| Show george percival SYNOPSIS val algernon jones vice president of the metropolitan oriental rug company ot of new nevi tork york thirsting for ro mance 1 in in cairo on a business trip CHAPTER II 11 an affable rogue the carriage containing the gentle man with the reversible cuffs drew up at the side entrance instantly the arab guides surged and eddied round him but their clamor broke against a composure as effective as granite the roar was almost directly succeeded by a low gurgle as ot of little waves raced ing the proposed victim had not spoken a word to the arabs it was not nev necessary essary in some manner subtle and indescribable they recognized a brother he carried a long cyl indri cal bundle wrapped in heavy paper variously secured by windings of thick twine his regard tor for this bundle was one ono ot of tender solicitude tor for he tucked it under hia his arm cumbersome though it was and find waved aside the carriage i porter who was however permitted to carry in the kit bag the manager appeared when comes be ile not upon the scene his quick calculating eye was not wholly as the stranger strangers s homespun was travel worn and timeworn time worn and ot of a cut popular to the season gone the year before no tat fat letter ot of credit here was the not unreasonable conal eion sion reached by the manager still with that caution acquired by years ot of experience which bad had culminated in what Is known knorn aa as swiss diplomacy he brought into being the accustomed salutatory smile and inquired it if the gentleman had written ahead for res otherwise se it would not be possible to accommodate him I 1 telegraphed crisply the name it you please bryanne spelled rya double n e you ever been in county clare no sir the manager added a question with the uplift of his ey eyebrows well was the enlightening an ewer you pronounce it as they do there the manager scanned the little slip of paper in his hand ah ali yes we have reserved a room tor for you sir the french style rather confused me thia this was not offered in irony or sar ear or satire mining in a swiss brain for the saving grace of humor Is about as remunerative as the ex traction of gold from sea water ne nev v erth eLess the swiss has the talent of swiftly subtracting from a confusion of ideas one point of illumination there was a quality to the stranger strangers s tone toile that decided him favorably it was the voice of a man in the habit of being obeyed and in these days it was the power of money alone that obtained obedience to any man be yond this the same nebulous coulta tion that had subdued the arabs out side acted likewise upon him here was a brother mall mail I 1 will see sir the manager sum boned a porter room the porter caught up the somewhat collapsed kit bag which had in all evi dence received some rough usage in its time and reached toward the roll mr bryanne interposed I 1 will see to that my man terse ly yes sir where Is your guest lista demanded mr bryanne of the manager the head porters bureau sir I 1 will see it if you have any mall mail the manager passed into his own bureau it was rather difficult to tell whether this man was an american or an ing leshman his ills accent was western but but his manner was decidedly british at any rate that tone torie and carriage must v be bastioned by good english saver deigns or for once his judgment was at fault the porter dashed up upstairs stairs mr bryanne his bundle still snug under his arm sauntered over to the head porter porters s bureau and ran his glance up vt and down the columns of visiting cards once he nodded with approval and again he smiled having dincov ered that which sent a ripple across his sleeping sense of amusement ma lor jor callahan room fortune ched soye george P A jones hm the major smells of county antrim and the finest whisky in all the isle fortune chelsoe Ched soe e that is a pleasing name tinkling brooks the waving green grasses in the mead aws the kine in the water the fleet ing shadows under the oaks a pas toral a bucolic name to claim for tune for mine own a happy thought As he uttered these poesy espres aloud in a voice low and not un pleasing tor for all that it was banter ing the head poi ter stared at him with in mingling ingling doubt and alarm and as if to pronounce these emotions mutely for lor the benefit of the other he per bitted his ebes to open their widest tut tut that 8 all right porter I 1 am cursed with the habit of speaking ray my inmost thoughts some persons a e ME acted eiith m ith insomnia some fall aa la in ch ach I 1 think orally beast 11 ly habit eh the porter then understood that he was dealing not with a species of mild lunacy but with that kind of light hearted cynicism upon which the world as porters know it had set its approving seal in brief he smiled faintly and if he had any pleasantry to pass in turn the approach of the manager now clothed metaphorically in ism relegated it to the limbo of things thought but left unsaid here Is a letter for you mr ry anne have you any more luggage 7 no sir mr bryanne smiled shall I 1 pay for my room in advance oh no sir sirl ten years ago the manager would have blushed at hav ing been so misunderstood your room Is will you have a boy show me the way waya I 1 shall myself attend to that it if the room is not what you wish it may be exchanged the room Is the one I 1 telegraphed for I 1 am superstitious to a degree on three boats I 1 have lime had fine state rooms numbered twice the nuin num her of my hotel room has been the same on the last voyage there were passengers and the captain had made voyages on the terra nean mean quite a coincident ah ali it if roulette could be played with such a certainty mr air bryanne sighed hitched up his bundle which being heavy was begin ning to wear upon bis his arm and signi fled to the manager to lead the way As they vanished round the corner to the lift the head porter studied the guest list he bad had looked over it a dozen times that day but this was war the first instance of hia his being really in te rested in it As his chin was fresh ly IY shaven he had no stubble to stroke to excite his mental processes so he fell back as we say upon the con soling ends of his abundant mus but all these persons were occupying or about to occupy adjacent rooms there was truly nothing mysterious about it save that the stranger had picked out these very names as a target for bis his banter for tune Ched soye it was rather an un usual name but as she had arrived only an hour or so before he could not distinctly recall her features and then there was that word bucolic he mentally turned it over and over as physically he was wont want to do with postcards post cards left in his care to mall mail he could make nothing of the word except that it smacked of the east indian plague here he was saved from further cerebral agony by a timely Inter rup rul tion A man WHO was not of bucolic persuasion eitner in 10 dress or urban from the tips of his bleached fingers to the bulb of his bibulous nose leaned across the counter and asked if mr horace bryanne had yei yet arrived yes he had just arrived he in coming or in going more especially in going he laughed well hers Is the inspiration and hers herg is the law and to think that she could plan ail all this on the spur of the moment down to the minutest detail it s A filience fici ence he put the letter away slid out hl legs logs and glared at the dusty alp tipsy of his shoes the united romance and Advent adventure company ltd of new york london and paris she has the greatest gift of all the sense of hu mor he ile rose and opened his kitbag kit bag doubtfully he rummaged rumnia ged about in the depths and at last straightened up with a mild oath not a pair of cuffs in the whole outfit not a shirt not mot a collar oh well when a man has to leave bagdad the dav I 1 did over the back fence so to speak linen t count he drew down his cuffs detached and reversed them he turned his fold ing collar wrong side out and used the under side of the foot rug as a ranj ganhs H s glance up and down the column columns of visiting cards was even now on his way to his room the urban gentleman nodded then with a finger slim and well trimmed he trailed up and down the guest list ha I 1 see that you have the duke of what d ye call from germany here III give you my card send it up to mr bryanne no hurry I 1 shall be in again after dinner he ile bustled off toward the door he was pursy well fed and decently dressed the sort of a man who when he h moved in any direction created the impression that he had an important engagement somewhere else or was 00 0 ROL ar A 1 40 G apfl bior HEARTS AND cho 0 MAN M ao ON THE BOX ca 0 illustration A ar COPY PLIGHT 1911 b 6 company paring minutes from timetables time tables foi for a man in his business bu qs it was a clever expedient deceiving til all but those who knew him he hesitated at the door however as it if he had changed his wind in the twenty odd paces it took to reach it he stared for a long period at the elderly gentleman who was watching the feluccas on the river through the window the white mustache and imperial stood out in crisp relief against the ruddy sunburn on his face if be ile was aware of this scrutiny on the part of the pursy gen tieman he gave not the least sign the revolving door spun round send ing a puff of outdoor air into the lounging room the elderly gentleman then smiled and applied his chamb and forefinger to the waxen point of his imperial in the intervening time mr dyanne entered his room threw the bundle on oh the bed sat down beside it and read his letter shadows and lights moved across his face frowns that hardened it smiles that mellowed it women hold the trick of writing let do they hate their thoughts flash and burn from line to line do they love lettered music do they conspire the breadth of their image nation is without horizon at be e man can only a polite busin letter his love notes were long since a maudlin collection loose sentences in this letter mr I 1 anne found the three parts of life she s a good general but ha these brimstone efforts of hers lers S talks too much of heart for my pa 1 prefer to regard it as a mere phys leal ical function a pump a motor a po a 9 er that gives action to the legs either elthe shoe polisher it was the ingenious procedure of a man who was used to being out late nights who made all things answer all purposes this rapid and singularly careless toilet corn com plated he cente centered led his concern upon the more vital matter of finances he was vas close to the nadir four gover saver elens a florin and a collection of bat coppers that would have tickled the pulse of an amateur numismatist no vintage to tonight night my boy no long tat fat havana either A bottle battle of stout and a few rags of ping cut that 8 the pace we II 11 travel this eve ning the united romance and ad venture company is not listed at pres ent if it was I 1 d sell a few shares on my own hook the kind lord knows that I 1 ve stock enough and to spare he laughed again but with out the leaven of humor when the tool fool killer snatches up the last fool let rogues rogues look to themselves and fools are getting scarcer every day percival val algernon 0 age of poets I 1 wonder does he wear high col lars and spats or has she plumbed him accurately she Is generally right but a man changes some I 1 in n seven years I 1 in an authority hority when it comes to that look what s happened to me in seven years t it arst arst horace we shall dine then we well 11 smoke our pipe in the billiard billiar droom room then we well 11 softly sip approach percival val algernon and introduce him to sinbad this in dependent excursion to bagdad was a stroke on my part it will work into the general plan as smoothly as IP if it had been grooved for the part sinbad I 1 might just as well have assumed that name horace sinbad sounds well and looks well he mused in silence his hand gently rubbing his chin tor for he did possess the trick of talking aloud in a low monotone a habit acquired during periods of loneliness when the sound ft of his own voice had succeeded in steadying his tottering mind what a woman what a wife sho she would have been to the right man odd thing a man can do almost any thing but direct his affections they must be drawn she was not for him nav not even on a desert isle doubt less he was a fool in time she would ha hae 10 lo made him a rich man alack it was always the one we pursued that we lo 10 loed ed and never the one that pursued us I 1 in afraid of her and there you fortune Ched soye his ills blue eyes became less hard and his mouth less defiant I 1 repeat the heart should be nothing but a pump oth berwise it gets in the way becomes an obstruction a bottomless pit will power that s the ticket I 1 can face a lion without an extra beat I 1 can face the various countenances of death without an additional flutter and yet here s a girl who when I 1 see her or think of her bends sends the pulse soaring from seventy seven up to eighty tour four bad business besides its so inter infer nally unfashionable it its s hard work for fok a man to keep his balance twixt the devil and the deep blue sea gioconda on one side and fortune on the other gioconda Glo conda throws open windows and doors at my approach but for tune locks and bars hers nor knocks at mine that s the way it always goes if a man could only go back ten years and take a new start ass balling his fist at the reflection in the mirror snivel and whine over the bed of your own making you had your opportunity but you listened to the popping of champagne corks the mutter of cards the inane drivel of chorus ladies ladles you had a decent col dol lege record too bah bahl what a guile less fool you were I 1 you ran on didn dian t you till you found jour neck in the loop at the end of the rope and perhaps that soft footed estimable brother of yours didn t yank it taut as a hangman sa s I 1 you heard the codicil into one ear and out the other even then you had your chance patience for two short years and a million no a thousand times no you knew what you were about empty headed fool and today two pennies for a dead man mans s eyes he dropped his fist list dejectedly where had the first step begun and where would be the last in some drab corner comer possibly drink mor phine or starvation he bed d never have the courage to finish if it with a bullet he was terribly bitter everything orth while seemed to have slipped a 4 everything worth seemed to have slipped through his HI finger fingers are there ism t a man living who has gone back of that mona lisa smile of hers if she was the last woman and I 1 u was as the last man I 1 don t say he hunted for a cigarette but failed to find one almost at the bottom boy the winter of our discontent and no sun of york to make it glorious twenty four hundred at cards and to lose it like a tyro wallace has taught me all he knows but I 1 im in a booby twenty four hundred birins s mone morie its it e a tailing falling of mine the firm s money but damn it all I 1 cant cheat a man at cards I 1 d rather cut his throat he ile found his pipe and a careful search of the corners comers of his coat pock ets revealed a meager of tobacco he picked out the little balls of wool the ground coffee the cloves and pushed the charge home into the crusted bowl of his briar to the dell deill with economy A pint of burgundy and a perfecto it if they hale us to jail tor for it I 1 rn dead tired I 1 ve seen three comers corners in hell bell in the past two months I 1 in going as tar far as tour four sovereigns will take me faaalu lAA Alu through his fingers his pleasure lov ing fingers come come horace buck up still the ruby kindles in the vine ine no turning back now we well 11 go on till we come bang against the wall there may be some good bouts between here and there I 1 wonder what gioconda Glo conda would |
