Arizona republican., 1911-03-26
IN SIMMY'S CELLAR By Robert Carlton Brown. 1909. by The Pearson Pub
 fishing Co.
By Robert Carlton Brown.
Continued from Yesterday.)
fishing Co.

II | history of little-known criminal witl
 a low, mumbling accompaniment of ex
 pressed thought, translating the cipher
 easily; occasionally emphasizing word: to himself and lingering over them fondly, as he would over a rare jewel or an ancient ivory.
 Electrician - works alone - for
 merly actor in Cambridge plays-ath.
 pe-wrestler-student - worked
 in Liverpool safe company two years
 -" he paused and fixed his eyes more
 soberly on the note which had caught
 his eye at first, an entry made some
 years after the full account had been
 written. Then he exclaimed, Yes,
 Opium! Imagination! Murder!
 feared it."
 Rising quickly, he slipped the book
 into his ragged coat pocket and passed
 out of the hotel without being noticed.
 At the door he took taxi as far as
 Grand Street and walked down Allen
 for several blocks, slipping along as
 one accustomed to the haunts of har-
 rowed souls, lodging in and out, shy
 ing at the street lights. With crouch
 ing, haunted haste, he slunk into sev-
 eral opium dives and thieves resorts,
 in rapid succession, places where he
 was slightly known in his disguise. By
 merely scanning the faces as though
 searching for a "pal" he escaped sus-
 picion, though he did not find Burns,
 or any man answering to the descrip-
 tion of the possible bank-breaker.
 At length Poe shuffied down the
 moldering steps to an apparently de-
 serted cellar on Rivington Street, gave
 double rap on the door, and waited
 till panel glided noiselessly back, and a rat-eyed Oriental peeped out, iang- ling, not unmusically:
 Yen she Qud!"
 It was a threadbare password to Poe. merely meaning in Chinese Do you smoke opium?" He answered me chanically, Sui ool0!" the name for the little sponge with which the bowl of the opium pipe is cleaned.
 Fi f!" cried the Chinese watch man, and Poe. responding to the con- mand to hurry in, slipped through the door as it slid open on well-oiled hinges.
 Shutting down the dim, damp pas sageway Christopher Poe came shortly 1 to the common lounging room, where a | scattering of wisps from the human | haystack had lodged and lay in lan- guid groups.
 On his way to the general room he | had passed the open doors to several smaller compartments. accommodate ing only two or three smokers. Tn passing each he had given furtiye, un- easy glances at the occupants, his manner that of the narrowed hdbitue, seeking some pal" No flicker of features betrayed him, when he sud- denly saw in one of the small rooms his friend Burns, curled up with a pipe, and on the bunk opposite, long. English-looking man, with close-cropped halr, watery, hollow eyes. and a dead-white face.
 Though his mind was quickened by the discovery, he lounged on, and, with dull eyes. asked Simmy," the squint- featured Chinaman in charge, for a " layout" Finding a vacant place. removed from the others, Poe dropped down and commenced to roll his pill, affecting the trembling eagerness of the hdbitue as he cooked 1t over the little peanut oil lamp. Piercing it, when properly baked, he placed the drug in the zen hop. and began smoking. But he inhaled none of the fumes and thus escaped the ef- feet, while feigning a pleasurable irowsiness.
 In short time Burns entered from lis smaller compartment, pushed Poe iside with the rudeness characteristic 'f the place and. dropping down be- tide him, managed to whisper unno- iced:
 Did you see him? He comes close O your description, stoop and all I potted him at five this evening; his mouth and eyes watering for a pipe Sobody knows him. He's got steam hip ticket to Liverpool"
 Good. I'll try him. He looks the art. Do you think we could get him ut of here?"
 " Not till he sails. Says he hasn't ad pipe for a week-usually smokes n Boston. Seems suspicious. Hasn't cen here in a year" You stay here" directed Poe. draw 1g in his cheeks as though pufing eeply. Simmy having looked toward le pair sharply. When he got an ther chance to whisper. Poe finished. If you hear two knocks on my pipe tart for the door. get your gun ready, nd block the passage if necessary" With that he rose, stretched. and 'afed into one of the smaller com artments. From that he soon merged and drifted into the one here the suspect lay alone Such was le fnformality of the place, that when 3 dropped on the lounge opposite the nk. white-faced man the latter hardly oked at him, and Poe soon pre- nded to doZe off. Shortly afterward 3 awakened slowly. and began toying mlessly with long cord which had rn loose from the mating cover to s couch. His companion watched m with heavy. idly-moving eyes. Poe ayed with the string absently and ed 1t into several clever knots with deftness which soon aroused the hers interest Suddenly the pale man reached out a \ Ofqt frauhlv hand op1 toolr hold oS N