“If he is going to stay where we found him it will do as well—perhaps better, as the men won’t know anything about him and we can run over and see him whenever we need to,” observed Luke.
“Ask him,” suggested Ruth.
And when Charlie again talked to the laundryman, the latter promised not to run away again, but to hold himself in readiness to help the Corner House girls locate the fortune. He would remain at his new location, where he hoped to start another laundry, he said.
“One thing more,” suggested Ruth, after thinking over all that had been said. “Hop Wong says he doesn’t know this man—this unfortunate old toper who saw Uncle Peter hide the box of gold. But ask him if he knows any clew by which we might find it or look for it in our cellar. Those men were evidently after something hidden there. They must have had some idea where it was. Ask Hop Wong if he can put us on the track.”
“I will,” said Charlie Sing.
Again he talked in those peculiar, slurring inflections that seem part and parcel of the Chinese language, and when he had finished he slipped easily into English, saying:
“Hop Wong says to look for a white star!”
“A white star!” exclaimed Agnes. “Where?”
“In your cellar,” replied Charlie. “Hop Wong says the white star is the mark that shows where the fortune is buried. He heard Rother and Meggs say this.”
“Well, now we seem to be getting on the right trail at last,” commented Luke. “Much obliged, Charlie. We’ll get along back now, and restore Hop Wong to his hut. We’ll be back again at college with the boys soon.”