The Bradys After a Chinese Princess Part 25

"Last night, just as I came here and before I had undressed--it was about a quarter to one, I should say--I saw an old-fas.h.i.+oned hack drive up on the top of the bank and stop. A man got out and then lifted out what I took to be a little girl, and the hack drove away. Next thing I knew he was coming down the long steps carrying the girl in his arms."

"Going to drown her!" cried Harry.

"I thought so," replied the old man. "There was n.o.body here but me. I determined to prevent it if I could so I sneaked along under the bank making as good time as possible and managed to get where I could see what was going on, just as the fellow reached the bottom of the steps.

You can judge of my surprise when I tell you that I saw that he was a Chinaman, and that what I had taken to be a little girl was actually a very small Chinese woman, one of the kind with little feet. I hid under the bank ready to jump on him if he attempted any funny business, but I now saw that he had no notions of drowning the woman. He wandered about among the old shacks talking to her in Chinese. They seemed to be trying to find something."

"And did they succeed?" asked Harry quickly.

"They did not as far as I could judge," replied the swimmer. "They hung around for half an hour. The Chinawoman apparently could not walk; he had to carry her all the time. At last they seemed to give it up. He carried her up the steps again and they got into the hack and were driven away."

"Garshaski and the princess," thought Harry. "It could have been no one else. What can it mean? Has he given up the treasure hunt then?"

He asked the old fellow his name and was told that it was Abner Dawson.

They went out of the water now after that and while they were dressing an idea suddenly occurred to Young King Brady.

"Mr. Dawson," he asked, "is there any other place around San Francisco which goes by the name of North Beach?"

"There might be, over the Bay," said Dawson. "They have a lot of our San Francisco names duplicated over there."

Harry left him wondering if there could be anything in his idea.

CHAPTER XI.

TOO LATE.

Old King Brady had two good reasons for keeping his mouth shut about the Chinaman whom he hoped might furnish him information about Gong Schow.

In the first place this man, who went by the name of Ed. Woo, had once saved his life during a mix-up in a Dupont street opium joint, a service which the old detective was not the kind to forget, and in the next place the man had long since given up his crooked ways and now held a position in a certain prominent bank on Montgomery street where he had charge of all Chinese business, commanded a good salary and was highly respected.

Old King Brady was not the man to throw a stone in the way of such a character, for which who can blame him?

Business of importance prevented the old detective from calling at once on Ed Woo, but during the morning he went to the bank and calling him out into the hall briefly explained the situation in part.

He told him about the princess, but made no mention of the supposed-to-be-hidden money.

"I have every reason to believe that Gong Schow before his death hid papers of importance in the little shack where he used to carry on business near the North Beach," he said. "This man Ah Lung is most anxious to recover those papers as well as the princess. I have been there, but everything seems to be in ruins. I can't even locate the spot where the shack stood. I am afraid the case is hopeless, but I thought that perhaps you could help me out, Woo."

"I will if I can, you may be sure," replied the Chinese bank clerks, "but I must say, Mr. Brady, you are rather indefinite."

"I know it," answered the old detective, "but to tell the truth, I have to be. The affair concerns only Ah Lung."

"And you are the best man in the world for keeping others people's secrets. But I did not refer to that. Which Gong Schow do you mean?"

"What! Was there more than one of that name in Chinatown?"

"There were four."

"Bless me! That certainly complicates matters. But surely there was only one who ran a business at the North Beach and engaged in hop smuggling on the side."

"There again you are wrong. There were two; what is more, there was another place called North Beach in those days."

The Chinaman named the location. It was over the Bay above Saucelito.

There, Ed Woo explained, a certain cove was once called North Beach and enjoyed a short-lived popularity as a Sunday bathing resort, but had now been entirely abandoned for several years.

"And was there a Gong Schow in business over there?" asked the old detective.

"There was," replied Ed Woo, "there was one out there and one at the old North Beach in San Francisco. Both took a hand at hop smuggling. I knew them both, so you see, Mr. Brady, it is important that I should know which one you mean."

"Well, under the circ.u.mstances I should say so," exclaimed the old detective. "The man I refer to died shortly after the fire."

"Then he was the Gong Schow over the bay," was the reply. "The other one so far as I know is living still."

Here was information of real value.

Hurrying back to the hotel Old King Brady found Harry had just come in.

"Have you accomplished anything?" he asked.

"Nothing, I may say," replied Harry, "except that by mere accident I learned that Dr. Garshaski took the princess to the North Beach last night and made a hunt for Gong Schow's house, but failed to find it."

"Which North Beach?"

"What? Are there two?"

"Sure."

"You don't mean it. Do you know that is just what I was wondering. You certainly know San Francis...o...b..tter than I do, Governor."

Old King Brady smiled.

"Oh, I can't lay claim to have been in possession of the knowledge for any length of time," he said, and went on to explain.

"Singular that I should have been seized with the same idea," remarked Harry. "Alice, how does it strike you? Can this and not the regulation North Beach be the place?"

"Easily," replied Alice. "Skeep Hup knows nothing of San Francisco, remember. When she said North Beach, she was only repeating what she had read in her grandfather's letter. She told me that the letter stated that the house was a little frame affair standing back under the bluff, and that it had a green door; that there were other houses near it and that all had been abandoned."

"h.e.l.lo!" exclaimed Harry. "You did not mention the green door before."

"Didn't I? Then it must have slipped my mind. But when one comes to think of it, no Chinaman in his senses would ever think of hiding money anywhere around North Beach, San Francisco."

"Dr. Garshaski seems to have been as badly deceived as ourselves,"

observed Harry.