Show THE RETURN jet frer OF CHEE LEE by JAMES FRANCIS DWYER by Shortt Short tory story rut pub co cc the arrows arrow a of a est ering sun ricocheted along the amasy surface of the sea and the sand beach was mas a sheet or of white flame under their file the bial total teeth of the groat rest carrier barrier bit at the chai chaining ging combers ond tossed up spray that tell fell like 1 i I shower of blood A japanese pearling beating up tip towards the straits was wag the one splash of blown in the belt of led ocean verlund cursed the strip of velvet 03 shadow swung round the hut but ps pis it hiding from the yellow glair that at it hun filly gilly and ills his bare leeza had b blen been len of their shade cycling I 1 crawled after him as he snuggled closer to the wall the locusts singing noisily in a clump of small email gum floes near the beach and I 1 was thinking how client it would be after they had finished their song when my companion startled me with aith a question what brought you up herec he 1 asked sharply I 1 am at a loss to say I 1 answered I 1 drifted up to rockhampton Rock hampton and one day the bulged and bucked me in closer to the line verlind was waa regarding me ceilous ly lie was the type of the spine less tropical deadbeat the soul of nian man dies in the tropics it swoons under the glamour the color and the light and wrecks like are the result A tattered ballooned over his suntanned sun tanned body a pair of tiou seiB seis with amputated legs was his wily oily other gaimont ills hair was vas thick black and oily his ears and hanging like the cassels tassels of a buat beffie the eyes got get back bach he be said slowly get down to calms and jump a boat to sydney I 1 chis his place is hell pl plain a in hell I 1 the locusts stopped singing tor for a moment and ahe silence fell upon us deathlike tangible the sound made V va 16 L f aj 4 40 A ch v 44 40 10 I 1 ought to eave killed him them by the waves flounder floun dei ing on the beich seemed to be muffled ba b some ei eiling ing force what brought you I 1 questioned endeavoring by speech to relieve my eat eais that strained to catch faint r sounds me ivle he cloaked mot moistening 8 bening the cracked lips as he be stated up over the red patois towards china why the devil brought me and a girl 11 and nd some thing else kept me the locusts took up their chorus again a wild mild shiell ear splitting fare well to the dking sun tho the sand duties dunes seemed to pant under the aglaie I 1 edged rat faithee thel into the strip ot of shadow as the beams bealus bit bh fiercely at my iny exposed hands bands presently N ver er lund fund spoke agatin this la Is where 4 here men come to die I 1 he aalde id this internal infernal place drugs them poisons them scorches scotches aco scot iches ches their souls 1 lie he laughed mirthlessly and kicked the string bark sides of 0 the shanty till the little glittering lizards hurried into their holes I 1 got here in 9 11 he continued I 1 was down at melbourne Melbo urno and got el cleaned carted out over the cup cull patron won on it 30 to I 1 shot and I 1 contemplated a long dive into the yarra when the tropics beckoned they call you in the night when ahen everything Is still drag your heart with a net all lilac and rose pink and sapphire blue and you wake hating bating tho the hard bard streets and the hum ot of toll toil that 9 how I 1 wall waa caught 1 I 1 I 1 stowed away to cairns cairn wor worked lIked my way up here and the devil S chained me with the murm 1 v ot of the burt and the silence and I 1 could at t get away A chinaman went eat down the hot track rit a quick tret and verlund Verlun ds a ayea watched him through the screen of 0 uncoated hair the celestial turned ft headland and was as lost to view she belonged to that yellow ewines partner he mutt muttered pred nodding to warda the spot where the chinaman had bad disappeared cheo chee tee I 1 ee I 1 questioned yeb chee lee she was as the ainest inest sweetest little ball of that er carlie anie doar out of Chr mul aum land nat hound had xio no ties on her ber chee lee I 1 mean who the devil told you about chee lee I 1 heard something I 1 muttered e alively easl vely I 1 something about you waiting to see him Vei lunda discolored teeth showed as he be glinnen oh yes Ilan hanraham rahan talks a lot doesn doean t hea well I 1 am walting waiting to see cheo lee lie hes s been gone fione 11 years in november lie he grabbed the waratah Wai atah thit that night art ar bolted down doan to brockb impton and I 1 lost him there lost all trace of him so I 1 came back here and watched sun low was chee aces lee s partner sun sulk low Is a chee can cant t get a sixpence of his own money till he comes back tor for it hell he 11 come some borne day d ay iy to settle with sun and be here to settle with mith him bint see beeb I 1 nodded I 1 understood why verlund s credit was good at the grocery ero cery store stoie owned by sam barn low verlund was mas the bogeyman that kept suns partner out of the maa wa she used to sit on that old veranda next buttan botfan singh a where the mis blossom hanis like bunches 0 of f grapes and evely time I 1 passed I 1 wondered why she dlan t bolt from tharold that old toot toothless ill ess inui derer Shed she d peep a at t me from between the flowers just wondering there were only two pure whites up heie bete then then one day when ahen that old devil was vas knocked out with too miny pipes she saw a dla din mond snake wriggle bip under the ver anda boards ond and she pave a little cry 0 ot f tear fear just juat as I 1 v was as passing sun still low m was as in the store but I 1 flung the snake at him after I 1 killed it and ho he ran bt reaming down the track leaving me m with ith her and that doped hog ches chee lee she 1 laughed when I 1 chased sun just a deli delicious clotis little fluffy laugh and that yellow ellow pig snored on the floor I 1 ought to have killed him then the law doesn doean t work at a gallop up tills this way ARY then I 1 acted the fool I 1 took an in terest in that little child just because there m was as no one round here but the scum of asia you think it wasn gasn t my job but it was it s a white man a jb iab to look after a child no matter what her color and that den wasat gasn wasn t the e place for her I 1 went along like aik that tor for five months perhaps six sir sometimes I 1 thought that chee looked at me curiously but I 1 dlan t cat caie e for him then I 1 determined to go south 1 gain again and the night before I 1 left she came down to the hut and begged me m to take her in the schooner down its as far fai as call cali us its of course I 1 was a tool fool everybody I 1 tell this story to thinks the sam game but they hey didn dian t know that pockmarked pock marked chinaman they dian didn t I 1 now what kind hind of a quarter this was at that time and they dian didn t know that child I 1 nit ni a m white hite man at least I 1 was ono one tl ti oil en I 1 was boiking woi king for tatsu G giro tro and I 1 was nas using its his schooner that kid hid was going to meet uie me down at th i lount but I 1 changed my mind and clipped up tip to the store when that pig was 0 13 in his dope dream and told her to meet me at high tide in the mangrove hiees tices up the cheek chee was snoring behind the canvas but afterwards I 1 fancied I 1 heard him chuckle it was dark when and I 1 pulled up tip to the mangroves man groves I 1 saw something white in near the left bank and I 1 called out but she dian didn t an awer I 1 called again and again then we me pulled in closer and saw she che was strapped by the ankles to a thick limb her hand hanging down wards and the tide was gurgling round her shoulders like as it t it was 1 leased with the job chee left it that s the story I 1 kwoi 0 by the ment mem or my of my mother that I 1 would avenge the death of that little kid and I 1 im ra holding out she wag nothing to me she was just a little child woman 11 up p in this spot alone yes I 1 in at waiting for chee ile he 11 come back some lay ay end and well have a jec reckoning koning the locusts had finished their song night was mas blow ing out the red glow on the mateis and the white gum trees treen up bare and ghostly verlund rose shook himself and walked off t towards the beach |