Since, Jim has maintained that he was
sinking when he heard her voice; her faint, attenuated tones infused
strength into his limbs and hope into his heart.
We dined together, and I delivered the president's message in Thorpe's
presence. He shook hands with Jim, and said quietly--
"I am happier to-night than I ever expected to be again."
Bounder or not, he meant it.
Only the other day I received a letter from Angela. She wrote at
length concerning her eldest child, my godson, and she mentioned
incidentally that Jim was now cashier of the San Lorenzo Bank.
XV
MARY
His real name was Quong Wo, but my brother Ajax always called him
Mary, because the boy's round, childish face had a singular smoothness
and delicacy. A good and faithful servant he proved during three
years. Then he ran away at the time of the anti-Chinese riots, despite
our assurance that we wished to keep him and protect him.
"Me no likee Coon Dogs," said he, with a shiver.
The Coon Dogs were a pack of cowboys engaged in hunting Chinamen out
of the peaceful, but sometimes ill-smelling, places which, by thrift,
patience, and unremitting labour, they had made peculiarly their own.
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