It was the only thing
to do.
"What did Mazarine do or say to you that made you run away? Come now,
didn't you first make up your mind to go to Slow Down Ranch--to Orlando?"
She flushed. "Yes, but only for a minute. Then I thought of you, because
I knew you could help me as no one else could. Everybody believes in you.
But then Li Choo--"
"Oh, Li Choo! So Li Choo comes into this, eh? So he said fly to Orlando,
eh? Well, that's what he would do. But why Li Choo--a Chinaman? Tell me,
what does Li Choo know?"
Quickly she told him the story of the day when Joel Mazarine had almost
surprised her in Orlando's room; how Li Choo had saved the situation by
falling down the staircase with the priceless porcelain, and how Mazarine
had kicked him--"manhandled" him, as they say in the West.
"Chinamen don't like being kicked, especially Chinamen of Li Choo's
station," remarked the Young Doctor meditatively. "You don't know, of
course, that Li Choo was a prince or a big bug of some sort in his own
country. Why he left China I don't know, but I do chance to know that if
another Chinky meets Li Choo carrying a basket on his shoulders, or a
package in his hand, he kow-tows, and takes it away from him, and carries
it himself. . . . No, I don't know why Li Choo is here in Askatoon, or
why he's such a slave to Mrs. Mazarine; but I do know that he's a
different-looking man when a Chinky runs up against him than when he's
choring at Tralee.
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