Black, Jack, 1871-1932; Criminals -- Canada -- Biography; Criminals -- United States -- Biography
Turning the nearest corner, a glance over my shoulder showed me the
loyal dog out on the sidewalk, still accusing me with his tired old
eyes. The town was awake now and I soon found a sailor’s boarding house
where I got a couple of bracing drinks and sat at a long table where
sailors and stevedores were breakfasting in free-for-all, family style.
I didn’t join in the conversation, didn’t have to. The quantity of food
I put away convinced them I belonged on the water front. Paying for a
room in the place, I got into it and took stock. There was enough money
to get an outfit of clothes and feed me for a couple of weeks. I made a
bundle of the jail pants and threw it off a wharf at once. The next day
I bought new clothes, shoes, and hat, got cleaned up, and, dismissing
the burglary charge and broken jail from my mind, proceeded to look
about me.
I had not been photographed or measured in the small town I escaped
from; it didn’t look reasonable that the authorities would travel five
hundred miles on the chance of finding me in Vancouver, so I decided to
stay there till I could get hold of something worth while. Moreover I
was curious to know how my Chinese cellmate had fared, and being young
and somewhat fond of myself, perhaps I wanted to meet his “cousins” and
be admired by them.
After looking over the town, my experience told me the police were not
to be feared and I went into Chinatown in search of my friend. Finding
the company store he described, I went in and bought a small package of
ginger candy. About a dozen Chinese were sitting around, talking or
playing dominos, but the minute I appeared the dominos quit rattling and
the Chinese stopped talking. I looked as mysterious as I could without
making it too strong and surveyed them one by one. Not one uttered a
syllable till I went out; then they all fell to talking and
gesticulating at once. The following night I went back and bought more
candy. A smart-looking, middle-aged Chinaman in European clothes was
behind the counter.
“What you come here for?” he asked in very good English.
“I look for Chew Chee, China boy, my friend. We come Vancouver Sunday
morning in box car. Before—we stop skookum house. Skookum house not
very ‘skookum’ we come Vancouver—very cold, very hungry. Chew Chee tell
me come this house. All right—I come. Now I go. Good-by!”
He remained silent, his face expressionless to me. I knew the Chinese
mistrust of white men, and many of their good reasons for it, and was
not offended or discouraged. He was protecting his countryman; I admired
him for it. At the door I gave him a final dig. “My friend tell me come
your house; I come. You think me ‘luc zhe.’ You very smart man. You
think me policeman. All right. Good-by!”
This was too much for the stoical Chinaman. He followed me out and,
catching up, said in a low voice: “You no ‘luc zhe’; you good man. You
come ‘fi fi’ (quickly).”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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