Show N 11 she shall never marry a man of your stamp 1 george percival algernon jones vice president ot of the metropolitan oriental rug company ol 01 new york thirsting tor for romance Is in cairo on a business trip horace bryanne arrives at it the hotel in iri cairo with a carefully guarded bundle bryanne sells jones the famous holy thi ordes rug which he admits having stolen from a pasha at bagdad jones meets major callahan and later Is introduced to fortune Ched soye by a woman to whom he had loaned pounds at monte carlo some months previously and who turns out to be fortune fortunes s mother jones takes mrs Ched soye and fortune to a polo game fortune returns to jones the money borrowed by her mother mrs airs Ched soye appears to be engaged in some mysterious enterprise unknown to the daughter bryanne interests jones in the united romance and adventure corn pany a concern which for s a price will arrange arrange any kind of an adventure to or der mrs Ched soye her boothr broth r major callahan wallace and bryanne as the united romance and adventure company plan a risky enterprise involving jones CHAPTER VII continued I 1 accept it as such I 1 am tired of petty things I 1 repeat failure Is not possible have I 1 not thought it out detail by detail mapped out each line anticipated dangers by eliminating them all but that one danger of which we know nothing you re a great woman kate you have as you say made ninety nine dangers out of a hundred impossible let us kee keep P an eye out for that hundredth our pho to graphs have yet to grace the rogues gallery with one exception bryanne s laughter was sardonic shot the major mine aline A round and youthful a silky young mustache but rest easa aas there s no do likeness between that and the original one I 1 wear how bow you never told me began mrs Ched soye there was never any need till now eight years ago certain powers that be worked toward my escape but I 1 was never to return you will decol lect elect that I 1 have always remained this elde side enough what I 1 did does not matter I 1 will say this much my crime was in being found out one venture into new bork ork and out to sea again the will not have a chance chance I 1 doubt if any could recall the circum stances of my meteoric career you will observe that I 1 am keyed for any thing let us get to worl it donsil doesn t matter anyhow you did not mrs ched soye hesitated wood reading her thought no gioconda Glo conda my hands are guiltless at least they were till this bagdad af fair and I 1 am not sure there I 1 was a trusted clerk I 1 gambled I 1 took money that did not belong to me and here I 1 am room number it t matter come kate dont don t stare at bloddy loddy as it he were a new the major smoothed the ends of his moustache this con easlon will be good for his soul sou yes Glo gioconda conda I 1 feel easier now I 1 am heart and soul in this affair I 1 need excitement too lord yes when I 1 went to bagdad I 1 had no idea that I 1 hould ever lay eyes upon that rug but I 1 did and there a the emra em ra la Is too maior in ilor the major rubbed his pleas t 0 curably yes yes the emeralds I 1 had not forgotten them one hundred lovely green stones worth not a penny under thirty thousand A fine callec tion but another idea has taken pos session of this teeming brain of mine have you noticed how this fellow jones hovers about fortuned tune 7 iles he s worth a million it if he hes s worth a cent I 1 am sure in pure gratitude she would see to it that her loved ones were well mell taken care of in their old age I 1 am going to marry fortune my self said kyanne blandly you the major was nonplussed wallace shuffled his feet uneasily this blond companion of his was a ways showing kinks in his nature kinks that rarely ever straightened out yes and why nota what is she to either you or her mother noth ing affection you have never given her being unable it surer ses you but nevertheless I 1 love her and I 1 am going to marry her said mrs Ched soye even so you are a fool horace with ris ing fury so then the child had not jibed her in a moment of pique men alen in love generally are fools I 1 ve never spoken before because you never absolutely needed me till now there s my cards pat mrs Ched soye s fury deepened but not visibly you are welcome to her it if she will have you yes supplemented the major if she will have you my friend take her and our benedictions bryanne s shoulders stirred of course I 1 expect to have the final word to say on the subject she is my daughter said mrs airs Ched soye A trifling accident my dear glo gin canda smiled bryanne merely that just a little oil just a little oil the major pleaded anxiously dash it all this Is no time tor for a row of this silly order but its it s always the way irritably A big enterprise demand ing a single purpose and a trifle like this to apet upset it all alit I 1 am ready for business at any moment and you katea I aia we well 11 say no more about it till the affair is over after that thice tho who live will mill see eh eha bryanne rolled a cigarette to business then in the first place mr jones must not reach the ludwig he will not bryanne spoke with quiet assurance he will not even see that boat added wallace glad to hear the sound of hs lids voice again good but mind no rough work leave it all to me said bryanne the united romance and adventure company will give him an adventure on approval as it were to ou on then the report from new aorl reads encouragingly our friends there are busy they are merely waiting malting for us from now on percival val algernon must receive no more mail telegrams or cables take care of that also bryanne looked at mrs airs Ched soye musingly y f I 1 we HEARTS AND cha 0 PA MAN ia ON 0 THE BOX ct fib estrall ons COPY PLIGHT 1911 ty by 1 TERRILL COMPANY his real estate agent will wire him possibly tomorrow in that event he will receive a cable signifying that the transaction la Is perfectly correct he may also inquire as to what to do with the valuables in the wall wal satel he lie will be instructed to tout tous h nothing as the people who will occupy the house are old friends bryanne smoked calmly wallace you will return to new york at once I 1 thought I 1 was wanted here no longer all right I 1 im in off III sail on the prince ludwig stateroom ill have my joke by the way you wu do nothing of the kind you will have a stateroom by your self said airs Ched soye crisply and no wine nor cards it if you fall fail ill break ou As we would a churchwarden churchwardens s pipe wallace my lad bryanne grin grip ped his companion by the shoulder def and there was enough pressure in the grip to cause the recipient to wince well bell well III lay a straight course wallace slid his shoulder from under bryanne s hand to you then hoddy the business ot of quarantining our friend percival val dont hurt him simply detain him you must realize the importance of this have you your plans I 1 ll 11 perfect them tomorrow I 1 shall find a way may never rear fear does the rug come in anywhere 7 the major was wag curious it sometimes seemed to him that bryanne did not al ways lay his cards face up upon the table jt it will play its part besides 1 I am rather rather inclined to the idea of tab tak ing it tack jack it may be the old wish ing carpet in that case it will come in handy who knows how much la Is it worth ah ali major perceval Ver cival val himself could not say exactly he gave me a and pounds for it A thousand pounds murmured wallace the major struck his hands lightly together whether in applause or wonder he alone knew and it was worth every shilling of it too tell you the story some day there are a dozen ways mays of sup pressing percival val but I 1 must have something appealing to my artistic side you have never told us your real name horace mrs Ched soye bent toward him he laughed I 1 must have some thing to confess to you in the future dear gioconda well the meeting adjourns sine die what are you going to 10 do lo with fortune 7 demanded bryanne send her back to mentone what the deuce did you bring her here for I 1 bowing what was in the winda she expressed a desire to see cairo again answered mrs ched soye we never deny her anything the major rose and yawned suggestively in the corridor bryanne whispered softly why not G joconda she shall never marry a man of your stamp coldly charming mother how tenderly you have cherished her horace calmly enough Is it vice to anger me mea it may not be wise but I 1 have never seen you in a rage you would be magnificent cease this foolery patiently I 1 am in no mood tor for it tonight As an associate in this equivocal business you do very well you are necessary but do not presume too int anch ch upon that for all that I 1 may not have been what a mother should be I 1 still have some self respect so long as I 1 have any power over her fortune shall never marry a man so far down in the social scale as yourself social scale gioconda how you hurt me mockingly I 1 should real ly like to know what your idea of that invincible barrier Is Is it be cause my face Is in the rogues gal lery surely you would not be cruel she Is tar far above us all my friend continuing unruffled sometimes I 1 stand in absolute awe of her A marvel if my recollection Is not at at fault many a man has entered the villa fanny with a view to court ship men beside whom I 1 am as roland to the lowest saracen you never objected to them they had money and position magic talisman and it if I 1 had money and position my objections would be no less strong your code puzzles me you would welcome as a son in law a man who stole openly the widow s mite while I 1 who harass none but the predatory rich must dwell in the outland 7 rank injustice you couldn coulden t take care of her yes I 1 could with but little effort I 1 could make these two hands as hon est as the day Is long I 1 hay hays ta doubts smiling a little suppose tor or the ake cake of 0 anargy merit ment suppose sup pose fortune accepted mea I 1 mrs Ched s good amor e turned she knew her daughter laughter toler ably well the child had a horror of men poor horice horace io do you build upon that thao v k less perhaps than upon my own bright invention my suit then to be brief is rejected emphatically I 1 have spoken oh well the feminine prerogative shall be mine the last word mord good night dormi bene he bowed grandly and turned toward his own room he possessed that kind of mockery v aich was the despair of those at whom it was directed they never knew whether his mood was one of harmless tun fun or of deadly intent and rather than mistake the one quality for the other they generally pretend ed to ignore mrs Ched soye who had a similar talent was one of the few who felt along the wall as one does in the dark instinctively tonight she recognized that there was no harmless tun fun but a real desperateness behind the mask and she had held in her temper with a firm hand this was not the hour tor for a clash she shivered a little and tor for the first time in the six or seven years she bad had known him she faced a fear of him his great strength his reckless cour age his subtle way of mastering men by appearing to be mastered by them held her in the thrall of a peculiar fascination which in quiet periods she looked upon as something deeper marriage was not to her an ideal state nor was there any man living or dead who had appealed to the physical side of her but he was in the one sex what she was in the other and while she ae herself would never have married tim him she raged inwardly at the bitite of his wanting another woman to her the social fabric which holds humanity together was merely a con lenience ven veni lence ence the moral significance touched neither her heart nor her mind in her the primordial craving tor for ease for material comforts pret ty trinkets and gowns was strongest developed it was as it if this sense had been handed down to her untouched by contact with progression from the remote ages that time between the tall fall of roman civilization and where modern civilization began in short a beautiful barbarian whose intellect alone had advanced fortune was asleep the mother went over to the bed and gently shook the slim round arm which lay upon the coverlet the child childs s nature lay revealed as she opened her eyes and smiled it did not matter that the smile instantly changed to a frowning inquiry the mother spoke truly tr uly when she said that there were times when she stood in awe of this her flesh and blood my child I 1 wish to ask you a ques tion and for your own good answer truthfully do you love horace 11 fortune sat up and rubb rubbed ed her eyes no had her wits been less scats scattered ered she might have paltered the syllable had a finality to it that reassured the mother more than a thousand protestations would mould have done good night she said fortune lay down again and drew the coverlet up to he chin with her eyes shut che waited but in vain her mother disrobed and ought her own bed was mas intensely dissatisfied with himself for once his desperate mood had carried him too tar far he ile had made too many confessions had antagonized a woman who was every bit as clever and ingenious as him self the enterprise toward which they were moving held him simply because it was an exploit that enticed wholly his twisted outlook upon life there was a forbidding humor in the whole aff affair air too which he alone saw the possible rewards were to him of secondary consideration it was the tun fun of the thing it was the tun fun of the thing that had put him squarely upon the wide short road to tion which had made him first a spendthrift then a thief the tun fun of the thing sinister phrase A and times had be longed to go back for he gasn wasn t all bad but door after door had shut behind him and now the single purpose was to get to the end of the road by the shortest route he ile did not deceive himself his desperate mood was the result of an internal infernal rage against himself a rage against the weakness of his heart fortune Ched sole why had she not crossed his path pa th at that time when he might h have ave I 1 teen een saved and yet would she have gaved saved him god alone knew he ile heard jones stirring in his room next door I 1 recently resent ly all became still e vo IT I 1 4 f 4 fr 41 4 46 the porter had no suspicion that A sold cheit was elbing committed to sleep like ile shrugged threw off his coat swept the cover from the stand found a pack ol 01 cards and played solitaire till the first pallor of dawn announced the nerv nay day reclining snug snugly ay against the para pet wrapped in his tattered redl ar arbi blyeth yeth or cloak his head pillowed upon his lean arm motionless with tuat that pro pre tended sleep of the watcher mahomed el EI gebel kept his vigil miles upon miles he had come across three bleak cold blinding deserts on camels in train on cam camels els again night and day day and night across the soundless yellow plains allah was good to the true believer tho the night was chill but certain fires warmed his blood all day long he had followed the accursed lying glamour but never once had he wandered into the native quarters of 0 the city patience what was a day a week a year grains ot of sand he ile could wait In shalla CHAPTER VIII vill the purloined cable george having made his bargain with conscience relative to the chlor des rug slept the sleep of the bled of the just of 0 the man who had n nothing in particular to get up tor for in tact fact after hav having ing drunk his breakfast cocoa and eaten his buttered toast he evinced his satisfaction by t turning his face away from the attracting morn ing light and passing off into sleep again and thereby hangs this tale so much depended upon his getting his mall mail as it came in that morning that fate pate herself must have resisted sturdily the d desire estre to shake him by the shoulder |