think is Jimmie? If he had an inch or so more of upper lip, I'd gamble
on that critter with the pink nighty and the baskets on his feet. He has
a kind of familiar chicken-stealin' look in his eye. Oh, come down on
the wharves, Jonadab, and be sensible.'
"Would you believe it, he wa'n't satisfied. We must go into the wash
shop and ask the Chinamen if they knew Jimmie Kelly. So we went in and
the powwow begun.
"'Twas a mighty unsatisfyin' interview. Jonadab's idea of talkin' to
furriners is to yell at 'em as if they was stone deef. If they don't
understand what you say, yell louder. So between his yells and the
heathen's jabber and grunts the hullabaloo was worse than a cat in a hen
yard. Folks begun to stop outside the door and listen and grin.
"'What did he say?' asks the Cap'n, turnin' to me.
"'I don't know,' says I, 'but I cal'late he's gettin' ready to send
a note up to the crazy asylum. Come on out of here afore I go loony
myself.'
"So he done it, finally, cross as all get out, and swearin' that all
Chinese was no good and oughtn't to be allowed in this country. But he
wouldn't give up, not yet. He must scare up some of the neighbors and
ask them. The fifth man that we asked was an old chap who remembered
that there used to be a liquor saloon once where the laundry was now.
But he didn't know who run it or what had become of him.
"'Never mind,' I says. 'You're as warm as you're likely to be this trip.
A rum shop is just about the place I'd expect that Kelly boy WOULD be
in. And, if he's like the rest of his relations on his dad's side, he
drank himself to death years ago. NOW will you head for the Savannah
Line?'
"Not much, he wouldn't. He had another notion. We'd look in the
directory. That seemed to have a glimmer of sense somewheres in its
neighborhood, so we found an apothecary store and the clerk handed us
out a book once again as big as a church Bible.
"'Kelly,' says Jonadab. 'Yes, here 'tis. Now, "James Kelly." Land of
Love! Barzilla, look here.'
"I looked, and there wa'n't no less than a dozen pages of James Kellys
beginning with fifty James A.'s and endin' with four James Z.'s. The Y
in 'New York' ought to be a C, judgin' by that directory.
"'Godfrey mighty!' I says. 'This ain't no forenoon's job, Jonadab. If
you're goin' through that list you'll have to spend the rest of your
life here. Only, unless you want to be lonesome, you'll have to change
your name to Kelly.'
"'If I'd only g
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