The Chinese Parrot (Charlie Chan Detective Series) — page 129: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oe —— "T'll admit it sounded like guff to me—at the start. I laughed at Chan and prepared to hand over the pearls at once. Suddenly out of the night came the weirdest cry for help I ever expect to hear." "What! Really? From whom?" "From your friend, the Chinese parrot. From Tony.” "Oh—of course," said Holley. "I'd forgotten him. Well, that probably meant nothing." "But a parrot doesn't invent," Eden reminded him. "It merely repeats. I may have acted like a fool, but I hesitated to produce those pearls." He went on to tell how, in the morning, he had agreed to wait until two o'clock while Chan had further talk with Tony, and ended with the death of the bird just after lunch. "And there the matter rests,” he finished. "Are you asking my advice?” said Holley. "I hope you are, because I've simply got to give it to you." "Shoot," Eden replied. Holley smiled at him in a fatherly way. "Don't think for a moment I wouldn't like to believe there's some big melodrama afoot at Madden's ranch. Heaven knows little enough happens round here, and a thing like that would be manna from above. But as I look at it, my boy, you've let a jumpy Chinese lead you astray into a bad case of nerves." "Charlie's absolutely sincere," protested Eden. 129 comiicboeoe S CO