"One moment," said Big Sam. "I believe you are a brave man, Mr. Hampden."
"I really don't know," I replied.
"At least you do not mind hearing a few revolver shots?"
"Not at all."
"They will serve to amuse some of our friends who are on the watch."
The implied information that we were spied upon by sentinels of the tongs startled me for a moment, though I might have known that they would not neglect so obvious a precaution.
"If you and your friend wouldn't mind breaking a window and smashing something and firing a shot or two yourselves and making a good deal of noise before you carry off the girl, it would oblige me."
"Why should we attract so much attention? Is it not better to slip out quietly?"
"Do you think to avoid the eyes that are watching?" said Big Sain. "The bold course is the best. We make sound as of a fight. The watchers of the two tongs will each believe that the other has made an attack. They will hasten to the meeting places to summon help. For a minute the road will be clear. Then you must run for it."
This was more of an enterprise than I had bargained for, and if I had had time to think I should have got out of Big Sam's net and left him to carry out his plans through some other agency. But I did not stop to reflect and acted at the urging of the wily Oriental.