Evening star., 1918-12-22
The Mysterious Ways of Wang Foo By Sidney G Partridge

old friends, the IIongkonE basketmaker
and his family, Wang Foo, attired in
the modest gown of the Chinese scholar.
presented his card at the office of the
Inspector of police and was at once ad-
mtted to the inner sanctum.
II am very glad to have the pleasure
of meeting you, Mr.. Wang. My esteem
ed predecessor. Inspector Sharpley, has
told me of you and OF your wondrous
ways"
1.-THE pleasure is mine, sir. and it Is
always privilege to serve you and the
department in the interests of law and
justice. You have done me the honor of
sending for me and now my time and
my talents-such as they are-are en-
tirely at your disposal. AS Yuen Yuan,
the great disciple Of Confucius. said.
TO make no boast of talent nor show of
"There certainly are great things in
those ancient books of yours, sir.
often wish that could read them"
~ would that all Europeans were more
familiar with the Masters words re-
piled the visitor; lit would help them
better to understand my people,
"Well, sir, now to the case before us.
The morning is ours; let us go into 1T
Chief Defective Morehead will share the
conference with u.s., He is splendid
as well as' 'Isdo. May l,offer you a mild
eheroot sir?oPeningaa # fresh tna box sGf
just brought them up from the Philip
the old sailor is quite judge
Wang Foo with the politest of bows
accepted the proffered cigar and the in
spector began his tale, while his guest
listened most attentively and took the
usual copious notes.
1--WE are face to face, sir, with most
mysterious and. at the same me, time; :.
unsolved, will reflect most seriously upon
myself and all the members of the force.
The circumstances are briefly these: On
a certain morning some twenty-five or
thirty houseboys and servants In Euro
pean employ are discovered to be suf-
fering from cuts and bruises, more or
less serious. which were evidently the
result of a midnight scrimmage some
where in the settlement. We have made
the most thorough investigation, but up
to the present time we cannot find
trace of the place where it occurred or
of any of the circumstances. Everything
is reported officially. as having been
the entire district, yet every one of these
boys bears the marks of most serious
row."
After answering several detailed
questions of Wang Foo. he continued:
"The strangest thing about it all is
that these are not coolies or rowdies
at all, but the quietest and most law
abiding class of native servants, and
not one of them has ever been up be-
fore the police for disturbance.
could be the motive for such an at
tack upon thenl-for attack it evil
IDENTIFY was-and. furthermore, why
are they SO everlastingly mum about
it? They have done all in their
power to conceal the effects of it. and
clared 1T was an accident or his own
fault-of course. a perfect pack of
lies from beginning to end"
The Chinese detective thought long
again to the little leather-covered
notebook which he had drawn from
his sleeve, propounded to the foreign
officers these three inquiries:
You were quite positive that all the
boys who were injured belonged to
Yes, sir. believe every one of them
was a domestic servant. But what
possible difference could that make?"
Wang Foo's only answer, as he
lighted another cheroot out of the box,
was quiet but significant smile.
~'"There were no coolies OF horseboys
injured in any way?" 40
mo, sir. as far as we know, every
one seems to have been either a num-
ber one or number two tableboy.'
did you notice at all carefully the ma
ture or form or shape of the wounds
or bruises? Have you any theory as
to the kind of instrument or weapon
they were inflicteAFwith? Anything
foreign or native: And were they ap-
parently all inflicted with the same
club or knife-or whatever IL was?"
Assistant Morehead answered for his
chief:
Eyes, there was one queer thing
about it. l noticed it when we had
them up here for examination and 1
made them unroll the bandages. Many
OF the scars looked like three
What kind of star, sir. did you
say? three pointed starr"
Yes sort ofsthree- pointed star
with one point longer than the other
two. Don't you remember my saying,
chief, that they all must have seen
stars-that was my little joke, don't
You know"
Wang Foo arose and prepared to
leave.
Gentlemen, this requires careful
study and, above all, secrecy. l will
call upon you again in exactly ten
days and let you know the results.
In the meantime you will consider, If
you please, that I am still-as far as
the public Is concerned--living quiet
ly in IIongkong. Good morning.
"Ten days" said the inspector, after
the visitor had departed; ten days,