Show 4 t- t Men b I i C Sleep I IBy B By y Jeremy I Lane one f. f WINd Illustrated by IR IRWIN MYERS 44 Copyright by the Century Co or E EITHNA MARCH Synopsis John Levington a poet visionary and Impractical and Mary Martin tho daughter of or rich and worldly parents hear the call of ot love and unite their lives They go to a small Michigan city cUy where John finds work In a stove factory and on cn Sundays writes verses The Martins try In vain to get the tho happy wife wire to leave her husband Mary begins to breathe for two John loses his Job He appeals in vain to the Martins Martina Mary olary goes to tho hospital and never neer returns Thus comes into tho thu story Cornelius Levington The father leaves town and the city farms out Cout tho child After ACter two years rears the father returns and takes his little son with him on his world world- wanderings The father becomes the slave of or a mysterious dru drug drus koresh with odors of wino and cinnamon and returns with little Con to die on his wife's grave Con ConIs Is again farmed out grows up In Inthe Inthe inthe the underworld and aDd Is saved for or better things by Andrew March So much by way of ot Introduction to the hero of ot the strange adventures of ot Y Yellow Men Sleep These begin begin be be- gin when Con takes by force torce a small loather leather sack Jack from Chee Ming lIIng the Chinese cook of Cot an acquaint acquaint- ance anco This sack contains a Chinese Chinese Chi Chi- nese neso map of ot the Gobi d desert sert which is precious beyond price to Andrew March CHAPTER CHAPTER II III Continued II 4 When repairs were finished the unpainted un- un painted sloop nosed out of at the Ule bay and breasted the tam less blue The captain had whipped three into the crew cre and the lad loved them The mate also Swedish but Inclined to silence had frightened two negroes up t-p from the back rooms of or the cIt city to add nd to the quota A Hindu wild-eyed wild and hon bony hauled at the Ule sheets frequently fre- fre frequently fre pausing to weep at his own Ignorance Ig On Oc these later occasions the silence of f the mate was broken Their cook a salty Irishman whose I I. I c c was for some reason forfeit In the thc gold old districts above the bay bey curse cursed with a frantic might his will good-will to the new corner new comer Stephen March when lie rhe boy confessed In himself a line of Celtic blood Stephen was happy Ills His da days s 's were filled with strong drink tabor labor an and dreams The captain had read three books In English and he tie now read them again aloud to his midshipman They were cre the Travels of Marco Polo a fathomless fathomless fathomless fathom fathom- less treatise on The Art of Toxins and the he The pages of these three three golden en fragrant an and terrible ter ter- were wele were written afresh n the eager listener lItener lIe He E strove rove to conceal how they bit his pride He lIe slaved at the ropes with the yellow men and sometimes sometimes some some- times rimeR laughed with them but they watched him with narrowed eyes and andu anda u a lowering of the chin and even Donegan Donegan Donean Done- Done gan an at the stove practised more careful careful careful care care- ful ways In Stephens Stephen's presence In the evenings there were tales of China an and her deep mad deserts Ya Vague ue yet ct Irresistible these yellow strands were drawing him to Mid- Mid Asia Lordliness stirred In his breast The voyage was an affair of at months gale cut but hut Stephen March had made Ms Lis own Inner 1 arrival But nut he was wac twenty when he reached the he Shan In-Shan In Shan mountains he beyond ond the China wall The caravan carn hn had left him at the J khan for tOlo th they were were tinning southward to cross the Hwang- Hwang I ho and proceed upon the tau Ho-tau plains over a trail that might once II heard merchants whispering the news of ot Jesus Here nere March waited I having no gold Jold Then with the urgent urgent ur ur- ur gent Jent mysterious summons still haunting haunt haunt- II ing him he n-as n forced to turn his hack back upon the desert and return to Peking for mone money The English girl whom he married In the square quare city of ot Peking found In him the quality of at lordship They prospered together When he was twenty seven he went again to the gap hap In the l long ng Wall In Inthe Inthe Inthe the north He had camels and aud provisions provisions pro pro- visions and a radiant heart The unknown unknown un un- un known treasure beckoned A dim dim- remembered throne seemed waiting wafting out there But the sleeted storms of winter came Il against him and his caravan diminished until the robbers robbe fell upon them and left their bodies for forthe tho the wolves wl when en spring should come Only one otter other returned with Stephen Stepheni i March his March his Chiney boy who had gone mad with desert fears tearS The English wife wite was In mourning and a n small maJl child ras ms ns learning to walk In the garden court of o t tho the Peking Peking Pe Pe- Pe king house Then the three of at them went to America where Stephen found foun much touch gold Jold and his l Englishwoman n ha had less leIs difficulty difficult n teaching the mother mother- mother I ton tongue ue to her son ion son Andrew She longed for her lords and their ways many ways many of them long since turned to quiet du dust t In some abbe abbey and abbey and and the spirit of at England must have hive heard hear for or she site was taken tal Into the bosom of that assembly Her lIer death sharpened the old desire In Stephen and when And Andrew row was sixteen father and son had hod Journeyed l l together to the far city of or Peking and ard to the Great Wall Vail an and the pIn plains Ins of Ho lIo Andrew Larch had bad told Levington of at that failure so charged with beauty and how suffering suffering how the fierce heat of or summer had withered the beasts how their inspired trail across the sand sand- crusts and along the tho rim of ot gray pits had been dotted with fallen men and anci camels The traders had warned them then and cursed their purpose but they had pressed on away from the trodden routes to north and south straight Into the west always we westward west t. t ward and to be he north until a party of at dusty horsemen had ridden them down robbed them helU and anti turned them back Parley was useless Andrews Andrew's father spoke a rt language they understood understood under under- stood yet they gave e but hut one reply Broken with Defeat the white man and hi his son aLd two drivers returned to the village of at Shan Their camels camel's e ryes eyes es were black and loose with coming death Andrew March larch when he was thirty left his father rather In Peking and started westward with a n summer caravan His Ills wife vent with him him him-a a high-born high Irish h girl who refused to stay back hack Something in the great Gobi Gobl had magnetized magnetized mag mag- her as n well lI Her Bel lovers lover's quest was her own own She loved the twisty old villages of the interior loved the fog over o the millet fields the peasants who went about half halt dead with age agean an and disease and she was ready to sing when the sun came through upon the dripping tiles of a farmers farmer's cottage But she could not could not stop In the pleasant lanes that wandered up from the I marshes Like Andrew In whom she i believed cd she was yearning for the I secret of the desert though she could give no reason In the world we are arc exiled exile a she he had said and possibly she thought their exile would end If It they could fInd the heart of ot Mongolia Through that memorable summer I she had lint ridden beside her husband Andrew March planned a n southern approach from the tan Chen-tan break inthe Inthe In Inthe the Wall where the forests are thick In autumn the camels grew fat and the winter months found foun them plodding plodding plod plo din ding through the rain sand and snow of at the sheltered ridges Spring came and the wanderers turned northward following the clearings through the thc woods heart heat high l. l I But nut as ns the they Journeyed the trees failed failed fail fall e ed in the rocky earth and nd an unreal summer stiffened the le spine of every ery camel The sand blazed on all sides sparkling upon upon worn rocks Andrew had striven to smooth all things for tor his She laughed at his wor- wor rles She was was' drawing closer to the heart of at bea beauty ty and romance They halted In a bleak settlement iw where e a. a stream had once passed Now but a muddy spring remained Midsummer Midsummer Midsummer Mid Mid- summer beat heat Into their bodies bodies' Eithna's child w was s born the born the only new clean thin thing within a thousand miles Perhaps the Immensity of sky the thc staring emptiness of of the horizon affected af at- the rosy newcomer There was vas no wall of sorrow from tram her tiny tin lips only a a drawn deep wn murmur In their hut lint the Tartar artar woman gaunt and hairy was sus an nu unsuspected miracle of tenderness J and sagacity In tI the e following spring when the g re of at the daytime was accompanied by swelling heat Andrew with his wife and child set forth again There was no trail The camels were uneasy un un- un- un easy Andrew was worn He lie longed longe to go on as did yet the Impulse Im lm- pulse to turn turn back was strong within him But she had told him ll lightly and perhaps truly that China to the tho soth oth and ea east t would be quite as In In- convenient and anO much less sanitary than the pathless land before them The child gravely ely regarded sand rocks s and the clear sky and learned to laugh lau h happily whenever Andrew came to take her A doll was made of at silks shies and a Jackal hone A shining lizard was also added to the tune March family for her entertainment The beasts grew crew thin and anti dry The wind a monster serpent of at the theair air swept before them and over them reddened the tile camels' camels eyes an and darkened darken durken- e ed their milk mill In Iu cheeks the color deepened an and she refused to turn back buck Andrew lost count of at the days Two of or the tile pack animals als were killed for good and drink and a third went down fo the lack of the same saute 6 The he baby haby girl prospered and whispered er or er songs under the starlight starlight star star- light of or a grotesque world Tho The riders came From out the west a little to the north they appeared appear appear- ed a dozen or more more hugo huge men mrm mounted mount mount- ed on short legged horses borses shaggy and half baIt wild They were silver eyed eyed men their movements as Incomprehensible incomprehensible In in- comprehensible as their words They circled about the young father and as they drew In doser Closer he ho was ready to fire ou them and light It out But nut his legs became suddenly weak weale and the sl sky y reeled earth earthward and and and when he awakened it was oHl deep night The desert was sll silent nt and horrible His bod body ached felt Celt thick and lOll clumsy Then ho found the tiny feathered dart still clinging to his shoulder where they had blown It the poisoned barb under the skin Andrew had been unconscIous unconscious unconscious un un- conscious for tor hours Eithna and the child chUd were gone Madly he kicked the camels and raced In the tIle pale pule far light of ot the heavens he thought he le could follow v the tracks of the horses He Be was able to do so without difficulty but found to his terror that each rider Ider had taken takena takeno a o different direction radiating out from tram the point of attack He did not know which to follow tollow He lIe was alone Sanity left him The camels whimper whimper- e el and started back the way they had come conic Andrew roused from his delirium 1 In Inthe Inthe a athe the hut but where his baby lichen Helen had been born and the tau familiar bearded female was watching him Fever loever had held him in In this hut but for many days daYN From caravansaries to the south he gathered up lip camels and men and horses and provisions and started northward again In search of his own Most of ot the men refused to ride with him beyond the trees frees Into nto the forbidden forbidden forbidden forbid forbid- den land eyed Bright eyed ht-eyed prevent prevent- y u ul l F P r J 1 y r t tI r rIf r If L i S I I r 1 II III IIi r i I l 11 J I i i Jee If It Aint Con Levington ed cd although although a n few consented to ac ac- accompany accompany company the white man malt Softly moan In moan lit wind covered their tracks as IlS they went They moved in large circles always always' northward s searching until they deserted Andrew for a mad mail man Stephen March came to find his son and anti ended these tuse desperate wanderings He ile pieced out the tho story An Andrew rew could jot oot tell and gently guided guid guid- uld cd ed him back to Peking A ransom was raised great enough h ht t to Impoverish the house of of March Now to carry the ransom to the riders came the thc British expedition and its Hs failure is still on the tongues of or certain certain certain tain old Out of at thirty stalwart stal stat wart art sweating sun-helmeted sun men four fOUl staggered back baek to sung Shan-sung with witha a tale of wounds skin-wounds that brought bitter dea leash ll and whole mirages of or hell Their were not taken down officially The stories were tinctured with lunacy so decided the wise listeners listener at the legation March was never ne found In eighteen years some of at the bitter bitter- bitterness nest ness ha had faded fade out of this for Andrew r March Ills His ills ays nys were as ns recondite as those of his father his desires far- far flung In lq shadowy worlds To him was lest but not forever His Ills sorrow forrow was never a blank He realIze realized realized real real- Ize how completely an au Easterner he was how Oriental in hi character The blessing was that It gave him a a. a Chinese patience About the time that Con Levington was was finding the deep places of at America Amer Amer- America ica and dipping In rather freely for tor fora tora a yo young ng pers person n Andr Andrew w March's attention attention at ot- had bad centered upon Chee Ming newly arrived In Dory street This Chinese shared his business with wIth no noman man man Intentionally March had been so 50 light a shadow upon him that the attack In fa the house was Vas a real surprise Levington had worked deli delicately ell ell- catel cately Gately and March permitted himself himself to hope as ns he had hind not dared hope for eighteen years lIe He had seen a peculiar far lar promise In the way Levington had made zade that st stampede down the street In n Cincinnati Con was close to the elements had Imagination vigor and anda andi a n i laugh In him were centered now nIl ill the tho hopes of at an unhappy man On the night train Con Can secured a 8 section and as a precaution slept In tic tc o upper berth Ho no Inserted himself between the stilt stiff brown Pullman blankets blan leets and stared for tor a moment up Into the close curve of ot the tho car roof rob Het He t thought of the tte small parchment map against his ribs tissue thin tissue thin In n Its tiny leather sack resembling a Mongol charm but In this case utilitarian rather than tuna religious so marked as to guide him him and and of ot the two unusual men whose messenger he lie was and who had filled the pouch ft his belt with heavy coins and paper But the lull of at the rushing train the clicking monotony of at the wheels the fresh air that shot In la through tho the ventilators anti and fatigue were claiming an organIsm organ organ- Ism newly tuned to health and Lev Lev- InMon fell tell asleep He took his mornings morning's walk along the swaying aisles from coach tc coach He abandoned caution and felt again a sense of at well veIl The |