Evening star., 1917-05-27

Copyright. 1917. by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)
ct was quite natural that my
nerves should be taut to the
breaking point. 1 tried every
< thing, from whisky to sheep
Jumping over stile." to coordinate
my twisting thoughts. to Danish "the
swinging, brooding fancies of night:
but failed signally. Somehow, drawn
as by a magnet, my eyes would rivet
themselves on the darkening, acrid
bIoteh which stained the grass mat in
the center Of the room.
That blotch was a live thing, reek-
ing Of threats. Three hours earlier
Krishna Gose, the rajput. had died on
that spot.
He had been a servant of the God of
the Invincibly Strong Arms. whose
master ministrant. Hussain Khan. 1
had killed in Paris a little over two
years before. He had also been an
emissary of that new, mysterious force
which was grasping the reins of gath
continent, to bring strife and desola-
ton and perhaps slavery to the lands
of. the west. the white lands. .
But he had been rajput; and so.
once had spared his life when it was
mine to take and crush, he had stood
between me and death. He had sacri-
feed himself SO that I might live He
had been faithful to the maxim of his
ancient race:
with blood you must wipe out the
debt of blood"
with his last words his mutilated
lips had warned me against the blue
SO I decided to leave Hongkong at
once-the very next day. For discre-
tion is the better. saner. safer part of
valor the world over: but chiefly in
China. where revenge is inclined to be
exquisitely humorous-from the other
fellows point of view.
SO. with the help of my half-caste
servant. Mascasenhas. I had prepared
everything for an early start the next
morning. I had sent him of to bed.
But could not sleep. was nervous.
For starkly cloggfng my brain was
the hard. dry realization that / was
playing lone hand for perhaps the
or course. my own. as well as the
British government, knew the aim OF
my mission. They had sent me on it, in
fact. on the strength of my former
record in dealing with the association
of oriental assaSsins who did worship
at the feet Of Doorgha. the goddess OF
destruction. But they could not help
me. though my task seemed amazingly
10 kill him.
But it so happened that this one man
was the most dangerous. the most elu-
siye man in Asia; that he was known ia
thousands of close-mouthed Cinnamon
and Japanese and Manchus and central
Asians. but that his very name and race
and faith had remained a profound
mystery TO the cleverest secret service
men of the west; that the peace of the
world and the destiny of the white man
depended and trembied on his will and
strength.
All knew was that he lived and
worked somewhere in outer Mongolia
and that he was thoroughly familiar
with everything the west had to teach
with everything the west. in its stupid
vanity, has taught the men of Asia since
Perry knocked at the feudal gates of
Satsuma.
! had an idea that the very audacity
of my plunging straight into the interior
might carry me safely across and over
the breakers. They would not be pre-
pared for it.
Once beyond the pale of civilization
might lose myself in the immensity OF
the hinterland; l might gain enough
ieeway to finland to kill. But IN
Hongkon. even in Peking or shang-
hal, ! would be IA marked man. with
every hand against me.
SO ] needed rest. needed a strong
refreshed body and a mind free of fog
needed long. dreamless sleep. But II
would not come to me. The shadows OF
night played about me like gossamer
spirits. wagging at me with mockine
fingers. If ] had been eat my hair
would have bristled. and | would have
spat at unseen. unseeable things. Blu,
being a mere human. I returned to my
routine of whisky, cigars and bromid
Of sodium.
And then, with a thump of utter sud
denness. a gust OF cutting. ice-coId al,
blew into my face.
II was not Imagination. It was not i
hallucinatfon due to the squirmy state
of my nerves. For il blew the ashes
from my cigar. and scattered them oveI
my trousers and over the rug al my
feet. II picked them UP again and
fgain and whirled them sportiveiy over
Fhe shiny surface of the furniture.
/ walked over to the window to close