The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1906-11-13

Portsmouth square stood little QuoDR
Ling On a summer day.
! Across the grass came another ng-
ure; little taller, little older than
Quong Ling, and neither white nor
Chinese, but a part of both. When II
was directly behind the Chinese boy II
shot out its hands and clapped them
tightly over the others eyes, and cried
In merry voice:
"Who?"
Ming Foo, of course" was the
prompt response.
They curled themselves comfortably
on the grass, near the edge OF the
gravel path, content as two young anil
mails.
Here comes Sam Louie" cried Ming
Foo, suddenly; hes going to stop"
"Ho, little rascals, do you have
naught to do but idle?" asked Sam
Nothing, honorable friend, but to
idle and tell stories"
We'll, If that be all, let this add to
the pleasures of thy idleness; catch!''
Cutting of generous piece of sugar
cane from one of the sticks he carried,
he tossed 1t into the air and passed
on.
For the time all else was forgotten
in the pieasurable crunch of teeth upon
the succulent cane. Forgotten till a
fat, sleek Chinaman, in American ap-
parel, and another Chinaman, with a
great red scar across his cheek, passed
by, and word or so fioated to the al
ways wide-open ears of Ming Foo.
Understand? There ought to be
about three thousand dollars, and you
must get every cent Of" That was
all, out it was enough to arrest a pair
of stout young jaws midway in the act
of sending a set of white teeth into the
juicy wood. Enough to cause Ming Foo
to stare wonderingly after the retreat
ing pair, and note that they settled
themselves on a bench and that they
were joined by third Chinaman.
In the last arrival Ming Foo recog-
nized hatehetman of the Ping Kong
tong. His eyes danced joyously, and
thrusting his stumpy piece of cane
within his blouse, he pulled Quong
Ltng's ear down close to his lips, whis-
pered something, then scampered off
and left the smaller boy wondering
and watching the patched trousers as
they disappeared around corner.
Quong Ling's patience had become
almost exhausted when one of the
three men on the bench wandered of;
fx, Jn al
ed, going in opposite directions; and,
as he held his gaze on the empty
bench, he saw a battered cap and a
close-cropped head rise from the low
shrubbery just behind it.
'Oh, Quong Ling, Quong Ling,
Quong-a-ling-a-ling," he sang, dancing
around on the tips of his toes. big,
biggest thing ever, Ell? We're goin' to
do big thing tonight. Come long
with me and I'll tell you all about it"
Then, with many gesticulations and
contortions and swellings of the chest,
Ming Foo told what he had heard as
he lay in the shrubbery. How, on this
night, the store of Now Gum, for whom
Sam Louie worked, was to be robbed;
that it was to punish the proprietor for
daring to cross the hatchet-man-in
daring to refuse to bear false witness
in some matter before the police, as
well as to gain the money. That there
were things and mysteries back of this
that it had to do with the tongs, and
much more. So that in the end, Quong
Ling quivered with the mystery and
excitement of it, and Ming Foo, strik-
ing his robust little chest, fairly
Kissed:
Amt it big? Amt we goin' to stop
1t; amt we goin' t. do more than big
detectives would?"
When the smaller adventurer asked
"How?" Ming Foo grew in stature as
he exclaimed
Never mind! You come with me, I'll
show you! I'm white"
Possibly it was owing to that little
streak of white in him that the follow
ing things happened. He was only IL,
but he knew very much, and Quong
Ling was his devoted admirer.
There was no place in the quarter of
which Ming Foo did not have the run.
Every opium joint was to him home
and place to lay his head every
pawnshop was his museum, and the
theater was his especial place of pat
ronage so that it was with no Difficult
ty that he gained for himself and fol-
lower Submission to this place of amuse-
ment He strutted across the stage and
to the dressing room behind, and got
in peoples way, and bullied the actors,
and finally disappeared in the depths
below-and the fact was not even no.
ticed.
Among rows upon rows of masks
whole heads, some of them, in fact
racks of swords, miniature pagodas,
thrones and ancient armor, they re-
eled undisturbed, and Ming Foo pulled
and hauled the things about until final
ly he found these articles he should
need-not a great deal, a papier mache
mask OF hideous design and extraordi-
nary proportions and few yards of
yellow silk Nor was the removal Of
these things without detection in the
smallest degree difficult nor beyond his