the better. Are you not afraid that you may be recognized and thrown. thrown into prison?"

"I am not afraid. Life on the ocean transformed me both inwardly and outwardly."

66 That may be, but I fear for you now. Be careful, I pray you. If you meet Lum Choy there will be trouble; and should he become aware that you and I have met, he would be a bloodhound on your track." "Well, for your sake I will watch and be cautious."

When A-Chuen reappeared, Leih Tseih said, "Kind woman, we have agreed when the proper time comes to seek another city where we can be united. Here there are laws to separate us, but none to bind."

Which was true; for how could Leih Tseih and Ku Yum ask either Chinese priest or American in San Francisco to make them man and wife?

"One might as well look for a pin at the bottom of the ocean," growled Lum Cho. He spoke to the Lee Chus, who had been vainly searching for weeks for Ku Yum.

Well, it may be that she has given herself to the sea," answered Lee Chu, who was not very bright.

"Imbeciles! was his wife's quick rejoinder as she snapped her eyes at the men. "A girl with a new lover can always be found-by him."

"What do you mean? Choy.

asked Lum

Why, this: Ku Yum had a lover who passed here every day. It is to his embraces, not to those of cold water that Ku Yum has given herself. The shameful

thing! If I had her here I would tear her eyes out."

Lum Choy's face had become livid.

"Do you know this man?" said he. "If so, I will trace her through him."

"I should know him were I to see him," said Lee Chu's wife, "but he has not passed for three or four weeks. I had the letter which he wrote to Ku Yum, but the girl stole it from me before she left."

"He will pass again," replied Lum Choy. "Ku Yum is not here now, so he does not make this his way. But he must pass some time. Tell me the hour when he was wont to go by and I will watch day

after day and never weary until I have run him down."

The presidents of the Six Companies had met together in the council hall.

The chief of the Sam Yups, an imposing man with thought-refined features, was urging the advisability of expending a sum of money for the relief of some sick laborers, when a rapping was heard, foìlowed by the entrance of the Six Companies' secretary, who approached the aged chief of the Hop Wos and whispered a few words in his ear.

You can admit him," responded the old man.

The secretary left the room, and in a few minutes returned with a repulsivelooking fellow whose forehead bore a huge

scar.

"This is Lum Choy," announced the secretary.

Well, Lum Choy, what is your complaint?" inquired the Hop Wo chief.

"My complaint," said Lum Choy, in a high, rasping voice, " is that living in this city is a man named Leih Tseih, who owes this honorable body the cost of his transportation from China to America, and as well sundry other taxes. His debt is of many years' standing, yet he works as a free man and himself receives the good of every cent he earns. More than this, Leih Tseih is a fugitive criminal, having some five years ago assaulted a man with murderous intent and escaped the consequences of his crime. I, Lum Choy, am the man he assaulted, and bear on my forehead the mark of his knife. I also complain that this Leih Tseih has abducted a slave girl named Ku Yum, or rather, stolen her from one Lee Chu, and that he has secreted her in a house on Stockton Street, to which I can lead you. And I petition that you engage officers of the law to capture this lawless man, and that you prosecute him, as it is in order for the Six Companies so to do."

There were a few seconds of silence after Lum Choy had finished speaking; then the Sam Yup chief arose. He regarded gravely the mean figure of Lum Choy, and said: "Presidents of the Yeong Wo, Kong Chow, Yan Wo, Hop, Wo and Ning Yeong Societies, you may remember that

made no mistake, for day after day, night after night, I have dogged his footsteps."

The chief of the Ning Yeongs then said: Lum Choy has suffered grievous wrongs, and we must do all in our power to assist him in bringing his wronger to justice; but the purchase of slave-girls, which is just and right in our own country, is not lawful in America. Therefore, the task of recovering Ku Yum cannot be undertaken by the Six Companies. It must be intrusted to the hands of private parties and conducted secretly. Otherwise Lum Choy and Lee Chu will have as much to answer for, according to the law of this country, as had Leih Tseih.”

"And," rejoined the Sam Yup president, "that being so, I would advise Lum Choy to let matters rest. He who strives for a woman makes much trouble for himself. Besides, is it not better to forgive an injury than to avenge one?"

"Great and noble are your sentiments, benevolent Sam Yup chief," broke in Lum Choy, with a scarcely concealed sneer; "but they are not the sentiments of a man who has been injured as I have been, and I will have vengeance if it costs me my life."

With these words he left the councilroom. Desire for a woman, hate for a man, had changed the nature of the once shrewd and clear-headed Lum Choy, and his mind was fired with one idea-vengeance.

"If," meditated he in the darkness of midnight, "I imprison Leih Tseih for a few months, perhaps a year, Ku Yum wiil be his at the end of that time and love him more than ever. If I use secret means to obtain Ku Yum, and do obtain her, the sweetness of the fruit will not be for me, for her mind and heart will be with my rival. If I kill Leih Tseih, Ku Yum's spirit will follow his, for that is the way with women who dare what she has dared. What, then, can I do to satisfy myself and draw Ku Yum's heart from Leih Tseih? This only-kill Lum Choy and make Leih Tseih his murderer. Oho! devils, I shall soon be one of you! And now I must arrange so that he shall be the last person with me. I know where I can obtain a knife of his, and I know how I can lure him here. He will be overjoyed

with my offer to relinquish my claim on Ku Yum for a small tax on his weekly wages, and while he is pouring out his gratitude to me for abandoning my vengeance, I will dabble him well with blood from a cut arm. He must come here m the dusk of the evening and immediately after his departure the deed will be done. Ha, ha! what a revenge!"

Your eyes are strange; there is blood on your garments!" cried Ku Yum to Leih Tseih, who without warning had appeared before her.

Leih Tseih's set face relaxed.

"Be not afraid, my bird," said he: but to-night you and I must part.` "Part! O, no, no!" She sprang to his side and caught his hand.

It is true. I am hunted again. Lum Choy has been found dead with a knife in his heart. I was the last person seen to enter his room. And as you see, my garments are blood-stained."

For a second the girl shrank back; then. alas for the lost soul of Lum Choy, pressed closer to her lover and whispered in hiear, "If all men save Leih Tseih were killed by Leih Tseih, still would Ku Yum remain with Leih Tseih."

66

"I am unworthy," murmured Leih Tseih, brokenly. Though I am guiltless of the deed for which I know they will condemn me, yet my past has been such that it justifies the condemnation. But you. O sweetest heart! you must forget me!

Ku Yum shook her head. "I can die. but I cannot do what you have asked of me."

Some silent seconds, then Leih Tseih said in a clear voice, We will die together -you and I."

"Ah! that will be happiness-to enter the spirit-land, hand in hand. When my cousins in China hear of it, they will say

How fine! Our cousin, Ku Yum, whe was a slave-girl on earth, walks the Halls of Death with the son of a high mandarin." "

C

OLONEL WILLIAM J. BRYAN has an article in the North American Review for June, 1899, on the subject of "Jeffersonian Principles," intending therein to show that our acquisition of the Philippine Islands was a step toward imperialism, and that the "Jeffersonian principle" was opposed to territorial expansion.

I venture to say that the acquisition of the Philippine Islands and their present control by the American Republic is not only not an act of imperialism but that Jefferson was in favor of territorial expansion and he was not an imperialist.

I confess a lifelong admiration for Mr. Jefferson. The splendid services rendered ⚫ by him, not only to his country but to mankind, place him first among American statesmen. But I do not think anything that can now be said will change Mr. Jefferson's well-known historical position, nor do I believe a political issue can be made by either truthfully or erroneously referring to his position on the subject of territorial expansion. He acted from the lights then before him, as we act from the lights now before us. He lived nearly a century ago. Since then the map of the world has changed. It is quite impossible to estimate what position Mr. Jefferson would assume now were he living. One thing is certain, of all our early American statesmen, he was conspicuously the wisest and greatest territorial expansionist, and this, too, in opposition to the expressed views of many other distinguished Ameri

cans.

As was said by Mr. Blaine in his "Twenty Years in Congress," referring to the acquisition of Louisiana and the attitude then assumed by many Americans against Jefferson's policy of expansion:

It seems hardly credible that the acquisition of Louisiana by Jefferson was denounced with a bitterness surpassing the partisan rancor with which later generations have been familiar. No abuse was too walignant, no epithet too coarse, no imprecation

too savage, to be employed by the assailants of the great philosophic statesman who laid so broad and deep the foundation of his country's growth and grandeur.

In view of our present relations toward Cuba, it is interesting to note that as late as October 24, 1823, Mr. Jefferson wrote President Monroe:

I candidly confess that I have ever looked upon Cuba as the most interesting addition that ever could be made to our system of States. The control which this Island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico and the countries and isthmus bordering upon it, as well as those whose waters flow into it. would fill up the measure of our political well-being.

In a word, Mr. Jefferson was seeking Cuba because it would give us control over the "Gulf of Mexico and the countries and isthmus bordering upon it." But he wished to acquire this island by purchase rather than by war.

It is not true that either President McKinley or any other American has attempted to tempted to "make subjects of the Filipinos by enforcing the authority of a few white men there," or in any other manner. It is true that the Congress of the United States has, by adopting and carrying out the terms of the treaty with Spain declared that those islands belong to the United States. It is also true that, if they are ours, it is the sworn duty of the President to maintain peace and good order there,our treaty stipulation requires this.

There are seventy-five million of Americans at home and twenty-five thousand American soldiers now on those islands who are interested in maintaining peace. When we got those islands the natives were trying to kill off the Spanish people there, just as the Seminole Indians were trying to kill off the Spanish people inhabiting Florida when Mr. Monroe obtained that territory. Our soldiers then kept right on fighting and exterminating those Indians until they were conquered, and no American objected, and no one could find any