"Last night I came upon a Chinaman dying in the alley behind the theater," she said. "He'd been stabbed. But he had a piece of paper in his mouth, which had been overlooked by the men who killed him. He had been one of Li Yang's soldiers. He gave me that paper, when he knew he was dying. It was a map showing where Li Yang had hidden his treasure."
"The heck you say!" I remarked, much interested.
"Yes. And the spot is less than a day's journey from here," she said. "But somehow the killers learned that I had this map. They call themselves the Whang Yi. They are the men who were the enemies of Li Yang in his lifetime. They want the treasure themselves. So they're after me. Oh, what shall I do?" she said, wringing her hands.
"Don't be afraid," I said. "I'll pertect you from them yeller-bellied rats."
"I want to get away," she whimpered. "I'm afraid to stay in Shanghai. They'll kill me. I dare not try to find the treasure. I'd give them the map if they'd only spare my life. But they'll kill me just for knowing about it. Oh, if I only had money enough to get away! I' d sell the map for fifty dollars."
"You would?" I ejaculated. "Why, that there treasure is likely to be a lot of gold and silver and jewerls and stuff. He was a awful thief."
"It won't do me any good dead," she answered. "Oh, what shall I do?"
"I'll tell you," I said, digging into my britches. "Sell it to me. I'll give you fifty bucks."
"Would you?" she cried, jumping up, her eyes shining. "No—oh, no; it wouldn't be fair to you. It's too dangerous. I'll tear the map up, and—"
"Wait a minute!" I hollered. "Don't do that, dern it! I'll take the risks. I ain't scared of no yeller bellies. Here, here's the fifty. Gimme the map."
"I'm afraid you'll regret it," she said. "But here it is."
Whilst she was counting the fifty, I looked at the map, feeling like I was holding a fortune in my hand. It seemed to represent a small island laying a short distance offa the mainland, with trees and things growing on it. One of these trees was taller'n the others and stood off to itself. A arrer run from it to a spot on the beach, which was marked with a "x." There was a lot of Chinese writing on the edge of the map, and a line of English.
"Fifty paces south of that tall tree," said Miss Hopkins. "Five feet down in the loose sand. The island is only a few hours run from the port, if you take a motor launch. Full directions are written out there in English."
"I'll find it," I promised, handling the map with awe and reverence. "But before I start, I'll see you home so them Whang Yis won't try to grab you."
But she said, "No, I'll go out the front way and hail a cab. Tomorrow night I'll be safe on the high seas. I'll never forget what you've done for me."
"If you'll give me the address of where you're goin'," I said, "I'll see that you get a share of the treasure if I finds it."
"Don't worry about that," she said. "You've already done more for me than you realize. Goodbye! I hope you find all you deserve."
And she left in such a hurry I hardly realized she had went till she was gone.
Well, I wasted no time. I forgot all about Red Hoolihan—a man with millions on his mind ain't got no time for such hoodlums—and I headed for a certain native quarter of the waterfront as fast as I could leg it. I knowed a Chinese fisherman named Chin Yat who had a motor launch which he rented out, and being as I had given all my money to Miss Hopkins, I didn't have no dough, and he was the only one which I knowed would let me have his boat on credit.
It was late, because the fight card had been a unusually long one. It was away past midnight when I got to Chin Yat's, and I seen him and a big white man puttering around the boat, under the light of torches burning near the wharves. I bust into a run, because I was afraid he'd rent the boat before I could get there, though I couldn't figger what any white man would want with a boat that time of night.
As I hove up, I hollered, "Hey Chin, I wanta rent your boat—"
The big white man turned around, and the torchlight fell on his face. It was Red Hoolihan.
"What you doin' here?" he demanded, clenching his fists.
"I got no time to waste on you," I snarled. "I'll fix you later. Chin, I gotta have your motor-boat."
He shook his head and sing-songed, "Velly solly. No can do."
"What you mean?" I hollered. "How come you can't?"
"'Cause it's already rented to me," said Hoolihan, "and I've done paid him his dough in advance."
"But this here's important," I bellered. "I got to have that boat! It means a lot of dough."
"What d'you know about a lot of dough?" snorted Hoolihan. "I need that boat because I'm goin' after more dough than you ever dreamed of, you bone- headed ape! You know why I ain't takin' the time to caulk the wharf-timbers with your gore? Well, I'll tell you, so you won't get no false ideas. I ain't got the time to waste on a baboon like you. I'm goin' after hidden treasure! When I come back, that boat'll be loaded to the gunnels with gold!"
And so saying, he waved a piece of paper in my face.
"Where'd you get that?" I yelped.
"None of your business," he said. "That's—hey, leggo that!"
I had made a grab for it, in my excitement, and he took a poke at me. I busted him in the snout in return, and he nearly went over the lip of the wharf. He managed to catch hisself—and then he let out a agonized beller. The paper had slipped outa his hand and vanished in the black water.
"Now look what you done!" he howled frantically. "You've lost me a fortune. Put up your mitts, you spawn of the devil's gutter! I'm goin' to knock—"
"Did your map look like this?" I asked, pulling out mine and showing it to him in the torchlight. The sight sobered him quick.
"By Judas!" he bawled. "The same identical map! Where'd you get it?"
"Never mind about that," I said. "The p'int is, we both knows what the other'n's after. We both wants the treasure Li Yang hid before the Federalists bumped him off. I got a map but no boat, you got a boat but no map. Let's go!"
"Before I'd share anything with you," he said bitterly, "I'd lose the whole shebang."
"Who said anything about sharin' anything?" I roared. "The best man takes the loot. I still got a score to settle with you. We finds the plunder, and then we settles our argument. Winner takes the treasure!"
"Okay with me," he agreed, blood-thirstily. "Come on!"
But as we sputtered outa the harbor in the starlight, a sudden thought hit me.
"Hold on!" I said. "Does this here island lie south or north of the port?"
"Cut off the engine and we'll look at the map," he said, holding up a lantern. I done so, and we peered at the line of English which was writ in a very small, femernine hand.
"That's a 'n'," said Red, pointing at it with his big, hairy finger. "It means the island lies north of the harbor."
"It looks like a 's' to me," I said. "I believe it means the island's south of the harbor."
"I say north!" exclaimed Hoolihan, angrily.
"South!" I snarled.
"We goes north!" bellered Hoolihan, brandishing his fists. He hadn't no control over his temper at all. "We goes north or nowheres!"
As I started to rise, my foot hit something in the bottom of the launch. It was a belaying pin. I ain't a man to be gypped out of a fortune account of the stubbornness of some misguided jackass. I laid that belaying pin over Red Hoolihan's ear with a full-arm swing.
"We goes south," I repeated truculently, and they was no opposing voice.
Feeling your way along that coast at night in a motor-launch ain't no picnic. Hoolihan come to just about daylight, and he got up and rubbed the lump over his ear, and cussed free and fervent.
"I won't forget this," he said. "This here is another score to settle with you. Where at are we?"
"There's the island, dead ahead," I answered.
He scowled over the map, and said, "It don' t look like the one on the map."
"You expect a ignerant Chinese to draw a perfect map?" I retorted. "It's bound to be the one. Look for a tall tree standing kinda out alone. It oughta be on this end of the island."