As Captain Scraggs and his Chinese companion approached the wharf
the skipper glanced warily about. He had small fear that either
Gibney or McGuffey would show up for an hour, for he knew that
Mr. Gibney had money in his possession. However, he decided to
take no chances, and scouted the vicinity thoroughly before
venturing aboard the _Maggie_. These actions served but to
increase the respect of Gin Seng for the master of the _Maggie_
and confirmed him in his belief that the _Maggie_ was a smuggler.
Captain Scraggs took his visitor inside the little cabin,
carefully locked and bolted the door, lifted the zinc flap back
from the top of the crate of "Oriental goods," and displayed the
face of the dead Chinaman. Also he pointed to the Chinese
characters on the wooden lid of the crate.
"What does these hen scratches mean?" demanded Scraggs.
"This man is named Ah Ghow and he belongs to the Hop Sing tong."
"How about his pal here?"
"That man is evidently Ng Chong Yip. He is also a Hop Sing man."
Captain Scraggs wrote it down. "All right," he said cheerily;
"much obliged. Now, what I want to know is what the Hop Sing tong
means by shipping the departed brethren by freight? They go to
work an' fix 'em up nice so's they'll keep, packs 'em away in a
zinc coffin, inside a nice plain wood box, labels 'em 'Oriental
goods,' and consigns 'em to the Gin Seng Company, 714 Dupont
Street, San Francisco.
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