Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-07
CHAPTER XVIII.
Sin-Wa an.


Hardy lay on his back on the bed of his
prison.
He was conscious that 1t was near the
hour when Sin-wan appeared.
His feet we're so gashed and raw from his
run over the glass, that he had not stood
since he had been thrown upon the bed
For two days he had eaten nothing, being
sick, sick. He was not far from death now.
How long, o Lord? How long? This was
the burden of his feeble thought.
But he retained an intense interest in
the nature of the added pangs which this
day had in store for him.
When the key turned. as he sprang up
right though at the effort the wounds
in his feet broke into fresh bleeding.
Sin-wan entered. and at his entrance
the flesh of twisting serpent from his
feet to the roots of his hair
Fire was the instrument OF torture at
Sin-wan had now with him brazier,
which swung from his fingers by a handle
In the brazier glowed and flushed the
He had In his hand no other instrument
that John could see. But John, by this
time, had begun to learn that when the
instruments were at first invisible, then,
lentleSS.
And now. at the sight of the fame, feel
ing himself too hopelessly feeble TO pass
through any further hell that day, Hardy
by an impulse. did what he had never
done before. He fell upon his knees. and
stretched out his clasped hands In an at
titude of meek supplication to the Chi
naman.
Sin-wan was man; he had the limbs
and bodily structure of the human being
Who could say If within him, too, some
trace of the divine origin of man might
not linger, some throe of love, some sob
of pity? In Johns eyes as he knelt. cried
a world of mute pleading.
But the Chinaman showed no sign OF
having seen him. He deposited the bra
zier in farther corner, took some small
dropped them on the floor, and approached
the kneeling form. He proceeded to bind
him as before, arms and feet to chair.
Johns shirt from the upper part of his
body, leaving it to hang downward from
the navel.
This done. he went toward the fire,
took up two of the six small metal OBJ
jects which he had dropped, and put them
on the fire to heat.
The six objects consisted of four tiny
Latin capital letters in iron; they were
the letters A, S, Y, 1.-THE initials of
Ada Seward and Yen How; there were
also a roll of iron wire and a pair of
pincers.
1t was the intention of Yen How to
print the four letters all over the body
of John Hardy---on his breast, on his two
arms, on his thighs. on his back; two at
d time; two each day.
And the letters of the first day, as Yen
How had ordained in compliment to his
But. usual, Yen How had no idea
of infiicting the mere brutal pang of a burn
upon his victim; some mental refinement
OF pain must mix with the scream of the
physical nerves.
Sin-wan took one of the two iron let
tiers from the fire with the pincers, and
The iron emitted a red glow, and seemed
to burn into the staring eyesight of the
victim
When his bare chest could feel the RAJ
dated heat, his torturer stood, holding the
metal steadily still. And so, for few
minutes, remained; then returned and re-
placed the iron in the fire, without having
touched John with 1t.
And now he climbed and stood upon the
table, the roll of wire in his hand The
three lanterns hung from the ceiling by
hooks near to open spaces in the boarding
of the ceiling, through which the candles
were placed in the lanterns. Over one OF
these hooks Sin-wan threw a length of
wire; and over another another length OF
wire. The hooks were near to each other.
With ore end of each of the two pieces
of wire he made a half-loop; and at once he
hurried to the fire. snatched up the redhot
letter with the pncers, and hung 1t upon
one Of the loops; then the s, and hung IL
upon the other. Their weight was sufficient
to make the wires run through their sup
porting hooks: and they fell upon the mar
BILE floor.
Sin-wan now gathered the other two ends
of wire and secured them to point in the
wall, having drawn the two letters some
inches from the ground. In his hand he
held piece of bamboo, and with this,
standing in line with the wires. he struck
first one of the letters, then the other gent
~ forward.
The two letters began to swing to and fro
through the chamber, with uneven motions
one this way, one that. And right in the
line of their movement sat John Hardy
1t depended entirely upon the force of the