Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/248

 would believe, outlined the subsequent happenings, and begged that Tyler, Bolliver & Tyler, Inc., of Shanghai, be notified at once.

Bespectacled interpreters, with wooden pens behind their ears, were called from inner rooms; big books were seriously consulted; and at length the magistrate agreed that Tyler, Bolliver & Tyler might exist. But such a story! And what about the baby?

"Drat the baby!" thought Alan. She really had nothing to do with it, he explained. She was merely an incident, an accident. She in no way influenced the state of the case. Like all excited people, Alan talked too much. He confused his statements and made himself unintelligible to his Chinese hearers. But he thought that he had wholly gained his point when the magistrate at last consented to send a telegram to Tyler, Bolliver & Tyler.