Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha by Dorothy Gilman Read Free Book Online Page B

left, nevertheless, after one anguished look of entreaty at Mrs. Pollifax.
    “They have not frightened you?” she asked Lotus.
    “No, but I am frightened for Sheng Ti,” the girl said. “He is afraid of being sent back to mainland China, where he’d certainly be placed in a labor camp this time. It is very serious to have no papers, you know?”
    Someone knocked on the door and Mrs. Pollifax discoveredthe atmosphere had so infected her that she, too, jumped and turned a startled face to Lotus. The girl went to the door and opened it an inch, speaking in Chinese to whoever was in the hall. When she returned, closing the door behind her, she said, “I sleep here with two other girls, I had to pay them to stay away but now they want to go to their beds.” She said anxiously, “You will have to go, but what am I to tell Sheng Ti?”
    Mrs. Pollifax brought out her memo pad and wrote in it, tore out the sheet and handed it to her. “This is my name,” she told her, “and this is where I’m staying, and that’s my room number. Both you and Sheng Ti had better memorize this and burn it.” She shook her head. “We simply
must
find some other way to meet. Could one of you phone me tomorrow night at ten o’clock at my hotel?”
    Lotus nodded. “Tomorrow night, ten o’clock.” Some of the anxiety in her face had cleared, leaving it grave and lovely again; she said shyly, “I’m glad you’re here, I’m glad someone knows, it’s been so lonely.” With one hand on the door she turned and added, “He will work hard for you now, too—you will see.” With the slip of paper tucked into her sleeve she opened the door and peered out. “Come,” she whispered, “you can leave through this building, through the kitchen. I show you.”
    Once out on the street Mrs. Pollifax’s first reaction was to draw a deep sigh of relief and to admit how glad she was to leave the small dim room that had been filled—
glutted
, she thought—with Sheng Ti’s fear and Lotus’s anxiety. It was not a happy thought to realize that he must risk even more danger before he could be lifted out of Feng Imports; she would much prefer tohave carried him away with her to place on the next flight to San Francisco but this thought only reminded her ruefully of how spoiled Americans could be: Sheng Ti lived the precarious life of a refugee, still without papers or identity.
    Her garden club, she decided grimly, was very definitely going to have to sponsor Sheng Ti—she would insist on it—and Lotus too, if their relationship continued. In the meantime she had to make sure that Sheng Ti survived physically … It was possible that heroin was the explanation for Mr. Detwiler’s sloppy reports to Carstairs’s department over the past two months but she did not like the sound of those eleven stolen passports. She shook her head over it; no, she did not like the sound of that at
all
.
    Flagging down a taxi Mrs. Pollifax rode back to the hotel and entered this time by the front entrance, boldly, and once again rose in the elevator to room 614. Here she tossed her purse on the bed and went to the telephone where she dictated a cable to Carstairs at the cover address in Baltimore: FRIENDSHIP RENEWED , WEATHER CLOUDY , EMILY POLLIFAX . When she replaced the receiver she saw by her travel clock that it was half-past eleven, and reflecting on what a long day it had been, she crossed the room to her suitcase.
    Drawing out pajamas and cold cream she suddenly stiffened as something hit her door with a violent thud.
    With a frown she dropped the pajamas and moved to the door. “Who is it?” she called.
    There was no answer.
    Cautiously Mrs. Pollifax released the lock and the door flew open, almost knocking her down as a man fell into her arms with blood streaming down his face. Asshe instinctively recoiled he slid to the floor and sprawled at her feet.
    She stared down at him, appalled: it was Mr. Hitchens.

5
    M rs. Pollifax’s initial reaction was