Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1911 — The Pool of Flame [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Pool of Flame

By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE

MaatratieM by ElUwarth Tnaf

Owpfrtglil IMS, by laiulm Jutcph Vuift SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I.—The story open*- at Monte Carlo with Col. Terence O'Rourke In hta hotel. O'Rourke, a military free lance and something of a gambler, la dressing for appearance In the restaurant below when the sound of a girlish voice singing attracts hla attention. Leaning out on the balcony he sees.a beautiful girl who suddenly disappears. He rushes to the corridor to see a neatly gowned foryn enter the elevator and pass from CHAPTER ll.—O'Rourke's mind ta Ailed with thoughts of the girl, and when he goes to the gaming table he allows hla remarkable winnings to accumulate indifferently. He notices two men watching him. One la the Hon. Bertie Glynn, while his companion Is Viscount Des Trebcs, a noted duelist. When O’Rourke leaves the table the viscount tells him tie represents the French government and that he has been directed to O'Rourke as a man who would undertake a secret mission. CHAPTER lII.— At his room O’Rourke, who had agreed to undertake the mission, awaits the viscount. O’Rourke finds a mysterious letter in his apartment. Ths viscount arrives, hands s sealed package to O'Rourke, who Is'not to open It until on the ocean. He says the French government will pay O'Rourke 26.000 francs for his services;/ A pair of dainty altpBera8 era are seen protruding from under a oorway curtain and the viscount 'charges O'Rourke with having a spy secreted there. CHAPTER IV.-When the Irishman goes to his room he finds there the owner of the mysterious feet. It Is his wife, Beatrix, from whom he had run away a year previous. They are reconciled, and opening the letter ne had received, he finds that a law firm in Rangoon. India, offers him 100.000 pounds for an Indian Jewel known as the Pool of Flame and left to him by a dying friend. O'Rourke tells hts wife that it is in the keeping of a friend named Ohambret In Algeria CHAPTER V.—O’Rourke is forced to fight a duel with the viscount. The braggart nobleman is worsted In the combat and acts the poltroon. CHAPTER Vl.—The loyal wife O’Rourke farewell and he promises to soon return with the reward offered for the Pool of Flame. He discovers both Olvnn and the viscount on board the ship which takes him to Algeria. CHAPTER VII. South of Biskra there la always trouble to be had for the seeking;, tuih of Brlska there Is never peace. A guerilla warfare is waged perennially between the lords of the desert, the Touaregg on the one hand, and the advance agents of civilization, as personified by the reckless French Condemned Corps and the Foreign Legion on the other. Year after year military expeditions set out from the oasis of Ulskra to penetrate the wilderness, either by caravan route to Timbuctoo or along the proposed route of the Trans-Saharan Railway to Lake. Tchad; and their lines of march are traced In red upon the land. Toward this debatable land O'Rourke set his face with a will, gladly; for be loved it. He had fought over It of old; In his memory Its sands were sancflfled with the blood of comrades, men by whose side be bad been proud to fight, men of his own stamp whose friendship he had been proud to own. Mentally serene. If physically the reverse of comfortable, O’Rourke dosed through the interminable twelve hours of the journey to El-Guerrah; arriving at which place after eight the following morning, he transferred himaelf and his hand-bags (for now he was traveling light) to the connecting train on the Biskra branch. The latter, scheduled to reach the oasis at four-thirty in the afternoon, loafed casually up the line, arriving at the terminus after dark. The Irishman, thoroughly fagged but complacent In the knowledge that he had. left both viconate and honorable a day behind him, kept himself

from bed by mala will-power for half the night, while he made the rounds of cases and dance halls, la search of a trustworthy and competent guide—no easy thing to find. The French foroe hy then was three days out from the oasis, and no doubt since It was technically a “flying column," calculated to move briskly from point to point in Imitation of Touaregg tactics, hourly putting a greater distance between Itself and its starting point. Moreover, the pursuit contemplated by the adventurer was one attended by no Inconsiderable perils. By dint of Indomitable persistence, unflagging good-nature and such Influence as he could bring personally to bear upon the authorities, O’Rourke got what he desired —a competent guide and two racing camels, or mehers, with a pack animal that would serve their purpose. By dawn they were ready to start; and so, la the level rays of a sun that seamed a daxzling sphere of intolerable light, poising Itself in the eastern rim of the world as if undecided whether or no to take up Its flight across the Armament, the little cars + van rocked out Into the fastness of the desert..the Irishman In the van stttlhk a blooded meharl as one to the wilderness born. t On the seventh night they bivouacked hard on the heels of the flying col urns, having for seven days pursued it this way and that, rf g«»gg*"i ln*o the heart of the parched land. Now, when they were none within

long aßer nightfall, OWurYe gTvi consent to halt, conceding the necessity; tor weariness weighed spoil their shoulders-a groat burden, end the camels had become unusually sullen and evil tempered; if rest were denied them presently they would become obstinate and refuse to follow the road. O’Rourke closed his eyes and lost consciousness with a sensation of falling headlong Into a great pit of oblivion, bottomless, eternal. Yet It seemed no more than a moment ere he was sitting’up and rubbing sight into his eyes, shaken out at slumber by bis guide. He stumbled to hla feet and lurched toward the camels, still but half awake. When his senses cleared irritation possessed him. His guide had been overzealous. He turned upon the man and aelzed him roughly by the arm. “What the dlvvle!” he grumbled angrily, between a yawn and a chatter of teeth —for the air was bitter cold. “The moon’s not yet up!” “Hush, Sldl!” Something In the guide’s tone stilled his wrath. “The Touaregg are all about us. They have been passing us thapughout the night—” “Ye knew this and did "not wake me?” “There was no need; we could not have ifioved ere this without detection. Now, they are all a-stlr, and we In the night, may paas for them—until moon-up.” The guide turned away to rouse the mehara, prodding them up, mutinous, snarling and ugly. In another five minutes they were again moving forward. By the time the Bllver rim of the moon peered over the edge of the east they were pelting on at full speed, as yet, apparently, undetected by the Touaregg. An hour passed, and the chill In the air became more intense; dawn was at hand. A sense of security, of dan-

gers left behind, came to the Irishman; he began to breathe more freely, though still the polished butt of a repeating rifle swinging from the saddle remained a comfort to Ms palm. He grew more confident, mentally* at eaae, seeing the desert take ahape In the moonlight and show itself desolate on every hand. Even as he gained assurance from this thought, the guide turned In his. saddle and cried a warning: “The Touaregg!” From that moment on both wielded merciless whips. For out at the moonlit wastes behind them had shrilled a voice, cruel and wild, announcing discovery and the Inception of the chase. The fugitives had need of no Bharper spur. A rifle shot rang sharp on the echoes of that cry, but the bullet must have short. A moment later, Indeed, they opened a brisk, scattering firer-naturally Ineffectual, though the bullets dropping right and left In the sand proved that the chase had got within range. Even with that warning, the end was nearer than he had dreamed or hoped. It came in a twinkling and as unexpected as a bolt out of a clear sky: a flash of fire ahead, a spitful snap and —pttt!—the song of a bullet speeding past his head. The guide pulled up with a jerk. O’Rourke, reining In desperately, swung his camel wide to avert the threatened collision. Simultaneously the sharp “Qul vlveT” of a French sentry rang out, loud and sweet to hear. “Thank Ood!" said the adventurer In his heart* And aloud, “Friends!*' he cried, driving past the sentry In a cloud of dust By a blessed mlrmole the man waa quick of wit. and swift to grasp the situation—of which, however, he must have had some warning from the rattle of firing. Ha screamed something In O’RourkWs ear aa the latter passed, and turning threw himself flat and begun to pump the trigger of his carbine, emptying the magazine nt the on-sweeping line of Touaregg.

The alarm was hardly needed; O'Rourke and the guide swept on over the slip of a depression In the desert and halted In the midst bf a camp already quickened and alive with shadowy figures running methodically to their posts, oar bine and accoutrement gleaming in the moonlight: men of the camel crape, hardened to and familiar with their wqrk. They buckled down to It In a busi-ness-like way that thrilled the heart of O’Rourke, la a trloe they were doubling oat post lines of tethered “•harm, past the white hillocks of. the oflloers' shelter-tents and, like the sentry, throwing themselves flown upon the ground to take shelter of whatever Inequalities the face of the

fSe bivouac Witt a fringe of flame.' ” O'Rourke slipped from his camel and turned to watch the skirmish. Massed, the Tonaregg. In strength grantor than the adventurer had believed —something Ilka two hundrsd mounted men, la all—charged down upon the camp aa If to over-run and stampede It. } Yet at the critical moment, whan it seemed that of a surety there was no stopping them, they divided and swung round the camp in two wide circles, scattering into open order and firing as they scattered. Here and there a hone fell, a rider threw out hla hands and toppled from Ids saddle, a .camel seemed to buckle at full tilt like a faulty piece of machinery; and so gape appeared in the flying wings. For the men of the flying column were picked shots. They had need to be, who had such tasks as this to cope with. Nor—for that matter —were the Touaregg the only sufferers. Here and there In the camp a man plunged forward In mid-stride, and on the firing the tents now and agalh, a sharpshooter shuddered and lay still upon his arms. Even at O’Rourke’s side an officer was shot as kg' ran to the front, and would have fallen had not the Irishman caught him with ready arms and let him easily to the earth. As he did so the stricken man rolled an agonized eye upward. “O’Rourke!” he said between a groan and a sigh. And O'Rourke, kneeling at his side and peering Into his face, gave a bitter cry. For he had found Chambret. (To be continu&l

He Had Found Chambret