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Show Wff' HEE SEE fi& LAUGHS 'J ft. SAX ROHMER W.N.UI. SERVICE i fHAPTE" X1 Continued 16 . who you re! Slie ,oU1 i ',':, onlv listen: This Is tl.e 3 7,1,'e Chinese hell-cat. It Is Keneh who has taken ',, one They have drilled i think. The poor baby. XiU lake her to Koseir, and .v,e to the hous.e of Hassan V Kerch. This house . . 1 : t,w It. I know It!" Hals ln- impatiently. "Go on ! Go 4 -. -j tre two motor boats In ;'.lr m one of them she will J'-rtL ForG'd's sake save her! '.'p is bad enough but there ! , ' ,1,3)! Tou must stop theml" ;, iel! me: where Is my best iil -;re is only one way," she said: ;1 'imsb the gate. But, If you a reach It, the blacks would ;i -pstlon you. And all those iy away. . . 'a : raced down the stone steps. 'iinced, a collapsible ladder, . : pruning purposes, was ly- i path where one of the .had left It! It was heavy, ;&1onate rage gave Dawson :;;iitionaI strength. Fully ex-:.- the ladder, he leaned It up .-.the high wall, mounted, and id the top. The road far be-s be-s deserted from end to end. -; perilously, he began to draw -iter up, an operation calling rii :.n muscular effort and a nice tk -! equilibrium. m . art of savage exultation lent a pwers of an acrobat. He jMder poised like a see-saw Y, p of the wall. Then, realizing :tculd Dot turn It, he lowered "" ::ntiw end onto the hard-baked " I lie path below. Swiftly, he : in, jerked the tall ladder .... - ti wall, closed its three sec- lbJ dropped It amongst rank ':mfl In a ditch. ?flp racked the outskirts of the Ml Braced town unchallenged without meeting a living -i The palm-lined street on 3, which contained what ap-J. ap-J. ltobe the only cafe In the ; was deserted. None of the kildings of plastered mud-"" mud-"" ad woodwork exhibited any I 'life. Tied op to the steps dingy-looking motorboat the Hit Its twin, in which he had t -1 fani Koseir. Then a dls- araur checked him In his - Shading his eyes, he stared, ill ? motorboat a mere dot in ;s-was rapidly disappearing detail of the Island. ; out running again, but had :s fifty yards when a second I ;wj pulled up sharply, j, north, far over the sea, rocky headland which s mmw- lilt , !rilllSy u. n Ladder Up. -IC. beyoni the s- .o '"g and re-echoing mighty explo- fi'i , , ,J'chlef officer of the ' Vim "'"ful swim- 2 r'nf "- " H alr. Me dls. ' i,s4resin his chin ' ' pr",,el !t "th m :!cf',rt- tie know. & W Z e8Cilr,e a bullet. rs ,P,"SSible t kl. ' But that ghastly stivti-h around the wreck was now bristling with sharks' fins! There were fewer sounds from the few poor survivors. Hut the protecting deck chair, so far, had escaped the attention both of the marksmen and of the sharks. Rattray summoned all his resources. re-sources. He meant to survive the tragedy. He must survive it. A floating deck chair and one man's undaunted spirit meant the difference differ-ence between immunity for these ghastly murderers and that day of reckoning which he swore, with clenched teeth, should come to them. A gentle, almost Imperceptible current, was bearing him seawards. He tried to visualize a chart of the Ked sea and the approximate position? posi-tion? of steamers. He was many mile? off the track, and dusk was near. His proper course, then, was to steal southward on this gentle current, and then edge In toward the tail of the rocky Island, since rescue by a passing steamer was almost out of the question. He was now more than a mile from the scene of the disaster. He swung around. The submarine and the dhow, the latter with two boats In tow, was making for the head of the island. It was a screen from behind which, doubtless, they operated. op-erated. And, so carefully does Fate weave those comedies In which willy-nilly we all play a part, that It was almost al-most exactly at this moment that Dawson Haig walked down the little lit-tle jetty to where the motor cruiser cruis-er was moored. A pockmarked negro, whom he remembered, and an Arab boy, were on board. They stood up and stared at him suspiciously as he came hurrying hur-rying along the stone pavement. "Orders !" he said, sharply. "Koseir!" "Ko-seir!" but as he sprang on board, the crew of two continued to regard re-gard him with doubt and hesitation. hesita-tion. "Hurry !" he cried, and swung the formidable club he carried. The negro glanced helplessly at the boy and the latter threw off the rope. At last the game was In his hands! By dawn he would be back In Koseir. Ko-seir. There was a wireless station, and a small English colony. He was no longer "Joseph," but had become again in spirit and In fact Detective Inspector Dawson Halg. He peered anxiously ahead. The leading motor cruiser was not In sight. Even if a car waited at Koseir, Ko-seir, which he suspected would be the case, he could have it intercepted. intercept-ed. The game was In his hands. The course, as he remembered, lay due northwest from the bay for the first forty or fifty miles. There, out of sight of the mainland, it skirted that long, low island. Thence It bore' north along a desolate des-olate coast for three hours or more, tnen westerly again, aweeinng u' seaward to pass Jeddah, and nor'-northwest nor'-northwest to the petrol station. He might find himself In difficulty, there. Probably they had some means of communication. Exultation, doubt, fear, fought for supremacy In his mind. They were three hours out from the base, and the long, low island was dropping drop-ping astern. Four more hours before be-fore that swing around which would point their bows to the African coast which would seem to bring him nearer to Eileen I They were drawing in to the main coast again. Suddenly, Halg sprang to his feet, shouting excitedly. Almost Al-most under their starboard bow floated a piece of wreckage which looked like a deck chair. . . . Then, beside it, a head bobbed up. . . . Aswaml Pasha, swathed In bandages, band-ages, came out of Doctor Oestler's room on the ground floor of the old palace, Into a tiled corridor. He walked along to that lobby which opened on the courtyard Inside the entrance gates. He would be disfigured for life. Kid Brown, In passing, his cunning fighter's brain keyed up by the Imminence Im-minence of death, had left this Ineffaceable In-effaceable mark of his trade upon the man whose bullet had sped h.m. All the piston-rod force of that phenomenal phe-nomenal left had been put Into the joh the final Jobof pulvem ng Aswami's beauty. Certainty tha that Grecian nose was smashed flat had sweetened the Kid's last agony. Jacques the Creole (known as the Jackal), waited In the lobby, his Khiftv eyes fearful. "Chief!" the man gasped- Cluet . . it Is Joseph . . he is gone ! "Gone !" He is nowhere! He does not come to relieve me at four o clocN. He Is nowhere- -he Is gone!" There was a moment of silence. "Go back to your duty." said the corrl I "'" '"" ho -"'ldor. m ,)t - """M that ollice exotl v' " " 'h l, voluptuous pa " - lgs and statuettes In,,pK dnwn upnn B h- le w I" i""1","' r'U'e ln hls """ eas already a very wealthy man. I s share in this last coup would make 1 m a millionaire. It was as well, since, henceforward, whatever of pleasure he could secure he ""ist buy. He wo,(, nhvayg ,)e hi(, eous. Men would shun his company. com-pany. Women would fly from him. He struggled to regain mastery of himself to remember what he had planned before thev had set out on this expedition against the Wallaroo. Was there any connection between be-tween his compact with Orange Blossom and the absent Joseph? He must find out Aswami Pasha unlocked a heavy Iron-studded door, and entered a covered courtyard. Yu'an Hee See, a blue tinge showing under his lemon-colored skin, fixed his eyes upon him. "The woman has gone the American Amer-ican woman I had chosen. Do you realize what that means?" A cold terror clutched Aswaml Pasha's heart. Well enough he knew his danger. But he rested gratefully upon the cunning of Orange Blossom. Blos-som. "Celeste, the French woman?" he suggested. Yu'an Hee See reflected. "There Is deep treachery here. You will take the French .plane, Aswaml, with Anton as pilot. I am thinking now not of my pleasure, but of our safety. It Is too late to establish contact with Hess, in Koseir. He will have left for Cairo. Hassan we cannot reach. Go, my friend. You have much to do." Aswaml Pasha choked down an exclamation of relief, and went out. The disappearance of Joseph he decided de-cided not to report. It might be a part of Orange Blossom's plan." Perhaps It had been necessary to kill the guard. In a car specially equipped for the desert Journey, and belonging to the manager of the Italian mines near Koseir, Dawson Haig was headed head-ed for the Nile Valley. He had done everything that It was possible to do at the seaport. Jack Rattray, the Wallaroo's first officer, whom he had picked up at sea, had stayed behind at the wireless station, busily bus-ily sending messages. The motor mo-tor boat, with her crew of two, had been detained. He had left the establishing of contact with the police, Keneh and Cairo, to Jack. Hour after hour the dusty Journey Jour-ney continued. He was burning to reach Keneh. CHAPTER XII Tj"MLEEN, for the second time since she had set out on that ill-fated voyage from London, found herself groping in the dark, trying to remember re-member what had happened. . . . It was something to do with drinking drink-ing a cup of coffee. And Celeste, poor Celeste, had not been there. . . . "The risk Is too great," a man's voice had said. "It's madness! This may ruin us. ..." "The price Is low, my friend, for such. . . ." "Her legs are too thin for the taste of his Serene Highness. . . ." It was this last remark which had finally aroused Eileen. She opened her eyes, looked down at her own bare body and galvanized Into life, sprang upright. She was In a large saloon with a matting-covered matting-covered floor and closely shuttered windows. She had been lying on a rtlunn trTaraJ with fntc( f H flPfl. a UMHU VV,,.. ....... ...j try above which hung a lighted lamp. Before her, one plump hand raised to his hairless Up as if In consideration, was a stout, greasy-looking greasy-looking person wearing European clothes. Beside him stood a very dirty old Arab. Eileen looked swiftly about her. There was no substitute for a garment gar-ment In the place. Taking a swift step forward, and conquering a deadly nausea, she struck the hesitating hesi-tating buyer on his fat face I Once, she struck . . . twice! Hassan es-Suk clutched her in his sinewy old hands. With one knee she kicked him viciously in the stomach. He released her. She kicked him again. But this spurt of strength which had flared up under the sense of outrage now deserted her. She staggered, swayed forward . . followed fol-lowed an Interval of complete unconsciousness. un-consciousness. And then a voice the voice of the Arab again. "What could I do, effendim? Said brought her to me. How was I to know she was reserved? Here was a famous Jewel and money Is money. But she struck All Man-moud Man-moud In the face! And he had offeredmy of-feredmy heart bleeds one thousand thou-sand English pounds for her!" "lie withdrew his offer, I pre- S""mmediately. effendim. She has ruined me. Also, the American , , ' know she is here. At any mo-en, mo-en, the cafe may be raided. ' -Forget this fear, Hflssnn. I had ,hou"ht the chief eunuch of the Z nee a wiser man. But my money s ns good as his. and I also co lec ,1? women. Twelve hundred Snda En,'l.h. Hassan? lour sIinre will to- ghe st, 1 , a- crnlTv s:i!onn. 1 lie Ilf,.ir i - there: the ,. f.,tiire were IndisMn- through tlii-se blindages u.ir eyes watched her greedily. "You have nothing to foar from me, my child," said the tall Egyptian. Egyp-tian. "Although you just offered to buy me! You miserable, cowardly dog! Do you think you or any other man could buy me?" A door at the further end of the saloon opened swiftly. . . . Yu'an Hee See came down the steps. The Egyptian stared at the Chinaman China-man as though hell's gates had opened and Satan had stepped forth. , Yu'an Hee See stood still for a while, hissing softly. "So tills Is the story, my friend," he said, the quivering flute notes sounding unlike un-like anything human. "I passed through the tail end of the sandstorm sand-storm which forced you . down in the desert. It delayed your Journeybut Jour-neybut not mine. A fortunate accident, ac-cident, Aswami, for me not for you. Always always I suspected. But last night, or very late this He Was on His Knees Beside 9 Pathetic White Figure. morning, I forced the truth from our little Orange Blossom, Aswaml . . . forced the truth you understand?" under-stand?" He began to laugh; and It was dreadful laughter laughter which for years afterwards haunted Eileen's Ei-leen's dreams. Aswaml Pasha seemed to be choking. "Come, my friend," said Yu'an Hee See, checking his laughter, "I have matters to discuss with you which I do not desire this lady to overhear." He fixed his slanting eyes on the rigid figure of old Hassan es-Suk. "Carry this lady through to the cage room," he ordered. "Find clothing. Bar your doors and return. re-turn. I shall have work for you." Eileen fell back, sick and faint, upon the divan. The opiate earlier placed in her coffee, overcame her again. . . . She felt herself lifted carried. . . . There was a dull crash a stifled gurgling cry. . . . In a sort of canteen Yu'an Hee See's rogues were gathered. Doctor Oestler was addressing the Scotsman. "I tell you, Mae," he said, "what you suggest is madness-ha? madness-ha? Madness. When you consider that we have two millions of minted mint-ed money, not unloaded from the dhow, ha? where Is your good sense to suggest that the Chief has deserted us? Why should he desert US, 11U f JUbl WIICU wc u,c a,-ium- plished so great a success?" Maclles, who was dead sober he had touched nothing for twenty-four twenty-four hours fixed bleary eyes upon the speaker. "I say," he replied, "tha' life Is more valu'ble than gold. The Chief has gone and so has Mr. King. And there's a Breetlsh warship war-ship nosing ahoot the island. We a' know that. They can put a landing party ashore, to cut us off on the east, nnd they cou' blaw this place to smithereens In twa minutes. Listen to wha' the lads are snylng !" Indeed It was apparent enough that the ruffians In the canteen were dissatisfied! High above the clamor a voice was heard demanding, demand-ing, "Vot about der share-out? Dis It lss I ask. Vot about der share-out?" share-out?" "They dlnnn ken the truth," said Maclles. "Something's gone ngley, and we've been left to face the music. It's true, we have the money, but we'll never live to spend It unless we do wha' I suggest." "You see, Mac," Doctor Oestler Interjected, "it is pretty clear that we had a spy amongst us. ha? The Chief has gone to head him ofT ha? head him off? If the other has gone also, why the situation Is bad I think bad. But we should wait l,a7for instructions. You think so?" (TO BE COSTISIT.D) |