Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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4 j~~ Before noon a stranger appeared at the top of the stairway, with a curt bow and greeting for the prisoner. He was perhaps a slave, and yet a person of privilege?a wizened man with narrow shoulders, Chinese, his face a desert yellow and furrowed, cheeks like _ - fruit that has never fallen. He was noticeably clean, his tunic giving off the faint smell of recent laundering. TI?e veins In his old hands stood out, blue cords, as he again signified Lev Ington's superiority over all living men. This slow salaam was merely the Tea Kuanlan command to follow. A double scar was. crossed upon the servant's neck suggesting the strokes of two swords on a single errand. Now the ancient Hps formed the English word: "Come.*1 , There was nothing to lose, so Lev lngton was willing. It might be an opportunity. though he rather feared It was connected with his delinquency In the matter of race-blending. They proceeded through the Inner corridors, past the ever-burning lamps of alabastar, but did not turn In beneath the darkened arch of the throne room. Instead, they went on to the end of the passage. The old Chinese paused. TOirough a closed door Con heard the voice of Andrew March. He opened the door and entered. A vlctrola stood beside a long mission table, on which were books and a yellow lamp. An American college pennant was pinned above a brown mission couch. There were sofa pillows and a shelf of books. A kodak and a ridingcrop hung from a dagger stuck In the wait A morris chair was set before one of the windows. March sat upon the aim of the chair, fingering the lace curtain. Con stood still. Near March was a young girl who seemed subtly afraid of something?of ILevlngton himself. She wore a silken blouse, open at the throat, and a skirt of the smartly defined mode of American avenues, following the line of her slender body. Her timidity was nevertheless brightened with pleasure. The face was sun-tanned, the eyes held a diamond light Here was the lovely golden-browp hair that had flown free upon the gray cloak of the rider, the same that the princess of yesterday had bound up hlg}i in court fashion. .She .was looking at him again. It was March who spoke first and the young man saw that he had tears in his eyes. His voice was unreliable Just now: "I have found my little girl." Levlngton boweur struggling with an inner tidal wave. Andrew March seized the girl's hands, and she turned to him frankly. He was saying: "But our little mother?Elthna?" He kissed her hair, and she Dlaced her hand nnon 1 his arm as if to ease his pain. She was I frail beside the veteran of the sands. She did not embrace him, and Marcb seemed not to expect any demonstration of sentiment. He regained self* , control sad faced Con with an effort to i smile. * "This is Con Levlngton.." be said to < ? the glrL To Con: "My daughter, Helen." Her name leaped in Con's heart. He bowed over her hand and found himself murmuring, "Princess." In the blur of his Inward excitement her voice was like sunlight as it falls rich and mellow across an oaken staircase. He was strongly affected by it. There was an embarrassed moment during wbleh Oou glanced out at the window at the moving branches of the white oaks. Quickly he swung back, to add: Tt is a great privilege to be summoned." Helen said simply: "I am not sure bow to speak. I never saw a white man up to this hour." She intended this to to a compliment, for she was smiling; yet he could not forget the fact that ehe was the royal creature who had glanced across the throne-room yesterday. "Why have they been so extremely careful to keep us away V he wondered aloud. "It is Asia," she replied and, truly, he had forgotten that There was no mistaking the grand^vnm ~a ciA v ciiiiu ui ixit? ugeu oieyuwn maait duo was the embodiment of all that men bold dear. Her eyes made bold to tell all that in another would have been held secret. It was the old story of Asia. Perhaps her days In this desert fastness had been a monotony of Innocence, but they had not made her smile a blank. Con could not estimate anything beyond the fact that when she swayed slightly beside her father, deeply searching for the right word, her young grace was matchless. "Do not be sorrowful," she whispered to her father. March nodded. "Tea, that Is right," and his face brightened as he regarded her. She crossed the room, lightly, a rapId tilting gait that somehow expressed the far Eastern feminine. 'Yet the clean whip of the West was there also, and through her personality these qualities were a smooth, soft madness to Lexington. He was aware that all the journeys of his life had either ended here or just begun. _ _ MiNyenr All the alluring Intimations that had troubled the lad Stephen March, when he had crossed America before the days of railroads, were ensouled In Helen, the same that had drawn blm against the winds of the Pacific so long ago, the kingly unrest that had led him deep Into Cathay, beyond the Tartar wall, to the sands of mystery and death. Perhaps In some dim way he had foresensed this daughter of his line, with her shining fatal dominion, a princess In the Gobi. "It is most delightful?you?coming here," she said to Con. "I think I've always headed this way," he said, because he believed It "I cannot Imagine the courage that brought you," said the princess. "Sha Mo is very?confusing." "Yes, It might have been simpler If I had known." replied Levlngton. And March was smiling broadly now. She had finished rearranging the tawny lilies on the table and, with a courtecub Oriental movement of the arm, she Indicated a deep chair for her younger guest. Levlngton went to It turned It from the window and ofTered it to her. He felt nearly royal himself as she accepted. Andrew March sat In the window-seat and Levlngton contented himself with the leather sofa that had been brought In pieces, like the mission furniture, from Grand RapIds. Michigan. The colleae nennant was over his head. I < "I have learned," said Helen, "that white men are really white. Howt" "We are a bit tanned," admitted her father, "but for that matter, so are you. White people usually stay under cover when the sun shines." "That Is a part of tradition I had not known," she said. "I shall tell Chee Ming." "Why trouble?" asked Levlngton. ! "He knows." "But It Is not written, and all the tradition of the world is written here, since the days of the Tower of Folly. Ton know that Tau Kuan Is to be the school for the perfect age. Ghee Ming says tradition Is,the treasure of life." "Bather an Oriental statement," suggested March. . "Yes," rejoined Oon, "I could men* tlon one or two things to be written Into his library." "You are lauding at met" eaM Helen, sternly. "Not at all!' replied Oon hastily. ^ "Only the world Is such a large place." "I understand/' said the princess, conciliated. ] "I did not suppose." her father said, "that anyone considered Ghee Ming as seriously as you do." "Do I speak the English?" she asked, Ignoring the words of her father. "You do," assured Levlngton, "beautifully." "Counting the warriors who live beyond the walls, In the rock caves to the south, as well as the workers In the pits eastward, and those who deliver the vines of their fruit"?Helen paused to align her English, then proceeded?"west of the city, and the < warrior* who dwell within the walls, ; the caste of merchants, too, and the women of the palace who belong to ] the monzoul, there are many, many ( sonis in the keeping of Chee Ming." "Including your own?" asked Levington. The princess felt the trouble In i I Con's heart, and did not know how to reply properly, so merely nodded. "I i am the enly white person, at court or elsewhere. They a&y thai once an Englishman came. I did not see him.1 He died before he could be married and begin his family." Con began to realize afresh how different her training Had been, to speak calmly of these matters. In America, the subject of breeding is with pro* ; priety discussed beforehand only in regard to cattle and pups, but con* I cernlng human beings never until aft- ] erward, whe? too late. Levlngton I said drily: "Tou have no difficulty with the i English speech." Helen's intuitions were bridging the 1 gaps of lonely years In her life. She ', was catching up with the world of ber < fathers, and this was a breathless ] business before strangers. She was I meeting the unknown in Levlngton. i I The quality of him, the way he talked ] and moved, were matters new and ] stimulating. She openly studied his j luce, ana Deuenia nor uaim jpi uie | Orient was a warm confusion. Ac: cording to her studies, they had no princes in America, j Trusting to alter the direction of their conversation, the father observed : "All these things seem to have come from the United States." "Yes, Sir Father, the music machine only a week since. I cannot comprehend it; It may he a devil, but what of that? Chee Ming learned in San Francisco to produce sweet singing from it." | Con rose to meet this occasion, approached the "music machine," and chose a record. He glanced back at the princess, who was awaiting with pure interest the result of his actlylty. She had quite naturally crossed her ankles as a white woman should, but her eyebrows bid.ft deceptive upward | -j , . " ? - v.; Tant?the Mongol mark'that chfITe< 3on unreasonably. Her hands becami die. He set the record going, an* nto his own emotions came the hot louse sentiments of the big America! enor, who sang strenuously. Con wa: [lad for this further touch of home tnd Helen was pleased; yet nelthe: vas moved by the singing. The; vere pitched more Intensely than th< nuslc. And for the girl, there was i fellow web of tradition between thi Western song and herself. She foun< :hls merely a wonder-toy, part of th< American tradition that had beei )rought to her, three costly trunkfuls icross two continents and the larges >cean, over deserts and mountains leep Into the wilderness of Sha Mo, She thanked Levlngton for his cour tesy, and her small hands came to llf igatn as she talked to "Sir Father.1 Sunshine flickered through the leave: if the white oaks at the window trees that had been transplanted a tieaven-knew-what inhuman cost eight sen years before, when she was a babi it Elthna's breast. The oaks had beei Imported also to sustain North Amerl can tradition. Chee Ming, as vlelr t< the monarch, was a man of perfectloi tn details. In at the window bounded a tiny fig are, the pale-faced monkey. Helei made soft noises with her lips, an* leaned forward. Each of the tbre persons In the room received the mon key's Quick consideration. Then h* Jropped down to the rug, crosse* soberly to Levlngton, and glanced u] it him for permission, which wa: given. Ha leapt, and Con held him 01 rtila 8eemed to Qfvo a Now Pleaaur to tho Princess. tils Shoulder. This seemed to give i new pleasure to the princess. "Besur has made a friend," said sh< "He has otherwise nothing but en< mles?and myself." "Does he keep you from being lorn ly?" asked Lovlngton. "Not at all times. But that is no tils fault." Besur glanced at her and started t say something, but forgot, and turne instead to comb Con's hair with hi small nails. "Yon have done well to grow up 1 such excellent health," said Andrei March. "I could not have avoided It," Hele replied. "Besides, the slclf are putt death. They encumber the state." "No doubt," mused her father. "Have you no doctors?" asked Coi "Oh, yes I Chee Ming." Besur hi an acorn under Levlngton's colla "This Is far better than pretending I speak English with Chee Ming," coi tinned the princess. "He is full < hesitation and rules. I do not like 1 be corrected when he Is wrong, have tried to speak English wit Besur. Then there are no correction I have triad It also'with Prince Yeki tot, bat fee will never master It B prefers to practice with his arrow He Is pare Mongol." Con remembered that this was he Ilrst social moment In white company Her father endeavored again to chang the subject. "Does Chee Ming make many Joui aeys to the United States?" She shook her head. "He has gon but three times within my memorj Also he has gone to Egypt and Rom two times, and one time to Paris, have the maD." Helen arose and passed to the boo) shelf. Oon had never guessed thi plain American garments could m press such subtle Intimacies of th feminine. She did not lose her shj a ess, although It was never a shadow upon her charm. "I have read thee and these/' she announced. He ui derstood that the books were her ret treasures, a bond with her own worU white tradition. He examined thei wonder! ugly. There was a marked copy, origlni edition, of the Aquarian Gospel c Jesus; Edgar Allan Poe complete ! two worn gray volumes (and by th appearance of certain pages, Levlni ton judged that "The Fall of the Hons of Usher" had been memorized by th aid of candled fingers early In life) also two novels by Will Comfort; Ch cago Dally News almanacs for thrc years; a fat, ragged dictionary, and One-print anthology of Emerson, Oai lyle and Aurellns. There were n candy marks In the anthology./To Tokyo," ghe wag_ explalnlnj * ?*' . 1 "Chee Ming made acquaintance wlffi F 9 the writer Mr. Comfort, and was told f * new books to bring me. Chee Ming " ' says that Mr. Comfort Is the Root of n 1 Islam." 9 I "I suppose," said Con, "you would r !* need to have Chee Ming's mind to f r know what that means." s V I 0 I But March only said to Levlngton: I "Imagine If we had missed the old p 9 devil on this last trip!" j "Is Chee Ming an old devil?" II g Both men turned to look at the t< n princess as she uttered the question, tl i, Levlngton found it wonderful to be so r t near those eyes. He could not fathom d i, her. Perhaps she really did not know P | what was meant concerning her teach- h n. er and doctor; yet the light In her o 9 eyes was almost provocative. Possibly tl ? she was laughing at them. But to c s March she was only his misguided c r, child. t | "That Is difficult to answer?to you," n said he. "Perhaps he Is not a devil In e the sense of cryptic hierarchy. To do * [i him justice, I must say that be has I- shown some taste In your education, f 0 He has given you the highest mode of h a life In his kingdom. Also he has risked n I a great deal In trying to bring Amer- t lea to yon. It was thoughtful of him c a to converse with you in English, so t 3 you would not lose the mother tongue. 3* e His plan to blend the races of all man kind Into a perfect empire Is founded s a upon a deep spiritual law. But he r 3 does not understand that Idea proper- tl E> ly. He does violence to the hearts of r s his people. If you were a little older, r 1 I you would see at once what I mean, a It does not matter that Tau Kuan did s | ' not participate In the building of b Babel, If that be a true story. Tau c Kuan Is false now, and Chee Ming's o j notion of blending is cold and outj rageous. He may be chaste and obedient to his gods, but he Is terrible. He j Is not human. He may not see himself ' as a dev" ~nd there Is none to stop him, but? March paused, and Helen reflected a I' moment, her eyes shadowed. She glanced at Levlngton, but turned away hastily, as if he would divine someI thing too personal. She carefully re- | plied: "When Tan Kuan had woven every human element, and has become bal- * anced, and a perfect race of men has ( i i arisen, they will go forth to the four quarters, carrying new life and pure tradition to all the world." '> "Splendid 1" said Levlngton, "but the | United States of America Is doing that ! I now, has been making a success of that Idea for a hundred years, with a hundred million people." The princess was startled, and her face seemed rather pale as she stared at him. It was apparent that she cher- | Ished the plan of the empire of the ' ( Yellow Sun, perhaps because she was < born to be an American. Levlngton * wondered If she knew what the Asiatic interpretation of this Idea might raoau*, from herself In pajtleu'ar. In caliphate and khanate, inere can be no plan of priest, warrior or \ 0 | king thgt Is not discussed behind the i I lattices of the female courts, and no | B ' girl Is too young to know her place In \ the scheme. Indeed, the statecraft of ^. the Orient often originates within 1 j_ these fragrant sanctuaries. , Tan Kuan imprisoned much of ?. beauty. Helen had been broadly edu- ^ j cated. Levlngton was tossed unhap- * >t Plly between the girlish purity of the * i princess and the probable depths of o her sophistication. Something, pen d naps a masculine priue, nintea to mm 8 that she was amusing herself with two I credulous white men. Something ren minded him that she had Irish blood, w j the spring of sublety and grave humor. e j The same faculty In Con reminded ( n him alsp how nicely she had concealed o a surprise that would have been natural upon meeting two Americans for the first time in her life, and partlcuj. larly one of them her own father, d : Yet this might be nothing more than a r. j result of Chinese training, the self0 control that nothing can disturb. a- "Yes," she said slowly, "I have heard >? of the Melting Pet, but CLce Ming says *> there Is no fire under It" 1 "Be knows better than that, for he & has been scorched by It," said Con. "But a race does not rise to great' > ness by fear and force," Andrew to March was saying ardently. "A city * cannot become perfect against It* will. There Is no love In Tan Kuan." * Helen was pensive. "That Is what r. mother used to tell me," she said. 6 March sighed brokenly. Even Besur halted his self-inspection, and turned ^ sad small eyes upon his mistress. "Levington has told you the truth e about our country." March continued, j "The fire that Chee Ming has over- j ? looked Is freedom. It Is not In his 1 philosophy. Under his guidance Tau f - Kuan might one day be a unified nac* tlon, but It would be a race of?Be- ? * .ore." " c* "Does Besur trouble you?" she e asked of Con, not hesitating to wreck her father's conversation. J "Not at all," said Levington, as he removed the ape from his neck for the j fifth time. Nor did Con Intend to j grow serious, but he felt suddenly that! n this was the penalty for his wasted 11tfk 1n enmn Intrt hap nraaanca nnlv 1 ' | kl In time to find that she was being ^ drawn Into an Inevitable gray sacrl- j n flee. He did not observe the glance 0" March gave him, a look of trust and . appeal. Helen did not comprehend ? the new intensity in Levington's graye blue eyes; she knew nothing of the . pain she started In the heart of this |1 wanderer. Then her father humbly e' asked: a, "Are yoo?are you fond of Prince p. Tekutoir ,0 She glanced at him quickly and smiled. , "You are like mother. She asked thai question many times, when the irlnce and I were small, very young ?eople." "And what reply did you give your aother?" "I do not remember. She counseled ae. and made me promise?but I have orgotten. The prince can ride and . hoot. He recites all the songs of LI 'o. He Is twenty-four years old, a iure Mongol." If this were wunton torture, she deIvered It with perfect calm. Levlng- i on caught his brenth, and storm 1 hreatened within him. It was both a ellef nnd an agony to know that she Id not love the prince. Levlngton's ersonal state was sunk deeper when e recalled that he was himself a prls- j ner, and would doubtless be out of I he way In a short while. And then he aught the sentence from her Hps, a asual mention: "Our nuptials begin at the new loon." Andrew March leapt to the center of he rug, and his eyes were ablaze. "Little girl, you do not know lifel rou speak of things unbearable. This s criminal. You are white, as your lother tried to Impress upon you, and hey have made you forget It. You annot be handed about In the oriental ashlon. They are crazy out here. Tea, they are devils I" Now the withered and doublecarred Chinese servant entered the oora, and at his heels came four of he huge soldiers, the same who had Idden down the white men In" the avine, and who also had appenred gainst them before the prince. Their words dangled and chinked. Their oots were free from dust, and the loaks upon their high shoulders were f heavy raw silk, a golden yellow. i m "heir Harry Countenance* Were a Fourfold Replica of Hate, Cruelty. Fhelr hairy countenances were a four'old replica of hate and cruelty. They lad come to remove the prisoners. Con Levlngton had to be urged. CHAPTER IX. Below the Walls. On his roof again, Con noted that in nwiiiug ui greeu nun iiuu ueeu itretched over his doorway, and a couch placed beneath It In the open i ?lr, for his added comfort. A silver nltcher of wine stood on a taboret, ind he found that the wine was acceptable, having been cooled In springwater. But all was secondary, even he silent departure of the guards, for ne was thinking In a whirl of Helen ifarch. Her Innocence was amazing, like her wisdom?un American personality with strange diagonals of the Orient. Son loved the tang of desert sunlight upon her face, her throat and arms. Her shoulders were neither wide nor narrow, end she was not tall. He remembered everything she had said, rod was unable to evade her final atera nee, which became more and more t sublimated poison to him. He turned >ack to yesterday, recalled how she tad ridden, how her pony had galoped from the top of the ravine after ?er word had saved them, how her irown hair had streamed out from the toft gray cloak. Ko Chinese princess ould ever have ridden at such a pace. Jut, again, there was the gentle, alnost lifeless movement of her hands, md the low fullness of her voice when ihe talked of Tau Kuan. She was a delightful sorrow to Lev ngton, as If all his days, too, had foreold her. She did not know herself, ihe was eighteen. The ways of these >utland people were familiar to her, ihd It was natural she should love heir national Interests, strangely like America's, bitterly different The redUsh palace was home. Her mother vas gone. -The grand vizir had >rought her American gowns, street rolts, and other articles the models lad displayed at Sperman's In the city errlbly far distant There was no estimating the pains he old Chinese had taken to secure tuch things for her. Con knew at least )f his connection with the We'dger louse, which must have been arranged >y secret means, and It was clear that 3hee Ming had taken many a point from Cecil Wedger's incipient queens >f the cinema. The vizir had been content to cook for a young snob, nerely to garner some information as to how a young American girl should bo dressed, how she must talk and think, and what. If anything, might please her. Con appreciated the genius that had made the exclusive Wedgere' a part Of Chee Ming's plan for the completion of Tau Kuan, empire of the Yellow Sun. The tangle of East and West troubled Levlngton more and more. Helen had almost lost her mother's counsel regarding i'rlnce Yekutol. It was too easy to feel the deud Elthna's horror,' of the young Mongol, and of the plan she had foreseen, his marriage with her little white daughter. The mother must have striven to develop American Instincts?the riding of ponies, love of; oak trees, independence, and natural' frankness. Levlngton saw more vividly how March must have loved Elthna, how, the loss of her bad nearly broken down^ his sanity, and. at last, how he bad kept secret his Innermost Intention for. another journey Into the perilous Gobi. It had meant too much for him to put' his hope In words. He had planned to, run down the International beast, koresli; all that side of the story was Just as he had confided It to Levlngton. But then there had been much more. March's Interests did not begin or end In a federal commission. Con realized now the deep and double joy of his friend when he had first found, Chee Ming In Dory street, marketing, the drug, only to find that the tracings led to the Gobi desert. The affair of the present morning recurred to mind?the inonzoul In his enchanted garden. Despite seeming leisure, events In the palace went too swiftly for a final valuation. Con was puzzled to find that the more closely be tried to recall the garden, the appearance of the fat lord, the singing bird, the dancer, and the magician, the less he knew about them. Had the Juggler poured his wine into the fourth dimension, or was the watcher merely transported by a breath of the drugT Levlngton went now to the outer corners of his prison, enduring the hostile eyes of a double guard, to look for the vine-covered bower of royal entertainment, but could see nothing of it. He must have turned Into a courtyard of the palace itself. One grim assurance clung to him?the sinister fragrance of koresh. Through mid-afternoon, as often as his active mind abandoned some new and equally futile plan of escape, his thought circled around to Helen. He reclined under the green silken awning and repeated her name. He was awakened to the center of his being, and was scarcely aware that every new plan for escape Included two others besides himself, and one a princess.Mentally she remained with him?In the throne room, her glance toward the prisoner aha had spared, her boredom with the proceedings, her beautiful feet, a Western woman pis he must ktra guessed had It not been for thfe *9 slight tilt of her brdws and this ho had seen, more closely, to be but the cunning work of her maid-servants; in her own apartment, surrounded by things American, the transformation that was net complete because of her rhlnMA tmlnlnff nortnnol nnallHan that tantalized him, the first words that had thrilled him so unaccountably and the last bringing a clutch of terror; the clear young beauty of her face, her lips, the soft brown of her hair, the curve of girlish shoulders, the grave pleasure at meeting that stranger, her father, and the unemotional view she held of her own future as queen of this fantastic state. These fragmentary thoughts possessed Levington, brought h'm life as It had never come before, hurt him savagely, so that he sighed and tossed about on the green cushions. Then he remembered once again that they would not permit him to live. This fact had a totally new aspect, and the novelty of It now brought him to his feet. His gray slave started up In surprise, and the pair of blg-sworded soldiers made themselves felt at the stair-head. For the first time In his career Con rebelled against death. It seemed no longer a part of the game. Instant or slow, death did not Interest him now; It was a stupid rule of the play. He wanted mightily to live. There was something both sweet tod very bitter In dwelling In the same desert city with Helen March. There were so many things he had to tell her, so much he longed to ask; also an additional urgency for a talk with her father. Late In the afternoon, he retreated to his inner chamber, hot and Impatient. In the smaller of two rooms, which were barely furnished, the walls a creamy white, he flung himself upoa the soft couch, but Its touch was oddly unpleasant, like a caress from the wrong person. He arose In disgust, and stared at the brass lamp with its fragrant green oil. The gray boy also had come in out of the sun, and was now a-sqnlnt beside the divan. Slowly he pulled the cord that set the long curtains swaying overhead. From time to time he sprinkled water upon these curtains, then resumed the fanning. But physical comfort only heightened Con's uneasiness. He felt the power of the fact that they were bectowlng these elaborate attentions upon him only to make him a better white sire In the history of Tau Kuan. No one came. The sun laid a golden path across the rug of the outer room. Levlngton's repeated requests, invitations and demands for Chee Ming re milted In nothing. The day seemed Interminable. (Continued in next issue) The premium or bonus paid to get a house to lent is called in England "the key money" and sometimes amounts to as much as a year's rent.