Page 124 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Sorcery and Everhard 119

CHAPTER VII of. She was spending a lot of money so her
"boys" could get stories of what was going
BY NOON the next day I had not stirred on there. What was I going to do?
from the apartment, scarcely from the I did not know. I waited. I dozed a
chair I had taken beside the telephone when little, and, even dozing, thought. Then I
the message came from Madame Guigane. splashed about in hot water for a while,
I was waiting; for what, it would not be easy dressed with some care, packed up what-
to say. Perhaps because Lord Bob had ever I thought might be well to take off with
said, "Wait," and, getting into clothes in me, and sent the suit-case to the station. It
keeping with his character, had hurried off was expressed. to a "Mr. Richards," address,
with Jackman. They were. going to show New York.
that Chinaman that he had made a grave As it grew later in the afternoon I took
mistake in concluding any such bargain the liberty of going through Lord Bob's per-
as brought Zoronna into his yellow sonal effects. All the papers and letters I
fingers. did into a package without glancing at
I had suggested that it might be well if I them. His trinkets and jewelry I also did
went along, but Lord Bob was impatient. up. I put them into a suit-case and had
He and Jackman could go right to Sin them taken to a hotel.
Chang. Sin Chang would not dare refuse By the time it was dark I had engaged a
them. He did not know of Lord Bob's love launch, and paid for it. It was to stand by
for her. It was all very plausible-but un- all night, and be ready. Everything seemed
convincingly diplomatic. Anything that to be done that I could do by way of prep-
has diplomacy in it is a Chinaman's own aration.
game. In the mean time I had heard nothing ex-
I fancied that Lord Bob meant to argue, cept from Madame Guigane; and she had
perhaps declaim, a little angrily no doubt. nothing to tell.
The unknown quantity was, of course, how It may appear strange that I was not
close the secret relations were between him- more uneasy, and did not move more read-
self and the Chinaman. ily, about Lord Bob. But I was familiar
I waited. Lord Bob did not come back. enough with Chinamen's methods to know
He did not telephone. There was no mes- that he and Jackman were either dead
sage. I wished for one. I wished all the within a few minutes after they had en-
success in the world to Lord Bob, for I did tered Sin Chang's house or else were pris-
not care to be drawn into an affair with the oners-and being prisoners they ran no risk
Chinese, as my thoughts gravitated con- from hasty punishment, if punishment was
tinually toward.some one else. Hurgronje. intended.
Lord Bob had undoubted courage and Besides, a Chinaman hesitates to put a
amazing resourcefulness. But he had a white man to death. I say "hesitates." I
verv bad weakness. He never. carried a mean nothing more than that. In a fight
loaded gun. or cornered, he will kill a white man as soon
At noon I called up Madame Guigane. as he will kill a yellow woman.
She said a lot of things that are not worth Knowing how resourceful Lord Bob was,
repeating, but told me there was no new de- I waited hour on hour, hoping that he might
velopment. Zoronna, still ill and weak, pop up with some cheerful account of what
was in the women's apartment of Sm had happened.
Chang's house; and the Chinese women were There was the police, of course. They
giving her every attention-for she was the should-theoreticnllv-have been notified
new bough of blossoms that was to decorate then, as well as previously in New York.
the doorway of their master. But there would have been fortv thousand
Madame Guigane said it fiercely. She things to explain,· and their suspicions that
herself often covered the debauchery of maybe I was using them in a personal quar-
opium with soothing, poetical phrases; but rel, or hoodwinking them, would have been
she was contemptuous of the Chinese unsatisfactory. Besides, the police go
imagery. through doors with axes, and find noth-
No, she had heard nothing of any dis- ing.
turbance in Sin Chang's household. No When it was dark I went on my way. It
white men had been in there that she knew was a misty, drizzling night.