The Apple of Discord. Earle Ashley Walcott
had not looked at her in that light."
"A defect of your western training, Mr. Hampden. She belongs to one of our tongs–or to the leading men of that tong, which amounts to the same thing. Another tong has been most anxious to secure her, and has offered as high as three thousand dollars for her possession. It was refused and four thousand demanded. I interfered so far as to order that the girl should be reserved until some man offered to make her his wife. She is pretty–very pretty, to our notions–and I have interested myself so much in her welfare as to think that she would grace a home. I suppose I do not need to tell you that the leaders of the two tongs have no such destiny in view for her."
"Well, no, if rumor does them no injustice," I assented.
"It was promised that I should be obeyed. I have been obeyed for many months. Yet just at this moment, when it is of the utmost importance that we should be a peaceful, united body, these dogs of the gutter start a war between the tongs."
"You have shown your power to end it," I said.
"You are too flattering, I fear," said the King of Chinatown. "Fire in flax, you say. It is so much easier to keep fire out of flax than to stamp it out after it starts. It is in my power to punish these men, but I fear that it is beyond my power to smother their enmity. In the code of the tongs blood or blood-money must pay for this." He mused for a little and seemed to be speaking to himself as much as to me. "That this should happen at such a time, when everything depends on our self-control! It is shameful–shameful–a reproach to our race."
"At such a time? I do not understand you," I ventured. The hint in his words was too plain to miss.
He looked at me sharply.
"You do not know what is going on in your own city, Mr. Hampden," he said politely.
"I confess to a lack of information on the point you mention."
"It will be brought to your attention later," said Big Sam dryly. "But I am detaining you with matters of no interest. You wished a translation of these papers?"
His face was bland and impassive, yet I had the impression that he felt he had said too much.
"It has been deeply interesting," I said. "But I am imposing on your good nature." It was of no use to seek to learn from Big Sam anything that he thought fit to conceal, and I placed the slips before him.
He read them off gravely. One was a polite note of invitation to dinner. The other a memorandum of goods bought, or to be bought.
I thanked him and raged inwardly that I should have been outwitted.
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."
I looked my surprise.
"It is quite true," he said simply. "My people are not troubled with scruples in the matter, and I must be security that the girl will be returned when the conditions I make are complied with."
"And these are–"
"That a worthy man of her race wishes to make her his wife, and is willing to settle the claims of the two tongs."
"The two tongs?"
"Yes. He must pay the price demanded by the one, and the–the–"
"Blackmail," I suggested, as Big Sam hesitated for a word.
"Well, yes–not a pleasant word, I believe, but accurate–the blackmail demanded by the other."
"I will do my best to find a guardian who will meet your conditions."
"Can you make it convenient to bring your word this evening?"
"That is short notice."
"It is important. I shall be here from nine to twelve."
"I shall do my best."
"I shall be deeply in your debt," he said.
I looked at him closely.
"You can cancel it readily."
"I shall be most happy. How?"
I hesitated a moment and rose.
"By telling me what is the business of your communications with Mr. Peter Bolton."
We had come to such confidential terms on the matter of the maiden that Big Sam allowed himself to be surprised. His discomposure flashed in his eyes for but an instant, and was gone.
"I do not understand you," he said politely, rising in his turn.
"The memorandum that I brought might remind you," I said dryly.
I could see that I had risen a notch in Big Sam's estimation; and he was uncertain how much more I knew than was on the surface.
"You have the advantage of me," he said. "I furnished Mr. Bolton a thousand men three months ago, but we have had no transactions since. I wish you good morning. I shall expect you to-night between nine o'clock and midnight."
And he bowed me out.
CHAPTER V
MISS KENDRICK'S PLEASURE
"I suppose it's my uncle you want to see, so I'll be going," said Miss Kendrick in her piquant voice. She had been reading as I was ushered into the library, and now stood, book in hand, in a graceful attitude of meditated flight.
"If you please," I said, "it's not your uncle I want to see. I want to ask a favor of you."
"A favor? Of me? Well, I hope