Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-06
The Web
of Destiny
BY J. Y. GlESY & J. 3. SMITH
Authors Of Semi-Dual Stories
+ Copyright.
The Frank A. Munsey Co.
The Frank A. Munsey Co.


Our guide turned at Stockton ana
Suffer and led us down to Grant
turned again and led us straight along
the latter up gradually rising course
toward our destination.
II was nearly ten, with SKY over
cast and hidden by the streamers OF
fog, through which the moon sought
TO shine and only succeeded in throw
ins a sort Of silver sheen.
The very air seemed damp. as
though full of an impalpable mist, so
that the sidewalks glistened with
faint moisture as we advanced up the
hill. After time we came 20 the top
and the edge of Chinatown itself.
II stretched before US with IFS
strange appeal of something hybrid
a strange blending Of East and West,
with a thousand foreign noises and
thousand unaccustomed smells
Electric ares and incandeseents
threw their light over its garish night
life. Painted lanterns bloomed IKE
dream. peoples before the doors OF
some of its shops and restaurants,
and the facades of josshouse SWING
Ing blobs OF color in the night breeze.
Painted ideographs Haunted on efllh'
son banners from balcony, halt
haSed by the stIeamers of fog.
stretches Of plate glass in some mo
dern b coda rooted and lowered bust
ness eilporiu n gave Rlimpsea dis
plays bea lty, things won drous
workmanship. toiled out with what
must have been indescrbable pa
thence BY fingers Of other lands.
Sandwiched beside them muiky
lights of swinging incandescents gave
views of dmly lighted squalor, and
round Oriental faces, stOlid. world
wearied, as it seemed.
It's pavemenls were full OF a varied
and polyglot life Slanteyed Orientals
in flowing blouse and trousers ana
wide white soed shoes, shuiiled past
with their more modern brothers in
Occidental sack coats and pantas
Now and then woman, stopped
slightly. her dark hair cotltd on her
head. thrust through with jeWeled
pins, her limbs clad in twin tubes OF
silk. teetered alone. turning her dark
eyes out of heavy lids like wax.
Here and there a child toddlet,
staring at YOU out of beady points OF
darkness sci in the midst Of round
faces, for all the world like dolls from
q toy store come to life and cinginP
To the skirts OF their mothers blouse
Groups of Eastern tourists in the tral
Of guide passed us now and then
treating the deniZens of the place
with open stares of curious interest.
Through and among it the night
owls fitted. creatures of the dark
men--and even women--with the thin
pallor OF slaves of the poppy, Sinking
out Of their lairs into the night life,
passing you with furtive glance and
twitching of pallid lips. bits of hui.
man flotsam cast into this backwater
Of worldold life.
And withal it was strangely without
sound. Unlike an American crowd, its
people moved with few words, little
outcry, spoke in Il low sin song, which
carried little beyond the speaker. The
squeak OF a fiddle as we passed a door
way was a noise in that place. And
do not remember that We spoke TO any
extent AS we moved
In fact, it all came to seem like the
strange phantasmagoria OF a dream 10
me az we followed McKabes shuttling
lead. The lights, the crowds, the
weird changing, shifting life, the
damp kiss of the fog, the odd pungent
odors the cool night wind tanning my
face took on the unreality of a sub.
conscious rather than of an objective
something, so that ! turned my head
and picked up Sheldon and Reich, Lu.
CHE Foote and Semi Dual, and lastly
MeKabe, In order to break from the
spell which had sripped me and fore.
ed me into waking dream
And SO | noticed Dual He was
walking straight forward in the wake
of our guide, and | saw that Lucille, at
his side, was gazing up at his face
with an almost puzzled expression on
her own. Semi was walking straight
onward with his face to the front
and on his features was the look OF a
dog when 1t dreams of the chase.
fdon't know how else to describe
the expression. His clean features
had grown tense, acquisitlve, with a
set as Of one seeking thing elusive
His nostrls swelled slightly, and
could i BE- said Of q man. I would