Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

THE THRALDOM OF SINGAN “Fortunately I spotted him and caught him: before he could split to Scala. I wasn’t going to trust my life and Valérie’s tothat man. He thought he had got me— and he had’ always hated the sight of me —but, by God, I bluffed him good and proper! I told him what I knew about the game he was playing with Quental, and exactly. where he had hidden his stolen goods; and what’s more, John, I said that I hadalready told Seala,and he’d better clear out while the going was good. “You should have seen his face! He went pale green, for he knew that Scala would kill him. I hadn’t any qualms of conscience about telling a lie to that man. I got rid of him all right; and that was all I wanted. He got a proa that very night and cleared out. And I never saw him again, until I turned up here, where I found that he was at his old game, cheating Tamils. = HAT piece of bluff gave Valérie and me a_ breathing space,” Charles went on. “It gave us time to formulate some sort of a plan; for Scala was in no particular hurry to close the deal, if the sultan was. And before we knew where we were, Eugene got his own back. He had seen Quental in Singapore and told him I was a dangerous man. Afterward I got the whole truth out of the Portuguese. When next he came to Singan, he warned Scala that Valérie and I knew all about his proposed dealings with the sultan. My life wasn’t worth a copper-cash. “From that moment Scala meant to do me in, and would have done it, too, if Valérie hadn’t warned me in time. Liu Tang was going to do the job; and the very fact that Seala had struck his wife, warned her that he knew. He had always treated her badly enough; for months she had watched him slowly poisoning her father with opium; he was going to sell her into the harem of a fat, native prince; but he had never hit her before. What’s: more; he locked her up. But her Malay servant let her out, and she: came straight to me: ; 171 “We got a canoe and rowed out to the Chauve-Souris, which was anchored ‘in the channel. It was pitch dark when. we got on board. We found -Quental half drugged with opium, but Valérie kriew how to knock some sense into his head. He was under steam already, and we told that if he didn’t weigh anchor then and there, we would give him away to Scala. Whether he liked it or not, he was in the same boat as ourselves; and’ as I had to get out of the island without loss of time, he would have to do the same or else share my fate. That settled him all right. He knew that, if he gave me up, I'd split on him. He saw the game was ended., “Then, there was a scene with Valerie. I begged and implored her to come with me. But she just set her teeth and wouldn’t. Her father was dying, she said, and she couldn’t desert him. Naturally I wanted to stay too. I swore I couldn’t leave her. But she told me it wasn’t any good my staying—they would only kill me.” “There was sense enough in that,” said Eade. “What happened after you had left? And how is it that they have all come here?” “She has told me that,” said Cart- wright. “I had a few minutes’ talk with her in Headley’s bungalow. Scala never knew why Pai had disappeared; and Quental suddenly cutting off in the mid- dle of the night made him suspicious. It took him weeks to find out the truth. When he learned it he was like a wild beast. He swore that he would be re- venged not only on me, but on Quental and Pai. When he found out where I was, he at once sent Liu Tang across to Surabaya in the motor launch, with orders to catch the first steamer to Singapore and not to come back to Singan until I was a dead man. “He taunted Valérie with this, played with her like a cat with a mouse and told her that when he had finished with me, . he would hand her over to the sultan. He had actually: gone: up' to the palace: to close: the deal, when: she escaped,, She: comicloooks.com