o
drive alongside a car of one of the cheaper makes and to pretend that he
was doing his utmost to pass and in that way to lure the small-car owner
into competition. Sometimes he succeeded and after he had made his
victim believe that the big car was about to be vanquished he would step
hard on the accelerator and leave the scene of competition in a cloud of
dust. On such occasions Bassett felt called upon to turn and thumb his
nose at the crestfallen driver.

At dusk the pair came back to Greensboro for refreshment and Campbell
declared that he would take Bassett to a "regular place."

Greensboro was a bustling town in which there were department stores,
theaters and restaurants. The stores and theaters were closed, but the
restaurants were open, though Sunday business was dull. Campbell drove
the big car down a side street and stopped in front of a building that
was decorated with an Oriental sign announcing to the world that this
was the Eating Palace of Chuan Kai. "Here's where I feed you the dinner
I owe you," he said.

Tracey seemed to be well known to the Oriental managers of the
restaurant. Chuan Kai himself, a yellow Chinaman in American clothes,
greeted him in with a smile that showed his tusks; he directed the two
to a table set in a little booth that was decorated with panels showing
dragons and temples. Here Tracey and Bassett lolled back at ease, ate
chow mein and chop suey with mushrooms, drank tea from small cups
without handles and smoked till the air of the little booth was blue.

Chuan Kai stole softly in and out and occasionally glanced with
satisfaction at the two students. They were spending money freely and
the wily old Oriental knew that young Campbell would drop a fat tip into
his yellow palm when it so pleased him to leave the restaurant. Silently
the Chinese waiters in their slippers and loose trousers slipped in and
out of the mysterious regions where the strange food was prepared.
Tracey, displaying nonchalance for Bassett's benefit, declared that old
Chuan Kai kept "a dozen Chinks on the job", and that they all slept in
rooms directly above the restaurant. The persons who sat at the inlaid
tables and leaned heavily on their elbows as they scanned the
much-fingered menus were a nondescript lot--some the riff-raff of the
town who found it cheaper to eat at Kai's than to eat elsewhere, others,
more respectable in appearance, who doubtless had been drawn to the
place by curiosity.

"Do yo