Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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nonn o utrancrc?r> annooi^ af 1 f j ? " -v- ?* wy|/??tvu wv the top of the etalrway, with a curt bow and greeting for the prisoner. He I 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. The veins In his old hands stood out* blue cords, as he again signified Levlngton's superiority over all living men. This slow salaam was merely the Tau 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 t "Come. , There was nothing to lose, so Levington 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, pest the ever-burning lamps of alabaster, but did not turn In beneath the darkened arch of the throne room. Instead* they went on to the end of the niRMffft. Tho nM dilnaoa nanaul 3%rough a dosed door Oon heard the iTOlce 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 conch. There were sofa pillows and a shelf of books. A kodak and a ridingcrop hung from a dagger stuck In the wall. A morris chair was set before one of the windows. March sat upon the arm of the chair, fingering the lace curtain. Oon stood still. i Near March waa a young girl who Csmed subtly afraid of something?of vlngton himself. She wore a ellken 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 bounduphlg^lncourtfaahlon. She .was looking at him again. It was March who spoke first end the young man saw that he had tears in his eyes. His voice was unreliable Just now: "I have found my little girl." Levlngton bowed* 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 placed her hand upon 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 March seemed not to expect any demonstraitlon of sentiment. He regained self, control end faced Con with an effort to i smile. ? "This is Con Loylngton." be said to * * the giri. To Con: "My daughter, Helen." Her name leaped in Con's heart. He bowed over her hand and found hlm UIU1UIUIUIB, ft 11ULUOO. ftU vuu 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 which Ocn glanced out at the window at the moving branches of the white oaks. Quickly he swung back, to add: It U a great privilege to be summoned." Helen said simply: T am not sure bow to speak. I never saw a white man up to this hour." She Intended this to 4Ke a compliment, for she was smiling; yet he could not forget the fact that she was the royal creature who had glanced across the throne-room yesterday. "Why have they been so extremely careful to keep us away?" he wondered aloud. "It Is Asia," she replied and, truly, he bad forgotten that There was no mistaking the grandchild of the aged Stephen March. She was the embodiment of all that men hold dear. Her eyes made bold to tell all that An another would have been 1 held secret. It was the old story of Asia. Perhaps her days In this desert fastness had been a monotony of inno- , cence, but they had not made her smile j 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 la right," and his face brightened aa 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. __ j slant?{Be Mongol mark that chilled Con nnreasonably. Her hands became Idle. He set the record going, 'and Into his own emotions came the hotbouse sentiments of the big American tenor, who sang strenuously. Con was glad for this further touch of home, and Helen was pleased; yet neither was moved by the singing. They InrbiNyenr 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 him 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. *Tt 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. MSba \Ca la trnrw OAn#naVn<? MAVT ao ? V* j VVUAUIIIU5* "Yes. It might have been simpler If I had known." replied Levlngton. And March was smiling broadly now. She had finished rearranging the 1 tawny lilies on the table and, with a courteous Oriental movement of the arm, she Indicated a deep chair for her younger guest Levlngton went to It, turned It from the window and offered 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 Orand RapIds, Michigan. The college pennant was over his head. *?T KAWA IaaaaaiI ? AAIA UAIAA i ji ua?c iratucu, oaiu uicicu, uiav j white men are really white. How?" "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. I "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 Tan 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 Con, T could mention one or two things to bo written Into his library." v "Yon are laughing at ma*" eeM Helen, sternly. "Not at aHI* replied Con 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, t ignoring the words of her father. "You do," assured Levlngton, "beau- ] tifully." - "Counting the warriors who live be- ] yond the walls, in the rock caves to the south, as well as the workers In | the pits eastward, and those who de- ; liver the vines of their fruit"?Helen t paused to align her English, then proceeded?"west of the city, and the , warriors who dwell within the walls, ; the caste of merchants, too, and the women of the palsce who belong to ] the monzoul, there are many, many ( souls in the keeping of Chee Ming." "Including your own?" asked Levlngton. The princess felt the trouble In i Con's heart, and did not know how to > reply properly, so merely nodded. "I' i am the only white person, at court or elsewhere. They any ihat once an ; Englishman came. I did not see him.' I He died before he could be married ! and begin his family." Con began to realize afresh how different her training Had been, to speak i calmly of these matters. In America, | tiie subject of breeding Is with pro* ! priety discussed beforehand only In regard to cattle and pups, but con* cernlng human beings never until afterward, wher* too late. Levlngton said drily: "You have no difficulty with the English speech." Helen's intuitions were bridging the gaps of lonely years In her life. She j was catching up with the world of her fathers, and this was a breathless business before strangers. She was I meeting the unknown In Levlngton. The quality of him, the way he talked and moved, were matters new and stimulating. She openly studied his face, and beneath her calm x>f the Orient was a warm confusion. According to her studies, they had no princes in America. | Trusting to alter the direction of their conversation, the father observed : "All these things seem to I have come from the United States." "Yes, Sir Father, the mnslc machine ' < only a week since. I cannot compre hend it; it may he a devil, bnt what of that? Chee Ming learned in San Francisco to produce sweet singing from it." | Con rose to meet this occasion, approached the "mnslc machine," and chose a record. He glanced back at the princess, who was awaiting with pnre Interest the result of his actlylty. She had quite naturally crossed her ankles as a white woman should, but her eyebrowt lull a deceptive upward | ' ALr were pitched more Intensely than the music. And for the girl, there was a yellow web of tradition between the Western song and herself. She found this merely a wonder-toy, part of the American tradition that had been brought to her, three costly trnnkfuls, across two continents and the largest ocean, over deserts and mountains, deep Into the wilderness of Sha Mo. She thanked Levlngton for his courtesy, and her small hands came to life again as she talked to "Sir Father." Sunshine flickered through the leaves of the white oaks at the window, trees that had been transplanted at heaven-knew-what Inhuman cost eighteen years before, when she was a babe at Elthna's breast The oaks had been imported also to sustain North American tradition. Chee Ming, as vizir to the monarch, was a man of perfection In details. In at the window bounded a tiny figure, the pale-faced monkey. Helen made soft noises with her lips, and leaned forward. Each of the three persons In the room received the monkey's quick consideration. Then he dropped down to the rug. crossed soberly to Levlngton, and glanced up at him for permission, which was given. Ha leapt and Oon held him on lUla 8?smed to Qtvo a Now Pleasure to the Princes*. tils shoulder. This seemed to give a new pleasure to the princess. "Besur has made a friend," said she. "He has otherwise nothing but enemies?and myself." "Does he keep you from being lonely?" asked Levlngton. "Not at all times. But that Is not his fault" Besur glanced at her and started to sav something, but forsrot. and turned Instead to comb Con's hair with his Bmall nails. "You have done well to grow up In such excellent health," said Andrew March. "I could not have avoided It," Helen replied. "Besides, the slclf are put'to death. They encumber the state." "No doubt," mused her father. "Have you no doctors?" asked Con. "Oh, yes I Chee Ming." Besur hid an acorn under Levlngton's collar. "This Is far better than pretending to speak English with Chee Ming," continued the princess. "He Is full of hesitation and rules. I do not like to be corrected when he Is wrong. I have tried to speak English with Besur. Then there are no corrections. I have tried It also 'with Prince Yekuto!? hat he will never master It He prefers to practice with his arrows. He Is pare Mongol." Con remembered that this was her Irst social moment In white company. Ber father endeavored again to change he subject. "Does Chee Ming make many Jourleys to the United States?" She shook her head. "He has gone jut three times within my memory. Mso he has gone to Egypt and Rome :wo times, and one time to Paris. I lave the map." Helen arose and passed to the book* ihelf. Con had never guessed that plain American garments could ex* press such subtle intimacies of the feminine. She did not lose her shy1688, although it was never a shadow ipon her charm. "I have read theed ind these," she announced. He unlerstood that the books were her real treasures, a bond with her own world, white tradition. He examined them wonderlugly. There was a marked copy, original pdltlon, of the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus; Edgar Allan Poe complete in two worn gray volumes (and by the appearance of certain pages, Levin g ton Judged that "The Fall of the House >f Usher" had been memorized by the lid of candled fingers early In life); ilso two novels by Will Comfort; Chicago Dally News almanacs for three rears; a fat, ragged dictionary, and a< Sne-prlnt anthology of Emerson, Caryl e and Aurellns. There were no randy marks In the anthology. "In Tokyo," she w?. explaining, t j "Chee Ming made acquaintance wlfB the writer Mr. Comfort, and was told new books to bring me. Chee Ming 1 says that Mr. Comfort Is the Root of Islam." I "I suppose," said Con, "you would need to have Chee Ming's mind to know what that means." But March only said to Levlngton: "Imagine If we had missed the old devil on this last trip I" "Is Chee Ming an old devil?" Both men turned to look at the princess as she uttered the question. Levlngton found It wonderful to be so near those eyes. He could not fathom ' her. Perhaps she really did not know | what was meant concerning her teacher and doctor; yet the light In her eyes was almost provocative. Possibly she was laughing at them. But to March she was only his misguided child. | "That Is difficult to answer?to you," said he. "Perhaps he Is not a devil In the sense of cryptic hierarchy. To do hlra justice, I must say that he has shown some taste In your education. He has given you the highest mode of life In his kingdom. Also he has risked I a great deal In trying to bring America to you. It was thoughtful of him to converse with you In English, so you would not lose ttie mother tongue. His plan to blend the races of all mankind Into a perfect empire is founded upon a deep spiritual law. But he does not understand that Idea properly. He does violence to the hearts of his people. If you were a little older, I you would see at once what I mean. It does not matter that Tau Kuan did ' not participate In the building of Babel, if that be a true story. Tau Kuan la false now, and Chee Ming's 1 notion of blending Is cold and out* { rageous. He may be chaste and obedient to bis gods, but he Is terrible. He 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 moment, her eyes shadowed. She glanced at Levlngton, but turned away hastily, as If he would divine someI thing too personal. She carefully replied: "When Tau Kuan had woven every hnman olomanf anH hna hnPAmn Hal. anced, and a perfect race of men has 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 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- j Ished the plan of the empire of the j Yellow Sun, perhaps because she was born to be an American. Levlngton wondered If she knew what the Asiatic interpretation of this Idea nightrequire, ?rom herself In particular. In caliphate and khanate, inere can be no plan of priest, warrior or | king thpt Is not discussed behind the lattices of the female courts, and no ' girl Is too young to know her place In the scheme. Indeed, the statecraft of the Orient often originates within these fragrant sanctuaries. Tau Kuan Imprisoned much of beauty. Helen had been broadly educated. Levlngton was tossed unhap plly between the girlish purity of the I princess and the probable depths of her sophistication. Something, perhaps a masculine pride, hinted to him that she was amusing herself with two I credulous white men. Something re' minded him that she had Irish blood, ' the spring of sublety and grave humor. | The same faculty In Con reminded him alsp how nicely she had concealed a surprise that would have been natural upon meeting two Americans for the first time In her life, and particularly one of them her own father, i Yet this might be nothing more than a j result of Chinese training, the selfcontrol that nothing can disturb. "Yes," she said slowly, "I have heard of the Melting Pot, but CLce Ming says there Is no fire under it." "Be knows better than that, for he has been scorched by It," said Con. "But a race does not rise to greatness by fear and force," Andrew March was saying ardently. "A city cannot become perfect against Its will. There Is no love In Tan Kuan." Helen was pensive. "That Is what mother used to tell me," she said. March sighed brokenly. Even Besur halted his self-Inspection, and turned sad small eyes upon his mistress. | "Levlngton has told you the truth about our country," March continued. "The fire that Chee Ming has overlooked Is freedom. It Is not In his philosophy. Under his guidance Tau Kuan might one day be a unified nation, but It would be a race of? Been rs." "Does Besur trouble youT" she asked of Con, not hesitating to wreck her father's conversation. "Not at all," said Levlngton, as he {removed the ape from his neck for the fifth time. Nor did Con Intend to grow serious, but he felt suddenly that this was the penalty for his wasted life?to come Into her presence only | In time tn find that aha vaa hairier drawn Into an Inevitable gray sacrl- | flee. He did not observe the glance March gave him, a look of trust and appeal. Helen did not comprehend j the new Intensity In Levlngton's graybine eyes; she knew nothing of the ' pain she started In the heart of this wanderer. Then her father humbly asked: "Are yon?are you fond of Prince Yekutotf* She glanced at him quickly and smiled. "You are like mother. She asked that question many. when the prince and I were small, very young people." "And what reply did you give your mother?" "I do not remember. She counseled me. and made me promise?but I have forgotten. The prince can ride and shoot. He recites all the songs of LI Po. He Is twenty-four years old, a pure Mongol." If this were wunton torture, she delivered It with perfect calm. Levlng- i ton caught his breath, and storm 1 threatened within him. It was both a ' relief and an agony to know that she j did not love the prince. Levlngton's ! personal state was sunk deeper when ! he recalled that he was himself a prls- j oner, and would doubtless be out of I the way in a short while. And then he caught the sentence from her Hps, a casual mention: "Our nuptials begin at the new moon." Andrew March leapt to the center of the rug, and his eyes were ablaze. "Little girl, you do not know life 1 You speak of things unbearable. This la criminal. You are white, as your mother tried to Impress upon you, and they have made you forget It. You cannot be handed about In the oriental fashion. They are crazy out here. Yes, they are devils I" Now the withered and doublescarred Chinese servant entered the room, and at his heels came four of the huge soldiers, the same who had ridden down the white men In" the [ ravine, and who also had appeared against them before the prince. Their swords dangled and chinked. Their boots were free from dust, and the cloaks upon their high shoulders were of heavy raw silk, a golden yellow. Their Hairy Countenances Were a Fourfold Reolica of Hate. Cruelty. Their hairy countenances were a fourfold replica of hate and cruelty. They had come to remove the prisoners. Con Levlngton had to be urged. CHAPTER IX. Below the Walls. On his roof again, Con noted that an awning of green silk had been stretched over his doorway, and a couch placed beneath It In the open air, for his added comfort. A silver pitcher of wine stood on a taboret, and he found that the wine was acceptable, having been cooled In springwater. But all was secondary, even the silent departure of the guards, for he was thinking In a whirl of Helen March. Her Innocence was amazing, like her wisdom?un American personality with strange diagonals of the Orient. Con loved the tang of desert sunlight upon her face, her throat and arras. Her shoulders were neither wide nor I narrow, rod she was not tall. He remembered everything she had said, and was unable to evade her final utterance, which became more and more a sublimated poison to him. He turned back to yesterday, recalled how she had ridden, how her pony had galloped from the top of the ravine after her word had saved them, how her brown hair had streamed out from the soft gray cloak. No Chinese princess could ever have ridden at such a pace. But, again, there was the gentle, almost lifeless movement of her hands, and the low fullness of her voice when | she talked of Tau Kuan. She was a delightful sorrow to Levlngton, as If all his days, too, had foretold her. She did not know herself. She was eighteen. The ways of these outland people were familiar to her, ahd It was natural she should love their national Interests, strangely like America's, bitterly different The reddish palace was home. Her mother was gone. -The grand vizir had brought her American gowns, street suits, and other articles the models had displayed at Sperman's In the city terribly far distant I There was no estimating the pains 'the old Chinese had taken to secure such things for her. Con knew at least , of his connection with the Wedger house, which must have been arranged Dy secret means, and it was clear that Chee Ming had taken many a point from Cecil Wedger's Incipient queens of the cinema. The Ylslr had been content to cook for a young snob, merely to garner some. Information as to how a young American girl should be 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 I.evlngton more and more. Helen hud almost lost her mother's counsel regarding Prince 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 with1 her little white daughter. The mother must have striven to develop American, Instincts?the riding of ponies, love oft 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 be had! kept secret his Innermost Intention for. another lournev Into thenerllous Oohl It had meant too much for him to put ', his hope In words. He had planned to , run down the International beast, koresh; 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 monzoul In his enchanted garden. Despite seeming leisure, events In the palace went too Bwlftly for a final valuation. Con was puzzled to find that the more closely he tried to recall the gnrden, 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 drug? Levlngton went now to the outer corners of his prison, enduring the hostile eyes of a double guard, to look for the lne-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 she had spared, her boredom with the proceedings, her beautiful feet, a Western woman ps he must have guessed had It not been for thb ' *gGj$ alight tilt of her brdws and this he 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 Chinese training, personal qualities 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 110 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 and 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 odd ty unpleasant, utte a caress rrom tne wrong person. He arose to 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 beetowing these elabornte 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 rtfi+H nnrAfifl * hi* riitr nf niitnp paatvi l'M4" MV,V"U v* M,v vwui, Levlngton's repeated requests, invitations and demands for Chee Ming resulted In nothing. The day seemed interminable. (Continued in next issue) The premium or bonus paid to get a house to tent is called in England "the key money" and sometimes amounts to as much as a year's rent.