The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1913-07-11

Resulted In 4 Narrow i
It Escape i
+ By cLARIssA MAcKIE 7
s-i-is
The continuous thieving Of merchan-
disc from the Shanghai warenouse Of
Gordon 4 Co. had finally resulted In
IN active investigation Of the matter
by the emcient young manager, Philip
Newton.
Hs had worked on the matter for
several weeks before he decided that
Lennon. his foreman ON the wharf,
was in conspiracy with the captain OF
q handsome Chinese junk that had
lain 1t anchor near the wharf 4e1nter-
walls that corresponded with the date
Of the robberies.
So It was that one rainy night Philip
Newton made his way down to Pun
derson's jetty. where he found Peter
Cook, his trusted young assistant.
waiting for him in the trim little
launch which belonged to the com
pany.
Punderson's jetty overlooked Cor
don's wharf. and Philip had scarcely
seated himself in the launch when Pc
ter leaned cautiously toward him.
1.-The junk went up about a half hour
ago, SIR" he said.
"Good! Well go right along too"
The Meteor sputtered out into the
| river and pointed her nose up stream.
After her engine was fairly started
and the specially patented muf1er had
been applied the noise died down I'M
til at last she glided in utter silence
| through the water.
The drizzling rain had ceased. and
the harbor was jeweled with the radi-
ance Of hundreds Of lights from the
gathered shipping. Each tiny sampan
and fishing boat bore tn softly gleam-
ing paper lantern, and AZ the launch
threaded her way out Of the anchorage
she seemed to glide " waves Of
molten gold where the current broke
the reflection into a thousand SHIN
mering lights.
The boat wal going very slowly, feel
ing her way, now and then avoiding
q rapidly moving sampan, and but for
the occasional meeting Of one of these
small craft their journey was without
incident until suddenly, without warn
ing, Peter brought the launch to q
standstill and Philip realized that the
| fender chafed. the side Of some huge
craft which was moored in the middle
Of the river.
There wal a slight jar Of impact, an
almost impercept1ble listing of the lar
ger craft to starboard, and as she
| righted herself the launch was tossed
gently away and again brought up
with q slight rub against the black
bulk.
There was dead silence in the launch.
but all about them In the fog were the
staccato murmur Of Chinese voices
and the swish Of water as though
myriads Of tiny boats might be darling
between the junk and the shore, for
sometimes the sounds were near, as
If approaching them and then dimin-
ishing. ,
Occasionally there was a mufled
thud as though some heavy object had
been transferred from one vessel to
another, but the accomplishing fog con-
cealed the mysterious happenings from
the eyes Of the Americans in the
launch.
1T il the junk" said Philip in q
whisper.
II guess you're right. SIR"
"Put her under shore now, Peter.
There should be q landing and some
stone steps along here. Perhaps we
car nnd what they are taking ashore.
Gently noww
The swift dow Of the river drowned
the pant Of the. engine, and In a few
minutes they had drawn up under the
high, muddy bank. just beneath the
black wall Of masonry.
From his seat in the bow Philip
thrust one leg over the rail, groped
WIN AN0 AVVS 00O Ol0COvST0O W009 NC
was looking fora flight Of broken
Shiny stone steps leading from the riv-
er to the bank above.
Quite BY accident Peter had brought
the launch to Z standstill at the foot
Of this night Of steps.
Philip was undetermined a. to what
he would do next. His object had
been to gain the next landing beyond
them, where he suspected the cargo
hosts wers unloading the stolen mer-
chandiss from the Junk.
Although he did not doubt that the
mandarin, San Yuen. chief magistrate
Of the province Of Ssechuan, was the
instigator Of the plot and likewise the
chief benefactor In the returns, be
knew It would be q dihacult matter to
bring the man to Justice owing to the
corrupt practices In vogue 1t the
courts. especially where I high olncial
was concerned.
u