Gold Mountain (27 page)

“Yes, I know.” Jake walked closer to me, made a more careful study of my face, and turned to say, “Take off for lunch, Eddie, and take a long time. We can pick up the conversation when you get back. I’m afraid nothing’s going to change in the time you’re gone.”

“Yes, sir.” Eddie started toward the door where I stood but had to stop because I stood like a wall between him and his exit.

“Sorry,” I said, reluctantly moving aside and pulling Suey Wah closer to me as Eddie opened the door. I didn’t look outside to see if our pursuer was in sight but did ask Eddie in a whisper, “Do you see anyone in the street outside?”

The young man didn’t indicate that he thought my question at all extraordinary, only took a quick look and replied seriously before he exited, “No, ma’am. I’d guess everyone’s down at the docks.”

I pushed the door shut behind Eddie, but when I would have retaken my door-blocking position, Pandora stepped forward and threw the latch on the door to lock it. At one time I might have found such an action threatening, but I knew that he had read my expression and in his own way was assuring me of safety. Something about his gesture caused a great swell of relief in the general area of my heart. I had been right not to fear him on behalf of Suey Wah and right to come to the Pandora office for protection. I couldn’t have articulated why such a simple deed on his part would generate so emotional a response on mine. It just did.

“This is Suey Wah.” I finally let loose of the girl enough for her to take a small step toward Jake. “Suey, this is Mr. Pandora. My friend, Mr. Pandora.”

She tented both hands and bowed toward him, then raised her head to give him her charming smile. “How do you do, Mr. Pandora?” she said in careful English, not quite able to articulate all the consonants of his name. “Qing is my friend, too. Aren’t we fortunate to have such a very fine friend?” Suey Wah’s open little face smoothed away any residual bad temper that had darkened Pandora’s expression. How could anyone be immune to the child?

“Yes, indeed. Very fortunate.” He returned her smile before he raised his head to look at me with an expression that asked a question I had no trouble hearing even without words.

“Suey Wah, please go sit on the chair by the little table and wait for me while I talk privately to Mr. Pandora.”

She started away obediently but Jake stopped her, saying, “Wait. I have a better idea.” He went through a doorway in the back of the office and called, “Elena! Come down here, please.”

I heard light footsteps on the stairs and Jake reappeared followed by the young woman I’d originally seen as a face in the window and had later been introduced to as his niece.

“You’ll remember my niece, Elena. Elena, this is Miss Hudson.”

I put out my hand toward her, saying, “How nice to see you again, Miss Pandora,” ignoring the fact that the circumstances of this meeting were anything but nice.

She had Jake’s white smile. “I remember you, Miss Hudson. You are too beautiful to forget.” The honest admiration I heard in her voice made me flush with embarrassment.

Jake continued smoothly, “And this is Suey Wah, Miss Hudson’s young friend, who, I think, could do with a glass of water. Would you take her upstairs and see that she has whatever she needs?” Suey Wah glanced my way to be sure I approved of our being separated.

That’s a good idea,” I agreed quietly. “We had a bit of a run up the hill and a glass of water would be welcome. I’ll be right here with Mr. Pandora, Suey Wah.” Elena reached for Suey Wah’s hand, and the child hesitated only a moment before returning the grasp.

Very seriously Suey Wah asked, “You won’t forget and leave without me, will you, Qing?”

Her simple question touched me enough that for a moment I thought I might cry. “I will never forget you, Suey Wah, and I would never abandon you. We’re friends, are we not?”

She smiled at me happily, reassured, and disappeared with Elena into the back room where I heard Elena ask Suey Wah a quiet question as they ascended to the second floor.

“Now, Miss Hudson, dispel the mystery, please.” Pandora folded his arms across his chest and waited. As an afterthought he added, “Sit down if you’d like.”

I ignored the offer and told him step-by-step everything that had occurred from the moment Suey Wah and I had exited the cab until we appeared in the office of the Pandora Transport Company. Jake listened without interruption to my story. When I finally stopped talking, he was quiet himself for a moment. Wearied by the telling, I took him up on his earlier offer, sank into the nearest chair, and waited for his reaction.

Before speaking, Pandora unlocked the office door and stepped outside, closing the door carefully behind him. He was gone several minutes before he returned and picked up the conversation.

“There’s no one, Chinese or otherwise, anywhere in the alley or in the general vicinity now. The place is like a cemetery. The strike must be keeping everyone busy at their own pastimes. Why would a highbinder be interested in the child?” As I had recounted the morning’s adventures, I had wondered if what I related was all old news to him, and I was heartened by his question. If Pandora truly didn’t understand why someone might be after Suey Wah, wouldn’t that prove he wasn’t involved in the smuggling trade?

I gave up trying to decipher his intention or my reaction and answered, “Because he knows that Suey Wah was smuggled into the city, probably on the Pandora Two along with Mae Tao, the girl I saw on the dock when I first came to San Francisco, the girl I approached you about.”

“I remember.” A certain dryness in his tone that I didn’t pursue.

“If that’s the case, then to have Suey Wah safe and protected at 920 could threaten the smugglers’ anonymity. When these girls disappear into the vast Chinatown underground, there’s no chance for them to identify anyone or share anything they might remember. They speak only Chinese and would not have the desire or the will or the knowledge to expose their kidnappers. But I took Suey Wah under my wing and taught her English, and by doing that I placed her in danger. If it turns out she saw someone or something she shouldn’t have, her information could expose the whole disreputable organization.”

“Can she identify someone?”

I hesitated a moment. Was there an ulterior motive to his question? Did he desire to know the answer for a purpose all his own?

“No,” I finally replied. “At least, not that I know of. She’s had a dream that seems to tie in to her experience and there’s a man in the dream but he doesn’t have a face or a name or a voice. He’s just a figure, a shiny figure, she calls him. She doesn’t know anything that could incriminate anyone.”

Jake sat down across from me. “So why did you come here?”

“Your office was close and you once told me the door was always open.” I glanced toward the latched lock with a smile. “But it doesn’t look like that’s always the case.”

“It depends on what side of the door you’re on, Miss Hudson.”

“I see.”

“I don’t think you do, but explaining what I meant would take more time than we have right now. Do you still want to get Suey Wah onto that schooner?”

“Yes, but I don’t see how—” He stood abruptly, nearly knocking over his chair in the process.

“We are not at the mercy of those damned strikers,” but from his tone I thought he did not entirely believe the words himself.

“Will the strike hurt your business?”

“Not just hurt. Ruin. I make my business on the waterfront. The only thing that might help is if my crews realize they have as much to lose as I do. I’m not a member of the Employers’ Association, and I pay my men a fair wage. Everyone knows that, just like they know that if I have to, I’ll take a steamer at a time out by myself. I started as one man with one boat, and I can do it again.”

I’d been right when I first arrived to think he was angry. Just talking about the strike made him angry again.

“Maybe it won’t last very long.”

“I take a financial loss every day the steamers are at dock. Eddie was going over the numbers with me.” I heard the frustration in his voice.

“I’m sorry. I believe you about your own hired men, but you must realize that the desire to work only ten hours a day instead of twelve isn’t unreasonable.”

“It’s different for my crews, Dinah. Sailors work a different way, full days and nights to carry the load, and then a fair amount of days and nights off until the next trip. I’m not unreasonable. I understand that some of them have wives and families.” He shook his head in irritation. “Well, there’s nothing to be done about the situation right now, and maybe the police will break the strike. Was your friend there?”

He asked the question so unexpectedly that at first I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about and responded blankly, “What friend where?”

“The friend you were with at the Cliff House. The big man with fair hair.”

I found his question more gratifying than suspicious and answered, “His name’s Colin O’Connor and no, I didn’t see him there today, but it’s possible I missed him. The crowd of police I saw all looked the same behind their buttons and stars.” Because his question lent itself nicely to one I was pondering, I commented, “Your niece is a lovely girl.”

“Yes, she is. Takes after her mother not my brother, that’s for sure, for which the girl should be grateful. Elena is here to marry the man her parents arranged to be her husband.”

“Arranged?”

“A close friend of my father, a man named Stavros Gravari, came to America several years ago, settled in Santa Barbara, and started the successful Gravari Fishing Company. Many people in San Francisco would recognize the name. Stavros’s oldest grandson is of marriageable age, and the family wanted a good Greek girl from the old country for him. With my father dead, Stavros approached my oldest brother, who talked to Elena about the idea. To his surprise she was willing to consider the match. Elena has a good head on her shoulders and an unexpected taste for adventure. She came into New York where she was met by my oldest sister, Aura, who lives with her family on the east coast. Aura put her on a train to St. Louis where another sister claimed her, and so it went until Elena ended up here in San Francisco, her last stop.”

“You must have quite a few siblings.”

“Six. All older.”

“And all spread out, it sounds like.”

“Elena inherited her beauty from my sister-in-law and an adventuresome streak from the Pandora side of her family. We like to be on the move.”

“Is Elena’s wedding date set?”

“It was set for September. Her husband-to-be and his father were supposed to arrive sometime next week to take her south to spend some time with their family before the wedding. For old-country Greeks, that’s pretty progressive. Elena hasn’t met her young man yet, but they’ve exchanged letters and pictures and probably some words that neither set of parents would approve of because my niece favors the young fellow more than I would have thought possible from polite correspondence. The two young people might think they know their own minds, but both families still have to approve the match and that’s what Elena’s impatient for. I hate to be the one to tell her that the strike will delay the meeting and probably the wedding.”

“The Chinese arrange their daughters’ marriages, too,” I said thoughtfully. “I used to deplore the practice, but now I think it might have its place and purpose.”

He gave a little grin at my words, apparently surprised. “I never thought to hear a woman like you say such a thing.”

“Both my mother and my sister married for love,” I told him, “and they were very happy with their choices, but marriage can be a burden.”

“You surprise me again, Miss Hudson.”

“Marriage holds more serious consequences for a woman than it does for a man,” I explained, wishing I hadn’t allowed the conversation to drift onto this topic but too far in not to finish the thought. “Until the laws change, wives remain little more than property. A woman needs to think the decision through because she’s risking a great deal when she takes those vows, and I don’t know how the laws will ever change when women can’t vote.”

“Maybe there are some men who see things the same way you do.”

“Maybe,” but my voice held a skepticism he didn’t miss. “Anyway, I wish your Elena well. Right now I need to decide what to do with my Suey Wah.”

“You want to put her on that schooner, don’t you?”

“It’s the right thing to do for her safety,” I replied soberly. “I want Suey Wah to be out of harm’s way, but it’s hard to send her to strangers. We got used to having her around, and she was easy to love.”

“That happens sometimes.”

Something in his tone, something that hinted at meaning beyond the words, drew my gaze to his, and we stood staring at each other, neither of us smiling or speaking until we heard footsteps on the stairs that made me step back quickly and say, “Yes, I want to put her on that schooner.”

“All right then.” Pandora’s tone was brisk. “I can help you with that.”

I tried to hear or see something in him that hinted at deception or a wickedness below the surface, and not oblivious to my silent intent he added in a low voice, “I know you’ve had your doubts about me for a long time, Dinah, but you’ll have to trust me. I wouldn’t hurt the child—wouldn’t hurt any child—and I wouldn’t hurt you.”