The Bradys After a Chinese Princess; Or, The Yellow Fiends of 'Frisco

by Francis Worcester Doughty

  CHAPTER X.

  TREASURE HUNTING.

  Harry and Detective Leggett carried Ah Lung out into the long corridorhead and heels.

  Here they ran into a bunch of Chinks just coming out of the main clubroom.

  There were friends of Ah Lung's among them, and a tremendous pow-wowand excitement followed, all in Chinese.

  Alice explained that it was partly sympathy, partly indignation againstDr. Garshaski, who was a club member, and partly about the presence ofdetectives in the House of the Seven Delights.

  Ah Lung quieted them, however.

  "Leave me now," he said. "I am in the hands of my friends. They will doall for me that can be done. They are not willing that you should enterthe club room."

  So the detectives were escorted back to earth by the way Old King Bradyand Leggett had come down into these lower regions and glad enough theywere to find themselves safe on China alley.

  Parting from Leggett, they started, reaching it shortly before midnight.

  Alice was so exhausted that Old King Brady insisted that she shouldpostpone her story till morning.

  "I don't know that it will do any good to tell it now," she said. "But Imust give you a hint. There is buried or hidden money at the bottom ofall this business."

  "Yes, yes, I know," said Old King Brady. "I heard Garshaski call outabout it. Do you know where the hiding place is?"

  "In an old house down by the North Beach."

  "Does he know?"

  "He does. He has had plenty of time to get there and get the treasure ifit still exists."

  "If that is the case," said the old detective, "then I think the bestthing that all of us can do is to go to bed."

  They did so and it was not until the next morning at breakfast in theprivate parlor of the detective's suite that Alice's story was told.

  We need only take it up at the scene in the torture room when theprincess fainted and Alice thought her dead.

  "They ran me out then," she said, "so I don't know exactly what theyellow fiends did to her after that.

  "They tied me to the chair and I think Garshaski meant mischief.

  "After a little he brought the princess into the room and laid her onthe bed. She was in a dreadful condition, but she was game still. Shehad not given the secret away. I begged Garshaski to untie me and allowme to attend to her, but he wouldn't hear to it.

  "'She'll come around all right,'" he declared; adding:

  "'And for your interference you have to suffer, Alice. I will make youfeel sorry you ever insulted me in the way you did.' He then left us,and I tried to question the princess, but she would not talk aboutherself.

  "'Listen, Alice,' she said. 'That fiend has killed my cousin Wang Foo.He told me so. He means to kill me, I know it, but I will never tell himwhere my grandfather hid his money. I will tell you, though, for you maylive to get out of this and I want you, if you do, to go and get thatmoney and give it to Ah Lung. Promise me that.'

  "I gave her the promise and asked how much the money amounted to.

  "She declared that her grandfather's letter did not state.

  "She then went on to tell me that it was hidden under the headstone ofan old house near the North Beach, the location of which she describedso carefully that I am sure I can find it. It appears that hergrandfather, although he lived in Chinatown, carried on business in thishouse selling cigars, soda water and so on, probably doing a littleopium smuggling on the sly."

  "Let's see!" exclaimed Old King Brady. "What was the old fellow's nameagain? I heard Garshaski speak it, but I forget."

  "His name was Gong Schow," Alice replied.

  "Why, I knew him!" cried the old detective. "Of course, he smuggledopium. The cigar and soda water business was only a blind. I can locatethat house if you can't Alice. But do you suppose it is still standing?"

  "The princess thinks so at all events. That is all I know about it."

  "Very likely it is then. We must go down there at once. On the way wewill look in at Lung & Lung's and learn how it fares with Garshaski'sunfortunate victim."

  "Go on with your story," said Harry.

  "There is little more to tell," replied Alice. "Garshaski must have hadhis ear at some listening hole, for he now burst in on us and, gaggingme carried Skeep Hup off, declaring that he had heard all."

  And this ended what Alice had to say.

  They started away right after breakfast.

  Meanwhile Old King Brady called up Mr. Narraway on the telephone andsuggested--for he was in no position to order it--the immediate arrestof Volckman.

  "That has already been attended to," replied the Secret Servicecommissioner over the wire, "Leggett was at my house early this morningand told me what happened last night."

  At Lung & Lung's they ran into Wun Lung.

  "Ah was still at his club," he said. "He had seen him that morning. Dr.Gim Suey thought he would recover." That was all he could say.

  The Bradys and Alice now went to the North Beach.

  Here they met with disappointment.

  They passed on to a point at some distance from the bathing houses to aplace where there had once been quite a little grouping of little shackswhere various kinds of small business had once been carried on.

  But these, owing to certain changes, had all been abandoned since thefire. Many of them had been pulled down and carried away for firewood.The few which still remained were all unoccupied and fast going to ruin.

  Skeep Hup's description of the place would have fitted either one ofthose remaining.

  Even Old King Brady was at fault, sure as he had been that he couldeasily identify the house.

  They returned to the North Beach proper and started to inquire.

  They could not find any one who remembered old Gong Schow, strange as itseemed, for the man had been there for several years.

  "It looks as though we should have to give it up altogether," remarkedHarry when this stage of the game was reached.

  "It does," replied Old King Brady, "and it don't give us the ChinesePrincess either. There is but one way to solve the mystery that I canthink that is to get hold of some old Chink who knew and had businesswith Gong Schow."

  "But it is doubtful if such a person can be made to tell."

  "Very."

  "Do you know such a man?"

  "I think I do."

  "Who is he?"

  "Now, Harry, I feel under obligations not to tell you. He is a Chinamanwho was at one time largely engaged in opium smuggling. I knew it, but Iwas never called upon to proceed against him, so as he once did me animportant service I made no move. I found out that he was in the hopbusiness by the merest accident and I swore to him that I would nevertell."

  And Harry knew that this was final.

  So they gave it up and went back to town, leaving Old King Brady to lookup his man.

  Alice was still suffering from the effects of what she had been throughin those underground rooms, so she remained at the hotel while Harrystarted out to see what he could do towards locating Dr. Garshaski.

  He called first at the Stockton street house and entered the Doctor'sroom with a skeleton key.

  It was a case of no doctor, but there was evidence that he had recentlybeen there.

  Hardly knowing what to do or where to go, Harry bent his steps towardsthe North Beach again.

  When he got there the water looked good to him, so he went in swimming.

  The day was cool and there were few bathers.

  One old white-haired man, a splendid swimmer, particularly attractedYoung King Brady's attention and he fell into conversation with him.

  He learned that the old fellow suffered terribly from insomnia.

  "Why I often come down here and go in alone at midnight," he said, "andsometimes in the early morning hours. I was here this morning at aquarter to one."

  "Is the place deserted then?" Harry asked.

  "I don't believe the North Beach baths are ever deserted," replied theold man. "There are always
a few old cranks like myself paddling about;sometimes we see strange sights."

  "I suppose so. Suicides for instance?"

  "Yes, I have seen more than I like to think of. I have personallyprevented three. Last night I saw something which interested me, but, ofcourse, I didn't butt in. I never do. I learned long ago to mind my ownbusiness in my nightly wanderings."

  "What was that?" inquired Harry carelessly, for he was not paying veryclose attention to the old man's talk.

  "See those old shacks away down there where the pavilion used to be,"pointing to the very place which interested Young King Brady most.

  "Why, yes. What about them?"

  "Last night, just as I came here and before I had undressed--it wasabout a quarter to one, I should say--I saw an old-fashioned hack driveup on the top of the bank and stop. A man got out and then lifted outwhat I took to be a little girl, and the hack drove away. Next thing Iknew he was coming down the long steps carrying the girl in his arms."

  "Going to drown her!" cried Harry.

  "I thought so," replied the old man. "There was nobody here but me. Idetermined to prevent it if I could so I sneaked along under the bankmaking as good time as possible and managed to get where I could seewhat was going on, just as the fellow reached the bottom of the steps.You can judge of my surprise when I tell you that I saw that he was aChinaman, and that what I had taken to be a little girl was actually avery small Chinese woman, one of the kind with little feet. I hid underthe bank ready to jump on him if he attempted any funny business, but Inow saw that he had no notions of drowning the woman. He wandered aboutamong the old shacks talking to her in Chinese. They seemed to be tryingto find something."

  "And did they succeed?" asked Harry quickly.

  "They did not as far as I could judge," replied the swimmer. "They hungaround for half an hour. The Chinawoman apparently could not walk; hehad to carry her all the time. At last they seemed to give it up. Hecarried her up the steps again and they got into the hack and weredriven away."

  "Garshaski and the princess," thought Harry. "It could have been no oneelse. What can it mean? Has he given up the treasure hunt then?"

  He asked the old fellow his name and was told that it was Abner Dawson.

  They went out of the water now after that and while they were dressingan idea suddenly occurred to Young King Brady.

  "Mr. Dawson," he asked, "is there any other place around San Franciscowhich goes by the name of North Beach?"

  "There might be, over the Bay," said Dawson. "They have a lot of our SanFrancisco names duplicated over there."

  Harry left him wondering if there could be anything in his idea.