Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-03

few hours Not more than a few hours
for the alarm will be out. Yuan Kee will
have searched Hongkong with a fine
comb and will have drawn his own con-
illusions He will be after US. So we shall
prepare everything we can, and then dou-
BILE on our tracks for the mainland
l shook my head.
Not for the mainland. surely?"
Yes. The mainland is China herself.
l know l also know the grim danger
Of it: But right there is our chance.
He paused for a moment When words
came they seemed strained.
You remember Hussain Khan? Yes
He hesitated and paused. Then he con-
tinued, in steady voice:
For years I was his servant-his
slave. For years he worked on my
mind as a potter works on soft clay.
For years he spoke to me Of Asia. the
Great Mother. and of his plans to forge
united Asia into a great weapon of
worldwide conquest. And 80 he trav-
eled with me through the length and
breadth Of 1t. He showed me many
strange sights. And one was in China
not far from Macao, on the mainland.
There he showed me the great ruins
OF an ancient, forgotten civilization
underground caves and temples half
buried in the drifting sand. Look.
Mascasenhas,' he said to me, this is
Asia, the Great Mother-and this. all
thls-he pointed at the gigantic ruins
has been done by our forefathers in
the days when the whites, the Euro
peans, were still blue-painted savages
with penchant for human flesh We
studied the ruins carefully. / know
them as 1 know the lines of my own
hand. There we shall find refuge"
That evening we sighted the low.
green ridge of Macao. and beyond it
the distant rocks of the mainland of
China piled on top of each other like
titanic walls.
Our ship stopped within a few miles
of the port, softly rolling to both sea
anchors, while the captain argued and
Whined once more.
Gentlemen, gentlemen he pleaded,
Il shall be fined, heavily fined"
Mascasenhas cut him short.
BE quiet. ignoble son OF hog. What
will not goat eat or fool say? For
the love of the dear saints, if you're
so afraid of your precious rupees, give
US a lifeboat Well row her ashore
ourselves. and you can tell the COM
mandant of the port that the thing was
washed overheard in gale"
SO ii was done.
They put tho boat over the side and
we pulled out toward shore through a
CLASSY sea running amethyst and agate.
Late that night we landed on little
outlying promontory of limestone rock.
which seemed perfectly familiar to the
half-caste There were coast guards
and sentinels of the Portuguese garri-
son about. for the coast is a favorite
rendezvous for opium smugglers
But a thick. mother-of-pearl mist
came rolling down from the mainland
cloakins the hills and the shore and
blottinS out the jasper tints of the sea.
So we made way across the prom
ontory and down into the town of Ma
Gao without being challenged.
Half an hours steady walk and we
turned into the main street of the town.
l must have been little nervous.
For once | imagined that I could smell
the lascivious. incenselike odor which
my mind had associated with the blue
eyed Manchu.
1t seemed to float through the still
night air, which seemed to envelop me,
and then to drift gradually away. An
other time We were crossing a narrow
passa geway which led to gaudy
Chinese paEoda-I thought that
laugh was splitting the stiffness:
pointed, cackling. Earring laugh. which
came from nowhere. and snapped off
in midair, and which was followed i'm
mediately by soft rubbing and
humping of age-green temple-gongs.
/ turned to my companion with a
Whispered question. But he had heard
II subsided. But frequently I glanced
over nv shoulder. And suddenly I
Imagined that a blotched. gray shadow
was following US from house to house.
was glad when at last we reached
the house of Mascasenhas' cousin.