524 MYSTIC ISLES 



"Joseph, for God's sake, bring me a drink! Bring 

 me a double absinthe!" 



Joseph fetched the drink hurriedly, and stopped to 

 pick up the broken glass. 



"Mon dieu!" snapped Llewellyn, "you can do that 

 afterward. Clear out!" 



Then he turned to me, and his eyes contracted into 

 mere black gleams as he asked: 



"Are you like all these others? By God! I was pass- 

 ing the opium den here a few minutes ago, and I heard 

 Hip Sing say something like that: What have I to do 

 with David? Was I responsible for his death? Any 

 man can come to your front door and kill himself. He 

 was a friend of mine. I did n't see much of him before 

 he died; I was busy with the vanilla." 



Llewellyn swept us with an inclusive glance. 



"Now you fellows have got to stop bringing up this 

 David matter when I come in here, or I '11 quit this 

 club." 



Hallman answered him, spitefully: 



"For Heaven's sake, Llewellyn, I never heard a liv- 

 ing soul mention David before, except at first, when 

 there was so much curiosity. You 're bughouse." 



Fung Wah sat there, his small, astute eyes, in a saf- 

 fron face, fixed alternately upon the speakers, with an 

 appraising grimace but half-veiled. And as he sipped 

 his grenadine syrup and soda water, he admired his 

 three-inch thumbnail, the token of his rise from the 

 estate of a half -naked coolie in Quan-tung to equality 

 with these Taipans, the whites of Tahiti. He may or 

 may not have known what rumors there were, but want- 

 ing the good-will of all influential residents in his widen- 



