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Show . , r , i " , 1 1 ; s t 1 l I THE GIFT WIFE... By RUPERT HUGHES O RUPERT HUGHES WNU SERVICE 7 I I I W I SYNOPSIS On board the Nord-Express, with Os-tend Os-tend as his immediate destination. Dr. David Jebb Is bound for America. With him is five-year-old Cynthia Thatcher, his temporary ward. On the train they meet Bill Gaines, former classmate of David's. David tells Gaines of his outstanding out-standing weakness an overwhelming desire de-sire to drink. He feels the urge coming to him again, and wants to safeguard the child, who Is returning to America with him. During a stop, Gaines leaves the train to buy Cynthia a present. The train leaves without him. Then Jebb Is painfully Injured in a minor accident. A fellow passenger revives him with a drink, which makes his desire for liquor all the stronger. At the next stop David and Cynthia leave the train. David begins be-gins drinking. The next thing he Is conscious of is a strange sort of chanting. chant-ing. He looks around, dazed and sick. A door opens and In walks a strange Negro, closely followed by a woman, heavily veiled and dressed In flowing robes. She tells him that he Is In Uskub, that her name la Minima, and that she is the "gift wife" of the Pasha, who has another wife, and who Is husband hus-band In name only to Mlruma. She knows nothing of the missing child. CHAPTER III Continued "Now if I could have some light wood a cigar box, or something to make a splint" "Would thees sofra do?" Miruma said, pointing to an inlaid tabouret. "Yes, but it's too handsome," said Jebb. Her answer was to pick up the could leeve in Uskub and become most terreeble for reechness." The thought of living . in Uskub was not so appalling to Jebb as it would have seemed a few hours before. be-fore. The thought of money was always al-ways agreeable. "I will see this man at once," he said. "It is bad etiquette, but I am desperate. I will tell him that I will cure his son. I can if anybody can." Miruma's palms were up in protest pro-test It would never do to go direct to the Bey. Jebb would be treated as a fraud; he would not be permitted permit-ted to see the son. Things were not done in Turkey in straight lines. The Osmanlis, like nature, love a curve. "Wh what am I to do, then?" said Jebb. "There is in Uskub a large khan a hotel the Hotel Turati. Jebb Ef-fendi Ef-fendi shall go there and command the best room and wait" "I can command the room, but do I get it? I have no money not even baggage." "Of that also I have theenked," said the amazing woman. "You shall say your baggage is sended to Stamboul. You stop but for one, two days." "That accounts for the baggage. But shall I say that my money was sent on to Stamboul, too?" 1 ,ryVi a mnnav that Vrtll mi-ct tnlrA CHAPTER IV At the Hotel Turati Jebb was accepted ac-cepted on his own recognizance. He found that his English was of no use, but his German, rusty as it was, elicited the good news that there were British, Austrian, and Russian consulates in the town. He made haste to the British building, but the Albanian kavass on guard informed him in a few broken English phrases that the consul was ill and was not likely to be well for some days. Jebb stood irresolute, then went to the Austrian consulate. Here he was informed that the consul was in conference with his Russian confrere and the two governors gover-nors of Uskub, the Turk and the Christian, and the affairs of Turkey were in such confusion, added to the Increasing disorder of the district dis-trict itself, that there was little hope of seeing the consul Jebb looked so downcast at this that his informant asked the nature of his errand, and introduced himself him-self as Herr Xavier Franz Heller von Hellwald of Vienna. Jebb introduced in-troduced himself as a former student stu-dent at the University of Vienna and the young attache mellowed immediately. imme-diately. They adjourned to a coffee house for kafene, a humble wooden structure with an awning over the walk, and cane-bottomed stools. "But what brings you, Herr Doc- is that the train from Salonica brought me here." "Salonica I Bomben, Granaten! It is the very home of the revolution. Everything started there. And you have been In Salonica without knowing. know-ing. And how did you get there? Tou probably reached there by the railroad from Constantinople. Have you been in Constantinople?" "I don't know." "Did you have the child with you in Salonica?" "I don't know. I may have had. I cannot tell." Hellwald shook his head in dismay dis-may and exploded his "Bomben, Granaten!" in a whisper. Past the cafe where Jebb and Hell-wall Hell-wall sat pondering flowed the eddying eddy-ing traffic of the street. Now and then a Turk, a Russian, an Austrian, or a Macedonian saluted Hellwald after the manner of his race or station, sta-tion, and the Austrian answered in kind. At length a sound of distant wailing, wail-ing, and a hint of doleful chant began be-gan to define itself above the clatter. clat-ter. The crowd paused and massed to give way to a funeral procession led by bearded priests of the Greek Church in gorgeous vestments, marching slowly and singing. The procession turned the corner I and disappeared. Among those who I had paused to watch the cortege was low table and smash it on the floor, bringing two of the slender legs to Jebb. "And now if I could have some muslin or a long strip of cloth." Swish! She had ripped off yards of her robe. "And now," he said, "would han-im han-im efTendi please hold these boards, so! here and here while I bind it all together." Two hands came out of the cloud, and rested right under her eyes. In binding the splints together, it was necessary for Jebb to touch those hands. They seemed to singe him like white fire. "Tell him to wear the sling for a week and the splints for two weeks," he said as he finished, regaining re-gaining a professional acerbity of tone. "Ask him if he found out anything about the child." The question was repeated, Miruma Mi-ruma spoke with wonderful gentleness: gentle-ness: "No, poor Jebb EfTendi, he flnded not the child. He is search the all of Uskub. Nobody is see a leetle girl of the Franks.' " "The Franks? no, no, she is an American child." "All you Ingiliz and Europeans are Franks to us." from me." But Jebb put out his hand. "Thank you! and God bless you, hanim ef- tor Yep, to this dismal cemetery of an Uskup?" Jebb shook his head with a dreary "Ich weiss nicht" and then poured forth in halting German and with halting courage as much of his story as he felt it discreet to divulge. "That is a problem indeed, Herr Doctor Yep. Now if you knew where you lost the child" "If I only knew!" "If you knew where you had lost her, it would be easier. And yet not easy at that If she had disappeared dis-appeared in Vienna, or Berlin, or Paris, we could telegraph and the great engine of the police of Europe could be set in motion. But we are in Turkey, and Turkey is in revolution. revolu-tion. Nobody knows what will happen hap-pen tomorrow. Nobody knows what happened yesterday. We only know that Constantinople is captured by the revolutionists and that the Sultan Sul-tan is prisoner." Miruma had told Jebb nothing of this; either she had known little of it or had forgotten it in the stress of more personal events. "The Sultan a prisoner!" Jebb gasped. "Turkey in revolution! And the little child lost among these savages." sav-ages." "What did you say the child's name was?" "Cynthia Thatcher." a venerable white bearded Turk in fez and frock coat; lie seemed to be deeply touched. After the crowd had dispersed he still stood in dejection. de-jection. Hellwald said to Jebb: "That is Akef Bey, one of the leaders of the Young Turks. His eldest son is an officer at the citadel. His younger son, Gani Bey, is very ill, and the doctors here can do nothing for him." Jebb started at the names of Akef Bey and his son. He was about to say that he was waiting to be sought by this very man when he realized the indiscretion of such a remark. Akef Bey saw Hellwald and greeted greet-ed him with a sad courtesy in a sweeping salute from the brow. Hellwald rose, saying to Jebb: "Excuse me, I must ask him how his son is today." He went to the old man and questioned ques-tioned him in what Jebb assumed to be Turkish. Akef Bey answered with much excitement and vivid gestures ges-tures of pain and despair. Hellwald listened with evident sorrow. Then he seemed to brighten with an idea. He beckoned Jebb. "I have just told Akef Bey that you are one of the most eminent physicians in America, and that I knew you well in Vienna when you studied at the greatest of all Universities. Uni-versities. It is near enough to the truth fer a diplomat." As he was saying this to Jebb, the Bey was pouring fluent Turkish into his other ear. Hellwald translated in short asides: "He is asking me if you cannot come to see his son at once don't accept look solemn you are busy you are leaving town the other physicians have failed to help him, he says they are ignorant dogs his son cries aloud in agony. But don't accept too readily. Don't go yet. Remember this is Turkey. They expect ex-pect to bargain for everything. He is rich. You need much money." But Jebb agreed and on the way they passed a miscellaneous bazaar, where a meager supply of drugs was kept for the foreign population. There Jebb managed to find a large hypodermic needle and a supply of tablets, which he purchased along with a few of such simples as the ezja-hane possessed. The home of Akef Bey was important impor-tant in Uskub. large enough to be called a Konak. (TO DE CONTINUED) Briefly he poured out to her his story, only he did not tell the cause of the great hiatus in his life. He "Tseentia Tat Tsent tseend it is an erschrecklich name to say. Bomben, Granaten! Herr Doctor Yep, if somebody asks the child her name and she tells it nobody will be able to repeat it or to remember remem-ber it" "You must help me." "I will do my all, and gladly. It will take much money. In Turkey nobody moves not even the Sultan without baksheesh. You have much money, yes?" Jebb tossed his hands. "I have a hundred and fifty dollars about six hundred marks." "You have a difficult problem, Herr Doctor. We must see what we can do. Your passports are in good shape, I hope." "Passports? I never had any." "You must have had to get into Turkey. And you must have had a teskere or you could not have traveled." trav-eled." "If I had them I lost them, and I don't know where." "Where were you last did you say?" "In Salonica, I think. ' All I know "Don't go yet. Remember this is Turkey." 1 fendim, for your good heart, but I couldn't." "You moost," she persisted. "I don't need it, hanim effendim. I have this ring. I will pawn it" "JafTar shall take the reeng," she said, "and breeng you mooch more money as you could touch. He shall say eet ees my reeng. It looks a woman's reeng." Then a gasp. "It ees perhaps a reeng some lady gived the efTendi?" "No, no. I bought it myself in Cologne." And he added with perfect truth: "It has no associations for me whatever." With which he twisted twist-ed it from his finger and held it out to her. Suddenly a truth stabbed Jebb to the heart; he saw that this woman for whom he had begun to feel a tenderness had begun to feel a jealousy jeal-ousy of him. The implied proprietorship proprie-torship did not irritate him. It delighted de-lighted him; and the delight was the keener for being edged with fear. "Tomorrow morning while yet the efTendi is sleep (Inshallah!) JafTar shall have goed and corned back simply said that he became ill. He had not the bravery to confess the truth. It was the crowning ignominy of his plight that he must stoop to beggary beg-gary or to starvation. He postponed post-poned the admission of his penury to the last moment and then postponed post-poned it again. And the answer to his nauseating apology was that she had known it all the time. JafTar, rinding him unconscious un-conscious in the street had, at her orders, undressed him, bathed him, put him to bed, and taken his clothes, drenched as they were with rain, to dry them in the kitchen and to iron them while the other servants serv-ants slept. JafTar had reported that there was not a thing in all the stranger's garments only the usual pocket dust, not a portemonnaie, not a card, not a coin, not even a bronze baish-para. As delicately as might be she strove to put Jebb at his ease. "It shall be pleasure to me to geeve to Jebb EfTendi what I have of money." Seeing his look of horror, hor-ror, she hastened to amend: "And with the money." "But how can I slip out in the daylight without being seen?" "Also that I have theenked. I tell you tomorrow day, for now eet is ver late. Allah send you the sweetest sweet-est of sleep." "Don't go!" he pleaded. But she was gathering herself together to stand up. He leaped to his feet to help her. To rise from a cross-legged cross-legged position is something of a feat It is one of the few that harem laziness permits. Miruma rose straight in air like a lark leaping upward from a meadow. But as she stepped forward, her foot caught on the hem of her robe. She lost her poise, swayed, would have fallen. But Jebb had risen from the divan; he put out his arm; her weight was upon him so suddenly sudden-ly that he had no little difficulty with his own equilibrium. The recovery re-covery of both was a matter of brief and busy delay. Miruma gave a little cry of alarm at her plight another of dismay at finding herself in a man's arms. And then she fled, soft-footed, spiritual, spiri-tual, like a dark cloud trailing along a mountainside. He put out the lights and groped his way to the window where the moonbeams beat in and showered the floor. he shall pay it again when Allah sends him reeches once more." But Jebb put up his hand to check her. He could not endure this. "I have hoort the feeling of Jebb EfTendi by to offer him of mine," she said. "Now Allah has whees-pered whees-pered to me how Jebb EfTendi shall earn mooch money queeck and mooch power and fame." "Tell me in Allah's name." "Jebb EfTendi is Ingiliz efTendi." "No, no, I'm not English, I am American." "Eet ees alia the same to an Osmanli. Jebb EfTendi is great phee-seecian, phee-seecian, great soorgeon. In .our country we theenk the Frank doctors doc-tors work meeracles. Of old time one believed that Allah sent seeck-ness seeck-ness and and " She paused in dread of the great word which the Moslems avoid "may he keep far from you the the Cup-bearer of the Sphere. At the promenade today, to-day, Jantine Hanim is expected. But she corned not. She says her son, her worshipt son Gani Bey, is in pain most frightful. The Bey theenk somebody is give heem of poison, but he is too young to have enemies ene-mies and he does not die in his pain. If Jebb EfTendi can cure that son, the father pays mooch. The father fa-ther is a very rich bey. There are o good doctors here. Jebb EfTendi |