1954
While visiting Saigon, Smith is approached by two rival factions who both want him to travel to Northern Indonesia and steal a Gutenberg Bible which had been left behind by its owner when the Communists took over the area. Smith must deal with precarious border crossings and an enemy officer who has currently is in possession of the book.
1954
Smith is in possession of an ornamental teapot that can be used as a weapon. He soon finds himself trying to save a young woman from a forced marriage.
1954
Another story of lost love. A blind man on a Hong Kong street hears a woman singing inside one of the clubs there. He knows she is his old love Renee but he can't find his way to her. He hires Smith, whom we first see on the Hong Kong-Macao ferry, impersonating a loud, rich tourist--bait for a badger gamer who once partnered with Renee. The man's information leads him to Renee, who refuses to meet her old love again because she is ashamed of the way she's lived since they were separated. The man will not give up. But Renee has gone into hiding. Smith believes she will try to leave Macao on the Kowloon ferry and decides not to let the boat out of his sight. The best place observation post is onboard. A passenger who loses his passport can watch the ferry constantly because neither Macao nor Hong Kong will let him disembark...
1954
In his own oblique way, Smith is helping a woman who received a message in a bottle. He arranges for a man named Smith to be shanghaied on the boat she has chartered to track down the author of the message. His idea is to escort the woman secretly because her crew is what's known as motley, ethically. The boat reaches an island where an exiled general has gone nutty and rules a few bewildered natives and castaways. Smith's client said she was looking for her lost husband, but she knows the general too. And she notes with interest that the general emptied his country's treasury on his way out. She thinks the island emperor needs a consort. Some think the island needs a regime change. Smith thinks everyone needs a jailbreak. In the end, Smith philosophizes that few searchers have the good fortune to learn that there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow-and adds that, of course, every rainbow has two ends.
1954
A retired British officer hires China Smith to find the grave of his son who died a hero's death on Sumatra during World War II. Finding no one to guide him into the jungle area he needs to search, Smith creates a fake treasure map as a ruse to create interest in his search. Unfortunately, the guides he attracts are more interested in stealing his map than in searching the jungle for the missing war hero.
Fri, Apr 2, 1954
In Macao, a pawnbroker finds a hunched-over woman draped in black rifling a display case full of costume jewelry. She kills him. The nervous Mr. Qoit of Great Eastern Underwriters hires Smith on another case. He wants Smith to recover the Manchu Necklace, thirty emeralds set in gold, stolen from the touring actress Kate Orleans. Smith finds that Kate is conducting her own search. He also finds that much of the Macao underworld believes he masterminded the theft. He thinks he might find the real thief by offering to buy the necklace. Kate's disappointed lover Franz believes the rumor and visits Smith with a gun--he ruined himself to buy the necklace for Kate. Qoit believes the rumor too and swears out a warrant for Smith. Meanwhile, the only trace of the necklace is the loose emerald Smith found mixed with the costume jewelry in the pawnbroker's shop.
1954
China Smith finds his life threatened by a gang leader and to continue living Smith must help the criminal locate a stash of gold.