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Show fiAROLD MACGMmf ) Auf hor f The Garpc t R-omE)ada'l 1 he Place 3" Honeymoons, etc. SYNOPSIS. 2 XVni riiirton. nn A tliei'li-n 11 Hit vent u lor. ftnd .l:iri!i s hip servant, Willi :i cai'il parrot, par-rot, the trio known up niul ('own 1 tu lr-rawaOily lr-rawaOily ns Piirrnl & ro., trr. ii'l atom; I Mo i In I lie luiullne-, hound for K:ini)t)i In cash a ilr.ifl for tiiHl.iloO rupees. ls:i ihetwooil, rieh American girl tourist, sees Wii rrlnguni uiinif aboard the boat al tin1 landing. CHAPTER II Continued. lie eyed lier, mildly surprised "Oil. lie puzzles us all u '.lit. you know. Well odueated; somewhere back a gentle-man; gentle-man; from Hie States. Of course I don't know: something shady, probably. proba-bly. They don't tramp about like this otherwise. Kor all that, he's rather a decent sort; no bounder like this roller rol-ler we left at Mandalay. He never talks about himself. 1 fancy he's lo. e-some e-some again. " "Lonesome?" "It's the way, you know. These lior beggars drop aboard for the night, merely to see a white woman again, to hear decent English, to dress and dine like a human being.' They disappear the next day, and often we never see them again." "What do they do?" The question came to her lips mechanically. "Paddy-fields. White men are needed to oversee them. And then, there's the railway, and there's the new oil country north of Prome. You'll see the wells tomorrow. Rather fancy this Warrington chap has been working along the new pipe line. They're running run-ning them down to Rangoon. If he's with us tomorrow, I'll have him put the parrot through its turns An amusing little beggar." "Why not introduce him to me?" "Beg pardon?" "I'll take 11 the responsibility. It's a whim." "Well, you American girls are the eighth wonder of the world " The purser was distinctly annoyed. "An 1 It may be an impertinence ou my part, but I never yet saw an American woman who would accept advice or act upon it." "Thanks. What would you advise?" with dangerous sweetness. "Not to meet this man. It's irregular. irregu-lar. I know nothing about him. If you had a father or a brothtr on board. . . ." "O: even z husband!" lai.ghing. "There you ore!" resignedly. "You laugh. You women go everywhere, and half the time unprotected." "Never quite unprotected We never venture beyond the call of gentlemen." gentle-men." "That is true," brightening. "You Insist In-sist ou meeting this chap?" "I do not insist; only. I am bored, and he might interest me for ai hour " tihe added: "Hesidis, he may annoy the others." The purser grinned reluctantly. "You and the colonel don't get on. Well. I'll Introduce this chip at dinner. din-ner. If 1 don't. . . ." "I am fully capable of peaking to !ii;n without any introduction whatever." what-ever." She laughed again "It w ill be very kind of you." When lie hr.d gone she mused over this Impulse so alien to hei character. An absolute stranger, a man with a jttst, perhaps a fugitive from justice; and because, he looked like Arthur Kllison. she war. seeking his acquaintance. acquaint-ance. Something, then, could break through her rese ve and aloofness? i-ihe had traveled from San Francisco to Colombo, unattended save by an elderly maiden who had risen by gradual grad-ual stages f.om nurse to companion, but who could not be made to remember remem-ber that jhe was no longer a nurse In all these four months Klsa had not made half a dozen acquaintances, and of these she had not sought ore Yet. nlie was asking to meet a stranger whi se only recommendation was u singular sin-gular likeness to another m:;n. The purser was right. It aa very irregular. irregu-lar. "Parrot & Co.!" she murmured She HCarched among the phantoms moving to and fro ipon the ledge; hut the man with the rage was gone It was really uncanny. Illsa. Chetwood was twenty-live, lithcly built, outwardly reposeful, but dynamic within Kducal ion, environment environ-ment and breeding had somewhat smothered the. g.owlim files. She was ii tie of the ancient repression of woman, w hich finds Its except io:: i In the Atpaslax Helens and t'le.i-palms t'le.i-palms of logon I and history In fo .-tures .-tures .'lie looked ex'rtly what she was. will('e ;w,r wellborn I'.eauty she ni t. i . ! ii.it It . as ' he cold I emu v of none ' " ml '-r ni;;hts It compelled inline i inn r.lher than Invited It Spit ilually, Kl was asleep The fire v. ii'l there, the gift of loving greatly, only it smoldered, without radiating even the knowledge: of Its pronoun .Men lovi d her, but In awe. as one loves the innrhlei of I'Milnei She knew mi restraint, mid yet .-.he hail pa.;ed through her iitiiie;,s yiis re nii.-iliied Her Independence was In herciit ami not acquired She had laid down fcrlnl.i Ni for hen elf follow fol-low ; and that tin often t la::hecl w 1 1 Ii the laws of convention, w hh h are fet ,l t.i tho;io V. ho divide Holioty ln'o Him e .i i ... ii. mil) mildly ainiim d her. Right from wrong she knew, and that sulliced her. Her immediate relatives were dead; those who were distantly related remained re-mained so. a they had no part in her life nor she in theirs From her father she had inherited a remarkable and seldom errant judgment. To her. faces were generally book covers, they repelled re-pelled or attracted: and she found large and undiminishing interest In the faculty of pressing back the covers cov-ers and leading the text Often battered bat-tered covers held treasures, and often the editions de luxe were swindles. Hut ill between the battered covers and the exquisite Florentine hmdtool-ing hmdtool-ing there ranged a row of mediocre books; and it was among these that Elsa found that her instinct was not wholly infallible, as will he seen. Today she was facing the first problem prob-lem of her young life, epochal. She was, as it were, to stop and begin life anew. And she didn't know, she wasn't sure. There were few passengers aboard. There were three fussy old English maidens under the protectio i of a still fussier old colonel. The quartet greatly amused Elsa. Their nods were abrupt, and they spoke in the most formal manner. She was under grave suspicion; in the first place, she was traveling alone in the second place, she was an American. At table there was generally a desultory conversation and many a b..rb of malice Eisa shot from her bow Figuratively, the colonel colo-nel walked about like a porcupine, bristling with arrows instead of quills. Elsa could litre shouted at times, for the old war dog was perfectly oblivious. obliv-ious. There was. besides, the inevitable inevi-table German tourist, who shelled win questions every man "..u vore brasj buttons, until there was so.ne serious talk of dropping him astern some day. He had shelled the colonel, but that gentleman was snugly incased In the finest and most impenetrable Bessemer, Besse-mer, complacency. I'pon these Irrawaddy boats the purser is usually the master of ceremonies cere-monies in the dining saloon. Elsa usually sat at the purser's right, and tonight che found the stranger sitting sit-ting quietly at her side. The chair had been vacant since tK departure from Mandalay. Evidently the purser had decided to h thorough in regard to her wishes. It would look less conspicuous con-spicuous to make the Introduction In this manner. And she wanted to meet this man who had almost made her cry out in astonishment. "Miss Chetwood. Mr. Warrington." This was as far as the purser would unbend. The colonel's eyes poppied; the hands of the three maidens fluttered Warrington bowed awkwardly, for ho was decidedly confused. "Ha!" boomed the German. "Vat do you tin k uff . . ." And from soup to coffee Warrington eluded, dodged, stepped under and ran around the fusillr le of questions. Elsa laughed oftly. There were breathing spells, . be sure. I'nder the cover of this verbal bombard ment she found time to inspect the I - - . . "Parrot & Co!" She Murmured. stranger. The likeness, ho cloi.e at hand, stalled a ringing In her ears and a flutter In her throat. It was alums! al-ums! unbelievable lie was bigger, te iiniler, his e. es were keener, hut there was only one real dl fTet i-nce : i!iii; man was iui'i:ei, whereas Arthur was eletriint. It was ail If nature had fakcti two forms from the same mold, and had finished hut one of them. Ilia voii o was mi unpleasant, but there were little sharp points of harshness ill it. due quite possibly lo the dual. "I alnO'Nilrll I n I n, i " t nil In (hat little parrot oT oiiih 1 have heanl nhniil him " "lib' I tuppnse you've heard what they call us?" IIIh cjen looked straight Into hers, smilingly "I'airot t Co '.' Vi s Will you show 111 III Off tOlllOl I'OW ?" "I shall he very l py to " 1'ul all the wlille L'' was puzzling over the parser's unaccei.iitalile action in deliberately introducing him to this brown-eyed. golden-skinned young woman. Never before had such a thing occurred ujxin these boats True, he had occasionally been spoken to; an idle question Hung at him. like a bare bone to a dog. If Hung by an Englishman, he answered it courteously, courte-ously, and subsided. He had been snubbed too many times not to have learned this lesson. It never entered his head that the introduction might have been brought about by the girl's interest lie was too inoslally shy of women to conceive of such a possibility. possibil-ity. So his gratitude was extended to j the purser, who. on his side, regretted i his good-natured recommendations of the pre ions hour. j When Elsa learned that the man at her side was lo proceed to Rangoon, she ceased to ask him any more questions ques-tions She preferred to read her books slowly. Once, while he was engaging en-gaging the purser, her glance ran over his clothes She instanly berated her impulsive criticism us a bit of downright caddishness Tile lapels of the coat were shiny; the winged collar col-lar gave evidence of having gone to the native laundry oik e too often, and the cuff buttons were of ordinary rupee silver. The ensemble suggested that since the purchase of these habili- fl I Blinking and Muttering, the Bird Per- formed His Tricks. I merits of civilization the man had I grown, expanded. j Immediately after dinner she retired j to her stateroom, conscious that her balance needed readjusting. She hud heard and read much lore concerning reincarnation, skeptically; yet here, within call of her voice, was Arthur, not tho shadow of a substance, but Arthur, shorn of his elegance, his soft, lazy voice, bis half-dreaming eyes, his charming Indolence. Why should this man's path cross hers, out of all the millions that ran parallel'.' ; She opened her w Indow and look' d up at the stars uk-ain. She wondered I what this man had done to put him beyond the pule It was not possible , that dishonor lurked behind those frank b!ue eyes. She turned tiniu the t window and threw open one of her kit-bags, delved among the sett fab- i I rics and silks and produced a photo-graph. photo-graph. She hail not glanced at it dm-lug dm-lug all these weeks. There bad been a purpose back of this npiareiit neglect. neg-lect. The very thing she dr ailed hap- pened. Her pulse beat on. ewnly. uti- j stirred She was a failure. ' In the photograph the man's beard was trimmed Valois; the beard of the man who had sat next to her at di:.ner j had grown freely and naturally, lull. Such a beard was out of fashion, save among country doctors It si:nitied carelessness. Indifference, er a full lite wherein the niceties of the razor had of necessity been Ignored. Keenly ' she searched the familiar likeness What an amazing freak of nature! It was unreal. She tossed the photograph photo-graph back Into the Kit bag. bewildered, bewil-dered, uneasy. Meantime Warrington followed the purser Into his otllce. ' I haven't paid for my stateroom yet," he said. "I'll make It out at once Rangoon. I understand ?" "Yes But I'm In a dilhculty. I have nothing In change hut two rupees" The purser froze visibly The tale was trite In his ears "But I fancy I've rather good security securi-ty to offer." wenl on Warrington coolly. cool-ly. He drew from bis wallet a folded sli)) of paper and spread It out The purser stan d nt It. enchants I Warrington stared down at the pnrM-r. equally enchanted "By .love!" the former gasped final Iv "And so oure the chap whoa been holding up the oil syndicate all these months.' And onio the chap who made them come to tin- bally ' landing Ihree days ago'."' It was al I oget her a new tut i r uhn looked up. "Twenty tlioiiiiii.d pounds nl'iiiit. and only two mpees in lour I icket ' Well, w ell , it taki s the East lii howl a man over like this A cerlllled check on the Bank ot Burma needs no fllllller teeouilm mlation In the wonhi of your count i yinon, go as far as you like You can pay me in ItaliKooil Your boy lakes dm k pas "Yes." ret liming the c hei k to tin wallet. "Now, sll down and ipln the yarn II must he Jolly llifei ( sling " "I'll admit Unit II has I n a Inogh nlrurile; hut I knew that I had the oil. I Veil Hal broke for n Is; I lad to borrow nty ho n h,ivIii:m for food and idioltcr. Well, this Is the way II runs." Warrington told u sin.pi. a.- I if it were a great joke. I "Rippin'! By .love, you Americans are hard customers to put. over. I sup pose you'll be setting out for the States at once?" w ith a curious glance "I haven't made any plans yet," eyeing eye-ing the cheroot thoughtfully. "i see." The purser nodded. It was not dilliciilt to understand "Well, good luck to you w herever you go." Alone in his stateroom Warrington look out Rajah and lossed him on the counterpane of the bed. "Now. then, old sport!" tapping the parrot on the back with Ihe perch j w hich he used as a baton. Blinking ; and muttering, the bird performed his tricks, and was duly rewarded and re-j re-j turned to his home of iron. "She'll be wanting to take you home with her. hut you're not for sale." lie then opened his window and leaned against Ihe sill, looking up al the stars. But. unlike the girl, he did not ask any questions. "Free!" he said softly. CHAPTER III. The Weak Link. The day began white and chill, for February nights and mornings are not particularly comfortable on the Irrawaddy. Ir-rawaddy. The boat sped down the river, smoothlv and noiselessly. For all that the sun shone, the shore lines were still black. There were a hundred hun-dred or more natives squatting in groups on the deck. They were wrapped in ragged shawls, cotton rugs of many colors, and woolen blankets, and their turbans were as bright and colorful as a Holland tulip-bed. Some of them were smoking long pipes and using their lists as mouthpieces; others oth-ers were scrubbing their teeth with short sticks of fibrous wood; and still others were eating rice and curry out of little brown copper pots. There were very few Burmese among them. They were Hindus from central and southern India, with a scattering of Cingalese. Whenever a Hindu gets together a few rupees, he travels. The past is the past, tomorrow is tomorrow, tomor-row, but today is today: he lives and works and travels, prisoner to this j creed. Elsa never strolled among them. She was dainty. She stood framed in the doorway, a picture rare indeed to the dark eyes that sped their frank glances in her direction. Upon a bench, backed against the partition, almost within touch of her i hand, sat the man Warrington and his servant, arguing over their accounts. The former's battered helmet was tilted at a comfortable angle and an j ancient cutty hung pendent from his teeth, an idle wisp of smoke hovering over the blackened bowl. Elsa quietly returned to her chair in the bow and tried to become interested in a novel. By and by the book slipped from her lingers to her lap. and her e es closed. But not for long. She heard the rasp of a c:mp-slool being draw n tow ard her. "Shouldn't have disturbed you." said I the purser, apologetically, "but your orders were that whenever I had an interesting story about tho life over here. I was to tell it to you instantly, j Ami (his one is just rippin'!" "Begin." hald Elsa. She sat up and threw- hai k her cloak, for it was now 'growing warm. "Its about Parrot & i Co . I'm sure." , "It's better than any story ou'U r ad in a month of Sundays. Our man 1 has just turned the trick, as you Anier-' Anier-' leans say, for twenty thousand pounds " J " by. that Is a fortune!" - "For some of us, yes. You see. 'whatever he was in the jast. It was something worth while, I fancy En-gineering. En-gineering. possibly. Knew his geology I and all that. Been wondering for ' mouths what kept him hanging around j this bally old river. Seems he found oil. borrowed the savings of his serv-j serv-j ai.t and bought up some land on the j line of the new discoveries. Then hi' I waited for the syndicate to buy. They I ignored him. They didn't send any lone even to Investigate his claim J Stupid, rather After a while, he went ! to them, at Proine, at Rangoon. They thought they knew his kind Ten thousand rupees was all he asked ! They laughed The next time he i wanted u hundred thousand. They laughed again. Then he left for the teak loresls. lie had lo live. He came back In four months. In the , meantime they had secretly lnvestl-I lnvestl-I gated They offered him fifty thou I sand lie u-ughed He wanted two j hundred thousand They advised hi in 1 to laise cocoanuls What do you sup pose he did thorn?" "Cot some other persons Interested." "Right o' Some Americans In Rangoon said they'd take it over foi two hundred thousand. Something ' i, bo ii t Ihe deal got Into the newspapers , The Aineiii'iin oil men sent over n represeutativ That settled Ihe syndicate syn-dicate What they could have orlgl iialh purchased for ten thousand they ! . id I bi ce hundred thousand " "Splendid"' cried Elsa. clapping her h, nils She cnilii see It all. tile quiet initiation of tile man. the penury ,il I ne leai. .ears, his belief In hlmscll' j and in whai he had found, and the ills Interested loyalty or the set , ant. "Sometimes I wish I were a man and colli 1 (hi things like that." Recollect thai landing Inst nlghl?" Elsa's gesliue signified that she wan glad lo he miles to the south of It. i ri'i i UK ri iN'i'i r km ) |