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The Chinese Coin

Summary:   The Chinese mafia from Watertown, called the Quong Tong, are making trouble on the river bank.  They also employ the services of a gang of boys called The Scorpions.  They are seeking “The Chinese Coin”, for reasons that are not revealed until the end of the book: the Chinese Coin operates a mechanism that opens a hidden door in the Cave of Wonders.  Through this door is another cavern, the Wonder of Wonders, and in that cavern is a chest holding about $100,000 in gold coins that the Quong Tong had stolen from Watertown merchants.  The Quong Tong members are all arrested near the end of the book.  After that, a mysterious boy named The Spider, who was thought to be in league with the Quong Tong but who is actually a good boy, shows Hawkins and the others how to use the Chinese Coin and recover the stolen gold coins. The money is returned to its rightful owners.

 

1926	1926

Lan Wong came to the clubhouse with the remnants of the Ching Toy gang to tell that Ching Toy and his father were boarding the Kentucky Belle tonight at their little landing. And also that Hawkins should be warned to watch out for Mui Fong. That evening Ching Toy is saying goodbye to Hawkins and as he shakes hands he leaves him a note of warning about Mui Fong. The Belle steams away and they all go to the clubhouse. Hawkins reads the note and crumples it thinking that Mui Fong is safe in prison. The phone rang and it was for Jeckerson to tell him that Mui Fong had escaped from the prison.

For Halloween the boys go up to Watertown to the little costume shop to pick out their disguises. Hawkins finds an Indian suit. While they are there a noisy group of strange boys come in for costumes. One picks a fireman’s outfit. The night of the festivities Perry tells Hawkins that he had seen some strange boys on the riverbank when he came down. Hawkins sends Perry up to Main Street wearing his costume while he stayed at the clubhouse. While he is there, three men come up the path. He sees that they are Chinese. He hears someone try the locked door and they he hears shouts and the sound of pursuit. The three men ran up the path towards the main road. Jeckerson comes in to say that it probably had been Mui Fong and that he knew that Seck would be wearing an Indian costume.

Perry comes in and Hawkins takes the suit and when they get to town, Jeckerson sends Seck up ahead while he follows. In the crowd a Spanish bullfighter and an Indian chief attempt to pull Hawkins along with them. He gets away and the two men vanish in the crowd. Jeckerson calls for his men and he and Seck see the bullfighter and the Indian chief come around a corner. Jeckerson and his men chase them to the old warehouse. Hawkins is behind when he hears voices and he steps through a hole in a fence. He listens to three boys talking. One is complaining about being given a bad piece of money with a hole in it instead of the quarter he had expected. The little boy in the fireman’s suit took his torch and ran away saying that he would “fix him”. He returned without the torch and a short time later they hear fire engines. The old warehouse is on fire.

On Monday morning a man brings his son to the clubhouse. He says that Judge Granberry had told him to bring the boy down to the clubhouse and turn him over to Seck. The boy’s name is Sam. The Judge comes down and informs Seck that the boy is a firebug and he wants them to break him of the habit of setting fires. The boys listen to Hawkins tell about Sam and how the Judge had sent him to them. They voted him in as a member after he promises not to set any more fires. Just then they hear the fire alarm and Sam runs out shouting that he knows that call, it is the old tobacco warehouse. The boys follow to see the fire.

At the next meeting Sam was late, Hawkins sees him coming down the path with two other boys. They leave him and he comes into the clubhouse alone to tell Hawkins that he had been to the Malapo stables on Wheeler Street to see the new horses. The phone rings and it is Doc saying that there is a big fire uptown and for him to bring Sam to see how terrible a fire can be. It is the Malapo stables. They all go up to the fire and Sam daringly runs into the burning stables and brings out all of the horses. He is burned a little in the act, but he tells Seck that he is through with fires from then on.

Briggen and his gang come over with a new member called Cheeky. He and Briggen have their big feet in the door. Hawkins punches Cheeky and the Pelhams leave. Later they send a note saying that there has to be a fair fight between Cheeky and Hawkins. So the boys set up a fight for the following Saturday and they sell tickets and arrange the ring. In the fight, Hawkins defeats Cheeky. They made $7.20 from ticket sales. Hawkins tells Dick to put it in the treasury.

Cheeky comes over to the clubhouse and he tells Hawkins that he will have to answer to him for that fight. Then he tells the other boys to take Seck out of the club or to beware of the “Scorpions”. As they are talking about this new trouble, old Hiram comes in to say that Doc Waters had told him to give them a turkey for their Thanksgiving day camp fire roast. They were to come over and pick one out and he would kill it and pick the feathers for them. To show their support for Hawkins they all go along.

After their next meeting Seck, Shadow and Perry are going to the old Cornfield near the big gully where cheeky and his gang meet. Hiding, they see Guy and Stan Malapo come to the meeting and give Cheeky a Chinese coin. They are suppose to be paid a dollar for it, but Cheeky refuses to pay. Guy punches him and tells Stan to run. Hawkins and Shadow join in the fight but there are too many against them. Shadow and Perry manage to get away and go back for help. With the gang holding him, Cheeky slaps Hawkins several times. They tie him to a post near Guy Malapo.

He puts the Chinese coin in Hawkins’ pocket and then leaves a note for someone they call the Big Noise. It seems they have orders to get the coin and Hawkins as well, this way they can do both at once. They leave. Seck sees the old scarecrow fall apart and little Sam crawls out. He had fixed himself up in the old scarecrow to spy on the meeting. He untied them. On the way back to the clubhouse they meet the other boys. They hide when the see a figure approaching - it is Mui Fong. He reads the note but there is no one tied to the post. He leaves.

After reporting the incident to the sheriff, Seck and Perry are talking about the events and Perry says that Chinese coin must be valuable. Hawkins reaches in his pocket and the coin is still there. Cheeky had placed it in his pocket in the cornfield. Hawkins tells Perry to find Sam and as he is waiting he stands by the open window of his office examining the coin. A hand comes in the window and snatches the coin. Whoever did it then escapes through the bushes. Perry brings Sam and the Malapo bothers. Guy is belligerent and when he finds out that the coin had been stolen, he laughs and tells them it is up to them to get it back.

Jeckerson has to agree. He tells Hawkins that Mui Fong has Cheeky and his gang, the Scorpions, working for him. And the Spider boy is the worst in the crew. He also mentioned that the Spider had gotten Cheeky to work for Mui Fong, but that Cheeky and the Spider had had a falling out and the Spider had left the Scorpions. There is a twenty dollar reward for the Spider by Squire Hornaby, as they think that he can tell them a lot about Mui Fong. Seck’s aunt Julia sent him a fancy necktie for Christmas and it was delivered to the clubhouse. Seck puts it on.

Shadow, back from a spying trip, takes Seck across the river and leads him to a fire where a solitary boy was sitting. As Hawkins watches, the boy reaches into his pocket, pulls out the coin and starts flipping it into the air. Hawkins tries to catch it but the boy puts the coin in his pocket and then he sees Hawkins. Seck tells him to hand over the coin but the boy brings up a long stick with a sharp knife blade at the end. Then he sees Hawkins’ necktie and he trades the coin for the tie. Hawkins yells for Shadow and the Spider boy grabs his spear and runs away. They chase, but he is too fast for them.

Doc comes into their meeting to tell them that the Judge was unhappy over some missing poultry from Ben Bigstaff’s. Hawkins tells him that they would not steal any chickens. Doc knows they did not do it but he wants them to find out who did. Shadow and Hawkins find the camp of the poultry thief. Then they came upon a neat fire with a duck roasting over it. They sit down to wait and a ragged boy comes up to the fire and expresses his welcome to them and invites them to stay for supper. Hawkins does not want to but Shadow insists and they have roast duck, gravy, baked potatoes, fresh white bread and celery. After they eat. they invite him back to the clubhouse.

Hawkins has to go home for a while and when he returns, he finds Shadow showing the ragpicker some famous paintings in one of Seck’s books. Sam and the Malapo brothers come and Guy is far from belligerent now. He needs the coin to keep Mui Fong away from him. Seck gives him the coin and the Sheriff and Doc come up to the clubhouse to get the poultry thief. It seems that the Pelhams had told the Sheriff that they had the thief in their clubhouse. The boy comes out of the writing room and is about to surrender when he sees Guy Malapo. Then he runs back into the writing room and jumps through a window to escape. When the rest of the people leave, Hawkins find out that when Guy had shaken hands with him, he had returned the Chinese coin.

Hawkins wants to talk to Guy Malapo to find out why he had returned the coin. Just then the two brothers come down the path; but they pass the clubhouse and go on down to the river where Briggen comes for them in a flatboat and they head down river. Seck and Shadow follow them down to the island and to the stockade and the old log cabin. Guy has his brother Stan waits for them while he and Briggen go ahead to the stockade. They go inside while Seck and Shadow climb the log fence and find a chink in the cabin logs where they can see inside. There is a meeting of the Scorpions and they are facing Guy and Briggen. Guy is trying to set them on Hawkins and the chicken thief saying that they are in cahoots trying to get a lot for the coin. Cheeky talks Guy into joining the Scorpions and they initiate him immediately by printing a scorpion in his wrist. They hear a warning whistle from Stan, and Seck and Shadow leave to meet their own boys looking for them.

On Tuesday after the meeting the Pelhams come over to tell Hawkins that they had seen a ghost horse on the cliff path. They are not sure if it had a rider, but they did say that it had a white glow around it. They thought that it was a ghost. Shadow comes in to say that they had found the chicken stealer’s camp. Hawkins tells him that it is suppertime and he takes Shadow home to his house. After supper they are playing dominoes with Seck’s father. They go out and ride the motor boat down and hide it in Cave River. They climb the cliff and as they are coming near the campfire, they see Stan Malapo run up to the boy sitting by the campfire. It turns out that he is a Malapo brother. Stan is trying to warn him away, but he wants to stay. Stan whispers something to him and he leaves. Stan sits down by the fire. The Scorpions are coming with torches. As the Guy and Cheeky question the huddled figure by the fire, there is an unholy shriek. They all look up to see the ghostly white house and its rider on the cliff path. The Scorpions run in fear. When Shadow and Seck look back at the fire, it is deserted.

Doc, Jeckerson, Shadow and Seck went out to watch on the cliff the next night, but nothing was seen. The next day the boys all went up to see the steamboat fire where the River Queen had burned to the water line and the Lucy Lee had suffered some damage. In the crowd Hawkins meets Saddler and they talk about Cheeky. Saddler tells Hawkins that the Scorpions are going to attack the clubhouse tonight and that they would be down. After singing practice Doc and the Sheriff came down to watch for the ghost rider. The Scorpions come and Hawkins steps outside to meet Guy Malapo and Cheeky. They all hear the sound of bells but dismiss it as a sleigh on the main road.

The gang takes Hawkins to a place near the cliff and there Malapo brings out a whip and uses it once on Hawkins. The bells turned out to be Saddler’s gang on their ponies. T hey scared the Scorpions away. Doc and the sheriff come up and they all head for home.

Seck and Shadow discuss the situation and Hawkins decides to send the Chinese coin back to Guy Malapo and he goes to his desk. But the coin is gone. Someone had broken into the clubhouse and stolen it. When Hawkins comes down to the clubhouse the next day, he sees Stan Malapo waiting. It seems that he will not tell Hawkins what his problems are, but he does say that he would like to join the club. The boys arrived for the meeting and Hawkins proposes Stan for membership. After some discussion, they all vote to accept him.

Hawkins wants to be alone so he takes his canoe down to the island. There is still ice in the river. He went to the old log cabin and there he found Guy Malapo writing something in an old book. They are about to fight, when Guy asks for the Chinese coin. Hawkins tells him that he had done that once and Guy had given it back. They hear voices outside and Hawkins climbs the chimney to hide until the Scorpions are inside. Then he climbs down outside and leaves.

Stan and Lew and Hawkins are in the clubhouse when the Scorpions come. Stan hides in the writing room and Cheeky and Guy Malapo come in demanding the coin or they would use the whip on him again. Hawkins is standing against the curtain to his office when he feels something shoved into his hand and it is the coin. He gives it to Guy and the Scorpions leave. When they are gone Stan tells Seck that it was not the real coin, but one that he had had for a long time.

Seck and Stan discuss the Malapo family problems and then they take the red canoe and paddle down to the island. They find Guy hanging from a hook with his back cut to ribbons by a whip. They take him down and manage to hide him in the chimney as Cheeky and the gang come in. The Sheriff and his deputies were following them and they are all arrested and taken away. Hawkins and Stan lower Guy back into the cabin and tend to his back. He tells them that it was the wrong coin and that he had been whipped for that. They are going to take him home.

John Malapo, the chicken thief, comes to the clubhouse to talk about his brothers and their problems. He gives Hawkins a small package and tells him to give it to Stan. Then he hears a knock at the door and he climbs out the back window and runs away. Hawkins opens the door and it is the Spider boy looking for John. He refused to come inside to look around. Then there is a single note on a bell and he runs away. Hawkins unwraps the package and it is the real Chinese coin which has a mark on it he remembers.

At the Saturday morning meeting Stan Malapo tells them that the Chinaman is here. He tells them that last night he had heard footsteps on the gravel walk below his window. Then he heard a knocking on the door, but he did not go down. The next morning he found a note tacked to the door and it was from Mui Fong. Hawkins reads the note to the other boys and it tell Stan to give the coin to Brother John who knew how to get it back to him. Hawkins gives Stan the coin.

Stan Malapo sends in his resignation, but the boys vote to keep him on the membership list. The truant officer shows up looking for little Sam Burnham. He tells Seck that he had heard that Sam hung out at the shack on the riverbank, but that he would also try the old houseboat. After he is gone, Shadow comes in to tell Hawkins that he had found Sam Burnham and Guy Malapo at the old hidden houseboat. Shadow, Perry and Seck made a fast trip down to the island and they find Sam and Guy in the old houseboat. They hide them in the old second floor bedroom and put the ladder out the window. The truant officer arrives, expresses surprise to see them so soon again, comes in and searches but he did not look up. He left. The boys hiding in the second floor came down.

The Malapo brother’s father came down to see Hawkins. He wants Seck to try to get Guy to come back home. Hawkins wants to know why he needs help with his own son. Mr. Malapo leaves, sadly. Then Hawkins and Shadow learned from Perry that Jerry Moore is taking another boy down to the island. They jump into Robby’s motor boat and head for the island. Part way down they see Jerry Moore’s canoe on the bank and they land. They found Jerry tied to a tree and he yelled at them that they were “ducking” Stan. They found the Pelhams have tied Stan to a long board and they were ducking him in the cold river. The boys chased the Pelhams after Shadow hit Briggen and knocked him into the river. They covered the wet and dripping Stan and carried him to the old houseboat to sit by the strove and dry out. Guy Malapo was there. While they dried out their clothes by the hot stove, they told Guy what had happened. Then as Hawkins was helping Stan into his dry coat he felt the Chinese coin in a pocket and took it back. They have Guy take Stan home. They are sure his father will be glad to see him.

The Happy Days club leaders, Kendricks and Jerome, come down to show Hawkins a Chinese coin that one of their club members had received in change from a Chinese laundry. His father gave him the Chinese coin for going to the laundry for him. Then later, the Chinese laundry man sent a note asking for the return of the coin and tells them not to make Mui Fong angry. Hawkins tells them to take the coin back to the laundry. As the boys head back to the landing to board their boat, Hawkins sees the Spider boy approach and from under the landing. He reaches up into Jerome’s pocket. Hawkins sees the hand come out and he knows that the coin had been stolen.

Hawkins follows the Spider boy around the cliffs to the other side and there he apparently vanishes. Hawkins looks around and he sees a giant spider web against the cliff side and the spider boy is climbing the web towards its center and disappears. Hawkins finds the web is made of steamboat cable. He climbs the web and finds a hole he can squeeze through. He crawls along a damp passage and finds his way into a glitteringly beautiful cave. Standing by a torch he could see two figures, one was the Spider boy and the other was Mui Fong. Mui Fong tells him that the coin he has brought was not the right one and he brings out a blacksnake whip and beats the Spider boy. Hawkins is thinking about going to help the boy when he is stopped by Shadow who had followed him. They leave the place and hurry back to the clubhouse.

Seck and Shadow tells the others boys about the wonderful cave and Roy Dobel seems to think that it could be under his father’s farm which would make it his property. They discuss this is in some detail. Then they lead the other boys to the spot, but the spider web is gone without any trace. They try inside the old cliff cave but as they are looking around they hear a terrible cry that sends them running back to the clubhouse.

Bniggen comes over to accuse them of setting up a ghost on the cliffs. He threatens to tell Judge Granberry. Hawkins tells him that they know nothing about it and then Briggen tells them that they have seen a boy leave the clubhouse before the ghost appears. He tells them that if they will give the Pelham boys the right to play on their side on the cliffs and the Cave River they will not tell the judge. Hawkins agrees and Briggen leaves. When he is gone Shadow comments that it was easy to see what Briggen had in mind - they had heard about the Cave of Wonders and wanted to find it for themselves.

At singing practice Shadow and Seck see a face against a window and they slip outside. It was a Chinese. They see another boy come out of the clubhouse and then the Pelhams arrive. The other boys had gone home. Then they hear a most unholy shriek and they see the ghost and the rider come thundering down on them. Everyone runs for their lives.

At the next singing practice Hawkins and Shadow hide outside in the bushes to watch the others arrive. They finally see Roy Dobel bring something and hide it behind a tree. It looked like saddlebags. He also hid a gun behind another tree and then he went in to the singing practice. Still watching, they see another boy go to the tree where Roy had placed the saddlebags and he looked like he was emptying something. Then he went to the gun behind the other tree and they hear him working the breech of the gun.

They saw the clubhouse door open and Roy came out. He picked up the bags and the gun and headed for the cliff path. The Pelham boys are also headed their way. They watch Roy moving up the cliff path. Then the glowing ghost rider came out of Cliff cave and came thundering down. They saw Roy raise his gun and fire but the ghost kept on coming. The ghost and rider vanish down the path below. The Pelham boys left quickly and returned to their side of the river. Roy came down the path and said that the ghost was real. Seck took his saddlebag and showed him the bullets. Roy said that they were blanks and he had put real ammunition in the bags. They go to the spot where the bags had been hidden and they find the live ammunition. Someone is on to them. Hawkins also tells Roy that in the future they would all look for the cave together and in the end the one who owned it would get it.

Jeckerson tells then that his Chief in Watertown had told him that his job depended on his capturing Mui Fong so he raised the reward for the Spider boy from twenty to fifty dollars. Jerome and Kendricks from the Happy Days club come to see them with some news. The Chinese laundry man had send a message saying that he had made a mistake and that the coin was no longer wanted. As they leave, Seck and Perry see that the Spider boy is following the Happy Days boys. They sneak up on him but he sees them at the very last and runs. They chase him up to the cliffs and across the top of the cliff. Then he is running towards the edge of the cliff and he disappears. They arrive at the edge and look down to see the spider web spread on the cliff face and the boy is going down. He disappears into the hole at the center. They mark a number of trees that leads from the last tree on the cliff back to the old sycamore tree in the hollow.

Seck leads the boys back to the edge of the cliff and when they look the spider web is gone. But Hawkins points out the trail of notches in the trees as proof of their seeing the web. They go back to the clubhouse. Then a little later, a secret meeting is called with Hawkins, Shadow, Perry and Roy. Shadow has brought a telescope and Roy had his invention, something he called a “splotcher’. It was a steel rod with a glass ball of dye at one end. He could fire it in his gun and it would leave a permanent mark on whatever it hit. They go to the base of the cliff below the last mark in the spruce tree. As they are looking up, they see the Spider boy at the top of the cliff. Hawkins grabs the telescope and watches as the Spider boy spin his web. He pulls a bundle of cords out of the bushes and as he does this, the cables begin to come out of the opening in the cliff face. He climbs down. And when he enters the cave and the web begins to contact again, Roy fires his splotcher and marks the central opening.

Shadow tells Hawkins that he was out spying and that he had seen three boys looking up at the cliff and the red mark. Then later he saw them on top lowering a rope ladder. It did not reach the spot. He saw that it was Stan and Guy Malapo and Sam Burnham. They went away, probably to get a longer ladder. To get to the cave first and claim it, Hawkins led the way to the top of the cliff where he found the bundle of cords. He pulls and Shadow watches as the cables begin to come out of the opening. Hawkins connects the ends of the ropes to hooks placed there for the purpose. Then they climb down and enter the cave. They crawled along until they came to the Cave of Wonders. There was a great torch blazing They could hear a moaning sound. John Malapo was chained there. Then they hear voices and it is the Malapo brothers and Sam. They use a file that Shadow carried to saw the chains and free John. The three Malapo brothers leave together.

As Seck comes down to the next meeting, the boys show Hawkins a great white horse lying dead on the rocky shore under the cliffs. There is no sign of the rider. Jeckerson and Doc are waiting at the clubhouse and Jeckerson tells what happened . He and his men had bought a great searchlight down to illuminate the cliff. When the ghost appeared they turned on the light and the white horse stopped, threw his rider and then plunged over the cliff. The rider was Chinese and he was knocked out in the fall. It was not Mui Fong. Roy Dobel and his father come up and Roy tells them that the cave is under his father’s farm. That they had entered the last cave on the farm and they had come out in the beautiful cave. He had also found a way out that lead down to Cave River.

That evening, Hawkins is in the clubhouse when he is paid a visit by Mui Fong . The Chinese accused Hawkins of killing his beautiful horse, of having found the cave, of taking the Chinese coin - and he must be revenged. He whips out a short sword. Pretending to have lost his keys, Hawkins tears down the curtain and throws it over Mui Fong. Doc and Jeckerson come running in and Jeckerson jumps on Mui Fong, disarms him, and locks handcuffs on his wrists. His men take Mui Fong away.

At the next meeting the boys want to go to the cave and capture the Spider boy for the fifty-dollar reward. Roy shows them the entrance they had found in Cave River. It leads into the Cave of Wonders. There they find a Chinese named Tao Ling on guard, armed with a shotgun. They tell him they are seeking the Spider boy and he tells them that the boy is not there. They turn to leave and Tao Ling dips his pen in the inkpot and sends a signal. Seck is captured and taken to the same cave where they had found John Malapo. A little later they bring Shadow in and chain him nearby. Shadow tells Seck that Perry and Roy got out safely and he was sure that they would bring help.

Tao Ling brings Hi Shang, the Tong leader, to see the prisoners. He tells them that they will not see tomorrow’s sun. Then he leaves them alone again. They hear a sound and the Spider boy comes into the little cave and frees them from their chains. They hear the sounds of approaching men, Doc and Jeckerson and Roy Dobel’s father. Hawkins tells the Spider boy to find a way out and he leads Hawkins to the opening in the center of the spider web. He tells Seck to pull on a rope when he whistles and then he goes out to climb the web for the last time. Hawkins hears the whistle and pulls the rope and the spider web cables are pulled into the cave and the door closes. He goes back to the big cave to meet Shadow and the rest. Jeckerson says that he is going to capture the rest of the Chinese gang that night.

At the meeting the next day Briggen comes over and wants to know who will pay the reward for the Spider boy. Hawkins tells him that Jeckerson will pay and the Pelhams leave. Jeckerson visits and Hawkins tells him that he had heard that they had captured the rest of the Chinese gang. Jeckerson insists to Seck that the Chinese coin was worthless, but Hawkins thinks that it had some value. They visit the Cave of Wonders and while they are there, they hear the Pelham boys coming with the Spider boy as their prisoner. They want the reward and Jeckerson tells them that the Spider boy is no longer wanted and he tells them to get out of the cave. The Pelham boys leave.

The Spider boy tells them that he will go and never come back. Hawkins gives him the Chinese coin as a good luck piece and the Spider boy looks at it in disbelief. He gives it back to Hawkins. He then tells them that he will show them something that would astound them. He leads the way to a blank wall and takes the coin from Hawkins and uses it to open a great door. The coin dropped on the floor beyond. Then the Spider boy ran into the dark opening and he lighted four great bronze torches and they saw the incredibly beautiful Wonder of Wonders cave. Hawkins sees that it was five times as large and thousand times more beautiful than the Cave of Wonders. The Spider boy also shows them the treasure of the tong in a leather casket. Then he runs away.

At a meeting in the club, Hawkins is asked by Mr. Dobel how he intends to get into his new cave. Hawkins tells him, through the Cave of Wonders. Mr. Dobel says that belongs to him. At the meeting they talk about the treasure of the tong and the Judge says that a lot of it will be returned to the rightful owners, but that they will be rewards of almost a thousand dollars. Hawkins insists that the money be divided among the boys in the club. Then the Judge pressures Mr. Dobel into buying the rights to the new cave and that puts a balance of five hundred dollars to each boy’s name.

The boys are planning their camping trip and Hawkins is in his office. He hears a distant booming sound. Perry brings in an envelope. It is from Mr. Dobel and he tells Hawkins that they blasted the opening where the old door had been and that he was returning the Chinese coin to Hawkins. Seck looks at the coin and thinks that he can never get rid of the bad luck piece. He decides to throw it into the river. He does that and he watches it skip a couple of times and then disappear under the water. His thought was that now they should have good luck in the future.

Which they did.

DID YOU KNOW?

*The statue bookends in the likeness of Seck were commissioned to Rookwood Pottery Co, and designed in plaster with wire reinforcements by artist William F. McDonald.  Most were just ivory in color, but some were brown colored on the boots.  Some club members painted their bookends in multi colors for realism.