around the side of the house. “Hey, you,” cried Captain Bliss. Bob Eden began to worry.
Ah Kim came up. “You want’um me, boss?”
“You bet I want you. Going to lock you up.”
“Why foah, boss?”
“For knifing Louie Wong. You can’t get away with that stuff round here.”
The Chinese regarded this crude practitioner of his own arts with a lifeless eye. “You crazy, boss,” he said.
“Is that so?” Bliss’s face hardened. “I’ll show you just how crazy I am. Better tell me the whole story now. It’ll go a lot easier with you if you do.”
“What stoahy, boss?”
“How you sneaked out and put a knife in Louie last night.”
“Maybe you catch’um knife, hey, boss?” asked Ah Kim, maliciously.
“Never mind about that!”
“Poah old Ah Kim’s fingah prints on knife, hey, boss?”
“Oh, shut up,” said Bliss.
“Maybe you takee look-see, find velvet slippah prints in sand, hey, boss?” Bliss glared at him in silence. “What I tell you—you crazy cop, hey, boss?”
Holley and Eden looked at each other with keen enjoyment. Madden broke in, “Oh, come now, Captain, you haven’t got a thing against him, and you know it. You take my cook away from me without any evidence, and I’ll make you sweat for it.”
“Well—I—” Bliss hesitated. “I know he did it, and I’ll prove it later.” His eyes lighted. “How’d you get into this country?” he demanded.
“Melican citizen,
