"No; Ah Lum has several lieutenants. His band numbers nearly eight hundred; there were more than a thousand before the fight with the Russians."
"You know what a dollar is?"
"It is worth many strings of cash."
"Well, if you will take word to Mr. Wang about me, I will give you fifty dollars."
"Where will you get them from?" asked the man suspiciously. "Were you not searched, and everything taken from you?"
"True, I was searched; but the foreign devil has ways of getting money that the Chinaman does not understand. It is a small thing I ask you to do. The reward is great; fifty dollars, hundreds of strings of cash. You will never get such a chance again."
True to the oriental instinct for haggling, the man argued and discussed for some time before he at last agreed to Jack's proposition.
"You must make haste," said Jack. "If the messenger to the mandarin returns before you, I shall be killed and you will get no money."
The man at once explained that it was impossible for him to leave the village; he must find a messenger.
"Very well. He is to find Wang Shih and say that Jack Brown from Moukden is in peril of death. You can say the name?"