The Ely miner., 1915-08-13
EIGHTEENTH EPISODE
THE VENGEANCE OF WI FANG

Elaine was still in the power Of WI
Fang. Kennedy had thwarted the
Chinese master criminal In his search
for the millions amassed by the
Clutching Hand. But any Joy that he
might have derived from this success
was com 2letely obscured by the fea1
that WI might wreak some diabolical
vengeance on Elaine.
Nor were Kennedy's fears unfounded
WI and Long Sin had scarcely reach
ed the secret apartment when the
subtle Chinaman began to contem
plate revenge
Long Sin was smoking a Chinese
pipe, resting after their hurried fight
while WI, the tireless, was seated al
a table al the other end Of the room
At last Wu Fang took up long Chi.
nese dirk from the table before him,
looked at it, turned it over, felt its
edge. He rose and deliberately walked
across to a door leading into back
room.
On a couch lay Elaine, and with her,
as a guardian, was Weepy Mary.
AS WI, the Serpent, entered and
advanced slowly toward Elaine, she
crouched back from him in deadly
fear.
Slowly he drew from under his robe
the Chinese dirk. He felt the edge of
it again and gazed significantly at
Elaine.
IL
Just then Long Sin entered. "One
OF the five millions waits outside" he
reported simply, with a bow.
Wu understood 1t had been a pleas
ant fiction of his that although he did
not, of course, absolutely control such
a stupendous organization, he could,
by his subtle power, force almost un-
limited allegiance from the simple
coolies in that district of China from
which he came.
Out in the front room, just a mo-
ment before, knock at the door had
disturbed Long Sin, and Chinese
servant had announced visitor Long
Sin had waved to the servant to usher
him in, and a poorly clad coolie had
entered
He bowed as Long Sin faced him.
Where is the master?" he had asked.
Long Sin had not deigned to speak.
With a mere wave of his hand he in
dicated that he would be the bearer
of the message, and had followed WI
through the door of the back room.
So. almost by chance, WI was inter
rupted in the brutal vengeance which
had first come to his mind. He
sheathed the knife and, still without
a word, went back into the main room,
giving nod to Weepy Mary to guard
Elaine closely.
WI eyed the coolie until the new
conner could almost feel the masters
penetrating gaze, although his head
was bowed in awe. Quickly the coolie
thrust his hand under his blouse and
drew forth a package. With another
how he advanced.
For your enemies, o master" he
said, handing the package over to
WI.
The coolie started to open the pack
age, removed the paper wrapper, and
then a silk wrapping inside. Finally
he came to box, from which he drew
a leather pouch, each operation con-
Quoted with greater care as it became
evident that the contents were espe-
cially precious in some way. Then he
took from the pouch small vial.
&c cd WY
as the coolie displayed it.
The coolie draw forth now magni-
flying glass and glass slide. Opening
the vial with great care he shook
something out on the slide, then
placed it under the lens.
Look" he said simply
WI bent over and looked Under
the lens what had formerly seemed to
be merely a black speck of dirt be-
came now one of the most weird and
uncanny little creatures to be found in
all the realm of nature. 1t seemed to
be all legs and feelers moving at once.
A normal person would have looked
at the creature only with the greatest
repugnance WI regarded 1t with a
sort of unholy fascination.
"And it is?' he queried.
s'What the white man calls the Afri-
can tick which carries the recurrent
fever" answered the ccolie deferen-
TALLY.
A flash of intense exultation seemed
to darken WI Fang's sinister face.
'Wait," he said to the coolie, as he