Evening star., 1924-12-21

thin line of smoke vaguely blending
into the distant skyline
Two men sat against a drum on the
rear of the ship. If one had been
searching the world for types of the
worst human derelicts, the search
would have ended at the drum on the
rear of this tramp. The types were
villainous, but they were distinct
in marked contrast. The little man
was speaking.
Cut along with it. colonel" he
said. How much did the Chink give
you?"
He was a thin, nervous creature,
with habit of lingering his face. 1t
was impossible to place the man,
either in nationality or environment
He might have been a Cockney, born
under the Bow Bells, but it was more
probable that he was a New York
gunman. He had picked up habits Of
speech in every degraded port of the
East. as travelling rat picks up a
ScurVy.
The man he addressed was big. with
putty-colored face, dead black hair
plastered down over an immense head
beginning to grow bald. He was
dressed in a worn frock coat-the
clothes of a lergyman-shiny and
threadbare, but clean. His shoes, even,
showed evidence of an attempted poll
ish. He wore a clean, white, stiff
bosomed shirt and a low collar with
black string tie. A half-smoke ed,
black stosy hung in the corner of his
mouth; and. as he sat slackly in a
heap against the drum, he had placed
white cotton handkerchief over his
shirt front, and tucked it into his
collar, in order to protect his linen
from the ash. Nevertheless. while his
body remained immobile his hands
moved; he whitfield a piece of pine
board, the long sharp blade of his
knife, polished to the edge of a razor,
hovered about the piece Of wood as
In some grotesque manner of caress
He gave the appearance of one unut-
terably weary. An immence sagging
body in which all the fibers were re-
laxed.
He was deyitalized with opium.
His voice, when he spoke, presented
the same evidence of utter languor.
His lips scarcely moved. and the
sound seemed to creep out in a slow
drawl
The Chink gave me two yellow
boys. He had six in his hand You
bring Mai billiard of the American
Division here tonight he said, and
you get the other four OF course, he
didn't speak English. He spoke the
Manchu dialect. I know the Manchu
dialect. That's where I had a flock;
but L came in when the Boxers start
ed. That's how 1 came TO be on hand
when the allied armies began their
march under old Won Waldersee.
You understand, 1 had left the
mission"
He spoke with a nice discriminat-
ing care In the selection of his words,
he had particular and consuming
pride. The gunman laughed
You mean you had been kicked out
OF 1t, and were livin' on the country"
There was faint protest in the
coloners drawl.
It's true L was not sent out by any
OF the great sectarian missions.
adopted the work, and I was not in
favor with the regular organizations
In China. They resisted my endeav-
ors."
I'd say they did" his companion
interrupted. You're the worst crook
in the world barrin' one, not SO far
away" He laughed. There's a cir
cular posted up in every mission in
ASIA g1Vin' your mug, and tellin' what
a devil of an impostor you are. Some
vltriol In the descriptions Of you,
colonel. I've seen en-"
The man was not disturbed. The
drawl continued: Yes, Mr.. Bow Bell"
he said; quite true, quite true was
not in favor with the regular or
ganizations."
THE names which the two dereiicts
applied to one another they had
themselves selected, inspired by the
impression produced upon each other
at the time of their meeting on the
ship. The big man had called the
gunman Mr.. Bow Bell, and the gun
man had named his companion Col.
Swank. They had made no further
inquiry. Men of this character are
not concerned about names.
so you crawled out of your rat
hole. when the column started, to see
what you could pinch. Good pickin',
eh what?"
Col. Swank made low, murmured
exclamation. History tells u.s." he
said, how the rich cities of antiquity
were looted by the soldiery of invad-
ing armies; but there can hardly
have been parallel to this in any
known case. The whole country for
a considerable distance on either side
of the line of march was denuded of
every article of value, even the ven
Grated images Of Buddha in the holy
Temple of Ten Thousand Ages were
broken to pieces with dynamite, un-
der the impression that they con-
cealed articles of value. OF course
the Chinese population concealed
everything they could; but they could
not conceal the women, and they
were not always able to conceal their
articles of value, such as carved
ivory, cloisonne, vases, silks, furs and
the like"
THE lid was off," said Bow Bells.
about as it would be in India if the
English went out. Cut along with
your story. The Chink gave you two
gold twenties to bring in Maj billiard,
with four more in his hand IL you
put it over. You brought him in,
didn't you? Is there anything you
wouldn't do for a hundred dollars!
Name 1t, colonel, let me hear what
1t sounds like"
Swank, was unresponsive to the
taunt Yes" he said, 'I was so for
tunate as to induce Maj. billiard to
visit the monastery under my guild
ance, though it required some diplo-
matte effort, and some insistence; but
the major had confidence in my cloth.
and he was making every effort to
prevent looting of the country
along the line of march,"
Bow Bells laughed in a high STAG
cato.
Confidence in your cloth, It
was just piece of your cursed luck
that the American officer never heard
of you. He thought you were real
missionary. Well, go on and tell me
about 1T. You say the old viceroy,
with the Boxers on one side and the
foreign devils on the other, was
cooped up in monastery along the
line of march, with the women of all
the important families in the prov
ince, and everything of value that