The Blonde in Lower Six by Erle Stanley Gardner

Author:Erle Stanley Gardner [Gardner, Erle Stanley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Criminal
ISBN: 0881846333
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Published: 1990-09-30T21:00:00+00:00

Grinning Gods

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Seated in the back part of the Yat King Cafe, I dipped my chop sticks into a bowl of chicken noodles and listened to the hum of conversation about me. As long as I could keep in a dim light I felt safe. Color of skin, hair, eyebrows, clothes, would pass muster anywhere. It was only in regard to the eyes that my disguise was weak. It required a little grease paint to give the necessary slant to the upper corners, and grease paint has a habit of glinting a reflected gleam under the rays of a bright light.

The back of the Yat King Cafe was the gathering place of Chinese politicians. Those who controlled the destinies of Chinatown were accustomed to meet there in the early part of the evening. On this night they had come earlier than usual, a significant sign.

I raised my bowl of rice to my mouth and scooped down the white grains, Chinese fashion. For years I had studied the Chinese, learning the eight tones of Cantonese dialect, studying Chinese manners and customs, learning as much as possible of their habits of thought; all in preparation for the time when no ordinazy disguise would avail, and I must assume a role which it would never be suspected a white man could assume.

“, . . san man chee.”

The words came as a drifting fragment of conversation which eddied from the table behind me where three of the prominent men of Chinatown swapped gossip over their tea.

It was the second time I had heard those three words in the course of ten minutes.

Why should these Chinamen be talking so continuously of the newspaper? The Chinese paper had come out in the morning and had excited no comment. They were, therefore, referring to the evening newspaper, the Clarion, probably.

I beckoned the young Chinese boy who waited on the tables.

“Ngo yiu Fa K’ei san man chee.”

He gave that brief flicker of slanting brown eyes which passes for a nod of the head with the Oriental, and slippety-slopped away.

In telling him that I wanted the American newspaper I did not risk discovery. I appeared as a Chinaman of the younger generation, and might be interested in things of the Fa K’el without exciting comment.

And in the next moment, I would have given much to recall the words. The lad slipped to the table behind me, the table where the conspirators of Chinatown sat in conference, and made the courteous suggestion that if they were finished with the Fa K’ei newspaper the gentleman at the other table would like it.

My last wish was to invite any unnecessary attention to myself, particularly the attention of such men as the three behind me.

However, the damage was done.

There came the sound of slippered feet, the rustle of a newspaper, and it was spread before me, folded just as it had been at the other table.

Headlines stared up at me.

ED JENKINS LOCATED IN CHINATOWN … PHANTOM CROOK DISGUISED AS CHINESE MINGLES WITH YELLOW RACE.

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