The Beautiful White Devil

"A novel containing a more ingenious, exciting, and absorbing romance has not appeared upon our book table this season."--Boston Courier.

A BID FOR FORTUNE.

12mo. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.

"Mr. Boothby never allows the interest of their doings to drop from first page to last: and he tells his tale in a pleasant, brisk fashion that carries the reader along, and is as convincing a vehicle as could be chosen for the relation of strange adventures such as befell the hero and his friends."--London Times.

THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER.

12mo. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.

"Abounds in dramatic situations, and is bright in dialogue, graphic in description, and subtle in character analysis."--Boston Advertiser.

"Crowded with incident yet perfectly natural throughout, the story is one of the most charming that its author has yet written."--New York World.

New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.

THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL

BY

GUY BOOTHBY

AUTHOR OF A BID FOR FORTUNE, DR. NIKOLA, THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER, ETC.

NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HOW I COME TO HEAR OF THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL 1

II. AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE 16

III. THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL 34

IV. THE HOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL 60

V. HOW WE FOUGHT THE PLAGUE 79

VI. A TRIP INTO THE COUNTRY 100

VII. AN EXCITING DAY 117

VIII. A QUEER SURPRISE 135

IX. HOW WE SUCCEEDED IN OUR ENTERPRISE 149

X. RETRIBUTION 167

XI. A TYPHOON 186

XII. THE FIRST OF MAY 208

XIII. REMANDED 226

XIV. PLOTTING AND PLANNING 239

XV. HOW WE SUCCEEDED 256

XVI. OUR MARRIAGE, AND THE SETTLEMENT AGAIN 270

THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL.

CHAPTER I.

HOW I COME TO HEAR OF THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL.

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 striking had died away, the vibration of the bells lingered for nearly half a minute on the murky stillness 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. Benwell, 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 Francisco mail-boat, and I, George De Normanville, looked on, and encouraged them with sarcasms and utterly irrational advice. Between times the subdued jabbering of a group of rickshaw coolies, across the pavement, percolated in to us, and mingled with the click of the billiard balls and the monotonous whining of the punkah rope; then the voice of a man in the verandah upstairs, singing to the accompaniment of a banjo, drifted down, and set us beating time with our heels upon the wooden floor.

The words of the song seemed strangely out of place in that heathen land, so many thousand miles removed from Costerdom. But the wail of the music had quite a different effect. The singer's voice was distinctly a good one, and he used it with considerable ability:

"She wears an artful bonnet, feathers stuck all on it, Covering a fringe all curled; She's just about the neatest, prettiest, and sweetest Donna in the wide, wide world. And she'll be Mrs. 'Awkins, Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins, Got her for to name the day. We settled it last Monday, so to church on Sunday, Off we trots the donkey shay.

"Oh, Eliza! Dear Eliza! If you die an old maid You'll only have yourself to blame. D'ye hear Eliza--dear Eliza! Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins is a fust-class name."

Half a dozen other voices took up the chorus, and sent it rolling away over the litter of sampans alongside the wharf, out to where the red and blue funnel boats lay at anchor half a mile distant. The two players chalked their cues and stopped to participate.

"Oh, Eliza! Dear Eliza! If you die an old maid You'll only have yourself to blame. Oh, Eliza! Dear Eliza! Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins is a fust-class name."