Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/73

 METROPOLIS The agitated expression on Slim's face deepened.. He shook his head. "How did he manage to get such a hold over them...•" he said, and it was not meant to be a question. September shrugged his shoulders. uMaohee...." he said in a sing~song tone, as though be-ginning one of those Greenland fairy tales, which, the" quicker they sent one to sleep are the more highly appreciated. "What is that: MaoheeP" asked Slim, irritably. September drew his head down between his shoulders. The Irish and the BrJtish blood-corpuscles in his veins seemed to be falling out, violently: but the impenetrable Japanese smile covered this up with its mantle before it could grow dangerous. "You don't know what Maohee is..•. Not a soul in the great Metropolis knows. . . . No. . . . Nobody. But here in Yoshiwara they all know," "I wish to know, too, September," said Slim. Cenerations of Roman lackeys bowed within September as he said, "Certainly, sirl" But they did not get the better of the wink of the heavy~drinking lying grandfathers in Copenhagen. "Maohee, that is. . . . Isn't it odd, that, of all the ten thousand who have been guests here in Yoshiwara and who had experienced in detail what Maohee stands for, outside they know nothing more about it? Don't walk so fast, sir. The yelling gentleman down there won't run away from us-and if I am to explain to you what Maohee menns... ," "Drugs, I expect, September-?" "My dear sir, the lion is also a cat. Maohee is a drug: but what is a cat beside a lion? Maohee is from the other side of' the earth. It is the divine, the only thing-because it is the only thing which makes us feel the intoxication of the others," "The intoxication-of the others. . . . ?" repeated Slim, stopping still. September smiled the smile of Hotei the god of Happiness,

78