Le Cafe Singe Bleu Serving generous portions of history and mystery from our monthly menu Volume 1, Issue 2, February 2003

Charlie Chan's Hawaii By Edogawa Ranpo Chapter Two: The High Hat Chapter Two brings us our first meeting with John Quincy Winterslip. He's traveled by train from Boston to Oakland, California, and has boarded the ferry that will take him to San Francisco. Why travel by train across the continental United States? Because there was no other way. There was no highway system in the United States until the 1940s, and although passenger airlines exist (and had done since 1914) they made only short hops, and were quite noisy and uncomfortable. Railway travel was the way to go. John Quincy has been 'seeing America first' - for six days - and he's not happy about it. 'What an appalling lot of it there was.' He's also not happy about being forced by his mother to journey to Hawaii to bring his Aunt Minerva home. (She'd gone to the Islands for a two week vacation and had been there for seven months). And was there a chance his strong minded relative would take the hint? Not one in a thousand. Aunt Minerva was accustomed to do as she pleased - he had an uncomfortable shocked recollection of one occasion when she had said she would do as she damn well pleased. John Quincy is a bit of a snob. As he boards the Oakland to San Francisco ferry: Ahead of him ambled a porter, bearing his two suitcases, his golf-clubs and his hatbox. One of the man's hands was gone -chewed off, no doubt, in some amiable frontier scuffle. In its place he wore a steel hook. Well, no one could question the value of a steel hook to a man in the porter's profession. But how quaint, and western! On board the ferry, he notices a beautiful girl. He hadn't intended to speak aloud. In order not to appear too utterly silly, he looked around for someone to whom he might pretend to have addressed the remark. There was no one about - except the young person who was obviously feminine and therefore not to be informally accosted. John Quincy and the girl get to talking, anyway. ''..see, that's where the East begins. The real East. And Telegraph Hill-'' she pointed; no one in Boston ever points, but she was so lovely John Quincy overlooked it - .' The girl tells John Quincy a little tidbit about Hawaii, as well: 'Practically all of the leading families of Hawaii came from New England.' The banyan tree was imported from India. This tree grows and spreads by sending down aerial roots. The roots will grow down and root in the ground to stabilize the tree as it grows larger, and larger, and larger. Chapter Three: Midnight on Russian Hill John Quincy spends Chapter Three in San Francisco, and we will not share Bigger's description of it here. He stops at the house of Roger Winterslip, another of the Winterslip cousins, who runs a business in San Francisco. The two men attempt to do a favor for Dan - retrieving an Ohia wood box from Dan's San Francisco house, which is to be destroyed by tossing it into the ocean on the way to Hawaii. Unfortunately the men put off this task til the dead of night (which is a puzzle because Roger at least clearly has a right to be there, since he has a key and must be known by the caretaker. Presumably Dan doesn't want even the caretaker to know that an Ohia wood box has been taken from the house) and are pre-empted by a burglar. John Quincy receives a cut on his cheek from the ring worn by the burglar. There's no going to an Emergency room, the two men stop at a drugstore to have the wound dressed. 'A solicitous drug clerk ministered to John Quincy with iodine, cotton and court plaster...' We will mention another thing about San Francisco, for it reflects an opionion of women at the time. Roger asks John Quincy if he'd like to move to the city, and John Quincy replies that his fiance would never stand for it. Roger replies that ''...a girl worth having will follow her man anywhere.'' The two men return to Roger's house, where Barbara Winterslip arrives after a day of dining. Barbara Winterslip is the daughter of Dan Winterslip, and goes to college on the mainland. It's June, term is out, and she's returning to Hawaii. Barbara is a beautiful, vivacious soul. She immediately takes them out on the town again, and John Quincy ends up dancing and dining until three in the morning. Biggers ends the chapter with John Quincy thinking uncharacteristic thoughts. He stood for a moment at his bedroom window, gazing down at the torchlight procession on the streets through this amazing city. He was a little dazed. That soft warm presence close by his side in the car - pleasant, very pleasant. Remarkable girls out here. Different! Beyond shone the harbour lights. That other girl - wonderful eyes she had. Just because she had laughed at him his treasured hat box floated now forlorn on those dark waters. He yawned again. Better be careful. Musn't be so easily influenced. No telling where it would end. Hibiscus Part Two of Charlie Chan's Hawaii will appear in our March issue.

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