Adventure Magazine Cover — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

156. consignment from Sze-Chuan province had just arrived and was being unpacked and priced. Would I come and see them as they came out of the bale, and take my pick? “T went into a room at the back of the place. As I passed through the door some- thing was clapped to my face, a cloth saturated in some pungent drug, and that was all I knew until I found myself inside a stuffy palanquin on camel-back, crossing the desert. “The rest you may imagine. I was fairly well treated and I knew that Mr. Remsden would arrange for my release. I thought— I hoped,” she added, a little shyly, “‘that he would send you, Mr. McNeill.” McNeill, remembering how he _ had handled Remsden in the matter, smiled a bit grimly. oe defile that led down to the Chang Li stream when a horseman ap- proached them. The diminutive pony was being pushed to its top speed by a China- man who swayed in his saddle from weari- ness. When they came up to him, for he could not avoid them in the rocky pass, they saw he was an old man, far too ancient to be attempting such a ride without escort. He rode his pony to one side along the slant of the piled-up talus of the ravine, staring at the party half curiously, half furtively. The sight of the girl on the horse seemed to fascinate him. Then McNeill, who, with Wilson, had been playing rear-guard from a possible pursuit and surprize, came gal- loping up and the Chinaman shrank on his saddle to a mere bundle of clothes, hiding his mummy face by pulling down the folds of the turban-like head-gear he wore against the sun. But McNeill had recognized him, though he did not seek to detain him. It was Ling Yuan, the connoisseur, the master-crafts- man, the man he had seen in the corridor of the Imperial, to whom Remsden had so mysteriously entrusted the claw. In the Chisaman’s face was the same mixture of satisfied greed and furtive alarm. “He'll be a bit late with his news,” thought McNeill and dismissed him from his thoughts. Next nightfall they rode through the out- skirts of Peking, the cavalcade gradually Sreaking up as they reached the foreign THEY were traversing a little rocky - out with the news. Adventure quarter, only Wilson and Canfield riding with McNeill and the girl through the arch- way of the hotel courtyard. McNeill dismounted, went in and came Remsden had, doubt- less by cabled influence, obtained lodging at the legation. His daughter was to join him there and tomorrow they would start by rail for Shanghai. “That is bully,” said McNeill. “If I remember right, you'll just catch the Cathay. We'll see you to the legation.”’ “Aren’t you going to stay there?” asked the girl. “It’s just as dangerous for you.” “T haven’t got the drag of Mr. Rems- den,’’ smiled back McNeill. “T shall be safe enough. The bunch of us will celebrate our little expedition together. I shall see you on the train tomorrow.” ‘Then you are coming to Shanghai?”’ Wilson in his wisdom had drawn Can- field aside. “T am going across to the States,’ said McNeill, “af I can get a spare plank to bunk on. Bookings are heavy this time of year. You—you have no objection to my making the trip with you, Miss Helen?” ‘What have I to do with it?” she chal- lenged in sprightly fashion. Then her lashes fell before something in his gaze. “T owe everything to you, Mr. McNeill,” she went on seriously. ‘‘My life—more than that. I do not know how I can repay you.” “T do,” said McNeill. on the trip, perhaps.” : But the girl, however grateful, was not to have her maidenly defenses overrun in the first assault. “It will be nice to have some one to talk to,” she said. “But I thought that your profession kept you in China, though I can imagine that father’s folly may have jeop- ardized your usefulness.”’ “T am not a professional guide and in- terpreter, if that is what you mean,” said McNeill. “Only upon occasion. I have made certain discoveries. Iam going back to San Francisco to exploit them. Person- ally, I shall lie lowin their development, but I hold a main interest in several proj- ects that promise well.”’ “But you—Mr. Remsden thought that you—” She broke off in charming con- fusion as she sensed his reasons for acting as guide to her stepfather. “There were unusual reasons for my “Tl tell you how (E(@) Comicbooks