Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-12-25

lamp, Wlefe cOulu look GnrOuRu tue
hideous mouth between the rows OF
priceless teeth. The air was suffocat.
ing, but I did not dare put out the
lamp. L knew the absence of the light
in the idol would attract the attention
of Cha Fong at once. So 1 breathed
the hot and sitting perfume and
waited.
The minutes seemed like hours. My
position was cramped, and it was with
difficulty that l remained quiet. And
I-cursed Cha Fonr for heinQ so lone
III coming-when it might have been
more to the purpose to curse him for
coming at all.
But, Notwithstanding my belief to
the contrary, time passed.
I could hear footsteps approaching
in the garden, the heavy tread of mill.
tary boots and the softer step of q
second person. I could heac loud
voices in angry argument. The Ian
guage was queer mixture. Now and
then L could catch a word or SEN
tence that I could understand; but il
was mostly Chinese.
/ felt a queer sensation at the start.
ingly familiar sound of one of the
voices. 1t sounded enthusiastically like
the voice of person whom had cause
to remember, and whom I would be
glad to meet under circumstances
favorable to myself. My blood grew
hot, my fingers tingled as they rested
upon the rifle in my grasp.
The angry speakers advanced and
came into the temple.
1 bent little lower that I might
look up through the idols mouth ana
see the faces of the newcomers.
They stopped before the idol.
One was the gigantic Cha Fong,
dressed rs I had seen him before, in
full military costume and evidently in
a towering rage. The other was Mr..
Gambok Smell.
How / ionged to empty the rife in
to Mr.. SMELLS snake-ike carcassl
With what Joy, l thought, would see
him writhing in dying agonies before
me! But it was not yet time for me
to act. There was 30 much that L de-
sired to learn. / thought perhaps by
remaining quiet could catch enough
from their heated conversation to tell
me of my friends, Ralston and Langs.
ton.
+ gathered from tho ,its of their
Gibberish that | could understand that
Cha Fong was accusing Mr.. Smell of
breach of trust. 1t appeared that
these two precious rogues alone pos
seesed the secret of the hidden spring
by which entrance to the island could
he 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 a
serious matter in the estimation OF
Cha Fong, for he was greatly excited
and wrought up.
Mr.. Gambok Smell way apparently
engaged in frantic eudeavor 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 q difficult task to thrust
it down the yellow throat Of his mas
ter.
But the vehemence and earnestness
of Mr.. Smell made at least a little i'm
preston on Cha Fong, for he switched
the question OF Mr.. SMELLS infidelity
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 he
invoking the wrath of the idol, inside
of which I knelt, upon himself if he
WAS not telling the truth. 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 | also heard
the Ketoto mentioned. Putting this
and that together, I judged the accu-
sation against Mr.. Smell to be the sei2-
ing, for his own ends, of the girl who
had been sought and abducted by
Cha Fongs agents for Cha Fong's
own purpose. | 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, was calmly and de-
liberately shaping my course. l was
not naturally of murderous disposi-
ton. In fact, it had always been my
boast that l 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 dona boldly and quickly.
IT was the lives Of Cha Fong and
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