Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha Read Online Free PDF

sternly, “it was the most appalling situation, and quite a shock to an American tourist, I can assure you. First my meeting Sheng Ti in the marketplace and then the long talk we had—”
    He said dryly, “You speak Chinese?”
    She waved this aside impatiently. “A companion did, and hearing of his unhappy situation, and then learning he had the opportunity to leave China—but so
illicitly, so dangerously
”—she allowed her voice to falter dramatically—“I have since made every effort—every
effort
—to find out what happened to him.” She added in an aggrieved voice, “Which meant knocking on
many
doors and writing a
great
many letters, and
not
taking no for an answer, and I
will
not take no for an answer
now
.”
    He returned the paper to her. “But you have been misinformed, Mrs.—er—”
    “Pollifax.”
    “Thank you. We are importers here, Mrs. Pollifax, there is no Sheng Ti.”
    She looked at him squarely, noting that he refused to meet her gaze. “Then why have you asked so many questions? Frankly, sir, I don’t believe you.”
    Behind the beaded curtain she heard a soft laugh; an amused voice said, “Bring our stubborn friend in, Feng.”
    Mr. Feng’s lips thinned. “I don’t think—”
    “Bring her in.” There was a sharpness in the voice that startled Mr. Feng, who shrugged, turned toward the curtain and gestured Mrs. Pollifax to follow him.
    The multicolored beads slithered and whispered again. Mrs. Pollifax entered a cubbyhole of an office where the girl Lotus was seated now at a desk stringing what looked to be pearls. The man who had eavesdropped from behind the curtain led her through this room, presenting only his back to her, but she could see that he was a large man wearing a well-tailored silk suit and that he limped slightly.
    The room they entered made her blink, its brightness startling after the dimness of the shop. A huge window had been set very high into one wall, at a slant to catch the north light; two walls were lined with shelves of exquisite ancient jade and ivory figurines, another with wooden packing cartons, and under the window ran a bench and long table on which she saw a pile of glittering small stones.
    But the stranger interested her more and she turned quickly to look at him.
    He bowed slightly. “Pray sit down,” he said, and to the man behind her, “That will be all, Mr. Feng.” He moved behind a small desk in the corner and gestured her to one of the chairs nearby.
    Mrs. Pollifax guessed that he was Eurasian, and therefore Mr. Detwiler, although only the shape of his eyes suggested an oriental parent. His face was broad and fleshy, the nose flat and his mouth very wide, the thin lips turning upward at each corner and giving him a very pleasant look but also a Buddha-like smile that appeared fixed and immutable. His suit was black, his shirt a gleaming white and she noticed gold cuff linksat the wrists and a modest gold pin at his tie. A faint aroma of musk reached her from where he sat.
    She told him firmly, “I’m looking for Sheng Ti—as you may have heard.”
    “Yes indeed,” he said, his smile deepening slightly. “But what do you want of this Sheng Ti?”
    “To make sure that he’s well and happy,” she said promptly, “but—if I may be frank?”
    “But of course,” he said with an encouraging nod.
    Without the slightest twinge of conscience Mrs. Pollifax produced the
pièce de résistance
that she had worked over during her passage from the shop into this room. “Well,” she said, leaning forward confidentially, “I went to a great deal of trouble to find him because he weighed terribly on my mind. I went back to the States, where I am currently president of my garden club, and I told them about Sheng Ti and,” she told him in triumph, “they have voted to sponsor his entry into the United States!”
    “You have indeed been busy,” he said, his eyes watching her face with interest. “May I see the paper with its directions to