Even the police took a hand in the game, much as Old King Brady dislikes to have them mix up in his affairs, but as we have said before, it was all in vain.
On the morning of the fourth day before the Bradys had yet left the hotel, a page announced that a Chinaman wished to speak to the old detective, and at the same time he handed in a business card printed in English on one side, and in Chinese on the other.
The English side read thus:
LUNG & LUNG,
General Importers,
1015 Dupont Street,
San Francisco, Cal.
Ah Lung
Gee Lung
Wun Lung.
"The whole Lung family," remarked the old detective, looking at the card. "Show the man up."
It proved to be Ah Lung who came.
He was a very much Americanized proposition, California born and college educated.
In short, both in dress, intelligence and manner he was as perfect a specimen of a Chinese gentleman as the Bradys had ever seen.
Before proceeding further we must pause to explain that while the Bradys through their influence had been able to keep the matter of Alice's disappearance and the boxed-up princess off the police blotter, and so out of the papers, it was an open secret among the force.