g had gone inside and picked up the fish left on
the cabinet shelf. He looked it over, wiped off the shelf carefully, and
then took up the fish and disappeared into the pantry with it.

"Now then, Andy!" whispered his twin. And thereupon Andy gave the string
in his hand two or three little jerks. From the board on the top of the
cabinet a fish fell down to the shelf below.

It had hardly fallen in place when Hop Lung came from the pantry. He
looked to see how matters were going on the stove, and then turned again
to the cabinet.

A queer look came over his face when he saw the fish lying in the same
place that the first had occupied. He looked toward the door to find no
one there.

"Him funny," he murmured in his Pidgin-English. "Him vellee funny." Then
he took up the second fish and walked into the pantry with it.

No sooner had he done this than Andy, doing his best to control his
laughter, jiggled the string again. This time, as luck would have it, two
fish came down, to light side by side on the cabinet shelf.

Again Hop Lung entered the kitchen and again he looked at what was
cooking on the stove. He stirred the mass in one of the pots carefully,
and then came back to his cabinet to get some seasoning.

When he saw the two fish lying there his eyes nearly started out of his
head. He jabbered something in his native tongue and then looked around
wildly, first to one side of the kitchen and then the other. Then he
looked toward the door leading to the dining room and then he came to the
door leading to the yard.

"Duck!" was all Andy said, and he and the others lost no time in getting
out of sight.

Hop Lung looked carefully around the yard and then came slowly back into
the kitchen. He walked again to the stove to see that nothing was
burning, and finally came back to the cabinet and picked up the two fish
gingerly. Meanwhile, the boys tiptoed their way back to their original
positions at the windows.

"He'll begin to think the cabinet is haunted," whispered Jack.

"Either that, or else he'll think he's bewitched," answered Gif.

And both were about right, for the poor Chinaman looked all around the
cabinet and even behind and under it, and then he looked under the table
and the chairs. Finally, still bewildered, he walked into the pantry with
the fish, which he carried before him at arm's length, as if afraid it
might bite him.

"Better give him a shower now, Andy," whispered his brother, and
thereu