Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

FORTUNE UNAWARES, I opened my eyes to the creak of En Sue’s lounge as he rose to his feet to meet his father. Dawn was reddening the sky, streaking in through the bamboo tatties, flushing the face of Li Yuen. Father and son looked at each other with the quiet of perfect understanding, and as he turned to me I felt again the emanation of wisdom and benevolence that always inspired in me a certain reverence and affection toward him. I had yet to see the other side of him. “ Shall we go down?” he asked. As we descended to the walled-in garden I understood why En Sue had not yet talked of the events of the night. His filial respect had demanded that he reserve the story for his father. The three of us sat down on a deep- curving seat of carved stone that faced a sunken basin where goldfish, trailing fins and tails so voluminous they suggested silken robes, swam through grottoes under the flat lily pads. Over the seat arched a great willow, its branches trimmed to form a natural sun-shade. The air was delicious, charged with garden scents. ‘“‘- You have not asked me where the ruby is,” said Li Yuen. I answered him truthfully that I had not thought of it. “Tt is within five feet of you,” he told me. ‘“ Not on my person.” I looked at the lily pond, but he shook his head. | “Too easy. I often play gardener here. I graft and prune and try to hybridize. This morning, before I came to you, I was grafting. Look.” I turned to where he touched the bark of the willow tree. It was slightly corru- gated, and here and there gnarled and twisted where the growth had been coaxed into characteristic Chinese oddities of form. This part of the garden was entirely privy, shut off from the rest by screens of stone ‘openwork, backed and fronted by close- clipped growths. And the great willow shut us off still more completely. But, at a look from his father, En Sue made a quiet, ef- fective scout. On his return Li Yuen produced an ivory-handled knife with a blade as flexible A415 as that of an artist’s palette-tool, and set to work to raise a portion of the stringy bark already incised and cemented in place with a brown clay or wax. It came away tos disclose apparently nothing but the in- ner bark of the tree. But behind this was a cavity, scooped out in the wood and filled with a plastic substance that made the re- cess hard to distinguish, so closely did its tint, and a texture imparted to the surface of the filling, match the surroundings. This stuff Li Yuen took away. from the cavity and handed to me. It felt surprisingly heavy. “ The ruby?” I asked. “Ts inside the wax. That is plastic and will keep so. It is easily soluble. The sealing clay that holds the outer bark will harden in a few hours.” He took back the gob of wax and opened it up with his knife, displaying a glint of crimson in its heart. Then he put back jewel and inner bark and then the outer strip. It was impossible to distinguish the slightest hint of a crevice. The Blood of Buddha was safely Shrined in a tree. “Now, my son,” said Li Yuen, “ what did you learn?” “Ned, here,” began En Sue, “ recog- nized Shang Wa as we went into Wuk Cha’s, where I had hoped at least to find trace of him. As it was, I missed him my- self and had to follow close and fast to the rendezvous to which I imagined he was bound. ‘““Ned went in to watch the fan-tan. Meng Fu and Fung were trailing us. They had the password.to enter Wuk Cha’s gate. They found some suspicion attached to Ned, some fault in my disguise, and were able to divert the crowd while Ned got away to the place where he was to wait for me until I came back after. establishing Shang Wa’s whereabouts.” ‘Just a moment,” I broke in. “ Did Meng Fu expect to play that juggler’s réle? I suppose he did, since he was dressed for the part.” ‘““ How dressed?”’ asked En Sue. “In vivid green. Clothes and face.” ‘* Meng Fu is a man of many parts,” said En Sue. ‘“ And he is quick-witted. The main thing was to-get the crowd’s attention COmiclbooks.Conmn