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Show By CHARLES TENNEY JACKSON Copyright by The Bobbs-Merrill Company g house, and whispered to of a plot !" "Eh, bien! a Is a plot" Old Dominique rubbed his nose. "We have the money, the ship, the spirit, the well, everything." "Except the emperor! Bonaparte, cooped up on his Isle with England watching! Pray, good sirs who will bell the cat?" The ndmiral shrugged and tasted his limed rum of Barbadoes. The young De Almonaster heard two dolorous dolo-rous sighs. It was, indeed, a quiet life nnd a shameful pass when two worthy buccaneers of but a decade agone sat at their drink to be Jibed by an incredulous aristocrat. "Eli, w -11 " mumbled old Dominique Domi-nique absently. "If Jean were here he would go rescue Napoleon for these Creoles. Ho, old cutthroat, If the Captain LaC.tte walked these streets again there would be an end to chatter! Eh, the old days! The good wine and the plunder down the Baratarla passes! And I name of God! am now the alderman for the American quarter!" The shadows lengthened across the cobbles to the pretentious House Napoleon. Na-poleon. The dim front barroom of La Bourse de Maspero was quite deserted, desert-ed, save for a table of provincial planters from the river parishes here and there. But suddenly the drone of voices from the gaming place In the rear was cut off by a slamming door. A man had staggered out. Tall, uncouth, un-couth, of disorderly nttlre, not at all In the fashion, ragged at the sleeves he stared at them with swollen eyes set in a drink-flushed face. The empty scabbard of a small sword rattled at his muddy boot-tops; his silken-lined cloak and round velvet cap gave him the aspect of a rather solemn and nervous- poseur. , "Devil take the dice!" He saw the elegant De Almonaster, and came briskly nearer: "Back with me, liaouL wntcli! An affair, Kaoul, that will call me out to the Oaks sleepy-eyed some morning this week. The stranger, stran-ger, Saznrac, has the English colonel bewitched. A Sazarac! I wish something some-thing more than drink could draw all eyes to me! A pistoling fellow, eh bien !" John Jarvis thrust his blinking eyes nearer: "A rapier bully, Messieurs "A BARATARIA! LAFITTE 1" "I am Lafltte aaraln not Monsieur Mon-sieur Sazarac! Irons, and then the yard-arm for the first fellow who disputes my will. The older j heads will not needs be told. The English woman first after that, as it Is Monsieur de Almon-aster's Almon-aster's honor to his fellow citizens citi-zens of Louisiana for Bonaparte. Bona-parte. And then " "The seas are wide." grimaced Jarvis with a look at the master mas-ter which drew, in turn, a glance of Impenetrable reserve. This is a stirring- tale of the ' picturesque days when the young Creole bloods of New Orleans j rallied around Lafltte the re-' re-' doubtable pirate of Baratnrla Bay who won imperishable fame by coming to the aid of Andrew Jackson when that red-headed warrior beat off the British at New Orleans and planned the rescue of Napoleon from St. j Helena. "I have been hailed a hero by the city, pardoned and acclaimed for service in the new Republic, denounced again and harried from the seas, to be once more a fugitive!" says Lafltte and chooses to come back as "Captain "Cap-tain Sazarac," only to have his heart stirred by a lovely face which leads him to the Plot Napoleon. Na-poleon. The author Charles Tenney Jackson, has achieved a number of deservedly popular and wide-read wide-read novels. Queerly enough, though he is by birth and education edu-cation a northerner, he has reproduced re-produced most wonderfuly the atmosphere of those New Orleans Or-leans days before the Tankee came to destroy romance days when fair ladles were still the cause of many a duel and high gambling went w-lth high station. i ' I j CHAPTER I If Jean Were Here. j The affair was one in which, to this point, the young Count de Al-; Al-; monaster had taken the slightest in-'. in-'. terest. But now the name of his i aunt, the Baroness Pontalba, was : upon the lips of the portly alderman i of Old New Orleans ; and when. In turn. Beluche, thfe swarthy admiral of the Cartagenian privateers, adverted ad-verted to her, the languid aristocrat shook with laughter. "Ho, Monsieur Dominique! You, the fat and prosperous counselor of the American quarter who, they say, I finds the city's politics even better picking than were your days of pl-j pl-j racy with Jean Lafitte you, you, : then, it was, who enticed my good : aunt to giving ten thousand of the I new Yankee dollars to build the house ; in which Napoleon Is to spend his last j days on the rue C'hartres ! And you Beluche for whom, even today, any flag will serve! A grand scheme, this, to rescue Bonaparte from the English Eng-lish ! What next for us fantastic Creoles?" Cre-oles?" "Monsieur! Not so loud, I beg! An affair of state, this, and half the gentry gen-try of Louisiana Is In it. But the new .American governor eh, bien! At i Washington, where the English are j now so well receiver, It might be em-I em-I barrassing this plot " i But De Almonaster shouted the louder. The admiral of Cartagena spluttered ; the honest councilor rubbed his velvet-ckid paunch and pleaded for silence. The young man's glance went from the two one-time buccaneers out the door of Maspero's exchange to the shining new plaster and green shutters of the House Napoleon; Na-poleon; Ida hand went to the black silk stock at his neck to check further fur-ther amusement. Beluche short, dark, restlessly glancing about, his black eyes narrowing nar-rowing as if he would be none with talk and to sea ugaln growled surlily. sur-lily. Admiral of the New Granada rebels he might be, but to his old cronies cro-nies of the coffee-houses he was still the Baratarian gunner who fought the pirates' battery on the light of Jackson's Jack-son's line at Clialmette against the British ; and he made as wry a face as any of La litte's lieutenants when the grateful young republic of the North pardoned the buccaneers en masse. But the worthy Alderman Dominique Domi-nique sighed at the younger man's j Jeers. "We had thought, Monsieur, that j being of what Is conceded to be the sugar process at Monsieur Bore's " "Oh, no !" returned Jarvis airily. "You were discussing -the plot. Why sit with Dominique, the alderman, and Beluche, the admiral, save upon our nice Intrigue? Ho!" he reared suddenly, sud-denly, so that the glasses quivered: "Be discreet ! our plot. Napoleon !" The two former buccaneers looked wryly at him. "The devil take you, Jarvis," growled Beluche. "It was of old days, and our vanished captain. You, yourself, whom Jean rescued from perdition once " "The plot!" shouted Jarvis so loudly loud-ly that even bystanders across the cobbled way looked Into the shadowy portals of Maspero's. "Ah, I am going go-ing to my studio, gentlemen ! I have an idea! My new assistant is very clever at painting birds Monsieur Audubon is crazy to paint birds ! He sprinkles salt on their tails to catch them. Now I shall take our plot to the studio, and Monsieur Audubon shall paint salt upon It to catch the Emperor Napoleon." The two worthies glowered upon him. De Almonaster's Idle laugh rang out. He, too, arose with Jarvis, and the latter could not resist a last gibe at his cronies. "The alderman and the admiral and In the one picture that I cared about, done down at La-fitte's La-fitte's red fort before the Americans plundered It, I had the bad taste to paint them In with my captain! What a downfall ! from piracy to politics for Dominique; and old Beluche blustering blus-tering about having a lawful commission commis-sion !" He put an unsteady finger on the laughing De Almonaster's sleeve: "Come on, Raoul ! There Is no more romance since Lafltte abandoned the town to the steamboat Yankees; and yet, last evening, upon the Esplanade, I saw a woman's face. I Paioul unshaven, un-shaven, dirty, idle looked back at her coach. I, Raoul hanging to a lamppost lamp-post made her smile!" De Almonaster motioned the Jester toward the gaming rooms. "The lady who arrived with the British colonel's party? Of course I am told she had the gallants astir when she drove." Jarvis nodded absently: "They nre wishing no bad luck to Colonel Carr beyond that this Sazarac shoots him tomorrow at the Oaks. Eh, well come !" From the door they could see the throng In La Bourse de Maspero. The wide door of I he small room was packed with silent, attentive youths. Jarvis twitched the coat of the nearest. "What has happened, De Marigny? Is the devil still dicing as to which to take?" "Carr loses steadily." Young Marigny Ma-rigny had but recently attained fame by naming a street of the Faubourg Marigny his patrimony now being cut Into lots ami sold to the Insatiable Americans outside the city walls "It ii 0 de Bagatelle," to commemorate his losses at the game. He therefore parted the skirts of his bottle-green coat, thrust his hands upon his breeches of snow-white leather and tapped them slgnlllcantly : "A ruined man. Kb, bleu! The British consul, Langhorne, protested, seemingly very uncomfortable at Colonel Chit's Insistence In-sistence at play with this Captain Sazarac, who, it Is said, Is a mere professional gambler of the river packets with the manners of a gentleman. gentle-man. I will say he has acted so he tried In every way to avoid Caff's game, but It appears that the British ollicer Involved himself badly on the way from St. Louis." "How then?" ventured De Almonaster. Almonas-ter. "A professional gamester at Maspero's?" Mas-pero's?" "Carr, himself, Introduced the fellow; fel-low; the game must continue," young De Marigny shrugged; "ami there Is talk of some affair of women between the two !" "The lady who looked back from her coach " mused Jarvis to himself. "I must get me a new waistcoat." A massive! silver candelabrum cast a ruby light upon the cloth about which sat a quartette. Langhorne, Ills Majesty's consul; a dealer of Mas-, Mas-, pern's; Colonel Carr of the newly nr-' nr-' lived British mission en route to the Mcxlcocs; and the stranger from the West. "Sazarac " muttered De Marigny, j "whose fame at the cards has ovor-I ovor-I leaped the town In one night. Mark ; him, I C non I ! a peruke, whitened as silver! Where has the fellow been these years as to know not the fashions fash-ions V" "Three thousnnd dollars on the red nyainat the bond glrll" I t i in-: i 'i in i i xf i:i ).) 4w ft mm h If I J mi "A Grand Scheme, This, to Rescue Bonaparte From the Engllshl What Next for Us Fantastic Creoles?" such as this Sa.arac . . . there's a woman In It without doulit." The town's first holiemiun of the ails and letters, n graceless si-rlhliler. painter wastrel of the wineshops, for all he was the nephew of the great John Wesley In Knglnnd. lie slept, worked and ate In a dirty studio up on the rue Contl, where, unknown as yet to the world, there laliorcd a youriu assistant who painted hark-grounds hark-grounds for Jarvis' portraits, hut who was destined for fame when the gamesters game-sters and politicians of the New Orleans Or-leans of 1S1M had heen loni; forgottenMonsieur forgot-tenMonsieur Audubon, hill lately arrived ar-rived from the Indies. Jarvis tipped the table for a drink, looking ahout to see who might put the score. "Pistols " he grunted. "I trust this Saznrac wings the Pritisher at least, though if he does, I shall see Pipior from his veins and not blood The fellow can drink mor" than I which Is Intolerable. It rellects in: my reputation. ... I shall dial lenge. myself, If Sir.arne does not !" "They are to tight?" (picrled lie Aiinoniisler languidly. "They will. I know the course of these affairs. 1 altetul them all. Knoill. I am the black buzzard who K earliest to roost at the ImHIng Oaks and wish them 1 3 I luck- all." The li'-sl holienilan of the Vloir Carre rubbed his no.io: "Anolhe drink. Monsieur? Wall- we shall go I pio oiill.v when the affair becomes pn vocative. This Saz.Mi-ac has a stead , ve, and Colonel Carr Is bent upm n Insult." Aliiionasler shrugged his ills as!e: "I was speaking of the new proudest family of Louisiana you would lend generously to the plot " "Plot!" A trim, the Count Kaoul mocked as he looked across the cobbles cob-bles at fhe fresh' paint upon the huge wooden shutters of the Mouse Napoleon; Napo-leon; he (lung his Jeweled f'ngers airily air-ily back to the shadowy taproom: ! "Ho, fellow! The nun and limes! P.e ! on with them, but tread softly we j ha ve a plot !" ! The two old adventurers gazed at : the slender figure In some eonstenia I ion. "Plot !" I e A him mister mud the rafters ring w ith It : "Threci-nre carpenters, pla-,leiem and whatnot. slaves and free men of color labor all summer at this royal domicile; the very fig sellers of the Place il'Arines mewl away about it to saitm men of every sea I, myself, across lb.- I'arib-bea I'arib-bea n, or at I 'i irl Itoya I , a m i, in- Coned as to what the bravo- of New lunaii men II by I bin mil'lle s ; a n I vv In n I collie home 1 a III i lit h to II pllb! i' |
