The Last Ditch

t as he came close to the tense bowed figure of the Chinese, the meaning of the concealed hand darted to his mind, also the sense that he must act quickly in an aggressive way or withdraw again

eme emaciation of the figure beneath him. This turned in a moment to astonishment at the extraordinary strength and agility which the Oriental displayed. There was a crush in the thin hard limbs twined about his own, and the hands were not to be held captive, but darted again and again to the girdle where the knife la

master of the shop, trying to repress the heavy breathing of his exhausted body, and to cover as well as he could the trembling of his muscles from the recent strain. Something of warmth and approval crept into Romney's heart for the old man, as the pregnant meanin

a need wherever you are-of fast action. I am beginning to beli

recatingly, and the Gener

ause that he has better gifts for us tha

to Romne

ed knee? Our enemies would have required but little more than a report of our words before

as increasing in his mind in regard to the fate of the captive, his eyes turning often to the hollow-eyed one, as the voice of Minglapo

ntelligence, but just a wrapping of yellow-pale tissue on the bony block of it, except for the burning quiet of the eyes. The ears were decently cut, the

in study of that face. Minglapo was n

r two years ... came from the South, from Canto

aighten the fringe of the cushion

He is Japanese-as we

his level. The lifeless eyes rolled backward for the fraction of a second as the wasted figure obeyed. He bent but one knee in his kneeling, his right leg thrust back loosel

did double service. Very carefully Minglapo examined the man's crown, tweaking the queue with tense fingers, peering into the braid close to the scalp, lett

ce a little boy-probably helped to map Manchuria-like as not helped to whip us in '95. W

ore. Nifton Bend leaned forward, placi

s a bit rheumatic; that the pain

ll have to bend i

to action was so intense as to be like a frictional heat in the room. He lowered himself slowly, the weight seemingly equally divided in both lim

le snap fil

the eyes of Minglapo or the General. A hundred times more, they respected this old man as a captive spy, than when he was merely one of the house-force. They respected him perhaps as only

hey train them from childhood. The Japanese syst

back showed scarred and blackened from some terrible maiming in the past. There were series of lumpy welts upon the back which Minglapo examined

d welts on his back are from the Siberian knout, a devilish contrivance made of knotted whip-cord soaked in brine. The dark rashy appeara

l, looking upward, turning obedien

it is his la

whole game of these passionate nationalists, that the life and death end

the cooler, opened the lacquer box, took forth

sionless and half averted. They would have accepted a reversal that meant death to them, with the same external calm that characterized the manner of the spy.... Yet the American could not lift. He was no stranger to the various fashions of brutality, but the temptation to pluck the stupor needle from the hand of Minglapo was well

his ankles as he sat.... Suddenly the principal was plucked from the centre of things. It was

Minglapo in English-then a crash of glass and frame as the

y. Get him, or all is ru

d, that Minglapo was fat and the General maimed from birth. He dove through the pearl casement, somewhat enlarging the openin

g at a pace not adjusted to distance, a sprint