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Show ' hSKdmacgpath J Author o HEARTS AND "USKS aio AAN Ofl THE BOX etc,. Illusiral lorv5 M.G.KETTJVEn COPYRIGHT lyil by - ntRRlLL CCVnPAMY Ten Pounds," Repeated Ryann, a Hand In Hla Pocket, young roan who had purchaaed the run j might be mildly pet-cable had not yet occurred to her. "Why not, Fortune?" Ryanne waa very earnest, and there waa a pinch at hla heart. "Because . . ." "Iton't you like me Juat a littler "Why. I do like you. Horace. Hut I do not like any man well enough to accept expensive gifts from him. I do not wlah to hurt you, but It Is Impossible. Im-possible. The only concession I'll make Is to borrow the money." "Well, then, let It go at that" He waa too wise to press her. "And can you afford to throw away ten pounds?" with assumed lightness. "My one permanent Impression of you la the young man who was always forced to borrow car fare whenever he returned from Monte Carlo." "A fool and his money. Bui I'm a rich man now," he volunteered. And briefly h sketched the exploit of the Yhlordes rug. "It was very brave of you. Hut baa It ever occurred to you that It wasn't honest?" "Honest ?" frankly astonished that she should question the ethlca. "Oh, I say, Fortune; you don't call It dishonest dishon-est to get the. best of a pagan! Aren't they alwaya getting the btst of us?" "If you had bargained with him and beaten hlra down. It would have been different. Hut, Horace, you stole It; you admit that you did." "I took my life In my bands. I JhluK that evened op things." "No. And you aold It to Mr. Jones?" "Yes, and Mr. Jones was only foo glad to buy It. I told him the facta. He wasn't particularly- eager to bring up the ethlca of the case. Why. child, what the deuce is a Turk? I ahouldn't cry out If soma one stole my Hlbl." "Oood gracious? do you carry one?" "Well, there's always one on the room-stand In the hotels I patronise." "I suppose It all depends upon how we look, at things." "That's It. A different pair of spec-tacles spec-tacles for every pair of eyes." If only be weren't In love with her! thought the girl. He would then be an amusing comrade. But whenever he met ber he quietly pressed bis ault He had never spoken openly of love, for which she was grateful, but hla attentions, at-tentions, hla little kindnesses, hla unobtrusive un-obtrusive protection when those other men were at the villa, msde the reading read-ing between the lines no difficult matter. necessary facta, the eventual danger. He accepted them all with the Yblor-des. Yblor-des. I see nothing unfair in the deal, since I risked my life In the first place." "And why must you do these dea perate things?" "Oh, I love excitement. My one Idea In life is to avoid the bumdram." "Is It neceasary to risk your life for tbes excitements? Is your life nothing noth-ing more to you than something to experiment ex-periment with?" "Truth, sometimes I don't know. Fortune. Sometimes I don't care. When one bus gambled for big stakes. It Is hard to play for penny points." "A strong, healthy man like you ought not to court death." "I do not at-ck It. My only temptation tempta-tion Is to see how near I can get to the Man In the Shroud, as some poet calls It, without being touched. Ill make you my confessor. You see. It Is like this. A number of wearied men recently formed a company whereby monotony became an obsolete word in our vocabulary. You must not think I'm Jesting; I'm serious enough. This company ferrets out adventures and romances and sells them to men of spirit. I became a member, and the trip to Bagdad Is the result. Ot. never nev-er has to share with the company. The rewards are all yours. All one has to do ia to pay a lump aum down for the adventure furnished. You work out the end yourself, unhindered and un ' asaisted." "Are you really serious?" "Never more so. Now, Perclval Algernon Al-gernon bas alwaya been wanting an adventure, but the practical aid of him has made him hold aloof. I told him about this concern, and he refuses to believe In it. So I am going to undertake un-dertake to prove It to him. This la confidential. You will say nothing, 1 know." "He will coma to no barm pbyalcaV ly?" "Lord, no! It will be mild and in- -nocuous. Of course, if any one told him that an adventura was toward ' for bia especial benefit. It would apoll all. I can rely upon your silence?" She was silent. He witnessed her Indecision with distrust Perhaps he bad aald too much. "Won't you promise? Haven't I aV waya been kind to you, Fortune, times when you most needed kindnesa?" "I promise to say nothing. But 11 any harm cornea to that young man, either In jest or In earnest, I will never apeak to you again." ! ble through the native town and the bazaars. He might pick up some little curio to give to Fortune. So be beckoned to an Idle driver, climbed In. to the carriage, and was driven off aa If empires hung upon minutes. Ityunne never wearied of the bazaars ba-zaars of Cairo. They were to him no less enchanting than the circus parades pa-rades of his youth. In certain ways, they were hot to be compared with those in Constantinople and Smyrna; but, on the other hand, there was more light, more charm, more color. I'crhaps the magic nnnrness of the desert had something to do with It, the minions skies, the ever-recurring suggestions of antiquity. His lively observation, his sense of the picturesque pictur-esque and the humorous, always close to the surface, gave him that singular Impetus which makes man a prowler. This girt had made possible his success suc-cess in old Ilagdad. Home years before be-fore he had prowled through the narrow nar-row city streets, had noted the windings, wind-ings, the blind-alleys, and had never forgotten. Faces and localities were written Indelibly upon bis memory. One rode to the bazaars, but walked walk-ed through them or mounted donkeys. Ityanna preferred his own legs. So did Mahomed. Once, so close did he come that he could have put his two brown hands round tbe lofidcl's throat. Rut. patience. Did not the Koran teach patience among tbe higher laws? Patience. He could not. madly as he had dreamed, throttle the white liar here In tbe bazaars. That would not bring the Holy Yhlordes to his hands. He must wait. He must plan to lure the man out at night, then to hurry him Into the desert. Out Into the desert, des-ert, where no man might be bis master. mas-ter. Oh, the Holy Yhlordes should be bis again; It waa written. The cries, the shouts, tbe tower of Babel reclaimed; the Intermingling of tbe races of the world: the Englishman, English-man, the American, the German, tbe Italian, the Frenchman, the Greek, the 1-evantlne, the purple black Ethiopian, the bronze Nubian; the veiled women, tbe naked children; all the color-tones known Jo art. but predominating, that marvelous faded tint of blue, the Calrene blue. In the heavens. In the wsters. In the dyes. "Make way. O my mother!" bawled a donkey-boy to the old crone peddling ped-dling matches. "Backsheesh! Backsheesh!" In the eight tones of the human voice. From the beggar, hla brother, his uncle, his grandfather, bla children and his children's children. "Rlacksbeeeh. backsheesh!" "To tbe right!" was shrilled into Ryanne'a ear; and tie dodged. A troop of donkeys passed, laden with tourists, unhappy, fretful, self-conscious. A watrcarrler brushed against him. and he whiffed the fresh dampness of the bulging goat-skin. A woman, the long, black head veil streaming out behind In the clutch of the monkeylike hand of a toddling child, carried a terra cotta water jar upon her head. The grace with which she moved, tbe abruptness of tie color-changes, caught Ryanre's roving eye and filled It with pleasure. Dust rose and eubstUU, eddied and settled; beggars b'lnd and one eyed squatted In It, children tossed It In play, and beasts of burden shuffled through It. The roar In front of the shops, tbe pressing and crowding of customers, the high cries of the merchants; the gurgle of the water pipes, the pk-asant fumes of coffee, the hardy loafers lolling before the khana or caravansaries; caravan-saries; a veiled face at a lattice-window; the violet shadows in a doorway; the sunshine upon Uie soaring mosques; a true believer, rocking and i mumbling over his tattered Koran; gold and ailver and Jewels; amber and copper and biass; embroideries and ! rugs and carpets; and the pest cf fleas, i the plague of flk-s. the Insidious ; smells. Kysnne found himself Inspecting "the largest emerald in tbe world. I worth twelve thousand pounds," which looked more like a fine bexsgonal of i onyx than a gem. It was one of the curiosities of the bstasrs, however, and tourists were generally round it i In force. To his experienced eye It i wss no more than a One specimen of emerald quartz, worth what any fool of a collector waa willing to pay for It. From this bazaar h passed on Into tbe next, and there be aaw Fortune, j And aa Mahomed, always close at hand, ssw the hard lines In Ryanne's 1 face soften, the rynlral smile become tender, be believed be saw bia way to strike. 1 CHAPTER IX. J The Bitter fruit. Fortune had a nearly contempt for , persons who ate their breakfast la , bed. For ber the glory of the day was the fresh fairness of the morning, when every one's seep waa buoyant. . and all life stirred energetically. There was cheer and bop everywhere; men , j faced their labors with clear eye and feared nothing; women aang at their work. It was only at the close of day that despair irnd defeat stalked the bighwsys. So she was up with the sun, whether In her own garden or In these odd and mystical cities. Thus she saw the native as he was, not as he later In the day pretended to be, for tbe benefit of the Ferlnghl about to be stretched upon the sacrificial stone. She saw, with gladness, the honey bee thirling the row, the plowman's plow-man's share baring the soil; the morning, morn-ing, the morning, the two or three hours that were nil, all tier own. Her mother wus always Irritable and petulant petu-lant In the morning, and her uncle never daveloped the gift of speech till after luncheon. She had the aame love if prowling that lured Hyanne from The beaten paths. She waa not Inquisitive but curious, and that ready disarming smile of hers opened many a portal. She was balancing upon her gloved palm, thoughtfully, a Soudanese head-trinket, head-trinket, a pendant of twisted gold-wires, gold-wires, flawed emeralds and second pearls, really exquisite and not generally gen-erally to be found outside the expensive expen-sive shops In the European quarters, and there Infrequently. The merchant wanted twenty pounds for It. Fortune shook her head, regretfully. It waa far beyond her means. She sighed. Only once In a grest while she saw something for which her whole heart cried out. This pendant was one of these. "I will give you five pounds for It That Is all I have with me." "Salaam, madame," aald the Jeweler, reaching for tbe pendant. "If you will send It to tbe Hotel Be-mlramls Be-mlramls this afternoon . . ." But she faltered at the sight of the merchant's mer-chant's Incredulous smile. "Ill give you ten for It; not a piastre pias-tre more. I can get one like It In the Sharia Kamel 'for that amount" Both Fortune and tbe merchant turned. "You, Horace?" "Yes, my child. And what are you doing here alone, without a dragoman?" drago-man?" "Oh, I have been through here alone many times. I'm not afraid. Isn't It beautiful? He wants twenty pounds for It, and I cannot afford that." She had not seen him In msny weeks, yet she accepted his sudden appearance ap-pearance without question or surprise. She waa used to hla turning up at unexpected un-expected moments. Of course, she had known that he was In Cairo; where her mother and uncle were this secretive man was generally within calling. There hid been a time.when she bad eagerly plied him with questions, ques-tions, but be had always erected barriers bar-riers of evasion, and finally she ceased 1 her Importunities, for she concluded that her questions were such. No matter mat-ter to whom she turned, there waa no one to answer her questions, questions born of doubt and fear. "Ten pounds," repeated Ryanne, a band In bis pocket. Tbe merchant laughed. Here were a young; man and bis sweetheart. His experience bad taught him, and not unwisely, that love Is an easy victim, too proud to haggle, too generous to bargain sharply. "Twenty," he re-Iterated. re-Iterated. "Salaam!" said Ryanre. 1 "Oood day!" He drew the somewhat resisting resist-ing band of Fortune under bis srm and made for the door. "Sh!" he whispered. whis-pered. "Leave It to me." They gained the street. The merchant was dazed. He had misjudged what be now recognized as sn old hand. The two were turning up another street when he ran out, shouting to them and waving the pendant Ryanne laughed. "Ten pounds. I am a poor man. ef-fcndl. ef-fcndl. and I need the money. Ten pounds. I am giving It away." The merchant's eyes filled with tears, a trick left to him from out of the ruins of his youth, that ready service to Forestall the merited rod. Ryanne counted out ten sovereigns ind put the pendant In Fortune's hand. And the pleasure In his heart a as such as he bad not known in many days. The men bant wisely hur tied back to bis shop. "But . . ." aha began protest-Inrly. protest-Inrly. Tut tut! I have known you since rou wore short dresses and tam-o-ihanters." "I really cannot accept It aa a gift. Let me borrow tbe ten pounds." "And why can't you accept a little lift from me?" She bad no ready answer. She rsxed steadily at the tfull pearls and he flaky emeralds. She could not ask aim where be had got those sever- 'Ixns. She could not possibly be so rruel. She could not dissemble In rords like ber mother. That gold she inew to be a pert of a dishonest bsi- i tain whose forestep had been a tteft i -mors, a sacrilege. Her honesty wss Ike pure gold, unalloyed, unmixed tltn sophistic subterfuges. That the -Ha Will Coma to Ne Harm Physkallyr i a SYNOPSIS. Oeorge rerrlval Algernon Jones, vlce-TraUlnt vlce-TraUlnt of the Metropolitan Oriental itusr company of Nw York, thirsting for romance, Is lit Cairo on a bualneea trip, floret Ityanna ariivaa at the hotel In --. lea with e, carefully euarded bundle. It)" line sells Jones lh famous holy Yhl-wif Yhl-wif rug which lie admit bavins stolen front a puna at Itasdad. Jonva meets Major Callahan and later Is Introduced to Vertuna Chvdsova by s woman to whom fee had loaned 1M) pounds at Monte Carlo Hiia months previously, and who turns axil to ba Fortune's mother. Jones takes Mrs. Chedaoya and Fortune to a polo arame. Portue returns to Jones the sneney borrowed by her mothar. Mrs. Chedaoya appears to ba enaad In soma nyalerlous enterprise unknown to the daughter Ityanna Interests Jonea In the Untied Itotnam-e and Adventure com-(Mtny, com-(Mtny, a concern which for a prlee will irsnsa any kind of an adventura to order. or-der. Mrs. fhadany. her brother. Malor Callahan. Wallace and Ityanna, aa the lUnlted Romance and Adventura eomnany. plan rtsky cnterprle Involving Jna. Ityanna makes known to Mrs. Chedauy hla Intention to marry Fortune. Mra. Chedaoys doclarea she will not permit It. Plana are laid to prevent Jonra aalllns for home. Ryanne steals Jonea' lettera ml cable dlspatrhea. Ha wln-a aint In New Turk. In Jori' nam, that h la rentteg houaa In" New York to aome friends'. Mahomed, keeper of the holy . carpet. Is on Hyanne's trail. CHAPTER VIII. (Continued.) What to do? mused the rogue. On the morrow Mr. Jones would leave for I'ort Ssld. Ryanne shook bis head and with bis cane beat a light tattoo Against the side of bla ahin. Abduc- rtiou waa rather out of bis sphere of I Action. And yet tbe suppression of j fercival was by all odds tbe most Im portant move to be made. He bad volunteered thla service and accomplish accom-plish It be must. In face of all obstacles, obsta-cles, or poof! went the whole droll fabric. For to him It was droll, ami never It rose In bis mind that he did not chuckle saturnlnely. It waa a kind of nightmare where one hung In midair, one's toes just beyond the 'flaming dragon's Jaws. The rewards would be enormous, but tbese he would gladly surrender for tbe supreme su-preme satisfaction of turning the poisoned arrow In tba heart of that ranting hypocrite, that smug church-deacon, church-deacon, the sanctimonious, the sleek, the well fed first born. And poor Per ival Algernon, for no blame of bis own. must be taken by tbe scruff of his neck and thrust bodily Into this tangled web of scheme and unier-cheme. unier-cheme. It was Infinitely humon.us He bad had a vague plan regarding Mahomed, guardian of the Holy Yhl- ordes, but It was not possible for him to b In Cairo at this early date. That be would eventually appear Ryanne nevrf doubted. He knew the Oriental tnlnd. Mahomed-El-Gebel would croas very barrier lees effective than death. It was a serious mstter to the Mos-W-m. If be returned to the palace at Fagdnd, minus tbe rug. it would mean free transportation to the Arabian arulf, bereft of tbe most Important part of bla excel!nt anatomy, bta Head. Some day. If be lived. Ryanne intended telling tbe exploit to some clever rhsp who wrote; It would look rather well In print. To turn Mahomed against Perclval a being the Instigator would be aa adroit bit of work; and It would rid tUm of both of them. CtoeonSa aald i that she wanted no rough work. How like a woman! Here waa a man's game, a desperate one; and Olocon-da, Olocon-da, not forgetting that It waa ber Inspiration, wanted It bandied with gloves! It waa bare band work, and the sooner she waa made to realize this, (he better. It was no time for tuning fiddles. . Mahomed out of It. there was a certain cer-tain English bar In the Quarter Koset-tl, Koset-tl, a place of dubious repute. Many derelicts drifted there In search of employment still more dubious. Dregs, scum; the bottom and tbe top of the kettle; outcasts, whose hand and animus were directed against society: black and brown and white men; not soldiers of fortune, like Ryanne, but their camp followers. In short. It was there (snd Ryanne atlll felt a dull shame of It) that Wallace, carrying the final Instructions of the enterprise, hsd found htm. sleeping off the effects of a shabby rout of the night before. It waa there also that he had beard of the history and tbe worth of the Yhlordes rug and the possibility of its theft. He laughed. To have gone upon an adventure like that, with nothing but the fumes of wine in bis bead! For a few pieces of gold be might enroll under his shady banner three or four shining lights who would undertake un-dertake the dlapossl of Perclval. Not that be wished tbe young man any barm no; but bualness wss business, and In some way or another he must be made to vanish from tbe atght and presence of men for at least two months. As for Msjor Callahan's unforeseen danger, the devil could look out for that. Ryanne consulted bis wstch, a cheap hut trustworthy article, cor.tlng a dollar, dol-lar, not to be considered as an available avail-able asset. He would give It away later In the day; for he had decided that while lie waa In funds there would be wisdom In the purchsse of a fine gold Longlnes A good watch, aa every ev-ery one knows, Is always as easily converted Into cash as a Ixindon banknote, bank-note, providing, of course, one Is lucky enough to possess either. Many watches had he left behind. In this plsce or In thst; and often he had exchanged the ticket for a small bottle with a green neck. Wherever fortune had gone acalnst blm heavily at cards, there be might find his latest watch. And another good Idea, be mused, aa be swung the timepiece Into bis vest pocket, would be to add the splen-dor splen-dor of a small white stone to bis mod-1 est scsrf. There Is only one wall-defined wall-defined precept among the sporting fraternity; when flush, buy Jewelry. Not to the canse of vanity, not at all; but precloua atones and gold watrhea constitute a kind of reserve-fund against the evil dsy. When one baa money In tbe pocket tbe band Is quick and eager to Snd It But Jewelry la protected by a certain quality of caution: It la not too readily passed over bsrs and gamingtables. While the pawnbroker standa between the passion snd the green baize. Utere s food for thought Having settled tbeee questions to his aatlafaetlon. there remained but one other, bow to spend aia time. It would be useless to seek tbe Engllih-Bar Engllih-Bar before ttooa. Might aa well ran-1 "What shall you do If this Mahomed you apeak of comes V "Turn him loose upon eur friend Jones." with a laugh. "And what will be do to bimf "Carry him off to Bagdad and chop off hla hesd." Ryanne Jested. "Tell me. la there any possibility of Mr. Jones coming to harm?" Tan! aay." Her concern for Perclval Percl-val annoyed blm. "la It fair, when he paid you generously?" gen-erously?" . Ha did not look Into the grave eyes Ttey were the only pair that ever di concerted him. "My dear Fortune tra a question which Is the more valuable to me. my skin or Perdval'a "It Isn't falr." "From my point of view va f,r rnough. I warned htm; I told blm tba V "1 aee that after getting; Ferdral Algernon into aa adventure, I've go to cicerone him aafely out of It Wen, I accept tbe responsibility." Soma daya later be waa going to recall thla assurance. "Sometimes ! wonder . . - pea eively. "Wonder about what?" "W"bat manner of man you are." "I ahould bave been a great deal better man bad I met you tea year ' ago." "What? When I . )tfr with f lrTU Intended to ateer him away from thla channel. "You know what I mews." be aa ,wrd. noody and dejected. She opened ber purse and droppe-b droppe-b pendant Into It but did not apeaX TO BE CONTINUED.! |
