The Golden Scorpion Part 32

"Blight side twelve-time," muttered the Chinaman. "Getchee me in tlouble, Bill. Number one police chop."

"Not the first time it wouldn't be!" retorted the fireman. "Not the first time as you've been in trouble, Pidgin. An' unless they 'ung yer--which it ain't 'umanly possible to 'ang a c.h.i.n.k--it wouldn't be the last--an' not by a d.a.m.n long way ..._an'_ not by a d.a.m.n long way!"

Ah-Fang-Fu, shrugging resignedly, shuffled from bunk to bunk in quest of a disused pipe, found one, and returning to the extemporised table, began to load it, muttering to himself.

"Don't like to 'ear about your wicked past, do you?" continued Bill.

"Wicked old yellow-faced 'eathen! Remember the 'dive' in 'Frisco, Pidgin? _Wot_ a rough 'ouse! Remember when I come in--full up I was: me back teeth well under water--an' you tried to Shanghai me?"

"You cutee palaber. All d.a.m.n lie," muttered the Chinaman.

"Ho! a lie is it?" roared the other. "Wot about me wakin' up all of a tremble aboard o' the old _Nancy Lee_--aboard of a blasted wind-jammer! Me--a fireman! Wot about it? Wasn't that Shanghaiin'?

Blighter! _An'_ not a 'oat' in me pocket--not a 'bean'! Broke to the wide an' aboard of a old wind-jammer wot was a coffin-ship--a coffin-ship she was; an' 'er old man was the devil's father-in-law.

Ho! lies! I _don't_ think!"

"You cutee palaber!" chattered Ah-Fang-Fu, busy with the pipe. "You likee too much chin-chin. You make nice piece bhobbery."

"Not a 'bean'," continued Bill reminiscently--"not a 'oat.'" He sat up violently. "Even me pipe an' baccy was gone!" he shouted. "You'd even pinched me pipe an' baccy! You'd pinch the whiskers off a blind man, _you_ would, Pidgin! 'And over the dope. Thank Gawd somebody's still the right stuff!"

Suddenly, from a bunk on the left of Gaston Max came a faint cry.

"Ah! He has bitten me!"

"'Ullo!" said Bill--"wotcher bin given' _'im,_ Pidgin? _Chandu_ or hydrerphobia?"

Ah-Fang-Fu crossed and handed him the pipe.

"One piecee pipee. No more hab."

Bill grasped the pipe eagerly and raised it to his lips. Ah-Fang-Fu returned unmoved to his Patience and silence reclaimed the den, only broken by the inarticulate murmuring and the lapping of the tide.

"A genuine customer!" whispered Max.

"Ah!" came again, more faintly--"he ... has ... bitten ... me."

"Blimey!" said Bill in a drowsy voice--"'eave the chair at 'im, Pidgin."

Stuart was about to speak when Gaston Max furtively grasped his arm.

"Ssh!" he whispered. "Do not move, but look ... at the top of the stair!"

Stuart turned his eyes. On the platform at the head of the stairs a Hindu was standing!

"Chunda Lal!" whispered Max. "Prepare for--anything!"

"Chunda Lal descended slowly. Ah-Fang-Fu continued to play Patience.

The Hindu stood behind him and began to speak in a voice of subdued fervour and with soft Hindu modulations.

"Why do you allow them, strangers, coming here to-night!"

Ah-Fang-Fu continued complacently to arrange the cards.

"S'pose hab gotchee pidgin allee samee Chunda Lal hab got? Fo-Hi no catchee buy bled and cheese for Ah-Fang-Fu. He"--nodding casually in the direction of Bill Bean--"plitty soon all blissful."

"Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu," said Chunda Lal tensely. He lowered his voice. "Do you forget so soon what happen last week?"

"No sabby."

"Some one comes here--we do not know how close he comes; perhaps he comes in--and he is of the _police."_

Ah-Fang-Fu shuffled uneasily in his chair.

"No police chop for Pidgin!" he muttered. "Same feller tumble in liver?"

"He is killed--yes; but suppose they find the writing he has made!

Suppose he has written that it is _here_ people meet together?"

"Makee chit tell my name? Muchee hard luck! Number one police chop."

"You say Fo-Hi not buying you bread and cheese. Perhaps it is Fo-Hi that save you from hanging!"

Ah-Fang-Fu hugged himself.

_"Yak pozee!"_ (Very good) he muttered.

Chunda Lal raised his finger.

"Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu!"

"Allee time velly careful."

"But admit no more of them to come in, these strangers."

_"Tchee, tchee!_ Velly ploper. Sometime big feller come in if Pidgin palaber or not. Pidgin never lude to big feller."

"Your life may depend on it," said Chunda Lal impressively. "How many are here?"

Ah-Fang-Fu turned at last from his cards, pointing in three directions, and, finally, at Gaston Max.

"Four?" said the Hindu--"how can it be?"

He peered from bunk to bunk, muttering something--a name apparently-- after scrutinizing each. When his gaze rested upon Max he started, stared hard, and meeting the gaze of the one visible eye, made the strange sign.

Max repeated it; and Chunda Lal turned again to the Chinaman. "Because of that drunken pig," he said, pointing at Bill Bean--"we must wait.

See to it that he is the last."

He walked slowly up the stairs, opened the door at the top and disappeared.