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| The Fla ming i Heart > / Quest For a Hidden Ruby In the Hills of China f > ! By JAMES A. REIXICK The little woman in black had kept to herself during the long voyage from Sni) Francisco to Shanghai, and now with the China coast lying straight ahead, a long, flat line of yellow merg- 1 lug into the muddy, yellow waters of the broad mouth of the Yangtzekiang, she < .ved her fellow passengers with a close scrutiny. A n lier Clarkson had noticed her from the very beginning, perhaps 'be- j cause of her evident though self Im posed loneliness, as well as the serene beauty of her face. To her fellow pas senger she was Mrs. I’earce, a widow. ; To Clarkson she was an object of in terest. He was surprised on this last day of tin* voyage when she approached him j where lie stood near the ship’s rail and spoke. "Mr. Clarkson.” she said, rather tim idly. while a faint color flushed her clear skin, “the captain tells me that yon are a resident of Shanghai and may be of assistance to me. I am a perfect stranger here and—l need help!” “It will give me the greatest pleas ure to lie of assistance.” assured Clark son courteously. "Pray command me; I am entirely at your service.” “You are more than kind," she said, with a little tremor in her voice. ‘‘l j need a friend, oh. so badly! I have: a most delicate and dangerous mission I to perforin, and I need tin* advice and help of a friend. May I call you that, Mr. Clarkson?” "I shall be honored. Mrs. Pearce," lie said sincerely. i "Thank you. Now. lot me s.ly that, although my mission is a dangerous one. if it is successfully accomplished it will make me a very rich woman ami you a rich man. although, pardon me. you may be rich ’beyond the dreams of avarice’ already!” She smiled charmingly. “I am anything but rich,” laughed Clarkson. Mrs. Pearce put out an eager little | hand. “Then you are just the man to help! me out!” she cried enthusiastically. Again Clarkson laughed. “I begin to see that poverty has Its n«l vantages,” he said, clasping her hand In his for an instant. "Thank you,” she said simply. “I felt that I could before i approached you. Let me state the case briefly: I am the widow of Henry Pearce, who commanded the big steamer Catalpa, plying between Vancouver and the far eastern ports. My husband had lived in China many years and had good friends among the Chinese ns well as the foreigners. “Four years ago Captain Pearce had a vacation and when he reached Shang hai turned the Catalpa over to a eom (b | “TIIE I’LAMIXO HEART !" EJACULATED CLARKSON. potent commander and took a long j desire 1 trip up the Yangtze river. It was up,there that he fell upon the trail of tUo Flaming Heart.” She paused and drew a long breath. "The Flaming Heart?" ejaculated! Clarkson, deeply interested. Mrs. Pearce nodded, and tears filled her beautiful gray eyes. “The Flaming Heart cost my hus band his life. For three years after ward he suffered from the effects of a stab wound he received when he dis covered Its hiding place, and on ids deathbed he told me the story and made me promise that I would take measures to interest some honorable men in the enterprise to recover the Heart that is his by right of discovery. I knew that the meu I could interest must lie found here on the spot, some one who knows the Chinese.” “It sounds good to me.” said Archer Clarkson soberly. "Tell me the rest of it please” "It seems Chat on a previous voyage to the east my husband befriended a mandarin who was returning home to die. This Chinese, who was very rb '.Y told my husband of a certain jew*!, a very valuable ruby, called the Flaming Heart. This ruby was se creted In one of tlie niches of a rock temple along the upper gorges of the Yangtze river, and there was a bitter rivalry between Lin Wah. our man darin, and Fuh Kienso, who ruled another province, for the discovery a::(l possession of the jewel. "Lin Wah had the advantage over his enemy because he alone possessed the directions how to find the ruby, but it became necessary for Lin Wah to go to the United States, where he had relatives, and during Ids absence lie left trusted men to guard the rock temple until he could return and com plete his search for the Flaming Heart "But the mandarin was taken ill and died before the Catalpa reached Shang hai, and he gave the precious paper to my husband anil with his dying breath willed him the Flaming Heart. That is why Captain Pearce took a vacation the following year and went up the Yangtze river. “When he reached the rock temple he discovered by careful inquiry that Lin Wall’s guards had been killed at their posts and that the rock temple and its vicinity were swarming with the men of Fuh Kienso. who were making a frantic search for the gem. # They evidently suspected my husband's Interest in the matter, and one day they stabbed him. and after searching iiis clothing and finding nothing (for he had taken the precaution to commit the directions to memory) they left him for dead and ran away, abandon ing for the time the search for the ruby. “Captain Pearce was an invalid for four years, and before he died he learn ed that the mandarin, Full Kienso. was also dead and therefore the way to the safe discovery of the Flaming Heart must be open. If you will go with me and discover the gem half of it will be yours.” finished Mrs. i earce. "That part may be settled after ward." said Clarkson gravely. A week later Archer Clarkson and Mrs. Pearce were sailing up the Yang tze river In one of the steamers that ply the great stream as far up us linn kow. There they hired a boat and boatmen, and. always accompanied by Clarkson’s trusted Chinese “boy,” Van Ping, they proceeded up the river. At last they reached a point where they bade their “trackers" make camp by the boat, and Mrs. Pearson mid Clarkson went on with Van Ping, who had been born in that province and knew the country well. Another day’s Journey by a devious patli that sometimes skirted the river or again wound around through the pine clad hills and at last they emerged on the top of a mighty rook that frown ed above the river. Standing at the edge of the precipice. Archer Clarkson looked down at the river, boiling down through the rocky gorge below. Mrs. Pearce uttered a little cry of alarm, the first symptom of weakness she had indulged since they began the Journey. “What a dreadful place!" she shud dered. “Captain Pearce said the open ing to the rock temple was just below the summit of the rock, but how can one reach It?” “We must rig a sling and lower our selves down in front of the entrance. Either Van Ping or I must go first.” “Let Van Ping go—there might be danger!” she cried quickly, and tears filled her eyes. Clarkson felt a queer throbbing in the region of his watch pocket. A great tenderness for the plucky little woman filled his heart. Van Ping, who had not fallen }n love with any one. had been studying the situation from a practical view point. Now he approached his master and. apologizing profusely for the in trusion. begged to offer advice. “Fire ahead!” was Clarkson’s sug gestion. Van Ping declared that as a little lad he had played about this great rock, and he remembered that there was a legend concerning a heart that was buried in the rock. “But,” said Van Ping earnestly, “the way to the hiding place is from the top of the rock and not by the entrance that overhangs the gorge." "The top of the rock?” Clarkson was asking when from behind them there came a shrill cry of triumph, and they turned to see a dozen rascally looking Chinese approaching them through the pine woods. In an instant Clarkson realized the great danger that faced them. It would be an easy matter for the ban dits to rush them and crowd them over the edge of the precipice into the river, where all traces of them would he forever lost. He caught Nita Pearce by the hand, and. calling to Van Ping to follow, Clarkson pulled out tils revolver and rgn to meet the Chinese. This unex pected move so startled the latter that they paused in confusion, thus giving the fugitives an opportunity to get down from the rock and out of the danger that threatened them. Van Ping went forward to interview the attacking party. Presently he returned to his master. "These scoundrels velly wicked men —want Flaming Heart—say so lang ago—way back, their mandarin he promise Flaming Heart if they help hut no can find, and he die. Now they search some more and find you. They say you die.” “Well.” mused Clarkson, “suppose you tell them to go ahead and search. We won't interfere with them if they will let us alcne." After half an hour of parleying Van Ping returned to say that the Chinese would search on their own account. THE COFFEE COUNTY PROGRESS. DOUGLAS, GEORGIA only they stipulated that the Ameri cans should not foiibw them to the rock cave. To this Clarkson agreed after talking to Van Ping. And presently the ragged, filthy crew were crowded on the rock, chattering vociferously while they arranged a sling, and one by one were lowered to the opening in the face of the rock which gave entrain e to the rock tem ple. When there remained only one man on tlie rock, he who worked the swing ing seat. Clarkson and Van Ping con ferred together, and finally, leaving Mrs. Pearce to watch the Chinaman from a safe position with a revolver held menacingly in her hand, they made a careful search around the base of the rock for the spot which Van Ping said he had visited once when a lad. It was here that he had learned of the hidden Flaming Heart. Many years had passed since then, but as the other searchers had been on a false trail it remained for Van Ping to find at last the little mound • 4 TIIE GUARD SCREAMED SHRILLY. of moss beneath the crooked pine. Digging the mound away revealed a little fiat stone, and the removal of the stone showed a round hole faced with cement that apparently led down Into tlie rear of the rock temple. It looked very dark down there, and Clarkson thrust his long arm down and clutch ed something hard and round like a metal box. lie brought It up and was looking down into the cavity when part of the wall near the bottom fell away and a yellow band was thrust In from the rock temple in a futile search for the treasurd. “We must get out of this,” said Clarkson quickly, and he related the Incident to Van Ping. In u very short time the searchers below would dis cover that tlie treasure had been found by the Americans and there would be murder and bloodshed at once. Van Ping earned the undying grati tude of his master that afternoon. The Chinese on guard was an opium smoker, and his senses were dulled by the drug. Now he sat drowsily at the edge of tlie precipice, the tope hang ing loosely in his hand. The end of the rope had been twisted around the sturdy limb of a tree, affording a pur chase for tlie manipulation of the sling. Van Ping readied up and cut the rope wound around the tree. It slip ped hissingly through the weak grasp of the guard, and before the man re alized what had happened the rope had dropped from his fingers and tlie sling chair dangling below fell hurtling into the river. The guard screamed shrilly, but his cries were Instantly stilled by Van Ping's big blue handkerchief tied about his mouth. Then, hand in hand. Clarkson and Nita Pearce weut back along the way they had come, and Van Ping led the way. At last they came up to the camp of the trackers, and Clarkson offered them double pay to put off in the boat at once. Nita Pearce sat in the stern of the boat, her hand in Archer Clarkson's. There was an unspoken understanding between these two. who had met so casually and who had taken this haz ardous Journey after the Flaming Heart. They spoke of the Chinese bandits imprisoned in the rock temple, and they spoke <>f tlie moment when they might safely open tlie little bronze box that was hidden in Clarkson's pocket. They talked about rewarding Van Ping. They did not talk of them selves. k At last came the moment when, back In Shanghai at Mrs. Pearce’s hotel, they opened the bronze box and looked iq >on the beautiful ruby which had cost many lives and the possession of which meant the beginning of a new life for Clarkson. “isn't it wonderful?" whispered Nita Pearce as she looked down at the glowing ruby. "Beautiful.” agreed Clarkson, but he was looking at Nita's face. "Tiip loveliest tiling I saw,” murmured Nita. lifting her gray eyes to smile at him. "I have seen lovelier." said Clark son. looking deep Into her eyes. Now she understood, and presently when they stood, their faces close to gether. looking down at the Flaming Heart they saw reflected in its glow ing heart a beautiful future back home in tlie States. We Solicit Your Banking Business • . f PROMPT AND COURTEOUS ATTENTION GUARANTEED + NOT THE OLDEST BUT THE LARGEST BANK IN THE COUNTY The Citizens Bank of Douglas E. L. TANNER, G. M. STANTON, Vice-President Cashier TAYLOR’S MARKET ' We Handle Native and Western Meats, Fish Apalachicola Oysters Also A L ine of Groceries, Fruits, Vegetables etc S. P. TAYLOR Phone 261 Sycamore st, Douglas, (| _ t First Class Auto Service. ALSO AGENTS FOR STUDEBAKER, CHALMER j