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Show t t: I vr- .. --i- - theS Lr; o Q E O M " . C0PYR1&HT 1933 bvBRENTANOS INC. BY ApTljUR, D. t'r CCPVRIOHT 1922 THE RIDOEWAY C0 HOVVDE N SMITH to se. On one side the porticos fringed a blank wall, evidently belonging be-longing to the adjoining property. I abandoned my Investigations b';-causel b';-causel gathered from the tones ot tbei) voices that Nikka was having an argument with Kara. When I came up to them, Nikka was offering hei Watkins' watch; but she dashed it to the pavement, burst into tears and fled back the way we had come. "What have you been doing, Lothario?" Lotha-rio?" 1 demanded in French. Nikka looked very unhappy. "She wanted me to kiss her." Nik-kn's Nik-kn's discomfort was heart-warming. "She doesn't know any better, Jack I've seen her kind before nt least, nore as bright as she or quite a pretty; but the same kind of untamed wildcats. We gypsies spoil our women if they have any spirit. And she Well, you could see for yourselt. She has been brought up in this atmns phere. Crime is an art with her. She looks upon n clever robbery as you do on a goiid job uf architecture. She lias lived wiih men ever since be left her mother's arms. She doesn't know what it means to be refused anything. She she's all right, you know." "1 know she's the prettiest savage' creature I've ever seen," I returned dryly. "Since she Is the first, however, how-ever, that may not mean much, You seem to he very anxious to explain her savagery, my friend. Why didn't you kiss her?" Nikka picked up the watch and examined ex-amined the broken crystal. "1 don't think we'd better stay here," lie answered vaguely. "Women's "Wom-en's quarters, and all that sort of thing. EIullo, here's Tokalji, now 1" The gypsy chief stalked out of the atrium. "What have you been doing to the girl?" be growled. "1 wouldn't kiss her," said Nikka with a sudden grin. Tokalji's bearded face was cracked by a burst of gargoyle laughter. "i'ou are a wise one! I said so! 1 know men, I, Beran Tokalji ! Rut bark you," and his tone took on an edge, "be careful with her. She is all I have, and I give her to no man 1 do not know. You come in out of the street, whoever you are. Prove yourself, your-self, and I can make much of you. But the young men stay out of this house. I want no troubles over women In the tribe. Remember that, you two." To Be Continued V' CHAPTER VIII Continued. Xj. TTaTa waved her hand about the 'tinmber. Sf "Here or above, whichever you say, rl'ae announced to us. "These are the S&iarters "f the y,lnS nien-" yZ"Mny we look above?" asked Nikka, N&faxious to seize this opportunity to .Vjplore. V. Her answer was to dance up the n.:.airs she seldom walked or did any- Viing slowly. StVWe followed her. There was a cental cen-tal corridor, and from it opened vari-r3!js vari-r3!js rooms, some of them crammed hhih all manner of goods, valuable 'oi'tgs, bric-a-brac, cloths, and frequent- r, the veriest junk. "Deran stores plunder here, as you v&in see," she said. "The other rooms $'-e empty. The young men prefer to jVfeep all together where they can icntch one another." JtyV'What Is good enough for them is Viiod enough for us," Nikka decided. .,?ut is there no more to see? I .fought the building ran around by JOe water." ?f"Tliere Is no connection," she re-"The re-"The building over the water v-just a storehouse. We are a great V?iil)C, and Beran has agents everywhere. every-where. Never a day goes by that plun- !ir does not come In, and we store it litil there is opportunity to dispose it." "lie is a masler thief," agreed Nik-i, Nik-i, "So we had heard. But where do ' u live, maiden?" Her face glowed rosily with satis-, satis-, ction at this first evidence of his . Herest in herself. (""Across the court," she answered. 'r'.ome and you shall see." j' (We descended the stairs into the big k 11 on the ground floor, where the jA-ee hags had crouched again before t'J fire, and crossed the courtyard to ( 3 building opposite on the right of Aji entrance. Immediately above the ; or on a panel let into the wall ! (.s carved n representation of a bull, '(id lowered and in act of charge. ',yooUed at Nikka, and his eyes met :ne with a warning glance to say j'J thing. It was a good thing that my 'A owledge of gypsy dialect was I ?tchy, for had I been able to, 1 be- ve I should have exclaimed over this j !t clew and n I tempted to probe our I jldc's knowledge of it. iKara never gave the sculpture a i Jmce; it meant nothing to her. She x'koned us Inside the door. Here Ajs a spacious, pillared hall, triple-wiled triple-wiled like a small church, its battered yVlvcment showing traces here and (Ve of the gorgeous mosaics which rfjjce had floored it. (v'These are the quarters of the mar-yrd mar-yrd people," explained Kara. "Beran 't;eps here. The others upstairs." "v.'And you?" asked Nikka. S'Oh, I live where I choose, but most .H nil I like my garden." A'Ynur garden? Where is there a KrVI will show you, Glorgl Bordu." iw'xnra crossed the room and opened TjTOlher door. This led to a pillared rllco, and I gasped in wonder nt the fcpoer loveliness of this morsel of im-I'yzntuium, im-I'yzntuium, buried in the frowsy es of StnmhoHl. There was a tan-tv'd tan-tv'd slrcich of garden, weed-grown, corn-so, nml two jade green cedars j-H lifted their heads In isolated .iesly. Around the four sides ran ' Portico, although In two places Hie liirs lind collapsed nd the wreck-L'f wreck-L'f of the roof strewed the ground. 'At Iho gem of the Pit0(, was lhe foun. in the center, n lion rearing back Cf his bind logs with n broken spear v, his chest. From the open inoulb Jvired a stream of water that tell p-P a stonp-riiiiniPd pool. 'heti 1 recovered from the bewllder-M.Vnt bewllder-M.Vnt inspired Uy the unexpected charm Stlie picture, and realized for the ' frk-t time what It meant. The bull jT'vo the entrance door, the hall, (lie iV1r. the marks of heavy hinges at Its t when- a mile In,, nmlJ, nn nU.wn Ba"'0 0,li Ionian architecture; the idcn-by Jove, even the cedars I y. (.anion ot uu. Cedars; and the :-"(:.,., of l.ion! It was exactly 1 (VtluMirst IH...I, h.ul dosa.iheil it lu ?. '",sini; ''''If of Iho Instructions we had found, dus my lingers into Nikka's arm cs. yes." ,e said quietlv i Eng. S '- I soc It. too. But do not let "elf seem excited." (voluntarily 1 repeated to n,vsC!l 'ft, '''.,n'',,ullns sentences of the In-j.,".'""ls In-j.,".'""ls wllk''' we had nil memo Ii.'i.i the rontor of ,hG Fmin,,lin LL four p;,cos wcst t0W!m, (he " num. Then walk three paces nrc... Urf00t is 0 rcd st,1De e" 1 TT f the Fountain-where that ,)0? The p()0l glreu.he(1 o o ,h as we stood in front ot ,,,rlu'" ''' 'inly. then, t, was In |
