ht. She stared aghast
at a world which frightened her by its emptiness. At her side stood
Ben, his lips twitching, and in his eyes that haunting fear which
always foreran the father's struggles. A month later the boy did not
come home one night, but came after three days, a feeble wreck of a
man. She tore open the letter the father had left, and this took her
to Barstow, with whom he had evidently left instructions. That was
five months ago, and in the meanwhile she had grown from a very young
girl into a woman.

This was the sombre background to her frightened thoughts as she lay in
her bed next to Marie. In the midst of all the figures which haunted
her, there stood now one alone who offered her anything but fearful
things--and he was a stranger. Out of the infinite multitude of the
indifferent who surrounded her, he had leaped and within these few
hours made her debtor to him for her life, and now for partial relief
from a strain which was worse than sudden death might have been. In
spite of other torments it was like a cool hand upon her brow to know
that out in that chaos into which the boy had plunged, this other had
followed. She had perfect confidence in him. After all, it is as easy
in a crisis to pick a friend from among strangers as from among friends.

CHAPTER VIII

_The Man Who Knew_

There are several members of the New York police force who think they
know their Chinatown; there are several slum workers who think they do;
there are many ugly guides, real guides, who think they do, but Beefy
Saul, ex-newspaper man, ex-United States Chinese immigration inspector,
and finally of the Secret Service, really does. This is because Beefy
Saul knows not only the bad, but the good Chinamen; because he knows
not only the ins and outs of Chinatown, but the ins and outs of New
York; because he knows not only the wiles and weaknesses of Chinamen,
the wiles and weaknesses of ugly souled guides (and of slum workers),
but best of all, because he knows the several members of the New York
police department who think they know their Chinatown. But like men
who know less, Beefy Saul enjoys his sleep and naturally objects to
being roused at three o'clock in the morning, even though in the east
the silver is showing through the black, as Donaldson pointed out, like
the eyes of a certain lady when she smiles (as Donaldson did not point
out). Beefy came down in answer to the insistent bell which connected