"You remember that after you got back from your trip
to the Canal you gave him money enough to go West and start a little
laundry business wherever he might choose to settle down. It seems he
drifted out to Helena, where there's quite a colony of Chinks, and
started in to wash and iron. As nearly as I can understand his gibberish,
he was doing pretty well, too, until he got mixed up in one of those
secret society feuds that play hob among those fellows. It seems that he
belonged to the On Leong clan and the Hip Son Tong got after him. They
sent on to 'Frisco for some highbinders--those professional killers, you
know--and Wah Lee got wind of the fact that he was one of the victims
marked for slaughter. Naturally, he was in a fearful stew about it, and
just when things were at their worst I happened to be in Helena on
business and ran across him. Of course, I'd never have known him, for all
Chinks look alike to me, but he recognized me in a minute and begged me
by all his gods to help him out. He knew it wouldn't do any good to go
from one city to another, because they'd get him sure, and his only
chance was to be smuggled off into some country place where they might
lose track of him.
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