CHAPTER VII
IN THE OPIUM DEN
Interrupting a spell of warm, fine weather the night had set in wetand stormy. The squalid streets through which Stuart and Gaston Maxmade their way looked more than normally deserted and uninviting. Thewind moaned and the rain accompanied with a dreary tattoo. Sometimesa siren wailed out upon the river.
"We are nearly there," said Max. _"Pardieu!_ they are well concealed,those fellows. I have not seen so much as an eyebrow."
"It would be encouraging to get a glimpse of some one!" replied Stuart.
"Ah, but bad--inartistic. It is the next door, I think ... yes. I hopethey have no special way of knocking."
Upon the door of a dark and apparently deserted shop he rapped.
Both had anticipated an interval of waiting, and both were astonishedwhen the door opened almost at once, revealing a blackly cavernousinterior.
"Go off! Too late! Shuttee shop!" chattered a voice out of thedarkness.
Max thrust his way resolutely in, followed by Stuart. "Shut the door,Ah-Fang-Fu!" he said curtly, speaking with a laboured French accent._"Scorpion!"_
The door was closed by the invisible Chinaman, there was a sound ofsoft movements and a hurricane-lantern suddenly made its appearance.Its light revealed the interior of a nondescript untidy little shopand revealed the presence of an old and very wrinkled Chinaman whoheld the lantern. He wore a blue smock and a bowler hat and his facepossessed the absolute impassivity of an image. As he leaned over thecounter, scrutinising his visitors, Max thrust forward the goldenscorpion held in the palm of his hand.
_"Hoi, hoi"_ chattered the Chinaman. "Fo-Hi fellers, eh? You hab gotplenty much late. Other fellers Fo-Hi pidgin plenty much sooner. Youone time catchee allee same bhobbery, b'long number one joss-pidginman!"
Being covertly nudged by Max:
"Cut the palaver, Pidgin," growled Stuart.
"Allee lightee," chattered Ah-Fang-Fu, for evidently this was he. "Youplay one piecee pipee till Fo-Hi got." Raising the lantern, he ledthe way through a door at the back of the shop. Descending fourwooden steps, Stuart and Max found themselves in the opium-den.
"Full up. No loom," said the Chinaman.
It was a low-ceilinged apartment, the beams of the roof slopingslightly upward from west to east. The centre part of the wall at theback was covered with matting hung from the rough cornice supportingthe beams. To the right of the matting was the door communicating withthe shop, and to the left were bunks. Other bunks lined the southerlywall, except where, set in the thickness of the bare brick andplaster, a second strong door was partly hidden by a pile of emptypacking-cases and an untidy litter of straw and matting.
Along the northern wall were more bunks, and an open wooden stair,with a handrail, ascended to a small landing or platform before athird door high up in the wall. A few mats were strewn about thefloor. The place was dimly lighted by a red-shaded lamp swung fromthe centre of the ceiling and near the foot of the stairs another lamp(of the common tin variety) stood upon a box near which was a brokencane chair. Opium-pipes, tins, and a pack of cards were on this box.
All the bunks appeared to be occupied. Most of the occupants werelying motionless, but one or two were noisily sucking at theopium-pipes. These had not yet attained to the opium-smokers Nirvana.So much did Gaston Max, a trained observer, gather in one swift glance.Then Ah-Fang-Fu, leaving the lantern in the shop, descended the foursteps and crossing the room began to arrange two mats with roundhead-cushions near to the empty packing-cases. Stuart and Max remainedby the door.
"You see," whispered Max, "he has taken you on trust! And he did notappear to recognise me. It is as I thought. The place is 'open to thepublic' as usual, and Ah-Fang-Fu does a roaring trade, one wouldjudge. For the benefit of patrons not affiliated to the order we haveto pretend to smoke."
"Yes," replied Stuart with repressed excitement--"until someone calledFo-Hi is at home, or visible; the word 'got' may mean either of thosethings."
"Fo-Hi," whispered Max, "is 'The Scorpion!'
"I believe you are right," said Stuart--who had good reason to know it."My God! what a foul den! The reek is suffocating. Look at that yellowlifeless face yonder, and see that other fellow whose hand hangslimply down upon the floor. Those bunks might be occupied by corpsesfor all the evidence of life that some of them show."
_"Morbleu!_ do not raise your voice; for some of them are occupied by'Scorpions.' You noted the words of Ah-Fang? _Ssh!"_
The old Chinaman returned with his curious shuffling walk, raising hishand to beckon to them.
"Number one piece bunk, lo!" he chattered.
"Good enough," growled Stuart.
The two crossed and reclined upon the uncleanly mats.
"Make special loom," explained Ah-Fang-Fu. "Velly special chop!"
He passed from bunk to bunk, and presently came to a comatose Chinamanfrom whose limp hand, which hung down upon the floor, the pipe haddropped. This pipe Ah-Fang-Fu took from the smoker's fingers andreturning to the box upon which the tin lamp was standing began calmlyto load it.
"Good heavens!" muttered Stuart--"he is short of pipes! Pah! how theplace reeks!"
Ah-Fang-Fu busied himself with a tin of opium, the pipe which he hadtaken from the sleeper, and another pipe--apparently the last of hisstock--which lay near the lamp. Igniting the two, he crossed andhanded them to Stuart and Max.
"Velly soon-lo!" he said and made a curious sign, touching his brow,his lips and his breast in a manner resembling that of a Moslem.
Max repeated the gesture and then lay back upon his elbow, raisingthe mouthpiece of the little pipe to his lips--but carefully avoidingcontact.
Ah-Fang-Fu shuffled back to the broken cane chair, from which he hadevidently arisen to admit his late visitors.
Inarticulate sounds proceeded from the bunks, breaking the sinistersilence which now descended upon the den. Ah-Fang-Fu began to playPatience, constantly muttering to himself. The occasional wash oftidal water became audible, and once there came a scampering andsquealing of rates from beneath the floor.
"Do you notice the sound of lapping water" whispered Stuart. "Theplace is evidently built upon a foundation of piles and the cellarsmust actually be submerged at high-tide."
_"Pardieu!_ it is a death trap. What is this!"
A loud knocking sounded upon the street door. Ah-Fang-Fu rose andshuffled up the steps into the shop. He could be heard unbarring theouter door. Then:
"Too late! shuttee shop, shuttee shop!" sounded.
"I don't want nothin' out of your blasted shop, Pidgin!" roared a loudand thick voice. "I'm old Bill Bean, I am, and I want a pipe, I do!"
"Hullo, Bill!" replied the invisible 'Pidgin.' "Allee samee dlunkagain!"
A red-bearded ship's fireman, wearing sea-boots, a rough blue suitsimilar to that which Stuart wore, a muffler and a peaked cap, lurchedinto view at the head of the steps.
"Blimey!" he roared, over his shoulder. "Drunk! _Me_ drunk! An' allthe pubs in these parts sell barley-water coloured brown! Blimey! Chuckit, Pidgin!"
Ah-Fang-Fu reappeared behind him. "Catchee dlunk ev'ly time for comeehere," he chattered.
"'Taint 'umanly possible," declared the new arrival, staggering downthe steps, "fer a 'ealthy sailorman to git drunk on coloured waterjust 'cause the publican calls it beer! I ain't drunk; I'm onlymiserable. Gimmee a pipe, Pidgin."
Ah-Fang-Fu barred the door and ascended.
"Comee here," he muttered, "my placee, all full up and no other placeeb'long open."
Bill Bean slapped him boisterously on the back.
"Cut the palaver, Pidgin, and gimme a pipe. Piecee pipe, Pidgin!"
He lurched across the floor, nearly falling over Stuart's legs, tookup a mat and a cushion, lurched into the further corner and casthimself down.
"Ain't I one o' yer oldest customers, Pidgin?" he inquired. "One o'yer oldest, I am."
"Blight side twelve-time," muttered the Chinaman. "Getchee me intlouble, Bill. Number one police
chop."
"Not the first time it wouldn't be!" retorted the fireman. "Not thefirst time as you've been in trouble, Pidgin. An' unless they 'ungyer--which it ain't 'umanly possible to 'ang a Chink--it wouldn't bethe last--an' not by a damn long way ..._an'_ not by a damn long way!"
Ah-Fang-Fu, shrugging resignedly, shuffled from bunk to bunk in questof a disused pipe, found one, and returning to the extemporised table,began to load it, muttering to himself.
"Don't like to 'ear about your wicked past, do you?" continued Bill."Wicked old yellow-faced 'eathen! Remember the 'dive' in 'Frisco,Pidgin? _Wot_ a rough 'ouse! Remember when I come in--full up I was:me back teeth well under water--an' you tried to Shanghai me?"
"You cutee palaber. All damn lie," muttered the Chinaman.
"Ho! a lie is it?" roared the other. "Wot about me wakin' up allof a tremble aboard o' the old _Nancy Lee_--aboard of a blastedwind-jammer! Me--a fireman! Wot about it? Wasn't that Shanghaiin'?Blighter! _An'_ not a 'oat' in me pocket--not a 'bean'! Broke tothe wide an' aboard of a old wind-jammer wot was a coffin-ship--acoffin-ship she was; an' 'er old man was the devil's father-in-law.Ho! lies! I _don't_ think!"
"You cutee palaber!" chattered Ah-Fang-Fu, busy with the pipe. "Youlikee too much chin-chin. You make nice piece bhobbery."
"Not a 'bean'," continued Bill reminiscently--"not a 'oat.'" He sat upviolently. "Even me pipe an' baccy was gone!" he shouted. "You'd evenpinched me pipe an' baccy! You'd pinch the whiskers off a blind man,_you_ would, Pidgin! 'And over the dope. Thank Gawd somebody's stillthe right stuff!"
Suddenly, from a bunk on the left of Gaston Max came a faint cry.
"Ah! He has bitten me!"
"'Ullo!" said Bill--"wotcher bin given' _'im,_ Pidgin? _Chandu_ orhydrerphobia?"
Ah-Fang-Fu crossed and handed him the pipe.
"One piecee pipee. No more hab."
Bill grasped the pipe eagerly and raised it to his lips. Ah-Fang-Fureturned unmoved to his Patience and silence reclaimed the den, onlybroken by the inarticulate murmuring and the lapping of the tide.
"A genuine customer!" whispered Max.
"Ah!" came again, more faintly--"he ... has ... bitten ... me."
"Blimey!" said Bill in a drowsy voice--"'eave the chair at 'im,Pidgin."
Stuart was about to speak when Gaston Max furtively grasped his arm."Ssh!" he whispered. "Do not move, but look ... at the top of thestair!"
Stuart turned his eyes. On the platform at the head of the stairs aHindu was standing!
"Chunda Lal!" whispered Max. "Prepare for--anything!"
"Chunda Lal descended slowly. Ah-Fang-Fu continued to play Patience.The Hindu stood behind him and began to speak in a voice of subduedfervour and with soft Hindu modulations.
"Why do you allow them, strangers, coming here to-night!"
Ah-Fang-Fu continued complacently to arrange the cards.
"S'pose hab gotchee pidgin allee samee Chunda Lal hab got? Fo-Hi nocatchee buy bled and cheese for Ah-Fang-Fu. He"--nodding casually inthe direction of Bill Bean--"plitty soon all blissful."
"Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu," said Chunda Lal tensely. He loweredhis voice. "Do you forget so soon what happen last week?"
"No sabby."
"Some one comes here--we do not know how close he comes; perhaps hecomes in--and he is of the _police."_
Ah-Fang-Fu shuffled uneasily in his chair.
"No police chop for Pidgin!" he muttered. "Same feller tumble inliver?"
"He is killed--yes; but suppose they find the writing he has made!Suppose he has written that it is _here_ people meet together?"
"Makee chit tell my name? Muchee hard luck! Number one police chop."
"You say Fo-Hi not buying you bread and cheese. Perhaps it is Fo-Hithat save you from hanging!"
Ah-Fang-Fu hugged himself.
_"Yak pozee!"_ (Very good) he muttered.
Chunda Lal raised his finger.
"Be very careful, Ah-Fang-Fu!"
"Allee time velly careful."
"But admit no more of them to come in, these strangers."
_"Tchee, tchee!_ Velly ploper. Sometime big feller come in if Pidginpalaber or not. Pidgin never lude to big feller."
"Your life may depend on it," said Chunda Lal impressively. "How manyare here?"
Ah-Fang-Fu turned at last from his cards, pointing in threedirections, and, finally, at Gaston Max.
"Four?" said the Hindu--"how can it be?"
He peered from bunk to bunk, muttering something--a name apparently--after scrutinizing each. When his gaze rested upon Max he started,stared hard, and meeting the gaze of the one visible eye, made thestrange sign.
Max repeated it; and Chunda Lal turned again to the Chinaman. "Becauseof that drunken pig," he said, pointing at Bill Bean--"we must wait.See to it that he is the last."
He walked slowly up the stairs, opened the door at the top anddisappeared.