The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-06-06


padded soles they lurched heavily forward
toward the steps that led up from the street
to the lawn and-recoiled before the figure
of slightly-built young man in tennis fan
nels, who stood upon the topmost step with
cigarette in his mouth and n heavy dog
whip in his hand. ShOtOver faced them,
calm and watchful drawing the lash of the
whip slowly through his fingers, and the
Hop Sing Tong, recognizing, with crowds
quick intuition, born leader and master of
men, felt themselves slipping back into the
cowed washmen and opium-drugged half
casts OF the previous week, and backed Oft
out of reach.
1T IS so rarely one sees the coolie otherwise
than rs the meek, cringing menial of the
laundry orethe kitchen that when he turns
and shows his teeth he looks particularly
mean and ill-favored. 1t is like getting q rat
| into q corner.
But the present situation was something the
reverse of this instead of one. there were 100
rats. 1t was the man who was in the corner,
and momentary suggestion of the old Rhine
Bishop in his mouse tower flashed across Shot
overs mind. As he ran his eyes over them
| he knew that he was facing as ugly a lot Of
rufians as could be found up or down the
coast from Portland to San Diego Thugs,
who had more ways of killing man than you
would think, pointed their fingers at Shotover
and cried:
Let us pass
Without raising his voice above conversation
pitch, Shotover answered.:
will not"
Both spoke their own language, but each
perfectly understood the other because at
such times men see and hear things, not with
their eyes and ears, but with a kind OF sixth
sense that overpasses the outward and visible
signs and that is born from and dies with the
occasion.
And the Hop Sing Tong, ours to the mar
row, chattered and covered before him. and
he, without any melodramatic posing or ges-
turing even without any show of interest in
their doings except very intense watehful-
ness, held them at their distance with his dog
whip, which he slowly drew between his
fingers. And he was quite alone.
No, not quite. He did not watch the cool
les so close but what he was presently aware
of the big blue-gray bulk at his side and knew
that Bevis was standing there, his tail slowly
waving and the hair on the nape of his neck
rising and bristling
There they stood and kept the crowd in
check, thoroughbreds both
Had he quailed the least in the world they
NOuiu DbfC Dttu Uu UlU, Knives
and nails, in an instant, and have killed him
where he stood, and this tale never would
have been written. But somehow this pale
young man in the tennis fannels made them
feel as if the dog whip were machine gun and
his hand were upon the sible; hatehet-men
brought over from the purlieus Of Canton and
Peking to do the work of the Tongs; high
binders from the horrible chan-dOo kahns
underneath Clay and Jackson streets, with
Smith Il WessOns strapped to their forearms;
kai-glngh and tan-men from Gamblers Alley,
with poison darts in their mouths; tchins who
could put knife into their mans lungs and
disappear before he dropped.
Perhaps Shotover got the courage to face
them rs he did out of his love for Barry, or
perhaps he underestimated the danger, or was |
too unimaginative to appreciateit, or perhaps |
he felt the old privateer blood of the Shotovers
of 1912 stir in him and believed that it all |
was only what was expected of him as their |
descendant. Ancestors are sometimes an in
convenience in this way. A man has to live
up to them, as it were, for if he can afford to
have them at all he must look to have the
world expect more from him than from the
rank and file.
When he understood that they were trying to |
reason with him, Shotover drew long breath, |
for he knew that the worst was over In five !
minutes more two patrol wagons had come up |
on the gallop and 90 policemen were beating |
the Hop Sing Tong over it's hundred hydra /
heads with slungshot and revolver butts.
Then the childish vanity and the foolish de- /
sire to show off came upon Shotover like /
prickly heat, and as he reached for his match |
case and relighted his eigaret he said. list /
lessly: why do the heathen rage and the |
people imagine vain thing?" Then he /
turned back to the veranda and asked Barry
to finish their game.
| am sorry to say that after the affair was
over Brunt came downstairs brushing the
dust and cobwebs from his shoulders and
tried to talk as though he had been looking
for old Vance's revolver in his closet and
bureau drawers. They never saw much of
Brunt after that day.
One evening" about week later, old Vance
met ShOtover in the hallway as he was leaving
He went out bareheaded upon the veranda |
with him and shut the front door, He said: !
Barry has told me q good many things /
about you, Mr. Shotover, and though she an
only child, won't stand in her way if she's !
sure of her mind. If you two young people |
understand each other, why, don't suppose |
the old folks have got anything TO say. Only /
/ wish you'd think once more about taking |
Hoiu Va Ci'tO SVhtiVihuS lHtcftcO Ill Iltc " anu
o. Company or any other steady business"
You see," old Vance explained aterward,
there can't be very much wrong about q man
who can stand off mob of highbinders with
a dog-whip. / don't know; I'm no tory, but
if good blood is what makes oil the difference
between So and $500 dog, | suppose it /
would make a difference between men as
well.u
And Barry thinks so, too.-0uerIand
Monthly.