Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-17


tn me, I've no objection. Go into the
or and sleep there if you want to. I'll
Il no sleep, Mist Boss-1 wake up all
ble, all same watchee-watchee dog" Bung
Bured him.
The room allotted to him was sort of
nily catchall, piled with bedding and
[niture with the indefinite idea of some
v converting it into a spare bedroom.
ing sat on broken legged chair and folded
hands in his sleeves. On the wall oppo-
e hung large mahogany mirror which
ed his mind with disagreeable reminis-
nee, recalling the baneful entrance of the
u-k1cei into the world. Finally he could
md it no longer. Rising stealthily, he
blk the mirror from it's hook and banished
to the hall outside.
He sat nearly an hour N deep meditatlons,
old as the tombs of Ming. With nothing
|e to do, the obsessing question kept tum-
ing over and over in his mind Who was it
hit demons to his dreams demanding the
noval of his pigtail. Did his holy an
stors require it, or was it a voice from the
t. Maybe the Reformers of China, those
vii srnitten fools, had despatched the
NEE to plague his sleep. Maybe, on the
her hand, his good joss had seen fit to per-
It the vision perhaps queues had gone
t of fashion among the celestial gods, and
was written that he, All Lee Bung, must
low the style. He would go to San Jose
d consult Taoist priest; he would
Deprived of his early rustic sleep, Bung
wned. His solitary eye grew heavy. His
in dropped on his breast.
RASH! A sound of broken glass and an
awful smudge as though hell were burn
its joss-sticks right under Bung S nose!
here was a thud that seemed to shake the
use, and queer, strangled sort of cry.
"Bung"
"Yep, Judge Olivah!" The Chinaman
lrst open the door into the bedroom and
l forward against mass of black, oily
hoke.
1.-The broken lamp on the floor was vomit-
Z flame, crater of fire. Already the bed
rs blazing like funeral pyre. Out of the
|tfing, burning smudge Judge Oliver had
+iggled his tortured body halfway, and lay
th his head touching the floor and his legs
nioned in a tangle of bedclothes.
a catch um devil | catch um DEVIL
,wled Bung as he seized carpet rug and
hped like cat straight at the pillar of fire.
tier threshing out the tongue of flame that
hs menacing his master body, he wrestled
Re mad phenix with the seething bed,
ating, stamping, smothering, until the
st red serpent, attempting to escape by
mbing the wall paper, died, clouted to
ath. The fire extinguished, the room now
in midnight darkness, sickening with the
ench of scorched rags.
Bung crept to the patch of darkness
mere he could family discern the white
hd figure of the sick man.
Mist Boss-Judge Olivah-you hurt?"
"Don't know-guess not. Ouch! This
eumatism!'
"You get we'll pletty quick now-bunfire
lap good joss for leumatism," Bung reas-
red him.
Get me out of this, if you can. Can you
rry meo'
"Sho, Boss! l too strong tonight"
With arms made young by the call of the
oment, the old Chinaman lifted his master
d carried him to a couch downstairs
Daisy's familiar hoofbeats and the roll of
rriage wheels outside announced Mrs.
iver's return from the theater. She was
lrtled by the apparition of tattered,
ackened Chinaman rushing up to her in
road and greeting her in the following
ms:
~Housee fire! Housee fire! Judge Olivah
oke-bit!"
The good lady, rushing to the house and
cling the snudge, was weak enough to
mt, yet strong enough to recover in an
,,,1 70 1,a,- heel o,