| OCR Text |
Show win. Wimm-msw 1 LJ n AutW HEARTS AND "TASKS Ctf, AVAN OH THE BOX - Illusiraiiorv by Al.G.KrrrrjvEri COPYRIGHT 9I1 y PQB&3 - MERRILL Car-VPJSY The Porter Had No Suspicion That Bold Thsft Was Being Committed. "She Shall Never Marry a Man of Your Stamp." "Ills real estate agent will wlr him, possibly tomorrow." "In that event, ha will receive ; cable signifying that the traneactloi la perfectly correct" "He may also Inquire aa to wha to do with the valuaulea In the wall aafe." "He will be Instructed to toucl nothing, aa the people who will occup; the house are old friends." Ryann smoked calmly. "Wallace, you will return to Nei York at once." "I thought I was wanted here?" "No longer." "All right; I'm off. Ill sail on th Prince Ludwlg, stateroom 118. I'l have my joke by the way. "You will do nothing of the kind You will have a stateroom by your self," said Mrs. Chedsoye crisply "And no wine, nor cards. If you fall I'll break you ..." "Aa we would a churcbwarden'i pipe, Wallace, my lad." Ryanne grip ped his companion by the shoulder and there waa enough pressure In the grip to cause the recipient to wince. "Well, well; I'll lay a atralghl course." Wallace slid his shouldei from under Ryanne's hand. "To you, then, Hoddy, the buslnesi of quarantining our friend Perclval Don't hurt him; simply detain him. You nniHt realize the Importance ol this. Have you your plans?" "I'll perfect them tomorrow, I shall find a way, never fear." "Does the rug come In anywhere?" The major waa curious. It sometimes seemed to him that Ryanne did not always al-ways lay his cards face up upon the table. "It will play Its part. Ilesldes, 1 w am rather Inclined to the Idea of tak-I tak-I Ing It back. ' It may be the old wish-,4 wish-,4 Ing carpet. In that case. It will come j In handy. Who knows?" c. "How much Is It worth?" . "Ah, major, Perclval himself could t. not say exactly. He gave me a thous-w thous-w and pounds for It." 'a "A thousand pounds?" murmured t Wallace. e The major struck his handa lightly s together. Whether In applause or d wonder he alone knew. "And It was worth every shilling of f. it, too. I'll tell you the story some day. There are a dozen ways of sup-I sup-I pressing Perclval, but I must have something appealing to my artistic side." Si "You have never told us your real j name, Horace," Mrs. Chedsoye bent toward blm. 9 He laughed. "I must have some-,. some-,. thing to confess to you In the future, dear Gloconda." "Well, the meeting adjourns, sine J die." "What are you going to do with Fortune?" demanded Ryanne. "Send ber back to Mentone." 0, "What the deuce did you bring her here for, knowing what was in the wind?" , "She expressed a desire to see u Cairo again." answered Mrs. Ched-t. Ched-t. oy- "We never deny her anything." The lt major rose and yawned suestlvely. In the corridor, Ryanne whispered ' aoftly: "Why not. Cloionda " . "She shall never niury a man of your stamp." coldly. "Charming mother! How tenderly you have cherished ber!" " "Horace," calmly enough. "Is It wise to anger me?" "It may not be wise, but I have 8 never seen you In a rage. You would be magnificent." , "Cease this foolery." patiently. "I J am In no mood for It tonight. As an associate In this equivocal business, you do very well; you are necessary. 0 Hut do not presume too much upon thct. For all that I may not have been what a mother should bo, I still hsve some self respect. So long aa I have any power over her, Fortune shall never marry a man so far down in the social scale aa yourself." "Social scale? Gloconda, how you hurt me!" mockingly. "I ahould real- ly like to know what your Idea of that Invincible barrier (a. Is It be-cause be-cause my face Is In the rogues' gal lery? Surely, you would not be it cruel!" "She Is far above us all, my friend." continuing unruffled. "Sometimes f h stand In absolute awe of her." "A marvel! if my recollection Is not at fault, many a man has entered d the Villa Fanny. With a view to courtship, court-ship, men beside whom I am as ." Roland to the lowest Saracen. You e. never objected to them." "They bad money and position." e "Magic talisman! And If I had mosey and position?" w "My objectlona would be do less Is strong." ty -Your code putties me. You would il welcome aa a son In law a ma a who 1, stole openly the widow's mite, while I, who harass none, bat the predatory m rich, tnust dwell la the ojtlanj? Rank InJutUce!" "You couldn't take care of her." "Yes. I could. With but little effort a I could make these two bands aa hon-d hon-d est as the day Is long." "I have my doubts," smiling a little, t "Suppose, for the sake of an argu-I- ment, suppose Fortune accepted me?" i Mrs. Chedsoye's good humor rail ra-il turned. She knew ber daughter toter-v toter-v ably well; the child bad a horror of s men. "Poor Horace! Do you build upon that?" r "Lets, perhaps, than- upon my own bright Invention. My suit, then to be brief, Is rejected?" "Emphatically. I have spoken." s "Oh, well; the feminine prerogative I shall be mine, the last word. Good night; dorml bene!" He bowed . grandly and turned toward his own room. He possessed that kind of mockery . which was the despair of those at whom It was directed. They never "knew whether bis mood was one of - harmless fun or of deadly Intent. And rather than mistake the one quality for the other, they generally pretended pretend-ed to Ignore. Mrs. Chedsoye, who ' had a similar talent, was one of the ' few who felt along the wall aa one does In the dark, Instinctively. To-1 To-1 night she recognized that there waa no harmless fun but a real desperate- ness behind the mask; and she bad held lu her temper with a firm hand. This was not the hour for a clash. She shivered a little; and for the first time In the six or seven years she had known him, she faced a fear of him. Ills great strength, bla reckless courage, 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. 1 Marriage was not to her an Ideal state, t nor was there any man, living or dead, f who bad appealed to the physical aide i of her. But he was In the one sex what she wss in the other; and while she herself would never have married i him, he raged Inwardly at the possl- c blllty of his wanting another woman. I To her the social fabric which holds t humanity together was merely a con 1 vetilenre; the moral significance i touched neither her heart nor ber c mind. In ber the primordial craving t for ease, for material comforts, pret- ty trinkets and gowna waa strongest j developed. It waa as if this sense bad t been banded down to ber. untouched t by contact with progression, from the i remote ages, that time between the I fall of Roman civilization and where i modern civilization began. In short t a beautiful barbarian, whose Intellect i alone had advanced. c Fortune waa asleep. The mother went over to the bed and gently shook the slim, round arm which lay upon the coverlet The child's nature lay revealed as ah opened ber eyes and smiled. It did not matter that the smile Instantly changed to a frowning 4 Inquiry. The mother spoke truly t when she said that there were times t when she stood In awe of thla, ber f flesh and blood. "My child, I wish to ask you a quea- tion. and for your own good answer ' truthfully. Do you love Horace?" I Fortune sat up and rubbed her eyes. "No." Had ber wits been less scattered she might have paltered. The syllable bad a finality to It t that reassured the mother more than s a thousand protestations would have t don. d "Good night" ibe s:ll. i Fortune lay down again and drew the coverlet up to her chin. With her a eyes shut she waited, but In vain. Her a mother disrobed and sought her on bed. s Ryanne was Intensely dissatisfied r with himself. For one his desperate mood bad carried him too far. He h had made too many confessions, bad a antagonized a woman who was every r bit as clever and Ingenious as blm- li self. Toe enterprise toward which p they were moving held blm limply be- a cause It waa an exploit that enticed r wholly bla twisted outlook upon life. f There was a forbidding humor In the tl whole affair, too, which be alone saw. a Tb possible rewards were to blm of It secondary consideration. It was the tl fun of the thing. It waa the fun of a the thing that bad put him squarely r upon the wide, short road to perdl- b tion. which had made him first a V spendthrift then a thief. The fun of a tb thing; aintster phrase! A tbous- d and times had b longed to go back, s for be wasn't all bad; but door after o door had shut behind him; and now a the single purpose was to get to the end of the road by the shortest rout. - He did not deceive himself. His tl deeperat mood waa the result of aa Infernal rag against himself, a rag b against tb weakness of his heart o Fortune Chedsoy. Why bad ah not crossed tU paa at that tim when be might have been saved? And yet E would ah have saved him? God alone a knew. s He beard Joe stirring la his room I a text door. Presently all becatn stilt p Po sleep Ilk that! II shrugged, brew off bis coat swept the cover rom tb stand, found a pack of cards, md played solitaire till the first pallor if dawn announced tb new day. Reclining snugly against the para-jet, para-jet, wrapped In his Uttered arblyeth, r cloak, bis bead pillowed upon bla ean arm, motionless with that pre-ended pre-ended Bleep of the watcher, Mahomed-El-Gebel kept bis vigil. Miles upon n lies he had come, across three bleak, old, blinding deserts, on camels, In rains, on camels again, night and day, lay and night across tb soundless, ellow plains. Allah waa good to the rue believer. The night was colli, tut certain fires warmed hla blood. All lay long be had followed the accursed, ylng giaour, but never once had he vandered Into tie native quarters of he city. Patience! What was a day, i week, a year? Gralna of sand. He ould wait. Insballa! CHAPTER VIII. The Purloined Cable. George, having made bis bargain rlth conscience relative to the Yhlor-les Yhlor-les rug, slept the sleep of tb untrou-iled. untrou-iled. of the Just, of the man who had lothlng In particular to get up for. In act. after having drunk his breakfaat ocoa and eaten bla buttered toast, he vlnced hla satisfaction by turning his see away from the attracting morn-ng morn-ng light and passing off Into sleep gain. And thereby banga thla tale. So much depended upon his getting ils mall as It came in that morning, hat Fate herself must have resisted turdlly the desire to shake him by he shoulder. Perhaps she would have Ion so but for the serenity of his os and tb Infantile smile that lln-ered lln-ered for a while round his lips. Fate, s with moil of us, has her sentiment-I sentiment-I lapses. The man next door, having no con-clence con-clence to speak of (Indeed, he had de-atled de-atled ber while passing hla twentl-th twentl-th meridian!) was up betimes. He sd turned In at four; at six be was trolling about the deserted lounging-oom, lounging-oom, watching the entrances. It Is aconcelvsble how easily mall may be urlolned In a large hotel. There are s many ways as points to the wind, lysnne chose the simplest. He waited ar the mall-bag to be emptied upon lie head porter's counter. Noncbal-ntly, Noncbal-ntly, but deftly, while tb porter xked on, the adventurer ran through lie bulk. He found three letters and rab'e. the latter having been recited re-cited by George's bankers the day efore and mailed directly to the bo-it. bo-it. Tbe porter bad no suspicion that bold theft was being committed un-er un-er his very eyes. Moreover, circum-lances circum-lances prevented bis ever learning f It Ryanne stuffed the spoils Into pocket . "It any 'on aska for mi," h said, say that I shall be at my banker's, lie Anglo-Egyptian bank, at 10 o'clock. "Yea, air." replied tb porter, aa he egan to sort tb rest of the mall, ot forgetting to penis tb postals. Ryaan went out Into the street alklng rapidly Into town. M shorn ed-3-GebeI shook tb folds of his cloak ad followed. The adventurer did not lackea bis gait till be reached 6bep-eard's 6bep-eard's hotel. Upon the step he a jsed. Some ZngUsh troop were marching past, on the way to the railway rail-way station; the usual cumber of natives na-tives were patrolling th sidewalks, dangling strings of Imitation scarabs; a caravan of pack-camels, laden wita cotton, shuffled by haughtily; a blind beggar aat on the curb In front, munching a piece of augar cane. Ryanne, assured that no one be kntw waa about, proceeded Into the writing-room, writing-room, wholly deserted at this early hour. He aat down at a desk and opened the cable. It contained exactly what be expected. It was a call for advice ad-vice In regard to tbe rental of Mr. George P. A. Jones' mansion 1n New York and th temporary d!sposIngvof the loose valuables. Ryann read It over a dozen times, with puckered brow, and finally ballad It fiercely in bis flat Fool! H could not t that moment, remember th most essential essen-tial point In th gam, th nam and office of the ag-ent to whom he must this very morning send reply. Hurriedly Hur-riedly he fished out th letters; on chance In a thousand. He swore, but In relief. In the corner of one of the letters be saw that for some nnknowa reason the gods were still with him. Reynolds and Reynolds, estates, Droa4 street; he remembered. He wrote ont a reply on a piece of hotel paper. Intending In-tending to copy It off at the cable-office. cable-office. Tbls reply covered th ground convincingly. "Renting for two months. Old friends. Leave things as they are. P. A." Th Initials were a little atroke. From aom source Ryanne haa picked up the fact that Jones' business correspondence was conducted over those two Initials. He tor up tb cable Into email Illegible Illegi-ble squares and dropped some Into on basket and some Into another. Next he readdressed George's mall to Lelp. tig; another stroke, meaning a delay of two or three months; from th head office of bis banker's there to Paris, Paria to Naplea, Naples to New' York. That Ryanne did not open these letters waa In nowiae due to moral suasion; whatever they con-tained con-tained could be of no vital Importance to him. "Now, Horace, w shall bend th crook of our elbow In tbe bar-room. The reaction warrants a stimulant" An hour later the whole affair was nicely off his banda. The cable had cost hlra three aoverelgns. Rut what was that? Nlent. rlen; nothing; a mere bagatelle. For tbe first time In weeks a sense of security Invsded his being. It was by now t o'clock; and Perclval Per-clval Algernon still reposed upon bis bed of ease. Let him sleep. Many days were to paas ere he would again know the comfort of linen sheets, the luxury of down under bit ear. TO BE CONTINUED ) Long Record as Publlo Singer. What Is probably the world s record aa a public singer Is held by Mrs. George V. Johnson, who for more thaa years has bea soloist la tb Presbyterian Presby-terian church. She haa traveled a distance of more thaa 40,000 mile la awrely going to and from her choir rehearsala and church services while the actual time she has spent la a choir seat would amount to the eeale-ateat eeale-ateat of on year and a aalf.-ptke t.N. T.) Gatett. 7 SYNOPSIS. 0nrs Peri'lval Algernon Jones, vlre-trtdnt vlre-trtdnt of ths Metropolitan Uiiontal ltua company of New York, thirsting tor romance, u In Cairo on a business trip. Horace Ityanns arrives at th hotel In Cairo with a carefully guarded bundle. Itysnne sells Jones the famous holy Ylit-ordee Ylit-ordee rug which he admit hsrlng stolen from a pasha at llaadaJ. Jonea meets Major Callahan and later la Introduced to Fortune Chedsoye by a woman to whom he had loaned UO pounds at Monte Carlo some months previously, and who turns ut to ha Fortune's mother. Jones take Mrs. Chedaoy and Fortune to a polo fame. Fortune returns to Jonee th snoner borrowed by her mother. Mrs. Chedaoy appears to be en(nd In soma snyaterlous enterprise unknown to th 4auhtr. Ryann Intereata Jones In the United Ilomanr and Adventure company, com-pany, a concern which for a price will arranse any kind of an adventure to order. or-der. Mrs. Chedaoy, her brother. Major Callahan. Wallace and llyann. aa th United Homane and Adventure company, plan a rtaky enterprise Involving June. , CHAPTER VII, (Continued.) "I accept It as auch. I am tired of petty thtnga. I repeat, failure la not possible. Have 1 not thought It out, detail by detail, mapped out each line, anticipated dangera by eliminating themr "All but that on danger of which w know nothing. You're a great 'woman, Kat. You have, aa you say, xnad ninety-nine dangers cut of a hundred Impossible. Let us keep aa " ye out for that hundredth. Our photographs pho-tographs have yet to grace the rogues" gallery." "With one exception." Ryanne's laughter waa sardonic. -Whose r shot the major. "Mine. A round and youthful phiz, s silky young mustache. Hut rest asy; there'a no likeness between that said the original one I wear now." "You never told me . . . " began be-gan Mrs. Chedsoye. -There waa never any need till now, Eight years ago. Certain powers that be worked toward my escape. Rut I waa never to return. You will recollect recol-lect that ! have always remained this elds. Enough. What 1 did does not matter. I will aay this much: my crime was In being found out On venture Into New York and out to aea again: they will not have a chance. I doubt il any could recall th circumstances circum-stances of my meteoric career. You will observe that I am keyed for anything. any-thing. Let us get to work. It doesn't matter, anyhow." "You did not . . . - Mrs. Chedsoye Ched-soye heeltited. "IJkod?" reading her thought "No. Gioconds; my bands sre gillttewe. at least they were till this Bagdad affair; af-fair; and I am not aure there I was a trusted clerk; I gambled; took money that did not belong to me. And bere I am. room number Sot." "lt doesnl matter. Come. Kate; don't aure at Hoddy aa if be were a new species" The major smoothed tb ends of bis moustache. "Tbls confession con-fession will be good for hi soul." "Ye. Gloconda; I feel easier now. f am heart and soul la thla affair. I need excitement too. Lord, yes When I went to llagdad. I had no Idea that I ahould ever lay eye epoa that rug. Rut ! did And there' th eyrrera'ds. too. major." Th major rubbed hla hands pleas- urably. "Yea. yes; th emeralds; had not forgotten them. One hundrt lovely green stones, worth not a penn under thirty thousand. A fine code tion. Dut another Idea haa taken po session of this teeming brain of mln Have you noticed how thla fello Jonea hovers about Fortune? He worth a million, If he's worth a cen I am sure, In pure gratitude, sh would see to It that her loved one were well taken care of In their ol age." "I am going to marry Fortune mi self," said Ryanne blandly. "You?" The major was nonplusset Wallace shuffled his feet uneasll This blond companion of his waa a ways showing kinks In his natun kinks that rarely ever straighten out "Yes. And why not? What la ah to either you or her mother? Not I Ing. Affection you have never give her, being unable. It surprises you but, nevertheless, I love her, and am going to marry ber." "Really r said Mrs. Chedsoye. "Even so." "You ar a fool, Horace!" with rl ing fury. So then, the child had nc Jibed her In a moment of pique? "Men In love generally ar food I'v never token before, because yo never absolutely needed me till noi There's my cards, pat." Mrs. Chedsoye's fury deepened, bi not visibly. "You are welcome to be If ahe will hare you." "Yes." aupplemented th major; " ah will have you, my friend, take be and our benedictions." Ryanne's shoulders stirred sugge lively. "Of course, I expect to have th final word to say on tb subject Sh Is my daughter." said Mr. Chedsoye "A trifling accident my dear Gli ronda," smiled Ryanne! "merel that." "Just a little oil. Just a little oil the major pleaded anxiously. "Das It all, thia is no time for a row of thl silly order. Rut It's always the way, Irritably. "A big enterprise, demam Ing a single purpose, and a trifle Ilk thla to upset It all!" "1 am ready for business at any mi ment" "And you. Kate?" "We'll say no more about It till th affair la over. After that ..." "Those who live will aee. eh! Ryanne rolled a cigarette. To business, then. la the fin place, Mr. Jonea must not reach th Ludwlg- "He will not" Ryanne spoke wit quiet assurance. "He will not even see that boat added Wallace, glad to hear the soun of his voice again. "Good. Rut. mind, no rough work "Leave It all to me," said Ryann "The United Romance and Adventui Company will give him aa adventui on approval, aa It were." "To you. tfca. Tbe report from Ne York reada encouragingly. Our friend there are buay. They are merel waiting for aa. From now oa FercJvi Algernon must receive no more mal telegrams or cables." "Ill take care of that also." Ryaax looked at Mrs. Chedsoye musingly. |
