A Coffin From Hong Kong by James Hadley Chase Page A

an American husband even though now he is dead."
    The waiter came with a bowl of fried rice in which was mixed finely-chopped ham, shrimps and scraps of fried egg. Leila filled her bowl and her chopsticks flashed as she whipped the food into her mouth. I lagged behind. To do justice to this meal, you had to have considerably more experience with chopsticks than I had.
    "He lived with her at your hotel?" I asked as I dropped rice onto the tablecloth in a vain
effort to keep pace with her.
She nodded.
    The shrimps had disappeared and more than half the rice. She certainly had the technique of getting the most inside herself in the shortest time.
    "He lived with her in a room next to mine for three months after they married, then he went away."
    A large bowl of shark's fin soup appeared. Leila began to fill her bowl. 
    "Why did he go away?"
    She shrugged her shoulders.
    "He didn't need her any more."
    As I could cat the soup with a spoon, I managed to keep pace with her.
    "Why didn't he need her any more?"
    Leila paused for a moment to give me a cynical stare, then she went on spooning soup into her small, insatiable mouth.
    "He only married her so she could keep him," she said. "When he began to make money for himself, he didn't want her."
    "How did she manage to keep him?" I asked, knowing what the answer would be.
    "She entertained gentlemen as I do," Leila said, and looked serenely at me. "We have no other means of making money."
    The waiter came through the screens. He brought with him a strip of matting which he laid ceremoniously on the floor.
    Leila turned in her chair, clasping her small hands excitedly. "This is the beggar's chicken. You must not miss seeing any of this."
    A Chinese boy came in carrying what appeared to be an enormous ostrich egg on a wooden plate. He rolled the egg onto the matting.
    "The chicken is first rubbed with many spices and then wrapped in a covering of lotus leaves," Leila explained, squirming around on her chair with excitement. "It is then covered with clay and put on an open fire and cooked for five hours. You can see the clay has become as hard as stone."
    The boy produced a hammer and cracked the egg open: from it came an aroma that was unbelievably delicious. The waiter and the boy squatted opposite each other. The boy eased the chicken out of the layers of lotus leaves onto the dish held by the waiter. The bird had been so thoroughly cooked the flesh fell from the bones as it unrolled onto the dish. With skilled and enthusiastic hands, the waiter spooned pieces of the chicken into our bowls.
    Leila's chopsticks began to flash again. I began on my portion. It was quite the most sensational dish I had ever eaten. Leila paused for a brief moment, a shred of chicken held securely in her chopsticks to ask, "You like?"
    I grinned at her. "Sure ... I like."
    There was no point in asking her further questions until the meal was over. I could see her concentration was now centred on the food and I didn't blame her. We finished the chicken, then she ordered mushrooms, bamboo shoots, salted ginger and finally almond cake. By this time I had given up. I sat, smoking a cigarette, marvelling at the amount of food she could put away. After a further twenty minutes, she laid down her chopsticks and heaved a long, satisfied sigh. "It was good?" she said, looking inquiringly at me.
    I regarded her with considerable respect. Anyone who could eat as much as she had and still keep a nice shape was entided to respect. "It was wonderful."
    She smiled contentedly.
    "Yes, it really was wonderful. May I please have a cigarette?"
    I gave her a cigarette and lit it for her. She blew smoke from her small neatly made-up mouth and then her smile became inviting.
    "Would you like to return to the hotel now?" she said. "We could make love. It would be good after such a meal."
    "It's early yet ... we have the night before us," I said. "Tell me more about Herman Jefferson. You say he began to make money three