VI
"ROPING" THE SMUGGLERS OF JAMAICA
Special Agent Billy Gard sat in the cafe of Fun Ken, that wealthyOriental who had pitched his resort among the ferns of the BlueMountains which look down upon Kingston, the capital city of thetropical and flowery island of Jamaica. Many drowsy afternoons had hespent here with orange juice and a siphon at his elbow and the best ofHavanas in his teeth. For Billy, in the opinion of every man he met inthe islands, with the single exception of the American consul, was aretired manufacturer, with money to spend and time hanging heavily onhis hands.
As a matter of fact, his table at the cafe was chosen because it gavehim an opportunity to observe Fun Ken and his satellites, whom hesuspected of being a part of a huge conspiracy for the smuggling ofopium and Chinamen into the States.
This afternoon he had thus silently gained a reaffirmation of hisbelief that Fun Ken was a part of the organization with which he hadalready associated Wilmer Peterson, whose acquaintance he had beencultivating. He had seen Peterson alight from the electric car thatpassed the door. The American had gone through the cafe and out at theback. Fun Ken, who was at the time presiding at the cashier's desk, hadimmediately disappeared. Half an hour later Fun Ken was again on thecashier's stool and Peterson shortly thereafter returned to the cafe.This occurrence had been witnessed for three days in succession by thespecial agent, who regarded it as a convincing indication of collusionbetween these two men.
Of Peterson's operations, Gard already had absolute proof. This he hadgained at Port Antonio, the shipping point for fruit at the other end ofthe island. He had been sent to the Caribbean because of the difficultythe United States was having in preventing the smuggling of opium and ofChinamen not legally entitled to enter the country.
It was suspected that Jamaica was the base of operations for thesesmugglers, and the Government wanted to understand the case from theinside.
Gard assumed the role of a retired glass manufacturer who had time tolounge the winter away about the southern seas. For two weeks he hadluxuriated about the Hotel Titchfield, in Port Antonio, and changed hisclothes oftener than any Englishman in the place. There he had noted theclumps of idle Chinamen who made headquarters near the wharf, and theoccasional stealthy American who was particularly in evidence when therewere freighters in the harbor.
Gard soon became a familiar figure about the hotel lobby and bar-room,where he spent money freely. Likewise was his boat to be seen on the bayfor many hours of the day, for he made rowing his diversion.
"Don't buy drinks for that bunch, Mr. Gard," Hogan, the bartender at theTitchfield, admonished him. "They are nothing but a lot of smugglers."
This was his first lead. That night Gard rowed late on the bay, skirteda banana boat that lay tied to the wharf and scrambled up unseen to aside door of the customs house. To this door he had a key. He lethimself in. Where the customs house faced the wharf were large doubledoors through which freight might be taken directly to the boat tiedthere. The special agent unlocked these doors and made a crack justlarge enough for observation and for eavesdropping, but still so smallas not to attract attention from the outside. Here he waited from eightto eleven o'clock.
In the stillness of this late hour the skipper of the banana boat andPeterson, the smuggler, held a conference.
"I have room for ten men," said the skipper.
"I have the men ready to come aboard," said the smuggler.
"And the money?" suggested the man of the seas.
"The cash is ready; $150 for each man when he is stowed away. You willland them at Mobile."
"At Mobile," assented the captain.
"See me next trip at Kingston," said the smuggler. "I leave for thatpoint in the morning."
Thus was gained the first peep into the methods of the smugglers. Gardreported to the American consul, who sent a message that would resultin the seizure of the banana boat when it reached Mobile.
The special agent now had the thread of his work well in hand. Hisintentions were to get at the very bottom of the affair, however, andnot merely to apprehend an individual like Peterson. That gentlemanshould be induced to show the way. Peterson should be "roped." That mosteffective, yet most difficult task of working into the confidence of aculprit and inducing him to lay his cards on the table, should beemployed.
It was with this idea in mind that Gard came down to breakfast early thenext morning, but not so early that Peterson was not there ahead of him.He sat opposite his man. The special agent kept looking at his watchapprehensively, and finally asked the man opposite if he knew what timethe train left for Kingston.
"At eight-thirty," said Peterson. "There is plenty of time. I am goingover on that train myself."
This opened the conversation, and placed Gard in the position of havingfirst indicated his intention of making the trip. He had said he wasgoing before he seemed to know that Peterson had any such intention.These small matters are of great importance in laying the foundation forgetting your man. They talked through the meal. It was but natural when,at 8:15, Gard appeared with his grip and started to enter his cab, thathe should ask Peterson, who was just then ready for departure, to joinhim.
At the station the smuggler, as a return favor, advised Gard not topurchase a ticket, as one could ride for half the fare by handing thecash to the conductor. Gard, however, declined this opportunity to savemoney, for he was looking to the future and the necessity ofestablishing himself in a given light with this stranger.
Peterson asked his companion as to the hotel to which he was going inKingston.
"The Myrtlebank," said Gard.
"It will cost you six dollars a day," said the smuggler. "Come with me,and I will show you as good accommodations for three."
A detective less experienced in roping might have considered anopportunity to go to this man's hotel with him as a piece of goodfortune. Gard declined the invitation.
"No," he said. "The expense is of little importance to me. I shall stayat the Myrtlebank. Won't you take dinner with me there to-night?"
Peterson, being what the English call a "bounder," was impressed by hisfriend's disregard for money, and eagerly accepted all his invitationsto share a more expensive hospitality. So was the atmosphere created forwhich the detective was striving.
The two men spent much time together. They automobiled about the cityand dined at the resort of Fun Ken, back in the hills. The man whoclaimed to be a retired glass manufacturer seemed to be a careless sortof individual, with a disregard of how he spent his time. He was ratherindifferent of his associates, it seemed, and inclined toward thosewhose lives were free and easy. He was the last man in the world toappear to have any interest in the activities of his fellows, or to carewhether their means of livelihood was honest or not. He was the sourceof a great deal of satisfaction to Peterson, who was often embarrassedby inquiries into his occupation.
And all the time Gard was picking up the details of the operations ofthe smugglers. It was through the negro boy who waited on him at thehotel that he learned of an opium shipment. The boy had overheard theconversation that gave him the information, and told of it amusingly inthe cockney English of the Jamaican negro.
Sing Foo was the moving spirit from the Chinese end in these smugglingoperations. He was a more important man, in fact, than was Fun Ken, whoran the resort on the hill. Sing Foo was a wealthy merchant with a largeestablishment in the center of the Kingston Chinatown. Gard had beenstudying his establishment. The strange thing about it was that therewere constantly two or three hundred idle Chinamen in its vicinity. Thepresence of Chinamen not at work is a condition so peculiar as torequire an explanation. But with the smuggling theory in the back ofone's head, it was easy to conceive that these superfluous Mongolianswere waiting an opportunity to be shuttled into the United States.
The smuggling of opium and of Chinamen was known to go hand in hand.Sing Foo, according to the negro boy, had arranged a shipment of opiumto Philadelphia. A French-American named Flavot, whom Gard
had metthrough Peterson, had been the intermediary. The captain of a trampcopra trader was to carry it. It was to be snugly hidden and, when thesteamer docked, nothing was to be done immediately about it.
Presently a large negro wearing a linen ulster would come aboard underthe pretext of doing some sort of work about the ship. This negro was tobe shown the opium. He would carry it out a few boxes at a time.
Gard cabled his home office the details of this deal in opiumintroduction. He advised that nothing be done until the negro wentaboard, actually carried out the stuff and was followed to hisprincipal. There was a slip in Philadelphia, however; the captain gotsuspicious and the opium was thrown into the river.
Two months passed in this way. All the time Gard and Peterson werebecoming more intimate. One day the supposed retired glass manufacturerconfessed to the smuggler that he had once made some easy money bybacking some men who had a system of beating the poolrooms. This, hesaid, was in Vicksburg, Miss. The poolrooms in that city got theirreturns on the Memphis races on a loop that was relayed out of NewOrleans. That is, the results were telegraphed from Memphis to NewOrleans and from there relayed to the smaller cities on a telegraphicloop. This caused a delay of about four minutes. The men whom Gard hadbacked had established communication by telephone between Memphis andVicksburg and got the returns in time to put down bets ahead of thereceipt of the poolroom's information. Thus they made the cleanup.
This not merely paved the way to similar confidences on the part ofPeterson, but gave him to understand that Gard's morals were none toopuritanical, and that he might be induced to back other questionableenterprises.
Peterson evidently thought this matter over thoroughly before acting,for it was three days before he touched on the subject. Then he said:
"I could show a man of your sort an investment that would pay him ahundred per cent. every month, if he were looking for a chance to makemoney."
"Well, I am not looking for such a chance," said Gard, "but if oneshould drop into my lap I might tie a string to it."
"Do you know anything about the opium business?" asked the smuggler.
"Not a thing," said Gard.
"Well, a can of opium can be bought for five dollars in Jamaica, andsold for twenty-seven fifty in Philadelphia."
"That's a pretty good profit," said the special agent; "but a man wouldhave to get more than two or three boxes past for it to amount toanything."
"If you had a trim little schooner and some one to show you how to gether past the authorities, and she was loaded with opium to the gunwales,you would not have to make a trip every other week to keep in cigarettemoney, would you?"
"Obviously not," assented the capitalist.
"And you may have noticed all these idle Chinamen about Sing Foo'splace," continued the smuggler. "Somebody is going to get one hundredand fifty dollars apiece for running those fellows into the States.They are crossing in a steady stream and getting past. It is but aroundthe corner of Cuba and a hundred inlets inviting. Twenty of the Chinkscan live in a space as big as a dog's house, and they feed themselves.It's clear profit. The little schooner could carry a score or so of themevery trip."
"It looks like a good proposition on paper," said Gard. "If it could bedemonstrated, it would easily get a backer. But the trouble with allsuch schemes is that they are good on paper, but they can't be actuallyshown upon the basis that a business man with money demands."
"But this one can be shown," urged the smuggler.
"That is the way you fellows with fancy schemes always talk," arguedGard. "You can make all the money in the world if you only had thebacking. Then a man with the money comes along and says 'show me.' Youalways fall down on the showing."
"Would you put up the price of a schooner and a cargo of opium if youwere shown that my scheme would work?" asked the smuggler.
"I would," said Gard. "But you must remember that I am a business manwho has made his stake by strictly business methods. I must be shown."
This was the first step toward the formation of a smuggling syndicatethat labored along in its preparation for birth and died tragically.
Gard here insisted on proving to Peterson his commercial reliability andfinancial standing. He had long before prepared the papers for just suchan occasion. He had credentials, and letters of credit, and certificatesof deposit and bank books without end. The smuggler had had no idea ofthe wealth of the man he had been cultivating. The backing was withoutend, if he but won this man's confidence.
So he took the financier in tow, with the idea of first showing him thesource of supply of opium and of Chinamen. In the presence of Gard hegot quotations on opium from Sing Foo and from Fun Ken at five dollarsfor a can the size of a pot of salmon. It was shown that there was opiumto be had practically without end.
And the Chinamen themselves! He was told that there were always fivehundred of them in Jamaica, ready to make the run into the States. Whenthese were gone there were as many more on the way. In fact, there wasall China to draw from. Every Chinaman who came was a member of anassociation. That membership was to cost him six hundred dollars. Heneed not pay in advance, as such men as Sing Foo stood back of theassociation and furnished the capital. Whenever a Chinaman got into theUnited States he went to work. He was able to earn at least twelvedollars a week. Half of this went to the association, until the sixhundred dollar fee was paid. The association was willing to spend atotal of four hundred dollars to get a Chinaman into the country. Itsminimum profit was two hundred dollars a man. The stream flowedconstantly. Were not Sing Foo and Fun Ken the richest Chinamen in theCaribbean?
The supposed financier declared himself satisfied of the abundance ofthe supply of these objects for profitable smuggling. But he wanted tosee some of the money actually made. Whereupon Peterson and Flavotagreed that he should have a complete demonstration.
There was then a Norwegian bark in port, and her captain had agreed totake aboard twelve Orientals. He was bound for Norfolk. Peterson andFlavot had made arrangements with him, and Sing Foo was ready with hismen. In the dead of night Gard accompanied the two Americans as theypushed off the well-laden boats from the foot of a deserted street inKingston. He saw the men go aboard. He went deep into the bow of theship with them and saw them nailed up in a nook behind a wall thatseemed to be the end of the vessel. He saw a Chinaman who had comeaboard as the representative of Sing Foo pass the captain eighteenAmerican one hundred dollar bills. He went back to Chinatown withPeterson and Flavot and saw them draw their bonus of fifty dollars foreach Chinaman that had thus been disposed of.
The capitalist declared himself convinced so far as the Chinamen wereconcerned. How could he be shown profits in opium?
"Opium," said Peterson, "is the one sure way of making easy money. Ifyou are ready for a little run back to the States, I will show you allthe details."
The special agent assured the smuggler that he would be as pleased inmaking a run back to the mainland as in loafing in the HotelMyrtlebank, if there were amusement in it and a chance to make somemoney in an interesting way.
Two days later the three men were aboard a fruit and passenger steamerat Port Antonio, bound for Philadelphia. Beneath the mattress of eachman's bunk were twenty cans of opium.
"All you have to do," elaborated the smuggler, "is to open up yourbaggage for inspection as you approach the port. The inspectors gothrough it, but never do such a thing as look beneath the mattress. Whenthey have gone you take the opium out from its hiding place and put itinto your baggage, which had already been inspected. Then it goesashore."
"But," insisted the special agent, "is not your stuff examined again onthe wharf?"
"This system would not work," Peterson explained, "if you were landingat New York. There the baggage is examined in the staterooms and againon the pier, as the passengers come ashore. But in Philadelphia there isbut the one examination, which takes place in the stateroom."
"But is there not a pretty good chance that the inspector may sometimelook under the matt
ress?" Gard asked.
"There is the barest possibility," assented the smuggler. "We have beentaking it in this way for years, and it has never been found. But if itis discovered, we have but to look innocent. It cannot be proved that weare responsible for its presence. It might be the steward."
The three came into Philadelphia, and passed the customs officials asthe smugglers had prophesied, without a hitch. They went to their hotel,and there found themselves each the possessor of twenty cans of opium,for which they had paid five dollars and for which, Peterson said, theywere to receive $27.50. This was the part of the transaction that wasyet to be demonstrated.
"We will do but a little business in Philadelphia," said Peterson, "justto show that it can be done."
They took ten cans of the opium to a Chinaman in Arch street, with whomPeterson was acquainted. Yes, this man would buy opium. The price forthe same grade was the same as before, $27.50. He could use all he couldget. He would be glad to take ten cans. The profit on these ten canswas $225.
"We could have sold him a hundred cans as easily, with ten times theprofit," said Peterson.
In New York the smugglers called upon a Doctor Yen, in Pell Street, oneof the important men in Chinatown. He stated that he was able to buyopium at $27.50. The smugglers insisted on $30. After much haggling 20cans were sold at $28.50. Here was a profit of $470.
But Doctor Yen was to be counseled on a much more important matter. Hewas to be told of the proposal to purchase a boat for the opium traffic.He was to be asked to guarantee the purchase of large amounts of opium.
The old Chinaman became greatly excited. He ran to his safe and cameback with $10,000 in currency. He was willing to put up this money forits value in opium at $27.50 a can as soon as delivered. When that wasgone there would be other money. He alone would make the owners of theboat rich.
In Boston was the actual headquarters of Peterson and Flavot. A Jew bythe name of Ferren was their financial backer. It was Ferren who hadput them into the business. When Ferren was told of the proposedenterprise he would not at first listen to it. He would have to be shownthat this Mr. Gard was on the level. There were too many eyes watchingfor opium.
Peterson told of the credentials, and finally succeeded in convincinghim that Gard was what he purported to be and, gaining confidence as theplan developed, the Jew finally became enthusiastic. In the end he viedwith Doctor Yen in his anxiety to purchase unlimited opium.
Gradually Gard granted that he was convinced of the feasibility of thescheme, if he were shown the possibility of getting the schooner intothe States. It was at this point that he was introduced to one CaptainBailey, who had, some years before, figured in a very sensationalattempt at the introduction of Chinamen from Canada and their landing atNew Haven. Bailey had been caught, had served a term in prison, and,since his liberation, was running a fish stand in Boston market.
But Bailey knew all the coves in the Atlantic and the gulf into which aboat might put. He knew every dock where she might tie up, and the timethat must pass thereafter before it would be safe to put his menashore. Operating from Jamaica there was none of the danger into whichhe had run in bringing Orientals from Canada.
Eventually the papers were drawn, setting forth conditions under whichall these men entered into a partnership in this smuggling venture.Gard, Ferren, Peterson, Flavot and Bailey had all signed, and Gard hadgone to New York to get the signature of Doctor Yen. The districtattorney's office in Boston was prepared for the arrests when the papersshould finally be signed. When Doctor Yen affixed his signature Gardsignaled an associate across the narrow street in Chinatown. He sent theflash to Boston and the trap was sprung.
"WHEN DOCTOR YEN AFFIXED HIS SIGNATURE GARDSIGNALLED"--_Page 135_]
So were all the inside facts of this most aggravating system ofsmuggling revealed. With these facts in hand, the Government had littledifficulty in breaking up a system that had been causing a lot oftrouble for a decade.
So, also, was one of the most complete and successful cases of "roping"that any of the Government agents had ever attempted carried to asuccessful termination.