“Keep him to do our laundry work!” chuckled Kit. “What do you know about laundry work?” asked Ben turning to the boy. “I used to work in the laundry,” returned Kit. “I had to do all the hard work and the big fat girls got all the money.” “Are you going to build a fire in that Devil’s Kitchen we discovered?” asked Ben of Jimmie, as the boy began bringing out provisions. “I should say not!” “Then we can’t have any square meals!” Carl exclaimed. “What did you see in there?” asked Ben. “When I first went in,” Jimmie explained, “I got a whiff which made me think of Pell street, in little old New York. It was opium, all right, and I began to understand what I’d stumbled into.” “Could you see a light?” asked Ben. “No light! There was only the smell and a jabber which sounded to me like the chin-chin in the back room of a laundry on Doyers street.” “Then there are more Chinamen in there?” exclaimed Ben. “There were more in there!” replied Jimmie. “Where did they go?” asked Carl. Kit sat back against Ben’s leg and let out a roar of laughter which for a moment prevented the question being answered. “Ask Kit!” Jimmie suggested. “If you leave it to me,” Kit went on, still half choking with laughter, “they slid into the ragged little slashes between the rocks! One minute they were scampering along in their soft slippers, and the next they were out of sight just like they had gone up in smoke.” “I guess we’ve struck it!” Jimmie said in a moment. “Don’t we always strike it?” asked Carl. “You bet we do!” returned Jimmie. “But we never struck a nest of Chinks before! What do you suppose they’re doing here, anyway?” “Waiting to get into Frisco,” answered Ben. “They pay from four to eight hundred dollars apiece for being smuggled into the country.” Jimmie sprang to his feet, almost overturning a can of tomatoes from which he had been feeding. “But how did they get here?” insisted Carl. “I know!” cried Jimmie all excitement. “I know all about it?” “Wise little boy!” laughed Ben. “Now you just hold on!” Jimmie continued. “You just wait until I unload a little of Solomon’s wisdom on you boys.” “Go ahead,” grinned Ben. “You remember the light we saw when we came to the coast line?” Jimmie demanded. “Of course,” answered Carl. “Well,” Jimmie went on, “that beacon was put there for the purpose of directing some schooner loaded with Chinks to this place. Now what do you think of us stumbling right into a mess like that?” “I guess that’s right,” mused Ben. “The fire was built on a headland to direct smugglers in. Now, I wonder why we didn’t think of that before and get farther away?” “But we are at least two miles away from the headland!” suggested Carl. “Of course,” Ben returned, “for there is no cove where a vessel might cast anchor along this rocky wall. The Chinks are undoubtedly unloaded near the headland where we saw the fire and brought here to be kept until they can be set into the country.”