Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-16
.CELEST|ALS FEAR
TO BLOW CANDLE
Expect Sweet Perfume from Punk
Stick, Little Knowing That Death
Turks In Innocent Appear
ing Cord
Continued from Page one,

tCOnthnue0 from FnRe Onesp
the flame. The cook, who has a nice
sense of the proprieties and always
knows what gods must be propitiated
when he is in trouble, drew him vio-
| lently backward.
Sage Enters the Game
"Don't you know what will happen
to you, fool" he said, "if you put out
| fire that another man has lighted?
You'll be burned yourself. The only
| thing to do Is to let it burn"
| Old All Lee, the sage, entered. Ah
| Lee is a man with a strange past,
and is said TO have been a priest.
Even when at work in the fields he
is always as immaculate as the sacred
cat, and his counsel is always wise.
| He slowly put on his horn-rimmed
spectacles and walked toward the table.
The flame was tapping the edge of
the porcelain dish in which the candle
stood He bent over 1t and looked at
the black string long and intently.
Then he examined the big, brown punk
stick. He invoked the fat Buddha in
the corner
it goes out or until we find the man
who lit it. Today is the day of the
god Use. The fire will follow the black
cord to the punk stick so-you see
and then there will be a sweet perfume
Of incense"
Where the black string had been
drawn across the dish, 1t left a black
| abrasion on the white surface. The
| flame reached this and it fiared up.
| Still the dying flame flickered around
the end of the cord.
Flame Menaces Fuse
The men were waiting for their sup
per and stood by stolidly. All Lee had
| spoken and there was nothing to be
said. But Lii Tan, the restless spirit
of the ranch, was not satisfied. "It is
devil machine" he said. 1.-THE fire
must be killed." He stepped toward
the table, but was dragged back. The
gods must not be offended.
| A tiny black bit of raveling from the
string was beginning to curl with the
| heat.
| The men sat down to their supper.
| They were ranged on a long bench
with their backs to the wall separating
them from the box with the dynamite
stick. 1t was a thin board partition.
Ah Tin had been posting his time book
and had not yet come.
In the candle dish the wick was
gone and but a splash of tallow re-
| mained.
Suddenly the door opened and All
Tin entered. All Tin has worked in
the mines and Knows dynamite when
! he sees it. He walked to the table
and stood watching the sputtering
flame. The men in the next room were
chattering and the cook was rattling
the dishes. The voice of old All Lee
| could be heard.
1--WE will chant the hymn of the
great god Use, whose day it is" he
said. The voices rose in a medley of
weird incantation.
| All Tin reached toward the candle
| flame and then hesitated. 1t probably
was something arranged in honor of
the god. But that surely looked like
| dynamite. There was a sudden flash
but the punk stick still lay in the box.
Ah Tin had caught the fuse as the
| flame reached it and torn it from the
Illuminating cap.f Bearing the stick in
| his hand, All Tin walked out of the door
and toward the tool house. He took
hoe and went down the slope.
The chant was finished, and suddenly
a haze Of smoke filled the room with
a strange new odor. "It is the in
cense," said All Lee rising. "We must
do homage to the god" He led the
still glowing, was writhing on the
table.
1.-THE stick was consumed in a flash"
whispered All Lee. "It is a miracle"
All Tin came back up the slope with
his hoe on his shoulder. 1t was nearly
dark in the shack, but the feeble glow
of a rushlight fell upon a row of squat
figures, bowed in obeisance to the great
/