Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-04-10

"Aheel A most elegant dragon In
the matter OF guilei"
Then strident laughter; and many
tale about Ia Chen's keenness. his
bold daring, his way of causing the
foreigners TO lose face-by the Bud
dha's toe nails-much, much lace
The tale, for instance. Of a recent
deal that bid fair to double Ia Chens
fortune. A motley, fantastic tale the
mere enumerating of whose characters
would have read like an chronological
survey OF many Of the Far East's
gaudy picturesque roglleS.
To mention them all, to put their
deeds and misdeedS black on white,
would have given the police Of three
/ continents scavenger work for months
to came. So let US pick out few
and quit at random.
There had been, somewhere in Gen.
| trail Asia, gentleman of debatable
ancestry and homicidal tendencies,
with hooked nose, q neat beard dyed
! blue with indigo and a rakish fur bon
net on his bullet head. This man had
had whispered dealings with another
gentleman out Of foreign parts who,
in spite OF his berry-brown complex
Ion ana scarlet turban, answered 10
the name Of Angus Bruce M'Gregor-
the reason for this being a story yet
to be tOld-and who talked with
double barreled Dundee burr redolent
OF heather and haggis and pot-Stin
whisky.
There had been a Tartar baron whose
vocation consisted in levying tribute
from the caravans that crossed Chi
nese Turkestan; who had entered into
certain unSaVory arrangements with q
Welsh major Of gunnerS stationed in
Hongkong-a bag of taels divided
between Tartar and Welshman; the
OF his race, spending his share Of the |
Doodle in weeks crimson spree among |
the sing-song girls and the rice-wine |
of Marking; the latter, like a sober \
Briton. losing his half in one soul
satisfying bet on the Derby.
There had been a Jade-button man
DARN in Pekin who had split a gor-
geous fistful of plumber, politically
called commission, with a red-capped
Tibetan priest from Cheng-lo.
There had also been q rascally
Australian sailing out of Melbourne
with p crew of tatooed MarqueSans
who, after a big drink and mutiny,
had salted and peppered and stewed
him down in a big billy-pot-to fall
foul of a Yankee skipper eager for
salvage and negligent Of the sea laws.
Finally, there had come into the
picture, a San Francisco customs in
Spector whose mistress was the half
caste wife of an obese Cantonese curio
dealer on Market Street-While the
moved to Ho Tin, Ia Chen's trusted
servant {
And the answer to this world-nung
intrigue of graft and gold ?
Opium. ,
First-chop Number One chandoo. !
The brown. treacly,, aromatic pick Of
he crop. Cases and cases Of 1t; and ;
he profits running into the hundreds !
If thousands. Profits paying for Gwen
1olyn'S new limousine: for her chauf
eur's wages; for her bedroom set Of
genuine Louise Seize; for her frocks I
md hats and lingerie; for her diamond {
bracelet and ruby and-emerald lava :
iere I
Indeed Gwendolyn-no doubt of it a
vas right in what she had told Miss !,
2utter.
There was nothing Ia Chen would c
lot do for her. Y
Nothing he would not give her. y
He was so deeply in love with her, {
Though by this time he knew her Y
or what she was: steel-hard, avid, a
selfish. His love for her Il
ras. perhaps, a reaction from his for q
1er mode Of living. For heretofore
ttending strictly to the coming of !,
honey and the garnering of power, y
e had dieted his smouldering natural d
ASSIGNS into an artificial and thin y
Hooded puritanism; had always treated n
ne softer emotions with scornful dis y
sgard, as If they were vulgar con- 10
entionS submitted to by the masses Ie
inferior coolie mankind. Thus, now
lat love had come to him, suddenly, /,
Iolently, unreasonably, he suffered all 10
S extremes; was unable to bring his
lilly, mathematical common sense w
ito play.
Oh yes. there was nothing, nothing
2 would not do for her. st
Nothing, nothing he would not give ne
Pr. SO
Nothing-except one thing. WI
And, being what she was, seeing ne
lat he valued this one thing for a =.
.use which she did not know and cls
HIGH he had never mentioned, she pc
sired it-partly because Of her greed IN
Id partly because of her curiosity.
She spoke of il one evening as she re
aned back on her couch, busy with us
irror, rouge stick and powder puff. pig
usually she spoke of it: III
That's swell hunk Of jade ye're mi
sarin'." me
He inclined his head. He was pleased. me
u he had never approved of her
ste, which ran, so obviously, to =
arlS and diamonds, to pillows of =
child satin covered with rose-point
&c, to toilet articles of pink enamel
He was silent. He was sitting be-
20 q tabO17rot ~ okoy,wy avI ,5,sfI rod |