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Show HAROLD NACCMmf fl ) Aufhor f Thc(k'pGtIromDadaafl fhe Place J Honeymoons, etc. IA SYNOPSIS. 7 Warrington, an American adventurer, ,d James, his servant, with a caged par-Jit par-Jit the trio known up and down the Ir-rsnnilJT Ir-rsnnilJT as Parrot & Co., are bound for Rangoon to cash a draft for 300,000 rupees. Elsa Chelwood, rich American girl tourist tour-ist sees Warrington and asks the purser to Introduce her. He tells her that War-Hr.'ton War-Hr.'ton has beaten a syndicate and sold t(i oil claims for 20.000. Warrington rats Rajah, the parrot, through his tricks (or Elsa and they pass two golden days together on the river. Martha, Elsa s companion, warns her that there Is gos-lia gos-lia In Rangoon Warrington banks his Hft, pavs old debts, and overhears and Interferes (n a row over cards, finds that tii row Is caused by an enemy, Newell Crals. and threatens to shoot him unless it leaves town. Elsa Is annoyed by Craig ird Btabs him with a hatpin. Warrington Mis Elsa good-by. Warrington discovers E 3 on the Singapore steamer and real-lies real-lies his hopeless love and his duty to protect pro-tect her against himself. Elsa tells ntra of her engagement. He avoids Elsa. who tMnks he may be 111 and makes Inquiries, recardless of the misinterpretation of her cuiicero, Craig Is aboard. CHAPTER VIII Conlnued. Warrington turned his dull eyes upon bis ancient enemy. "So It's you? I understood you were on board. Well?" uncompromisingly. "I've been looking (or you. Bygones ire bygones, and what'B done can't be undone by punching a tellow's bead. I'm not looking for trouble," went on Craig, gaining assurance. "I im practically down and out myself. What Btand are you going to take on beard here? That's all I want to know." 'It would give me great pleasure, Craig, to take you by the scruff of your neck and drop you overboard. But as you say, what's been done can't be remedied by bashing in a man's head. Well, here you are, since you ask. If you speak to me, if I catch you play-irg play-irg cards or auctioneering a pool. If you make yourself obnoxious to any of the passengers, I promise to give you lie finest thrashing you ever had, the rcoment we reach Penang. If you don't go ashore there, I'll' do it In Singapore. Sing-apore. Have I made myself clear?" "That's square enough, Paul," said the gambler resignedly. There wasn't Euch money on board these two-by-four boats, anyhow, so he wasn't losing los-ing much. Warrington leaned forward. "Paul? Tou Eaid Paul?" "Why, yes," wonderingly. "Eetter go." - "All right" Craig returned to his mattress. "Now, what made him curl sp like that because I called him Paul? Bah!" He dug a hole in his pillow and tried to sleep. "Paul!" murmured Warrington. He stared down at the flashes of Phosphorescence, blindly. The man tad called him Paul. After ten years to learn the damnable treachery of it! Suddenly he clenched his hand and struck the raiL He would go back. All his loyalty, all his chivalry, had gone for naught This low rascal had wiled him Paul. CHAPTER IX- Two Short Weeks. hen Elsa stepped out of the com-Panionway' com-Panionway' -the next morning she Mnced and shut her eyes The whole ,rc of heaven seemed hung with uresis; ure-sis; east west, north and south, Mchever way she looked, there was dazzling iridescence. What a won-taful won-taful world! What a versatile mis-,rfss mis-,rfss was nature! Never two days alike, never two human beings; ani-Eate ani-Eate and Inanimate, all things were "ngular. She paused at the rail and cbed the thread of frothing water Jfat clutched futilely at the red 'water-' lloe. Never two living things alike, in "1 the millions and millions swarming 'e globe. What a marvel! Even ougb. this man Warrington and Ar-j Ar-j ur looked alike, they were not so. " heart and mind they were as dif-,erent dif-,erent as two- days. she began her usual walk, and in kssing the Bmokeroom door on the J side she met Warrington corn's corn-'s out How deep-set his eyes were! e as about to go on, but she looked "raight into his eyes, and he stopped, ""e laughed and held out her hand ' really believe you were going to mub me." Then you haven't given me up?" Never mind what I have or have ""None. Walk with me. I am going Ik plainly to you. If what I say ' al5tateful, don't hesitate to inter- me. You interest me, partly be-Um be-Um you act like a boy, partly be-you be-you are a man." ' haven't any manners." raey need shaking up. and. read ' ng. I nave jU8t jjggu musing over 'emarkable thing, that no two ob- are alike. Even the most ao- a'e machinery eatnot produce two nails without variation. So It is with humans. You look so like the man I know back home that it is Impossible not to ponder over you." She smiled into his face. "Why should nature produce two persons who are mistaken mis-taken for each other, and yet give them two souls, two intellects, totally different? Is nature experimenting, or is she slyly playing a trick on humanity?" hu-manity?" "Let us call It a trick; by all means, let us call it that." "Your tone ..." "Yes, yes,' impatiently; "you are going to say that it sounds bitter. But why should another man have a face like mine, when we have nothing in common? What right has he to look like me?" "It is a puzzle," Elsa admitted. "This man who -looks like me I have no doubt It affects you oddly probably lives in ease; in fact, a gentleman gen-tleman of your own class, whose likes and dislikes are cut from the same pattern as your own. Well, that is as It should be. A woman such as you are ought to marry an equal, a man whose mind and manners are fitted to the high place he holds in your affection af-fection and in your world. How many worlds there are; man-made and heaven-made, and each as deadly as the other, as cold and implacable! To you, who have been kind to me, I have acted like a fool. The truth is, I've been skulking. My vanity was hurt I had the idea that it was myself and not my resemblance that appealed to your interest What makes you trust me?" bluntly; and he stopped as he asked the question. "Why, I don't know," blankly. Instantly In-stantly she recovered herself. "But I do trust you." She walked on, and perforce he fell into her stride. "It is because you trust the other man." "Thanks. That is it precisely; and for nearly two weeks I've been trying to solve that very thing." After a pause he asked: "Have you ever read Reade's 'Singleheart and Doubleface?' " "Yes. But what bearing has it upon our discussion?" "None that you would understand," evasively. His tongue had nearly tripped him. "Are you sure?" "Of this, that I shall never understand under-stand women." "Do not try to," she advised. "All these men who knew most about women wom-en were the unhappiest." They made a round in silence. Many an eye peered at them; and envy and admiration and curiosity brought their shafts to bear upon her. It was something some-thing to create these variant expressions expres-sions of interest She was oblivious. "We stop at Penang?" she asked. "Five or six hours, long enough to see the town." "We went directly from Singapore to Colombo, so we missed the town coming out. I should like to see that cocoanut plantation of yours." "It is too far inland. Besides, I am persona non grata there." As, indeed, in-deed, he was. His heart burned with shame and rage at the recollection of the last day there. Three or four times, during the decade, the misfortune misfor-tune of being found out had fallen to his lot, and always when he was employed em-ployed at something worth while. Elsa discreetly veered into another channel. "You will go back to Italy, I suppose." "Yes, I shall go to Italy once more. But first I am going home." He was not aware of the grlmnness that entered en-tered his voice as he made this statement state-ment "I am glad," she said. "After all, that is the one place." "If you are happy enough to find a welcome." "And you will see your mother again?" He winced. "Yes. Do you know, it does not seem possible that I met you but two short weeks ago? I have never given much thought to this so-called so-called reincarnation; but somewhere in the past ages I knew you; only you weren't going home to marry the other oth-er fellow." j She- stopped at the rail "Who knows?" she replied ruminatingly. "Perhaps I .m not going to marry him." ' . ! "Don't you love him? ... I beg your pardon, Miss Chetwood!" "You're excused." "I still need some training. 1 have been alone so much that 1 haven't got over the trick of speaking my thoughts aloud," "No harm has been done. The fault j lay with me." , i "1 used to learn whole pages from stories and recite them to the trees or to the parrot. It kept me from going mad, I believe. In camp I handled coolies; none of whom could speak a word of English. I didn't have James with me at that time. So I'd declaim, merely to hear the sound of my voice. Afterward I learned that the coolies looked upon me as a holy man. They believed I was nightly offering prayers pray-ers to one of my gods. Perhaps I was; the god of reason. All that seems like a bad dream now." "Are you going to take Rajah with you?" "Wherever I go. Looks silly, doesn't It, for a man of my size to tote around a parrot cage? But I don't care what people think. Life Is too short. It's what you think of yourself that really counts." "That is one of the rules 1 have laid down for myself. If only we all might go through life with that idea! There wouldn't be any gossip or scandal, scan-dal, then." "Some day I am going to tell you why I have lived over here all these years." "I shouldn't, not If it hurts you." "On the contrary, there's a kind of happiness in unburdening one's conscience. con-science. I called that day in Rangoon for the express purpose of telling you everything, but I couldn't in the presence pres-ence of a third person." "But always remember that I haven't asked you." "Are you afraid to hear it?" "No. What I am trying to convince you with is that I trust you, and that I give you my friendship without reservations." reser-vations." He laid his hand on hers, strongly "God bless you for that!" She liked him because there was lacking In his words and tones that element of flattery so distasteful to her. "Would you like to sit next to me at the table?" "May 1?" eagerly. "I'll have Martha change her chair for yours. Do you speak Italian?" "Enough for ordinary conversation. It is a long time since I have spoken that tongue." "Then, let us talk it as much as possible at the table, if only to annoy those around us." Craig had been eyeing the two, evilly. evil-ly. Set the wind in that direction? An idea found soil in his mind, and grew. He would put a kink, as he vulgarly expressed It, into that- affair. He himself wasn't good enough for her. The little cat should see. Warrington's War-rington's ultimatum of the night before be-fore burned and rankled, and a man of Craig's caliber never accepted the inevitable in-evitable without meditating revenge, revenge of a roundabout character, such as would insure his physical safety. safe-ty. There was nothing loyal or gen erous or worthy in the man There is something admirable in a great rascal; ras-cal; but a sordid one is a pitiful thing Craig entered the smokeroom and ordered or-dered a peg. At luncheon he saw them sitting together, and he smoth ered a grin. Couldn't play cards, or engineer a pool, eh? All right There were other amusements. That afternoon Martha chanced to sit down in a vacant chair, just out of the range of the cricketers. She lolled back and idly watched the batsmen. And then she heard voices. "She is Elsa Chetwood. I remember seeing her pictures. She is a society girl, very wealthy, but something of a snob." Martha's ears tingled. A snob. Indeed, In-deed, because she minded principally her own affairs! "They think because they belong to the exclusive sets they can break as many laws of convention as they please. Well, they can't There's always al-ways some scandal in the papers about them There was some rumor of her being engaged to the duke of Wbat's-his-name, but it fell through because she wouldn't settle a fortune on him Only sensible thing she ever did, probably." prob-ably." "And did you notice who sat next to her at luncheon?" "A gentleman with a past, Mr. Craig tells me." "I dare say Miss Chetwood has a past, too, if one but knew. To travel alone like this!" Busybodies! Martha rose indignantly indignant-ly and returned to the other side of the deck. She had lived too long with Elsa not to have learned self-repression, and that the victory is always with those who stoop not to answer. Nevertheless, she was alarmed. Elsa must be warned. All Elsa said was: "My dear Martha, in a few days they and their tittle-tattle will pass out of my existence, admitting ad-mitting that they have ever entered it I repeat, my life is all my own, and that I am concerned only with those whom I wish to retain as my friends. Gossip is the shibboleth of the mediocre, and, thank heaven, I am not mediocre." .While dressing for dinner Elsa discovered dis-covered a note on the floor of her cabin. The writing was unfamiliar She opened it and sought first the signature. Slowly her cheeks reddened, red-dened, and her Hps twisted in disdain. She did not read the note, but the natural keenness of her eye caught the name of Warrington. She tore the letter into scraps which he tossed out of the port-hole What a vile thing the man was! He had had the effrontery ef-frontery to sign his name. He must be punished. It was as tate as ten o'clock when she and Warrington went up to the bow and gazed down the cut-water. Never had see seen anything so weirdly beautiful as the ribbons of phosphorescence which fell away on each side, luminously blue and flaked with dancing starlike particl"3, through which, ever and anon flying-fish, flying-fish, dripping with the fire, Bpun outward out-ward like tongues of flame. "Often, when I was stoking, during an hour or so of relief, I used to steal up here and look down at the mystery, for it will ever be a mystery to me. And I found comfort." "Are you religious, too?" "In one thing, that God demands that every man shall have faith in himself.' How deep his voice was as compared com-pared to Arthur. Arthur. Elsa frowned at the rippling magic. Why was she invariably comparing the two men? What significance did it have upon the future, since, at the present moment, it was not understandable? "There is a man on board by the name of Craig," she said. "I advise you to beware of him." "Who introduced him to you?" The anger In his voice was very agreeable agree-able to her ears. "Who dared to?" "No one. He Introduced himself on the way up to Mandalay. In Rangoon 1 closed the acquaintance, such as it was, with the aid of a hat pin." "A hat pin! What did he say to you?" roughly. "Nothing that I care to repeat - . . . Stop! I am perfectly able to take care of myself. I do not need any valiant champion." "He has spoken to you about me?" "A letter. I saw only his name and yours. I tore it up and threw it over board. Let us go back. Somehow, everything seems spoiled. I am sorry I spoke." "I shall see that he does not bother you again," ominously. They returned to the promenade deck in silenco. When Warrington found Craig the man was helplessly intoxicated. He lay sprawled upon his mattress, and the kick administered did not stir him Warrington looked down at the sodden wretch moodily. Craig's intoxication was fortunate for him, otherwise he would have been roughly handled; for there was black murder In the heart of the broken man standing above him. Warrington relaxed his clenched hands. This evil-breathing evil-breathing thing at his feet was the primal cause of it all, he and a man's damnable weakness. Of what use his new-found fortune? Better for him had he stayed in the jungle, better have died there, hugging his poor delusion. de-lusion. Oh, abysmal fool that he had been! CHAPTER X. The Cut Direct. It was after five in the morning when the deckhands tried to get Craig to go down to his room. With the dull obstinacy of a drunken man, he refused to stir; he was perfectly satisfied sat-isfied to Btay where he was. The three brown men stood irresolutely and helplessly help-lessly around the man. Everyone had gone below. The hose was ready to flush the deck. It did not matter; he, Craig, would not budge. "Leave me alone, you black beggars!" beg-gars!" "But, sahib," began one of the Lascars, Las-cars, who spoke English. "Don't talk to me. I tell you, get out!" striking at their feet with his swollen hands. Warrington, who had not lain down at all, but who had wandered about the free decks like some lost soul from the Flying Dutchman, Warrington, hearing voices, came out of the Bmokeroom. Bmoke-room. A glance was sufficient A devil's humor took possession of him. He walked over "Get up," he said quietly. Craig blinked up at him from out of puffed eyes. "Go to the devil! Fine specimen to order me about" "Will you get up peacefully? These men have work to do." Craig "' was blind ' to his danger. "What's that to me? Go away, all of you, to the devil, for all I care. I'll get up when I get damn good and ready. Not before." Warrington picked up the hose. "Sahib!" cried the Lascar in protest pro-test "Be still!" ordered Warrington. "Craig, for the last time, will you get up? "Not" (TO BE CONTINUED.) |