The Bradys After a Chinese Princess Part 16

This she was sure he had done, for while the Chinese characters on the other doors were painted directly on the woodwork, in this case it was a piece of red paper, upon which the character had been written with a Chinese pen.

That it had been put there for her special benefit Alice did not doubt.

It was just like Dr. Garshaski, who was forever doing something dramatic in the old days.

He hurried Alice along the empty corridor and down a short flight of stairs.

Coming to a door, he let go his hold and knocked.

It was instantly opened by a very Chinese-looking Chinaman wearing a rich native dress.

The room was rather small, but well fitted up as a bed chamber, partly in Chinese and partly in American style. In the middle of the floor stood the box which was supposed to contain the Chinese princess.

"So you have come at last!" exclaimed the Chinaman in his own language.

"I thought you never would."

"Patience, w.a.n.g Foo," replied the doctor. "We can't get there all in a moment."

"But the princess may die. She may be dead now. I believe it. She ought to have been released long ago."

"Patience, I tell you. I know my business. She is in no danger of death whatever."

"And the woman you were to bring to look after her. She must have an attendant. She is not to be ill treated. She is of my own blood."

"The woman is here."

"What, a white woman?"

"Yes."

"Of what use can she be?"

"I know her of old. She is an excellent nurse. None better."

"But she cannot talk to the princess."

"There you are quite mistaken. Better be careful what you say to her.

She speaks Chinese as well as you do."

w.a.n.g Foo stared at Alice and asked her name.

He managed to grasp the Alice part, but the rest was quite beyond him.

"Hurry! Hurry," he cried.

"Alice," said the doctor, "I am going to resurrect the princess now. Sit down in that easy-chair and make yourself at home."

Alice silently obeyed. Thus far there seemed nothing so terrible coming out of the pa.s.sage through the door of death.

The doctor asked for a screw-driver, and w.a.n.g Foo produced one, with which he made short work of opening the box.

There, apparently, in a deep sleep, lay a little doll of a Chinese woman upon blankets carefully fitted into the box.

She was in plain native dress, and her feet were not bigger than those of a good-sized doll.

This alone proved that she belonged to a good family.

The ordinary Chinese women do not compress their feet.

The doctor bent over the box and listened at her heart.

"She's all right," he said. "I'll have her out of this in no time."

He produced a leather medicine case, and, taking a tumbler from the washstand, proceeded to mix small portions of the contents of two different vials.

The result was a reddish liquid, of which he administered a few drops to the princess.

"Now, Alice," he said, "we can talk freely before this man, who is just from China and can't speak a word of English. Our love affairs can hang over a few days. Just now I am going to explain about this woman. She is the daughter of a rich Pekin Mandarin, who has sold her to an equally rich merchant here in Chinatown. They are really in love with each other, and the woman came to California of her own accord, although not in just the way she set out to do. She is also the granddaughter of a rich old c.h.i.n.k on her mother's side, who died in San Francisco at the time of the great fire. He left a pile of ready cash behind him, but no one knows where he hid it. That he did hide it somewhere on the night of the fire is certain. Just before his death, as I have the best of reason for believing, old Gong Schow wrote out this secret of the buried money and sent it to a man in China with instructions for him to deliver the letter containing the secret to his granddaughter on her twentieth birthday. It was done. This funny little midget alone knows where Gong Schow's wealth is buried. She has kept her secret well. She promised her lover to reveal it to him on their marriage day. w.a.n.g Foo knows all this. He is my partner in certain business transactions. He is her cousin. He started to escort her to Shanghai from her home in Pekin.

There she was to sail on the Manchuria for San Francisco. But w.a.n.g Foo deceived her and took her aboard an English tramp steamer, the Dover Castle. He has delivered her to me. She must be made to give up her secret, fair Alice. That was another reason why I kidnaped you. I want you to do the detective act. Get the secret out of the princess as best you can, only get it. Make her understand that if she don't give it up she will surely die. You have followed me in all this, I hope?"

"I certainly have," replied Alice, adding: "At your old tricks, doctor.

Forever plotting and scheming. Am I to be kept alone with this Chinese princess then?"

"That's what you are, and it's up to you to work my schemes out to success, for it is I and not w.a.n.g Foo who must have this hidden treasure----But she is waking; my drug has done it's work."

It was so. Inside of a few minutes the Chinese princess had fully revived.

She was little, but she made it hot for those around her.

Such a temper Alice never saw displayed in any Chinawoman.

She began by screaming, demanding to know where she was and why she was there.

She turned on w.a.n.g Foo with all the fury of a tigress, accused him of drugging her, of kidnaping her, and then began yelling to be taken to Ah Lung.

As for Dr. Garshaski, she did not appear to know him. She seemed to feel an instinctive hatred for him, however. She clawed at his face and tried to hit him when he started to help her out of the box.

She got out herself, however, and promptly tumbled over on her little feet. Like many another Chinawoman of her cla.s.s, she could scarcely walk.

w.a.n.g Foo did not attempt to reply.

At last he and Dr. Garshaski left the room, taking the box away with them.

After a while they returned with two trunks containing the belongings of the princess, whom they found crying in Alice's arms.

"That's right, Alice, that's right," said the doctor, delightedly. "I see you know your business as well as ever. Keep it up, my dear, and see here, I have determined to make you a promise. If you succeed in worming the secret out of that horrid little fright, you shan't marry me unless you really want to--so there!"

"That's certainly kind of you," said Alice with a half sneer. "All right, doctor, I'll see what I can do."