Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 85: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HE SWALLOWS GOLD. again. He did not display any resentment, however. He was a little afraid of Huber Davis. | “You're away off color,” he said care- lessly. ‘‘ Think I’m going to be a pris- oner here? No. Besides, I honestly think there’s no danger, in spite of your appre- hension. The yellow boys have nothing to be revengeful over, you see.”’ “Oh,” said Huber Davis mildly. ‘ I.un- derstood that several had committed suicide back in Batavia. That makes you their _ murderer, according to the old beliefs.” Carefrew laughed; his laugh was not very good to hear, either. “ Bosh!” he exclaimed. ‘‘ Those old superstitions are discarded in these days of New China. You'll be Saying next that the ghosts of the dead will haunt me!” “‘ They ought to,” retorted Huber Davis. “So you think the old beliefs are gone, do you? Well, we’re not in China, my excel- lent Reggy. We're in Sabang, and the Straits Chinese have a way of clinging to the beliefs of their ancestors. You stick close to the house.” “You go to the devil!” snapped Care- frew. o Huber Davis merely shrugged his shoul- ders, as though he had received all the con- sideration which he had expected. “Li Mow Gee,” he observed, “is the biggest trader in these parts, and I know he has a raft of relatives back your way. I'd avoid his store.” Carefrew, uttering an impatient oath, got up and left the veranda. Huber Davis glanced after his brother- in-law, a sleepy, cynical laziness in his gaze. ‘One gathered that he would not care a whit how soon Carefrew died, except possibly that his sister Ruth still loved Carefrew— a little. And except, of course, that the man was his own brother-in-law, and at the ends of the earth a white man upholds cer- tain ideas about caste and the duty of white to white, and so forth. “II SINGAPORE is called the gateway of the Far East, but the real portal is the free- trade island harbor of Sabang, at the north- ern end of Sumatra. 427 At Sabang even the mail-steamers stop, coming and going. From England and In- _ dia, coal is dumped at Sabang; the wharves and floating docks are many and busy; the cables extend from Sabang to all parts of the globe. From the harbor heads runs brilliant blue ‘water up to the brilliant green shores, and under the hill is snugly nestled a city whose Chinese streets convey a dull-red impres- . sion. Here, as elsewhere, the Chinese are the ganglia of trade and activity. The Dutch government likes them and profits by them, and they profit likewise. One of the narrow Chinese streets turns sharply, almost at right angles, and is called the Street of the Heavenly Elbow for this reason. At the outside corner of the elbow is a door and shop sign, opening upon a narrow room little wider than the door; but behind this is another room, widening as one goes farther from the elbow, and behind this yet another room which broad- ens into a suite of apartments. Such was the shop of Li Mow Gee. As is well known, Li is one of the Four Hun- dred surnames, and betokens that its owner is at least of good family, also widely connected. Li Mow Gee was both; to boot, he was very rich, considerably dissipated, and his private affairs were exactly like his shop—they began at a small and obscure point, which was himself, and they widened and widened beyond the ken of passers- by until they comprised an extent which would have been incredible to any chance beholder. But Li Mow Gee saw to it that there were no chance beholders of his pri- vate affairs or shop either. Li Mow Gee was not the type of inscru- table, omnipotent gambler who somehow . manages to control fate and carry out the purposes of destiny, such as appear to be many of his race. He prided himself upon being a “‘ son of T’ang ”—that is, a man of the old southern empire whose ancestry was quite clear and unblemished through about nine centuries. He was a slant-eyed, yellow-skinned, wrinkled little man of fifty. He had a bad digestion and an irritable temper, he was much given to rice-wine and wives, and he possessed an uncanny knowledge of the COMICEDOO S (C(O) inn