"You leavee money topside of blulow, Fiddletown. Me findee money. Me
fetchee money to you. All lightee."

"But I left no money on the top of the bureau, John," said Mrs.
Tretherick earnestly. "There must be some mistake. It belongs to some
other person. Take it back, John."

Ah Fe's brow darkened. He drew away from Mrs. Tretherick's extended
hand, and began hastily to gather up his basket.

"Me no takee it back. No, no! Bimeby pleesman he catchee me. He say,
'God damn thief!--catchee flowty dollar: come to jailee.' Me no takee
back. You leavee money top-side blulow, Fiddletown. Me fetchee money
you. Me no takee back."

Mrs. Tretherick hesitated. In the confusion of her flight, she MIGHT
have left the money in the manner he had said. In any event, she had no
right to jeopardize this honest Chinaman's safety by refusing it. So she
said, "Very well. John, I will keep it. But you must come again and see
me"--here Mrs. Tretherick hesitated with a new and sudden revelation of
the fact that any man could wish to see any other than herself--"and,
and--Carry."

Ah Fe's face lightened. He even uttered a short ventriloquistic laugh
without moving his mouth. Then shouldering his basket, he shut the door
carefully, and slid quietly down stairs. In the lower hall he, however,
found an unexpected difficulty in opening the front-door, and, after
fumbling vainly at the lock for a moment, looked around for some help
or instruction. But the Irish handmaid who had let him in was
contemptuously oblivious of his needs, and did not appear.

There occurred a mysterious and painful incident, which I shall simply
record without attempting to explain. On the hall-table a scarf,
evidently the property of the servant before alluded to, was lying.
As Ah Fe tried the lock with one hand, the other rested lightly on the
table. Suddenly, and apparently of its own volition, the scarf began to
creep slowly towards Ah Fe's hand; from Ah Fe's hand it began to creep
up his sleeve slowly, and with an insinuating, snake-like motion;
and then disappeared somewhere in the recesses of his blouse. Without
betraying the least interest or concern in this phenomenon, Ah Fe still
repeated his experiments upon the lock. A moment later the tablecloth
of red damask, moved by apparently the same mysterious impulse, slowly
gathered itself under Ah Fe's fingers, and sinuously disappeared by the
same hidden channel. What further mystery might have followed, I canno