Page 122 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Sorcery and Evcrhard 117

"Won't say a word. You don't talk left to connect him with the smuggling
when you work for Sin Chang." work. The Sea Breeze was destroyed be-
"Somebody evidently did say a word," yond all chance of identification, and ex-
I corrected. cept for an accidental meeting with some
"True, " he replied thoughtfully. "The one of the three policemen there was scarcely
first boat we met was a pure fluke. There's a possibility of his being troubled.
always one up there. But the other fellows Later it was found out that the man who
were watchin' - and those on the barge. had tipped off the police was a stool pigeon,
Oh, well, I should care. I was gettin' ready trying to get himself in solidly with the
to duck from San Francisco anyway." "cops." He had got himself taken along
I did not say anything, but I was think- with the truck, and was one of the three
ing that after I had paid a visit to Belve- men captured by the police. He, of course,
dere I too would just as soon move to some had known nothing excepting that the boat
other city. was to come from the "north" and the
Later I asked what he intended to do wharf at which it was to stop; he had given
with the box, and was satisfied with the. his information to a police captain-one of
• reply that he was going to examine it care- the men who had gone out in the boats.
fully before he delivered it. And he soon was impatient to use his "pull"
"C'rious, you know. Always like to see to get out of jail-then his body was found
what old Hurgy's up to. B'sides the police without a mark on it in a Barbary Coast
did capture it an' I did get it away from 'em. alley.
I like to be truthful-even with a chink." We drove into an all-night garage. Jack-
man had pretended to discover something
••• WE DREW to one side of the street wrong with the engine, and while he and a
· and stopped for a moment as a fire- mechanic worked on that Lord Bob-with
engine came thundering with clang- many plausible comments for the benefit
ing bell and hoofs and sparks streaming, on of the garage mechanic-and I carefully in-
a furious dash to the waterfront fire. Jack- spected the contents of the box.
man had blown up the Sea Breeze and scat- The statue was not so large as the box,
tered the flaming gasoline-one storage but needed as much room as the box gave
tank full too. it because of the position of the arms,
The fire, however, proved to be more which had the elbows sticking out as well
spectacular, alarming, than dangerous. We as wide draperies, cast in the shape of flow-
met so many fire-engines and hose-carts ing robes; and also there was some kind of
that at last we turned up on to another ornamental headgear that gave it a length.
street, and, taking a speed less likely, to What the thing was, or was intended to
attract attention, made our way clear up represent, I do not know.
into the city and across Market Street. Lord Bob soon found out that it wasn't
I doubt whether we could have gone a gold, but had been ''washed" -as he called
mile without being stopped had it not been it-with gold;' and that it was made of
for the fire. The police on the wharf would brass. It seemed to be solid. The weight
have got to a telephone and would have was the weight of solid metal, and the
stirred up headquarters, and headquarters blows we struck gave no hollow sound.
would have done everything possible to Without saying anything to him as to
notify every officer on beat to keep an eye what I was looking for, I examined it care-
out for a truck and men of our description fully clear around the body for anything
-and perhaps been given the number of that could be a scam. That is, remembering
the truck, though police when they think what my pickpocket had seen happen in
they have the upper hand are inclined to be · Hurgronjc's room, I made my elf a ured
careless. that nothing of the kind could be done with
But whoever wants to distract the atten- this statute, and I actually-even at the
tion of police need only start a fire on the risk of offending the eyes of Sin Chang-
waterfront; terror of such fire is so drilled scratched it with the point of a knife from
into them that even smugglers assume sec- shoulder to shoulder, both back and front,
ond place for the time being. so as to be sure to Uncover any crack. W
Lord Bob was amazingly quick-witted, <lid not take it from the box, but turned it
and also he had planned well. Nothing was over and over.
•