The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-09-29
Typhoon
A Story of Japan
By CLARISSA MACKIE
By CLARISSA MACKIE

make his headquarters in a tiny fish
ing village.
Inc motive came upon Ray Wendell
the very day he decided to leave Maya.
/ saki.
1t came In the shape of typhoon.
Toward noon there was cloud before
| the sun.
everything portable was fastened AS
tlghtly as possible, and then all one
could do was to pray for deliverance
from the whirlwind.
Even the foreign population living In
the substantially built hotels and large
private residences recognized the signs
of approaching storm.
A yellow light seemed to brood over
the city. Birds flew restlessly among
the trees and shrubs in the gardens,
and mothers gathered their little ones
into the house
| In the bazaars the boxlike counters
We're quickly telescoped, the stock in
trade vanished as magically and only
the swaying signboards and paper Ian
terms were left to rustic warning.
Wendell, walking toward the ticket
Office to see about reservations for his
/ journey to the fishing village Of his
dreams. paused for moment and
looked down the street to the very end,
where the busy thoroughfare became a
Jutting wharf-a choppy yellow gray
sea, not sail in sight and the shipping
in the harbor rocking uneasily.
All at once the typhoon came scream
ing down the wind like thousand fu-
ries let loose.
Frail roofs were lifted like paper and
sailed through the air like huge kites.
Wendell gasped for breath and chung
to pole. His hat vanished and became
one of other myriad flying objects. Fur
niture, clothing, uprooted trees, sign
boards; few past at dizzying speed.
People struggling against the wind
turned and went with it, many to de-
struction.
Wendell, pausing at corner, turned
1t to get away from that dizzy glimpse
Of the sea. He lost all sense of lOca.
lions.
Dogs lodged under his feet. Paper
umbrellas, whose owners had neg
lected to furl them, were torn tC
shreds and went swirling through the
air like huge paper kites. SignbOards
danced and clattered overhead.
There were shrill screams as womer
fed toward their frail homes. Clogs
clattered on the pavements and there
were tinkling crashes of porcelain al
shop windows blew in and devastated
the stock of some luckless merchant.
Amid the eerie ringing Of temple
bells sounded the hoarse notes o.
warning whistles in the harbor. Thu
cries of flying jinrikisha runners wer,
lost in the pandemonium of sound.
II Wendell wondered what he should
! do. He could not find his way back t
; the hotel, yet he must find some place
Of refuge and find it very soon.
When the blighting wind had passe'
over the city there might follow it
aftermath-the tidal wave, Very like
| ly the shops in the harbor were pre-
pairing to meet the shoreward thrus
of the mighty waters.
Wendell tried to hail rikisha mar
He might get back to the hotel. Blu
every vehicle was filed and his ca
was unnoticed. He addressed one 0
two fleeing passersby He offere
money to be guided TO the hotel. Blu
his offers were ignored. The win
tore the words from his lips, and n
matter which way he turned he me
absorbed, fear set faces or fleeing blu
cotton backs.
81 will 90 with the wind, he mu
tered savagely, and with this resoly
in mind he swung around the next co
ner and with the wind at his back fe
himself impelled with great velocity.
The street he was now on was FIRE
from shops and he could see glimpse
of red tiled roofs among the crypt'
marias in the gardens. Here the win
was tearing tiles from the roofs an
Iashing the trees to destruction.
Wendell saw a group of Japanes
scudding down the street to some saf'
ty they had in mind. The stree
sloped sharply downward. Suddenl
something flashed past the youn
American and he heard girls frigh
ened cry.
1t was a iinrikisha, with no sign Q
attendants, rolling wildly down tn
street. In the slight two wheele
vehicle sat a girl, gowned in whit
with rudy brown hair blowing bac
. from her face-a white, staring fac
She thrust out appealing hands
Wendell. and then the jinrikisha ha
borne her down the steep incline.
In an instant Wendell was after |
the wind that propelled the flying V
hicle speeding his going. He had M
dreamed that he could speed so swift
! ly, his feet barely touching the groun
Strange things few past him-light'
obiects-and he feared for the girl
safety.
1t was growing darker now. and the
was an ominous hush.
The wind seemed to pause In ]
blowing as IL catching breath Z
greater effort.
In that momentary stiffness Wendt
reached the flying jinrikisha and. pas
ing it. caught up one Of the poles or ]