The Hayti herald. (Hayti, Mo.) 1908-1922, 1920-05-27
Would you, in such circumstances,
4rave kept fai&A and gone on with
Mareh's inatru<tions unread?
The FezThered Needle.
CHAPTER w


suC VSA"CNCu HGCuiS.
The EnsurtS Queen was neither the
largest nor the newest ship afloat.
The Pacific Was inclined to handle her
roughly. She WAS not long enough to
be comfortable tn a breeze, but she
was of a sturdy depth, profitable to
her owners The wind was sharper
than Lexington had anticipated.
Nothing was as he had planned. He
went shlvering TO his cabin.
The fire that lurfed la Cons veins
was not sanity. He never knew that
ilis mother had dwelt on the clear
heights of emotion, that John Leving-
ton had seen all things with the vision
of poet. Even In those shabby fra
grant days I'm Dary street, toward the
9ast, the father had mentioned the
beauty of Gods world not meant for
himself, and bad booked to his little
boy for answer
Often after that Lexington glanced
across Mt Chez Ming in the dining
salon or passed Efnn on deck. A per-
feet lack of relation was preserved
between them, as If they had never
met before.
The Ensurta Queen hesitated at
Nagasaki, let go a little of her burden,
nnd bounced onward into the Yellow
sea. The wind changed thrice, lifted,
then died. The ship was not queted,
but wallowed anyway. a thick
dim mist filled the air, cold, riven
only by the EnSurta's dlgniiied warn
ing, which was repeated every forty
seconds throughout the final night and
day.
Small, low craft scuttled out Of her
oath. The presence of the ancient
Yellow Mother pern,eated the fog. as
If creeping out from invisible shores
to sniff the straager-old Mother
China, whn started half the good
things of the world, but left them for
Others to finish, 60 abuse and forget.
Some OF her best have never been dis
covered. She is waiting. She did not
ask for the Torch of Light, and there
was no SORROW En her yielding when
they took 1T fruoa fer. Her timeless
eyes have never wept, and they will
never smile Dynastles empires, races
of men, emerge from her, cast their
tinseI upon the dust, and vanish, God
knows wherg, and Mother China waits,
and waits
In his cabin Con Lexington was
sleeping.
The harbar af TSoug.hu was crowd
ed. AIongreI craft OF the world were
.cIu.tered here-Saiting- ships that had
left Liverpool Tn the gtrlhoed OF
Queen Victoria, aud never returned /;
gray Japanese COASTERS; netting tugs
from the south; a low neglected
revenue chaser. built for the king Of
Portugal, at present carrying arti-
.chokes and saIf and sisal, a tramp
like the rest Threading these were
the native river boats-three-decked
and fat, their rails mere perforated
,steam-p pipes arranged against the day
of pirates, when i've steam would
flash from dIena broadside and scald
the robbers az onay cStne aboard-with
ever @ shining background of junks.
alike vermin sWaruaing an old coat.
crooked. disanEsned floating shapes
that would have slIAk in water thinner
than this PeLtI0 mud. Short cries
sounded. and n dim rattle of gongs.
A so0ty tux sarrted at the hawser
OF the bulky QaeeA- There followed
the creakinx az strained timbers as
SHE leaned a&adnS6 the dock. female
-GulIiver amid the little dirty ships OF
Tong-hu. 1he tag saorted at her, then
ran up the hnggx river.
GoOlies ran ap tAe wet Gangways-