The Falls City tribune., 1911-02-10

WIS utAoIu VI NV II ii9lliS'
Captain Leeson." he announced in
a low voice. Ion trial for betraying Sc
crets of the White Brothers"
Captain Lesson died. as you all
know said Nelson sternly. Il saw
him die. killed by your orders. lie
died in the street Of
Silence" menaced the leader. He
claims to be Nelson, the one who died
that night"
The seven nodded in unison. but did
o remove their gaze from Nelson's
angry face.
lie kept silence now. briefly review.
ing the strange events that had snatch.
ed him from the busy streets of the
city into as dismal II den of murderers
as one might hope to find along the
water front of any Chinese city.
Before his eyes there flashed a pie
ture of his last year in China. Then
he had been in the diplomatic service
of his country. Lesson, his friend. an
Englishman in the British employ at
Hongkong-inspector of health or some
thing of that sort-had interested Mel
son in his establishment of a leper col
ony down in Anam.
1t was Lessons ambition 20 clean
out the lepers hidden in the city. to
root them out from their places of con-
cealment and transport them TO the
colony where preparations had been
made for their segregation, where
their cases should be studied and
modern methods be employed.
1t happened that the afflicted ones
looked on the idea of Punishment with
distaste. They cared little to be herd
ed together in a foreign province far
from friends and familiar scenes.
They cared nothing whatever for the
benefits that might accrue to posterity
through their segregation.
Lessons efforts met with little sue
cess, and he brought the law to his
aid. Thus he gained permission to
capture the afflicted ones, and so his
colony prospered for awhile. Then
there was formed against him the So
ciety of the White Brothers, created to
protect the lepers scattered throughout
the city from Lessons agents. Each
one bore some mark of the disease.
and they had some other emblem by
which they might be known to each
other If the mark of the disease was
not plain enough. And this emblem
was the green and gold paper umbrel-
la. with its snaky twisting golden
dragon coiling in and out of the green
painted bamboo shoots.
Nelson remembered the first time he
had seen them-that night of Lessons
carefully planned expedition into a
suspected quarter. 1t was at night,
and red lanterns had lighted the street
down its crooked length. Suddenly
there had burst upon them and the
three agents who accompanied Lesson
a hideous babel of cracked voices: a
horrible spectacle of CHASTITY faces; "A
leprous mob that leered and jeered at
them; that drove them point by point
toward the end of the street of lepers;
a yelling crowd that received the bull
lets from their %reyolvers and died
noisily; a filthy crew that tried TO
touch them, that longed to render
them as loathsome as itself.
Lesson had been killed. and Nelson
tried to forget the sight as the rest of
them got away. The next day he led
Il party back to the street, but ii was
deserted. Even poor Lessons body
had disappeared. After this outbreak
the matter went under the supervi-
sion of n large medical corps, and the
colony at Anam was augmented by
several hundred cases. Nelson resign
ed from the service and went home.
sickened of the whole dubious web of
oriental life. thankful that he bad es-
capped contact-that he was clean.
Now they had found him out they
would take their revenge for his be-
trayal of their outbreak. 1t pleased
them to call him by Lessons name.
AS Lesson he would probably die in
this hole in the ground under San
Francisco.
Nelson determined to force some inn
mediate action from the men who had
sprung up in this PARKWAY city to call
him TO account for his setting the
hounds of law upon their trail. All his
hideous dreams of the past year seemed
to have peer realized in the strange
events of this day that would UNI
doubtedly be his last on earth.
1t had been a strange day, and even
now, face TO face with death-for the
presence of these White Brothers
meant nothing less-he seemed to be
moving in n dream more ~frightful than
anything his sleeping mind had con-
ceiyed.
Fire ahead" he said reeklessly;
I'm not afraid of you. Come IN,
every devils imp of you!" He flashed
out the revolver he always carried just
as they arose in a body and came at
him, a CHASTITY company with stretch
ing. clawing fingers and iendish eyes.
Then Jay Nelson aWoke. lie sat up
in bed, his brow dripping sweat and
his heart pounding with excitement.
IT, III - til