The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter the Brazen, by George F. Worts

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Title: Peter the Brazen
A Mystery Story of Modern China

Author: George F. Worts

Illustrator: Gayle Hoskins

Release Date: May 12, 2009 [EBook #28780]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER THE BRAZEN ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Transcriber's note: Characters with macrons have been indicated in
this file by preceding them with an equals sign and surrounding them
with square brackets, e.g. "[=e]".]

[Frontispiece: PETER, HASTILY INSTRUCTING THE GIRL TO HOLD TWO
RICKSHAWS, LEAPED AT HIS PURSUER WITH DOUBLED FISTS]

PETER THE BRAZEN

A MYSTERY STORY OF MODERN CHINA

BY

GEORGE F. WORTS

"A man whose heart is burning with passion
follows the undulations of a thought."
--Su-Tong-Po.

_WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY_
GAYLE HOSKINS

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

1919

COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1919, J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

TO

DR. AND MRS. W. B. A. MOORE

HONG KONG

CONTENTS

PART I

THE CITY OF STOLEN LIVES

PART II

THE BITTER FOUNTAIN

PART III

THE GREEN DEATH

PETER THE BRAZEN

PART I

THE CITY OF STOLEN LIVES

CHAPTER I

"How serene the joy,
when things that are made for each other meet
and are joined;
but ah,--
how rarely they meet and are joined, the things
that are made for each other!"
--SAO-NAN.

When Peter Moore entered the static-room, picked his way swiftly and
unnoticingly across the littered floor, and jerked open the frosted
glass door of the chief operator's office, the assembled operators
followed him with glances of admiration and concern. No one ever
entered the Chief's office in that fashion. One waited until called
upon.

But Moore was privileged. Having "pounded brass" for five useful and
adventurous years on the worst and best of the ships which minimize the
length and breadth of the Pacific Ocean, he was favored; he had become
a person of importance. He had performed magi