Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1911 — CHAPTER IV. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHAPTER IV.

It would be difficult to designate precisely just what O’Rourke thought to discover, when after a punctilious return of Captain von Einem’s salute, he His mood was exalted, his imagination excited; the swift succession of events which had made memorable the

night, culminating with his open' In*tt*don to a challenge from the most desperate duelis) In Europe, l*d insptred a volatile vivacity each as not even the excitement of t>e Casino had fth + iwh ' ‘toll M an else 0 that hid happened "fa th J course bf that short evening, his heart had Been stirred, his emotions pfayed Mon by a recrudeaenca of a.- nftsston which be had striven with all his strength to put behind him for a tin*; he had first heard the voteeof the one woman to whom his love and faith and honor were irretrievably pledged, he had then seen her (or another who remarkably resembled her) for the scantuiystertously received a letter which could, he believed, hate been conveyed to him by no other hand but here. And now he was persuaded beyond a doubt that the person’of the alcove, the eavesdropper tor whose fair repute he* had chosen to risk his fife, was nowoman. W Rls ed fii^t t dSnneim'Xllon was'of consternation ahd despair; for the senct. Then tjulckly -*he discerned, I tlhA * ft II . * .. ! chamber, <he.bjow,’h.i>.J wo” I “ d i - | wra vsrw* wmw ****** i scrapie of delicacy abetted it may be 1 * -r • ll . * • I ye a mvor ine oy goin< Quickly. • . »I T. • •■I

expresgtoS, but in the love she bore H"' W the steadfastness of her Im pregnable heart. . W doub t ful » ever he had anher abrupt disclosure to him, he long ed unutterably for her lips and the proffered wreath round his neck of hei slim, round, white arms. Yet he would not Trembling though hq was, with every instinct and every fiber of his being straining toward her, with the hunger for her a keen pain in his heart, he held himself back; or hia conception of honor held him back. That which he had voluntarily forfeit ed and put away from him for his honor’s sake, he would not take baeli though_.lt were offered freely to him ‘‘So* he said, after a bit, shakily; then pulled himself together, and controlling his voice- r -“So ’twas yourself, after all, Beatrix’ Me heart told me other woman could have sung The woman dropped her arms. “Your heart, Terence?” she asked a little bit “What else? Do ye doubt it?" ‘ ■ She shook her head sadly, wistfully. “How do I know? Howctinltelll Surely, dear, np two people Were ever happier than we—yet within a year from our wedding you . . . you left me, ran away from me. . . . Why ?” “Well ye know why, dearest, and well ye know ’twas love of ye alone that drove me from ye. Could I let tt. be Baid ye had a hbsbantLwho was incapable of supporting ye? Could 1 let |t be rfald that your husband lived •like a; leech upon your fortunes? Faith, didn’t I have to go for your sake?” ’ " . “No,” she dissented with a. second weary shake of her .pretty head; "I think it was love of yourself, a little, Terence-rthaf tend your pride. . Why should anybf our world have guessed you were not the” rich man you fancied yourself when we were married? Who would have told them that your lan<Ted heritage in 1 Ireland had turned out profitless? Not I, my dear.” ■’ “I know that,’’ he contended stubbornly, “but I know, too, sooner or later it would have come out, and they would have said: ’There she goes with her fortune-hunter, the adventurer who married her for her money— ’’ - .. ."And If so? What earthly difference could it make to us, sweetheart? What can gossip matter to us—if you love'toe?” fie cribdi dlmbst angrily. “If! . . . Ah, but no,’ darting! ’tis yourself knows there is no. *if about it, that I’m sick with' love of ye this very minute—sick and mad fort ye . .” “Then,” she pleaded, with a desperate little break In her incomparable voice; And again held out her arms to him—“then have pity on me, <fh, my

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Tio ciosou. it. narniy. Was l-etuet, my heart? But 1 did not meant "to be. ■ - l^d'‘*jdhsmed.tlilg'gstfjielse, hnr rooms’ —« ” ’ - our rooms adjoined. “And this fumbled in his pocket and got it out—“ye brought tt to mTr - *u w me in ixjnuon, near, vwu Pltnliuimon and I—at the Carlton, waiting for her yacht to be put ? commission. Meanwhile she was making up the party for this Mediterranean trip. ... I had no idea where -to send you the letter/ Have you read ltr »■ I Wive I had time, sweetheart of mine?” There was an interlude. - In the distance the thunder rolled and rumbled. Resolutely the young woman disengaged herself and withdrew to a little distance. “Read, insisted, peremptorily. ’Tvs better things to do, me dear,” he retorted with composure. “You’ll find it interesting.” “I find me wife more interesting than— How d’ye know I will?” “Perhaps I have read it.” O’Rourke turned the letter over in his hand and noted what had theretofore escaped his attention —the fact that the envelope, badly stayed on the edges through much handling, was open at the top? “So ye may,” he admitted. “It was that way when I received it. And I have read it. How could I help itr - “Then ye’ve saved me the bother.” He prepared to rise and capture her. She retreated briskly. “Read!” she commanded. “Read about the'Pool oflrume!” < !•: He stopped short, thunderstruck. “The Pool of Flame?” he reiterated slowly. “What d’ye know about that?” “What the letter tells me—no more. What has become 6f it?” Glut he had already withdrawn the enclosure and tossed the envelope abide, and Was reading—absorbed, excited, oblivious to all save that conveyed to hits intelligence by the writing beneath his eyes. It was-a singularly curt, dry - and business-like document fag one that was deptiped to Mold the romance of his life—strangely terse and tritely phrased for one that was to exert so far-reaching an influence over the lives of so many mdh and WOmeh. Upon a singly sheet of paper bearing their letterhead, Messrs. Secretan and* Sypher, solicitors, of Rangoon, Burmah, had ■ 0 QD fij J ere W » Ur Or ? 1 ■= of one hundred thousand pounds sterling for the return, Intact and unmarred, of the ruby known as the Pool of FfaftnA The Aid ruby was, when last heard of, in the possession of the said Colongl O’Rourke, who would receive the reward upon tiie delivery b£ the said atong undersigned at their offices In itangbon within six months from date. delivery might be matfe either in person or by proxy. ‘ With which Messrs. Stecrdtkn add sypher begged to remain respectfully hie. < ;JThe Irishman read it once and again, memorizing its import; thendeliberately shredded ft Into minute partiCM* ' : '"*** - . *•* f ‘'So ft’s come," he said heavily, “frst . ■■ ■ as the O’Mahoney foretold it would!” He sank back in Ms chair, and his wife went to him and perched herself upon the arm of it, imprisoning his head with het arms and laying" her cheek against his. - ' ' “What has come, my heart?” “One hundred thousand pounds,” he 'Said. . . . “Treble its worth, double what the O’Mahoney expected. . . ■ ’ ,- ■ ■ “Who is the O’Mahoney, dear?” He roused. “An old "friend, Beatrix —an old comrade. He died some years back, on the banks of the Tugela, fighting with a Boer commando. He wtt a lohely man, without kith or kin or many friends betide metelf. That. I presume,ills hew he came to leave the Pool of Flame with foe.” He wound an arm round her and held her close. “Hearken, dear, and I’ll be telling ye the story of it.” Behind them the infernal glare lit up the portentous skies. Thunder echoed between clouds and sea like heavy cannoning. The wife shrank close to her beloved, “t am not Mt all afraid,” she declared, when her voice could be* heard—“with you. . . Tell me about the Pool of Flame.” “The O’Mahoney left it with me when he went to South Africa,” explained O’Rourke. “ 'Twas a pasteboard box the size of me fist, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a Mt of string, that be brought mo one evenhe w*s about to leave, and would I oars sos Rtn hie absence. I knew no more of it than that twas something ho valued highly, but I put I I • *tie-depoelt vauit—-which ho might’ve done- tt hg hadn't been a scatterbrain an . it ireefa titeT 1 * “* * m &

L s ory, as ar as ew it I tuA 1 of pure £>ld, *tis Mid. it would be fc! lacks an eye; in its forehead, and *tla there?the] EFiKrS® iSh’ possession s •-van I • W*«r tt 'eWr-fl**. O’MWmriey, si small detachment' of British troops out of touch with their comnstitl,' hMptwittftdb upott tills > we’re speaking of and took it, dtaposso much ah a day’s notice. The ofltoer and put it ih his pocket. In less thhn an hour the nattees surrounded the ttmpie’ and kttacfcW iii fortte. The British stood them or for three day* J and then were refleved; but in the meantime the officer had been killed and the Pool of Flame had vanished. . . . For several , years it stayed quiet, so far as Is known. Then the curse of the thing began to work, and It came to the surface in a drunken brawl in the slums bf Port said. The police, breakfig into some dive‘’to stop a row, fotmd nobody in the place but a dead Greek; they say ’twas a shambles. One of the police found the big ruby in the dead man’s fist and before bls companions guessed what was up slipped away with the stake. . . He was murdered some months later in a Genoese bagnib,'by a French girl, who got away with it somehow. . . . The O’Mafioney came across

the thing in Algeria, When he was Serving with the Foreign Legion. He was in Sidi Bel Abbas one night, off duty, and wandering about, when he place. He thought he recognized a comrade’s voice, and surely enough, when he ran down to aid him, he found a Dutchman,' a man of hl* own regiment, fighting with half a dozen natives. He was about done for, the Dutchman,, when the O’Mahoney came upland so were-three of the Arabs. The O’Mahoney took care of the rest of them, and left seven dead men behind hhn when he Went away—the six natives and thp Dutchman, who had died in his arms and given him the Pool of Flame with his last per. ... - . “That’s .how it came to ms,” said O’Roiirke. " 4* “And where is it now?’* . “Back in Algeria, if I’m not mistaken. .. . ' Ye remember Chambret —he was with us in the desert and wanted ye to marry him afterwards? He has it—the dear man; lime film like a brother. .',. ~He sickened of Europe when he found his case With you was hopeless, and went to Algiers, joining the Foreign Legion.’’ , v ’ “But how—?” . <.L, “Well, we were fond of each other, Chambret and I. -t helped him out of some tight corners and he helped me along when me money ran short —as it always did, and will, ; I’m frigiitoned the life out of me, and J! fiaii him lake the ruby by way df securtty—and never was aMe to redeem iC'tbf 'twas only i little after that that r game into me enormous patrimony and squandered ife riotously get“W. to in^t ; woman living. ■ ■ . . “He wanted' me to hold the stone, the O'Mahoney dK saying thdt the time would‘come when some native prince wouldoffer to redeem the Luck of the State as an act cd ptety nnd patriotism. He prophesied a reward Of at least fifty thousand pounds. ' And now it’s come—twice over!” “And now what can you do?” ..“Do?” cried D'Rourke, i “Faith, what would I be doing? D’ye realise what this means to me, dear heart? It means you—lndependence, a little fortune, the right to claim my wife!” Ha drew her to him. “Do? Sure, and by thb first train and boat I'll go to; Algeria, flhd Chambret, get him to give me the stone, take it to Rangoon, claim the reward, repay Dhafobret and—” '■;•’*■ ! ! "And what, my paladin?” “Dare ye ask me that, madame? . . Say, will ye wait for me?” She laughed softly. “Have I not waited, Ulysses?” i; (To be continued

“Monsieur, Your Nose Annoys Me!"

He Stopped Short, Thunderstruck.