Adventure Magazine Cover — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

22 Straightening himself abruptly, he held out a scroll to Hop-see-Long. “‘Sign!”’ he ordered. Hop-see-Long looked at him impas- sively and made a motion with his fan. The two attendants turned and started toward the door. The old man was turning once more to follow them when Murchison gripped him by the arm with a violence which tore the silk at its seam. ; I saw certain of the armed men around the walls drop instinctive hands to their weapons. I could well believe that Mur- chison had found it hard to handle the small percentage of the original Tong remaining, without authority from the leader they be- lieved divinely appointed. “Do you know that your daughter is a prisoner in my hands?” he snarled. Hop-see-Long bowed. “T had surmised it,” he replied, as if the affair were of the most casual interest. ‘“‘And do you refuse to sign?” asked the half-white, his hand slipping suddenly to his sleeve. It was my instinct to cry out to the old man in warning, but my throat seemed paralyzed. Hop-see-Long turned his face for the first time to the council. I guess by all the rules of writing I oughtn’t to put in here what he said, considering that I didn’t understand it then, and wasn’t given a translation of it until some months later; but it was obvious from the way he spoke, and from the effect of what he said on his hearers, just what was meant; and the words might as well go with it. ‘““Members of the Tae-ping clan,” he said, ‘and you also, cowardly followers of the half-foreign devil; -hear me. I am the son .of Hung-sew-Tseuen, the Prince of China appointed by the Christian God to over- throw the bad emperor of those days; who was murdered by treachery before he could accomplish his purpose—and murdered by just such a yellow whiteman as this dog before you. ‘“‘When I reached manhood I led your councils against the bad emperor of my time; and would have fought him to the end had not forces more powerful than any Tong overthrown him and placed a government of the people in his place. Now I am threatened that if I do not consent to help him back to the throne, my daughter shall die. “Brothers of the Tong, and dogs of the Adventure foreign devil, kill her if you will; but my consent. shall not be given. As long as [ live I am leader of the Tong, and on him who disobeys my order falls the curse of his ancestors!” The council shrank back on its pillows. There was a tinkle of steel as one of the guard dropped his sword against the stone wall. Murchison saw and heard; he took one step forward toward Hop-see-Long, as the old man stood there with his arm up- raised, .and played” his last card for supremacy. “Then die!’ he shouted. His arm flashed up from his sleeve; and, falling in a glittering semicircle, the knife he had snatched from his sleeve darted ints the old man’s side. A groan of horror went up from-the men around the walls. At the same instant, just as I saw to my amazement that the old man, though he had staggered under the force of the blow, had not fallen, and that the blade of the dagger had snapped off short in Murchison’s hands—there was a spatter of shots from somewhere outside the door; and suddenly the great gong boomed out like a tocsin of despair. It had been awe-inspiring enough before, when it rang what we had thought was our death-knell; now, beaten by some frantic guardian, it seemed to shake the fabric of the council-chamber. And over its mad- dened roll came nearer and nearer the sound of shots and shouting. “Chain mail!’ screamed Murchison. “Treachery! Kill the prisoners! Kill!’ Luckily for us, in his confusion he con- tinued to speak English. The guards had their sword-points at our throats, and. if he had given the order in Chinese we should have been dead men within the minute. But before he could repeat the order, the two attendants of Hop-see-Long had darted from behind their master and hurled them- selves upon Murchison, carrying him cursing and struggling to the floor. And as the officer of our escort drew his revolver and made a step toward us, there was a muffled Chinese scream from outside the door; and with a rending crash one of the carved panels splintered inward under the blade of a double-bitted ax. “Hold ’em, boys,” roared the voice of O’Day, “ We're with you!” just a minute longer! COMicasoo® S co