Evening Star Newspaper, July 27, 1924, Page 62

6 GA g "~ _"THE SUNDAY ' STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. By Albert Payson Terhune A Lawyer, Trained in Crime Detection, Evolves a Perfect Plan for the Elimination of His Traditional Rival and Former Partner. ES." Beasely went on, with unction, “it was sure one narrow escape. Funny you fellows hadn’t heard of it. Scems there have been heaps of cases like 1t, too—sort of epidemic.” Beasely was dummy, just then, in the daily bridge game on the four- fify five. He was not one of the regular players. In fact, he was a bore, whom his fellow-commuters generally shunned with much indus- try and skill. n the presence of a bore, at the card table between the seats of the smoker, is better than to play three-handed. So when Grib ble missed his train that afternoon, and no other available bridge timber was at hand, Roke and Denham and Teunis had asked Beasely to sit in. None of the others encouraged him to go on with his recital. But Beasely seldom needed urging. A momentary gap of ence was all he asked. “Yep,” he droned on, “happened last Thursday night, That's why I haven't been aboard then till today.” The three plavers, excited, tense, slapped down their cards with the customary commuter gesture. But sely was not troubled by any lack ttentic “I went ou into the garage” “Had nothing to do Thought it (13 he that Zood was a chance to go over the little car. Cold | night, you remember—Thursday. So T switched on the electric light and shut the garage doors. Then I started the engine, to see if I could locate that knock I was telling you about. Well—-" “If youd held back that ace—" began Denham, frowning at his part- ner as the hand ended, it back that time, and 1 “Huh?" grunted Beasely. thought you were talking Let's see; where had 1 got to? Oh, yes Well, there I was, shut up ther \ith the .engine purring as sweet a; vou please, and the lights all on and me tinkering away at the old boat. And 1 thought to myself: ‘Now, this is real cosy! And the next thing 1 knew I was on the parlor sofa, with Doc Merriam working over me with a pulmotor, and the wife blubbering and——" “Two riffling his “Oh, interposed Teunis, ' said Denham, “You see,” gabbled Beasely, hurry- ing through his yarn in the moment| which even commuter card etiquette | to decide on a bid, carbon monoxide exhaust that got me. Doc Merriam told me all about it. Said if Danny hadn’t happened to come out to the to tell me about a phone keeled over, I'd have been a deader. Dozens of folks have been Killed that way, s 5 allowed for Roke ou see, it was the from the arage Doc says o O Reasely’s relief Roke had sud- denly Dbegun to pay the most attering attent to the long- drawn-out tale. To the disgust of h fidgeting fell rs, he laid aside his hand, and “What's the main idea? Flow could the gas from a car kill anybody? I've puttered around the exhaust of my car a hundred times never did anything worse than make -play asked exclaimed Beasley with an air “That was because vou were in the open. The gas was dissipated by the outer air. Doc that same thing; and he told me af utter wisdom. * began Roke. ‘or heaven's sake!" stormed Teu- “Are we playing cards or are tion after next is mine,” grum- bled Denham in the same breath. “Cut out the—-" “Here's the idea” boomed the in- sistent Beasley, thrilled at the rarity of having omne civil listener, S near I could understand Doc's long words: When there’s imperfect com- bustion—and there always is, of course—it generates carbon monoxide as. 1t fills the room and it fills any ne who has the bad luck to be in the voom. First of all, it hits the lungs nd puts them out of commission. hat's why I've been in bed for three davs. Then it stops the heart. And that time, the vietim is ready for a Doc dozens of —" Play cards!” fumed Denham. Roke, with a mutter of apologs. picked up his hand and proceeded to a deaf ear to Beasley's further clucidations. Roke was a good player © Which was lucky! For during the rest of the game he played wholly by the aid of his subconscious mind. Hi conscious mentality was miles away from the stuffy smoker and was rac- ing as never had a suburban train the power to race. ‘And that night, after dinner, Roke went across to the Paignton Public Library, where for an hour, he read. And the books piled up in front of lim on the shiny table were all con- cerned with chemistry and popular science generally. From time to time he made a note on a scratch-pad. Then he returned home—and lay awake un- til dawn. as white 1i turn * K K ¥ MAXWELL CLIVE and Roke had started life as law partners. Clive, within a few years, had broken Joose from the partnership and had forged ahead—scoring a brilliant suc- cess, in a small way, while Roke had remained a mediocrity. Next, Clive had won and married the fluff-brained girl to whose volatile heart Roke had been laying siege for the best part of two years. Always it had been like that. Always the pair had been thrown together by destiny. And always Clive had won. In Roke's soul, during the slow passirg of tho years, a natural dislike for his rival had deepened, bit by bit, into a hatred which in time waxed coldly murderous. Calmly, unswerv- ingly, he yearned for the other’s de- struction. The yearning grew to be the strongest thing in his warped and gisappointed nature. Clive and Roke met—when meet they must—on courteous, even cor- dial terms, as befitted two former partners who haq once wooed the same girL Clive had no special aver- sion for Roke; nor, naturally, did he dream of the latter's all-encompa: iag datred for him, .. 2 to me. | call, and caught me just as Ij or more, and it} 1 asked | Roke had been born and brought up in the pretty suburb of Palgnton. He had seen It grow from a sleepy village to a prosperous residence-and- business borough. Because of his old- time affiliations with the place, as well as because of the lack of more promising timber, he had been made borough treasurer. This, three years earller. He had swung the local job in con- nection with his city law practice. He had done more. A year back certain mos t attractive speculations had pre- sented themselves to him. His expe- rience told him that here was one of the e times when a man with a little capital might well hope to be- come a millionaire. And he had not only mortgaged his house, but had called in all his few small invest ments, in order to clean up. The sum still was short of what he wanted. “There were borough funds which his official position made avail- able for temporary use. These he ap- propriated. He did so with many twinges of conscience, for he was not by nature either a thief or a murderer. t the temptation to exchange low- fhcome drudgery for a life of opulent | leisure was too strong. And he com- forted his conscience by telling it over and again of the perfect safety of this speculation, and of his ability to restore the borrowed secur- ities as soon as the clean-up should | have been made. But the clean-up was never made. The seemingly safe speculation crum- bled. 1ts collapse left Roke not only penniless, but with a big deficit of borough funds which he could not make good. S For a time, thanks to his position Ierl his legal knowledge, he kept his head above water, and his defalca- tions from discovery. Then, as usual, Clive came upon the sgene. e x over, ! 'WO years earlier, Clive had moved to Paignton with his young wife. At once the couple had become more | | than well liked. They were among | | the most popular people in town, and | | were in the center of all local activi- ties. Partly because of this popularity, the council to win, Maxwell Clive was | nominated for borough treasurer. And at the n he beat Roke by a | healthy majority. On the 1st of January the new bor- ough treasurer would take office. His| | first discovery would be of Roke's| | deficit. And that inevitably must| | mean prison, or flight, for Roke. | 1f only the lucky candidate would | | die before he could step into his | predecessor’s shoes! That would af- ford time for Roke to turn around— time for possible new speculations to recoup old losses—before a special election could be held. The chances were that with Clive out of the way, | | the casy-going borough would even | i | | elec re-elect Roke. In that case many months of security might lie ahead— months wherein anything or every- thing might develop to save him. Roke took to straving past the Clive house, in the evening, with no definite aim in view, but scourged on by his hate and by his stark need of the other's climination. And twice, dur- ing these strolls, he had seen a light in the garage and knew that Clive was pottering about his beloved car. That was why he lay awake all night and for three successive nights, until his campaign was complete— and flawless. The basis of his plan, naturally, was | to cause Maxwell Clive's death by carbon monoxide gas, and to make that death scem accidental. It was a form of murder unknown to the long and smudgy annals of crime—a form of murder which could not be proven against the perpetrator, unless some egregious blunder should be made. From one angle after another Roke approached the subject. If the scheme contalned the very tiniest flaw, Roke dismissed it at once and fell to work devising another. At last he hit upon the one flawless fdea he sought—an idea which he told himself was proot against blunder or chance. Not content with going over its every move in his resourceful brain, he sat down and wrote it out, in brief: This is what he wrote: goes to the city in his car every Friday afternoon, to see his mother and to take dinner with her. He re- turns to Paignton, always between 11:30 and 12. He leaves th city not later than 10. T have verified this by watching him four successive weeks. He crosses the river by way of the 42d street ferry. “Next Friday night T shall wait at the ferry slip until his car ar- rives. I shall keep out of sight until it boards the boat. Then 1 shall stroll up to him and say 1 am on my way home by train and ask if he minds my riding out to Paignton with him instead, as I have some minor matters connected with the treasureship to talk over with him. If any one else is with him or joins him on the boat I shall postpore doing this until the following week or, if necessary, the week following that. e “He will probably offer to drive me to my own door, a mile beyond his house. This I shall refuse to let him do. I shall say I have something of special import to tell him and shall ask his leave to drive to his home and to talk with him there for a few minutes. Being hospitable and easy tempered, he cahnot very well refuse. “If he offers to leave me at the steps of his house while he puts away the car I shall insist on driv- ing to the garage with him. His servants will be in bed at such an hour—the lights in their wing of the house are always out before 10:30. His wife, too, in her preésent condition, always goes to bed early. She never sus up for him. So we are not likely to be interrupted. “As he stops the car in the garage, | partly because of a suit he had helped | | which could not fail. and.bends forward to turn off the lights I shall hit him over the back of the head with the slung-shot 1 have bought. That will stun and leave no abrasion. Then, If neces- third time to make certain he 1Is wholly senseless. “After that I shall lift him from the car, take off his coat and vest, hau! out the machine’s kit of t,ols and lay them at his side with a wrench or an oil can in his hand. 1 shall then start the engine and go out, shutting the garage door tight- 1y behind me. In the morning, when I hear of his death, I shall tell how he and I drove out from the city to- gether and that I left him tinker- ing with his car in an effort to dise cover the cause of a knock In it and that I walked on to my own house. The slung-shot I shall drop in the creek on”my way home from the garage.” Having written all this, Roke let the ink dry without the use of a tell-tale blotter. Next he read it over, phrase by phrase, until he had committed to memory Its every word. .Then he applied a match to the long sheet of Paper and watch- ed it burn to ashes. He rubbed the ashes into the palms of his hands, then washed his hands in the basin of his bathroom. - His plan was thus graven on his retentive memory. ks the following Friday evening toke was waiting In the shadow of the 42d street ferry slip, a full hour before Clive was due to appear. He wished to take no chances at missing his man in caso the lattér should decide to leate his mother's apartment earlier than usual. The night was murky and ohill A slither of snow-flecked rain was falling. Nobody was likely to be hanging around the ferry slip, for pleasure or for laziness on such an evening. The few people who boarded the boats at that hour made their way 28 fast as possible from trolfey or taxicab to the warm shelter of the ferry house. Yet, to make sure no hastening acquaint- ance from Paignton should recognize him, Roke wormed his way into a black angle of gate and wall, be- yond the farthest radius of electric light. There he was safe from recognition and reasonably shelter- ed from the snowy rain. Roke was as calm as though he were waiting for a casual lift home. Always analytical, he decided that he was calm because hls was a normal and well equipped personality and not that of a criminal with its odd twist of mind and of nerve. He was about to follow out a carefully plan- ned and simple program—a program There was no need for excitement. And that was why he felt in no way excited. Yet his wire nerves were beginning to fray, ever so little, when— “Boss,” whined a voice at his el- bow, “couldn’t you give a dime to a poor feller that hasn’t had anything to eat all day Roke was guilty of something like a start, as the beggar's whine broke | in on his vigil. He wheeled about. | There, crouching, like himself, in the | narrow angle, was a thin and under- sized man, badly in need of a shave, and more in need of a wash. The outcast’s misery and his air of chronic terror touched a queer chord in Roke's nature. Also it roused in him a dormant feeling of sypersti- tion. He recalled a scapegrate chum of college days who had made’it a rule, before entering upon a gam- bling session, to hunt out some beg- gar and give him a coin. The gambler always insisted that such an act of kindliness, before a game, had the effect of softening Dame Fortune's heart. Back in Roke's memory flashed this superstition now. He, himselt was about to embark on a life-and-death gamble. Into a trouser pocket went one of his chilled hands. Out he drew a thin roll of bills with a five as its wrapper. Detaching the five from the rest, he handed it to the rapturously grate- ful beggar, growling roughly as he did so: “Now beat it!” The mendicant fairly writhed with gratitude. Mouthing toothless bene- dictions, he wiggled out of the angle and from the waiting man’s sight. * % % % FTHE deed of foolish generosity had L 3 strangeé effect on Roke. In- stantly his growing nervousness van- ished. In its place he was pervaded | over the top of the car door. by a sweet calm. He knew, some- how, that he could not fail in his en- terprise. Into his thoughts flashed the old line: “A poor man, served by you, shall make you rich! And as if to prove a new phase of the gambling superstition, Maxwell Clive's car drew up In front’ of the closed ferry gate less than sixty onds later. “*A poor man, served by you, shall make you rich! ” whispered Roke ex- ultingly. ; . No boat was in, nor would be for a few minutes. Nor was there any other car, on this wintry night, wait- ing for it. Roke, In view of this, ventured on a variation .of his origi- nal plan. He slipped out of the dark angle, made a slight detour and ap- proached the walting car as though from the street. “Why, hello Clive!” he hailed, peer- ing uncertainly in at the half-visible figure in the driving seat. “That you? Filthy night, fsn’'t it?" “Rotten,” agreed Clive, leaning for- ward with no great enthusiasm to ac- cept the gloved hand proffered him “Been in town to the theater?” “Yes. But I oft earl T've got some of the treasury accounts to go over before I get to bed. By the way, there are a bunch of things—some of them petty and some of the not— about that job that I'd like to talk over with you sometime soon.” “Sure,” assented Clive. “Any time. Drop in tomorrow evening, if you like.” “Thanks. But I've got to come to the city tomorrow night. I—I won- der it you'd mind very much if I ride out with you tonight, instead of tak- ing the train? If you'd rather not, say so. But I could tell you about them on the way home, and—-" “Why, certainly,” said Clive, still with no vast enthusiasm. “Climb on in. Would you rather take the back seat? you won't get so wet.” “No, thanks,” answered Roke, climb- ing aboard. “I'll sit in with You, if I may. Sure it won't be any bothci to you? Here comes the boat.” They chatted perfunctorily on in- different matters until the car was on its way up the hill on the Paign ton side of the ferry. Then Clive reminded his companion of the lat ter's desire to speak of matters con nected with the borough treasur: Roke was ready for this. week he had been rehearsing his line of conversation. And he launched forth into a long discourse on fiscal conditions in Paignton, descanting on divers minor legal complications and on the list of borough notes and their dates and renewals, and on the pos- sible uncertainty of ome or two hitherto sure sources of revenue. He talked glibly and with much amplification. He had every feature of his job at his tongue's end, and had marshaled -quite an array of problems connected with it, problems whose discussion struck the listener as wholly reasonable. The harangue lasted until the few misty lights of FPaignton came view. The car neared Clive’s house. The driver made as though to keep on toward Roke's mile-distant home. | But Roke would not have it so. “No, mo!” he begged. “I always take a long walk, before I turn in. I can't sleep if I don't. And the walk home is what I need. But if you don't mind I'll stop here for a very few minutes longer. I won't keep you up. There’s a rather big point in conncc- tion with the job that T want to touch on, before weo finish this talk. I can do it in three minutes. Drive on to your garage. I can tell you about it while you're putting up the car. Then I'll say good-night and chase home. “Here's the idea,” he continued: “I've reason to belleve—mind you, this is in strict confidence, 0ld man'— 1 have ‘reason to think a man con- nected with the borough administra- tion is a thief. I mean it. T have been watching him for a long time. And I believe he is juggling some of the borough funds. I'll tell you. his name, too. It's only right you should know, so you can be on your guard when you step into my job. He—" Roke paused. The car was rolling into the small garage. Tt came to a stop. Clive mechanically, bent over to switch off the lamps. Roke, from the street, had repeatedly seen him The curtains are up, there, and | For a into | JULY 27, 1924—PART 5. s == 5 { I /// gl J / % i 1/l J AS CLIVE LEANED FORWARD, ROKE STRUCK. | | do._this, the moment the machine was | halted. *x x § Clive leaned forward, Roke i struck. The blackjack blow was | delivered with scientific force and un- erring aim. With it went all Roke's muscular strength. Clive siumped forward in a ludi- crous, spineless heap, over the steer- ing wheel, and then slid limply down |across the pedals. from the car. Pausi On the instant, Roke had descended | chology which had made his plans[ move on greased wheels from the very moment he gave $5 to the cring- ing beggar. There must assuredly be something in such a superstition. He admitted that, even to his coldly skeptical self. Else, how account for the perfect assurince of victory which had been his from that moment on? How else account for the success orl every step of his scheme since then? Roke slept like a child. Drowsily | awakening, at sunrise, he lay still | & only to start|for a little while; trying to realize |again the Jjust-stopped engine, he|why he felt so unaccountably happy. |like precision. |doors— | house beyond—he lifted the |man to the concre: {waistcoat. These garments he fold- led with meticulous care and laid across a tire rack. Then, from under the front seat, he exhumed a tool kit, spread it open on the floor, selected therefrom a pair of pliers and thrust them into Clive's limp hand. Open- ing the hood of the car, he stood for a moment looking down on his vie- tim. His knock man’s main come sufficed to s from the s due to re- senseless for many minutes to as a result of the black-jack smash. And in that little, tight, one- car garage, ten minutes would be long enough for the gas to do its work. There was no need to risk bruises by a second or a third blow. The single bruise, if investigation were made, would be attributed to the fall on the hard floor. Roke's work was done. And it was done well. He tiptoed out of the gar- age leaving the engine still running and the lamps on, and closed the door tightly behind him. Homeward he made his way. Apart from a tingle of exultation, he had no unusual feelings after his well-re- hearsed deed. The work was done— the unpleasant but needful work. He was safe from the dire péril which had menaced him. He had gotten rid of the man who had been his hoodoo, his Nemesis, since boyhood. In time, perhaps, Mrs. Clive might so far recover from her grief as to smile again on the suitor who had wooed and so nearly won her bpefore his rival had swept her off her feet. But on this golden phase of the fu- ture Roke would not let himself dwell. pIt seemed scarce decorous, just yet. Half-indulgently he found himself wondering as to the .gambler psy- single blow all cons: head. Clive had s w \\\ N W/ N ) saci-L ahall it him & second and a DETACHING THE FIVE FROM THE REST OF THE BILLS, ROKE HANDED IT TO THE GRATEFUL BEGGAR. vent to work with swiftly business-|Then gradually, he remembered; and | a pair of Closing the garagelne stretched himself out in bed with |from t first making sure there was no | a sensation of utter bliss. How dif- |light or sign of waking life in the|ferent was this from the awakenings |agewa rawling | when the danger of his position had |Were two sets of steps. | te floor and strib-|flown at his throat like a mad cat, |his visitors were unwilling to wait | | ped from him his ulster and coat and | the very moment his mind was clear |for hi: enough to function! “A poor man, served by you, shall make you rich!” he exulted. He was turning over for another happy snooze, when his one servant —an old woman—tapped at his door. “Mr. Roke,” she quavered, “there's | two men—two gentlemen—downstairs | to see you. I told 'em you wasn't up | vet. But they said it was very im- | portant. They *“Oh, all righ: RRoke cut her short. “Say I'll be right down.” He was climbing out of bed, as he | spoke. Gone was the delicious drowsi- | ness of a minute before. He was | alert, wide-awake, ready. i Clive's death, no doubt, had been discovered. Some ncighbor, knowing Roke's close acquaintanceship with | the dead man, had called to tell him | of the tragic accident. That, or else some Paignton commuter had caught | a glimpse of the two as they rode | into the borough together, the night before, and Roke's perfunctory testi- | | |ana had come | nis ony was wanted by the coroner, as he last person who had seen deceased alive.” In either event Roke was ready— ready and eager. There was not the remotest flaw in his case. * % * % € WIFTLY he tossed on his cloth waiting not to bathe or to shave | or so much as to wash his face. A haggard aspect would well become him on hearing of his old associate's demise. In less than five minutes he was clad, and was thrusting his feet into lippers. He looked up s brief task at sound steps on the stairs and in the pass- v outside his bedroom. There Evidently descent to the living-room upstairs in search of him. Roke's brow creased at this undue liberty of theirs as he rose and started across the room to msset them. As he was midway in his advance there sounded a peremptory knock at the door panel. Without waiting for response, the who had knocked turned the knob and flung wide the door. Roke halted with ludicrous haste in is careless stroll across the room. His jaw hung loose. His eyes bulged like a sick frog's. On the threshold—a bandage encircling Maxwell Clive. He looked pallid and as though he had done no sleeping. The ban- dage was held in place by a wad of gauze dressing above a bump on his head. Just behind him in the door- way loomed the portly figure of the borough_chief of police. In one of the chief’s hamlike hands was clutch ed an official-looking paper. From man neat little his head—stood the | |the other darg cuffs, “Very prettily done, Roke.” com- mented Clive, breaking the momert of stark silence with a slow draw! which was threaded by saturnine ‘l{nmr;ux:‘. “Very prettily And if L hadn’t forgotten to stop at the service |station on the way from town lasg ght would have worked. But, |you see, it hanpened there was only |about a pint of gas left in the tank. |‘Tl.e engine stopped automatically be- |fore it could pump enough carbon monoxide into the garage you thoughtfully closed. gine stopped Lefore way home.” | Roke did not speak. | dizzy brain raced the | “A pint of gas * * A pint of gas! A flawless plan wrecked—a sen- [tence in jad—the end of all the world |for me! Three cents’ worth of gaso {line to smash a man's life! Three ‘ccnls'" ’ “I was suffering a good bit from |that tap over the head when I came |t0,” went on Clive to unhearing ears. {“But T had semse enough to see the (gas switch was turned on. And I |can swear I had turned it off. 1 saw the garage door was shut. And it | had been open. It got me to think- |ing why you ehould have tried such a thing. And I went to |borough hall, and through the books there. It took me most of the night. But I got what I went for. 1 got |enough for the warrant Chief Me- Cabe is waiting so courteously to read to you” He paused. The chief stepped for- ward. Roke lifted his heavy head lana his cracked lips parted in the words: “Three cents (Copyright. 1924.) d a pair of hand- o0 Probably theen- you were hals Through his thought: . Togo Interviews a Diplomat. (Continued from Fifth Page.) Puglick Information have loaned to the Postoffice Dept. From the Pavil- ion of Divine Understanding, several drain-pipes has fell down to knock out the Tablets of Ten Thousand Wisedoms. The Great Bronze Bow- wow Lions of the External Court is getting roosted on by too many birds. And so onwards everywheres. Yet I are sort of thanksgiving for that spirit of liberty which have ac- | cumplish all this because it give me such a swelled chance of seeing so much without a roval invitation. In companionship with ricksha-man, dogs, photographers, American mil- lionaires and other persons, I can sonter right up to Temple of Heaven and light cigarettes on High Altar where emperors formerly came on April 1 to shake hands alone with the Ruler of the Universe. Think of Hashimura Togo in such position while being photographed! Do this not make you proud to think that the Chinese Empire have fell and spread apart? That city ot Peking have got so much beauty in it that my intellec- tual brain have got sort of cross- eved looking at too much too quickly. * K ¥ ¥ I this city you can find everything desired. If you do not like that you can find something else. American gentleman which T met here say that Peking are cheapest place to go to Hal in he have yet striked. In central heart of Peking are to be found the Foren or Legation Quarter. There reside all the Am- bassadors of European Powers with England in the best place, as usual, | and America in the worst. T Jangement were fixed by the follow- ing history: ‘When Emperor got kick-out & Re- publick got kick-in all those Euro- pean Powers jump rapidly for find some legations. England she select the home of an Emperor. Japan she select the home of a Empress. France she select the Household of the Royal Concubines. America, who were awalting for Congress to telesraph orders, ae@ved a little late. There- fore she took what were left. Howeverly, America she hold up her dignity pretty good, by golly, and can keep persons awaiting for pass- ports just as long as anybody, except Japan. s ‘When I arrive to Peking the Presi- dent of that Republick find I were there, T gas, for he do me the great official honor of saying he were sick and could:not see me, Maybe he.got too many worries for to be probed by a brite mind like me. This gentle- man, who are called Tsao Kun in his own languidge must love China a great lot, for he pay 100000008 for get him- self elected. And when Congress see that money they make it onionani- mous. Since that date he have lived quiet life peculiar to Chinese Presi- dents wishing to remain so. B o OWEVERLY. I had the very sat- factory pleasure to- get mice talking interview with the Sun Pao-chi, who stand 6 ft & a few inches without hat or obstacles. He are the Charles E. Hughes of China, and in resemblance he look like that famus friend of Shidehara. He got a refined, prolonged face with grey on his whisker and look like he could be perfectly candid without telling me anything in his delightful manner. “Parlez vous Francais, Monsieur?" he report difficulty while drinking tea & cigarettes. “Ah, non T can’t.” This from me. “Then parlez vous Chinese?” he dic- tate courteously. “Non, even less than that,” T bereft. Howeverly, Miss Tishi-san spoke French at him while Hon. Chinese Philosopher practice his Chinese at that great man. In meanwhiles I sat there attempting to digest 2 transla- tions at same time. Trouble with in- terpreters, Mr. Edftor, are this: they getiso excited about their own gossip that they usually forgets to trans- late. Hon. Sun Pao-chi set there smiling very Charlie Hughes in 2 languidges. Talk pop around my head like beans, very brilliantly. “He have just shot a great compli= ment at you,” report Miss Tishi-san, after several tons of talk. “Oh, what could it?” 1 dictate rap- turely. She talk French éven more. “He have just ottered an enormal- ous diplomatick crisis!” decry Chinese Philosopher, when 3% hour was gone. “O what could be?” I gasp faith- fully. Hon. Philosopher get right back into Chinese talk. So onwards it went. While,I were interviewing that Prime Minister everybody know what he say but me. This are an outrag. At lastly Hon. Sun Pao-chi bow with great chivalry while looking at my face. “He wish know,” say Hon. Philoso- | pher, “if you have any more ques- tions to ask?” After that this oddience. was over. ‘When we got outside by bowing back- wards 66 times I require peewly from Prime | Minister, a Manchu prince name of | fiss Tishi-san & Hon. Chinese Phil- | osopher. “What were { thing 7" “He say,” report Hon. Chinese Phil- | osopher, “that he wish you do every- thing in your power to maintain the present Good Feeling between China & the U. 8. * %= it he said, if any- HILE writing this letter, Mr Editor, I are straining myself to do =o. Before buying my ticket from Pek- ing I wish tell you one (1) more great man of China which 1 saw, but not so near. This Chinese Philosopher say I could not die unless T go see Hon. Mai Lan Fang, celebrated Chinese actress Hon. Mai Lang make 5000008 pr v by acting like a lady. I know several Americans who gets much less for this hard job. But I are willing to do anything 2ce (quotation from Harry | Thaw) so I folla the noise of bursted tin & get into theater where T found that what I heard was music. There on stage was 2 oldy gentle- men with blue whisker & goldy rose- buds sticking out of their hairs while they kick both ways with Chinese boots & holla “Woo-gow! Howlu- howla! Cheeeeee! BANG! (Noise by okestra). Some Siberian maidens carrying red white & blue freshovels march 4th amidst more kinds of noises. Then I hear a cat. It were not a very good cat. I know of 9 in my backyard what can sing several tunes better. Yet it were a cat undoubt- lessly. Then what T see? By golly, it were not a cat nor even | a kitten. It were that celebrated Mr. Mai Lan Fang, dishguised to look like | Pekinese sho-girl with Mary Garden powder on his or her face &-a mince- pie walk. “If you love China,” say Hon. Phil- osopher hurtly, “you should learn to love our music. Are wsat Jusic & uni- versal language?” “Listen at me, M:. Philosopher,” 1 | narrate peevly. “America & China can become close-harmony on your delicious cookery. America & China can associate in methods of demo- | eracy & politickle corruption. In art both countries can cahoot a great deai & learn mutually. But if ever you | try to amalgamate the China & Amer- 1ican Musiclans Unions it can't result in noths:g but a long & bitter war. Hoping you are the same Yours truly HASHIMURA TOGO, . (Copyright 15249