Bert Wilson, Wireless Operator

by Marion Ames Taggart

  CHAPTER XV

  THE DRAGON'S CLAWS

  The next morning the boys were up bright and early, ready for their tripthrough the city.

  "By George," said Dick, "I have to pinch myself to realize that we'rereally in China at last. Until a month ago I never dreamed of seeing it.As a matter of course I had hoped and expected to go to Europe andpossibly take in Egypt. That seemed the regulation thing to do and itwas the limit of my traveling ambition. But as regards Asia, I've neverquite gotten over the feeling I had when I was a kid. Then I thoughtthat if I dug a hole through the center of the earth I'd come to China,and, since they were on the under side of the world, I'd find the peoplewalking around upside down."

  "Well," laughed Bert, "they're upside down, sure enough, mentally andmorally, but physically they don't seem to be having any rush of bloodto the head."

  An electric launch was at hand, but they preferred to take one of thenative sampans that darted in and out among the shipping looking forpassengers. They hailed one and it came rapidly to the side.

  "See those queer little eyes on each side of the bow," said Tom. "Iwonder what they're for?"

  "Why, so that the boat can see where it is going," replied Dick. "Youwouldn't want it to go it blind and bump head first into the side, wouldyou?"

  "And this in a nation that invented the mariner's compass," groaned Tom."How are the mighty fallen!"

  "And even that points to the south in China, while everywhere else itpoints to the north. Can you beat it?" chimed in Ralph.

  "Even their names are contradictions," said Bert. "This place wasoriginally called 'Hiang-Kiang,' 'the place of sweet waters.' But do youcatch any whiff here that reminds you of ottar of roses or the perfumewafted from 'Araby the blest?'"

  "Well, not so you could notice it," responded Ralph, as the awful smellsof the waterside forced themselves on their unwilling nostrils.

  They speedily reached the shore and handed double fare to theparchment-faced boatman, who chattered volubly.

  "What do you suppose he's saying?" asked Tom.

  "Heaven knows," returned Ralph; "thanking us, probably. And yet he maybe cursing us as 'foreign devils,' and consigning us to perdition.That's one of the advantages of speaking in the toughest language onearth for an outsider to master."

  "It is fierce, isn't it?" assented Bert. "I've heard that it takes aboutseven years of the hardest kind of study to learn to speak or read it,and even then you can't do it any too well. Some simply can't learn itat all."

  "Well," said Tom, "I can't conceive of any worse punishment than to haveto listen to it, let alone speak it. Good old United States for mine."

  At the outset they found themselves in the English quarter. It was asplendid section of the city, with handsome buildings and well-keptstreets, and giving eloquent testimony to the colonizing genius of theBritish empire. Here England had entrenched herself firmly, and fromthis as a point of departure, her long arm stretched out to the farthestlimits of the Celestial Kingdom. She had made the place a modernGibraltar, dominating the waters of the East as its older prototype heldsway over the Mediterranean. Everywhere there were evidences of the lawand order and regulated liberty that always accompany the Union Jack,and that explains why a little island in the Western Ocean rules alarger part of the earth's surface than any other power.

  "We've certainly got to hand it to the English," said Ralph. "They'rethe worst hated nation in Europe, and yet as colonizers the whole worldhas to take off its hat to them. Look at Egypt and India and Canada andAustralia and a score of smaller places. No wonder that Webster wasimpressed by it when he spoke of the 'drum-beat that, following the sunand keeping pace with the hours, encircled the globe with the martialairs of England.'"

  "It's queer, too, why it is so," mused Bert. "If they were speciallygenial and adaptable, you could understand it. But, as a rule, they'recold and arrogant and distant, and they don't even try to get in touchwith the people they rule. Now the French are far more sympatheticand flexible, but, although they have done pretty well in Algiersand Tonquin and Madagascar, they don't compare with the British ascolonizers."

  "Well," rejoined Ralph, "I suppose the real explanation lies in theirtenacity and their sense of justice. They may be hard but they are just,and the people after a while realize that their right to life andproperty will be protected, and that in their courts the poor havealmost an equal chance with the rich. But when all's said and done, Iguess we'll simply have to say that they have the genius for colonizingand let it go at that."

  "Speaking of justice and fair play, though," said Bert, "there's one bigblot on their record, and that is the way they have forced the opiumtraffic on China. The Chinese as a rule are a temperate race, but thereseems to be some deadly attraction for them in opium that they can'tresist. It is to them what 'firewater' is to the Indian. The rulers ofChina realized how it was destroying the nation and tried to prohibitits importation. But England saw a great source of revenue threatened bythis reform, as most of the opium comes from the poppy grown in India.So up she comes with her gunboats, this Christian nation, and fairlyforces the reluctant rulers to let in the opium under threat ofbombardment if they refused. To-day the habit has grown to enormousproportions. It is the curse of China, and the blame for the debaucheryof a whole nation lies directly at the door of England and no one else."

  By this time they had passed through the British section and foundthemselves in the native quarter. Here at last they were face to facewith the real China. They had practically been in Europe; a moment laterand they were in Asia. A new world lay before them.

  The streets were very narrow, sometimes not more than eight or ten feetin width. A man standing at a window on one side could leap into onedirectly opposite. They were winding as well as narrow, and crowded onboth sides with tiny shops in which merchants sat beside their waresor artisans plied their trade. Before each shop was a little altardedicated to the god of wealth, a frank admission that here, as inAmerica, they all worshipped the "Almighty Dollar." Flaunting signs, onwhich were traced dragons and other fearsome and impossible beasts, hungover the store entrances.

  "My," said Ralph, "this would be a bad place for a heavy drinker to findhimself in suddenly. He'd think he 'had 'em' sure. Pink giraffes andblue elephants wouldn't be a circumstance to some of these works ofart."

  "Right you are," assented Tom. "I'll bet if the truth were known theFuturist and Cubist painters, that are making such a splurge in Americajust now, got their first tips from just such awful specimens as these."

  "Well, these narrow streets have one advantage over Fifth Avenue," saidRalph. "No automobile can come along here and propel you into anotherworld."

  "No," laughed Bert, "if the 'Gray Ghost' tried to get through here, itwould carry away part of the houses on each side of the street. Theworst thing that can run over us here is a wheelbarrow."

  "Or a sedan chair," added Tom, as one of these, bearing a passenger,carried by four stalwart coolies, brushed against him.

  A constant din filled the air as customers bargained with theshop-keepers over the really beautiful wares displayed on every hand.Rare silks and ivories and lacquered objects were heaped in richprofusion in the front of the narrow stalls, and their evident valuestood out in marked contrast to the squalid surroundings that served asa setting.

  "No 'one price' here, I imagine," said Ralph, as the boys watched thenoisy disputes between buyer and seller.

  "No," said Bert. "To use a phrase that our financiers in America arefond of, they put on 'all that the traffic will bear.' I suppose if youactually gave them what they first asked they'd throw a fit or dropdead. I'd hate to take the chance."

  "It would be an awful loss, wouldn't it?" asked Tom sarcastically, as helooked about at the immense crowd swarming like bees from a hive. "Wherecould they find anyone to take his place?"

  "There are quite a few, aren't there?" said Ralph. "The mystery is wherethey all live and sleep. There don't seem to be enough houses in thetown to ta
ke care of them all."

  "No," remarked Bert, "but what the town lacks in the way of accommodationsis supplied by the river. Millions of the Chinese live in the boats alongthe rivers, and at night you can see them pouring down to the waterside indroves. A white man needs a space six feet by two when he's dead, but aChinaman doesn't need much more than that while he is alive. A sardine hasnothing on him when it comes to saving space and packing close."

  At every turn their eyes were greeted with something new and strange.Here a wandering barber squatted in the street and carried on histrade as calmly as though in a shop of his own. Tinkers mended pans,soothsayers told fortunes, jugglers and acrobats held forth to delightedcrowds, snake charmers put their slimy pets through a bewilderingvariety of exhibitions. Groups of idlers played fan-tan and other gamesof chance, and through the waving curtains of queerly painted boothscame at times the acrid fumes of opium. Mingled with these were theodors of cooking, some repellant and some appetizing, which latterreminded the boys that it was getting toward noon and their healthyappetites began to assert themselves. They looked at each other.

  "Well," said Ralph, "how about the eats?"

  "I move that we have some," answered Tom.

  "Second the motion," chimed in Dick.

  "Carried unanimously," added Bert, "but where?"

  "Perhaps we would better get back to the English quarter," suggestedRalph. "There are some restaurants there as good as you can find in NewYork or London."

  "Not for mine," said Tom. "We can do that at any time, but it isn'toften we'll have a chance to eat in a regular Chinese restaurant. Let'stake our courage in our hands and go into the next one here we come to.It's all in a lifetime. Come along."

  "Tom's right," said Dick. "Let's shut our eyes and wade in. It won'tkill us, and we'll have one more experience to look back upon. So 'leadon, MacDuff.'"

  Accordingly they all piled into the next queer little eating-house theycame to, but not before they had agreed among themselves that they wouldtake the whole course from "soup to nuts," no matter what their stomachsor their noses warned them against. A suave, smiling Chinaman seatedthem with many profound bows at a quaint table, on which were the mostdelicate of plates and the most tiny and fragile of cups. They had ofcourse to depend on signs, but they made him understand that theywanted a full course dinner, and that they left the choice of the foodto him. They had no cause to regret this, for, despite their misgivings,the dinner was surprisingly good. The shark-fin soup was declared byRalph to be equal to terrapin. They fought a little shy of indulgingheartily in the meat, especially after Bert had mischievously given atiny squeak that made Tom turn a trifle pale; but in the main they stuckmanfully to their pledge, and, to show that they were no "pikers" but"game sports," tasted at least something of each ingredient set beforethem. And when they came to the dessert, they gave full rein to theirappetites, for it was delicious. Candied fruits and raisins and nutswere topped off with little cups of the finest tea that the boys hadever tasted. They paid their bill and left the place with a much greaterrespect for Chinese cookery than they had ever expected to entertain.

  The afternoon slipped away as if by magic in these new and fascinatingsurroundings. They wove in and out among the countless shops, picking upsouvenirs here and there, until their pockets were much heavier andtheir purses correspondingly lighter. Articles were secured for a songthat would have cost them ten times as much in any American city, ifindeed they could be bought at all. The ivory carvers, workers in jade,silk dealers, painters of rice-paper pictures, porcelain and silversellers--all these were many _cash_ richer by the time the boys, tiredbut delighted, turned back to the shore and were conveyed to the_Fearless_.

  "Well," smiled the doctor, as they came up the side, "how did you enjoyyour first day ashore in China?"

  "Simply great," responded Bert, enthusiastically, while the othersconcurred. "I never had so many new sensations crowding upon me at onetime in all my whole life before. As a matter of fact I'm bewildered byit yet. I suppose it will be some days before I can digest it and have aclear recollection of all we've seen and done to-day."

  "Yes," said the doctor, "but, even yet, you haven't seen the real China.Hong-Kong is so largely English that even the native quarter is more orless influenced by it. Now, Canton is Chinese through and through.Although of course there are foreign residents there, they form so smalla part of the population that they are practically nil. It's only aboutseventy miles away, and I'm going down there to-morrow on a littlebusiness of my own. How would you fellows like to come along? Provided,of course, that the captain agrees."

  Needless to say the boys agreed with a shout, and the consent of thecaptain was readily obtained.

  "How shall we go?" asked Ralph.

  "What's the matter with taking the 'Gray Ghost' along?" put in Tom.

  The doctor shook his head.

  "No," said he. "That would be all right if the roads were good. Ofcourse they're fine here in the city and for a few miles out. But beyondthat they're simply horrible. If it should be rainy you'd be mired tothe hubs, and even if the weather keeps dry, the roads in places aremere footpaths. They weren't constructed with a view to automobileriding."

  So they took an English river steamer the next day, and before nightreached the teeming city, full of color and picturesque to a degree notattained by any other coast city of the Empire. Their time was limitedand there was so much to see that they scarcely knew where to begin. Buthere again the vast experience of the doctor stood them in good stead.Under his expert guidance next day they visited the Tartar City, theGate of Virtue, the Flowery Pagoda, the Clepsydra or Water Clock, theViceroy's Yamen, the City of the Dead, and the Temple of the FiveHundred Genii. The latter was a kind of Chinese "Hall of Fame,"with images of the most famous statesmen, soldiers, scholars, andphilosophers that the country had produced. Before their shrines fireswere kept constantly burning, and the place was heavy with the pungentodor of joss sticks and incense.

  They wound up with a visit to the execution ground and the prisons, avivid reminder of the barbarism that foreign influence has as yet notbeen able to modify to any great degree. The boys were horrified atthe devilish ingenuity displayed by the Chinese in their system ofpunishment.

  Here was a poor fellow condemned to the torture of the cangue. This wasa species of treebox built about him with an opening at the neck throughwhich his head protruded. He stood upon a number of thin slabs of wood.Every day one of these was removed so that his weight rested moreheavily on the collar surrounding his neck, until finally his toesfailed to touch the wood at the bottom and he hung by the neck until heslowly strangled to death.

  "Yes," said the doctor, as the boys turned away sickened by the sight,"there is no nation so cruel and unfeeling as the Chinese. Scarcely oneof these that pass by indifferently, would save this poor fellow if theycould. They look unmoved on scenes that would freeze the blood in ourveins."

  "This is bad enough," he went on, "but it is nothing to some of thefiendish atrocities that they indulge in. Their executioners could givepoints on torture to a Sioux Indian.

  "They have for instance what they call the 'death of the thousandslices.' They are such expert anatomists that they can carve a mancontinuously for hours without touching a vital spot. They hang thevictim on a kind of cross and cut slices from every part of his bodybefore death comes to his relief.

  "Then, too, they have what they name the 'vest of death.' They strip aman to the waist and put on him a coat of mail with numberless fineopenings. They pull this tightly about him until the flesh protrudesthrough the open places, and then deftly pass a razor all over it,making a thousand tiny wounds. Then they take off the vest and releasethe victim. The many wounds coalesce in one until he is practicallyflayed and dies in horrible torment."

  The boys shuddered at these instances of "man's inhumanity to man."

  "Life must be horribly cheap in China," observed Tom.

  "I wonder if such terrible punishment really has any
effect as anexample to criminals," said Ralph.

  "I don't believe it does," put in Bert. "We know that formerly in Europethere were hundreds of crimes that were punishable with death. InEngland, at one time, a young boy or girl would be hung for stealing afew shillings. And yet crime grew more common as punishment grew moresevere. When they became more humane in dealing with offenders, thenumber of crimes fell off in proportion."

  "Yes," assented the doctor. "The modern idea is right that punishmentshould be reformatory instead of vindictive. But it will be a good whilebefore China sees things from that standpoint."

  "It is possible of course that the culprit here does not suffer socruelly as a white man would under similar conditions. The nervoussystem of a Chinaman is very coarse and undeveloped. He bears withstolidity torture that would wring shrieks of agony from one more highlystrung."

  "Perhaps so," said Bert, "but I don't know. We say that sometimes aboutfish. They're coldblooded, and so it doesn't hurt them to be caught.I've often thought, though, that it would be interesting if we couldhear from the fish on that point."

  "No doubt," returned the doctor. "It's always easy to be philosophicalwhen somebody else is concerned. But we'll have to go now," looking athis watch, "if we expect to get to the boat in time."

  "Well, fellows," said Bert that night as, safe on board of the_Fearless_, they prepared to tumble in, "it certainly is interesting togo about this land of the 'Yellow Dragon,' but it's a cruel old beast.I'd hate to feel its teeth and claws."

  Was it a touch of prophecy?

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE PIRATE ATTACK

  "Not very pretty to look at, is he?" asked Ralph, indicating by a nodthe huge Chinaman who had slipped noiselessly past them on his way tothe galley.

  "He isn't exactly a beauty," assented Tom, looking after the retreatingfigure, "but then what Chinaman is? Besides he didn't sign as an Adonis,but as an assistant cook. What do you expect to get for your twelvedollars a month and found?"

  "Well, I'd hate to meet him up an alley on a dark night, especially ifhe had a knife," persisted Ralph. "If ever villainy looked out from afellow's face it does from his."

  "Don't wake him up, he is dreaming," laughed Bert.

  "I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why I cannot tell; But this one thing I know full well, I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,"

  quoted Dick.

  "Come out of your trance, Ralph, and look at these two junks just comingout from that point of land over there," rallied Tom. "Those fellowshandle them smartly, don't they?"

  It was a glorious evening off the China coast. The _Fearless_ hadhoisted anchor and turned her prow toward home. Every revolution of thescrews was bringing them nearer to the land of the Stars and Stripes.The sea was like quicksilver, there was a following wind, the powerfulengines were moving like clockwork, and everything indicated a fast andprosperous voyage.

  The boys were gathered at the rail, and, as Tom spoke, they gazed withinterest at the two long narrow junks that were drawing swiftly towardthem. All sails were set and they slipped with surprising celeritythrough the water.

  "They both seem to be going in the same direction," said Ralph. "Italmost looks as though they were racing. I'll bet on the--What wasthat?"

  The ship shook from stem to stern as though her machinery had beensuddenly thrown out of place.

  The captain rushed down from the bridge and the mates came runningforward. The boys had leaped to their feet and looked at each other indismay. Then, with one accord, they plunged down in the direction of theengine-room. Before they reached it they could hear the hoarse shoutsof MacGregor and his assistants as they shut off the steam, and the shiplosing headway tossed helplessly up and down.

  "What is it Mr. MacGregor?" asked the captain.

  "I canna' tell yet," answered Mac. "Something must have dropped into themachinery. And yet I'll swear there was nothing lying around loose. ButI'll find out."

  A minute or two passed and then with a snarl and an oath, he held up aheavy wrench.

  "Here's the thing that did it," he yelled, "and it didn't get there byaccident either. I ken every tool aboard this ship and I never set eyeson this before. Somebody threw it there to wreck the engines."

  "To wreck the engines," repeated Captain Manning. "Why? Who'd want to doanything like that?"

  "I dinna' ken," said Mac stubbornly. "I only know some one must ha'. I'dlike to get these twa hands of mine on his throat."

  "Has any one been here except you and your men?" asked the captain.

  "No one--leastwise nane but the Chink. He stopped to say----"

  Bert jumped as though he had been shot. The Chinaman of the villainousface--those junks putting out from land! Like a flash he was up theladder and out on the deserted deck. His heart stood still as he lookedastern.

  The two junks were seething with activity and excitement. The decks werepacked with men. All pretense of secrecy was abandoned. The stopping ofthe ship had evidently been the signal they were expecting. All sailswere bent to catch every breath of air, and long sweeps darted suddenlyfrom the sides. The prows threw up fountains of water on each side asthe junks made for the crippled ship like wolves leaping on the flanksof a wounded deer.

  Bert took this in at a single glance. He saw it all--the Chineseaccomplice, the carefully prepared plan, the wrecking of the machinery.His voice rang out like a trumpet:

  "Pirates! Pirates! All hands on deck!"

  Then, while the officers and crew came tumbling up from below, herushed to the wireless room and pressed the spark key. The blue flamessputtered, as up and down the China coast and far out to sea his messageflashed:

  "Attacked by pirates. Help. Quick."

  Then followed the latitude and longitude. He could not wait for a reply.Three times at intervals of a few seconds he sent the call, and then hesprang from his seat.

  "Here, Howland," he shouted, as his assistant appeared at the door."Keep sending right along. It's a matter of life and death. Let me knowif an answer comes."

  Then he grabbed his .45 and rushed on deck. A fight was coming--a fightagainst fearful odds. And his blood grew hot with the lust of battle.

  Short sharp words of command ran over the ship. The officers and crewwere at their places. The women passengers had been sent below and anincipient panic had been quelled at the start. The officers had theirrevolvers loaded and ready and the crew were armed with capstan bars andmarlinspikes beside the sheath knives that they all carried. There wasno cannon, except a small signal gun on board the ship, and this thepirates knew. The battle must be hand to hand. The odds were heavy. Thedecks of the enemy swarmed with yelling devils naked to the waist andarmed to the teeth. They were at least five to one and had the advantageof the attack and the surprise.

  The boys were grouped together at the stern toward which the junks werepulling. All had revolvers, and heavy bars lay near by to be grabbedwhen they should come to hand-grips with the pirates. They looked intoeach others eyes and each rejoiced at what he saw there. Together theyhad faced death before and won out; to-day, they were facing it again,and the chances were against their winning. Yet they never quailed orflinched. The spirit of '76 was there--the spirit of 1812--the spirit of'61. They came of a fighting stock; a race that could face and whip theworld or die in the trying. They glanced at Old Glory floating serenelyabove their heads, and each swore to himself that if he died defeated hewould not die disgraced. Their fingers tightened on the butts of theirweapons, their teeth clinched and their eyes grew hard.

  The captain, cool and stern, as he always was in a crisis, had dividedhis forces into two equal parts. He himself commanded on the port side,while Mr. Collins took charge of the starboard. A long line of hose hadbeen connected with the boiling water of the engine room, and twosailors held the nozzle as it writhed and twisted on the rail. Had therebeen but one junk, this might have proved decisive, but, in the natureof things, it could only defend one side of the ship. The pirates wereproceeding o
n the plan of "divide and conquer." As they drew rapidlynearer, they separated, and while one dashed at the port side of theship, the other swept around under the starboard quarter. Then a hordeof half-naked yellow fiends with knives held between their teeth swarmedup the sides, grabbed at the rails and sought to obtain a foothold. Avolley of bullets swept the first of them away, but their places wereinstantly taken by others. The boiling water rushed in a torrent overthe port side, and the scalded scoundrels fell back. But it was only fora moment and still they kept coming with unabated fury.

  Bert and his comrades fought shoulder to shoulder. Their revolversbarked again and again and the snarling yellow faces were so near thatthey could not miss. Many fell back dead and wounded, but they neverquit; and when the revolvers were emptied, a number of the pirates gotover the rail, while the boys were reloading. Then followed a savagehand-to-hand fight. Iron bars came down with sickening crashes; knivesflashed and fell and rose and fell again. The pirates were gaining afoothold and the little band of defenders was hard pressed. But justthen reinforcements came in the form of MacGregor and his husky stokersand engineers. They had been trying desperately to repair the engines,but the sounds of the fight above had been too much for them to stand,and now they came headlong into the fight, their brawny arms swingingiron bars like flails. They turned the tide at that critical moment andthe pirates were driven back over the sides. They dropped sullenly intothe junks and drew away from the ship until they were out of range ofbullets. Then they stopped and took breath before renewing the attack.They had suffered terribly, but they still vastly outnumbered thedefenders.

  The boys reloaded their revolvers, watching the enemy narrowly.

  "I wonder if they have enough," said Dick as he bound a handkerchiefaround a slight flesh wound in his left arm.

  "I don't think so," answered Bert, "their blood is up and they know howfew we are as compared with themselves. They certainly fought likewildcats."

  "They're live wires sure enough," agreed Tom. "They--why Bert, what'sthe matter?" he exclaimed as Bert sprang to his feet excitedly.

  But Bert had rushed to the captain and was eagerly laying before him theplan that Tom's words had unwittingly suggested.

  The captain listened intently and an immense relief spread over hisfeatures. He issued his orders promptly. Great coils of heavy wire werebrought from the storeroom and under Bert's supervision were wound inparallel rows about the stern of the ship. At first sight it looked asthough they were inviting the pirates to grasp them and thus easilyreach the deck. It seemed like committing suicide. The work was carriedon with feverish energy and by the time the pirates swung their boatsaround and again headed for the ship, there was a treble row of wiresabout a foot apart on both the port and starboard side.

  The revolvers had all been reloaded and every man stood ready. But thetenseness of a few minutes before was lacking. For the first time sincethe fight began Captain Manning smiled contentedly.

  "Don't fire, men, unless I give the word. Stand well back from the railand wait for orders."

  On came the pirates yelling exultantly. The silence of the defenderswas so strange and unnatural that it might well have daunted a moreimaginative or less determined foe. Not a shot was fired, not a manstirred. They might have been dream men on a dream ship for any sign oflife and movement. The crowded junks bore down on either side of theship, and as though with a single movement, a score of pirates leaped atthe rails and grasped the wires to pull themselves aboard.

  Then a wonderful thing happened. From below came the buzz of the greatdynamo and through the wires surged the tremendous power of the electriccurrent. It was appalling, overwhelming, irresistible. It killed aslightning kills. There was not even time for a cry. They hung there forone awful moment with limbs twisted and contorted, while an odor ofburning flesh filled the air. Then they dropped into the sea. Theircomrades petrified with horror saw them fall and then with franticshrieks bent to the sweeps and fled for their lives.

  * * * * *

  And so it befell that when the good ship _Fearless_ drew up to the dockat San Francisco, the young wireless operator, much to his surprise aswell as distaste, found that his quick wit and unfailing courage hadmade of him a popular hero. But he steadfastly disclaimed having doneanything unusual. If he had fought a good fight and "kept the faith," itwas, after all, only his duty.

  "Well, yes, but admitting all that," said Dick, "it's so unusual for afellow to do even that, that when it does happen the world insists oncrowning it. You know.

  "'The path of duty is the road to glory.'"

  Neither knew at the moment how much of prophecy there was in thatquotation. For Glory beckoned, though unseen, and Bert in the nearfuture was destined to win fresh laurels. How gallantly he fought forthem, how splendidly he won them and how gracefully he wore them will betold in

  "Bert Wilson, Marathon Winner."

  THE END

  Transcriber's Notes:

  --Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).

  --Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.

  --Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.

  --Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.

  --Page 149: oe ligature expanded (manoeuvering).