| Show THE T E GIFT WIFE 0 9 0 0 0 by B RUPERT HUGHES 0 RUPERT HUGHES ahus SERVICE SYNOPSIS on board the Nord Express with ostend jila 84 b hl hi 8 is immediate bound S for or america americ destination a with will dr him hicls david is alve div ey earold ear old cynthia thatch natcher his tempora rt ward on the trin train they meet bw BIU G a ryea in c former clas classmate of davids david teus teto alnes gaines of his outstanding weakness an overwhelming desire to drink he feels eels the urge uree coming to him again and wants to safeguard the child who Is returning to america with him during a stop gaines leaves the train to buy cynthia cyr this a present the train leaves without him then jebb Us painfully injured in a minor accident A fellow passenger revives him with a drink iraln which makes his desire tor for liquor all the at ronger at the next stop david and cynthia leave the train david begins drink aing the nil next thing he Is conscious of 0 Is a strange S sort ort of chanting ile he looks around dazed and tick sick A door opens and in walks a strange negro closely followed by a woman heavily veiled and dressed in flowing robes she tells him that he Is in that her name Is All minima ruma and that she Is the gift wife ot of the pasha who has another wife and who he Is husband in name only to minima she knows nothing or of the missing child CHATTER CHAPTER ill continued now it if I 1 could have some light wood a cigar box or something to make a splint would thees do minima said pointing to an inlaid yes but its too handsome said jebb her answer was to pick up the low table and smash it on the floor bringing two of the slender legs to jebb and now if I 1 could have some muslin or a long strip of cloth swish she had ripped off yards of her robe and now he said 1 would hanim effendi please hold these boards sol so here and here while hile I 1 bind it all together two hands came out of the cloud and rested right under her eyes in binding the splints together it was necessary for jebb to touch those hands they seemed to singe him like white fire tell him to wear the sling for a week and the splints for two weeks he said as he finished regaining a professional acerbity of tone ask him if he found out anything about the child the question was repeated minima spoke with wonderful gentleness 1 no poor jebb effendi he not the child he is search the all of nobody is see a beetle girl of the franks the franks no no she is an american child all you ingilis and europeans are franks to us briefly he poured out to her his story only he did not tell the cause of the great hiatus in his life he simply said that he became ill he had not the bravery to confess the truth it was the crowning ignominy of his plight that he must stoop to beggary or to starvation he postponed the admission of his penury to the last moment and then postponed it again and the answer to his nauseating apology was that she had known it all the time jaffar finding him unconscious in the street had at her orders undressed him bathed him put him to bed and taken his clothes drenched as they were with rain to dry them in the kitchen and to iron them while the other servants slept jaffar had reported that there was not a thing in all the strangers garments only the usual pocket dust not a not a card not a coin not even a bronze baish para As delicately as might be she strove to put jebb at his ease it shall be pleasure to me to geeve to jebb effendi w what hat I 1 have of money seeing his look of hor she hastened to amend and he shall pay it again when allah sends him breeches once more but jebb put up his hand to check her he could not endure this 1 I have hoort the feeling of J effendi by to offer him of mine she said now allah has chees to me how jebb effendi earn mooch money quebeck and an mooch power and fame tell me in name jebb effendi is ingilis effendi lendi ef no no im not english I 1 an am american beet ees alla alia the same to an jebb effendi is great phee see cian great geon in our country we theena the frank doctors work me eracles of old time one believed that allah sent ness and and she paused in dread ot of the great word which the moslems avoid may he keep tar far from you the the cup cupbearer bearer of the sphere at the promenade today jantine hanim is expected but she corned coined not she says her son her worships son gani bey is in pain most frightful the bey theena somebody is give heem of poison but he is too young to have enemies and he does not die in his pain it if jebb effendi can cure that son the father pays mooch the father is a very rich bey there are no good doctors here jebb effendi could leeve leave in and become most ter reeble tor for reech ness 11 the thought of living in in was not so appalling to jebb jeb b as it would have seemed a few hours before the thought of money was always agreeable 1 I will see this man at once he said it is bad etiquette but I 1 am a m desperate desperate sperate ae I 1 will tell him that 1 I will cure his son I 1 can if anybody abod Y can Mi palms were up in in protest it would never do to go direct to the bey jebb would be treated as a fraud he would not be permitted te d to see the son things were not done in turkey in straight lines the Os manlis like nit nature ture love a curve wh what am I 1 to do then said jebb there is in a large khan a hotel the hotel jebb effendi shall go there and command the best room and wait 1 I can command the room but do I 1 get it I 1 have no money not even baggage of that also I 1 have ked I 1 said the amazing woman you shall say your baggage is bended I 1 to stamboul you stop but for one two days that accounts for the baggage but shall I 1 say that my money was sent on to stamboul too the money that you take from me but jebb put out his hand thank youl you and god bless you hanim liania ef N III 4 0 L a fill 0 A dont 0 o yet remember this is tur ey fendia for your good heart but I 1 you she persisted 1 I dont need it hanim effen dim chave I 1 hava this ring I 1 will pawn it jaffar shall take the greeng she said and breena you mooch more money as you could touch lie he shall say beet ees my greeng it looks a womans comans greeng then a gasp it ees perhaps a greeng some lady dived the effendi no no I 1 bought it myself in cologne and he added with perfect truth it has hag no associations for me whatever with which he twisted it from his finger and held it out to her suddenly a truth stabbed jebb to the heart he saw that this woman for whom he had begun to lo feel a tenderness had begun to feel a jealousy of him the implied prop proprietorship rie did not irritate him it delighted him and the delight was the keener tor for being edged with fear tomorrow morning while yet the effendi is sleep In jaffar shall have goed and corned back with M 4 t h the money I 1 but how can I 1 slip out in the daylight without being seen also that I 1 have ked I 1 tell you tomorrow day for now beet is ver late allah send you the sweetest of sleep dont go he pleaded but she was gathering herself together to stand up he leaped to his feet to help her to rise from a cross legged position is something of a feat it is one 0 of f the few that harem laziness permits rose in air like a lark leaping upward from a meadow but as she stepped forward her foot caught on the hem of her robe she lost her poise swayed would have fallen but jebb had risen from the divan lie he put out his arm her weight was upon him so suddenly that he had no little difficulty with his own equilibrium the recovery of both was a matter of brief and busy delay gave a little cry of alarm at her plight another of dismay at finding herself in a man mans s arms and then she fled soft tooted footed spiritual like a dark cloud trailing along a mountainside lie he put out the lights and groped his way to the window where the moonbeams moon beams beat in and showered the floor CHAPTER IV at the hotel jebb was accepted i on his own lecog recognizance ni zance he found that his english was of no use but his german rusty as it was elicited the good news that there were british austrian and russian consulates in the town ile he made haste to the british building but the albanian kavass on guard informed him in a few broken I 1 english phrases that the consul was ill and was not likely to be well for some days jebb stood irresolute then went to tile the austrian consulate here he was informed that the consul was in conference with his russian confrere and the two governors of the turk and the christian and the affairs of turkey were in in such confusion added to the increasing disorder of the district tr i ct itself that there was little hope of seeing the consul jebb looked so downcast at this that his informant asked tile the nature of his errand and introduced himself as herr xavier franz heller von Hell wald of vienna jebb introduced trod himself as a former student at the university of vienna and the young mellowed immediately dia tely they adjourned to a coffee house for kadene a humble wooden structure with an awning over the walk and cane bottomed stools but what brings you herr doctor yep to this dismal cemetery of an jebb shook his head with a dreary ich weiss and then poured forth in halting german and with halting courage as much of his story as he felt it discreet to divulge that is a problem indeed herr doctor yep now if you knew where you lost the child if I 1 only knew if you knew where you had lost her it would be easier and yet not easy at that if she had disappeared in vienna or berlin or paris we could telegraph and the great engine of the police of europe could be set in motion but we are in turkey and turkey is in revolution nobody knows what will happen tomorrow nobody knows what happened yesterday we only know that constantinople is captured by the revolutionists and that the sultan is prisoner had told jebb nothing of this either she had known little of it or had forgotten it in the stress of more personal events the sultan a prisoner jebb gasped turkey in revolution ion I 1 and the little child lost among these savages what did you say the childs 01 name was cynthia thatcher Tse tat tient it is an name to say bomben granatek Gra naten herr doctor yep if somebody asks the child her name and she tells it nobody will be able to repeat it or to remember it you must help me 1 I will do my all and gladly it will take much money in turkey nobody moves not even the sultan without baksheesh you have much money yes jebb tossed his hands 1 I have a hundred and fifty dollars about six hundred marks you have a difficult problem herr doctor we must see what we can do your passports are in good shape I 1 hope passports I 1 never had any you must have had to ac got t into turkey and you must have had a or you could not have traveled if I 1 had them I 1 lost them and I 1 dont know where were you last did you say in salonica I 1 think all I 1 know is that the train from salonica brought me here Salo salonica 1 bomben granatek Gra naten it is the very home of the revolution everything started there and you have been in salonica without knowing and how did you get there you probably reached there by the railroad from constantinople have you been in constantinople 1 I dont know did you have the child with you in salonica 1 I dont know I 1 may have had I 1 cannot tell Hell wald shook his head in di dismay and exploded his bomben granatek Gra naten in a whisper past the cafe where jebb and hell wall sat pondering flowed the e edd eddying traffic of the street now and then a turk a russian an austrian or a macedonian saluted Hell wald after the manner of his race or station and the austrian answered in kind at length a sound of distant wailing and a hint of doleful chant began to define itself above the clatter the crowd paused and massed to give way to a funeral procession led by bearded priests of the greek church in gorgeous vestments marching slowly and singing the procession turned the corner and disappeared among those who had paused to watch the cortege was a venerable white bearded turk in fez and frock coat he seemed to be deeply touched after the crowd had dispersed he still stood in dejection jec tion Hell wald said to jebb th that at is akef bey one of the leaders of the young turks his eldest son is an officer at the citadel his younger son gan gana bey is very ill and the doctors here can do nothing for him jebb started at the names of akef bey and his son he was about to say that he was waiting to be sought by this very man when he realized the indiscretion of such a remark akef bey saw Hell wald and greeted him with a sad courtesy in a sweeping salute from the brow Hell wald rose saying to jebb excuse me I 1 must ask him how his son is today he went to the old man and questioned him in what jebb assumed to b be turkish akef bey answered with much excitement and vivid gestures of pain and despair Hell wald listened with evident sorrow then he seemed to brighten with an idea he beckoned jebb 1 I have just told akef bey that you are one of the most eminent physicians in america and that I 1 knew you well in vienna when you studied at the greatest of all universities versi ties it is near enough to the truth for a diplomat As he was saying this to jebb the bey was pouring fluent turkish into his other ear Hell wald translated in ui short asides he is asking me if you cannot come to see his son at once dont accept look solemn you are busy you are leaving town the other physicians have tailed failed to help him he says they are ignorant dogs his son cries aloud in agony but dont accept too read readily ily dont go yet remember this is turkey they expect to bargain for everything he is rich you need much money but jebb agreed and on the way they passed a miscellaneous bazaar where a meager supply of drugs was kept for the foreign population there jebb managed to find a large hypodermic needle e and a supply 0 of f tablets which he purchased along with a few of such simples as the ezia hane possessed the home of akef bey was important in large enough to be called a konak TO 70 BE CONTINUED |
