The Beautiful White Devil

fore described, down towards the buildings on the plain. The route chosen was a perfect one in every way, not only for

utterflies and beetles, of colourings so glorious that my fingers positively itched for my collecting box, fluttered from flower to flower, while parrots (Pal?dinis longianda), Nikobar pigeons, and the darter, or snake bird, were so frequently met with as to lose all their charm of novelty. Sometimes we would be i

nsive, the beauties of the East, literature and art; but, somehow or another, however far we might wander from

nted thoroughfares, neatly built European houses, and picturesque native huts. It was hard to believe that, clean and healthy as it all looked, it had lost more than a quarter of its population by the ravages of one of the most awful pestilences human flesh is heir to. Indeed, so muc

n we are a little better acquainted, I will tell you the story of this place and the influence it has had upon

o was evidently a person of considerable importance in the place. He had a white skin and a slightly Scandinavian cast of countenance, and, though he spoke Chinese a

come to our assistance from Hong Kong. I don't think it is necessary for me to assure him that you will giv

o me, and then addr

y-three women, and the remainder children. Yesterday there were eighteen deaths-among them your old coxswain, Kusae, who died at seven in the morning, and Ellai, the wife of Attack, who followed him within an h

do more. By the time our conversation was finished I had taken a decided fancy to the ol

ommence our work let me exactly understand

you may deem best for my unfortunate people, please do without cons

abode is to be? It should be as far removed from the centre of the infected district as

a neat weather-board structure about a couple of hundred yards from the place where we were then standing; "in

erly watched by a crowd of natives, who, from the expressions o

ble trouble and care had been bestowed upon them. When we entered, an intelligent native lad was called from an inner room and informed in English that I was his new master

nd the walls, on shelves, were enough drugs of all sorts and descriptions to stock half a dozen chemist's shops, while my instruments, cases, and other paraphernalia were sp

nson's doing," she said

osed that we should set

nson," I began, "have you had any

ave been as well as I remember

you vacci

memory in the old man's mind. But, whatever his past may have been,-and there were few men in the settl

Liverpool, twelve y

you again. After that we'll call up the he

complished, he gave me a list he had prepared of the half-dozen principal inhabitants. They were immedi

ulation, I propose to enrol you as my staff. You will each of you have special duties assigned to you, and I need not say that I feel sure you will fulfil them to the very best of your ability. Befo

done, and I was free to enter

sultation with Alie, "assemble the health

per colour, all mixed up, higgledy-piggledy, in glorious confusion. From a cursory glance at them they appeared to come from all countries and from all parts of the globe. I could

re skilled in carpentering and hut-building, and kept them on one side. Fortunately, I was able to procure nearly thirty who were in some degree efficient. All of these-I mean of course those who had not had the disea

o enrol themselves for the work of nursing the sick, and for this duty no less than t

nd up to the very last moment at night, had never abated one jot of her energy. Encouraging the women, cheering the men, weighing out stores, and measuring cloth, she had been occupied without ceasing. Her enthusiasm was like a stimulant, and it had the effect of one upon all concerned. When my arms ached and my brain seemed fagged out beyond all recouping with plotting, planning, and giving advice, it was like a breath of new life to see her moving about amon

the clock on the mantelpiece of my sitting room struck a quarter to one. Bidding him good-night, and warnin

nd the whole of our world was bathed in its pale, mysterious light. The scene was indescribably beautiful, and perhaps the exquisite softness of the night, and the thought of the sickness raging in the valley below us, may have had something to do with t

the way in which you have taken up your work of mercy. I cannot say what I would like to do, because my heart is too full for utterance; but if you

the time watching the wistful look u

ys yet, but somehow I feel as if, despite a

said. "Believe me, I have forgotten all t

do that," she continued, "because, you

ber them, then?" I cr

of them. But in saying that, I wish you to understand why I do so. To do that

that others would have given anything to have had related to them. "But if it means recallin

about me. Hitherto you have only thought of me, remember, as-well, as a beautiful woman, whose pleasure in life it is to rob and blackmail innocent and unsuspecting folk in this distant portion of the globe. Ha

t will intere

evidently been placed there to protect foot passengers from the abyss. Leaning on it, she scanne

solved to shake its dust for ever off his feet. He went to India, but the result of the trial was known there, and every post was barred to him. He passed on to Singapore, and finally to Hong Kong, but always with the same result. By this time everything that was obstinate and worst in him was roused; and when the admiral, the same who had brought the charge against him, was transferred to the China station, my father sought him out in Shanghai, decoyed him outside the city, requested him to publicly admit that the charges he had brought against him were false, and on his refusing, produced pistols, invited him to a duel, and shot him dead. Then, while the police were hunting for him, he fitted out a boat, with a large sum of money that had some time before been left him, collected a dozen other men as desperate as himself, tested them thoroughly before he trusted them, and, having bound them to secrecy, set off to find an island where they could lead their own lives unhindered by the outside world. This was the place they came to, and those old houses near the harbour were their first dwellings. Once in every six months my father went off to Hong Kong for supplies, and it was during one of these excursions that he met the man whose destiny it was to recognise him, and so hasten the trouble that lay before him. High words passed between them, and the result was a betrayal, and a fight with the police, in which two men were left dead upon the beach. That was

hing that port, he sent his mate ashore to make the purchases. But suspicion seems to have been aroused, the man was arrested, and had not my father been warned in time and put to sea, he would have shared the same fate. But he was resolved not to be beaten, and at the ris

isks, for often he was sighted and chased by cruisers. It was on one of these occasions that my poor mother died, killed by an English bullet. Three months later my father caught the fever in the Manillas and followed her to the grave, bidding me, a girl of eighteen, keep up this settlement and carry on the war he had begun. Ever since then the island has been my tenderest care. I have watched over it and guarded it as a mother guards her child. But at the same time, as you know, I have not spared my enemies. My first adventure proved successful, my second well-nigh ruined me. My father's death had become known by some mysterious means, and, when it was discovered that I was carrying on his trade, a supreme effort was made by the authorities to capture me. But they have not succeeded yet. The same year I had the Lone Star, the boat you found me on, built in Scotland, and began my work in earnest. Ever since then I have had a price upon my head; but, as I told you on board the Lone Star, I can truthfully say that I have never knowingly robbed a poor man, and as you have seen for yo

I think your character h

ou must remember that those who speak against me in that fashion look upon my actions from t

r to me and looked me in the face. Never

," I answered stoutly. "I am your cha

, as we are both tired, had w

ed it to my lips. Then with another "good-night," she turned away from me and, with the dog at

went to bed it was not to sleep. The extraordinary story I had just been told, and the exciting events of the day, were not of a nature calculated to induce repose, and so I tossed and tumbled upo

self appeared upon the scene, eager to be employed. As she entered the verandah and greeted me I glanced at her face. But there was no trace there of the sadness of the previo

down on the table the parcel she had brought with her. "I

rk at the huts till breakfast time?" Then turning to another, "Mr. Williams, you might take three men and erect four bed places in each hut. M

work of inspection. It must not be supposed that I in any way induced her to run the risk; to tell the truth,

me cheering words to them, and passed on to the next house. This was of wood, neatly built, and contained one patient who was quite alone, his wife and daughter having both succumbed to the plague. In the next there was no case, nor the next; but in the three following there

on the right hand of the street, the women to those on the left. By this means forty-eight persons were disposed of, and by five o'clock sufficient huts were at my disposal to contain as many more. By sundown every sufferer in the place had been removed, the nurses were duly instructed in their duties and installed, and the real combating of the disease had commenced. But at this juncture a serious problem was presented for our consideratio

rse we should pursue," she answered. "The houses must go. And that being so, I must endeavour to ma

an hour no less than eighty houses, with

rk. Out of one hundred cases treated, thirty succumbed in the first eight days, twelve in

uring that time of awful anxiety. Day in, day out, night and morning alike, accompanied by her dog, she was occupied about the different huts, helping and reproving, chiding and encouraging. Her presence was like a ray of sunlight which seemed to light the place long after she had left it. The convalescent derived new vigour from her touch, the dying were soothed by her voice. Never once throughout the whole of the time did she think of herself; the path of what she considered to be her duty lay before her, and the Beautiful White Devil, the notorious adve

many better men had succumbed, who was I that I should go free? And surely if so many others had fallen captive to her mere beauty, knowing next to nothing of her real merit, I, who had exceptional opportunities of studying her c

ds if that be possible. And this I can say truthfully, that throughout my love for her, my heart has known no unworthy thought. I have l

contracted to do it-that is, to the best of my ability. But hard as I worked, she worked harder. Day in, day out, she was never idle; she took her share of nursing, superintended the erection of huts and houses for those wh