Border guard : $b The story of the United States Customs ServiceWhitehead, Don
History
Border guard : $b The story of the United States Customs Service
Whitehead, Don
Customs administration -- United States; Smuggling -- United States; United States. Bureau of Customs; United States. Division of Customs
Halvorsen dressed in his best blue trousers and white shirt for the
trip ashore. When he left the _Fernhill_ he carried a briefcase which
the Chinese had suggested he bring along. He hailed a rickshaw at the
ferry slip near the Peninsula Hotel, and gave the address on Cameron
Road. Then he sat back to enjoy the gaudy, East-meets-West sights of
Kowloon as the coolie trotted through streets swarming with Chinese,
most of them refugees from Red China.
After he stepped from the rickshaw and paid the driver, he stood
uncertainly at the curb looking about for the number 54. A Chinese came
up to him and said, “You looking for Number Fifty-four?” Halvorsen said
he was, and the man said, “You follow me.”...
Q--Where did he take you?
A--He took me inside the house and into a corridor. We turned right
and there was a door. He knocked on the door.
Q--Was the house No. 54, Cameron Road, ground floor, Kowloon, Hong
Kong?
A--Yes.
Q--Was there any number or anything written on the door of the
corridor?
A--I don’t remember.
Q--Then what happened?
A--Somebody opened the door and said, “Please, come in.” He took my
hand as in welcome. He said, “I am glad to see you,” or something
like that and in the room was the Chinese tailor I saw on the ship
and another man....
Halvorsen remembered sitting with the three Chinese at a small, round
table. The room was dimly lit and dingy. One of the men offered him
whiskey but he refused and instead asked for a glass of beer. A woman
padded into the room and placed a bottle of beer on the table. And then
he was aware that a Chinese girl was standing near him. But when he
glanced at her, he was blinded momentarily by a flash of light and so
startled that he started to rise from his chair.
The wart-eared tailor laughed and said, “Don’t worry. It was only a
flash from a camera. We need a photograph to send to our man in San
Francisco so he will be able to recognize you when you arrive with the
packages.”
One of the Chinese, a short, fat man in shirt sleeves, took a slip of
paper from his pocket and scrawled on it the words, “San Francisco.”
He tore the paper in half, handing one part to Halvorsen. “You keep
this half,” he said, “and we will send the other to our man in San
Francisco. When you meet him, you give him your half of the paper and
he can match the two halves to make sure you are the right man.”
“Where will I meet him?” Halvorsen asked.
The man wrote on another slip of paper “Lew Gar Kung Saw, 854 Clay
Street, San Francisco.” He handed it to Halvorsen and said, “You
deliver the packages of heroin to this man at this address. When you
make the delivery, he will pay you twelve hundred dollars. Okay?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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