“And you have reported to your superior officers?”
Green nodded, and Ned began to feel provoked at the strange attitude taken by the government in the matter. Surely he should have been posted as to conditions in the district before being sent on.
“Why wasn’t I informed of this new element in the case?” he asked.
“Well,” Green replied, “the officials have an idea that the men who are running the Chinks and the opium in are the men who are responsible for the forest fires. In fact, I have so reported to them for a long time.”
“Go on,” the puzzled boy requested.
“You see,” Green continued, “I might go and pick up a couple of dozen Chinks almost any month, and capture a lot of opium, and arrest a few men caught with the goods on, but, don’t you see, that wouldn’t end the game?”
“I see that,” Ned answered.
“There is a man at the head of this game who is working from behind the scenes somewhere,” Green hastened to say. “I don’t know who he is. The officials at San Francisco don’t know who he is, or where he is. The big guns at Washington know just about as much regarding the head center of the game as we do. Well, that is what you were sent here for—to get down to cases, as I used to say on South Clark street, Chicago.”
“It was thoughtful of them not to interrupt the game until I got here,” Ned said.
“Yes, I thought so,” Green went on. “I thought that any man, or boy, coming here to get to the bottom of this thing would want us to leave a few ropes hanging out for him to climb down. You found ’em.”