The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-08-26
CHAPTER IiI-continued.

When repairs were finished, the I'M
painted sloOp nOsed out of the bay
and breasted the tameless blue. The
captain had whipped three Chineys
into the crew, and the lad loved them
The mate, also Swedish but inclined
to silence, had frightened two negroes
up from the back rooms of the city, to
add to the quota. A Hindu, wild-eyed
and, bOny, hauled at the sheets, fire.
quently pausing to weep at his own
ignorance. On these later occasions,
the silence Of the mate was broken.
Their cook, a salty IriShman, whose
life was for some reason forfeit in the
gold districts above the bay, cursed
with a frantic might his goodwill to
the newcomer, Stephen March, when
the boy confessed In himself q line of
Celtic blood. Stephen was happy.
His days were filed with strong drink,
labor, and dreams.
The captain had read three books in
English, and he now read them again,
aloud to his midshipman. They were
the Travels of Marco Polo" a fathom-
less treatise on 1.-THE Art of Toxins"
and the Bhagavadgita. The pages of
these three-golden. fragrant, and ter
rible-were written afresh IN the eager
listener. He strOve to conceal how
they bit his pride. He shaved at the
ropes with the yellow men. and some
times laughed with them; but they
watched him with narrowed eyes and
lowering of the chin, and even Done
gan at the stove practised more care
full ways in Stephens presence.
In the evenings there were tales of
China and her deep, mad deserts.
Vague yet irresistible, these yellow
strands were drawing him to Mid
Asia. Loneliness stirred In his breast
The voyage was an affair of months,
gale-cut. but Stephen March had made
his own inner arrival
But he was twenty when he reached
the In-Shan mountains beyond the
China wall. The caravan had left
him at the village khan, for they were
turning southwark to cross the Hwang-
no and proceed upon the Ho-tau
plains. over a trail that might once
have heard merchants whispering the
news of Jesus. Here March waited,
having no gold. Then, with the ur-
gent, mysterious summons still haunt
ing him, he was forced to turn his
back upon the desert, and return to
Picking for money.
The English girl whom he married
In the square city of Picking found in
him the quality of lordship. They
prospered together.
When he was twenty-seven, he went
again to the gap in the long Wall, in
the north. He had camels and pro-
visions, and a radiant heart. The un-
known treasure beckoned a dim
remembered throne seemed waiting
out there. But the sleeted storms of
winter came against him, and his
caravan diminished, until the robbers
fell upon them and left their bodies for
the wolves when spring should come.
Only one other returned with Stephen
March-his Chimney boy, who had gone
mad with desert fears.
The English wife was in mourning.
and a small child vas learning to
walk in the garden court of the Pc
king house. Then the three of them
went to America. where Stephen found
much gold, and his Engiishwoman had
less difficulty in teaching the mother
tongue to her son, Andrew.
She longed for her lords and their
ways-many of them long since turned
20 quiet dust in some abbey-and the
spirit of England must have heard.
for she was taken into the bosom of
tsat assembly. Her death sharpened
the old desire in Stephen, and when
Andrew was sixteen, father and son
had journeyed together to the far city
of Picking, and to the Great Wall and
the plains of HO-tau.
Andrew March had told Lexington
of that failure, so charged with beauty
and suffering-how the fierce heat OF
Summer had withered the beasts: how
their inspired trail across the sand.
crusts and along the rim of gray pits
had been dotted with fallen men and
camels. The traders had warned
them, and cursed their purpose, but
they had pressed on, away from the
trodden routes TO north and south
straight into the west, always west
ward and to the north, until a party
OF dusty horsemen had ridden then
down, robbed them. and turned then
back. Farley was useless. Andrew.
father spoke a language they under
stood; yet they gave but one reply