Page 109 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Adventure
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opium there must be a good deal of assis- There was nothing simple about that.
tance, if not actual urge, from other She quite hissed it as she raised up and
people. leaned toward me, her eyes blazing.
Well, anyway the upshot of my relations That is the worst of women. One never
with Madame Guigane was that she ms1sted knows what they are up to, or why. And
on mv regarding her as a good friend; and as I have told some people, a thousand men,
as she never seemed to be after anything- lying and acting their best, can not deceive
I certainly do not like to be a cat'spaw for a me, bewilder me-all of them together-
woman---everything was agreeable . can not leave me so much at loss as almost
I told her what I wanted and she said any woman in about ten minutes.
that it could be arranged easily enough; but
woman-like wanted to know all about it. THEN Madame Guigane laughed
What I asked was nothing more than that marrily, and put out her hand reas-
she see that the message I had in the envelop suringly.
be delivered to Sin Chang, and I suggested "No, Don. Bring on your fair ·maiden.
that it be done in such way that he could Nothing will happen to her under my roof.
not know that either she or I had a hand in Is she pretty?"
it. Of course she wanted to know all about "I guess so. She seems to make a fool of
what I was up to, and would not believe me everybody she wants to." ·
when I assured her that I had no relations "And you?" .
with the Chinaman. "Not that wav."
She took the envelop and weighed it care- "What way, then?"
fully. "I was just thinking that occasion might
"Don, if you don't tell me what's in it arise in which I would kidnap her. I don't
I'll pick off this seal." warit her.
"That seal was on it when I took it from "She calls herself a 'sorceress.' . More
a dead man's pocket." open about it than most of you women.
"Don! You have the most devilish way Maybe that's what has put me on guard.
of saying things. Makes my flesh creep. _ _ Justas you were saying a while ago, there
Preacher! Ugh. You ought've been an may be worse things than death--"
undertaker. I suppose he bumped into you, "I never said--"
or something." "Same thing. I'd never give her a sec-
I explained that I had had nothing to do ond thought il she caught pneumonia or
with the man's ill fortune. something. She's not the sort of woman
"How 'd vou know it was ill?" she that ever dies of pneumonia, though."
h
snapped, lying back and closing her eyes so "Y ou oug t to run a charade column for
that the heavily beaded lashes lay like dark a boy's paper."
rings on her cheeks. • . And there I was, trying to explain some-
But after a moment of reflection she thing without confiding anything. So I
came up with widened eyes to extort infor- shifted the subject, and asked if Sin Chang
mation out of me, though she did not learn really did own a "slave market."
much. I couldn't have stirred Madame Guigane
At last I asked her, and I had no thought so much if I had struck her with a red-hot
of asking any such question when I came, poker. She was up and swearing in an in-
what she would do if I kidnaped a young stant. Sin Chang, "big yellow spider,'' did.
woman and brought her to the "Portal of She had seen the poor little blossoms all
Dreams"-Madame Guigane, half in irony tricked out in embroidered silk blou. es and
I suspected, always gave her "establish- trousers, black hair combed sleek and
ment" some such title of beauty-"ancl screwed down in tight coils over the ears,
brought her to you to take care of?" faces powdered and painted-she had seen
"Why, I'd kill her," she said simply. them hundreds f tim flutterin g behind
The remark was so unexpected, the man- their wooden bars, peering and wondering
ner of saying it so simply earnest, that I and whisp ring excitedly. '
looked at her; though of course I knew very Shewent rattling on. Of course the girls
well that she jested. didn't omplain. They wouldn't have com-
"Don, there are times when I hate you- plained if they had been lined up and stran-t
hate you!" gl d. Flower-boat girls, all of them.