“Suppose you lived near by,” said Allan, “and took all your meals there, do you think he would keep on being willing?”
Dobbs laughed. “Well, I think I could keep it up quite a long time, if I wanted to.”
Presently they came to Chatham Square, and Dobbs, pointing over to the west, said, “Here’s Chinatown.”
Dobbs knew all the queer places, the joss houses, and theatres, and restaurants, and he pointed these out or indicated them with a jerk of his head.
“They are suspicious here,” said Dobbs, “and when you want to take anything I’ll turn and talk to you so that you can shoot past me.” It was in this way that Allan caught a group of men in front of one of the queer places. Hundreds of Chinamen were passing up and down the street, hundreds more could be seen in the tea-shops and at the windows of the restaurants.
Suddenly Dobbs turned away with an exclamation which Allan did not understand, and, looking about, the boy saw the detective run into an alley.
Allan, much perplexed, walked to the mouth of the alley and peered into its dingy depths. But there was no sign of Dobbs. He had utterly disappeared.