Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-06
CHAPTER XVII.
The Chinese Iron.


when Sin-wan was due to appear
So sick was his soul with misery after
the ordeal of the day before, that he had
eaten nothing since. His food lay untasted
on the table.
He sat sprawling with disjected limbs on
the floor, watching the point of Sin-wan's
expected entrance through the fierce and
suilen corners of his eyes.
He mad often had the thought of BRAIN
ing Sin-wan with one of the porcelain plat
tiers. or of strangling him with his pigtail,
or with one of the ropes used to bind him.
self. AS he sat there the thought now re-
Cured to him. His brain was in that con-
ditlon IN which thoughts are no longer
stml-Voluntary, but seem to come and go
az random of their own motion, like winds
through the vacant heaven. He had. how
ever, sufficient reason left to give no enter
talnment to this thought His chance IL
ne ever had 1t, was long past. He was too
hopelessly frail now
ne sat long, expecting. One of his Ian
terms went out; then another; in half an
hour the third. He was in darkness.
Suddenly the lad started as though
sword had pierced him
He looked eagerly toward the door: and
he said to himself. NO no." 1t was too
Incredible; he must be mad.
Mao, mad, he moaned, his head buried
IN ms TWO arms as he rocked himself slow
~ to and fro with regular motion like
pendulum. So he went on for about half
an hour, his face hidden with sometimes a
moan and sometimes word. What have
l done?' he said YEARLY in the thinnest
WHINE: What have done-O God Father
GCd But now l am mad mad ~
1t had seemed to him, as the third lantern
Went Out and left him In darkness, that, at
the edge OF the door, there was a long
streak OF semi-light-that the door was
oDen
He had sense enough to know that the
oonui 'ion OF ms mind was one far and
away removed from a state of ordinary
sanity; that his senses were now quite can
able OF playing him tricks. But when at
ter long time, he lifted his head. there.
stu before his eyes, was the streak of
light.
He sprang to his feet and his palIor of
death assumed a hue of even more absolute
wanness. Cropping limpingly along the
WaIls, ne made toward the door, But on
the whole, it was rather to assure himself
OF the optical delusion which he srpnosed
than with the expectation of finding the
door really open.
But the door was, really open
What made his heart go humping and
bounding within his ribs was the look of
Providence-the hint of Gods finger-in the
fact or the lanterns all going out at the
very time when the door. by some extraor-
binary means. had become unfastened
But though one step meant salvation, and
one lnstants delay meant death, yet could
he not take the step. The sudden shock of
hope-the sudden suspicion of heayen-alI
but killed him. He dropped back against
the wall, painting, painting, trying with his
right hand to force back the violent gallop-
ing Of his heart.
But the instant that he could move he
moved. With wide mouth and gasping
chest, he cautiously pushed back the door
and passed through it,
Toward what? Toward certain capture?
1t must not be supposed that he was now
IN mental condition to give this question
even a single thought. He went through
the open door precisely In the way in which
a wild animal passes through the open
door of It's ENTHUSIASTICALLY toward lib
erty. He lived by moments. At this mo-
ment he was free; to the next he gave not
a thought. He simply walked forward as a
stream flows ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1t is a
law of nature.
He found himself in a long corridor; and
yonder, half way down the corridor, was
a man
The mans back was toward John; and
he was bending down, cleaning blue glass
lantern.
1t was at this sight that the first notion
of the impossibility of his ultimate escape
occurred to Hardy; and with this apprecia-
ton Of the impoSSibility, came also the
ravenous desire, the frenzied hope. AS he
slid swiftly back behind the door, and drew
1t upon himself, he was no longer a mere
wild creature OF instinct. He looked for
Ward-he reasoned.
He waited, fearing worse than death to
stir the door. Then he had sudden horror
which pricked him like a goad to action
/
He very slightly pushed back the door
and peeped out. The corridor was empty.
He ran now. with the stealthy feet of a
man treading on hot embers. His feet were
bare and made no sound. He had on a
shirt and trousers. But the shirt was filthy.
and the trousers tapped In long rags ali
down his legs. His hair reached to his
shoulders.
At the end of the corridor was door He
pushed it lightly. 1t did not move. He
forced his shoulder against It. It was
locked
He was as much a prisoner as before
then? Immediately after the first intoIer-
able sinking of the heart he could not be-
ieve it. A vague, but real, faith was in
him now. The mere fact that he was where
he was proved Providence. He believed dimIy
that God now was willing him to be free
wild as the idea was, far off as the prob
ability might be.
He looked round for some means of
escape; and there, in fact was tall win
dow in the side of the corridor, slightly
open.
He ran TO It, and looked down. 1t opened
upon another corridor twenty feet below.
Twenty feeti The distance was Infinite.
Underneath his tapping rags one could
see the red and livid patchwork of his
flesh. where 1t had been nipped and pinched
and burned and pricked and bruised In half
hundred agonies How could he leap
twenty feet? 1t was as dreadful to him as
to an infant. Like the very aged, he was
afraid "of that which is high"
But as he looked again he saw short
rope hanging over the window sill by which
he could help himself down.
And now, at this sight, it is a wonder that
some suspicion of the fact that all these
happy chances were only part of another
elaborate torture did not enter his head.
But his brain was so preoccupied with the
idea of Providence that nothing of the sort
occurred to him.
With endless pains he managed, with the
help OF the rope, TO reach the lower corri-
dor; and at once, with the same stealthy
trepidation, he set out, running In the same
direction in which he had so far come.
AT the end of this corridor also was
door; and at his push IL opened.
Now he was In yet another corridor, at
right angles to the first and second. In
which direction should he turn? He did
not care He would be guided right by the
Hand that led him. Away to the right he
went with totterlng gait. treading on en-
bers. hugging the wall.
If only his heart would cease its awful
thumpingl Surely, surely, through all that
vast building. through all Picking, they
would hear the echoes of that laboring
bosom. So II seemed to him.
His white wide lips were twisted awry In
his effort to take In and expel his noisy
breath.
AS he ran in this excess of agitation he
suddenly remembered the battle of Shore
ham, how he had been cool In the midst of
sounding cannon and angry war. Could he
not still be so? Was he so much changed ?
b affa, fai oil