Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 4, 1922 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

FORTUNE UNAWARES, finding of the ruby had brought me into a big game played for international prestige. I was only a deuce in the deck, liable to discard as the game progressed, but I was a part of the game nevertheless. En Sue leaned forward earnestly. ‘Do not think, Ned,” he said, “‘ that we are in any sense making a cat’s-paw of you. We are more indebted to you than ever. The ruby opens up a road for us we have long sought, provides us with a weapon that we shall be prompt to sharpen. We should in any event have done all in our power to aid you in finding Dean or determining his fate. “It is fortunate for us that our plans run parallel. And I am proud, as my father is proud, to have for a friend a man whose sense of honor is so keen. There are few who, finding sudden wealth, would not have considered it theirs by right of discovery. Under the circumstances it might almost be classed as flotsam and jetsam,” he went on more lightly. ple would think your course quixotic, rather than highly scrupulous.” I had the grace to flush, remembering my vacillation, knowing that I had played up to Li Yuen’s and En Sue’s expectations of me rather than from any inherent exacti- tude in the matter, Li Yuen’s eyes were kindly as he noted the color rising on my face. ‘ Honor that is not tested, my son,” he said softly, “is like a sword that has not been tried in battle, It is only well- tempered metal that wins the victory.” CHAPTER XH. THE ZULEIKA. Y efforts that I later knew must have been prodigious, though I saw noth- ing of their working, we set to sea within thirty-six hours, The ship that Li Yuen provided was called the Little Dragon. Like the Zuleika, it had been designed for pleasure cruising. Its original owner, living more well than wisely, had been overhauled in Shanghai by an accu- mulation of widely scattered debts. Li ‘Yuen had acquired the bottomry bonds and “ Undoubtedly most peo- 419 taken the craft over to use as the flag- ship of his own coastwise trading-fleet. Meng Fu we left in stewardry of the villa on the Bubbling Well Road. Shang Wa we saw nothing of, heard nothing from. It seemed that, under the new government, he was skating on very thin ice, finding himself unable to find protectors who would. accept a bribe and promise him immunity, a situation that must have been new ane puzzling to the pirate. Li Yuen was very certain that he = oule not dare any attempt against the villa, even; if he thought the ruby was concealed on- the premises. To his mind it would be taken aboard the Little Dragon as the safest and most natural place. Not that. Shang Wa was ignored. He had caught sight of the ruby and knew that T’ang Seng wanted it badly. He would not be likely to stop short at killing the messengers from Macao, but for the present he seemed Baw- erless against us. | T’ang Seng’s receiving agent at Shanghai. now supposedly in possession of the white treasure, was in no enviable position, ac- cording to En Sue, T’ang Seng was not forgiving of failures. Sooner or later the agent would have to report, and it would be hard to placate T’ang Seng with any’ substitute for the talismahic Blood of Buddha. © These were not our troubles, however, . and we took them lightly. The. Little. Dragon slid out of Shanghai, and steamed at seventeen knots down the coast to Hong- kong, where some additional members of the crew were to come aboard. All our sailormen were a picked lot, culled from. various enterprises of Li Yuen’s at short - notice. J have never seen a more superb set of men, I imagine that many of them. were occupying positions inferior to their regular ones—certain it was that they were all interchangeable. Hardly a man but could take his trick at the wheel, tackle any deck duty, or nurse a hot bearing. They. were a quiet crowd, even in their own quar- ters. Sometimes they sang a Chinese chanty, but it was only because they could haul better to rhythm. The motto of the Little Dragon was effi- ciency, and Li Yuen was the ship’s auto- . COmiclboolks.Gom