There
are Chinks and Chinks. All the boys know old Huang Chow has got
a regular gold mine buried somewhere under the floor. But all
the boys don't know what I know, and it seems that you don't
either."
"What is that?"
Jim Poland bent forward more urgently, again seizing Cohen's
wrist, and:
"Huang Chow is a mighty big bug amongst the Chinese," he
whispered, glancing cautiously about him. "He's hellish clever
and rotten with money. A man like that wants handling. I'm not
telling you what I know. But call it fifty-fifty and maybe
you'll come out alive."
The brow of Diamond Fred displayed beads of perspiration, and
with a blue silk handkerchief which he carried in his breast
pocket he delicately dried his forehead.
"You're an old hand at this stuff, Jim," he muttered. "It
amounts to this, I suppose; that if I don't agree you'll queer my
game?"
Jim Poland's brow lowered and he clenched his fists formidably.
Then:
"Listen," he said in his hoarse voice. "It ain't your claim any
more than mine. You've covered it different, that's all. Yours
was always the petticoat lay. Mine's slower but safer. Is
anyone else in with you?"
"No."
"Then we'll double up. Now I'll tell you something.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25