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. It seemed rather hard lines for the old fellow, and
though I didn't care much to mix up in the rescue stunt, I didn't have
the heart to turn him down. So he sold out his shop to one of his own
society, and I brought him out at night. I didn't know just what I'd do
with him, but it turns out that he is a dandy cook, and Mrs. Melton
insists that my running across him was a rare streak of luck."

"It certainly was for him, anyway," said Bert. "I'd hate to have anything
happen to the old boy. He had a pretty rough deal in Mexico."

"He did, for a fact," agreed Melton reminiscently, "and he hasn't gotten
over it yet. A little while ago one of my men brought in a snake that he
had killed on his way back from town. The boys were looking at it when
the Chink happened to come along, and one of them, in a joke, threw it at
him. You never saw a fellow so scared. I thought for a minute he was