The tide
circled like a mill-race in and out of this bight, and made it
possible to raise, lower, or set a Chinese line only at slack
water. So between the tides Charley and I made it a point for one
or the other of us to keep a lookout from the Solano Wharf.
On the fourth day I was lying in the sun behind the stringer-piece
of the wharf, when I saw a skiff leave the distant shore and pull
out into the bight. In an instant the glasses were at my eyes and
I was following every movement of the skiff. There were two men in
it, and though it was a good mile away, I made out one of them to
be Big Alec; and ere the skiff returned to shore I made out enough
more to know that the Greek had set his line.
"Big Alec has a Chinese line out in the bight off Turner's
Shipyard," Charley Le Grant said that afternoon to Carmintel.
A fleeting expression of annoyance passed over the patrolman's
face, and then he said, "Yes?" in an absent way, and that was all.
Charley bit his lip with suppressed anger and turned on his heel.
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