Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1919-10-31

what do you mean? Ting Wah, don't |
you hear me! What did you mean to
kill me for?''
There was no answer. The man
was-no, not yet! Ting Wah's lips
were moving Wallen bent his head
still closer to catch the words.
"Dlink-House Sam Singapore -
him know"
That was ALL 1t was over now.
Wallen Strengthened up unsteadfly,
and lurched to the rail where he could
cling on to something
Six Cinnamon had shipped as part
of the crew so that they could kill him.
Why? He laughed in a sick fashion.
What did it matter? They were all
dead, those six-and every one else
| and in a few hours he would be dead
too. He laughed again, a little hys-
terically. This Drink-House Sam of
be satisfied with that!
He clawed his way back to the aft
erdeck, and dropped into his chair
again. His brain seemed to go numb
for time, to be Indifferent to every
thing-and then suddenly to become
strangely active. Six Cinnamon had
shipped as members of the crew so
that they could kill him. 1t wasn't
pleasant thought, even if the WholS
six were dead now, and that he him
self would be dead, too, before long
Oh, yes, he believed it now, right
enOugh-why shouldn't he? What
about that murderous attack Won Su
had made upon him, and that he had
thought was deliriun! But that
wasn't all, he had reason beside that
to believe Ting Wah's story; reason
enough, God knew now that he came
to think of the things that were crowd
ing into his mind.
l Out Of the shimmering heat waves
that rose along the deck and seemed
to hover so weirdly over those COW
3 cred shapes that ought not to have
: been there, another scene gradually
took form, at first indistinctly, vague
/ ly. then in sharp outline, startling, dis
! tinct.
2 It was stone house, a gray stone
e house, all by itself, without neigh.
| bors, isolated, silent place. Yes, he
remembered it 1t seemed to bring q
e chill upon him now-the cold, dreary
lifeless house had done its best to
|. crush even a laugh out of his boyhood
q with it's eternal, silent brooding mys
d terry. That was why he had run away
ten years ago, when he was fourteen.
All his earlier recollectiOns were OF
that place.
His mother wasn't there, he hat
. never seen his mother. There were
just his father, and that tall, swarth!
Eastern servant, who frightened hi!
> boys heart-just those two and him
self. He never saw anyone else.
) No one ever came to the house. NJ
= one was ever admitted. Gunga, tn,
servant, fetched the supplies from tn
: nearby village. His own education wa
superintended by his father. But Their
had never been any intimacy between
! his father and himself
4 He had never questioned his fathe
! but once-after that he had neve
dared to do so. He remembered tn
:. deadly whiteness that had come owe
: the morose, taciturn face, the grip Q
iron upon his shoulder, the hoarse pas
sion in his fathers voice.
"Never speak to me again Of that,
his father had said "When you ar
older when the time comes, you sha
know"
Wallen rocked unsteadily in hi
chair. What frightful stencil th
ship possessed-or was it only hi
Imagination! What was it he ha
been thinking Of? Oh, yes, the 81
Cinnamon who had come to kill hin
- and the gray house where there we1
y SO many bars and locks, and wheE
VII every night his father and Gung
turned the keys and the chains ra
Gil tied on the doors as they fastene
them.
He raised his hand and passed
oo across his eyes in a startled way. HO
NC wildly it came back to him, that nigl
ns as though it were just happenir
ne now, as though he were in the vel
act Of living it again!
A crash in the dead of mig
= through that silent house, and he hi
sat up, trembling in bed. Then or
- the report Of a pistol shot, and tt
echoes of the shot rumbled and I
-, verberated through the house, strikil
81 terror into his young heart. And
~ was crawling out Of his bed, and @
into the hall and down the stairs
his nightShirt.
,,,+ And halfway down he stopped
g.. horror
Below, in the hallway, stood t
-: giant form of his father holding
candle, and on the floor lay stretch
huddled form, and Gunga, with
20 revolver, was bending over the Thi
'oA that did not move. Then came his
vas TIERS voice, in a strange, queer NJ
of tense eagerness