The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-14

under the bright golden characters it
sasA n fainter color invisible to the
carsiess passer-by. Branch of the
Green Forest for the special distribu-
ton OF the Golden Pills." that he had
entered the shop and departed with a
tiny packet Of pills in his sleeve
ana tnat on his return to his home that
evening he had carefully compared the
contents with that of his afternoon pur-
chase. and smiled a smile of intense
satisfaction at the result-aIl this was
most certainly truei And so. as he
took out Of his secret drawer the vel
low paper with its poetic message. he
SAID to himself: Il think I will lust
cnange this into prose-" And this is
now 1t read: Peoples bloom in the
open hsht' became. Opium is being
openly sold in the Colony" and Ivory
IN the Forest Green" became Rollins
q Co. are dealers in ivory" What pos
siDle connection could there be be-
tween these two articles? What had
the tusk OF the elephant to do with the
Juice OF the poppy? This. you see. was
Just the missing link that needed to be
FOUND, and the sound Of the mysterious
SYMBOLS OF the language supplied 1t, for
the words for elephant" and "tusk"
when pronounced with a slightly differ
ent accent became the words for fra
grant" and for opium and the chain
OF evidence was complete,
The good ship "MandaIay" of the
British India Steam Navigation Com
pany was blowing. her way patiently
nomeward against the northeast mon
soon and was due in Hong Kong very
early the following morning After the
captains dinner in the evening the
anti
/ In the saloon, gave their customary
| contribution to the Sailors Orphans
FUND. and then went below to their
CABINS to finish their. packing-all ex-
| cept the little group of genial SOULS
who &c. oC1ned to the smoking room for
a final rubber.
Chief Engineer Mcintosh and Mr..
| Alexander Hartwell. of Boston, took
I comfortable soats in the corner 10 en-
joy just one more game OF chess ana
the latter pressed the button and called
the boy: Please bring the chess
board" he said.
| "Velly solly." was the Celestiars an
swer. ship chess-board go makee
1 bleak. s'pose you wantchee, my can
L hollow Compladore. He gottee velly
nice piece. all ivoly.,"
| All right. bring it along"
| 1ne boy Iedppeared IN a lew mo-
ments with large and handsome board
OF inlaid ivory and box containing
an exquisitely carved set of chess men
Of the same material. The Chief and
the passenger played until eight bells
announced the midnight hour and then
rang for the boy to return the COM
pradore's board.
''Compladore go sleepee just now
was the announcement; "he talkee you
can puttee that board your tlunk side
| he boy come hotel catchee to-mo1low
can do"
Mr.. Hartwell was quite agreeable to
the suggestion. Packing the chess men
carefully away he took them to the
hotel in the morning and. sure enough
the smoking room boy called for them
at noon.
| Now all this would have been quite
natural and beyond a possibility of ul-
terror motive il the Chief. who was
! thinning with Mr.. Hartwell. hadn't hap
pened to remark: That's twenty trips
hive made with that boy and every
blessed time he lends that ivory board
to some passenger and comes to the
hotel to get it the next day. suppose
they give him a handsome sumshaw
Cor tip) for the use of it,
Nobody in particular noticed the
Chinese gentleman who had followed
the engineer ashore and who now sal
| at the next table to him and noted
everything he said-why should any
body? He was apparently Just an Or
binary visitor, and there didn't seem
to be anything out Of the way in his