Guy Boothby

The Beautiful White Devil Guy Boothby

The night was sweltering hot, even for Hong Kong. The town clock had just chimed a quarter-past ten, and though the actual sound of the strik-ing had died away, the vibration of the bells lin-gered for nearly half a minute on the murky still-ness of the air. In spite of the exertions of the punkah coolie, the billiard-room of the Occidental Hotel was like the furnace-doors of Sheol. Ben-well, of the Chinese Revenue cutter Y-Chang, and Peckle, of the English cruiser Tartaric, stripped nearly to the buff, were laboriously engaged upon a hundred up; while Maloney, of the San Francis-co mail-boat, and I, George De Normanville, looked on, and encouraged them with sarcasms and utterly irrational advice.