Page 107 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

102 Adventure

the tiny, narrow rooms would soon be street up to the second floor as one goes to
thickened with fumes, and the air further the second floor of any public building from
vitiated on chilly night s by the grale. Yet the street.
for hours two or more people would lie I came out into a bare, dim lobby; it had
there, talking, dozing, or in that sleepless been a lodging-house ball, but a wall bad
dreamy daze which-s he assured me I know been built across it. I rang a bell, and was
nothin g about it- is the enchanting Heaven no doubt carefully inspected through a
of the pipe. peep-hole before a shabby Chinaman shuf-
She was a wonderful "cook," a preparer fled out inlerrogalingly.
of pipes. I have watched her, but beyond "Wal want?"
the fact that she seemed deft I knew noth- "Madame."
ing of her skill. She assured me that it was "Ma'am? No ma'am. W'ong placee."
an art- a real art-to dip that spatulate "Madame Guigane."
needle-spatulate at one end, and deli- "No savee Ma'am Gugin. W'ong
cately sharp at the other- into the stuff not placee."
unlike black molasses, twirl it over the Evidently I did not know the pass-word
lamp as the little daub that has adhered to or some other open-sesame.
the needle bubbles and swells, changes color The Chinaman was retreating backward
and fills the air with a sickeningly sweet toward the door; but I jerked him to one
odor- That was a part of "real art" she side, shoved him against the wall and
assured me. backed through the door myself, locking it.
It was only as a rare and expensive favor He set up a terrific squealing.
that she would "cook" for her "guests." The hallway was dimly lighted-a pre-
She had Chinese boys to do that when·the caution, I suppose, to reassury--timid
"guests" did not feel themselves adept "guests" that they would not be recognized
enough. , in case they met any one while being shown
"Why," she had exclaimed once upon a to their rooms. It was empty when I first
time when I looked unimpressed, "I cook for , closed the cl.oar; but many little actfre
Sin Chang-when I feel like it! Put it shapes tumbled out, peering and jabbering;
down in your note-book that he pays for it, then from somewhere at the other end of
too! . . . Know him? I know him better the hall a larger form, a woman's, came out.
than my right hand, and haye no more use Lights clicked on and she advanced, with
for him than I would have for my hand if it no surprize or alarm in her face, but a great
was cur off." deal of furn unwelcome. She -was occasion-
That was why I was going to Madame ally annoyed by intruders· and an ' in-
Guigane. truder" was usually some person whom he
had decided to bar from further v1 its.
IT TOOK almost an hour and some As she came nearer the e:-..-pression on her
II money to find out where her "es- face changed rapidly to surprize, then won-
tablishment" was now located. I derment. She stopped in front of me and
was directed to the second floor of a two- stared. I said nothing; I did nothing.
story building, of which the ground-floor "Good --, are you a gho t?'' je_ tin,,.
was used for a dirty chop-suey joint. and just a trifle doubtful of her ev . 0
The chop-'-suey joint made it rather con- I assured her U1at I was not. -
venient for Madame Guigane's "guests." "Then give me your hand-but if it s
They could sneak up the back way after cold and clammy I'll scream!"
threading through a narrow, unlighted She did not s ream. he held the hand a
alley-like passage, or more openly, pretend- few seconds, pulling and pinching th fin-
ing to be slumming, enter the joiQt and pass gers as if lo rea sure h rs lf. I withdrew
through a booth into a stairway concealed mv hand, and she scatt red th hinesc
1 by a sliding wall. with a gesture and som word , t 11ing -.ome-
The sliding wall and concealed stairs body to let in the doork ep r, who wa - still
were not precautions against police inter- squealing.
ference, or lo keep out meddling vice-cru- Mu.dame Guigane was not a ' rough"
saders, so much as lo give the "guests" the woman, though she wa by no mean· ddi -
tl1rill of being furtive and sc retivc. I at ; nor would she likely be mistaken f nr
know U1is because I went straight from the "culta.r d." She made a fr quent use vi