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it out of the accused.
Of course that was not nearly such
an easy job as he thought it was going to be. He was put off
by excuse after excuse and in the end he told his friend
Leung Ki about this. Leung Ki had been unlucky in his
finances too and he was in dire need of the enormous sum of
20 cents to put him temporarily straight, so he proposed to
Chan Kam On that if he helped him to get the 50 cents out of theprisoner Chan Kam On would in turn lend 20 cents to
Leung Ki.
They tried that on 27th September, but you cannot get
blood out of a stone so there was no immediate result. That
did not deter them at all, so when on the evening of 28th
September they all fortuitously found themselves in Chinese
Street, they thought "Here is another grand chance."
You will remember Leung Ki had gone there to play a
game of chess. The accused, a young man, was sitting down
at Ng Kui's stall, sitting on one of those canvas chairs
and Chan Kam On who lives in Chinese Street and seems to
waste his leisure hours in that thoroughfare too, strolled
in and so the cast was complete and the play was on.
Leung Ki gave up his game and he and Chan Kam On
walked across the road to where the accused man was sitting
and they tried again to extract this 50 cents from him.
The accused man has told us he had no money and that is
probably correct. Anyhow, he said he could not pay and
words passed. Leung Ki with all the impetuousness of youth,
according to the witnesses for the Crown, tapped the
accused man on the shoulder with his open hand and said
"I give you three days to pay, if you don't pay in three
days you won't be able to come hawking your fruit in
Chinese Street and you will be driven to the extremity."
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