But while the miners were wondering what the "heathen Chinee" was up to, Hop suddenly gave the piece of bamboo a twist, and the next minute a small, bright-colored parasol was in his hand.
This was raised in a jiffy, and then he went parading around the room with it over his head.
Only a minute did this continue, however, and then the parasol vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
The Chinaman roiled the piece of bamboo in his hands and that, too, disappeared.
Then he stood still in the middle of the room and bowed right and left.
"Me allee samee velly smartee Chinee, so be," he observed, blandly. "Me likee Melican mans velly muchee."
The next thing he did was to toss a silver coin to the ceiling and as it came down he caught it in his mouth and went through the motions of swallowing it.
"Me allee samee eatee money, so be," he went on to say, smiling and bowing again.
It was just then that our hero and his partners came into the room.
"Hello, Wild!" called out Sedgwick, who was one of those present. "Your funny Chinaman has been doing some stunts fur us."