Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 7, 1922 — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

304 a temporary trip to Paradise. There is no special reason for this—it is just the cus- tom. Opium) smokers have always de- manded their pills round and they would no more think of smoking a square opium pill than golfers would put up with a Square golf ball. And so now, after Won Lung had crudely worked each precious pill inte something resembling a sphere, he would invert his fore finger and the poppy pellet, rolling down the trough-like nail, would, kke a shot dropped from a tower, come to perfect roundness at the bottom. At length, the supply of passes te Para- dise having reached sufficiency, Won Lung ceased their manufacture and stood up. He began to walk the floor, thus disclosing his habiliments which heretofore had been largely hidden by the table. It was apparent that he was garbed for bed. His feet were encased in velveteen slippers. A pair of pink silk pagodes flapped aimlessly about his cadaverous limbs, while about his upper body was fastened, with buttons of jade, a green night tiffin, also of silk and ormamented with dragons’ heads. But though dressed for slumber, Won Lung did not retire. He continued to pace the floor, pausing now and then to gaze impatiently in the direction of the door leading to the winding hall. Evidently he was expecting a visitor. Impatience is rewarded as often as pa- tience, and, besides, few Chinese have ever heard of Job. A few minutes more of the pacing up and down, then @ ponderous tread sounded without the door and there entered the personage expected. A personage indeed—O Long Lee, the wealthiest silk merchant in all the city. Fat in folds and rolls was O Long. In fact, so embonpointed: was his whole frame that the flowered coolie which enveloped it bulged throughout its entire environment and the gusset at the back tugged at its moorings. He grunted a greeting to Won Lung and waddied to a chest of teakwood at one side of the room. The hinges of the chest sighed as he lowered his huge bulk upon it. In the hand of O Long Lee was a large ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. bag. A cheerful chink as of coins milling about in it sounded as he placed the bag on the chest beside him. He gazed at Won Lung with his little slanting pig eyes. ‘““A thousand taels for your daughter, Sen Toy,” he wheezed to the other, who had seated himself behind the table. “Oh, ricksha!” was the only comment of Won Lung. He began to roll an opium pill up and down the trough of his nail as though that were the most important under- taking in the whole celestial empire. O- Long Lee gave him a dynasty look from his porcine eyes, but could not conceal the desire that lurked within them. ‘“* And the Sayings of Confucius in three volumes, printed on silk,”’ said O Long Lee, as though he had merely been interrupted. ‘“‘ Oh pooh, baah!” exclaimed Won Lung, and gazed at the ceiling. “‘ And—” O Long Lee hesitated, then— ‘“‘ and the piece of jade from the throne of Ting Chow.” Won Lung’s glance lowered to a level and for the first time his face showed in- terest. “‘ The things you have mentioned and the gold abacus on which you cast up the accounts in your shop,” he said. Desire battled now with cunning in the puny soul of that mountain of flesh on the chest. Desire was the victor. The deal was closed. Over firecrackers and tea, with lacquer in it, it was agreed that on the following midnight O Long would bring a sedan-chair with bearers. In return for the treasures mentioned, pretty little Sen Toy would be borne away in the chair to be forevermore the property of O Long. Unknown toethe buyer and seller, there had been a witness to this hideous bargain. Little Sen Toy, dainty Chinese lily blooming unsoiled amid the muck of the opium den, had had one of her pink shell-like ears glued to a tiny aperture in the wall which separated her bedroom from the room where gat O Long Lee and her father. She had retired early in the evening, obe- dient to Wong Lung’s order. At midnight she had awakened—as she did every mid- night, unknown to her father—to observe the flowering of the strange plant that Co DOO AMC S C©