The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-03-12

from his sleeve, and Kee felt his cold,
sharp rejoinder penetrating between
his ribs as he sank to the ground.
BY the time the bomb had descended
and had been caught, however, Chew
Bang was standing on the other side
of the crowd, an interested spectator.
Meanwhile the beautiful Toy was
still smiling to herself and craning
her neck to follow a certain tall con-
testant. When the report of the
stabbing was passed through the
crowd she instantly got out of her
carriage and hobbled and bobbled
along the sidewalk until she reached
the spot where Kee lay PROSTATE on
the ground. Her countrymen were
too much excited to do anything
but jabber and jostle one another,
and because Toy was a woman, they
fell back, conscious of their made
quacy to the occasion, and glad to
shift the responsibility to more ca
pable shoulders. Tenderly she raised
his head so he might breathe. This
restored his consciousness sufficient
ly for him to speak, but when Toy
bent low to catch his last word she
heard, not a loving farewell, but her
fathers name.
"Chew Bang did it," he faltered,
because
Toy understood only too well, and
waved the bystanders back into
wider circle so there might be no pos
sibility of his words being overheard.
who did it?" several asked, see
ing Kee could still speak; TASK him
before it is too late!"
Toy turned toward the crowd surg
ing closer about her, and read their
purpose in their faces. Then she
glanced at the man on the ground,
whose eyes still looked into hers with
the meaning that had first stirred the
revolt in her heart against the color
less life enforced upon her by orien-
tai custom and her fathers severity.
But mingled with that other look
was an appeal to her for vengeance,
for to die with his blood unavenged,
is, to a Confucian, worse than for
Christian to die unshriven. And
again she heard the name of her IA
Their repeated in a whisper as his
murderer.
The nearest bystanders began to
call to Kee himself for the name of
his assassin. Toy raised her head to
answer them, but suddenly she found
that, under this test, was not merely
Toy, the emancipated, but the product
of countless ancestOr-worshiping gen.
erations, to whom duty to a parent
is a fundamental tenet.
"The American doctor is coming"
she presently heard one of her coun-
trymen say, and instantly the thought
flashed through her mind: Could he,
by care and skill, take out the knife
and stanch the blood so Kee might
live? If this were possible, then was
her emancipation sure, for Bang
would be in their power, and all oppo-
sitiOn ended. Yes, ended, because her
fathers old age would 90 down in
disgrace, possibly imprisonment.
Here, however, the dominating forces
of centuries again surged in upon
her, and her newly acquired spirit
of American independence was not
strong enough to stem the onslaught.
Again Toy bent low over the VIC
tim of her fathers wrath and her own
rashness. Even the fast-falling stu
por could not dim the agony of ap-
peal in his eyes. This time she did
not see it. In another instant the
surgeon would be here and have her
secret.
Throwing herself upon Kee, as if in
a paroXyism of grief, she drew out
the discriminating knife so that the
blood gushed from the wound, max
ing further speech impossible, and
deity concealed it in the flowing
sleeves of her blouse.
AS Kee fell back lifeless, Toy strug-
gled to her little crippled feet.
Hes already dead" said the ply
stefan when he reached KEGS side.
'Who stabbed him?"
'Me no sabee," Toy faltered, and
meekly allowed herself to be led away
to the balcony behind the iron graf
ing-San Francisco Arponaut.