Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

836 seemed, toss a stone into the quiet waters a thousand feet below so abrupt was the land. Sing Yat’s eyes suddenly flashed and he clapped his hands. <A native girl stood trembling before him. Perhaps she had been beautiful in a native way at one time, but terror had long since wiped away any trace of beauty. The spell Yat exercised over her was almost hypnotic. ** The white girl?” he queried. “¢ She still has the knife and plans to kill herself if any one comes near her.” “Is she afraid?” “No. Her eyes flash fire.’ A sickly yellow smile passed over Sing Yat’s face. “What she is about to see will break her! Come here!” The girl shrank from him. ‘‘Come!” His eyes blazed and he grasped her wrists and quickly bound her. He paid no attention to her screams as he carried her over rock strewn ground straight to an ice cave. Here water gushed from the glacier and thirty feet above an arch of ice held the great mass of it clear of the stream. At times the arch would break and crash in, but pressure formed another even as it destroyed the first. Within was a temple of ice, the beauty of which no artist could hope to duplicate in its rare colorings of indigo and varying shades of blue. A steady leakage from the dome created the effect of rain and where a shaft of light shot into the depths, magic took a hand and transformed the drops to glittering diamonds. The native girl had fainted by the time Sing Yat had entered and placed the limp form on a block of ice. She did not hear his words: ‘‘ To-night my bride will sit op- posite me! To-night a new moon lingers over the peaks and falls.” He lashed her securely and the dripping water revived her. Sing Yat glanced at the barred window of the cave. Pressed against the bars was the pale face of a white girl. He entered. The room was walled off into compartments, but the compartment serving as a prison also had bars on the in- ward side. “You see,” he said coldly, “ that I am equal to carrying out my threat. And who will stop me? ‘These poor fools that serve ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. me? Certainly not. They know the legend and I am careful to follow it. At stated times a virgin was sacrificed in the ice temple. If she doesn’t freeze to death, die of terror or go mad, then the ice is sure to fall in sooner or later. I have, ah—changed the ritual at times to suit my purpose. The god has some little leeway and it offered him a means of obtaining a new favorite when he wished.” “What is the object of it all?” the girl queried. A barred door was between them and she still retained the knife. He knew better than to enter just yet. A yellow smile spread over his face. “I cooked on a fishing schooner, and Limpy Ford was a member of the crew. I found him superstitious and played on his mind for nearly a year. I found it necessary to destroy a friend of his, but it won me his undying allegiance because he now believes me a god. Several others have since been prevailed upon to believe, thanks to my peculiar methods. Moonshining has been profitable, and those who interfered were first warned with a dead robin. Failing to heed the warning, they were destroyed and the sign of the totem placed on the body or if the body was hidden, then in their place of abode. “You must have known of the legend, for you found a robin on the step of your father’s cabin. Limpy Ford left that, for your father interfered with his plans to kill MacGregor. Then you found it in the cabin down at the cove as you were about to sit down and eat. You must have known be- cause you fled in time to see them lowering Markey’s body into the bay. “Tam not a fool! I know that this can’t go on forever. Some one would be caught and forced to confess, or some officer would locate this place. I am ready to spend the remainder of my life in China. One may have many servants there for a few dollars a month. My father taught me the language and my Chinese blood runs strong within me. My fools have given me much money because they were afraid to do otherwise. Once a man rebelled. The others were kept here and listened to his screams for three days. Then he died. It had its effect. see?” COMIGD OO! (©