The Washington herald., 1920-01-27

unpainted 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 Swed-
Ssh 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 ana
bony. hauled at the sheets, fire.
Guently pauslng to weep at his own
ignorance On these latter occa-
sions. the silence OF the nate was
broken. Their cook. salty Irish
man, whose life was for some reason
forfeit in the gold districts above
the bay. cursed with a frantic might
his good will to the newcomer,
stephen March. when the boy con-
fessed In himself a line OF Celtic
blood. Stephen was happy. His
days were filled 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" fathomless treatise on THE
Art OF Toxins" and the Bhagavad- =
gita. The pages of these three
golden. fragrant. and terribIe-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 sometimes
laughed with them: but they watched
him with narrowed eyes and a
lowering of the chin. and even
Donegan at the stove nrartised
more careful 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 reach
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-ho 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 urgent. mysterious sum-
mons still haunting him, he was
forced to turn his back upon the
desert. and return to Peking for
money.
The English girl whom he mar
ried in the square city of Peking
found in him the quality of lord-
! ship. 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 provisions. and a radiant heart.
The unknown treasure beckoned.
4 aforementioned 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
I spring should come. Only one other
returned with Stephen March-his
Chiney boy. who had gone mad with
desert fears.
The English wife was in mourn
ing. and a small child was iearning q
TO walk in the garden court Of the
Peking house. Then the three of
them went TO America. where
stephen found much gold. and his
! Englishwoman had less difficulty in
teaching the mother-tongue to her
She longed for her lords and their
ways-many of them long since
turned to quiet dust in some abbey
and the spirit OF England must
have heard. for she was taken into
the bosom OF that assembly. Her
death sharpened the old desire in
stephen, and when Andrew was six
teen, father and son had journeyed
/ together TO the far city of PekinS,
and to the Great Wall and the
plains of Ho-tau.
. Andrew March had told Leving-
ton 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 sandcrusts and along the
rim of gray pits had been dotted
with fallen men and camels. The
traders had warned them. and ours
ed their purpose. but they had press
ed on. away from the trodden routes
to north and south. straight into
the west. always westward and TO
the north, until a party of dusty
horsemen had ridden them down.
robbed them. and turned them back.
Farley was useless. Andrews father
spoke a language they understood /;
yet they gave but one reply. Broken