PILKINGTON.

Evening Star, Issue 12623, 30 September 1905, Page 3

PILKINGTON.

By WrxxuJC Cum*. ;/ CHAPTER IV. THK OKUX JOINT. ••"Well, here's luck, Archer," said Daw- ' Bah, nodding over his glass at the playwright, who, in honor of the acceptance ■ •-■ of his comedy, had expressed himself will- ' ' Big to foot the lunch hill. **And a two years' run,* said Flood, -in the West End." "And an eternity in the provinces, added Dawlish. " I suppose I am lucky," sighed Archer. •* I should say so," said Dawlish, " considering the terms Manfield has offered yon, and the way he'll stage you. You axe youngish, healthy, if stent, easily circumstanced, and can command oar comrmny at luncheon whenever you wish for a." "And yet," said Archer, " I am not content." "that's the matter l" asked his rfwmcts. "Pilket" " tuiwr? What of him! What's he done, anyway?" _ " Whv, he keeps scoring off us so infernally." . " What the deoce do you mean?" ened Dawlish. "You've sent him to drink wine with the Benchers, you've put him on the track of Fenians, you've embroiled him wiua a Thug from Calcutta, and you say he's scored off you." "Yes, I know," Archer answered, morosely, "but he gets his glass of port, and • we get by the Treasurer; he gets diamonds and Heaven knows what all out of the Fenian racket, and I have to go and lick poor old Ram's boots to make him hush the thine up. Do you suppose I enjoy asking a "Bengali as a personal favor to pose BsaThug, if only a speculative one? He certainlv showed up very well, and was awfully" tickled, but there's no denying that the thini; went wrong." "Pooh!" said Flood. "Let Signer Antonelli order up another bottle of this staff. Gale's a dog needs drowning. Who said that? Shakespeare, or was it Archer?" "You did," replied Archer. "No one ebe would want to." "What do you propose?" aeked Dawnsa. "Dashed if I know, but I'm determined to do him up brown somehow or other. But he has fabulous luck. Why, only yesterday morning I asked him if he'd pot his shilling ret for volunteering with the Inns of Court, and he ran off to hunt up the colonel for it as pretty as you please. The old man was out, and he said he'd call again, and went off to lunch, and there be met some other owl (there seem to be a lot of 'em about), who told him that he didn't think the shilling was given to volunteers. It never occurred to either of them that Td been gnQtv of anything but a snTy mistake." "What did he do then?" •■Why, he came to me and told me what a lucky escape he'd had from making a fool of himself, and informed me quite seriously that the practice didn't exist in the Auxiliary Forces. So of course I was obliged to say that, by Gad. yes, I recollected, and to tell him what a stupid ass I was, and ask him not to tell you fellows, for I abodd never bear the last of H, and all that sort of thing." He gazed gloomily at the fteacoea of the Boppborua which glowed upon the wall opposite him. "We might initiate him into Freemasonry," suggested Dawlish. „.- - "Old," said Archer, peevishly, "old as the ataxa. That was the first practical joke ever played. Besides, as good' Mason, I object to any such teavesty." . The band in the gallery burst forth into a selection from a comic opera. " Confound that band P exclaimed Archer, who n> ready to find fault "When will people let us eat and drink in peace? Who the deuce wants to hear 'Chin Chin Chinaman' with an omelette a la Bercy in front of him. I coma here to feed, not to dance the polka." Dawlish leaned forward. -I think I have it," he said. Then he raised his voice: "Waiter," he cried, "another battle of the same." "Ifc'a very good of you," said PSkington, aa he and Archer alighted from their cab in the middle of Great Portland street, "very good of you indeed. And I'm sure it will be most interesting." "Well, it's rather beastly, you know," tepEed bis friend, "but it w a sight that i sverybody ought to see. Most of the London ©prom dens are worse than those yon ] find in China or Saa Francisco, because the owners have to keep so very dark, as yon can understand. But this is a bit of a palace in its way, becanse it lives under the direct patronage and almost in the very . shadow of the Chinese Embassy, which is in Portland Place, aa you know, Pilker. Old Wung, who keep* it, is a precious old scoundrel, but aa far as I am concerned he's honest. I did him a service ones. I'll tell i you the story some day, hot just now we haven't time for H." Even Archer's fertile brain needed a little thne in which to produce a reliable acrwtmf. of .that adventure. "This is a funny neighborhood,"' he continued, aa they turned into a mean street which ran northwards. "A very quaint set-out, this part of town is. It's not macb mote than two hundred yards from tins spot to the finest, . broadest, handsomest residential street in all London, Portland Place. Beyond that again live the big doctors, paying anything yon care to name for tbair houses, and—look at thiar Bebecea street, the narrow roadway in which they were, grew narrower suddenly. In fact, for the puipusau of wheeled traffic, jt ceased to exist. But it was continued by a nagged passages perhaps a bundled yszds long, at whose mouth, under an arch, three iron posts leaned drunkenly out of the perpendicular. A gas lamp which had not been turned on (or, perhaps, for Archer was a stage manager who omitted no affective detail, had been turned off) stood at the aide of these posts, and within all waa inky Uackneaj and intense nilpmon. Pnkxngteo halted at the entering in of this horrid trap. He was not larking in personal courage, bat tho boldest might weD have rfftTrrwl here. It was the stillness reigning within which daunted one. There was an appalling suggestion of devilry about that black, urate den. "Is Una your palace?" asked PiQangton, with a little laugh. He mistrusted the place profoundly. " Nay, nay," replied Archer. "Old Wung Eros in a ten sailing a week fiat in the cellars. He has it really nicely done up. 1 agree with you that the entrance ia perfectly , but there's no danger. They aQ know me here. Now, if we were south of Oxford street, I wouldn't care about going in there. Soho is the very devilBut these Bloomsbury folk are not criminal, though their trades are in many cases peculiax. Come on f He struck a match and groped his way forward, Pilkington following closely. A few steps brought them to a door which swung back stealthily under the pressure of Archer's hand. Inside a dim gas jet disclosed a stone staircase which descended on the right and ascended on the left. Archer led the way downstairs,* and tapped ance, cautiously, upon a second door with his knuckle. He then scratched twice with his finger-nail on the wood. Someone scratched in a similar manner inside the door, and Archer gave a low whistle. The door opened,, and a withered and hideous Qhxnaman stood on the threshold in the loose black jacket and long bine petticoat «f Ins nation. He grinned and bowed ceremoniously. "AD light," ho whispered huskily, as they entered. Then he shut the door behind them. "Good evening, Wimg,'* said Archer. •This is my friend Fj>binson—-(he nudged Pilkington to impress his stage name on his memory)—Mr Robinson wants to see the Joint" "AQ light," said the Celestial again. "WaCkes in. My come plenty quick," and "be shamed down the passage. Archer pushed open the indicated door, and they went in. The room waa very small, and very 31-ut. Upon a table be--4 fare the empty grate sat a hideous Joss, «nd at his feet burned a lamp of antique pattern. A heavy smell of incense hung in loe air, and Pilkington detected, or thought he detected, in tine vitiated atmosphere iianu» af thu deadfrr thajyisMßuaa

narcotic for whose sake wars have raged and thousands of homes have been laid waste. The windows were heavily curtained to exclude the faintest draught,' while, a large chromb-lithograph of Queen Victoria lent a bizarre touch to the scene. The furniture of the room consisted of three long unea«y couches, such as you will see in a secondrate Turkish bath. Upon one of these, on the fiat of his back, lay a huge negro. He was dressed in his shirt and trousers only. His great bare feet stuck up ludicrously at right angles to the divan. The shirt, torn open to free the lungs, exposed the bare, brawny breast. The eyes were wide open, and rolled upwards till little but their whites were visible. The lips were drawn, back in a ghastly grin, displaying two rows of magnificent . teeth, through which the breath labored and panted. "Horriblo!" said PCMngton. I "Yes," said Archer "it takes 'em like that sometimes to begin with. Not a nice sight, is it! But think how happy he'll be. in a minute.* " He doesn't look it now," observed Pil- i kington. ! " Maybe. But you dont know how he's enjoying it. Look!" j As he spoke the negro's features relaxed their tension, his eyes closed, his lips fell into a smile of ineffable peace, and his breath began to come and go softly as a child's. He sighed, and turned over on his flunk. | "That's better," said Archer, approvingly. " Old Wung'll be hwe in a moment with the pipes." | " WhatP cried Pilkington, "yon, don't mean to say that you are to smoke?" Archer looked at him, surprised. " WelL ' of course," he said. '" What do you suppose Wung thinks we've come for?' " Why, just to see the place, to be sure. No more." / "My dear old chap," Archer, "ore you mad? Do you mean to* tell me that you don't intend to try it?" "Most decidedly not Nothing could possibly induce me to touch the stuff." "Then," said Archer, solemnly, "you may as well know that our lives aren't worth a moment's purchase." Pilkington paled. " What do you meanP he cried. "Simply this. The keeper of an opium den in London can't afford to have spies on his premises. Also, it is the greatest insult i you can offer him to refuse to smoke. Even in China it would entail the most unpleasant consequences. How much the more, then, as Euclid remarks so often, in Loudon, where entrance to a joint is obtainable only by special favor, and where the fellow's fears are sharpened by cupidity. Wung trusted me in the first instance because—well, never ntind that now. But he continues to trust me because I smoke. I don't like it. It is very distasteful to me, in fact But if I come here I must do it. Now, I happen to value this little privilege of mine rather highly, and I should there- [ fore esteem k a personal favor if yon won Id try a pipe. But I value my own existence | even more."

"I am very sorry " began Pilking-

"Soam I, old chap. But as we're in this pickle I'm afraid you must help us out ol it -It never occurred to me that you wouldn't out of sheer curiosity wish to tackle it Come. Only a whiff or two. Wung will be quite content with that, and then we can go away. But I tell you plainly that if you don't, we shan't see tomorrow morning." "But surely that flimsy old thing can do nothing?" " Look here, Pilkington," said Archer, roughly, "do you think I don't know what Pm about? Do you suppose we're alone in the place with Wung? Why, man, the whole shop s full of Chinamen. A word from Wung, and the entire pack would be on us. Didn't I tell you that the Chinese Embassy is the chief patron of this den? and it's just round tie corner. Do you think they're going to risk its suppression for the sake of a paltry life or two? If you do, you don't know the CeleitiaL Ever hear of Mr Sun Yat Sen? For God's sake, don't be a fool!"

Here the negro laughed in his sleep. This put the top on the horror of the roam. Pilkington gave way. "I must do it then," he said finnty, "but, Archer, you should have told me, you really should." " How on earth was I to know it's I against your bally principles, Pilker? Everyone who comes to one of these shows tries a pipe. That's what they go ior, chiefly." "Well, of course, I don't really blame you. But let's get out of this as quickly as possible." Archer opened the door and shouted into the passage, " Wung! Wung, you* old lazybones, where's that stuff of your%?" The shuffling feej. were heard, and next moment the virtuous proprietor entered with a tray. Upon this lay two pipes, a , lighted spirit lamp, and a long box. "All leady," said the China man. " Lie down, Lobinaon. Lie down, Ahcha. Plitty soon he go all-ee-same, by-by." Archer did as he was told, and the other couch was taken by Pilkington. He was greatly perturbed in souL It was the stuffiness of the room, so he told himself, that made his Eeart beat so wildly, his head throb so painfully. All the tales which he had ever read of the effects of opium-smoking came crowding in upon his memory. He would see wila visions, mad visions, entrancing visions. He would plumb the ocean. He would ride the stars. He would be as a god. Oh, he knew what to expect At the very least he would get rid of this headache which was splitting his skull. He felt in bis wai'tcoat and nodded in satisfaction. He had left his watch behind, he remembered now— a measure of precaution suggested by that consummate artist Archer himself. He was* haunted, however, by one overmastering fear. Would he be Able to shake off the grip of this vice. He knew how rapidly it seized on its viotima It resembled absinthe in that. He had read a novel about it at the 'Varsity. What was it called? Dead wood? Touchwood? Nevermind. It told how one glass of absinthe sufficed 'to change the hero's heart from an organ of flesh and blood to a stone; to turn the whole current of his thoughts and aspirations towards vice, sensuality, and homicide. He would never try absinthe. But opium? Had one pipe any such effect, or was it less sudden if more insidious? On the whole he waa inclined to scant the idea. Archer, on his own confession, had smoked it before now, and Archer was a thoroughly good fellow. He wished they had brought Dawlish as Archer had wished. He wished he hadn't opposed the sug,Lfestion because be had thought that Dawlish would chaff. It would take a lot of bea-tly Chinamen to stop them if Dawlish had been there. Confound his head! How it ached! Mr Wung approached with a long and curiously-shaped silver pipe. "AH leady," he said encouragingly, and presented the spirit lamp on a tray. Archer was already smoking. The smoke of the opium hung in a pale blue cloud above his head. Its pungent odor got into Pilkirgton's nostrils. He coughed. How like the smell of vile tobacco it was after all. He took the pipe with fingers which refused to be still. "Dlaw it light in chestee," said Mr Wung, illustrating his meaning by opening his mouth wide and filling his lungs with great gulps of air. ■ And then the devil which lurks in the mildest of us asserted himself in Pilkington. " By Gad," he said to himself, " I will try it thoroughly while I'm about it As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb." The proverb has a deal to answer for. He applied the bowl of the pipe to the flame, and, pulling vigorously, inhaled a large volume of smoke. Again he did it, and again. It was exceedingly nasty, he thought, like the strongest, worst tobacco he had ever tasted. He inhaled yet more of the thick acrid smoke. Scddenly his head began to swim, a deadly nausea oppressed him, a cold sweat broke out upon bis forehead. Worse, he began to see visions. ' The negro seemed to rise from his conch and point a mocking finger at him. He could hear his loud laughter. Wung, to his disordered eye, appeared to pull off his skull cap and with it his pigtail; yes, and his bald scalp. As if by magic smooth yellow hair took their place. He, too, was laughing Archer was lamjhmg. The verj

Joss was laughing. The room.'was going round. ' "This," he told himself, as he drew dog§edly at the pipe, "is the deljrium, the rst effects. But I will go through' with it I feel that lam losing consciousness. 1 And with that he did indeed lose oonscjous- , ness. ~ • . "- r cried the negro, has fainted. Ton went too far, Archer. ConioWd you, 1 you never kr ow when to stop. Why do you take such a pride in your infernal yarns?" This was unjust of Mr Dawlish. I " Hold up his head, 1 * cried Wung, pulling on to his own (the most convenient place that occurred to him) his cap, pigtail, and scalr>. "HI get some water. He ran out of the room. The negro strode across to 'Pilkington and supported' the poor fellow's head. "Gosh!" he said. "He's as white as a sheet. That Limerick twist of Flood's fairly bowled him over. Poor devil! Never smoked anything stronger than 'Myrtle Grove' in his life, I expect. I say, Archer, vou shouldn't have carried it so far." Archer was fanning Pilkington with his hat. „• "Look hero, Peter Dawlish,*" he rasped out, "you suggested this little game. You hired the room. Ton invented the knock. You got the disguises, and the Joss, and every other thing in the place except Queen Victoria, who was here when you took it. I merely offer a few suggestions to make sure that the farce works really smoothly, and bring him here, and act my part to the best of my power, and then you start ballyragging me beeanse, forsooth, we've overdone H. We always overdo it 1 But, good Lord, he has us fairly on the hip this time. Hhe hadn't fainted we should now be making devilish merry at his expense, but as H is we show up like the veriest cads. Oh! where the Hades is Flood with that water?" Poor Archer was really shocked at the result of his plav-acting. If remorse were possible in *o hardened a jester there was surely some in his bosom now. Flood came back. " There isn't a drop of liquid but beer in the flat," he announced. "We're cut off at the main, I suppose." "Well, said Archer, "in thai case we must get him out of this at once. IleTl never come to in this beastly bole. What s the window give oaf "Just a light and air shaft. " Then it's no use opening it. Bring him out, you two chaps, and FIl go and see rf the coast is clear. We must get away unnoticed, for if this gets into the papers Til break soir "body's neck." _ ■ He went on ahead out of the flat, up the stairs, and looked cautiously into the outer darkness. Nothing starred. He came tiptoeing back. "All serene, he whispered, and the proceas : on moved onwards—Archer first, followed by Flood and Dawlish carrying the inanimate Pilkington between them. They mounted the stams m safety, and Archer had his hand on the knob of the street door when a suppressed shriek above and behind him caused him to turn quickly round. The sight which met his eyea froze the genial current of his blood for him. Standing in the doorway of the fiat which opened on to the ascending staircase was a young lady of very prepossessing appearance, in spite of the fact that her auburn hair was sprinkled thickly with Hinde's curlers. She wore a magenta dnees-ing-gowsi, and in her hand aba carried a to the language of melodrama, they were observed. Mrs Villiers's wide-open eyes took m the situation at a glance. Mrs Vflliers'e vivid imagination, nourished on detective stories and novelettes, told her instantly the meaning of the fantastic group which stood spellbound at the foot of her staircase. Murder! Thai was what it meant. A

villainous negro, a Chinaman, a cat-throat British ruffian, and a lifeless form. If ever there was a man done foully to death, it was here. She dropped the jug upon the stone fending with a. crash which shattered the senses. She opened her mouth to scream. Id another second the wko'e neighborhood would be upon them. Archer sprang' np the steps, three at a bound, towards Mrs Villiers. " My dear madam," he cried, in a strained whisper, " for God's sake ——" He was MGught up short by , the door, which, in' her panic, Mis Yiliierß had banged in his face. In moving at all Archer had made a mistake. Mrs Villieus couldn't face his charge. He came down faster than he had- gone up. "Oufside, you. two," he cried, "and run as if all Hell was after you. She'll rouse the pkce on us. Oh, my bat! Why did I come' out on this picnic?" As he spoke a window was thrown ope* somewjiere, and the peace of night was interrupted' ;by the harsh, strained shriek of a woman 'ax deadly terror. , "Murder!" shrilled Mrs Villiers. "Murder! murder! murder!" Their ears were deafened with the sound. The narrow courtyards of the flats were swamped with it. " Murder! murder !* It pursued them as they ran, like the most veritable assassins, for the open street, with its cabs and its safety. " Murder 1 murder!" it went on, sod still none moved in the flats, Mrs Villiers, with great aof teness, changed her cry. " Fire!" she shrieked, and at the round the who'e building awoke. Doors slammed, windows flew open, feet ran, women cried out, men shouted. " Hell is let loose," said Archer, shepherding the rear. " Oh, get a bump on yourselves, you limpets!" The limpets got a hump on themselves, but even a ten-stone man like Piikington makes the going heavy. Flood, too, was greatly handicapped by his petticoats, and IhiwUeh had bare feet. In the excitement of the last minutes he bad quite overlooked the fact that he was without bis boots. Still, under the stimulus of Archer's blasphemies, they managed to "hnfflo along at some k.nd of a poos. They were now through the posts and some way down Rebecca street. Behind them the flats hummed with excitement. Mrs VBliers's voice could be heard high above the din. She had returned to her cry of " Murder!" But now the words come brokenly. " She's hleat-'ng like a sheep," said Archer, panting, as he rolled along. He did mot know that her door had been burst open by a stalwart and practicalminded neighbor, and that it was his vain attempts to extract some kind of coherent story from the hysterical creature that caused the quavering in her outcry. He was, as a matter of fact, shaking her vigorously with both- hands;- but she could do nothing better than "Murder! murder!" Owing to this t.mely overthrow of Mrs VilUars'a nervous balance, the three young men had made good their escape from the southern end of Rebecca street before the only five self-possessed people in Fallowfiuld' Mansions buist into its northern extremity. Mrs Viiiieis hud at last yielded her secret. " Down Rebecca street they went," she had stammered out, in response to the frenzitd inquiries of the stalwart and practical, " and carrying the body they ' were." And upon this he had left her without ceremony, and, collecting help as he ran," had dashed in pursuit of what he firmly believed to be a dangerous gang of crimnials. It was impossible to rush into Great Portland street with Piikington. The little band of haggard jesters; slowed down to a walk as they neared the pitiless glare of that artery of traffic "Stop here," said Archer, "while I get a cab." He darted ahead. A four-wheeler, sent no doubt by that Providence which is said to temper the wind to that ultimate product of agricultural depression—the shorn lamb—stood outside 'a public-house. Archer gave one wild look round him, and, nerving himself to the deed, sprang upon | the box seat. A passer-by regarded him curiously as he whipped up the horse and drove away. Then a doubt seamed to cross the mind of that passer-bv, for be stepped within the public bar of" the tavern and asked of the company: " Whose cab has just been stolen T^ At tins a led-foied man in a heavy boxcloth coat set down bis glass of unsweetened gin, detached, himself from a group of four which stoop at the counter criticising very mercilessly the tactics of some of our generals in Siuth Africa, and reached the door at a bound. ' "There he is,"/said the passer-by, pointing to a street comer a hundred yards away, where wks .halted a cab into which two men were [at that moment lifting an inanimate bodyJ. On the box sat one whose head turned' raiidly from side to side, now ft fwrtffi %•'.*»>*■ ■■*""■'■* which

* tar off to i\e leftV'now throwing a bunted* j glance "behind him in the direction of the, I public-honse\ t The, cabman gave > roar of- » vengeance and launched himself in pursuit,closely followed' by two, out of his three' friends.. The third (possibly a member < of the Peace Society) returned to consume* I the cabman's ym. | The man on the cab -lashed his horse.* The cab, as it moved, received the last ofhis two confederates, the door slammed,? and the desperate cabman beheld his ve- ] hide rapidly vanishing in the direction oft Oxford street. He ran as he had never run before,, shouting lustily. Archer had Great Portland street -tO; himself, and he made the most of his I chance. The horse was a good one. .With,' Archer behind it it became even excellent" They had a good start, but there are police-:, men about who are apt to look askance at, anything over twelve miles an hour in, a i four-wheeled cab. This Archer knew, and. the knowledge told him that they were, not yet by any means out of the wood.". Giving one glance round to measure the. distance which separated him from his pur- | suers, he was pleased to observe the encounter at the street corner of the cabman' and bis friends with the little party from the flats. They met with more 'than con-; siderable force, flew apart again, and col-; lapsed in all directions on the pavement.' > This was the last he saw of them. . I As the cab turned leisurely into Oxford 'street the traffic was scurrying apart, and the " Hi! Hi! Hi!" of half a dozen lusty < j voices informed him that the first steamer". ' was galloping up to the rescue of life and. property from the fire which was not rag-. i nig at FaHowfield Mansions. !| (To be continued.)