“How—did the Yetsky Wop get injured?” “A Chink hit him on th’ head. The Chink’s name is Hong Kee.”
Abie thought he might as well pile matters on thick enough to make sure of getting Holy Joe out in the dingey. Hong Kee was a well known Barbary Coast character. The crimp was not surprised when Holy Joe started buttoning up a long black coat and looking about for a hat.
“You’re comin’ with me, preacher?”
“Most certainly! I shall be of some service, I hope. You haven’t explained how Hong Kee came to go to the whaler.”
“Oh, Keenon caught him with five cans o’ hop. It was good hop. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Abie was the only man in San Francisco who knew where the five cans were hidden at that particular minute. He intended selling them when the Bowhead was well out from shore soundings.
“You get me,” he told Holy Joe after they left the mission hall. “You get me, preacher, when I tell you that I am Keenon. It’s not generally known.”
The missionary did show some surprise.
“Why, I never suspected that,” he said.
“Are you the government detective?”