Page 101 (1/2)

“If anyone else on the train gives you trouble, just come to me”

“Please don’t tell Mr Bennett He wouldn’t understand”

“Why not?”

“He is kind man He has no idea how cruel people are”

“Put it in your suitcase, and I won’t tell hi”

Louis seized Bell’s hand in both of his “Thank you, sir Thank you for understanding”

Bell’s face was a mask “Go put it in your suitcase,” he repeated The Chinese h the vestibule to the next car, where Bennett had his adjoining stateroorateful thank-you Bell nodded back as if thinking, What a pious young fellow

In truth, he was speculating that the boyish-looking sters And if that were so, he had to marvel at John Scully’s clairvoyance

No other detective in the Van Dorn Agency could wander alone into Chinatown and teeks later connect a pair of tong gangsters to the Hull 44 spy ring He was te and lock thee car Except he doubted that Louis and Harold were ringleaders if gangsters at all-and if they were henchmen, he could trail them to their boss

That the spy recruited tong Chinese was typical of his international reach It was hard to i about it That the spy had tricked a fa cover for his operatives indicated an iination as intricate as it was diabolical

“BET’S TO YOU, WHITMARK In or out?”

Ted Whitmark knew full well that he should never stay in a hand of seven-card stud trying to fill an inside straight The odds were ridiculous He needed a four There were only four fours in the deck, one heart, one diamond, one spade, one club And the four of clubs had already been dealt to a hand across the table, and thatanother four hidden in his hole cards Four fours in a deck, one clearly , another likely The odds were less than ridiculous, they were impossible

But he had dropped a ton ofhis luck was about to change It had to His losing streak had started weeks ago in New York, and it was tearing him down He had lost more on the train to San Francisco, and since he had arrived he had lost nearly every night One four gone One or even two likely gone Sometimes you had to take the bull by the horns and be brave

“Bet’s to you, Whitmark In or out?”

No one by the boards when he borrowed his third five thousand early in the evening Sometimes you had to be brave