Brown wrote to Chu, saying:
Dear Chu:
Received your letter in Honolulu. Was quite surprised and hurt to know you put me in such a spot after I asked you if there was anything in the suitcase. We arrive in San Francisco today. I have the suitcase on the ship and will return it to you next trip when I come. That is if nothing happens to me. I have spent every night since then worrying about the spot you put me on.
Well, I will close for now. Hope you write and that your children are well.
Sincerely yours,
Leslie Brown
When the President Cleveland reached Los Angeles, Brown left the suitcase in his cabin and hurried ashore to his apartment. He was told that a Mr. Lee, a Chinese, had made several calls inquiring about his return. And within a few minutes after his arrival, there was a knock on his door. Brown opened the door and found that his caller was a Chinese about fifty-five or sixty years of age. He had thin, sharp features and a dark complexion. His hair was turning gray. He was wearing a brown suit and a topcoat.
“I am Mr. Chu’s relative, Mr. Lee,” the visitor said. He asked if Brown had brought the suitcase from Mr. Chu.
“I can’t give it to you,” Brown said. “I got a letter from Chu and he told me to hang on to that suitcase or I’d get in trouble.”
Lee angrily accused Brown of trying to keep the suitcase in order to sell it. He demanded to know where it was.
To prove he still had it as he claimed, Brown took Lee with him aboard the Cleveland and showed him the suitcase in his cabin. But he refused to give it to him. Brown had the bag in his cabin when the President Cleveland sailed from Los Angeles on the return trip to Hong Kong.