Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 187: what you’re looking at

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

THE THRALDOM OF SINGAN ‘feminine ornaments looked strange, in- deed, upon one who had the limbs of a Hercules. As Eade turned his attention to the old man, his companions entered the saloon. Though he still held the smoking revolver in his hand, Le Camus did not yet seem to realize what he had done. He stood motionless, astonished, as if unable to believe. He never looked away from Scala until his daughter flung her arms around his neck. And by then Headley had taken the matter in hand. “This can be hushed up,” said he. “T’ll wire for Richardson, the district officer, to come here at once. He'll not make a case of it. We've evidence enough that this scoundrel has met with no more than his deserts.” LD LE CAMUS, who had begun to tremble violently all over, was conveyed by Charles Cartwright and his daughter to one of the little cabins aft. Here madame remained with him, while her husband’s body was wrapped up in a blanket and laid out on the saloon settee. By then Cartwright had gone ashore with Eade and had brought on board Eugene Pai, still bound. . Headley decided to return to Nolak by way of the river instead of the jungle, as he considered neither Madame Scala nor her father in a fit condition to walk, and they could certainly not be left on board the launch. They had some difficulty in finding their way in the darkness out of the narrow backwater, but by the time they reached the main river the full moon was up, and a few minutes afterward they anchored off the Nolak jetties alongside the Chawve-Souris. Quental was hailed and told to take charge of the three Malays who were on the launch. But Headley was determined to find a safer asylum for Eugene Pai than the paddle-boat and a more trustworthy jailer than Ferfao Quental who was known to have been the prisoner’s con- federate in certain shady transactions. Two rickshaw coolies were routed out of 181 their hovels at the foot of the hill on which was the Tamil compound; and these were ordered to take Le Camus and his daughter straight back to Headley’s, with a note to Mrs. Headley, telling her that all was well. In the meantime the Telegu clerk was got out of bed, and Eugene Pai was locked up in one of the inner offices until such time as he could be questioned on the morrow. It was about two o’clock in the morning when Headley suggested that they should all turn in. There is nothing remarkable about the fact that all three should have entirely forgotten the very existence of Liu Tang. During the last hour or so they had had quite enough to occupy their minds; and besides, the after effect of acute tension is as often as not a kind of mental negli- gence. On the assumption that enough had happened that night, to last a life- time they were inclined to believe that the whole business was ended. But it so happened that Liu Tang, though long since incapable of wreaking Scala’s vengeance on his enemies, had prepared for them unconsciously some- thing in the nature of a sinister surprise— the kind of gruesome, practical joke that might have afforded the astute, cold blooded Chinese no little satisfaction. HE THREE MEN were walking abreast on the roadway and were discussing every aspect of the strange events of the night, when they came to Cartwright’s bungalow. They stopped at the foot of the veranda steps to say good night to Headley, and John Eade had actually climbed half way up the stairs, when he let out an oath and sprang down to the bottom. “My God!” he exclaimed, pointing up- ward to the right of the house. ‘Look there!” A half naked, rigid body was sus- pended between earth and sky, between heaven and hell—a yellow corpse that looked to be floating in the moonlight in mid-air. Like some great Oriental gargoyle, the comnicloooks.com