often indulge in such a luxury. But there are more
important matters at stake than the life of a girl."
I looked at the girl and remembered a painted face that had grinned at
me from behind a wicket a little while before. At the thought of what
it meant to her, I took a sudden resolve.
"If I can be of service, I shall be happy."
"I don't think you will regret it," said Big Sam. "Can you arrange it by
this evening?"
"I can not promise. The conditions make a difficulty."
"True. But they are imperative. I must trust to your honor to carry
them out. But I hope that you will remember that I stake my life on
it."