THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, APRIL 22, .1917.
wouldn't mlna the blackmail it he played
the game for it; but now he's gone and
arranged to cut all our blesaed throats
yours, mine,, and the skipper's and the
lot ot us, and then take the hooker down
to some of the Dutch islands and sell
your tin on his own account!"
"Oh! That's the game, is it?" said
Flint, :and - he spoke with meticulous
nicety-this time, because he really was
amazed.
"Yes, sir! He'd have done it a week
ago, only hes.frald of the gunboat peo
ple coming over to visit us, and he wants
to get more tin, on board. That's why he
put off tackling my Chinamen till today,
lie's got the Malay quartermasters and
khalassies all fixed, and It was the chief
(quartermaster came to old Tong Lee, my
,'No. 1 fireman, this .vejiing, and asked
him could he run the engines for them
for a week. Yon g Lee bit the bait like a
jfish, and they told him everything. Then
'he came and blew the gaff to me!"
"Why was that, I wonder?" asked
Flint
"Why, sir, the old boy knew as well
as I do that they'd jab a kris through his
gizzard the Jiffy they'd done with him.
You've no idea, sir," concluded the engi
neer, "what bloodsome devils these pi
rates are!"
"Well, I seem to be learning, at any
rate," sighed Flint. " 'We are all as
Allah made-' us! The hawk and the
hawk's prey!' Well, I'll be.damned!"
"What's that, sir?" asked the chief.
not "be swearing on the bridge deck. At
the same time. Captain Gibney, would
you regard it as a bad breach of etiquette
if the charterer were to make a profes
sional suggestion to the commander?"
"Lord! no, sir!" replied-the skipper,
highly flattered.
"Well, what price clapping your quar
termasters into irons and firing off a
shot or, two as
the Reptile?"
a hint' to your friend on
2 I
M IS '
BUT your tin, sir!" expostulated Gib
ney. "Those beggars will scoff or sink
every other ounce of it that tries to pass
the Kwala if you once raise the alarm.
They tell me there's still over a hundred
tons of it on the way. A hundred tons
of tin is a fortune!"
- "I suppose It is!" admitted Flint sor
rowfully; ''still it wouldn't be much use
to me if I was dead!"
"Right, oh! sir!" said Gibney, and he
went Into his cabin for Flint's snipe gun,
while McGlew went below to summon his
second and third and the two Kurasian
mates to assist in manacling the Malays.
"And to think that I tried to play the
game by the bounders!" chortled Flint
to his own soul. "So that's what he
meant when he talked of the hawk and
the hawk's prey to knife the whole lot
of us!" "
Captain Gibneyx emerged from his
cabin with the snipe gun and fired two
shots down the Kwala.
"I'll follow you in an instant, cap
tain," said Flint as Gibney went below
to supervise the arrest of the Malays; "I
just want to get my revolver."
He ran down to his cabin for the
weapon. When he came on deck again
he looked up the Kwala apprehensively.
Something told him that the pirates were
watching the ship.
Surely enough, as he looked toward
the inlet whither the Inche retired every
evening he saw the shadowy outline of a
boat pulling out from the mangoes.
Meanwhile rough shouts and blows on
the main deck told him that the Malays
were showing fight. There were enough
men below, however, to subjugate the
quartermasters without difficulty, while
he felt 4hat it was his own particular
duty to attend to that shadowy boat.
When she came within about fifty
yards he could plainly see that she held
half a dozen occupants, so he hailed her
to stop or he would fire.
"It is only the pilot, tuan!" called
back the voice of Inche Mahmud. , "We.
heard shots and bad noises, so we hur
ried to ascertain what was the matter."
"Come no nearer, pilot!" warned
Flint. "The captain has " arrested his
quartermasters, who tell him that his
pilot is Inche Mahmud, and that his men
are pirates, one and all!".
The boat quietly drew nearer.
"Stand back, pilot!" again warned
Flint. ''The captain has signaled the
gunboat. Did you not hear the shots,
thou fool! Look down the Kwala! There
come the boats! The quartermasters say
you mean to murder us!"
Bang!
It was from the pilot's boat the flash
came, and a bullet sang past Flint's ear.
Bang!
Another flash, and. Flint threw him
self on the deck, with a hot scar on the
shoulder where a bullet had just grazed
the skin.
Two white men-of-war boats, swing
ing into full view, cheered as they pulled
for the steamer. Like a -wraith the fish
ing boat sped back toward the shadows
of the mangrove swamps. For appear
ances sake Flint fired a couple of shots
into the sky as Gibney came rushing up
the gangway.
"You're not hurt, sir, are you?" gasped
the latter. He was out of breath after
his scuffle with the quartermasters.
"Not a bit!" said Flint, "only a touch
on the shoulder. Here come the Reptile
boys. Better look slick and let down the
gangway for them!"
Half an hour later, having heard the
whole story so far as it lay within the
knowledge of Captain Gibney or Mr. Mc
Glew, Lieutenant Hesketh turned to
know we'll give 'em beans and honey If
you can only put us on to them!"
, "For the Lord's sake, don't drag me
into it!" pleaded Hint. "Why, they'd
kris every miner and boatman that ever
did a hand's turn for me if they dreamed
that I was informing against them.
Moreover, I have no more notion than a
crow as to where the beggars hide them
selves when they're not blackmailing
me!"
Back in the darkness of the mangroves
the Inche Mahmud lay under a load of
sorrow such as no pirate of the Palinggu
had ever been called upon to bear. When
he arose and looked forth to seaward in
the pink flush of the false dawn It was to
ll
see the Lady Raffles, dipping her flag as
she lumbered past H. M. S. Reptile. . f"
In view of the fact that it still lacked
a couple of hours of gunfire, the warship'
had not yet got out her colors. In a. mo
ment, however, the white ensign was
broken over her stern rail and dipped
with punctilious politeness to the trader.
Then the Lady Raffles went chug
chugging through the turquoise sea, with
Flint's fortune safe below her hatches, j
The Inche Mahmud withdrew his gaze
from the harrowing spectacle.
"Bismillah!" he sighed, with the forti
tude of the true believer. "It Is the wIB
of God!"
Copyright, 1917, by J. KeeleyL
JAM GOD
with the sigh of a disappointed
Flint
man.
"I suppose you couldn't help us to bag
the beggars, Mr. Smith?" said he. "You
Why the Barber Roared
MY BARBER," said Mr. Goslington,
"is the best man in the shop; but
( do not like the way in which he thanks
me for my tip.
"He says 'Thank you!r in a tone so
oud that it can be heard along the whole
line of chairs and by all the waiting cus- -tomers.
I am a modest man and I do
oot like ""to have attention thus drawn
to me.
"But what could I do about itt I
could scarcely ask him to speak lower,
could I? I could only wince a little and
wish Inwardly that he would be less pro
nounced iivhi3 thanks, while I wondered
that a man who was at once so proficient
and so gentle ta the exercise of his pro
fessional art should be so lacking in tact
nd grace in his manner of expression.
''But one day it all came clear to me,
Witt a jolt that gave me a greater shock
than I had ever experienced by his loud
advertisement of my generosity. ,
"The fact was that his loud spoken
thanks were not intended for me solely;
in truth in this he was not considering
me at all; he was simply using me as a
sounding board from which to make a
proclamation, audible to all, that here,
just stepped down from a chair, was a
gentleman who had given a tip.
"With these thanks thus spoken there
was promulgated the unmistakable ac
companying idea that this was a shop in
which tips were customary; and 1 have
no doubt whatever that more than one
man who, before, had been wavering as
to whether he should give a tip or not
(Continued from Page 5)
his teeth Into it : and even as he did so it
disappeared and he awoke, gasping and
choking under the broiling blackness.
"I'll hate to take that canteen down
to the stream and fill it," he muttered,
rising unsteadily andsproceeding toward
the bank. To his surprise he found, that
rain had fallen. He was treading in ooze,
which rose- higher and higher until it
clogged his footsteps. He struggled, but
now it held him fast, and he was sinking
slowly but persistently, now to the waist,
now to the shoulders. Frantically he
thrust his hands downward to free him
self, and withdrew them, sticky with
jam! He "scooped up great handfuls
greedily; and even as he raised it to his
mouth it vanished, and he awoke once
more in his tent.
He flung himself out of bed with an
oath, took down his canteen and started
toward the river. The noise of the tom
toms was louder than ever, proceeding,
apparently, from some point in the bush
a little to the left of the king's palace.
Scrambling and struggling through the
thorn thickets, he reached the sandy bed
of the stream, filled his water bottle at a
pool, and drank greedily.
It was that still hour of night when
the man-voiced clamor of the bush
grows hushed, because the lions are com
ing down to drink at the waters. The
rising moon threw a pale light over the
land. The tom-toms were still resound
ing in the bush, but. to Peters distorted
mind they took on the sound of ripe man
goes falling to the ground and bursting
. as they struck the soil. He counted,
"One, two, three," and waited. He
counted again. There must be thousands
of them. Peters began to edge his way
through the reeds in the direction of the
sound.
AFTER a while he came to a wall of
rocks, perpendicular and almost In
surmountable. He paused and considered,
licking his lips greedily arTne thud, thud
continued, now, apparently, directly in
fronf of him. All at once his eyes, curi
ously sensitive to external impressions,
discovered a little secret trail between
two bowlders. He followed it; a great
stone revolved at his touch, and he found
"himself inside the sacred groves. He
went on, gulping greedily in anticipation
of the feast which awaited him.
Suddenly he stopped short. He had
seen something that brought back to him
with a rush the realization of his where
abouts. Seated In the shelter of a cactus
tree, not fifty yards away, was King
Mtetanyanga, wearing his three opera
hats, one upon another, in the form of a
triple crown, and drinking his own rum
with Raguet. under the shade of Raguefs
umbrella. Prone at their fet imiuiui
was won over to the right side by my Tom. the interpreter
V rt .V..-'. LI . , . .. r
barber s unblushing proclamation, of
which I had been for so long the uncon
scious medium of communication.
"Thus with my true knowledge of the
real significance of my . barber's loud
thanks I was made to suffer the added
shock of jerspnal humiliation; and yet I
couldnot but admire his audacity in
planning and his boldness in execution,
and so l still stick to him u for he Is the
Shop's best barber." The Sun.
"His majesty say. -How you fix him
Ju-Jur " translated Tom.
"Tell his majesty my Ju-Ju stronger
than the Englishman's Ju-Ju," answered
the Frenchman. "My Ju-Ju eat up his
Ju-Ju. He very sick. If I choose,
die."
"Ugh!" grunted the king, when
explanation was vouchsafed, apparently
impressed.
"Tell his majesty my Ju-Ju stronger
he
this
than his own Ju-J. If he no sign treaty,
eat up his Ju-Ju," Raguet went on.
A flow of Li
a o - i vui 1,119
king's lips.
"His majesty say he bring his Ju-Ju;
see whose greater," said the interpret
ter.
Vaguely aware Xhat treachery was
impending, but crazed now by the falling
mangoes, Peters left them palavering'
and followed the trail. All at once he
emerged Into a tiny clearing and stood'
uiuiiwujs m a nre, rouna which a group of
men priests, as he knew from their buf-
" tiaua i earner 9, were re
clining, hammering upon tom-toms and
shouting in various stages of intoxica
tion. The firelight blinded their "eyes.
Peters stood still uncertainly. Then
his eyes fell upon a sawed -off tree trunk,
in the hollow of which lay something
wrapped In a white 'cloth, surrounded
with snake skins. He had come by this
secret road into the actual presence of
the great Ju-Ju.
Curiously he inserted his. hand, lifted
the object out and examined it. Inside
was something of a strange yet familiar .
shape, oval, and flattened at the ends.
He lifted it wrappings, and-there. In his
hand, he saw a can bearing the legend ;
"Greenaway's Best Jam!"
He looked at it in solemn and 'holy
meditation; then .sitting down, he drew
the can opener from his tunic and wiped
it clean upon his sleeve.
After a while a babel of sound broke
in upon his ears. Men had come running
up, brandishing spears, stopped, flung
themselves upon the ground prostrate in
front of him. The priests were there,
frantically abasing themselves; Mtetan
yanga. his opera hats rolling unheeded
on the ground. Their cries ceased; they
veiled their eyes. Then from the dust
came the feeble tones of the interpreter-
"His majesty say you eat him Ju-Ju
yours greatest Ju-Ju; he want to sign
treaty." , '
But Peters, waving ,
- o uuij wn
over his head, shouted: "I've eaten Jam,
I've eaten Jam! It's pineapple and I
don't care!"
Copyright, 1H7, by J. Kecky
Not So
"Oh, grandma," exclaimed little Malt
garet, who had been rumaging through
an old bureau drawer In the attic "What
a curious old key this is!"
"Yes, dear," replied her grandmother.
"That was your grandfather's latchkey."
"And you keep it in memory of the old
days?,;'
"No, my dear. In memory of the old
nights."
Inharmonious
"What's the matter with them Twia
terino brothers that does the contortion
act?" demanded the circus proprietor.
"They're always scrappin' among them
selves." . "They can't help it, boss." replied the
manager. "You see, two of 'em is Ger
mans, one is a Frenchman and the other
one is a dago, and every once in a while
they git to argtlin' about the war." '