“Yes,” says I.
“What race has slantin’ eyes?”
“The Chinee,” says I.
“Yes,” says he, “but the Chinee have pigtails.”
“Maybe these have under their hats.”
“No,” says he. “I n-n-noticed when one of ’em took his hat off. I calc’late,” says he, “that those men were from Asia all right, but not from China. My guess is they were Japanese.”
Well, sir, I remembered some pictures in a book home—one of these travel books—and those men did look just like Japanese. I guessed Mark was right.
“But what would Japanese be doing way up here in the mountains?” says I.
He shook his head. “More’n I can guess.... Just like it’s more’n I can guess what a dagger from Asia or Africa would be getting lost near our hotel for.”
I can tell you that startled me. I hadn’t seen any connection between the two men we saw and the dagger, but right off I began to think there might be some.