The Chinese Parrot (Charlie Chan Detective Series) — page 352: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a, He leaped back beside Holley, and the flivver sped on, round hairpin turns, and along the edge of a precipice. Presently it turned a final corner, and before them, nestled in the hills, was the ghost city of Petticoat Mine. Bob Eden caught his breath. Under the friendly moon lay the remnants of a town, here a chimney and there a wall, street after street of houses crumbled now to dust. Once the mine had boomed and the crowd had come, they had built their homes here where the shafts sank deep, silver had fallen in price and the crowd had gone, leaving Petticoat Mine to the most deadly bombardment of all, the patient silent bombardment of the empty years. They rode down Main Street, weaving in and out among black gaping holes that might have been made by bursting shells. Between the cracks of the sidewalks, thronged once on a Saturday night, grew patches of pale green basket grass. Of the "business blocks" but two remained, and one of these was listing with the wind. "Cheery sight," remarked Eden. "The building that's on the verge of toppling is the old Silver Star Saloon," said Holley. "The other one—it never will topple. They built it of stone—built it to stand —and they needed it, too, I guess. That's the old jail." "The jail," Eden repeated. Holley's voice grew cautious. "Is that a light in the Silver Star?” 302 comiicboeoe S CO