Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 69

Oakland Tribune Ma gaiine, March 26, 1922 i SI Ii II 1 I Wmi It 'I -f i 1 'Vs 1 i a Northern Billiard 1 3 1 ii i i. I' I with dignified composure. He seemed to be reflecting. Presently he leaned over and laid his finger gently on the woman's palm, just below the Jade stone that reflected the lantern light. "The ring of death," he said, in his vik' If he mild courteously.

He led the way to the booth and drew aside the heavy quilted curtain. I fancied that the young woman hesitated for "ITome!" she muttered. Her hands fell lax, palms outward, at her sides, as if In surrender. "I will go back to Oakland, yes. They think I'm dead well, I am:" I swear the silence was electric, vibrant.

Ah Feng's eyesllnted like the eyes of a pouncing cat. Rut the girl! She seemed unconscious of, or Indifferent to, the danger In opposing him. And she was the I now felt sure. No mattjer had disguised -herself by various artifices, here was the daughter of an Oakland merchant, the daughter for one year dead to home, family, friends. "You would better send word to them that you are coming." "I'll send word now." Her low-tonecj answer was given wiUUfwallty.

Ah Fong rose to his feet and bowed, low. "Madame may use my telephone," bluff; but she was in a wUd passion of anger.aow. and recklejss of In her excitement, she finally lei slip a possible clue to her identity. I sat up. looked attentively.

Rut no! It coiildnot be the same girl. That other one was as', blpnde as wheat. As suddenly as her voice had risen, It dropped. "Count me out of this from now on." Ah Fong Aiade a slight gesture with his pipe. "Do you it ah wise?" he said gently.

"The philosopher Thotf- Foo, who flourished in the reign ttf the angustly great Klang-Kuang; said: 'Wise beyond all other wisdom is he who reflects before taking ac; Perhaps it is your Intention to go home, and- ah contemplate he domestic virtues?" VJPMHiMH slow, careful English. "After all, what does it matter, my friend?" He spoke placidly. "The augustly learned Tcho-Tao-Fah, who flourTch-ed in the celestial dynasty of lloo-Mlng-Fat, the Great, said that not even the wise man can break a stone wall with his head, or the fleetest runner escape the judgment of the gods." "Look here. Ah Pong!" getting back some, of rpy courago. though my head whirled- what did he mean by "the ring of death?" "What are you going to do about, this?" Ah Fong did not answer iH once, but hesitated, as if weighing bis words.

At last he said gravely: "An unfortunate lnctflent, my friend. One that has hastened a crisis that was foreordained by5 the calculator of destinies. The honorable astrologer who threw the painted sticks assured me that evil was to fall upon my house. As I told you, the yellow stick fell undermost." "Who is the girl?" I demanded. Ah Fong shook his head.

''I do not know," he said calmly. I knew that he was not telling the, truth. He stepped inside the telephone booth and picked up a siken bag from the floor. "You may find something about her in this," he said, watching me tlyly. 4 I made a careful examination of bag.

but there was nothing In to identify the woman. There were a small handkerchief of fine linen, scented with the strange per-fuyisbuk unmarked. a tooled-green leather purse containinfi a roll of lillln perhaps a hundred dollars; a Chinese coin, an abal'one pearl and an advertising card of William butter-and-egg and curio tradesman of San Sebastian. On the back of this card, written in a hclvy masculine hand, was the following couplet: "For sale Snow shells, egg shells; and, when you break 'em, Tou'll find 'em fresh as hens can make 'em." I made a copy of it and replaced the things In the bag. As I did so there came the growling of a motor in the street beiow, the clanging of a gong and a chatter of high-pitched voices.

Ah Fong's oblique eyes met mine with a level glance. "The honorable police," he said. "I sent ny servant to summon He chipped his hands, and waiter entered noiselessly from the kitchen. Like all Orientals, he showed no surprise. Ah Feme spoke a few slurring words.

The servant nodded, and remained molionlet-'s in the doorway. Ah Fong turned to me. "My friend," he said, "there is the jnatter of a debt between us. Dodbt-less you have years ago you warned me of an attack on my house by the Hop I.uey Tong. Unquestionably that warning saved my unworthy life.

By the f.i-vor of the gods I am permitted to make a trifling payment on that debt. Tou must go, my friend, by the underground passage. You must not be found here "You forget I'm a reporter," I interrupted. "All the police know me," 'The Ah Fohg made a gesture offcontempt. "Yon do not understand.

If, it were known by certain honorable countrymen of mine i that yon ere in 'pehow this -TT regrettable ineidenSiOocurred you niight see the dawn. Assuredly you would not see the day out." He touched my palm with his own. "Good-bye, my friend. Follow my servant. No one will know you saw the woman." "But you.

Ah Fong?" I said. In spite of the fact that I knew he had committed a cold-blooded -1 could not help but admire his absolute composure. "I go another way," he sid, As I passed through the kitchen I could hear the police on the dark stairway of Sooehow" secret door in the wall closed on me, I looked back. Ah Fong was not there. His long pipe, the one with the amber mouthpiece and the crimson tassels, lay cn the teakwood i i (CopyHght, 1922, by Torrey Connor; All Rights Reserved.) Next Sunday Herman Whitaker and Shirley Mannjield will take up the story, writing Chapter II.

(Continued From Pas? Sevfi) irifi tu' meet Ixwrie therj. But he hntl not come. Ah 1'utiK, Immaculate In celestial silks hi jade pipe, wits FffUp4 as usual at hl private tablg III the leakijood chair opposite was a white "noflian a J'ouiik uomjui whose KMCfiiwas riot to be denied by the 1k cojit qi some sort of dark Htuff wor4 and which might hajrff ni pprred a servant for' puFlniiHWi An added suKKestioiiiyva? tht cheap hat, swathed in a durl veil. iS'le was talking earnestly when I entVfced. and I fancied that Ah rifilique eyes flashed a warning glanc ht lver.

But he oame forward to greet, me. suave as ever. "Deign to enter." he said, "You have come at propitious time, my friend. A cargo of canned bamboo sprouts arrived from China to-' day. And there are almond cakea.

magnolia blossoms prewired In brandy, Mandarin cakes qf jrire flavored with fortyseven spi(WC They have all come ail the way from f'hina. You shall he the first to whom they are served, my friend." And he led me himself to a table In the corner farthest from his own table. This was unustial. As a rule, 1owrie and 1 always eat at Ah Fung's private table. Sometimes he has guests distinguished men of his own tong or high officials of the Six Companies.

In that case, he always seats us at the table next to htm. This was the first time he bad ever tucked me away in a corner. But I gave the matter no particular thought at the time, beyond saying to myself that the old devil was up to come of his heathen tricks. "You will give your order now, fr wait until your friend comes?" Ah Fong aked courteously. I said that I would wait for.Lowrie.

Ah Fong bowed and called' out something in Chinese. A waiter padded in and. placed in front of me a tray of rose leaves preserved in anise seed and ginger, sweetmeats and two exquisite porcelain cups not much larger than ii thimble, containing a thick amber liijiiid musty with the went of spices. Ah Fong held up one of the cups daintily in his own lean sinewy hand. The light from the Uinten aboverthe -table glittered on the long; finger-' nt.il.-.

"The rice brandy of my country." gravely, "an auguntly beverage celebrated by Jhe poet the FiKik ptVa-Thoy-sand Lotus liuds. Ifonorahle friend, I drink yojir august health." lie left me nith a ceremonious bow and. returned to the white woman at his table. I burled myself In the evening paper, but I could not help hearing the. voices of Ah Iting and his companion across the room.

They were close together and talking earnestly, could not understand what they said, for In an atmosphere bo heavy with xpieea and the sweetish odor of drugged tobacco the soon become blunted. But now and then I caught a Word in the blur of voices drifting the room, especially when tbe woman was talking. IcYiiiht the word "Mexico" severVi' tfiiies, alio the word "fence." Qnl I pricked tip my ears at hearing the name "San Sebastian," uttered sharply by the woman. oyer my paper I looked v' across the rpom, and as I gazed, the woman swayed upward" like -b, flame She wa. of great beauty, though her dead, pallid complexion more than hinted the use of narcotics.

-Her ryes, the expression of her face, the. very attitude of 'her seemed" threaten Ah Fong. The Chinaman, apparently, was undisturbed, He sat there in his Mandarin chair, smoking his long pipe with crimson tas-els, peace written on his brand face. His glance met mine, ana I fancied that he shrugged his powerful shoul- icrs ever so slightly, as if to suggest that the ways of the foreign woman ere beyond the comprehension of een his philosophical wind. But rery courteously In his clear, correct English, his voice raised so that I could hear each word, he bade the 'woman be seated.

She shook her head. "I've made jip my mind" she said "I Ijyirned yoti Nonce before" A I "It ts in the book of tial-faUTe the We, that woman is not endowed wini a mind," satdV Ah S'ong, placidly. "Thus It Is she does many foolish and unaccountable things." "I may be a fool, Ah Fong, but not such a fool as you took me for. I'm through! Understand? I'm through!" Her voice cracked on the last word. She screamed denunciation of him, though at first In such phrasing as to give nothing away to the listener.

She may have started to ON THE TRAIL Continued From Page Five) Sheriff Hirne told the detective. "My whole career depends upon it. A gang of yeggs goes into one of my towns, nearly blows the place up and gets away with it." Then Jimmy Wilson was picked up. Manning had sent out broadcast delscriptions of the men he was after, with a list of the goods stolen on the various jobs. Inspector (lilroy of the state motor vehicle department had arrested Jimmy Wilson in San Diego on a charge of disturbing the peace and had found a watch taken from the Stratford safe.

Sheriff JUmeii fleliKhted at this turn, soon transferred Kings, county jail and Manning went there to see Ilime had already "planted" F. H. -Slade, prisoner a nfl in this cell to gain Wilson's confidence. Through the bars of hie jail cell Jimmy Wilson glared out with hard brown eyes into Manning's gray ones and refused to talk. "I was in the Nevada state pen -in a straitjacket eighteen days with, out food," jeered the ex-convict.

"I'd like to see any of birds make me talk." Two of the yegg gang had now been arrested, but the mystery of the motor vehicle safe robbery still remained unsolved. Manning had hoped to connect Jimmy Wilson and Joe Tatterson up with the looting of the state safe, but now that both were in custody the solution seemed just as far away as ever And so- Manning went out on the trail of his next best bet, Wads-worth, alias the Montana Kid, whose name he had found with that Of Jimmy Wilson the Mojave constable's hotel. vi Plot to Rob Coronado Hotel. In Los Angeles Manning, aided Detective sought the trail of the elusive Montana. Kid.

It was in a Pool hall' that he met "Diamond Red," the youth with the pink eyes, cream complexion and red hair. After a few days cue acquaintance and chumming about town together Diamond lied decided to take the disreputably garbed detective into his confidence. "We've got a great lay down in Ban Diego." ha said. "We can fraction of a second. As if drawing herself together, she stepped Inside, and Fong drew the curtain half-way across the opening.

saw him take the telephone book down from Its hook, open it, and turn the pages. As. they stood there together, the w'Omari almost wholly concealed by the half-drawn curtain and An Fong's broad back. I heard him say; "This Is the number, is It not?" If the woman made any answer, did not hear it, but 1 did catch the clicking sound of a receiver lifted out of socket. Then Ah Fong stepped nut and Carefully pulled the heavy curtain across the entire front of the booth.

He stood there, hia back against the curtain, a smile on his inscrutable face. In a moment he got his pipe, and relighting It, he came leisurely oyer to my table and sat down with a gentle sigh. For a time he puffed in silence, filling his lungs with the sweetened smoke of hU drugged tobacco. Finally he laid down his pipe and crossed his hands in his lap. "Truly the philosopher Ting-Tung-Rlng.

in lUs Book of "the Seventeen Benevolences, does deelnre that when the devil cannot manage things him. self he pends a woman." said Ah Fong. almost- sadly. "My friend. I am filled with humility that, you should be thus" he gestured toward the telephone booth "annoyed He slipped a fan from his wide sleet e.

opened it slwly and placidly fanned himself "I'nfornmately," he went on. pur-rlnply. "these unsatisfactory Incidents cannot be Where -there are women, there is trouble. Lust week Wo-Chin-Fu, th astrologer and calculator of destinies, threw the painted sticks and studied them In my behalf. The yellow stick was undermost, That Is an exceed-.

Ingly bad sign; it seems. He foretold that I should have a misunderstanding with a fareign woman." Ah Fong reached Inside his coat of flowered silk and drew out a large yellow stone and laid It on it glowed in the soft light from the lantern over our heads like: the iris of a cat's eye. "Jade wnt on Ah Fong, ns if we had talked o.f nofrhWi else, and caressing the 'stone Jf jiand, "Look well, my never seen a stone lltee It "I thought jade was the commonest thing you have In China," I "Green Jade, white i Jade, pink Jade, black Jffde yea. But this Is yellow Jade" my friend, the royal color of my country. It.is rare, very rare.

In my country only the members of the august royal family el's permitted by law to wear necklaces of yellow jade, and only the most exalted members of theiMaudarln class are permitted to wear a ring." It must have been fully half an 'hour that Ah Fong, in that gently sing-song voice of his, discoursed to me learnedly on the subject of jades. He quoted frotu the poets and the philosophers, told folk talo about the good and evil properties of the different colors of the stone, recounted ghost stories, woven about Jade that made the small hairs on niy neck move. sat there Iaclnatelt I lost all track of time. OF YEGG GANG 'prowl' the Del Coronado for about a million dollars. It's a cinch." A few days later Diamond drove up to the hotel In a small coupe and told Manning to pile in his things and get ready to go to San Diego.

"Where did you get the jit?" askel! Manning. "I lifted it down the stem," returned Diamond lied: Kn route to San Diego in their stolen car, they talked of eronks and of Jobs that they bad pulled. "Do you know the Montana Kid?" asked Manning, casually. "Sure do," answered Red. "Saw him In L.

A. a few days "If you see him point him out to me," snarled the "detective "I want to shoot nim for some diVt he clone pal of mine." WamtVnd Red brightened Jike to shoot that bird myself," he volunteered, At a pool hail In San bpego they met Eddie Sullivan. Together they went hotel" room, locked the doors, made sure that noiflewas listening and laid their plot-for, rob. bing the Hotel deVCoronado: "I'll work, as the inside man," said Eddie. "I'll rich birds and fix It so you ft get to their rooms.

Then you cam prowl them. We'll go They workeiTout their robbery scheme In drt(tell Kddie was a bellboy: A few days later Manning Inspector Gilroy and officers went quietly to the big hotel and arrested Sullivan. Diamond lied and Manning fled down through the Imperial, valley to Mexicall. Their narrow squeak gave Red greater confidence inj his companion and the boy crook told of the robberies he had committed and of jobs that were being planned. Then one night Les Manning stole the stolen car from his erstwhile bosom- friend and went back to Los Angeles.

The automobile was returned to Its owner, In Los Angeles he met his chiefs Steve N'eal. "Keep going," ordered Neal. "Tftfl haven't convicted anyone of robbing our Fresno branch yet." And Manning kept going. Through a snowstorm in the Te-hachapl on a freight train with a gang of hoboes he rode and arrived in Fresno a dirty, exhausted, man. Slade has double-crossed us," were the first words which greeted the detective.

"The moolia we put IN THE JUNGLES In with Wilson in the Hanford jail turned us down," said Hauser. "We're watching him, though, and if he makes a false move we will nab him." Then Just as the sluution began to look hopeless, Patterson confessed. In the Fresno county Jail January 21, 1922, a shot scarred 'tnan laid bare his criminal career to officers of the law and members of the District Attorney's otllce. Joe Patterson, dark, bold-eyed, crooked nosed, black mouwtached ex-oonvlet of Indiana. Ftah, Wash- ington and California prisons spoke of the "jobs" he had pulled from the time he was released from prison In February 1921 until his appre-" hension.

He admitted that he was a member of the gang that had terrorized the interior counties for many months. Patterson had met Jimmy Wilson and Slim McVey In Sacramento. first-act as a member, of the California gangfas Jo go out to the end of a csfjii-To up stolen watches that had len buried there. On the. way back from this pjace he had met the Montana Kid and a man known as Hickey.

Thus the gang began Its depredations. With1 Jimmy Wilson, Patterson went to Lodl, where they "threashed out by cooking up stolen dynamite. The nitro-glycertn which they 'extracted from the dynamite was topbe used In blowing safes. At Fresno they blew two safes in Chlnatdwn. two on Broadway, a second hand store, cafeteria, a garage, grocery and meat market; at Stockton, a hardware store, theater and meat market; at Sunnyvalle, the Southern Pacific depot and a concrete products company safe April 20; at Mt.

Eden, Alameda county, a general merchandise store; at Alvarado, a garage; at Bakers-field, a merchandise store, Chinese restaurant and bargain house, while tnf "weeded" a large number of smaller places In Sacramento and -San Francisco." "Weed" Is yeggescjue" foi' petty thieving. Then he had been capturecf. In 'the gun battle at Bowles. But Joe Patterson wouldn't talk about the motor vehicle Job. He swore that he had.

had nothing to do with it and the officers were unable to break down this statement. "Find the Montana Kid," was all Patterson would say. (Rea4 the climax at Ms great alary U. Hir TIUBtKK.) r'. i I forgot Lowrie, my dinner, the gir In the telephone booth forgot everything except that Ah Fung was tapping a'tfJbda that would yield me rich returns in special articles for the Sunday paper.

1 remember that during this time many Chinamen enme padding Into the restaurant; but aftur exchang'i' a few sibilant words with the proprietor they drifted out again. The significance of this did not occur to mo until afterward. Ah Fong broke the spell by rising. "A thousand apologies," he said. "You overlook my unceremonious is It the JeaW ed Lou-Laou-Ti says? 'When friend speaks to friend the cook becomes I will myself see that your dinner is served, my friend." He bowed ceremoniously and leisurely into the kitchen; and ft was then that I thought of culling up the office to find out what had become of Lowrie.

The-curtaln was still 'aawn acrofff the. face of the1 telephon'booth, arid. for an instant hesUatefu Perhaps my nerves were still a little from A h. Feng's -4lH-tales, perhapj it was some premonition of evil that me shrink from that black cur- tain wlth'Jts silver lotus buds. But whatever it was, I laid the prenioni-' tlon with a short laugh, and Jerked back the curtain.

The next instant my heart-Jeaped to my throat, and I turned as cold as the jade stone that but: a few moments before had been In my hand. My heart stopped, and terror unreasoning animal terror-. sent a trembling shock to my brain; for as 1 drew the wadded curtain asde, I dislodged something in the booth. Something black that lurched out against me. There "was a reek of strange perfume in my nostrils, and for the moment the Thipg lay inside my arnis.

I looked into a face -white and drawn with fear. The pupils of the staring eyes the bluest eyes I ever saw- were twisted upward as if transfixed by soma horror they had the only one In the room at the time. The woman had threatened him, and had threatened to tell something Ah Fong had wished her to keep secret. She hud told him that she would return to her (hiome, to her people. He must prevent that, if she know too much of hiB affairs.

He had gone with her tonhe telephone. His flowing gown and the halfjdrawti curtain concealed what haa hp-pened In the booth. But it cameltT-me now In a flash, that when Ah Fong had held the telephone, book open for her, his wide silken sleeve had passed across her throat. Yes, Ah Fong had killed her, and I was the only one- whose evidence would convict him! i A shiver ran through me, and I knew the salt taste of fear in'my" mouth, the feel of cold sweat In my jialms. I was afraid horribly afraid, I was afraid of Ah Fong, wiio had been my friend for many years.

I was afraid of this room of the fnmtllnr furniture, the silver looked upoh at the moment they had seen death. Then the Thing slithered over sideways and fell in a disheveled huddle on the rug at my feet. Even then I could not move, I stood there as If in an evil dream of fascination, looking down In a dull sorj)f way at the black form lying in a pool of amber light. The face, vividly expressive In 'was hid- 'fleous, but there was no mistaking the heavy, dark coat, The hat was gone The hair of the woman who' had -defied Ah ong had become loosened and fell In a long wave over her outstretched arm black hair. In the amber gloom It had a luster like liquid Jet.

But I swear' it was the girl! Something twinkled between the thick strands that lay across the partly Ijpturned palm or the out-. stretched left hand. Scarcely realizing what I was doing, I etdopejL down and lightly moved theni aside." Then I straightened with a jerk, as if I had encountered one of Ah -Fong's ghosts; for encircling; the thumb-was a. -heavy- gold ring set with a large carved Jade stone of flawless yellow, almost the duplicate of Ah Fong's stone that I had held in my hand not half an hour before. "The royal Jade of China!" I seemed to hear Ah' Fong's voice droning across the table.

In my country only royalty and. the Mandarin class wear yellow Jade.f' The Chinaman had killed her. There was no doubt In my mind of that Beside myself, ha bad been dragons -on Jhe the urgly idols -grinning abA'ut nfe' They sVemed to endowed' with all the grotesque eytt Ah. Fong had conjured up in hte tales of the yellow Jade. This roorfi Was China the China of mystery intrigue and hideous, unnam-able things.

JThe breathing stillness of it "was the stillness of the East There was a shuffling of slippered feet on the floor, and Ah Fong entered. His face was absolutely immobile. Be came leisurely across the room, and looked down at tba body 'V..