Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/272



208

An Encounter with Chinese Smugglers.

[Feb.

I talked a half hour or more to my new friend, and at last left him, well pleased to have formed the acquaint- ance of so agreeable a companion. He had informed me that a lot of opium was to be brought over the line at a point some twelve miles distant. He intended going there himself early in the morn- ing.

Sunrise of the next day found me eat- ing a lunch. Fifteen minutes later I had left the hotel, and was on my way to the point designated by my friend of the previous evening. I was proceeding along a little trail, and had gone about a mile, when a light step behind me ar- rested my attention. I glanced back, what was my surprise to recognize the hard-looking case I had seen in the little office at the hotel ! He came up, and at once assured me that he was a certain official, whom I knew well by name. I was a little dubious of the honesty of his words at first, as his disguise was very complete. It was hard to believe him anything but a tramp. He proved himself to be what he represented. He informed me that the gentleman I had been so much taken up with, to whom I had unfolded all my plans, was a criminal of dangerous proclivities, and one that was suspected of being at the head of a large gang.

Much discomfited at the alarming dis- covery I had made, I begged Beggs not to give me away. He promised, but cautioned me against future indiscre- tions, and hoped this experience would aid me to make a wiser and better offi- cer. Beggs disclosed to me a plot, or rather an undertaking, which was on foot to evade the American officials, and bring a lot of Chinamen and "dope" across the line. At this time they were supposed to be in the woods, on a cer- tain trail near a mountain pass.

Beggs gave me full instructions how to proceed and where to look for the men, he also advised me to be very care- ful in approaching them as they were a

desperate lot. I was to get as closely as possible to their camp, learn all I could about their numbers and intended movements, and meet Beggs and his- squad at a certain time and place ; then a grand descent on them was to be made as soon as they crossed the line. Great care had to be exercised not to give them any clew to the proceedings of the officers, else an alarm would en- sue that would cause them to cross at some other and unknown point.

Beggs soon left me, and I started out full of enthusiasm for the station des- ignated by Beggs as my particular headquarters.

About noon I reached a point on the boundary line, as directed by Beggs, and found the stone pillar that indicated the division of the two great nations. After lunching on the few cold scraps I had brought along in my pocket, I proceeded over on to British soil, on the lookout for signs of the enemy. Two hours elapsed ; I had reached a point about two miles from the pillar, in very heavy green-timbered country. Gigan- tic firs towered overhead, the roadway I was traversing was a mere trail made by deer, but the imprint of a human boot showed clearly that a man had pre- ceded me only a short time before. I had a great curiosity to know where that man had gone. Every little space on each side of the trail was the mark of a bottom of a pail where it had rested to ease the man's arm a little. After a while the footprints left the deer trail and led off through the woods. I fol- lowed them, and soon emerged on a wagon road. The footprints turned up the road to the left for a few rods. Now to my surprise I saw many other tracks, also a new-made wagon track, the latter appearing to have been heavily loaded. Hay was scattered all along each side of the road.

A light rustle on the road ahead around a curve caused me to jump quietly into the brush, where I could