ace and
harmony. Also, he gave business advice to his sons-in-law, preached the
virtues of temperate living and safe investments, and gave them the
benefit of his encyclopedic knowledge of industrial and business
conditions in Hawaii. Then he called for his carriage, and, in the
company of the weeping Mamma Achun, was driven down to the Pacific Mail
steamer, leaving behind him a panic in the bungalow. Captain Higginson
clamoured wildly for an injunction. The daughters shed copious tears.
One of their husbands, an ex-Federal judge, questioned Ah Chun's sanity,
and hastened to the proper authorities to inquire into it. He returned
with the information that Ah Chun had appeared before the commission the
day before, demanded an examination, and passed with flying colours.
There was nothing to be done, so they went down and said good-bye to the
little old man, who waved farewell from the promenade deck as the big
steamer poked her nose seaward through the coral reef.

But the little old man was not bound for Canton. He knew his own country
too well, and the squeeze of the Mandarins, to venture into it with the
tidy bulk of wealth that remained to him. He went to Macao. Now Ah Chun
had long exercised the power of a king and he was as imperious as a king.
When he landed at Macao and went into the office of the biggest European
hotel to register, the clerk closed the book on him. Chinese were not
permitted. Ah Chun called for the manager and was treated with
contumely. He drove away, but in two hours he was back again. He called
the clerk and manager in, gave them a month's salary, and discharged
them. He had made himself the owner of the hotel; and in the finest
suite he settled down during the many months the gorgeous palace in the
suburbs was building for him. In the meantime, with the inevitable
ability that was his, he increased the earnings of his big hotel from
three per cent to thirty.

The troubles Ah Chun had flown began early. There were sons-in-law that
made bad investments, others that played ducks and drakes with the Achun
dowries. Ah Chun being out of it, they looked at Mamma Ah Chun and her
half million, and, looking, engendered not the best of feeling toward one
another. Lawyers waxed fat in the striving to ascertain the construction
of trust deeds. Suits, cross-suits, and counter-suits cluttered the
Hawaiian courts. Nor did the police courts escape. There were angry
encounters in which har