The Compassionate Tiger by Hunton Downs

Author:Hunton Downs [Downs, Hunton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CUTTING EDGE
Published: 2022-07-07T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

Mossard had been so pleased with the first Tonkinese I had sent that he ordered Lien-Fat to recruit apprentice tappers from among the refugees. “For a stablizing influence,” he wrote. D’Or Blanc was shy nearly fifteen hundred workers due to desertions during the strike and casualties from the Château attack.

Lien-Fat was surprised when I asked to go along on his daily recruiting pilgrimage to the refugee tent camps outside the city.

“They are getting wise to my tricks,” I told him. “The bars empty when they see me coming.”

“Okay,” he answered, “but is same quality like before. Good for walk under rubber trees but not fight. Besides, I get word from Mossard. He think you have enough and is time to train.”

“I have half enough.”

“How many soldier bodies you find?”

“One hundred and two,” I replied, knowing full well he had the exact number.

“Okay. Start begin train one hundred two. I find rest and send.”

“All you would pick out are bookkeepers and gold weighers. Never mind. I will get them.”

“You find today or not at all,” he commanded firmly. “Mossard want you in new fighting sect village.”

“Where is that?”

“Song-Be.”

I winced. Song-Be was hot, mosquito-ridden, and too far to sleep in the Chateau.

Lien-Fat chuckled with delight. “Now you know how dockmen feel you tap on head with heavy drink!” The rolls of fat jiggled.

I shrugged. “I will find the rest this week from the camps. There may be a few good ones.”

His bowling-pin head retrenched into a dozen chins, which I knew foreshadowed a boiling point.

“Okay … okay, today,” I said mollifying him. I wondered if he had gotten wind of last night’s venture. Probably not. I would not last an hour in Saigon if he had.

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