stow away in this place without smotherin' for an
hour or two. We've used it before. Go by way of the cabin and through
the hold below decks, so if anybody's got a glass on us from the gunboat
they won't see you.'

"And they went, she crawling behind him like a little mouse. And Archie
tucked 'em away and comes on deck, looking at his money as he comes--two
one-hundred-dollar bills. 'Tuck it out o' sight!' Archie was
sayin'--'tuck it out o' sight, hah?' And the more he looks the more
doubtful he becomes, and I looks at mine, and I get a magnifyin' glass
from my dunnage to have a closer look, and sure enough it's the phony
kind of money men like Durks used sometimes to pass off on unsuspecting
Chinks on that coast. 'Johnnie Sing tips me off about it just now,'
explains Archie to me.

"And while we're swearing at Durks for that, back he comes with a young
officer and four armed sailors. The officer looks at me and says: 'You
have contraband Chinamen aboard here?'

"Well, that got me. I looks at him, and then, thinking of the phony
money, I looks at Durks. And I don't answer.

"'We shall have to search the ship,' says the officer.

"'Sure,' I says, 'search away.'

"And they went and dropped straight into the cabin and made for the
lazaretto, Durks waiting and whistling to himself on deck. Pretty soon
the officer comes up and reports nobody in the lazaretto. Durks goes up
in the air. 'Where is he?' he says to me.

"'He? Who?'

"'Johnnie Sing.'

"'What you talkin' about?' I asks, and at the same time Archie
carelessly hauls out a hundred-dollar bill and lights a cigarette with
it. And Durks suddenly changes, and with the officer's permission steps
with me into the cabin. And the first thing he does is to count out
seven hundred dollars good money and hand it to me. 'I took that other
from the wrong pile,' he says, and smiles, but not as if he expects to
be believed. And he holds out another five hundred--good money--and
says, 'Where are they?' And I looks wise and says, 'Suppose that Chink
gave me a thousand to get 'em clear?' 'A thousand? Well, here--here's a
thousand when you turn him over to me. Where are they?'

"And I whispered, so the lockers themselves couldn't hear me: 'They swam
ashore and are hid away. To-morrow morning I give them the signal and
they'll come back aboard.'

"'Then,' says Durks, 'you can get his five hundred and my thousand. Will
that satisfy you?'

"And I said I'd think it over, and