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Show flABOLD JIACCMml m J Author of The Carpe t IromDadaaSf 1 The Place J Honeymoons, efc. A CHAPTER XVII Continued. 11 For a moment the click ot the balls on the other tables was the only sound. raig broke the tableau by reaching for his glass of whisky, which he emptied. He tried to assume a nonchalant non-chalant air, but his hand shook as he replaced the glass on the tabouret. It rolled off to the floor and tinkled into pieces. "Nerves a bit rocky, eh?" Warrington Warring-ton laughed sardonically. "You're screeching in the wrong jungle. Parrot, old top," said Mallow, who, as he did not believe in ghosts, was physically nor morally afraid of anything. "Though, you have my word for it that I'd like to see you lose every cent of your oil fluke." "Don't doubt ft." "But," Mallow went on, "if you're wanting a little argument that doesn't require pencils or voices, why, you're on. You don't object to my friend Craig coming along?" "On the contrary, he'll make a good witness of what happens." "The chit, boy!" Mallow paid the reckoning. "Now, then, come on. Three rickshaws!" he called. The barren plot of ground back of the dock was deserted. 'Warrington jumped from his rickshaw and divested divest-ed himself of his coat and flung his hat beside it. Gleefully as a boy Mallow Mal-low did likewise. Warrington then bade the coolies to move back to the road. "Rounds?" inquired Mallow. "You filthy scoundrel, vou know very well there won't be any rules to this game. Don't you think I know you?" Warrington rolled un his sleeves and was pleased to note the dull color of Mallow's face. He wanted want-ed to rouse the brute in the man, then he would have him at his mercy. "I swore four years ago that I'd make you pay for that night." "You scum!" roared Mallow, "you'll never be a whole man when they carry you away from here." "Wait and see." On the way to the dock Warrington had mapped out his campaign. Fair play from either of these men was not to be entertained for a moment. One was naturally a brute and the other was a coward. They would not hesitate hesi-tate at any means to defeat him. And he knew what defeat would mean at their hands disfigurement, probably. "Will you take a shilling for your fifty quid?" jeered Craig. He was going go-ing to enjoy this, for he had not the least doubt as to the outcome. Mallow Mal-low was without superior in a rough and tumble fight. Warrington did not reply. He walked cautiously toward Mallow. This maneuver brought Craig within rt-ach. It was not a fair blow, but Warrington delivered It without the least compunction. It struck Craig squarely on the jaw. Lightly as a cat Warrington jumped back. Craig's knees doubled under him and he toppled forward on his face. "Now, Mallow, you and I alone, with no one to jump on my back when I'm looking elsewhere!" Mallow, appreciating the trick, swore foully, and rushed. Warrington jabbed with his left and sidestepped. One thing he must do and that was to keep Mallow from getting Into close I quarters. The copra grower was more than his match In the knowledge of tho.se .oriental devices that usually (ripple a man for life. He must wear him down scientifically; he must depend de-pend upon his ring generalship. In his youth Warrington had been a sltll-ful sltll-ful boxer. He could now back this skill with rugged health and a blow that had a hundred and eighty pounds behind it. From ordinary rage Mallow fell Into a frenzy; and frenzy never won a ring battle. Time after time he endeavored endeav-ored to grapple, but always that left fitopped him. Warrington played for his face, and to each jab he added a taunt. "That for the little Singalose!" "Count that one for Wheedon's broken j knees!" "And wouldn't Kan admire i that? Remember hr? The little Japanese Jap-anese girl whose thumbs you broke?" "Here's one for me!" It was not dignified, dig-nified, but Warrington stubbornly refused re-fused to look back upon this day either with shame or regret. Jab jab, j cut and slash! went the left. There J was no more mercy in the mind bark of it than might be found In the sleek ' felines who stalked the jungles north. ! Doggedly Mallow fought on, hoping ! for bis chance, lie tried every trick he knew, but he could only get so near. 'I he ring was as wide as the world ; there wore no cornent to make grappling a possibility. Some of his desperate blows got j Ciroiii'li. The bezel of his ring laid i 0 en Warrington's forehead, lie was I, rave enough, but. he began w, realize that this was not the r.aine man he j had turned out into the night four yearn ago. And the pain and Ignominy Igno-miny be had forced upon others was now being relumed to him Warring ton wouiil have prolonged Ihe battle had lie not seen Craig gelling dizzily to hi feet II was lime to end It. lie feinted w J ft I y Mallow, expecting 11 body lIoh, dinpp-'d hi;i guard. War rington, as he struck, felt the bones in his hand crack. Mallow went over upon his back, fairly lifted off his feet. He was tough; an ordinary man would have died. "I believe that squares accounts," said Warrington, speaking to Craig. "If you hear of me in America, in Europe, Eu-rope, anywhere, keep away from the places where I'm likely to go. Tell him," with an indifferent jerk of his head toward the insensible Mallow, "tell him that I give him that fifty pounds with the greatest good pleasure. pleas-ure. Sorry I can't wait." He trotted back to his rickshaw, wiped the blood from his face, put on his hat and coat, and ordered the respectful re-spectful coolie to hurry back to town. He never saw Mallow or Craig again. The battle itself beoame a hazy incident. inci-dent. In life affairs of this order generally gen-erally have abrupt endings. CHAPTER XVIII. Two Letters. And all that day Elsa had been waiting patiently to hear sounds of Warrington in the next room. Never could she recall such long, weary hours. Time and again she changed a piece of ribbon, a bit of lace, and twice she changed her dress, all for the purpose of making the hours pass more quickly. Whenever Martha approached ap-proached Elsa told her that she wanted nothing, that she was headachy, head-achy, and wanted to be left alone. Discreetly Martha vanished. To prevent the possibility of miss- He Remained Dumb. ing hirn. KIsa had engaged the room boy to loiter about downstairs and to report to her the moment Warrington arrived. The boy came pattering up at a quarter to six. "He come. He downside. I go. he come topside?" "No. That will be all." The following ten minutes tented her patience to the utmost. Presently she heard the banging of a trunk lid. He was there. What was she going to say to him? The trembling that struck at her knees was wholly a new sensation. Presently the tremor died away, but It left her weak. She stepped toward his door and knocked gently on the jamb. She heard something click ns It struck the floor. (It was Warrington's Warring-ton's cutty, which he had carried for seven years, now In smithereens.) She saw a hand, raw knuckled und bleeding slightly, cutch at the curtain and swing it back upon Its rings. "Miss Chetwood?" he said. "Yes . . . Oh, you've been hurt!" she exclaimed, noting the gash upon his forehead. A strip of tissue paper (In lieu of court plaster) lay soaking upon that wound a trick learned In 1 the old days when razors grew dull overnight. "Hurt? Oh, I ran against Homelhlng when I wasn't looking," he explained lamely. Then ho added eagerly: "I did not know that you were on this gallery. First time I've put up at a hotel in years." It did not servo. "You have been fighting! Your hand." lie looked at. the hand dumbly. How keen her eyes were. "Was it . . . Mallow? Did you , . . whip him?" "I diil," imitating her tone and hci'.ilanro. It wm the wisest thing he could have done, for It relaxed re-laxed the nerves of bolh of tlieni. Flua smiled, smiled and forgot the substance of all her rehearsals, forgot the letter oT credit, warm with the heat of her heart, "I am a pagan," she confessed. "And I am a barbarian. I ought lo li'i horribly ashamed of myself." "lint you are not?" For a moment their eyes drew. Hern were like dark whirlpools, and he felt himself drifting helplessly, Irresls!.-Ibly. Irresls!.-Ibly. lie dropped his hands upon the railing and gripped; the Illusion of fighting a current was almost real to him. Every fiber in his body cried out against the struggle. "No, not in the least," he said, looking look-ing toward the sunset. "Fighting is riff-raff business, and I'm only a rlff-raffer rlff-raffer at best." "Rather, aren't you Paul Ellison, brother, twin brother, of the man I said I was going home to marry?" How far away her voice seemed! The throb in his forehead and the dull ache over his heart, where some of the sledge-hammer blows had gone home, he no longer felt. "Don't deny it. It would be useless. Knowing your brother as I do, who could doubt it?" He remained dumb. "I couldn't understand, just simply couldn't. They never told me; in all the years I have known them, in all the years I have partly made their home my own, there was nothing. Not a trinket. Once I saw a camera picture. pic-ture. I know now why Arthur snatched it from my hand. It was you. You were bending over an engineer's tripod. tri-pod. Even now I should have doubted had I not recalled what you said one day on board, that you had built bridges. Arthur couldn't build anything any-thing stronger than an artist's easel. You are Paul Ellison." "I am sorry you found out." "Why?" "Because I wanted to be no more than an incident in your life, just Parrot & Co." "Parrot & Co.!" It was like a caress; but he was too dull to sense it, and she was unconscious uncon-scious of the inflection. The burning sunshine gave to his hair and beard the glistening of ruddy gold. Her imagination, full of unsuspected poetry at this moment, clothed him in the metals of a viking. There were other whirlpools besides those in her eyes, but Elsa did not sense the drifting as he had done. It was insidious. "An Incident," she repeated. "Could I be more?" with sudden fierceness. "Could I be any more in any woman's life? I take myself for what I am, but the world will always take me for what I have done. Yes. I am Paul Ellison, forgotten, I hope, by all those who knew me. Why did you seek me that night? Why did you come into my life to make bitterness bitter-ness become despair? The blackest kind of despair. Elsa Chetwood, Elsa! . . . Well, the consul is right. I am a strong man. I can go out of your life, at least physically. I can say that I love you, and I can add to that good-by!" He wheeled abruptly and went quickly down the gallery, bareheaded, without any destination In his mind, with only one thought, to leave her before he lost the last shreds of his self-control. It was then that Elsa knew her heart. She had spoken truly. She was a pagan for, had he turned and held out his hands, she would have gone to him, gone with him. anywhere in the world, lawfully or unlawfully. Kljsa sang. When Martha came to help her dress for dinner she still sang. It was a wordless song, a melody mel-ody that every human heart contains and which finds expression but once. Elsa loved. Doubt, that arch-enemy of love and faith and hope, doubt had spread Its dark pinions and flown away Into yesterdays. yes-terdays. She felt the zest and exhilaration exhila-ration of a bird Just given Its free- ration of a bird Just given Its freedom. free-dom. Once she slipped from Martha's running hands and ran out upon the gallery. "Elsa, your waist ! " Elsa laughed and held out her bare arms to the faded sky where, but a little while since, the sun had burned a pathway down the world. All In an hour, one small trilling space of time, this wonderful, magical thing had happened. He loved her. There had been hunger for her lu his voice, In his blue eyes. Presently she was going go-ing to make him feel very sorry that he had not taken her In his arms, then and there. "Elsa, what In mercy's name possesses pos-sesses you?" "I am mad, Martha, mad ns a March hare, whatever that Is!" She loved. "People will think so. If they happen hap-pen to come along und see that waist Please come Instantly anil let me finish fin-ish hooking It. You act like you did when you were ten. You never would stand still." "Yes, and I remember how you used to yank my plglails. I haven't really forgiven you yet." "I believe It's koIuk home that's the mailer with you. Well, I for one shall be glad to leave this horrid country. Chinamen everywhere, In your room, at your table, under your feet. And In the streets. Chinamen and Malays and Hindus, and I don't know what other outlandish nicer, and tribes. Why, what's all this?" cried Martha, bonding bond-ing to the floor. Elsa ran back (o the room. She gave a llllle gasp when she saw what It was thai Martha was holding out for her Inspection. II was Warrington's Warring-ton's leller of crcdll. She had totally forgotten lis existence. Martha could not help seeing It. Elsa explained frankly what It was and how It had come Into her possession. Martha was horrified. "Elsa. Ibey might have entered your room; and your Jewels lying about everywhere! How could you be so careless?" "Ilul I hey didn't. I'll return this lo Mr. Warrlnglon In the morning; perhaps per-haps tonight, if I see him at dinner." "lie was In the next, room, anil we never knew It!" The final hook snapped In place. "Well, Wednesday our boat leaven;" as If Ibis put u period lo all further discussion niient Mr Parrot &. Co. Nothing Very Morions Mori-ons could happen between Unit tltno inn now. "Wednesday night." Elsa began to sing again, but not so joyously. The petty things of every-day life were lifting their heads once more, and of necessity she must recognize them. She sat at the consul general's table, informally. There was gay inconsequential inconse-quential chatter, an exchange of recollections rec-ollections and comparisons of cities and countries they had visited at separate sep-arate times; but neither she nor he mentioned the chief subject of their thoughts. She refrained because of a strange yet natural shyness of a woman who has found herself; and he, because from his angle of vision it was best that Warrington should pass out of her .life as suddenly and mysteriously as he had entered it. Had he spoken frankly he would have saved Elsa many a bitter heartache, many a weary day. Warrington was absent, and so were his enemies. If there was any truth in reincarnation Elsa was confident that in the splendid days of Rome she had beaten her pink palms in applause ap-plause of the gladiators. Pagan; 6he was all of that; for she knew that she could have looked upon Mallow's face with more than ordinary interest. Nevermore would her cheeks burn at the recollection of the man's look. In her room, later, she wrote two letters. The one to Arthur covered several pages; the other consisted of a single line. She went down to the office, mailed Arthur's letter and left the note in Warrington's key box. It was not an intentionally cruel letter she had written to the man in America; Amer-ica; but if she had striven toward that effect she could not have achieved It more successfully. She cried out against the way he had treated his brother, the false pride that had hidden hid-den all knowledge of him from her. "I Am Going to My Room." j Where were the charity and mercy of which he had so often preached? Pages of burning reproaches which seared the soul of the man who read them. She did not confide the state of her heart. It was not necessary. The arraignment of the one and the defense de-fense of the other were sutTh iently illuminating. Soundly the happy sleep. She did not hear the removal of Warrington's Warring-ton's luggage at midnight, for It was stealthily done. Neither did she hear the fretful mutter of the bird as his master disturbed his slumbers. Nothing Noth-ing warned lier that he Intended lo spend 'he night on board; that, having hav-ing paid his bill early In the evening, . her pole might have lain in the key j box until the crack of doom, so far ns ! he was likely to know of Its existence. I No augel of pity whispered to her, ! Awake! No dream magic people tell about drew for her the picture of the man she loved, paring up and down the cramped deck of the packet boat, I fighting n battle compared to which that of the afternoon was play. Elsa j slept on, dreamless. I When she rwoke In the morning she ran to the mirror all this fresh 1 beauty she wns going to give to him, ! without condition, without reserva- , Hon, absolutely. She dressed quickly, i singing lowly. Fate makes us the linn- ' plest when she Is about to crush us. Usually Hhe had her breakfast I served III the room, but this morning j she was determined to go downstairs. ! S "o was excited; she brimmed with exuberance; she wanted llotimnco to begin at once. ' "Ctood morning." she greeted the consul general, who was breakfasting alone. "Well, you're an early bird!" he replied. re-plied. Ily the way, our romantic Parrot Par-rot K- Co. have gone." "(lone?" Elsa slnred at him. "Yes. Sailed for Saigon at dawn, and I am rather glad to sen him go. I was afralil he might Interest you too much, (lood heavens. Elsa, what Is the mailer?" "No, no! Don't touch me. I'm not Ihe falnling kind. Did you know last night that ho was going?" "Yes." "I shall nover forgive you. Never, never! You knew and did not tell me. Do yen know who Paul fllllsim Is? lie In Ihe brother of (Nn man at home. You knew he was Mealing away and did not toll mo." She could not luwo made Uin truth any plainer to him. lie r..it hack in his chair, stunned, voiceless. "I inn going to my room," she said. "Do mil follow. I'leasq net as If 110H1. lug had happened." (Til UK I'ONTINrKli.i |