Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-08-04
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On the stone slab, like so many
sponge-fingers, Chinese playing
cards were spread face-downward
and, even as the girl bent forward
a yellow hand began passing to and
fro over the surface of the inn
provised table, sweeping the cards
into a shapeless mass.
Each drew a card except the
man whose back was toward her,
who sat motionless as carved fig
ure, silent and watchful as the
sphynx. She saw the cards turned
so that they formed the nucleus of
seven packs, their converging cir
cles of black and reds showing
clearly in the light of hurricane
lamp that hung, askew from a
beam. The light flickered and an
arm shot up from the huddled
group and raised the wick. For a
moment it flared to the roof, il
Eliminating every corner Of the
building. and Monica gasped. half-
hidden behind a log, his arms
stretched out beyond his head, the
wrists secured by leather thongs,
his knees drawn up almost to his
chest, lay the Commissioner Of Po-
lice. The head came slowly round
and the PROSTATE man gazed
inquiringly toward the sduatting'
circle. AS if realizing that she
had seen, Pennington's fingers
closed on her arm and, at that in
slant, she realized the significance
of those seven, ever-increasing
piles of greasy cards. They were
drawing for the Yellow Seven.
She closed he's eyes to still the
throbbing of her fevered brain.
She opened them again, and acting
on a sudden impulse, glanced up at
Pennington. He was kneeling on
the soft earth. one eve to the mar
rover spy-hole, while the, barrel
of his automatic was thrust partly
! through the wider extremity of the
aperture. She caught something
of the infection of the calm that
seemed to pervade his being, and
looked back into the hut in time to
see a tall Chinaman in black rise
to his full length, a hideous grin
illuminating his swarthy features
the Yellow Seven held aloft. The
cultural chattering began again
the cards were swept into a neat
pack, disappearing into the capaci-
Gus sleeve of the man who had or
iginally spread them out, and the
hand of the Oriental who held the
Yellow Seven slipped to his waist.
Every head was turned toward
the Commissioner as a long blade
flashed in the lamp-light, and the
Cinnamon, still gesticulating, rose
one by one, spreading themselves
out along the walls; but the figure
| in the mandarin jacket, embroider-
eu with Il man -HeduGu vi aSOIl5 ~
manned in precisely the same posi-
ton as that in which Monica had
first seen him.
The tall Oriental in black drew
back his sleeve and tested the blade
with a grimy thumb. A sudden ush
fell upon the entire assembly and
the girl, cramped and trembling,
became aware of the ticking of
the watch at her wrist. In all this
CHASTITY pulsations rang out as the
sole links with the normal exis-
tence she had left behind her. She
tried to think of the bungalow on
the hill, the long cane chairs with
their many cushions, the winding
path that led ribbon-like to the
road, the wooden jetty where the
coasting-steamers lay at anchor;
but these phantom creatures re-
fused to materialize and her eyes,
sore and tingling, gazed straight