Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/162

. Mark started to say, "You villain!" and thought better of it. He merely looked at Chun Lon instead.

"How do," said the Chinese briskly. "You come make little business, yes? Can do? See, you write here—just little tiny two word—just your name, yes? Then we say, 'Good-by!'"

"What's the paper about?" Mark demanded. Beneath the sheet of Chinese characters Chun Lon held he saw the edge of the precious document signed by T'ang Min and Captain Ingram.

"Oh, nice talk," Chun Lon explained. "He say Chun Lon one velly good mess-boy, gettem 'nother ship, yes?"

"You scoundrel," Mark exclaimed, "it's nothing of the kind! You could have given me such a paper on the ship, and it's the captain you'd have asked for a recommendation."

Chun Lon looked childlike and uncomprehending.

"You no write tiny little word, see, we make you go find ancestor. Velly sad; velly, velly too bad."

He drew his thumb slowly down the edge of a long curved knife which glittered suddenly