Show THE T GIFT WIFE 0 0 40 by D RUPERT j J C j I 1 st HUGHES J va C 0 RUPERT HUGHES SERVICE CHAPTER IX continued 11 1 1 hafiz mustered energy enough rise I 1 its kind of dark and these streets any too safe for a gimour gia Igia our I 1 walk you said hafiz to the landing place where you catch the golden horn boat all ithe the same as the coney island boat lyes how many tarn tam I 1 gone there iweeta my pretty my pretty dayi i ma she is dance there one sum imer when I 1 sit her some itam tarn those other passengers ers make the face because nacima is the rubbernecks rubber necks is stare two three tarns tams I 1 those rubberneck till they let me alone i here the wants to keel a gimour who dares so much as look at an lady I 1 theena the world is a jackass bine by we goin to come to what you call the lockup lock up yes there is put the thiefs the killers the bad men today is put also in the cooler an girl very nice family but she loves a greek it is terrible cheeng to I 1 love a greek but maybe she dont cant help it she say she goin to marry him the police arrests the greek and the girl also too for it is a great crime such a marrying they take the bad girl and the glamour to the jail and they are goin to bring them to be tried but the how do you say the mob does not like it the mob gets together and says keel the gimour keel the shameless girl bine by some soldiers come and drive the mob away but maybe the mob comes back me I 1 should not to be that girl or that greek feller 11 this was doubly shocking news to jebb for it invaded his own recurrent dreams of they were now descending a silent street whose dogs like prowling hyenas only gave the loneliness a terror out of the silence there rose a sound like waves tumbling on distant shale shaie it was a tumult clamor mystified by distance hafiz listened with lifted head like a rhinoceros sniffing the pir air for danger 64 the mob is there again quebeck Qu eeck and he was running with a speed his bulk had not implied jebb followed stumbling over the refuse in the streets A bonfire had been lighted in the square before the district police sta tion the windows were ragged with broken glass the door hung on a fractured hinge in the square nearer the fire a man and a woman were struggling within a tangle of bloodthirsty fiends who clutched at t them struck at them with clubs and slashed with knives hafiz groaned the mob is get busy see that is the greek that is the girl the crowd boiled and swirled like eddies choked with debris dragged by the lure of h horror arror jebb and hafiz moved slowly down the hill they saw the greek fighting like another leonidas against an asian horde sink under a smother of enemies only to reappear gashed bleeding but fighting on the girls plight was more ugly for she had none of the mad exultance of the death struggle of man against nan man hers was the odium of being torn to pieces and of dying ir in naked shame clutching talons tore her hair hail loose her veil had long since beer been rent away jebb could look no long er he dashed forward and hurled himself into the maelstrom m yelling cursing striking right and left with his fists though he was too frantically desperate to know it alongside went hafiz mustafa bellowing like a bull charging a pack of wolves the men on the outskirts of the throng took the newcomers at first to be only zealots zealous like themselves fighting forward to the always holy office of sticking a knife into an infidel but their progress was too furious to be long misunderstood hafiz and jebb had hardly pierced the outer shell of the mob when the fry cry rose that they were rhems themselves elves infidels to the rescue of infidels and now knives were turned their way and bloodthirsty fanatics ringed them round forgetting for a moment the young lovers who unsupported by their enemies fell to the cobbles to be trampled underfoot the huddle was beginning to mumble threateningly and to brandish fists and knives in hafiz courageous face when the ragged noises were stirred by a noise with a rhythm and regularity to it it meant soldiers without delay the mob stampeded outwards and was dissipated in the dark alleyways when the patrol debouched debauched debou ched on the square the tenuous moonlight showed only two men erect and two figures on the ground one very still one writhing jebb paid no attention to the officers but knelt by the side of the girl whose wounds he examined with a certainty that proclaimed him a physician hafiz interpreted and he soon had the patrol so busy on his errands that it forgot its main purpose after a while of jebbs ministrations the bruised lips began to murmur jebb bent close and heard but could not understand he beckoned hafiz to kneel by him and the wrestler explained she wants to die in her lovers arms but the body of the young greek had been carried away and she died alone slowly with anguish of body of heart and of soul when she was quite dead hafiz murmured to jebb that unless he vanished he would be detailed i IN al bulged into the smoking compartment finitely as a witness in the trials that would result from the riot waiting the proper instant he dragged jebb up a steep street down another and so on and on till they reached the steamer landing but the last boat had gone with some trouble hafiz found a kaik and in this wa ter hansom jebb sped down the golden horn among the slumberous ships he thought of and felt that she was as far from his reach as the crescent still regent in the sky and then he realized th that at he had lost the gladstone bag once more CHAPTER X by the time jebb reached his hotel it was so late and he so exhausted that neither remorse nor anxiety could beat off sleep he woke late the next morning luxuriously refreshed till he realized that he had backslidden back to where he started what little he had found he had lost again he was very glum over his coffee and eggs when there was an eclipse of the light and the huge orb of hafiz mustafa rose before him and with a gelatinous laugh set the gladstone bag on the table jebb threw his arms around the monster as far as they went and cried how in heaven did you find it how in how on earth did you find me hafiz indulged in a little self con im a wise guy all right all right huh As the boat pulls out I 1 see you have not the Gladd astone I 1 go back and I 1 say to myself if he loses it in the square somebody has swipe it if he loses it on the hill where he feerst started to run it may be there I 1 go round and round and finally it is there waiting in a dark street in the middle of the street I 1 remember you say you stop here so here I 1 come so early as I 1 can make it the only return he would accept for his trouble was a cup of coffee there was nothing to keep jebb in constantinople now except the necessity of finding where to go next then he took a closed araba to the offices of the austro hungarian lloyd to inquire when the next boat went the next boat she is just now said a clerk pointing to the steamer already gliding from her mooring there would not be another until the following saturday jebb was tempted to leap overboard and swim after it he was restrained by a realization that he could not swim the next morning sunday he was so desperate that he went to church the episcopal chapel of the british embassy not far from his hotel after the service he sauntered in the park of the petits champs and sat at a table bable to watch the crowds pell melling past he ordered coffee as a payment for his seat suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder it was so unexpected that he jumped as he turned he glanced up into a grin entirely surrounded by red hair he heard a voice which seemed als also 0 to grin it said hello hows electricity here was the answer to a riddle that had vexed him and he was tempted to demand at once who are you and what have I 1 to do with electricity but he had found it more profitable e to 0 listen isten than to disclose all he said was sit down old man and have S something om ething to drink id give a finger for a cocktail but I 1 suppose ill have to take coffee jebb was fermenting with questions but the stranger seemed content to watch the crowd and wait for the to fill his cup finally jebb ventured how do you like constantinople by now oh ive always liked the old town not quite as lively as chicago in some ways livelier in others I 1 suppose you will stir things up a bit perhaps said jebb still baffled funny old town constantinople nearly as big as philadelphia and older than all get out and not an electric light or trolley car in the whole village it is funny change all that eh I 1 suppose youve found the new sultan a little more open to reason than the old not so afraid of his people have you found it hard to get itt at the bosses not very 1 I suppose theres the same hand out for graft here as everywhere else well I 1 had any special trouble in that line said jebb growing weary of fencing you really think pull it off 1 I hope so 1 I dont suppose id dare ask whether you represent the general electric or the independents that would be telling 1 I judged from your talk on the steamer that you were acting pretty much on your own yes was all jebb dared to say his mind taking a new whirl at the word steamer 1 I judged from your talk mr pi pierpont erport that you had enough capital in your jeans to dazzle the city fathers here jebbs heart sickened so this was more of Pier ponts brag 1 I suppose when you go back go by land those austrian lloyd steamers pitch and toss atrociously clou cious sly ly and the franz josef is the worst of them all ive got used to it but you seemed terribly unhappy jebb laughed as much as to confess and the man went on yes when you got on at trieste I 1 said to my wife ill bet that fellow has a sad voyage you looked feed sort of greenery cellery and off your 1 I in the best of health youre au all right now though th ough I 1 judge the effect of a few weeks in constantinople ashes a great old town in spring eh she certainly is by the way did you notice how the little girl giri was what little girl the one I 1 had with me at trieste you have anybody with you I 1 noticed specially be because c ause they were just pulling the gangplank gangola epla in when you jumped for it jebbs heart lurched but he kept a rigid face oh of course the little girl with me at that time have some more coffee no thanks I 1 must get back to the hotel ill be mighty glad when you get your electric plant installed the lighting of this town is something fierce make a fort fortune u ne if rig up a crescent sha shaped ped bulb the favorite design for their illuminations well so long see you again mr pierpont daso so long old man he must learn at once just where trieste was and what was the quickest way of getting there hoping that some word from minima waited him in vienna jebb telegraphed the union bank to forward his mail to the american co consulate n in trieste leaving constantinople the train retraced for many miles the same sam e rails he had taken from salonica it was strangely comforting just to be in motion whatever awaited jebb at his destination at least he had a destination and the swift flight of the express was he breakfasted his way out of bulgaria into servia and prepared to stretch his legs at the next stop it proved to be nish the word came with a shock sending him back to his first wakening in turkey and the first sound of this barbaric word on an ear that found equally harsh and now somehow through the mellow enchantment of memory the word always fell with music on his senses late afternoon brought belgrade on the scene here a new passenger got aboard and bulged into the smoking compartment with the crass aggressiveness of the worst type of traveler he made himself nasally audible he behaved like a crowd whew he began but these foreigners are a pack of damned scoundrels and fools its tip tip tip all day long everywhere you turn theres a palm up youre an american ican too eh jebb nodded my names ludlam charles ludlam how are you said jebb goin far 1 I change at budapest was all jebb answered silence seemed to be intolerable to mr ludlam you get on I 1 constantinople awful colel cant stand the turks serviano ians are bad enough been hunting there those woods are full of bear and wild boar had some great times with em great sport and bully good to eat you eat them jebb exclaimed rather than asked and wanted to add you cannibal you bet but sport is 0 only ny a dion diversion vers with me im interested in the prune market they raise an al A l 1 prune here are you fond of prunes 1 I prescribe them sometimes said jebb oh youre a doctor eh jebb was angry at letting slip even that information 41 great food great medicine he said ive got a sample or two in in my soot case and nothing would do but that jebb should test his wares talk about your undeveloped american resources doctor ludlam rattled on like an encyclopedia that must disgorge its lo 10 load ad the true field for americans is is over here im making a specialty of this country the silk industry for I 1 inand instance they make silk rugs by h hand here im importing machinery building a factory been working mighty hard now im going home for a spell combine business with pleasure going to stop off at munich and see my sister jennie going to surprise her seen her for months and months shell be tickled to death to see me TO BE CONTINUED |