The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-06-28

| DuC, uOGW1luSthuuluS uS uSAAeA ~
the contrary, time passed.
I could near footsteps approaching
in the garden, the heavy tread of mill
tary boots and the softer step of a
second person. I could hea- loud
voices in angry argument. Ths Ian
guage was queer mixture. Now and
then I could catch a word or SEN
tence that I could understand; but it
was mostly Chinese.
I felt queer sensation ct the start
ingly familiar sound of one of the
voices. It sounded Enthusiastically like
the voice of person whom I had cause
to remember, and whom I would be
glad to meet under circumstances
favorable to myself. Ny blood grew
hot, my fingers tingled as they rested
upon the rife in my grasp.
The angry speakers advanced and
came into the temple.
I bent little lower that might
look up through the idols mouth and
see the faces of the newcomers.
They stopped before the idol.
One was the gigantic Cha Fong,
dressed as I had seen him before, in
full military costume and evidently in
towering rage. The other was Mr..
Gambok Smell.
How I longed to empty the rifle in
to Mr.. Snell's snake-like carcass!
With what Joy, thought, would see
him writhing in dying agonies before
me! But it was not yet time for me
to act. There was so much that de-
sired to learn. 1 thought perhaps by
remaining quiet could catch enough
from their heated conversation to tell
me of my friends, Ralston and Langs-
| ton.
I gathered from the bits of their
gibberish that could understand that
Cha Fong was accusing Mr.. Smell of a
breach of trust. II appeared that
these two precious rogues alone pos
seesed the secret of the hidden spring
by which entrance to the island could
be effected. Hence it was plain to Cha
Fong that Mr.. Smell was the person
who had been there in his absence,
and upon departing had left open the
rolling doors. This was evidently o
serious matter in the estimation of
Cha Fong, for he was greatly excited
and wrought up.
Mr.. Gambok Smell way apparently
engaged in o frantic endeavor to dis
abuse the mind of Cha Fong of his
error. He seemed to be telling him
that he had not had time since the ar
rival of the City of Rio de Janeiro at
Hong Kong to visit the island and re-
turn to Hong Kong again. However
patent this fact may have been to Mr..
Smell, it was, difficult task to thrust
it down tie yellow throat of his mas
ter.
But the vehemence and earnestness
of Mr.. Smell made at least little i'm
preston on Cha Fong, for he switched
the question of Mr.. Snel's infdelity
from the intrusive presence of himself
in the submarine palace to the still
greater crime of divulging the secret of
the place to third person.
In reply to this awful charge Mr..
Smell grew perfectly wild in his protes-
tations of innocence, and seemed to be
invoking the wrath of the idol, inside
of which I knelt, upon himself if he
was not telling the truth. I chuckled
inaudibly to myself and patted my
rifle fondly. The wrath of the idol
would come sure enough if they only
waited with patience.
+ heard the name of "America" and
"girl;" and from the ugliness of Cha
Fong, Il concluded that he was accus
ing Mr.. Smell of playing him false in
still another respect. I also heard
the Ketoto mentioned. Putting this
and that together, I Judged the accu-
sation against Mr.. Snellto be the seiz-
ing, for his own ends, of the girl who
had been sought and abducted by
Cha Fong's agents for Cha Fong's
own purpose. I had no doubt that
Annie Ralston had been taken from
her home to be the victim of Cha
Fong, and that Gambok Smell had ap-
propriated her himself, and now was
trying to hoodwink the Chinaman
into believing something else.
So far as the fortunes of the girl
were concerned, could not see that
it made any difference whether she
was the wife of one or the other of
these scoundrels.
While the two were engaged in
their wordy war, I was calmly and de-
liberately shaping my course. was
not naturally of a murderous disposi-
ton. In fact, it had always been my
boast that was almost womanlike in
my gentleness in the practice of my
profession. Even the most simple
operation in minor surgery called up
the utmost sympathy within me for
the sufferer. But there was no room
for sentiment here. I was wide
awake to the fact that whatever I did
must be done boldly and quickly.
It was the lives of Cha Fong and
Gambok Smell as against the lives OF
Grace Arnold and myself.
Miss Arnold was, no doubt, at that
moment shivering with fear in the
vault to which I had sent her. If I
failed in what I undertook now, her
fate was plain. My own would be
death; hers worse than death. I did
not know the extent of Cha Fong's ac-
complishments in the way of crime. I
did know that Gambok Smell was, SO
far as his knowledge and intentions
went, a cold .blooded murderer.
had no doubt that both these emf
nent gentlemen would regard the Sec
ond effort to kill me mere pleasantly.