American library books ยป Fiction ยป Tales of Chinatown by Sax Rohmer (good books to read for 12 year olds TXT) ๐Ÿ“•

Read book online ยซTales of Chinatown by Sax Rohmer (good books to read for 12 year olds TXT) ๐Ÿ“•ยป.   Author   -   Sax Rohmer



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it fifty-fifty and maybe you'll come out alive.โ€

The brow of Diamond Fred displayed beads of perspiration, and with a blue silk handkerchief which he carried in his breast pocket he delicately dried his forehead.

โ€œYou're an old hand at this stuff, Jim,โ€ he muttered. โ€œIt amounts to this, I suppose; that if I don't agree you'll queer my game?โ€

Jim Poland's brow lowered and he clenched his fists formidably. Then:

โ€œListen,โ€ he said in his hoarse voice. โ€œIt ain't your claim any more than mine. You've covered it different, that's all. Yours was always the petticoat lay. Mine's slower but safer. Is anyone else in with you?โ€

โ€œNo.โ€

โ€œThen we'll double up. Now I'll tell you something. I was backing out.โ€

โ€œWhat? You were going to quit?โ€

โ€œI was.โ€

โ€œWhy?โ€

โ€œBecause the thing's too dead easy, and a thing like that always looks like hell to me.โ€

Freddy Cohen finished his glass of whisky.

โ€œWait while I get some more drinks,โ€ he said.

In this way, then, at about the hour of ten on a stuffy autumn night, in the crowded bar of that Wapping public-house, these two made a compact; and of its outcome and of the next appearance of Cohen, the Jewish-American cracksman, within the ken of man, I shall now proceed to tell.





II THE END OF COHEN

โ€œI've been expecting this,โ€ said Chief Inspector Kerry. He tilted his bowler hat farther forward over his brow and contemplated the ghastly exhibit which lay upon the slab of the mortuary. Two other police officersโ€”one in uniformโ€”were present, and they treated the celebrated Chief Inspector with the deference which he had not only earned but had always demanded from his subordinates.

Earmarked for important promotion, he was an interesting figure as he stood there in the gloomy, ill-lighted place, his pose that of an athlete about to perform a long jump, or perhaps, as it might have appeared to some, that of a dancing-master about to demonstrate a new step.

His close-cropped hair was brilliantly red, and so was his short, wiry, aggressive moustache. He was ruddy of complexion, and he looked out unblinkingly upon the world with a pair of steel-blue eyes. Neat he was to spruceness, and while of no more than medium height he had the shoulders of an acrobat.

The detective who stood beside him, by name John Durham, had one trait in common with his celebrated superior. This was a quick keenness, a sort of alert vitality, which showed in his eyes, and indeed in every line of his thin, clean-shaven face. Kerry had picked him out as the most promising junior in his department.

โ€œGive me the particulars,โ€ said the Chief Inspector. โ€œIt isn't robbery. He's wearing a diamond ring worth two hundred pounds.โ€

His diction was rapid and terseโ€”so rapid as to create the impression that he bit off the ends of the longer words. He turned his fierce blue eyes upon the uniformed officer who stood at the end of the slab.

โ€œThey are very few, Chief Inspector,โ€ was the reply. โ€œHe was hauled out by the river police shortly after midnight, at the lower end of Limehouse Reach. He was alive thenโ€”they heard his cryโ€”but he died while they were hauling him into the boat.โ€

โ€œAny statement?โ€ rapped Kerry.

โ€œHe was past it, Chief Inspector. According to the report of the officer in charge, he mumbled something which sounded like: 'It has bitten me,' just before he became unconscious.โ€

โ€œ'It has bitten me,'โ€ murmured Kerry. โ€œThe divisional surgeon has seen him?โ€

โ€œYes, Chief Inspector. And in his opinion the man did not die from drowning, but from some form of virulent poisoning.โ€

โ€œPoisoning?โ€

โ€œThat's the idea. There will be a further examination, of course. Either a hypodermic injection or a bite.โ€

โ€œA bite?โ€ said Kerry. โ€œThe bite of what?โ€

โ€œThat I cannot say, Chief Inspector. A venomous reptile, I suppose.โ€

Kerry stared down critically at the swollen face of the victim, and then glanced sharply aside at Durham.

โ€œAccounts for his appearance, I suppose,โ€ he murmured.

โ€œYes,โ€ said Durham quietly. โ€œHe hadn't been in the water long enough to look like that.โ€ He turned to the local officer. โ€œIs there any theory as to the point at which he went in?โ€

โ€œWell, an arrest has been made.โ€

โ€œBy whom? of whom?โ€ rapped Kerry.

โ€œTwo constables patrolling the Chinatown area arrested a man for suspicious loitering. He turned out to be a well-known criminalโ€”Jim Poland, with a whole list of convictions against him. They're holding him at Limehouse Station, and the theory is that he was operating withโ€”โ€”โ€”โ€ He nodded in the direction of the body.

โ€œThen who's the smart with the swollen face?โ€ inquired Kerry. โ€œHe's a new one on me.โ€

โ€œYes, but he's been identified by one of the K Division men. He is an American crook with a clean slate, so far as this side is concerned. Cohen is his name. And the idea seems to be that he went in at some point between where he was found by the river police and the point at which Jim Poland was arrested.โ€

Kerry snapped his teeth together audibly, and:

โ€œI'm open to learn,โ€ he said, โ€œthat the house of Huang Chow is within that area.โ€

โ€œIt is.โ€

โ€œI thought so. He died the same way the Chinaman died awhile ago,โ€ snapped Kerry savagely.

โ€œIt looks very queer.โ€ He glanced aside at the local officer. โ€œCover him up,โ€ he ordered, and, turning, he walked briskly out of the mortuary, followed by Detective Durham.

Although dawn was not far off, this was the darkest hour of the night, so that even the sounds of dockland were muted and the riverside slept as deeply as the great port of London ever sleeps. Vague murmurings there were and distant clankings, with the hum of machinery which is never still.

Few of London's millions were awake at that hour, yet Scotland Yard was awake in the person of the fierce-eyed Chief Inspector and his subordinate. Perhaps those who lightly criticize the Metropolitan Force might have learned a new respect for the tireless vigilance which keeps London clean and wholesome, had they witnessed this scene on the borders

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