Bill for the Use of a Body by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online

party. Calmly sitting down beside her, he said, ‘History has always fascinated me and I should very much like to hear, Miss … Miss …?’
    He caught a twinkle in the girl’s grey eyes as she responded, ‘Sang; Merri Sang. And this gentleman is Mr. Bill Urata.’
    Julian gave a slight bow. ‘My name is Julian Day and I am delighted to meet you both.’
    â€˜It’s good to know you,’ said Mr. Urata, although he obviously did not mean it.
    Meanwhile Julian had taken stock of him. Seen closer to, he also obviously had Eastern blood. He looked about twenty-four, was about five foot seven, broad-shouldered and had strong, square, practical hands. His hair was crew-cut, his eyes very black, his face sallow and, apart from his teeth seeming over-large, he was decidedly good-looking. The gaudy check shirt he was wearing was open at the neck and not tucked into his grey trousers.Two cameras and a range-finder were slung round his body. After a moment Julian remarked to him:
    â€˜You implied just now that you are an American, but from your name and, if I may say so, your appearance I should have taken you for a Japanese.’
    â€˜My folks are Japanese and I was born in Japan,’ replied Urata laconically. ‘But since I was old enough to make high school I have lived in the U.S.; so I’ve gotten to think of myself as more than half American.’
    â€˜Mr. Urata is the son of a big ship-owner in Osaka,’ Miss Merri Sang volunteered. ‘Having completed his education at Berkeley University in California, he is going into his father’s business, and he is combining pleasure with business by using Hong Kong as a base from which to visit other ports in the Orient.’
    Julian only raised an eyebrow, but Urata caught his thought and said aggressively, ‘Any objection?’
    â€˜Not in the least. Where you choose to take a holiday is no affair of mine. But since you raise the point, I shouldn’t have thought you could expect to find a very warm welcome in Hong Kong, in view of the way your countrymen behaved here when they captured the island.’
    Urata shrugged. ‘Some of them got high on looted whisky and behaved pretty rough, I’m told; but the Germans did plenty worse and no-one kicks them for that these days. When I took my vacation in Europe last summer they were rubber-necking all over France, Italy and Greece. What happened twenty years ago, either there or here, doesn’t stop the locals from being civil. Most all of them think about is how much dough they can take off sucker tourists. Besides, come to that, part of my family was on your side. The uncle I lived with in the States had become an American citisen before the war and fought against the Germans in Italy.’
    Julian nodded. ‘How interesting. Well, anyway, I’m glad to hear that you are enjoying your stay here.’
    â€˜I certainly am. Now that’s settled let’s hear Merri tell us about the island.’
    â€˜With pleasure,’ smiled the ravishing Miss Sang. ‘I will say my short piece telling how, from an island that one hundred and thirty-two years ago was inhabited only by a few poor fisherfolk, Hong Kong has become a great metropolis with a population of over three million.
    â€˜You must know that it all started because the English took a great liking to tea. By the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign it had become very popular and they could not get enough of it. But it had to be paid for in silver because the Chinese Emperor maintained that China had everything she wanted and no need or wish to trade with the outside world.
    â€˜As tea drinking increased, the British Government became more and more annoyed at having to send money instead of goods to China, so they hatched a most unscrupulous plot to stop the drain on their silver. Over a hundred years before this the British East India Company had established a post in Canton