The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1920-02-03
CHAPTER TX
THE TORN PACKET

CHAPTER TX
THE TORN PACKET
Lexington spread his coat in the
muddy bottom. He marked the care
with which Norma adjusted her
skirt, and then tainted against him.
His head felt large and foreign. The
boatman, making a clacking noise
with his mouth. .splashed water
upon them. This angered Con, and
the nervous reaction. with the cold
Of the water. served to Keep him up.
He clutched the sides of the ferry,
and peered into the fog.
The boatman was in tatters, a
scarecrow polling at the lifted stern.
He did not comprehend much. Lew
ington attempted:
Fang khan. Ta-fang shin khan"
A dull silence followed this fail
ure. and Con added: "Ta-mei for
you, if you take us to the khan
But the gaunt boatman permitted
his craft to drift slowly. River
lights were few and dim and far,
Stiffness pressed down against the
unsteady surface of+fhe water. 1t
might have been the ocean. a lou,
freezing mist moved across the
night. The mud in the ferry-bot-
tom was thinning as the leakage
grew. Lexington cautiously raised
Morna's feet across his own, so that
her shoes would not be utterly
soaked. She revived to ask.
where to-"
Il don't know. Better go back to
sleep"
Did I faint"
Yes"
Did you?" His thinking appa-
ratus was hard TO control. tangled
in the fringe of mentatiOn. IF /
ever get back to Sperman's." said
Norma plaintively. "IlI stay there.
on the little old thirty a week"
Luck to you" he nuttered.
Don't say that again" she OBJ
jected.
| She sat UP and studied the singu-
lar personality of their ierryman.
then turned her head. to look out
across the river cNpanse. but came
back to Cons face. shudderinr.
Where's the town. anyway"
Il suppose it's off there beyond
that light"
They called that the Road Of the
WILLOWS she unused. Weeping
Willows. don't you 'magine%'
Nobody mourning for u.s." he
said.
They did not realize their need
for talk, but some deep. unthinking
sagacity of the human heart kept
them going. 1t sustained them dur
ing that most, tedious passage. The
uncertainty of direction was like
"a dream-curse.
Il was greedy" she confessed to
him, quietly. 81 have the trunks
ITien-tsin-a couple thousand in
clothes and trinkets in 'em. But I
had to have that wallet. Mind you,
I felt the weight OF Il, when I
probed in there to get the baggage
checks. l did faint for him. Old
stun. wasn't it?-but he came out
strong-ice-water on my brow-all
that-and helped myself. I
couldn't give up. Damn such an
ambition! Don't you say so? Well.
that wasn't your first scrap. You
went into those butchers like q
hound. They must have dressed in
black. At first l thought we had
EN-. But there was that ak and
the light went out. and my two boys
faded away. I paid EN- well, too.
and they looked husky enough"
She sighed in little cadences of
fatigue. Con cleared his throat to
say. That's a mean bit of damage
across your shoulder"
TT hurts" she said.
Presently she asked, Fwhat hit
your"
"a touch in the ribs. 1t can't be
much"
Where do you suppose we arc"
she asked. anxiously, peering out
into the fog. do you think we are
going toward the Tourist House,"
Her last words were a tombstone
for the impossible ferryman. In
stantly he began to chortle words
from lipless mouth, and Lexington
noted for the first time that he was
a leper. He was repeating Tour
list House" after his own manner.
yet it was unmistakable. That one
phrase he had in English. Con
made frantic signals of assent and
confirmation. Whereupon the boat
man did things with the black pole.
brought his craft around, and be-
gan wriggling back the way they
had come. The Tourist House lay
III lhiS oppOsllt OlfeCliOH.
1t was two in the morning when
the night clerk at the hotel let fall
his feet from the desk and hid away
his beer, at the arrival of two per-
sons. a tall young man whose body
stopped heavily as he walked, with
a disheveled girl on his arm. Mr..
and Mrs. Lexington were hatless.
Con had no coat. His shirt was hor-
rible with blood. his face smeared
with clay. Norma seemed very i'll.
The clerk came out from behind the
counter. and supported her.
We have been robbed" she told
him. with natural presence of mind.
call a doctor"
The clerk swore amazedly to him
self. At the door of Room Z he
left them and ran for a physician.
Con gave Norma a glass of water.
I'm all right" she said. ITS
you"
Never mind me-" he said.