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Show ; i iJd bAKK S I AR ! By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS I Autlor of "T8 Firing Line," "In Secret," "The Fighting Chance," "The Danger Mark," "Lorraine," "Cardigan," etc. ''x n wHh the donor, sir?" ; '"ly ;"u o! . - Dvnl call him; do you Mr'" 't nil hi m. s-r." I"11,1 .Mr. Nland, there Is a "S'?,'. jnui'sc hfi'o. vou will not w;uit I I ':i',utu vou sir?" -f:' "ii i tl'.'1 shadow of a smile crept over V l-d'LfHcomo for her hn ndkeniiicf?" 'T' vrs a silence; the steward looked T '- Yt the nurse; t Mo nurd's dark i fK--:'' fixed on the man lying there t)'-- ' . A':e ,lChan't bo wtintln;; her any more, 1 m"lH sir''" repeaU'd the steward, not '':Vi wis u'aze. ' .'y I "t'r.mk- I shall want her for a ' --'le-" , , , v,- ' eelar.d slowly opened his eyes, ut'the motionless nurse: "How '':!f';., Ilie!iera.ade?- ho Maid weakly. i:i m "ihe steward, with an ef:ort: sv.hite and I arc-old frk-nd.s. . . . I 'r;f;Vor kindly remain outsid my ' vnd throw what remains of mv ! Eeui of-the port . And be -Lat all times to look after tne an on crutches. . . . I'm fond of : Tiiank vou, steward." 1 'V after the steward had closed the t rn.-)n door. Use Dumont stuud beside ! !!-"'pd;;S bed without stirring. Once or 1 be opened his eyes and looked at ! morouslv. After a while he said: -VUse be seated, Scheherazade." ! s!Jcnlmly seated herself on the edge of , :J.uorrid soup," ho murmured. "You kl attend a cooking school, my dear." !"c '"I regarded him absently, as though i X' matters absorbed her. .."vp, he repealed, "as a cook you re nyre Scheherazade. 'That broth 1 'm''vou seasoned for me has done fun-1 fun-1 '"'t'ia to my eyes, too. 'But they're ;:,...'rsng, I see much better already. My !T:.J1 is 'becoming sufficiently clear to i AiWvo how pretty you are In your i arse's cap and apron." a slow colour came into her face and v. saw her eyebrows bend inward as ' Aveh she were annoyed. ! yVu are pretty, Scheherazade," he re- vated "You know you are, don't you? i ' pjt vou're a poor cook and a rotten shot, j ' foil can't be perfection, you know. Cheer i : "she ignored the suggestion, her dark ! pes brooding and remote again; and he iiy watchlns her with placid interest in i I jrh no rancour remained. He was ' j e:np decidely better every minute now. j j He lifted the automatic pistol and shoved I , 't under his pillow, then cautiously flexed, ' :-is ' fingers, his arms, and finally his i ; ;ree3, with Increasing pleasure and con- 1 ''"Such dreadful soup," he '"said. "But Tn a lot better, thank you. Was it tq ; ' have been murder this time, too, Schehe- I made? Would the entire cupful have i ! made a pretty angel of m"e? Oh, fie! N'auhty Scheherazade!" j She remained mute. j "Didn't you mean manslaughter with t Intent to exterminate?' he insisted, 7 latc'ning her. Pwliaps aha was thinking of her blond md beadrled companion, and the open . Ifo:t, for she made no reply. : "Why dln't you let him heave me out?" j Inquired Neeland. "Why did you object?" j At that she reddened to the roots of her hair, understanding that what she feared hi been true that Keeland, while phys- I .'j Icall? helpless, had retained sufficient1 j consciousness to be aware of -what was !! opening to him and to understand at ii last a part of the conversation, .i "What was the stuff with which you A favored that snup, Scheherazade?" Ho was merely baiting her; he did not 'j tipect any reply; but, to his surprise, she 'a iwwpred him: ; f, "Throlanium Speyer's solution Is what 1 i I nsi'd," she said with a sort of listless' j effrontery. I "Don't know It. Don't like It, either. ! Pr-fer other condiments." 1 : i He lifted himself on one elbow, re- j ). jalied propped so, tore open his wireless : It telram, and, after a while, contrived to ) :iad it: !i "James Neeland, .1 "S. S. Volhynia. 1 "Spies aboard. Be careful. If trouhlo -j Ihreaiens captain has instructed British j2 government to protect you and order ar- ' rests on your complaint. NAIA." With a smile that was almost a rin, j w-and handed the telegram to Use Du- nicnt. 1 "Scheherazade, he said, "vou'll be a! rood little girl, now, won't vou? Because K would be a shockincr thins for you and Mir friend across the wav to land in tngland wearing funny bansles on your wrists and keeping step with each other, wouldn t it?" She continued to hold the slip of paper and stare at it long after she had fin-itwieu fin-itwieu reading tt and tiie words became a series of parallel blurs. "Scheherazade," he said lightly, "what oneurth am I Koin- to do with you7" i suppose you w;ll lodye a charge with me captain aamst me' she replied in oven tones. "Why not? You deserve it, don't you' ou and your humorous friend with the J't'llow beard?" She looked at him with a vague smile. What can you prove?" said she "I'erYwrtly true, dear child. Nothing. 1 don t want to prove anything, either." She smiled Incredulously. "it's mate true, Scheherazade. Otherwise Other-wise I shouldn't have ordered my steward to throw the remains of my dinner out of tne corridor porthole. No, dear child 1 snouui have had it analysed had vour -taleroom searched for more of that "elusive "elu-sive seasoning you used to flavour my I limner; had a further search made for a! cerium sort of handkerchief and perfume 1 Also, just imagine the delightful evidence whwn a thorough search of vour papers mmht reveal!" He laughed. "Xo, Scheherazade; Sche-herazade; I did not care to prove you anything resembling a menace to society. liecau.se, in tiie first place, I am absurdiy grateful to you." Her face became expressionless under the slow flush mounting. ll.''1'm not teasing you," he Insisted. W hat I say is true. I'm grateful to vou for violently injecting romance into my perfectly commonplace existence. You huve taken the book of my life and not only extra illustrated it with vivid and chromatic pictures, but you have unbound it, sewed into its prosaic pages several: chapters ripped bodily from a penny- , .dreadful, and you have then rebound the 1 whole thing and pasted your own pretty picture on the cover! Come, now! Ought, not a man be grateful to any philanthropic philan-thropic girl who so gratuitously obliges him?" Her face burned under his ridicule; her clasped hands in her lap were twisted tight as though to maintain her self-control. "What do you want of me?" she asked between lips that scarcely moved. He laughed, sat up, stretched out both arms with a sigh of satisfaction. The colour came back to his face; he dropped one leg over the bed's edge; and she stood erect and stepped aside for him to rise. No dizziness remained; be tried both feet on the floor, straightened himself, cast a gaily malicious glance at her, and slowly rose to his feet. "Scheherazade," he said, "Isn't it funny? fun-ny? I ask you, did you ever hear of a would-be murderess and her escaped victim being on such cordial terms? Did you?" He was going through a few calisthenics, calisthen-ics, gingerly, but with increasing abandon, aban-don, while he spoke. "I feel fine, thank you. I am enjoying the situation extremely, too. It's a delightful de-lightful paradox, this situation. It's absurd, ab-surd, it's enchanting, it's incredible! There is only one more thing that could make it perfectly impossible. And I'm going to do it!" And he deliberately encircled en-circled her waist and kissed her. She turned white at that, and, as he released her, laughing, took a step or two blindly, toward the door; stood there with one hand against it as though supporting sup-porting herself. . After a few moments, and very slowly, she turned and looked at him; and that , young man was scared for the first time ! since their encounter in the locked house 1 in Brookhollow. Yet in her face there was no anger, no menace, nothing he had ever before seen in any woman's face, nothing that he now comprehended. Only, for the moment, mo-ment, it seemed to him that something i terrible was gazing at him out of this , girl's fixed eyes something he did not 1 recognize as part of her another being 1 hidden within her, staring out through her eyes at him. j "For heaven's sake, Scheherazade " I he faltered. I She opened the door, still watching him over her shoulder, shrank through it, and j was gone. I He stood for a full five minutes as I though stupefied, then walked to the door I and flung it open. And met a ship's of-J of-J ficer face to face, already lifting his hand I to knock for admittance. "Mr. Neeland?" he asked." "Yes," "Captain West's compliments, and he would be glad to see you In his cabin." "Thank you. My compliments and thanks to Captain West, and I shall call on him immediately." They exchanged bows; the officer turned, hesitated, glanced at the steward who stood by the port. "Iid you bring a radio message to Mr. Neeland1?" "Yes, sir." "Yes. I received the message," said Neeland. "The captain requests you to bring the message with you." "With pleasure," said Neeland. So tiie officer went away down the corridor, cor-ridor, and Neeland sat down on his bed, opened the box, went over carefully every item of its contents, relocked it witn a grin of satisfaction, and, taking it with him, went off to pay a visit to the captain cap-tain of the Volhynia. The bearded gentleman in the stateroom across the passage had been listening intently in-tently to tne conversation, with his ear fiat against his keyhole. And now, without hesitating, he went to a satchel which stood on the sofa in his stateroom, opened it, took from it a large bundle of papers and a ten-pound Iron scalewelght Attaching the weight to the papers by means of a heavy strand of copper wire, he mounted the sofa and hurled the weighted package into the Atlantic ocean. "Pig-dogs of Uritlsh," he muttered in his golden beard, "you may go and dive for them when The Day dawns." Then he filled and lighted a handsome porcelain pipe, and puffed it with stolid satisfaction, leaving the pepperbox silver cover open. "Der Tag," he muttered in his golden beard; and his clear eyes swept the starlit star-lit ocean with the pensive and terrifying scrutiny of a waiting eagle. 1 I CHAPTER XIX THE CAPTAIN OF THE VOLHYNIA The captain of the Volhynia had just come from the bridge and was taking a bite of late supper in 'his cabin when the orderly announced Neeland. He rose at j once, offering a friendly hand: j "Mr. Neeland, I am' very" glad' to see you. I know you by name and reputation already. There were some excellent pictures, pic-tures, by you In the latest number of the Midweek Magazine." "I'm so glad you liked them, Captain West." "Yes, I did. There was a breeze in them a gaiety. And such a fetching girl you drew for your heroine!" "You think so! It's rather interesting. I met a young girl once she comes from up-state where I come from. There was a peculiar and rather subtle attraction about her face. So I altered the features of the study I was making from my model, and put in hers as I remembered them." "She must be beautiful, Mr. Neeland." "It hadn't struck me so until I drew ! her from memory. And there's more to j the story. I never met her but twice in my life Ihe second time under exceedingly exceed-ingly dramatic circumstances. And now I'm crossing the Atlantic at a day's notice to oblige her. It's an amusing story isn't "Mr. Neeland. I think it is going to be what you call a 'continued' story." "No. Oh, no. It ought to be, considering consid-ering its elements. But it Isn't. There's j no further romance in it, Captain West." The captain's smile was pleasant but I sceptical. I They seated themselves, Neeland de- clining an invitation to supper, and the , captain asking his indulgence if he talked while eating. "Mr. Neeland," he said, "I'm about to talk rather frankly with you. I have had several messages, by wireless today from British sources, concerning you." Neeland, surprised, said nothing. Captain Cap-tain West finished his bite of supper; the steward removed the dishes and went out, closing the door. The captain glanced at the box which Neeland had set on the floor by his chair. "May I ask," he said, "why you brought your suitcase .with you?" "It's valuable." The captain's keen eyes were on his. "Why are you followed by spies?" he asked. Neeland reddened. "Yes," continued the captain of the Volhynia, "my government instructs me, by wireless, to offer you any aid and protection you may desire. I am informed that you carry papers of military importance im-portance to a certain foreign nation with which neither Kngland nor France are on- what might be called cordial terms. I am told it is likely that agents of this foreign country have followed you aboard my ship for the purpose of robbing you of these papers. Now, Mr. Neeland, what do you know about this business?" "Very little," said Neeland. "Have you had any trouble?" cabin as certain of Its inviolability us h was of tiie Bank of Kngland. (To be contlmiftl tomorrow.) the merchant marine are also part of the naval reserve. And we are supposed to know these things." Neeland was silent. j "Mr. Neeland," he said, "in case of i war between the various powers of Fu- . rope as aligned today, where do you imagine your sympathy would lie and : the sympathies of America?" i "Both with France and Kngland," said Neeland bluntly. "You think so?" "Yes, I do unless they are the aggressors." ag-gressors." The captain nodded: "I feel rather that way myself. I feci very sure of the friendliness of your country. Because, of course, we France and England never would dream of attacking at-tacking the Central Powers unless first assailed." He smiled, nodded toward the box on the floor: "Don't you think, Mr. Neeland, that it might be safer to entrust en-trust those that box, I mean to the captain of the Royal Mail steamer, Volhynia Vol-hynia ?" "Yes. I do," said Neeland quietly. "And about these spies. Do you happen hap-pen to entertain any particular suspicions concerning any of the passengers on my ship?" urged the captain. "Indeed, I entertain lively suspicions, and even a few certainties," replied the young fellow, laughing. "You appear to enjoy the affair?" "I do. I've never had such a good time. I'm not going to spoil it by suggesting sug-gesting that you lock up anybody, either." "I'm sorry you -feel that way," said the captain seriously. "But I do. They're friends of mine. They've given me the time of my lifo. A dirty trick I'd be serving myself as well as them if I ruine to you and preferred pre-ferred charges against them!" , The captain inspected him curiously for a few moments, then, In a soft voice: "By any chance, Mr. Neeland, have you any Irish blood in your veins?" "Yes, thank God!" returned the young fellow, unable to com rol his laughter. "And I'll bet there isn't a drop in you, Captain West." "Not a drop, thank G I'm sorry! I nsk your pardon, Mr. Neeland!" added the captain, very red in the face. But Neeland laughed so hard that, after a moment, the red died out In the captain's cap-tain's faee and a faint grin came intojt. So they shook hands and said good night; and Neeland went a way, leaving his box on the floor of the captain's "Oh, yes." The captain smiled: "Evidently you have wriggled out of it," he said. "Yes, wriggled Is the literal word." "Then you do not think that you require re-quire any protection from me?" "Perhaps I do. I've been a singularly innocent and lucky ass. It's merely chance that my papers have not been stolen, even before I started in quest of them." "Have you been troubled aboard my ship?" Neeland waved his hand carelessly: "Nothing to speak of, thank you." "If vou have any charge to make " "Oh, no." The captain regarded him intently: "Let ine tell you something," he said. "Since we sailed, have you noticed the bulletins posted containing our wireless news?" "Yes, I've read them." , "Did they interest you?" "Yes. You mean that row between Austria and Servia over the Archduke's murder?" "I mean exactly that, Mr. Neeland. And now I am going to tell you something else. Tonight I had a radio message which I shall not post on the bulletins for various reasons. But I shall tell you under the seal of confidence." "I give you my word of honor," said Neeland quietly. "I accept it, Mr. Neeland. And this is what has happened: Austria has decided de-cided on an ultimatum to Servia. And probably will send it." ! They remained sllont for a moment, : then the captain continued: "Why should we deceive ourselves? This is the most serious thing that has happened since the Hohenzollern incident which brought on the Franco-Prussian . war." Neeland nodded. "You see" insisted the captain. "Suppose "Sup-pose the humiliation is too severe for Servia to endure? Suppose she refuses the Austrian terms? Suppose Austria mobilizes against her? What remains for Russia to do except to mobilize? And, if Russia does that, what Ih going to happen in Germany? And then. Instantly In-stantly and automatically, what will follow fol-low in France?" His mouth tightened grimly. "England," he said, "is the ally of France. Ask yourself, Mr. Neeland, what are the prospects of this deadly combination and deadlier situation." After a few moments the young man looked up from his brown study: "I'd like to ask you a Question perhaps per-haps not germane to the subject. May I?" "Ask it." "Then, of what interest are Turkish forts to any of the various allied nations to the Triple Entente or the Triple ; Alliance?" "Turkish fortifications?" i "Yes plans for them." The captain glanced instinctively at the box beside Neeland's chair, but his features remained incurious. "Turkey is supposed to be the ally of Germany." he said. "I've heard so. I know that the Turkish Turk-ish armv is under German officer.-;. But If war "should happen, is it likely that this ramshackle nation which was fought to a standstill by the Balkan Alliance only a few months atro would be likely to take active sides?" "Mr. Neeland. it is not only likely, it Is absolutely certain." "You believe Germany would count on her?" "There is not a doubt of it. Envr Pasha holds the country in his right hand; Enver Pasha is the Kaisers jackal." "But Turkey is a beaten, discredited np.tKm. She has no modern gu ns. Pier f:e-it"is resting in the B.isphorus." "The Dardanelles brist le v ith Krupp cannrn, Mr. Neeland, man red by German Ger-man gunners. Von der Go'iiz Pasha has made of a brave people a Fplrmhd rrn.y. Ap fr,r shins, the ironciadp and gunboats off S-Tag'.io Point are rusting at anchor, as vou say: but there are tday enough Grr.: n "d Austrian arnvr.-d ship? within runr.mc riistan-.-e ef th I .ardannels to rrnkn fur Turkey a powerful def-nsive squadron. Didn't you kr.uw ar.y of these ! fa.ns?- "Well, thev are fats. You I see, Mr. Neeland, wa English saUora of |