Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1913 — The SABLE LORCHA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The SABLE LORCHA

By HORACE HAZELTINE

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SYNOPSIS. '' ' • Robert Cameron, capitalist, consults Philip Clyde, newspaper publisher, regarding anonymous threatening letters he has received. The first promises a sample of the writer’s power on a certain day. On that day the head is mysteriously cut from a portrait of Cameron .while the latter is in the room, Clyde has a theory that the portrait was mutilated while the room was unoccupied and the head later removed by means of a string, unnoticed by Cameron. Evelyn GraysOn, Cameron's niece, with whom Clyde is in love, finds the head of Cameron’s portrait nailed to a tree, where it had been used as a target. Clyde pledges Evelyn to secrecy. Clyde learns that a Chinese boy employed by Philatus Murphy, an artist living nearby, bad borrowed' a rifle from Cameron's lodge keeper. Clyde makes an excuse to call on Murphy and Is- repulsed. He pretends to be Investigating alleged Infractions of the game laws and speaks of finding the bowl of an opium pipe under the tree where Cameron's portrait was found. The Chinese boy Is found dead next morning. While visiting Cameron In his dressing room a Nell Gwynne mirror Is mysteriously shattered. Cameron becomes seriously 111 as a result of the shock. The third letter appears mysteriously on Cameron’s sick bed. It makes direct threats against the life of Cameron. Clyde tells Cameron the envelope was empty. He tells Evelyn everything and plans to take Cameron on a yacht trip. The yacht picks up a fisherman found drifting helplessly In a boat. He gives the name of Johnson. 'Cameron disappears from yacht while Clyde s back Is turned. A fruitless search is made for a motor boat seen by the captain Just before Cameron disappeared. Johnson is allowed to go after being closely questioned. Evelyn takes the letters to an expert In Chinese literature, who pronounces them of Chinese origin. Clyde seeks assistance from a Chinese fellow college student, who recommends him to Yup Sing, most prominent Chinaman In New York. The latter promisee to seek Information of Cameron among his countrymen. Among Cameron's letters is found one from one Addison, who speaks of seeing Cameron In Pekin. Cameron had frequently declared to. Clyde that he had never been In China. Clyde calls on Dr. Addison. He learns that Addison and Cameron were at one time Intimate friends, hut had a falling out over Cameron's denial of haying been seen In Pekin by Addison. Clyde goes to meet Yup Sing, sees Johnson, attempts to follow him. falls Into a basement. sprains his ankle and becomes unconscious. Clyde Is found by Miss Clement, a missionary among the Chinese. He Is stck several days as a result of inhaling charcoal fumes. Evelyn tells Clyde or a peculiarly acting anesthetic which renders a person temporarily unconscious. Murfations "atrVh? a lnese. Miss Clement promises to get Information about Cameron. Slump in Crystal Consolidated, of which Cameron ts the head, is caused by a rumor of Cameron’s Illness. Clyde finds Cameron on Fifth avenue In a dazed and emaciated condition and takes him home. Cameron awakes from a long sleep and ■peaks In a strange tongue. He gives orders to an imaginary crew in Chinese jargon. Then in terror cries: I didn t kill them.” Evelyn declares the man is not her uncle. Evelyn and Clyde call on Miss Clement for promised Information and find that the Chinaman who was to give It has Just been murdered. Miss Clement gives Clyde a note asking him to read It after he leaves the mission and then destroy It. It tells of the abduction of a white man by Chinese who shipped film back to China. The man is accused of the crime of the “Sable Lorcha” In which 100 Chinamen were killed. The appearanee in New York of the man they supposed they had shipped to I China throws consternation Into the Chinese. The brougham In which Clyde and Evelyn are riding Is held up by an armed man. Clyde ts seized by Murphy and a fight ensues. Evelyn and Clyde are rescued by the police and return home. They find Tup Sing and the Chinese consul awaiting them. Yup tells Clyde the story of the crime of the "Sable scorch a, in which 97 Chinamen were deliberately sent to their death by one Donald M Nish, whom they declare Is Cameron They declare that M'Nlsh can he identified by a tattoo mark on his arm. Clyde declares that Cameron has no such mark. The nurse Is called In and describes a tattoo mark on his patient's arm. Clyde goes to Investigate and finds the patient attempting to hide a tetter. It Is addressed to Donald M’Nlah. CHAPTER XXIV. Another Problem Crops Up. There are, I dare say, those who will not hesitate to charge me with an unpardonable lack of perception. “Even from your own telling,” they will probably declare, “we realized from the first that the creature you discovered at two In the morning, supporting himself by means of a Fifth avenue area railing, was not Robert Cameron, but his physical counterpart, and a not very deceptive counterpart at that.” I shall not dispute the Justice of the criticism. As I look back at It all now, I sometimes wonder, myself, how I could have been so blind, so credulous. And yet there is something to be said on the other side, too. An able advocate, I believe, might make out a fairly strong case for me If I were disposed to defend my Belt; . which, as it happens, I am not, sinoe the verdict can make no possible difference either to you or to me, and would only delay the culmination of our narrative Nevertheless 1 must tell that for some minutes after reading the letter which had so opportunely fallen into my hands I stood at the foot of the bed. and In the glare of the blazing electrics, studied with keenest scrutiny the faoe which had so deceived me. In general contour and individual feature the likeness to Cameron was monstrous in its fidelity. The same rugged power. Inherited from Scottish forbears. Was traceable In every lineament But there the similarity ended. Tbs faoe I gazed upon lacked illumination. Character, so strongly indicated in the other, was from this totally absent In its place wss an admixture of craft and brutality, so palpable, now —so dearly, unmistakably evident— * (hat I marvelled at my former delusion. * It was tbs newspaper puzzle picture over again. Having at length discovered the hidden rabbit I could see

nothing else whatever. It dominated the drawing. It fairly sprang at me from out the printed page. There Was still' another feature of -the revelation, hpwever, which held a contrasting pathos. The" letter which carried conviction beyond all possible dispute was from Donald McNish’s aged mother. And while it tempered in ja- measure the harshness of my judgment against the Bon, it was of tragic import, in that it was one potent piece of evidence in his undoing, severing the last link in the chain which connected his identity with that of the shamefully maligned Cameron. Evelyn Wept over this letter, and I am not sure but that my. own sight grew hazy, too, as I read the fond, quaintly couched phrases of endearment, penned half a year back in Dundee, by this God-fearing old Scotchwoman, to that infamous, blood-stained reprobate, who, to her, was still her “ain bonnie bairn.” It all came out, eventually, that McNlsh had traveled the world over in the sixteen years Intervening since the coolie massacre, employing a Bcore or more of aliases and so studiously avoiding the name by which he had then been known, as to have almost forgotten it, probably, himself, until, yielding to the call of home, he had at some early period, of the last twelvemonth returned for a brief visit to his native town and his septuagenarian mother. It was then, most likely, that he gave to her the address of the New York hotel. Fate influlenced the mother to write, and Fate sent the son there six months later to get the letter, and so carry upon his person the confirmatory evidence of his identity, just at the time when it would prove fatal. “How did It happen,” I have been asked, “that you didn’t examine immediately the clothes that the supposed Cameron wore, when you found him?” In view of subsequent events it is very easy to see what an important bearing such an examination would have had. But at the time, there was no one who thought of it. Our chief purpose then was to get the Injured man to bed, and to secure a physician and nurse to minister to his recovery. If he had been found dead, then, of course, we should have gleaned what Information we could from his pockets. But we daily expected him to be able to tell his own story, and In the anxiety and confusion of the moment the possible pregnancy of the disclosures that lurked in his apparel was entirely lost sight of. When we did make the examination, on the morning following the episode of the letter, It was to discover that the suit and overcoat worn by McNish were of Scotch manufacture, having been made in Dundee, according to sewn-in labels, early in the current year. / The contents of the pockets were not significant. The letter he had been so anxious to secure and destroy was the only letter, apparently, he had carried. There was a cheque-book on a Chicago bank, and there was a wallet containing a small sum of money in bills, and a few business cards of importing houses, which we took to indicate that the possessor was still desultorily engaged in trade, or some species of smuggling, with the Malay states and the Straits settlements as his field, since most of the cards made reference to goods of such origin. That morning, which succeeded the night of exciting events already detailed, was crowded with another succession of happenings scarcely less sensational. At seven o’clock, O’Hara, in obedience to my Instructions came to my room in the Loyalton, rousing me out of a heavy sleep; for I had not got to bed until four, aud then had lain awake with teeming brain until after five. I received him in bath robe and moles, sitting on the bedside, and sipping coffee, while he, perched on a low, brass-bound clothes chest, poured forth his story. ' “Sleep!” he echoed, when I had made my apologleß. “I haven’t had a wink, myself. I’ve been with the boys all night doing as pretty a round-up as you ever see. We’ve got the bunch right this time, Mr. Clyde, and there’ll be a clearin’ out down there in Chinatown such as hasn't been known since the Chinks discovered Doyers street." “Yes,” I said, encouragingly. “It’s another war of the tongs,” h« went on. “They have ’em periodically, you know, and there’s always a few of the moon-faced boys snuffed out, which ain’t much loss nohow. But thla time they Interfered, you see, with you and Miss Grayson, and they beat np that driver of our buzz-carriage something fierce; and the Commlssioner’a iaaued orders to put the whole yellow population on tj»e pan if necessary to get the ones what la responsible.” “Were any arrests made?” I Inquired. ' ‘ O’Hara smiled. “Were any arreats made?” he repeated in a tone that indicated supreme pity for my Ignorance. "Why, we took ’em in by the wholesale. We lowered the net and dragged

it and you ought to see what come up. There was one fellow, a skinny old geezer half-breed, neither Chink nor white man, but a slimy mixture of all that’s bad in the two. We’ve had him on the griddle all night; - Talk about the third degree! He got it good, and he’s made enough admissions already to send him straight to the cliair.’' “And Murphy?" I suggested. “He’s a tough one, that lad! When they’d brought him to, they figured they’d get him to convict himself In the same old way. But there was nothin’ doing. He Just shut his trap, and not-a-wortLwquld he answer one way or the other. But his turn’ll come, all right. I’ve got it on him, Mr. Clyde. White I’ve been shadowin’ him for the past month I’ve picked up a bunch of stuff that will come in good. TO begin with, his name ain’t Murphy. It’s 'Pat Moran, and hiß mug’s at headquarters.” “His mug?” “Sure! in the Rogue’s Gallery. And his record’s there too. He’s done time, already.” “For what?" “For stabbin’ a man in the back." It requires no great mathematical ability to put two and two together. The result Is always either four or So, in logic, the answer is invariably either right or wrong. Murphy had stabbed a man in the back; McNish carried the scar of a knife wound under his shoulder blade. There were the two and two. “What were the facts?” I asked, with kindled interest. “Whom did he stab? When? Where?” “The bloke’s name," O’Hara answered, after a moment’s thumbing of his note book, “was MacNichol—Douglass Mac Nichol. It was in Buffalo, In 1900.” My putting together of names could hardly be a coincidence. “Pat Moran served five years In Auburn," the detective added. “You don’t know what became of McNish—l mean Mac Nichol?" “No.” “Nor any facts about the causs of the stabbing?” “That’s easy got,” O’Hara informed me. "But It ain’t in the record at headquarters. What is there, though, is that Moran had lived in Chinatown in Frisco, and was arrested there and tried for smuggling opium, but was acquitted for lack of evidence.” For a moment I sipped my coffee in thoughtful silence. “The skeleton guy knows Moran, all right,” O’Hara broke In. “You mean the half-breed?” “Yes. He give that away.” "What does he call himself?” ‘♦ "He’s known In Chinatown as John Soy. He says he’s a cook.” Once again I was busy with two and two. Unless all signs failed this John Soy and Peter Johnson and the Eurasian cook of the Sable Lorcha were a single entity. “O’Hara,” I said, finishing my coffee, and putting down the cup and saucer, “I have the key witness in this case. You and I together are going to take him with us and have him confront both Murphy and John Soy. I promise you the result will be interest ing’." The detective looked his perplexity. “Some one who knows them?" he asked. “Unless I am very much mistaken,” I answered, “it is some one who knows them both better than any other person in New York. Unless Heaven is just now engaged In constructing enigmas simply for the bewilderment of us mortals, the witness I have is the man whom Murphy stabbed in the back, in Buffalo, eight years ago.” But before I could carry out my plan there were several minor matters which claimed my attention. Ever since reading the note which Miss Clement placed In my hands I had been uneasy concerning her safeTo Judge from O’Hara’s report Chinatown had been In a ferment mpst of the night, and I feared lest the blame for the disturbance be visited upon the brave woman missionary! and some measures of vengeance meted out to her. For half an hour I tried unsuccessfully to reach her by telephone. The Mission did ndt answer. With my anxiety intensified by this repeated failure, I ordered my motor car around at once, and taking O’Hara with me, made the trip to Pell street In record time, despite obstructive trucks and other vehicles which were encountered. Eager Inquiry of none-too-loquacious neighbors eventually elicited the tnformatlon that Miss Clement, alive and uninjured, had started at daybreak, if not Indeed before, to hunt up a brother of the murdered Ling Fo, In Long Island City. Half an hour later, having stopped at Bellevue hospital on the way up town to Inquire as to the condition of Elol Lacoste, the Injured chauffeur, and leave instructions that everything possible should be done for his comfort. I alighted from the car at the dpor of Dr. Massey's office on West Fifty-sixth street.

I trust I am not that type of man which, when guilty of 4 error, delights to shift the responsibility to other shoulders. I had small excuse to make for myself In confounding MeNish with Cameron, yet I confess I had much less for the family physician, who had been so easily deceived. Dr. Massey greeted me almost Jovially, but checked himself as he observed the seriousness, the coolness even, of my manner. “Our —our patient is not worse?” he questioned, taken aback. “No, doctor,” I answered, tempted to a grim humor, “that would be impossible, I fancy.” For a second he regarded me with frowning Incomprehension. “Our patient,” I repeated with a sarcastic emphasis that could not be misunderstood, "long ago, I fancy, reached the limit of blackguardism.” The eyes widened, his lips parted and he stood aghast. "But —but —I don’t quite see,” he stammered. “You have quarreled with Mr. Cameron? You have —” "No, no,” I returned, interrupting him. “Would to God I had him here to quarrel with. Miss Grayson was right. The man you have been using your skill upon is no more Robert Cameron than I am.” I hardly knew whether to be irritated, or amused by that which followed. Dls. Massey threw back his head and roared with boisterous laughter. "Ha! - Ha! Ha! That’s the richest kind of a Joke, my dear fellow!” he exclaimed, as his mirth subsided. “Not Robert Cameron? Why, do you know, Mr. Clyde, how many years I have been his physician? No. Of course you don’t. Ten years and over, and I know Cameron as I know myself.” "Then tell me,” I said, Irritation having Its way, “why on earth he ever had the Initials D. M. N. tattooed on his left arm?” The doctor’s quick changes of expression were becoming an interesting study. The smile which had lingeVed after the laughter, now gave way to a lowered , brow and pursed lips. t"A tattoo mark on his left arm?" he repeated, slowly. “There’s no such thing there.” “But there is.” I insisted; “there is, at least, on the deft arm of the man you’ve been treating.” Dr. Massey was still thoughtful. “There Is some mistake,” he decided. “No, there is no mistake,” I assured him. “Miss Grayson’s eyes were better than either yours or mine. She saw at once that this outlaw was not her uncle, and you and I fancied we knew better. If you are still unconvinced, doctor, I’ll run you up In my car, which is at the doof, and you shall satisfy yourself. Meanwhile I’ll give you some of the confirmatory evidence.” He went with me; and to him and O’Hara, at the same time, I related the dumfounding occurrences of the previous night. “And what did this McNißh say?" the doctor inquired, when I had finished. “Did he admit the masquerade?” “He became delirious. There was no getting a sensible word from. him. My own Idea Is that the delirium was feigned." “Possibly.” “Isn’t It equally possible, doctor,” I asked “that he has been feigning since the first?" “No," was his answer. "I don’t think so. He may have exaggerated his symptoms, when conscious, to gain time; but if he had been able to think clearly he- would have secured that letter before last night. You may rest assured that that was the first opportunity he had, after regaining the power of thought continuity. And still,” he continued, “I am not entirely convinced that he is not Robert Cameron. If It Is merely g resemblance, as you claim, then it Is the most remarkable case of likeness that I have ever encountered. Moreover, there Is one thing we must not lose sight of. His abductors, as has been demonstrated by everything they have done, lire an unusually clever and cunning lot of men. 'To counterfeit age, so far as the tattoo mark Is concerned, Is not so difficult as you might imagine; and I should have to see the scar before admitting that It la not of recent origin. The letter might have been a forgery, or a real letter, secured and placed in Cameron’s pocket for this very purpose. And hypnotic suggestion would easily explain hla desire to secure and destroy it. The use of a foreign tongue In hla dementia even, could be accounted for in the same way.” It was natural that Dr. Massey should exert his Ingenuity to reconcile these divergent points. To him! It eeemed, as It had to mo, that a mistake as to the Identity of the patient was incredible. But now I simply shook my head in negation. "Wait until you .see him again, doctor,” I requested. "Wait until you road

his face, not- for what 1b on the surface but fpr what Is behind it.” The motor, drawing a swift diagonal to the curb, came ereepingly to a halt before the Catneron house. As I was about 10 alight, Dr. Massey laid a detaining hand on my arm. “If your conclusion is correct, Clyde,” he said, gravely, “what course do you propose to take? Do you realize what is involved? Don’t you see that your conviction and mine is one thing, but that to convince the public is an entirely different matter? Can we afford to give this man up for hip crimes until we have Cameron actually here to prove that it Is not he who was thus involved sixteen years ago.” In the recent result ei developments I had not thought of that But I saw now that it presented a problem no less perplexing than some of those which had just been solved. CHAPTER XXV. Enemies Face to Face. As events shaped themselves the problem presented by Dr. Massey found a speedy solution. Had I been compelled to grapple it unaided I am not yet sure what course I should have pursued. Of my- own volition I must have hesitated to take a step which could not fail to throw suspicion—at least among the only partially informed —upon my absent and defenseless friend.. But all choice in the matter was denied me. I arranged with Dr. Massey that he should go unaccompanied to his patient’s room, and, without so much as a hint that he was cognizant of what had transpired on the previous night, make whatever examination he deemed necessary to a definite conclusion. In the meantime, having learned from Checkabeedy that Evelyn was in the breakfast room, I Joined her there. Her curiosity had ripened by a night’s suppression; aqd having dismissed the footman who was serving her, she at once demanded the fulfillment of my promise to tell her everything. “It’s another case where you have the right to say, ‘I told you so,’ ” I began, as X took a chair next to her. In her wide blue eyes I read that she divined my meaning. “Yes,” I went on, “the man upstairs is not your uncle. We have been nursing a viper, it s#ems, who promises to give us a deal of trouble before we are through with him.” There was no need for her to question me. Rapidly, succinctly, I told her the story I had learned from Yup Sing; told her, too, of the scene Ift the bedchamber, after I had left her on the previous night; and showed her the letter from McNish’s poor old Scotch mother. I "There, there,” I soothed, aB in silence but with quivering llps'hnd eyes overflowing, she Btarted to read the tremblingly penned sentences a second time. “I’m sorry for the dear old creature, too, but —” “Philip,” she interrupted me, her face and voice alike pleading. "Let us send him back to her!” “Send him back!” I repeated in amazement. . “Yes. We can, canY we? We don’t have to give him up to those horrid Chinamen, do we? He’s 1 well enough to go, isn’t he? Why can’t we call a cab, give him enough money for his passage and send him, at once? There’s a steamer sailing this morning, isn’t there?” For Just a moment I was on the point of yielding. Seldom has a villain had a more puissant advocate than had McNish in this enthusiastic, resolute girl, spurred to his salvation by the pathetic appeal of that maternal yearning which breathed from every line of the letter before her. The unselfish purity of her cause illumined and transfigured her. Her beauty was radiant. /Answer me!” she Insisted, impatient at my silence. “Isn’t it possible? Isn’t it really the very best way out of a difficulty,? It will nevpr do to admit that we have had that man here in mistake for Uncle Robert, you know.” “But there is something you have forgotten, my dear child,” I objected, with all the mildness I could beßtow upon the words. "In your wish to give Joy to this poor old *mother— and in that I am with you heart and soul—you hare quite overlooked the fact that we are still with scarcely a scintilla of information concerning the present whereabouts of yonr uncle.” “Oh, no, I haven’t,” was her prompt rejoinder, “but I don’t see what that has to do with it, except that it makes it all the more necessary to pretend that we still believe this McNish is he. How will sending McNish abroad hinder—” And then she broke off, suddenly, as I had rather expected she would, knowing what a keen brain she had and how once she got a clear per spective on the situation, she must sea again the very point she had suggested once herself, and which 1 had still in mind. CTO BB COXTUTOBU*