they can hide their Chinks when they get them
across, until the time is set to turn them loose. 'Course I can't say
that's what this place has been used for. But it would be great for
it."

The narrator paused and the Boy Ranchers drew long breaths of
excitement.

"Well, boys, what do you think about it?"

The tall deputy looked from one to the other. He was prepared for a
deluge of questions, and they came.

"Can't the Chinese counterfeit this 'chock gee'?"

"Who gets the fifteen hundred dollars?"

"Has that smuggling been going on here--near the Shooting Star?"

"Cease firing!" the deputy laughed. "I'll answer Bud's question first.
Yes, it _has_ been going on here--right past Roaring River. That's how
our marshal got shot up--tryin' to stop a load of Chinks from gettin'
through.

"That fifteen hundred, Dick, is divided between the men who actually do
the running, and the company that ships the Chinks to Mexico. The
smugglers get about five hundred a head for every man they get in. The
'chock gee' is often counterfeited, but not very successfully. It's
printed like a government bank bill, and is just as hard to fake."

For some time the discussion about smuggling went on. The deputy told
of the different tricks resorted to by the border runners in getting
their human cargo safely into the United States, and to what lengths
they will go to prevent capture. Boats are also used to transport the
Chinese to the American seacoast, Hawkins said, and if, by chance, the
runners were caught with a load of prospective undesirable Americans
they got out of the difficulty by the simple expedient of dumping the
Chinese into the sea.

Another method of transportation was for the smugglers to put off in a
small craft from a Mexican port, with a cargo of barrels and Chinese.
When the boat neared the United States coast the Chinese would be
nailed in the barrels and thrown overboard, to trust to the mercies of
Fate to bring them ashore. Often the wind blows in an offshore
direction, which spells death to the floating Chinese; weeks later they
are found dead, when the barrels pile up on some distant coast.

This system of sneaking Chinese into this country was well established,
said Hawkins, and the smugglers make use of scouts in small cars before
they attempt to bring a load of Chinese across the line. These scouts
ride swiftly along the route of the proposed entry, and locate,
definitely, the position of eac