never go armed."

"I could kill with my naked hands the white man who betrays his
community to a Jap. _Madre de Dios_, how I hate them!"

"Well, wait until your trusty right hand is healed before you try
garroting anybody," she suggested dryly. "Suppose you cool off, Mr.
Pepper-pot, and tell me more about this terrible menace?"

"You are interested--really?"

"I could be made to listen without interrupting you, if you could bring
yourself to cease glaring at me with those terrible chile-con-carne
eyes. I can almost see myself at my own funeral. Please remember that
I have nothing whatsoever to do with my father's business affairs."

"Your father looks like a human being, and if he realized the economic
crime he is fostering--"

"Easy, soldier! You're discussing my father, whereas I desire to
discuss the Yellow Peril. To begin, are you prejudiced against a
citizen of Japan just because he's a Jap?"

"I will be frank. I do not like the race. To a white man, there is
nothing lovable about a Jap, nothing that would lead, except in
isolated cases, to a warm friendship between members of our race and
theirs. And I dare say the individual Jap has as instinctive a dislike
for us as we have for him."

"Well then, how about John Chinaman?"