"Maybe you likee see Big Sam, eh?" he said with an insinuating air.
"Oh, Big Sam wants to see me, does he?"
"You likee see Big Sam," repeated Kwan Luey with the air of one stating a recognized fact. "Maybe him show you how pick plenty good ticket, eh?"
"Does he want to see me to-night?"
"I no know--him no say. Too many p'lice--too many hoodlum--maybe you no likee," said Kwan Luey, with a judicial view of the obstacles to an interview with the King of Chinatown.
I decided that I would take the chances, though it was approaching midnight, when my attention was attracted by the voice of Parks, and I turned to see him at the desk. My heart sank with the thought of Mercy's disappointment, when it was buoyed up once more by the discovery that he was not in custody. Instead of standing there a prisoner, he was piling little stacks of gold before the desk sergeant, and I divined that he was producing bail for those followers who had been so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the police. As he shoved the last of the stacks across the desk and took the receipt that was offered him, he caught sight of me.
"What brings you here?" he cried in surprise.
"I have come, like yourself, on an errand of mercy. But I am the one who has the greater reason to be surprised." I marveled at his rashness in daring to enter the prison, and marveled still more that he was not put under arrest where he stood. Then I reflected that it was most unlikely that the policemen on guard at the prison had seen him at the Nob Hill meeting or at the rescue of Merwin; and if his description was on the books it was not definite enough to serve for identification.
"By heavens! They call this law!" he cried, waving his hand around at the prison. "Do you know, sir, that they have set Baumgartner's bail at five hundred dollars, and threaten to rearrest him as he sets foot out of prison, if I secure his release with that sum!"
"Then I think you had better save your five hundred," I replied.