Devlin's Curse by Lady Brenda Page B

straight and smoothed the front of his black silk suit. “It would be easy, most honorable father, to kill this host. He is not only disgusting but he is addicted to the poppy flower.”
    Grandfather Woo disagreed. “No my son, there are other mysterious things happening. The Jiang Shi, the blood drinkers, they are here. And now this gambler, Devlin, their Lord, is in Virginia City as well. No we must wait, observe.”
    “What about our brother? Must he not be avenged Father?” Chow asked .
    “There is something different at the center of this my sons until it is revealed we must take no action.” Grandfather replied.
     
    The scavenger Wing watched from the shadows as the sons of Woo entered the Herbalist shop. He hated Grandfather Woo and his family. He was tired of the scraps that they threw his way along with the beatings that he received from Grandmother’s broom handle when she caught him harassing her customers. He crept closer and put his ear to the door. What he heard did not immediately register in his opium pickled brain, stuff about dragons and the Jaing Shi. All he knew was, if that old donkey’s pizzle, Grandfather Woo, was involved there was sure to be some profit in it and this time he wanted a share in it. They were whispering secrets like old women and Wing was a peddler of secrets, to the highest bidder, of course.
    All sorts of people made their way down to Chinatown and to Wing’s tent. Sooner or later he would hear something, a word dropped here and there. A boast or a confession blurted out in the midst of an opium delirium.
    He laughed soundlessly, then spit on the porch, and crept away into the dark.
     

Chapter Nine
    The Wheel of Fortune
     
    I f he were not confident about his back up plan, the fact that Devlin and that savage had survived the cave in, would have had Big Jim fit to be tied.
    As it was, a bottle of Orndorff’s best brandy and a hefty bribe served to corrupt the superintendent of an adjoining mine and convince him to let him, Big Jim, dig through to the shaft of the Gilded Bird. 
    Outside on the boardwalk in front of the Delta they shook hands. Then Big Jim waddle off towards the Barbary Coast.
    The superintendent stared stupidly after him.
    The wad of Big Jim’s cash in his vest pocket felt greasy. It weighed heavy on his mind.
    What have I agreed to do? he thought.
    As the superintendent of a mine, to allow someone drill through from one mine to another, was akin to claim jumping. But he was broke, busted. Every dime he made was spent on the roulette wheel. That whirling, gilded whore that tortured his waking moments.
    He walked unsteadily back through the doors of the Delta saloon. He made his way to the roulette wheel and watched as she flirted with the crowd of gamblers that surrounded her.
    Unable to stand another minute away from her, he pushed his way through and plunked five hundred dollars on red twenty one. The wheel spun, clackety, clackety, clack, the bouncing ball hopped back and forth. It landed square in the slot of red twenty one.  He was stunned and placed another bet on the next spin. He won that and the next and the next. Finally, at by two o’clock in the morning, he had quadrupled his money. He left the saloon on top of the world in a state of euphoria puffing on a big fat cigar. Outside in the moonlight he looked up at the stars. His winning streak must be a sign. He would let Big Jim begin digging at first light. The sound of gunshots filled the air a common sound to be heard in Virginia City. 
    “Yee Haw,” he shouted to the sky.
    At that moment the fickle hand of fate appeared and a random bullet drilled him through his left ear and he fell like a stone onto the boardwalk. 
     
    That same evening Devlin walked through the parlor of the Emerald Salon. His brush with a premature burial made him sharp set for the sight and feel of his Angel. He noticed that despite the events of the day the play in her salon was all in full swing. A quick