Charlevoix county herald., 1915-01-30
THE BLUE BOMB
BY j. OIESY
Sc A Story of Humor Mystery Romance, and Adventure
C9vngmD Frank "A nGSycm

had seen against 1T the faint glow
of the lanterns, pencive, wrapt,
brooding-the face Of woman in the
concrete, with all the mystery which
life has woven about her, in that
she is the source of life itself.
In all the past five years that
evening spent with her stood out as
the one simply sweet page in a
record of sordid days and nights full
of fetid, seething passions and lack
of self-control.
1t seemed to Gafford that he hao
never known what self-control meant
until he had looked into the cool,
blue eyes of Shiela McRae that night
and sworn to her to be a man.
Something about her had stirred
him in unknown depths of his being,
and the thing she had walked refused
to die. Those first four days when
demon of habit had been onlS the
first step, as he had known it must.
Fortune had favored his endeavor
since then in that events had crowd
ed one another's heels. Save for the
voyage from Nagasaki to Kobe, he
had been constantly in motion, fag-
ging himself to a WEAKNESS which
compelled sleep. But the voyage had
shown him how weak he still re-
NAMED. His habit was merely a
scotched snake. 1t was not dead.
He had lain in his berth wide-eyed
and fought his battle, or paced the
floor of his room with clenched hands
and a sweat-soaked body which
trembled with desire and assaulted
the citadel of his will.
Insidiously it crept at times upon
him. Just when he felt the strong
est, and had for the time forgotten
the thing he com1ated, it would rear
its head and reduce him to a pitiful
thint which begged the surrender of
his mind. Today he knew, as he lay
and watched the house which held
her in bondage, that the face of
Shiela, which had never left him,
had been the strongest element in
helping him to deny the inner voices
of desire.
at is fate" whispered Gafford to
thing, and they lie. Fate sent me
ready to save not only my country
ripe fate sent you TO wake me p
and set me to work. I've an idea
way back in my head that fate will
bring us still closer together after
this is over, and I've find mind to
help fate all | can" He grinned
like a boy.
Suddenly his heart gripped. Down
in the space between the prison COM
pound and the plant, where the sun
through the smoke cast its red glare
even at noon, he saw two figures
moving. One in uniform and one in
brown khaki; one short and quick
of motion the other tall, massive,
moving with a long stride.
They came from the plant of the
bombs and approached the steps of
the building where hung the flag,
turned and mounted, and were lost
to view. Gafford knew them for
Oshitu and Karloff, and he knew
that now the drama of cross pur-
poses between them had begun. Kar-
loft would deliver his spurious mes
sage and seek to fathom the mean
ing of Oshitu's dark face.
What would he learn, or would
the impressive little engineer be able
to disguise his emotions? 1t came
over Gafford, as he lay, that even
now fate was deciding for him and
Shiela. He found himself trembling
as he held the glasses before his
eyes.
"What," he questioned, would
fate decide :? Would Karloff learn
and be convinced? He had said that
he believed in Gafford's integrity;
vet he had added that the supreme
test which was to determine his ac-
tions would be his learning that a
white woman was really detained in
Oshitu's house." That she was there
Gafford could not doubt. The mere
fact that Oshitu had brought back
a woman with him proved it. The
disguise of the geisha did not de-
ceive him for an instant. or even
raise a doubt. The engineer would
naturally adopt some such for TAX
ing her with him. What more nat
ural than that of one of the national
class of women whose life was that
of toys?
He gritted his teeth and shivered.
What had the girl endured during
those days now past? How far had
she withstood the purposes of
Oshitu? That the man was beast
he knew.
What had been the woman's fate :?
For days the thought had lurked in
the back of his brain, but today, for
the first time, he let it out. Was
she the same girl of the garden of
the Nippon, or had her fate been
cruel TO her? A flush of shame
warmed Gafford's cheeks because he
knew that, no matter what might
have happened, she was still the
same in her soul, and would always
be.
Presently Karlof came down the
steps of Oshitu's house and hurried
away toward the factory buildings.
Though he watched for an hour,
Gafford saw no sign of the japanese
engineer.
The sun sank slowly downward
toward the west. At an hour which
Gafford judged to be somewhere
around four the bugles blew once
more. Again the prison compound
opened its gate, spewed forth a
trudging line of men, and received
another into itself.