The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-09-15
'BambOOzled
By ERNEST BRINDLE.

Hong Kong, he was in that frame of
mind which will lead man to UNDER
take any desperate enterprise for the
financial re-establishment of himself
He was not unknown to the port, but
he knew shat it would be useless to
apply for employment of any kind
from merchants of solid reputation.
a white man without good creden-
tials is in about as hopeless case out
there as he is in London city.
So Waller interviewed Mr.. Peter
Simpkin, the well-known Jew tinan-
cier, whose name was Schmidt before
he became British subject. High
up on the Peak, in a lordly mansion
overlooking the harbor, lived Simp-
kin, but he transacted his dubious
business in a dirty little Office in the
native quarter
There Waller found him one morn
ing, and Simpkin knew at once that
luck had sent him the very man he
required to act as the agent in adj
vance Of a gun-running expedition to
Formosa. BY supplying warlike ma
tives in lands as far north as SAX
hahn, and as far south as Sumatra,
he had built up an immense fortune
In those ventures, however, the risks
were comparatively few.
1t was a difficult matter in the case
of the Formosan enterprise he had in
mind. The war between Japan and
China. was at an end, and the island
had been coded to the Japanese Now
the Chinese living in Formosa were
favorable to the cession, but the abor-
iginal tribes inhabiting the eastern
high lands viewed it with hostility,
and set UP republican form of gov
eminent
And in this complicated situation
Simpkfn foresaw a splendid oppor-
tunity of increasing his wealth by
shipping cheap firearms to the insur-
gents. He did not tell Waller so
much. but offered him the post of
agent to the Peppohoan chiefs at a
salary Of $1,000 Mexican dollars a
month.
The pay was good and the pros
poets OF excitement excellent, and
Waller closed with the Offer at once.
Two hours after leaving the Office of
Peter Simpkin he was on board
cargo tramp, bound for the port of
Kelung, and thirteen hours later he
set foot on Formosan soil.
He lost no time in engaging ma
tive guide, and purchasing couple.
Of ponies and a few provisions for the
journey to Tawkan, the town sixty
miles from Kelung, where the in
surgents were massing.
The journey to Takwan took him
through a succession of deep gorges
running up from the sea, covered with
a gorgeous variety of tree and plant
life Occasionally he encountered
parties Of Chinese travelling to
f. Kelung, and his appearance never
failed to excite buzz of excited
comment. And if Waller had known
that among these travellers were Jap
anese spies disguised as Cinnamon, he
would. perhaps, have paid them
closer attention than he did
The conference with the Peppon-
hoan chiefs at Takwan resulted in
Waller securing an order Cor the i'm
mediate delivery of 10000 rifles and
as many cases of cartridges, the
money to be paid to Peter Simpkin
at Hong Kong before the cargo left
port.
There were no safe means of COM
munication direct from Takwan. SO
Waller resolved to return to .Kelung
at once, and dispatch his message
from there by the captain of the YES
sci which had brought him to the
island.
He and his servant set off an hour
before sunset. Nightfall found them
traversing one of the biggest of the
gorges, their ponies cantering along
IN single file in narrow avenue.
winding through a bamboo forest.
Pulling up his pony to light cigar,
Waller instinctively became aware
that he was being watched. He
glanced sharply back over his shout
der, and in his surprise dropped the
lighted match from his fingers. His
servant was nowhere in sight. There
was no one behind him in the grassy.
starlit aisle of the forest.
= Sudu! SnOuteu waller. re
Chan, where are you?"
There was no answer, but as Wal
Ter looked down the aisle he saw the
head and shoulders of man appear
from behind bamboo. not fifteen
yards away. The form vanished at
once, but not before Waller had re-
moved his revolver from the leather
case strapped round his waist.
Seeing no more Of the apparition,
and thinking that it might have been
nothing more than creation of his
fancy, he rode onward, wondering
what had happened to Pc Chan. Sud
denly his pony reared and jumped to
one side, dashing his right leg against
the hard, rough stem Of bamboo.
Clutching at the reins to save him
self from being thrown forward, he
lifted his eyes and saw two faces one
behind the other, peering from the
cover OF the bamboos growing ON the
left side of the path.