Page 127 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

122 Adventure
Apparently I did succeed, for Sam Wong like rooms wherein one would perhaps have
returned with a slim Chinaman in a much raced around like a rat in a tub without
richer blouse and trousers, with embroi- finding a door, for frequently it seemed to
dered slippers, heavily soled-a rather aris- me that the Chinaman had approached a
tocratic-looking Chinaman. solid wall. Hurgronje, I guessed, for aU of
"Lou go with 'im," said Sam Wong. his mechanics, had nothing more deceptive.
I nodded, and followed the guide out of All that meandering did not impress me.
the tea-shop. It irritated me. I was not a six-year-old
We pushed through the heavy bead cur- child to be afraid of the dark, to fancy ter-
tains and passed along a narrow back room rors at every hand, to be amazed by being
where three or four tables with bare tops walked in a zigzag circle, up and down ,
and some di hes on them--sugar-b owls, I stairs.
suppose, and such-clustered as if huddling I was not even cautious. For two rea-
together in the center. A girl, rather sons: The important one being, I reasoned,
shabby, and a man were at one of them. that Sin Chang, being a human creature ,
They glanced idly at us. could not be without curiosity enough to
We went through a little door and stepped want to find out what I had to say since I
into a passage faintly lighted by an oil lamp had made so beautiful a gift and in a way
here and there. I noticed that we passed promise~d finer things. The other reason
many doors, and present ly we entered-one of was that if the Chinamen had intended to
these, came into a bare room, walked do anything rash they would have done it '
through it, went down a few steps and almost at once and not waited until I would
moved along a moldy passage, turned sev- -or the average person would-have be-
eral times, again entered a room, very dis- come suspicious from so much wandering _
mal-looking places with what appeared to be around through dark places.
bunks along the wall. My guide did not at
any time look back, but in opening a door AT--f:;1tST we came up out of a cel-
lte paused until I had put my hand against lar through a trap door, and
it to hold it open. crawled into a rather ornate room
Out of the dungeon-like room we went with thick carpets on the polished floor,
and descended ten or twelve steep steps, bronze bowls with dragons crawling on
and in this passage I found only candles them, flowered screens, and such gaudy
burnin g-a candle every fifteen or twenty trumpery as the Chinaman piles around him
feet. I heard later that if the police at- under the notion that he is surrounding him-
tempted a raid . some Chinaman ran along self with luxury and beauty.
wherever candles were burning and with a "Lou wait. I come lite back ' said my
fan-like implement hastily extinguished guide, and off he went. '
them-a piece of Oriental cunning that did I sat down promptly, and waited.
not impress me very much, except that it He did not come back. A rather large
was typically Oriental; that is, very subtle, Chinaman with lots of dignity and an evil
tather complicated, and quite childish. The face slowly opened a door and ver deliber-
police, of course, would not care a conti- ately came into the ro m. H did not take
nental how many candles were extinguished his black y s off m . o doubt he was
as they would have searchlights-and axes. used to fright ning p ople. H wa d l-ed
For fifteen or twenty minutes I followed out like a fun tionary in a. hine
that Chinaman up and down, and all around. (writt n in Italian, taged b_
I soon knew that he was trying to befuddle apital).
my sense of direction; and he did it, and I "What do you want?" h aid 1 wlv in
did not care in the least, for I had judgm nt quite p rfe t Engli h, and with a .ort of cold
enough to know that if I had to com ba k m 'narc no doubt int nd l to mak me
unguided I would not try to retra e my . hiver 1 ar down to my ankl bon . .
steps. I got up, an<l, 1 b li v , quit as almly
However, I also saw that it would have and oolly ask d-
been hop less for any on to try to rca h "Who are you?"
Sin hang without a guide. Ther were II inhal d de ply and sw ll l i iblv.
doors on v ry hand, and winding halls and His dignity was a rath r import. nt part f
pa sages; gr at rooms; dimly lighted, cellar· him. ·