San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-10-27
The Yellow Seven
THE HUT IN THE. CLEARING
Copyright 1928 NEA Serrice BY EDMUND SMELL
By EDMUND SMELL

her, clad in a gorgeous wide-sleeve1
| jacket of dark blue silk on whicl
was embroidered many-headed drag
on. sat an elderly Chinaman whose
enormous proportions could belong 20
no other man she had yet seen THAI
the Grch-eriminal whom Pennington
sought to secure red-handed.
On the stone slab, like so many
sponge-fingers. Chinese playing cards
were spread face-downward and, even
as the girl bent forward, yellow
hand began passing to and fro over
| the surface Of the improvised table
sweeping the cards into a shapeless
mass.
Each drew card except the man
whose back was toward her, who sat
motionless as carved figure, silent
and watchful as thessshynx. She saw
the cards turned 50 fhdt they formed
the nucleus of seven packs, their cor
verging circles Of blaeS and red show
ing clearly in the liskr of hurricane
lamp that hung, askeM. from beam.
The light flickered and an arm shot
up from the huddled 0OGp and raised
the wick. For n moment it flared to
the roof. Illuminating every corner OF
the building, and Monica gasped.
Dtllllu iOSs' hic
stretched out beyond his head, the
wrists secured by leathern thongs. his
knees drawn up almost to his chest
Law the commissioner of police. The
head came slowly round and the pros,
trate man gazed inquiringly toward
the squatting circle. As if realizing
that she had seen. Pennington's fin
gers closed on her arm and. at that
Instant, she realized the significance OF
those seven, ever-increasing piles or
greasy cards. They were drawing Tor
the Yellow Seven!
She closed her eyes to still the
throbbing of her fevered brain. She
onned them again, and, acting ON
sudden impulse, glanced up at Pen
nington. He was kneeling on the
soft earth, one eye to the narrower
portion of the chink that served as
syy-hole, while the barrel of his auto
matte was thrust partly through the
wider extremity of the aperture. She
caught something of the infection OF
the calm that sa,med to pervade his
being, and looked back into the hut
in time to see tall Chinaman in
black rise to his full length, a hide
Gus grin Illuminating his swarthy
features. the Yellow Seven held aloft.
The cultural chatt.ring began again,
the cards were swept into a neat
pack, disappearing into the capacious
sleeve of the man who had originally
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. embroidered with a many
headed dragon, remained in precisely
the same position as that in which
Monica had first sen him. &.
The tall Oriental in black drew
back his sleeve and tested the blade
with a grimy thumb. A sudden hush
fell upon the entire assembly. and
| the girl, cramped and trembling, BE-
came aware of the ticking of the
watch at her wrist. In all this ghast-
ly nightmare. these ceaseless. regular
pulsations rang out as the sole links
with the normal exist nee 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 wher the
coasting- lay at anchor: but
these phantom creatures refused TO
materialize and her eyes, sore and
tingling. gan,d straight before her,
| fixed because she was powerless to
withdraw them, upon whom the lot
had fallen to destroy her brother.
| Someone came forward and threw
aside hte log. and the hand that held
the knife swung suddenly aloft.
Pennington's pistol broke upon the
stiffness. The man with the dagger
spun round awkwardly collapsed
in heap. Cries of terror resounded
on every side. and a hand. reaching
upward, plunged the building in dark
ness.
Monica and Pennington rose 81
multaneously.
"Stop where you are" he called
back to here. "Lie close up to the
wall. They'll be too scared to loos
for you thore."
Re raced on toward the entrance
J, and Monica. too dazed to catch the