Evening star., 1921-04-10

now and had practically confessed
that he and Lugs went off on a spree
together. Noticing the heavy silver
ankle on the foot of the amah as
they came alongside the ferry. the
sudden thought came to them to just
seize a hatchet and chop it of.
And. of course, you have recovered
the silver"
Well. no. not exactly yet. but we
nope 10 very soon"
Then there are really a few links
yet lacking in the complete chain
OF evidence, are there not?" remarke ed
Wang Foo with quiet smile
Yes. a few. but only a few" re-
piled the inspector.
And. in the meantime, there is no
objection on the part of the depart
ment to my going ahead with a little
quiet search for those links myself
is there? You know these things
have certain fascination for me"
This department will, l am sure,
be grateful to you, as always. for
any assistance whatever that you can
render to the cause of Justice" was
the appreciative reply.
Then have your permission to
go ahead?"
Not only my permission-but my
blessing. and SO the interview
ended.
THE more Wang Foo studied the
case the more he was convinced
that Lugs the Bo'sun and Cut-Lip
Jim had nothing to do with it. To
be sure. the circumstantial evidence
WAS strongly against them, and it
IL;
the police were relying, but he ques-
toned very much whether any for
eign jury would have convicted them,
without some additional fact All
that they had so far amounted sim
ply to this: % A dastardly crime
had been committed in the narbor
a Chinese woman had been attacked,
robbed and her foot cut off. (2) Two
well known police characters. the
one an English sailor and the other
haif-breed longshoreman, were
proved to have been out on a drunk
en- spree along the shore at that
very time. (3) The sailor was over
heard saying in his cell. Chop it off.
Chop it OF! It's only Chinese. who
cares?" He was utterly unable-or
obstinately unwilling-to give any
explanation of these words. nor could
he recall having said them. when he
awoke out Of his drunken stupor.
The police took them, however. as
very strong evidence and amounting
practically to a confession of the
crime. They concluded. therefore.
quite naturally that the two had
Of which are only too glad to get
drunken sailors aboard. for the
drnnker they are the better they
pay) and running up alongside the
ferry launch. and seeing the amah's
foot. with its silver band. had just
Seized a hatchet and chopped it off
before they realized what they were
doing. % No trace whatever had
been found Of the silver anklet. and
the police concluded that they had
probably tossed it to the boatman as
an extra fare and bribe to silence.
50 Cut-Lip Jim's mind seemed to be
a blank from the time he and Lugs
took their last drink together until
he awoke in his cell the following
morning.
Now. while Wang Foo quite agreed
with the authorities that on gem
eraI principles the colony would be
better off with this brace of viii
lains behind the bars. he failed to
see how in this particular case they
could be held except on suspicion.
his own lines of investigation
The first problem was to try to dis
cover the real meaning Of Lugs the
Ro'sun's words. Chop it off" He no.
ticed as he read them very carefully
from the little notebook. that the
word foot" wasn't there. it simply
said st." and that might mean any
thing. 1t also said. ITS only Chi
nese." neither he" nor she" and that
again might mean anything. Now
what native article would it be that
a foreigner on a drunken spree would
want to cut off? The first and most
natural answer to that was the cue!
He had often heard the sailors riding
down Queens road in the jinriki.
shas shout out to the coolies, "Hur-
ry up. John. Hurry up there, or I'll
chop off your cue!" Could Lugs the
Bosun have meant this?
"Old Chang" he called to the gate
keeper, the venerable grand one will
receive the august visitors today. II