Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/271



1894.J

An Encounter with Chinese Smugglers.

207

Strange as it may seem, it is never- theless a fact that Jones derived as much satisfaction from these reveries as he would from the reality.

These and even brighter visions flit- ted through my head on the third day of my assignment to the service, as I walked through a piece of green timber in the direction of a little village on the boundary line. It was growing dark, and as the gloomy aisles of the forest began to get lonesome and eerie-like, a longing for the comforts of an effem- inate civilization began to gnaw at my vitals. I hurried my steps, and soon had the pleasure of having my ears tin- gle at the voice of a cow ; then I heard the " dunkty, dunkety-dink, dunk, ding" of a bell, carried through the dark and stilly night on her neck, in rapid but lumbering motion toward that spot which my heart began to ache for.

I soon saw a flickering light through the dim vista of blackness ahead. I quickened my steps. Forgetting for a moment that I was not traveling on a wooden pavement, under the white and cold glitter of incandescents, I fell over a protruding root, and hit my nose with the trunk of a hard fir tree, which made it bleed freely (not the tree, but my nose). I also tore a wide and gaping wound in my trousers and another in my coat, through which the cold night wind blew. As I was going down I firmly grasped, with both hands, a full grown "devil's war club." My, but it hurt! I can feel the sharp and slender thorns in my poor hands yet. I got up and brushed off my clothes, rubbed the blood off my face and clothing, folded the flaps of the gaping wounds back over the cold places in my raiment, smoothed my hair nicely down on my fevered head, assumed again the stern and dig- nified expression befitting my office, and turned once more in the direction of the flickering light.

I was soon at the door of the little hotel. A second later a well-spread ta-

ble and a pile of hot stuff thereon re- stored me to my usual high spirits. Sup- per over, I repaired to a corner of the small office for a quiet smoke. Looking about me at the other occupants of the room, composed chiefly of loggers and farmers, I at once set to work to read their characters in their faces, and other- wise size them up. I could not make out much about them from their out- ward appearance. If any of them were smugglers they did not show it ; they appeared to be an ordinary lot of coun- trymen. One of them was a rather tough-looking specimen. I decided to watch him. I thought he acted queerly.

It grew late. The young man who officiated in the capacity of clerk bus- tled briskly up to me, and notified me that he would show me up to my room. I told him that I was not ready to re- tire yet, but intended taking a turn out- side for the fresh air. Barely had I reached the open air, when a step be- hind me arrested my attention. I turned as a voice exclaimed pleasantly, " Hello, old man ! what 's in the wind now ? "

I scrutinized the speaker as closely as I could in the semi-darkness, and being satisfied that I had to do with a gentle- man, replied : " You have the advantage of me ; I fail to recognize you."

He chuckled to himself, held out his hand, and said : " O, that 's all right. You are up here on the same errand as myself. I have been detailed by Col- lector to look up this section for

those rascals of Chinese smugglers. You are also on the same job. Am I not right?"

I hesitated a moment before replying ; but so satisfied was I that he stated the truth, that I soon told him who I was. We were becoming quite confidential, when the door opened and a form brushed by me, which I saw was the hard-looking case I had seen in the office. A voice whispered in my ear, " Look out for that fellow," and the form disappeared in the darkness.