“What, no love Chinaman money, Missee? No workee—no slavee—Chi-Lung-Hing mally Amelican bleauty—Dlive her plenty pletty dresses—makee her happy!” “Never!” cried Marion, who was now thoroughly alarmed. She bounded away from him and began examining the premises. There was nothing but the four walls and they seemed almost impervious to sound. She began to think that the magnificent room was located in a cellar. The Celestial watched her with glittering, stealthy eyes as she peered behind each curtain and then in a fit of desperation shook the one door of the apartment. “I am a prisoner!” she cried, at last. “Oh, Dollie, little sister, will I ever come back to you?” She sank down on a divan to think a little, then once more she rushed over to the curtain to look for Carlotta. As she peered behind the heavy drapery she saw that something unusual was evidently happening. The three Chinamen inside were whispering excitedly to each other. Carlotta was lying in one of the bunks, her face strangely blue and distorted, and as Marion stared at her from the entrance, she felt the bejeweled Chinaman slip past her. Something was wrong with Carlotta, she did not know what—she moved forward a step and her foot struck something lying on the carpet. Marion bent down and picked it up—it was an ordinary key. In an instant she had flown back across the room to the door and had opened it softly. The next moment she found herself in a heavily draped hall-way. It was so thickly strewn with rugs and mats that no sound from the outer world could possibly penetrate to it. The young girl darted ahead, peering behind the heavy curtains in hopes of finding an exit, but after a few terrible moments, during each of which she expected that her Chinese jailer would notice her flight and follow her, she suddenly heard muffled voices behind one of the draperies and tried to calm herself enough to listen. “You promised the woman five hundred dollars,” said Jack Green’s voice on the other side of the thick curtain, “and you promised me three hundred if I would help her. Now the girl is here—we have kept our part of the bargain. If she escapes you now, it is not our fault, is it?” “She will not escape,” answered a soft, Oriental voice, in the clearest English. “Your American girls like my Chinese harem. She will stay from preference after she becomes acquainted.” “Or after you have made her your wife, you mean,” said Jack Green, with a laugh. “Well, I’m telling you right now—this girl is a beauty.” “I must see her before I pay,” said the voice again. “Wait here; I will go in; if I like her, you shall have your money.” “I agree to that,” was Jack Green’s quick answer, “but don’t expect a tame bird, Chi-Lung, for Marion Marlowe is a wild one!” “I will find a way to tame her,” said the oily voice. There was silence after that, and Marion clenched her hands in fury. “Listen!” Jack Green spoke suddenly and in evident alarm.