登陆注册
15385000000108

第108章

BELOW THE DEAD LINE

Whisperings! Always whisperings, low, sibilant, floating errantly from all sides, until they seemed a component part of the drug-laden atmosphere itself.And occasionally another sound: the soft SLAP-SLAP of loose-slippered feet, the faint rustle of equally loose-fitting garments.And everywhere the sweet, sickish smell of opium.

It was Chang Foo's, simply a cellar or two deeper in Chang Foo's than that in which Dago Jim had quarrelled once--and died!

Larry the Bat, vicious-faced, unkempt, disreputable, lay sprawled out on one of the dive's bunks, an opium pipe beside him.But Larry the Bat was not smoking; instead, his ear was pressed closely against the boarding that formed the rather flimsy partition at the side of the bunk.One heard many things in Chang Foo's if one cared to listen--if one could first win one's way through the carefully guarded gateway, that to the uninitiated offered nothing more interesting than the entrance to a Chinese tea-shop, and an uninviting one at that!

HAD HE BEEN FOLLOWED IN HERE? He had been shadowed for the last hour; of that, at least, he was certain.Why? By whom? For an hour he had dodged in and out through the dens of the underworld, as only one who was at home there and known to all could do--and at last he had taken refuge in Chang Foo's like a fox burrowing deep into its hole.

Few could find their way into the most infamous opium den in all New York, where not only the poppy ruled as master, but where crime was hatched, ay, and carried to its ghastly consummation, sometimes, as well; and of those few, not one but was of the underworld itself.

And it was that fact which held his muscles strained and rigid now under the miserable rags that covered them, and it was that which kept the keen, quick brain alert and active, every faculty keyed up and tense.If it were the police, he had little to fear, for they could not force their way in without warning; but if it were the underworld, he was in imminent peril, and had done little better than run himself into a trap from which there was no escape.

"DEATH TO THE GRAY SEAL!"--he had heard that whispered more than once in this very place.Who knew at what moment the role of Larry the Bat would be uncovered, and the underworld, where now he held so high a place, would be at his throat like a pack of snarling wolves!

Who had been shadowing him during the last hour?

Whisperings! Nothing tangible! He could catch no words.Only the never-ending whisperings of gathered groups here and there--and sometimes the clink of coin where some game was in progress.

The curtain before his bunk was drawn suddenly aside--and Larry the Bat's fingers, where his hand was carelessly hidden by his body tightened upon his automatic.

"Smokee some more?"

The fingers relaxed.It was only Sam Wah, one of the attendants.

"Nix!" said Larry the Bat, in a slightly muddled tone."Got enough."The curtain fell into place again.Larry the Bat's lips set in a thin smile.Ultimately it made little difference whether it was the police or the underworld! The smile grew thinner.It was the flip of a coin, that was all! With one there was the death house at Sing Sing for the Gray Seal; with the other--well, there were many ways, from a shot or a knife thrust in the open street, to his murder in some hidden dive like this of Chang Foo's, for instance, where he now was--the Gray Seal was responsible for the occupancy of too many penitentiary cells by those of the underworld to look for any other fate!

He raised himself up sharply on his elbow.A shrill, high note, like the scream of a parrakeet, rang out a second time.He tore the curtain aside, and jumped to his feet.All around him, in the twinkling of an eye, Chinamen in fluttering blouses, chattering like magpies, mingled with snarling, cursing whites, were running madly.

A voice, prefaced with an oath, bawled out behind him, as he sprang forward and joined the rush:

"Beat it! De cops! Beat it!"

The police! A raid! Was it for HIM? From rooms, an amazing number of them, more forms rushed out, joined, divided, separated, and dashed, some this way, some that, along branching passageways.

There had been raids before, the police had begun to change their minds about Chang Foo's, but Chang Foo's was not an easy place to raid.House after house in that quarter of Chinese laundries, of tea shops, of chop-suey joints, opened one into the other through secret passages in the cellars.Larry the Bat plunged down a staircase, and halted in the darkness of a cellar, drawing back against the wall while the flying feet of his fellow fugitives scurried by him.

Was it for HIM, this raid? If not, the police had not a hope of getting him if he kept his head; for back in Chang Foo's proper, which would be quite closed off now, Chang Foo would be blandly submitting to arrest, offering himself as a sort of glorified sacrifice while the police confiscated opium and fan-tan layouts.

If the police had no other purpose than that in mind, Chang Foo would simply pay a fine; the next night the place would be in full blast again; and Chang Foo, higher than ever in the confidence of the underworld's aristocracy, would reap his reward--and that would be all there was to it.

But was that all? The raid had followed significantly close upon the heels of his entry into Chang Foo's.Larry the Bat began to move forward again.He dared not follow the others, and, later on, when quiet was restored, issue out into the street from any one of the various houses in which he might temporarily have taken refuge.

There was a chance in that, a chance that the police might be more zealous than usual, even if he particularly was not their game--and he could take no chance.Arrest for Larry the Bat, even on suspicion, could have but one conclusion--not a pleasant one--the disclosure that Larry the Bat was not Larry the Bat at all, but Jimmie Dale, the millionaire club-man, and, to complete a fatal triplication, that Larry the Bat and Jimmie Dale was the Gray Seal upon whose head was fixed a price!

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 超极高手

    超极高手

    山村少年刘劲只因偷看了村里寡妇的女儿洗澡,怕被师娘惩罚,被迫离开了村子,闯入了花花都市。且看穷小子如何在花花都市中混的风生水起!完本作品《最狂门徒》《特种高手纵横都市》
  • 混入仙界做高管

    混入仙界做高管

    落魄宅男变身仙界高管,别人出国我出界。太上老君:我和铁扇公主的事,您老可不可以……。牛魔王哭诉道:是紫霞仙子先动的……情!自从做了仙界高管,腰也不酸腿也不疼了,一口气爬上九重天。嫦娥:帅哥,我喜欢上你了怎么办?“日后再说。”
  • 恶魔BOSS的纯情小恋人

    恶魔BOSS的纯情小恋人

    初见时她说:“你是我见过的人中长得最好看的,我准许你做我的王子。”一次离别,一场动乱,改变了所有人的命运。当命运的齿轮再次将她转到他的面前,他紧紧捏住她的下巴说:“说你喜欢我。”她怒吼:“神经病!”他慢悠悠的笑道:“你说错了。是精神病,这两者间有着本质上的不同。”
  • 灵力之域

    灵力之域

    在一个名为灵力之域的地方,一位原本普通的少年,为寻找父母死亡的真相,踏上了修炼灵力之路,但背后,却有一双眼睛盯着他······
  • 国民狂少:早安小野猫

    国民狂少:早安小野猫

    范伊诺经历了一场交通事故,本应驾鹤西游,却意外的重生到了一名高中生上,本想这已经算最倒霉了,却又遇到了一个极其高冷而又十分霸道的男生……
  • 弃妃拒宠:皇上靠边站

    弃妃拒宠:皇上靠边站

    她,穿越而来。一不小心成为了他的妃子,后宫三千,明争暗斗,不为后位,她只想明哲保身,做个不显眼的妃子,掩饰一张绝世倾城之貌。他,祈国皇帝,俊美无俦,冷血无心,第一次动情,却抓不住一个小女人的心。“留下来!”男人黑眸微眯,低沉的嗓音冷的让人脚底暗暗发寒。霸道的语气里不带丝毫妥协。她摇头不语,转身离去。她转身离去后,没有发现,站在她身后的他,握紧的拳头,黑眸之中,闪过一抹难以察觉的受伤和深情……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 末世之无极系统

    末世之无极系统

    末世降临,人陷入一片恐慌之中。当远古的秘密被揭开,那么恐惧也跟着到来了。
  • 最强校花:请叫我捉鬼师

    最强校花:请叫我捉鬼师

    她,澹台苏紫。作为澹台家族的大小姐,被公认为最有潜力的捉鬼师,怎么在那该死的臭道士眼里就这么的渣呢?可,这也就罢了。为什么,臭道士那么喜欢破坏她与未婚夫之间的感情呢?直到有一天他对我说,小紫,我喜欢你。纳尼?!是我听错了还是臭道士发烧烧坏了脑子?!哼哼哼,只看美美哒捉鬼师与放荡不羁的道士之间相亲相爱、互撕互掐的故事吧~
  • 第一次做妈妈:全职母亲体验手记

    第一次做妈妈:全职母亲体验手记

    本书以作者的育儿经历贯串全篇,尤其关注育儿过程中的细节,在每一个关键阶段都有综合了专家观点和妈妈们经验的重点议题,还对孕婴用品、婴儿玩具早教图书等的选择和使用提出了建议,并以手册方式提供关键词的快速查找。
  • 网游之剑圣盗贼

    网游之剑圣盗贼

    问游戏哪个职业最自由,非盗贼莫属。本欲成为战士的肖白因游戏的开头选项,作死的成为了一个在刀尖跳舞的盗贼。且看他如何在游戏世界中,逍遥天下!