The Bradys After a Chinese Princess; Or, The Yellow Fiends of 'Frisco — John Shaqi
The Bradys After a Chinese Princess; Or, The Yellow Fiends of 'FriscoDoughty, Francis Worcester
General
The Bradys After a Chinese Princess; Or, The Yellow Fiends of 'Frisco
Doughty, Francis Worcester
Detective and mystery stories; Dime novels; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction
"Good for anything they want to buy here," another firm declared.
"Squarest Chinese house in San Francisco," said another, and so on.
So Harry made his Chinese disguise, and at eight o'clock turned up at
the handsome new store on Dupont street, near Sacramento, where the Lung
Brothers held forth.
Inquiring for Ah Lung, he came up against his brother Wun, who was quite
a different proposition, being in native dress and speaking broken
English.
"Ah, him go joss house," he said. "Say, you comee longer me. Meetee him
dlere."
Harry assented, and to the new Jackson street joss house, the most
important Chinese temple of America, they went.
The big hall contained many Chinamen, most of them standing around with
their hats on talking business, for this joss house has a good deal of
the character of a Chinese commercial exchange.
But there were worshipers there before the idols, if they can be so
called.
Really, it bears no resemblance to Christian worship.
When a Chinaman gets down on his knees before the idols and throws joss
sticks out of a box just as a gambler would throw dice, he is consulting
the spirits of his ancestors as to what course to take in business, love
or pleasure. Just this and nothing more.
There were about twenty Chinamen thus engaged when Harry entered the
Jackson street joss house, and among them he spied Ah Lung throwing the
sticks for all he was worth.
"Dlere he be. We waitee," said Wun Lung. "Him findee out what go to
happen to-night."
So Harry stood waiting while the joss stick throwing went merrily on.
CHAPTER IV.
ALICE PASSES THROUGH THE DOOR OF DEATH.
What then had happened to Alice?
What did happen never could have happened but for the fog, which it will
be remembered blew in more thickly just about the time she disappeared.
Alice stood watching the box, never thinking of danger, when suddenly a
cloth of some sort was thrown over her head from behind, and by a strong
hand gathered in about her throat.
No doubt she had been closely watched previous to this by sharp eyes
peering out of the mist.
The thing was done so suddenly that Alice was taken wholly unawares, and
when a voice said in Chinese: "There are two revolvers covering you,
Miss Montgomery; utter a sound and you will be instantly shot," all she
could do was to submit, especially as the voice added: "And Young King
Brady as well."
"No shooting," she said. "I yield."
Her voice was sadly muffled under the big piece of burlap which had been
thrown over her head.
Her arm was now clutched and she was drawn forward, the hand still
retaining its grip on her throat.
She was so startled and mixed up that she could not tell in which
direction she was being led, but they did not take her far.
Suddenly the clutch at her throat was released.
"Step up," said the voice. "I am about to assist you into an auto. Be
careful. There! All right now. Sit down and behave yourself and you will
slip through this trial easy enough."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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