Show woal ID 0 0 Is 0 I 1 by RUPERT HUGHES 0 RUPERT HUGHES SERVICE I 1 CHAPTER XV continued 15 one day the Po godins came home with a child they said they the had adopted her that evening while mr was at the folies caprice seeing a musical work the Po godins had made haste to pack up their belongings and ship them to the station mr being away from home did not learn which of the stations they went to and from in answer to jebbs frantic demands for a guess as to the probable destination of the couple mr pulled out oui a business card the duplicate of the one jebb already had mr was in business both in paris and in warsaw he had not done well in pest 1 I am sure you find them in paris or in warsaw if maybe they aint gone to some other place to come to this Y shaped trail and realize that whichever way he took he would wish he had taken the other and that every day of delay increased the difficulty and blurred the track was maddening to jebb he gave the money for Cynt hias little destructions and got rid of him with curt phrases when jebb reached vienna the next morning and went into the breakfast room he found waiting for him her face was luminous with welcome but it turned gloomy as she cried you deed not the cynthia child alanl amaril aman he told the story briefly hastily explained his new dilemma she solved it in one instant leesten beesten Le esten do you speak polish or Mos govian he shook his head then she ran on eyes flashing with delight over her scheme 1 I art arft cherkes born and I 1 learn some russian as child before I 1 am taked to turkey but leesten beesten le esten you shall go to paris and look and I 1 shall go to warsaw the one who finds the child feerst telegraphs the other I 1 bet you I 1 gone to find her the sheker buli the sugar lump feerst what you bet by this time the met in the breakfast room and came over to their table the story and the scheme told all over again enraptured sister jennie and even opened the fat eyes of brother charles As a much traveled woman sister jennie scoffed at the idea of any difficulty in Mi way brother charles volunteered to get the passport from the american consul in vienna an hour later he came back with it boastfully it everybody that could have got this he said 1 I had presence of mind enough to realize that if I 1 said mme ame manghir was a turkish lady be all sorts of red tape so I 1 said she was an american well she is by intention said sister jennie blushed and jebb sighed the warsaw train left at noon and required seventeen hours for the journey jebbs train to paris took twenty seven hours and he was weary of globe trotting there was so little time to get aboard her train and there were so many instructions to g give ive her that leisure was left to talk of nothing else and jebb was sadly glad of this it saved him from the torment of restraining his words word s of adoration jebbs mood was funereal when he returned to his hotel in his absence the had decided to go to paris by the same train a conspiracy hatched by sister jennie to console him when dinner was finished sister jennie told charles to go to the smoking compartment and stay there and she asked jebb to come back after the expiration of one cigar As soon as he had accomplished his cigar he wandered back to sister jennie then she unfolded her plan when I 1 first saw you in vienna the other day and thought you were very rich I 1 told you I 1 wanted more of your help you remember jebb smiled now that I 1 find you are not an idle millionaire but a keen and brilliant surgeon oh dont lift your hand it gives you away as a surgeon and has told me of your miracles in wherever it was 1 I spoke to you of my poor brother wentworth before I 1 die I 1 want to see a memorial of that beautiful soul cursed through no fault of his own by an inheritance from poor ancestors that had heaven knows what sorrows or failure to drive them to despair my poor dear brother was started wrong he could never hope to be what he ought to have been so I 1 thought that a hospital for correcting the malformations and the inherited handicaps of little children would be good a memorial for poor wentworth as I 1 could find and I 1 wanted a large part of its work to be experimental I 1 want it to keep investigating finding new methods pushing into the dark you understand dont you about all I 1 understand in this world miss ludlam jebb exclaimed with unusual fervor for him my religion and the closest I 1 can come to a prayer is an operation and as for experimenting its the crying need of the world miss ludlam if only a man could have a lot more money to spend and all his time to devote to exploring experimental surgery leisure was left to talk of nothing else is the new world its unbounded undreamed of why my god its excuse me he collapsed in full flight ashamed of his own excitement but sister jennie cried dont mind me im used to charlie I 1 love to hear you swear it shows you have the frenzy that a man needs to be great you are the man I 1 need to help me found this memorial it must be just a little different from those that are already established it must but you know so much better than I 1 do what is needed wont you please please take charge of it for me jebb almost fainted at this gift so great he had never even dreamed of it they talked till the porter informed them that the whole car was complaining when the train at last reached paris the wentworth ludlam memorial hospital and experimental station was pretty well talked out and a good deal of it was mapped on paper the first place jebb sought in paris was the office of the machines a ecaire flaubert the president and his son received him and recognized the name of nikolai with contrasting feelings the younger member of the firm laughed the elder swore mr they said had been their agent but his interest in the race race tracks of various capitals had mixed up his accounts so that they had regretfully erased him from their rolls the Flau berts promised jebb any information in their power but they doubted if were in warsaw or that he would remain anywhere long CHAPTER XVI jebb went back to his hotel to tell sister jennie that he resigned his stewardship in her great project he must set out on a dismal journey to poland but sister jennie was not to be found she was shopping in the rue de la paix he went to his own room and was dismally flinging his things into his suitcase when a telegram was brought to his door VE ARR NORD EXPRESS JOOST RUSSIANS BORDERS VE ARRIVAL IN PARIS DAY AFTER TWO MORROW IS GOOD AND SENS LOAF TO through this fog of misspelled words a blast of sunlight came that almost smote jebb saul wise to the floor it seemed intolerably long to jebb before the returned to the hotel and when they came in they were fagged bagged with shopping the telegram acted like an elixir of new life but the true laggard liness of time was felt only when jebb tried to live out the day and a half between him and Mi return he spent a large portion of the time writing and rewriting a cablegram to mrs thatcher this was not easy for he must inform her that her child was alive and well and on the way home that her husbands good name was rescued and documented and that the poor faithful soul had lp left ft an invention which a prominent manufacturer charles ludlam Lud larn had inspected and would place on the market for her on a royalty basis with a guarantee of a good income for life when the nord express pulled in at the station jebb ran through the cars searching cynthia dawdling in the corridor as before saw him first and set up a shriek the childs first distinguishable speech was oh bunkie dave you never told me what the had in the dhoot cathe he his little daughter bridghet Brid thet and before anything else could be told jebb had to ransack his excited brain for a catalogue of gifts that would have foundered the reindeers rein deers of santa claus himself and after this cynthia must tell her her own adventures with the pogo dins and she must show off the russian she had learned and the polish words and what a nice woman mme ame was though not half so nice as aunt in fact there was no silencing the child till fatigue put her to sleep or at least they supposed she was asleep and now hanim effen dim biru ma tell me how you managed to find her you wonderful angelic he stopped shott short on the brink of a plunge oh beet ees such a long story they were not hard to find the po godins but they refuse to geeve up the baby they say she is their own w n and they defy me to proof she is is who is in america so I 1 go away much af raided but I 1 come back and wait in the street not till next morning cynthia comes out alone to play and I 1 her from the stealers steamers ste alers oh how I 1 runal from the depths of his soul jebb sighed it seemed impossible to keep his love secret any longer he had no right to deny her that tribute it was her privilege to know that he loved her enough to relinquish her for her own sake and then with much hesitation his mouth full of the ashes of confession fes sion he began to tell her of his other self do not tell it me she said it boorts you and I 1 know it all many days seester beester jennie tells it and it makes me such joy to theena that you have been shrinking from me not because you did hated me but because you did loved me all chees thees long time then you understand why I 1 kept silent yes and why I 1 can never ask you to be my my wife no leesten beesten Le esten jebb Effen Effend dim irn you theena you have another se self lf that you cannot keel I 1 theena you can the help of allah and my love to make you a home even if you cannot keel that pierpont still when you are that man I 1 could keep you close take care of you save you from to run allover the world and perhaps some day be made dead in some marrible tar place if I 1 should be your wife I 1 should guard you and when the long se eckness was over you should wake back yourself to in your own home and in my arms always then soon I 1 know I 1 know allah would answer such prayer from two such lovers soon the other self comes less and less often stays less and less long that could be beet yes it could be it would be if but I 1 love you too much to let you endure it hush jebb Effen dim I 1 theena you want me for wife yes jebb only cast his eyes up in despair of words to express this desire then if thees time instead of to be dived by somebody e to somebody I 1 give myself for a gift then then oh should the gift be refused 9 should you ruin my life forever foreve should you oh should you make me do all the proposing those compartment cars are very cosy for settling disputes of this sort and cynthia was asleep or at least they thought she w was as asleep THE END |