Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 104: what you’re looking at

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

ite CHAPTER XI (continued ). “pep” AND ‘“* WHITE’? TREASURE. COULD hear shouting from the junks | and sampans as we sped with the current, well out in mid-streaam. A Jow craft shot out across our course and hovered, cutting us off. En Sue was less than two yards from me, the nearest pur- suer a dozen yards behind. I trod water, hoping to pot one of them before they got us, but En Sue’s voice, low-pitched but distinct on the surface, reached me. “Our boat, Ned. Come on.” Some one thrust out a sweep toward me and another at En Sue. Arms dragged us aboard, the sampan swirled around and went swiftly down the current. The man at the steering-oar called, and En Sue jumped to the stern, firing an effective shot at Shang Wa’s follower who had caught at the blade. The bobbing heads were soon left hope- lessly behind. I turned from watching them to greet Meng Fu, his face no longer green, his verdant attire covered up or replaced by more sober garments, and smiling. Half a mile, and we landed at the Bund within a hundred yards of where Li Yuen’s Part Ii by, Allan Dunn Author of “Salt of the Sea,” “The War Cloth,” ete. motor-car was parked. Meng Fu mounted beside the chauffeur, En Sue took seat be- side me in the tonneau, and we started out along the Bubbling Well Road, both soaked, but unscratched. It was getting on toward morning, and we went fast, the air drying us. En Sue had a faculty for silence that I respected and, to some extent, tried to imitate. I was anxious to find out what he had learned aboard the junk, yet, somehow, the face of the slave girl occupied my mind for most of the ride. Hot tea and food, a change of clothes, and a plunge left us fresh. En Sue con- tinued to audit his mind and I to ponder over the unhappy fate of a white woman, with any sense of decency left unsubmerged by opium, who was forced to cater to the desires of the habitués of such dives as that of Wuk Cha. I knew En Sue’s contempt for the mind that would bother with minor incidents un- til. they became part of a worth-while fact, and I waited for him to speak. There was a private balcony to our joint suite that looked toward the east. Here we reclined on low bamboo lounges and presently I lapsed into that delicious state that lies between sleeping and wakefulness. This story began in the Argosy-Allistory Weekly for January 21. 4lg COMmMICLMoolkS.Gom