San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction; Shanghaiing -- Fiction; Short stories
He convinced the Celestials that he meant business. He explained that
he was the much-feared Keenon. The mere possession of five cans of hop
called for years in prison. Hong Kee and two coolie friends were taken
by a roundabout route to Meigg’s wharf. Hansen did not need to handcuff
them.
Captain Gully, on watch, held up three fingers when Abie was rowed from
the dingey whaler. The crimp had half filled the contract.
“I dank it will be easy to get the others,” said the mate, whose slow
brain had finally grasped Abie’s big idea.
“We should have no trouble at all,” Abie answered. He relaxed into
silence and was rowed ashore.
Rain fell athwart the city. A mist rested on top of Knob Hill. Abie,
hidden beneath the slouch hat and raincoat, entered several opium dens
in hopes of catching some one napping. He was recognized in one of
these. This would not do. He was supposed to be Keenon, a detective.
“We’ll try for a big haul,” he told the faithful mate. “We’ll break in
where men are making money.”
The method pursued by the crimp to find the location of the coiners he
had in mind was an involved detour which took all of an hour of
precious time.
Mother Kelly, on duty as barmaid at the Blubber Room, supplied the
necessary information. The Yetsky Wop, who had fortunately tried to
pass a smooth two-bit piece on Abie’s mother the day before, had never
met Abie. His address was on Lower Mission Street, between a Chinese
laundry and a ship’s outfitter.
The crimp acted energetically. He dragged the mate out from a crowd
that surrounded a soap-box preacher at Mission and East Street. He
crossed the sidewalk, loosened his revolver, and started mounting
flights of stairs which were steep as the shrouds to a topmast.
The Yetsky Wop, a meek-eyed Italian and his assistant coiner, had a
crucible on a stove and three plaster-of-Paris molds ready for filling.
Both raised their arms when Abie, backed by the mate, came around by a
fire-escape.
The crimp took no chances with the coiners. Yetsky’s brother was known
in the city as Angel Face. He was credited with five murders.
Hansen securely handcuffed the prisoners. He waited while Abie searched
the room. A plating outfit, a box of copper and zinc, and a double
handful of smooth quarters were hidden beneath the floor.
“I’m Keenon of the Secret Service!” said Abie. “My man will take you
out to the revenue cutter. You go to the Federal prison.”
Yetsky and his brother had feared Detective Keenon for over four years.
They were plastic as their own plaster-of-Paris in the mate’s hands.
They jumped to his proposal of letting them get away on a whaler. Had
not they been caught red-handed? It was bad enough to have queer money
in one’s possession, but double worse to have both the money and the
molds. The sentence given by the Federal courts on similar charges had
been five years for each offense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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