Evening star., 1937-07-04

Mrs. Bynne'S SmOlderlng eyes lelt
him cold. The first night he Summed
in nghastly loneliness, but on the second,
which happened to be New Years
Eve. he gravitated into the main
thoroughfare of the eGinza-that chasm
of light that splits the worlds third
greatest city in two.
But it was its sidewalk stalls, facing
inward, block after block of them, that
held and fascinated him. Never at any g.
county fair nor along the Champ de
Mars had he seen SO amazing an as
sortment. Socks with divided toe.
Chestnuts roasting in mass of black
pellets. Lilliputian laCquered turni-
ture. Ropes of rice straw together with
bamboo fronds, symbol of the new
year. Sweets Mechanical toys. Flying
tops. Tiny charms that gave strong
food for thought: anti-airCraft guns,
aerial bombs. tanks, parachutes - al!
small enough to wear on bangle.
Hundreds of canes. Thousands of rub
Der bands. Spices daintily slipped into
triple envelopes. A stall for name
tablets, painted while you watch and
wait.
Except for the tap-tap of the wooden
gel0s the flow of the crowd was COM
pletely silent - never cry of JOY or .
even a sigh, never a smile. II swirled
past and came toward him like phan-
tom sea. grotesquely spotted with the
startling nose masks, the latest touch
in Japanese hygiene.
Glancing ahead he caught sight of
Tracy Lloyd before one of the many
stalls Of dwarfed trees, one hand
thrown to her throat as if to suppress
an emotion. Dozens of potted pines,
only two feet high. though century
old, seemed to leave her cold. What
held her was stump of plum tree
trunk. apparently quite dead, from
whose rotted top sprang a single
branch in brilliant bloom.
His loneliness impaired such vio-
lent impulse to join her he would have
succumbed had ne not been arrested
by a sudden discovery: she already
had follower A Japanese lieutenant
with one of the ridiculous masks super
imposed on his jaunty uniform was
observing her every move. Uncon-
scious of being watched, she turned
reluctantly from the spray of flowers
and lodged along until she collided
with human barrier formed around
a brass ring faku. She pushed reso-
lutely into the front row, opening the
way for the Japanese officer and Red
to follow
He had seen palming before. but
never anything like this. He stood
behind Tracy and close to the fakir's
shoulder, striving in vain to catch the
man in a trick A customer would lay
ten sen piece, the equivalent of three
cents. on the table. The fakir would
surround it with an ordinary two-inch
brass ring. lay another ring on top
that. then a slip of cardboard, then
the third ring. The customer was in
vited to lift the cardboard; his coin
was gone. The customer replaced the
cardboard and on lifting it again the
coin had returned. Then he was in
vited to exchange the three cents for
the rings and the bit Of paper. Almost
invariably he did so. Tracy, wide
eyed, fingered in her purse and was
about to offer a coin when a precise
though muff1ed voice spoke in English
close at her shoulder:
do not buy"
She turned to glance at the speaker
and recoiled. All that was visible to
her were beady eyes in the narrow
space between the visor of fiat mill
tary cap and the black contraption of
the mask backed by its wad of gauze
The blood drained from her cheeks as
she drew away. Red was puzzled.
When he had first tagged her on a
murky, faraway morning, had she
turned hair? Then Why this sudden