Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/286

276 the little stick in my pocket, returned to my home. Once there I sat myself down in my study, took my legacy out of my pocket, and carefully examined it. As to its peculiar power and value, as described to me by the dead man, I hardly knew what to think. My own private opinion was that China Pete was hardly sane at the time. And yet how was I to account for the affray with the Chinaman on the boat and the evident desire of the Celestials in Sydney to obtain information concerning it? After half an hour's consideration of it, I locked it up in a drawer of my safe and went upstairs to bed.

"Next day China Pete was buried, and by the end of the month I had almost forgotten that he had ever existed, and had hardly thought of his queer little gift, which reposed in the upper drawer of my safe. But I was to hear more of it later on.

"One night, about a month after my coming into possession of the stick, my wife and I were entertaining a few friends at dinner. The ladies had retired to the drawing-room and I was sitting with the gentlemen at the table over our wine. Curiously enough, we had just been discussing the main aspects of the politics of the East, when a maidservant entered to say that a gentleman had called and would be glad to know if he might have an interview with me on important business. I replied to the effect that I was engaged, and told her to ask him if he would call again in the morning. The servant left the room only to return with the information that the man would be leaving Sydney shortly after daylight, but that if I would see him later on in the evening he would call again. I therefore told the girl to say I would see him about eleven o'clock, and then dismissed the matter from my mind.

"As the clock struck eleven I said good-night to the