"

The result of the conversation that went on between Bassett and Campbell
during the next quarter of an hour was that Campbell finally got up from
the table and said:

"We'll talk to Chuan Kai."

As an outcome of what passed between the two members of Ridgley School
and Chuan Kai, an agreement was made which involved the payment of a
certain amount of money. Chuan Kai counted the bills and slipped them
out of sight within the folds of his loose-fitting coat. He had more
than one reason for undertaking to help these two young members of the
white race; they had money which moved from their pockets to his pockets
and they had promised him more; the owner of the building in which Chuan
Kai had established the business of the Oriental Eating Palace was
Campbell, the leather dealer. Third reason, and greatest in the Chinese
mind, was the fact that years ago, but not so long but that the memory
of it was as vivid as a lightning flash on a black night, Campbell--who
had not been above turning his hand to various undertakings that, though
murky of purpose, were productive in returns--had circumvented certain
laws that prevented a yellow man from gaining entrance to the land of
the Americans. The father of this youth held Chuan Kai in the hollow of
his hand, and Chuan Kai knew that a few words spoken to the
enforcers-of-law would send him away from these shores, where living
came so easily, back to China where stalked a specter which he had
reason to fear with the fear of one whose heart trembles like the heart
of a field mouse that hears the cry of the long-taloned owl. Those
reasons trooped through the Oriental's mind as his black eyes shifted
from the face of Campbell to the face of Bassett.

"You understand," said Bassett. "It's an initiation for one of our
school societies and it must be always a secret--never tell any one we
had anything to do with it. You understand?"

Yes, Chuan Kai understood; he knew English and he knew well enough what
societies were; this he imagined was a "play" society, the kind with
which young Americans amused themselves, quite unlike some societies he
knew about.

Chuan Kai called out suddenly two words that sounded to Bassett and
Campbell like "_Ka-wah changsee_", and within twenty seconds one of the
Chinese waiters stood in the doorway with an expectant look in his eyes.
More words of Chinese like pebbles rattling over stones and falling into
water flowed from the singsong lips of Chu