Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1912 — The Pool of Flame [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Pool of Flame

LOOTS

By JOSEPH VANCE

Illustrations by Ellsworth YosnJ

Copyright 1909, by LouU Joseph Vance SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I.—The story opens at Monte Carlo with Col. Terence O’Rourke In his hotel. O’Rourke, a military free lance and something of a gambler. Is dressing for appearance- in the restaurant below when the sound of a girlish voice singing attracts his attention. Leaning out on the balcony he sees a beautiful girl who suddenly disappears. He rushes to thedcorridor to see a neatly gowned fora enter the elevator and pass from CHAPTER ll.—O’Rourke’s mind is tilled with thoughts of the girl, and when he goes to the gaming table he allows his remarkable winnings to accumulate Indifferently. He notices two men watching him. One is the Hon. Bertie Glynn, while his companion is Viscount Des Trebes, a noted duelist. When O’Rourke leaves the table the viscount tells him he represents the French - government and that he has been dlrected to O Rourke as a man who would undertake a secret mission. CHAPTER TH.—At his room O’Rourke, who had agreed to undertake the mission, awaits . the viscount. O’Rourke finds a mysterious letter In his apartment. The viscount arrives, hands a sealed package to O'Rourke, who is not to open it until on the ocean. He says the French government will pay O'Rourke 25,000 francs for his services. A pair of dainty slippers are seen protruding from under a doorway curtain and the viscount charges O’Rourke with having a spy secreted there. . CHAPTER TV.—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 he 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 his wife that It Is in the keeping of a friend named Chambret 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 blds P’Rourke farewell and Tie promises to soon return with the reward offered for the Pool of Flame. He discovers both Glynn and the viscount on board the ship which takes him to Algeria. CHAPTER Vll.—Chambret has left Algerta and O’Rourke has to gain a military detachment going across the desert to reach his -friend. As he finds the tatter there Is an attack by bandits and Chambret is shot. CHAPTER Vlll.—Chambret dies tolling O’Rourke that he has left the Pool of Flame with the governor general of Algeria. He gives the colonel a signet ring at the sight of which he says the official will deliver over the jewel. CHAPTER IX.—O’Rourke Is attacked by Glynn and the viscount who ransack his luggage, but he worsts them in the conflict. CHAPTER X.—When he arrives at Algeria the Irphman finds the governor general away. He receives a bote from Des Trebes making a mysterious appointment. CHAPTER Xl.—The viscount - tells O’Rourke that he has gained possession of the jewel by stealing it from the safe of the governor general. He does hot, however, know who has offered the reward for It. He suggests a duel with rapiers, the victor to get that information and the jewel. „. CHAPTER XII.—Tn the duel O’Rourke masters his adversary and secures possession of the Pool of Flame. CHAPTER XHI. The* of O'Rourke are now directed toward speedily getting to Rangoon with the jewel and he starts by ship.

"Faulted heH!" countered the captain. “Give ’is arm a twist, Dennison.” a . ■-•' / . The mate calmly disobeyed. The arm-twist desired by the captain requires the use of the twister’s two hands, and stoutly as he defended his opinion, the first officer was by no means ready to put up his revolver. He advanced and bent over the Irishman, who lay motionless, his upper lip rolled back to show his clenched teeth. "Heugh!” exclaimed the first officer, peering into his face, his tone expressive of the liveliest concern. Without further hesitation he dropped the revolver into his pocket and—received a tremendous short-arm blow in the face. With a stifled .cry he fell back, clutching at a broken nose, and sprawled at length; while O’Rourke, leaping to his feet, deliberately put a heel into the pit of Dennison’s stomach, thereby effectually eliminating him as a factor in the further controversy. Simultaneously he advanced upon Captain Hole. But In the latter he encountered no mean antagonist. The man —it has been said —was as tall as and heavier than the adventurer, and by virtue of his position a competent and experienced rough-and-ready fighter. In a breath he had lowered his head and, bellowing like a bull, launched himself toward O’Rourke. The Irishman met the onslaught with a stinging uppercut; which, nevertheless,' failed to discourage the captain, who grappled and began to belabor O’Rourke with short, stabbing blows on the side of the head, at the same time endeavoring to trip him. The fury of his onset all but carried the Irishman off his feet. At the same time it defeated Hole’s own purpose. O’Rourke watched his chance, seized the man’s throat with both hands and, tightening his grip, fairly lifted him off his feet and shook him as a terrier shakes a rat. Then, with a grunt of satisfaction, he threw the captain from him and turned to face greater odds. The noise of the conflict had brought the crew down upon the contestants. Surrounded, he was rushed to the rail. With that to his back he drew on his reserve of strength and, poising himself, began to give his assailants personal and Individual attention. They pushed him close, snarling and cursing, hlhdering one another in their eagerness, and suffering variously for their temerity. O’Rourke fought with trained precision; his blows, lightning quick, were direct from the shoulder and very finely placed; and so straight did he strike that almost from the first his knuckles were torn and bledlng from their Impact upon flesh and bone. , Fight as fiercely as he might, however, the pack was too heavy for him; and when presently he discerned, not in one but in half a dozen hands, gleams of light—the rays of a near-by lantern "running down knife-blades — he conceded the moment imminent when he must sever his connection with the Pelican. Moreover he had a. shrewd suspicion that Hole was up and only waiting for an opening to use his revolver. Leaping to the rail, he poised an Instant, then dived far out from the vessel’s side, down into the Stygian blackness of the harbor water; a good clean dive, cutting the water with hardly a'splash, he went down like an arrow, gradually swerving from the straight line of his flight into a long arc —so long, indeed, that he was well-nigh breathless when he came to the surface, a dozen yards or more' from the Pellean.-" Spitting out the foul harbor water, and with swift glance over his shoulder that showed him the Pelican’s dark freeboard like a wall, and a cluster of dark shapes hanging over the rail at the top vaguely revealed by lantern light, he struck out for the nearest vessel, employing the double overhand stroke, noisy but speedy. That he heard no cry when he came to the surface, that Hole had not detected him by the phosphorescence, and that he had held his hand from firing, at first puzzled O’Rourke; but he reasoned that Hole probably feared to raise an alarm and thereby attract much undesirable attention to himself and his ship. In the course of the first few strokes, however, he managed to peep aguMn over his shoulder, and from the activity on the Pelican’s decks concluded that he was to be pursued by boat; which, in fact, proved to he the case. ' Fortunately the Pelican rode at anchor in waters studded thick with other vessels, affording plenty of hiding places on a night as black as that The adventurer made, direct for the first vessel, swam completely around it, and by the time the Pelican’s boat was afloat and its rowers bending to the oars, he was supporting himself by a hand upon the unknown ship’s cable, floating on his back with only his face out of water. Under these conditions, it was small wonder that the boat missed him so completely. At length rested, the Irishman released his hold and struck out for land at an easy pace. Eventually he gained the end of a quay, upon which he drew himself for a last rest and to let his dripping garments drain a bit ere venturing abroad in the streets. Not until then, strangely enough, did it come to him with its full force, how he had been tricked and played upon from the very beginning. And'Tie swore bitterly when be contemplated his present position of a penniless? outcast in a city almost wholly strange to him, without friends (save indeed, Danny'—wherever he might be), without a place tolay his head, lacktos even a change of clothing. His kitbox was .aboard the Pejjcan and likely

to remain there, for 111 he could do to the contrary; in his present state, to apply to the authorities or to attempt to lodge a complaint against Captain Hole would more likely than hot result in incarceration on a charge of vagrancy more real than technical. And—the Pool of Flame! He fumed with impotent rage when he saw how blindly he had stumbled into Hole’s trap, how neatly he had permitted himself to be raped of the jewel. For in the light of late events he could not doubt but that Hole had sought him out armed with the knowledge that O’Rourke was in possession of the priceless jewel—more than probably advised and employed by Des Trebes; assuming that he had failed to inflict a mortal wound upon that adventurer. “Aw, the dlvvle, the dlvvle!” com-

plained O'Rourke. “Sure, and 'tis a pretty mess I’ve made of it all, now!” Saying which he rose and clambered to the top of the quay—with the more haste, than good will in view of the fact that the splashing of oars, the dimly outlined shape of a boat heading directly for his refuge, had suddenly become visible.* Of course, it might not be the Pelican; but O’Rourke was too thoroughly impressed with the conviction that the laws of coincidence were against him, just then at any rate, to be willing to run unnecessary risks. Chance, too, would have it that there should be an arc-light ablaze precisely at the foot of the pier, beneath which stood, clearly defined in the "white glare, the figure of a hulkIng black native representative of the municipal police, whom O’Rourke must pass ere he could gain solid earth. For this reason he dared not betray evidenced of haste; his appearance was striking enough in all conscience, without any additional touches. So he thrust his hands into his pockets and sauntered with* a well-assumed but perhaps not wholly convincing air of nonchalance toward the officer. The latter remained all unsuspicious until—and then the mischief of it was that O’Rourke was still a full five yards the wrong side of the man — Hole himself leaped frocq the boat upon the end of the quay and sent a yell echoing after the fugitive. “Hey!” he roared. “Stop’im! Deserter! Thief! Stop thief!" The black was facing O’Rourke in an instant, but simultaneously the Irishman was upon him and had put an elbow smartly into his midriff in passing, all but toppling the man backwards into the harbor. It had been, well for him had- he succeeded. As it was the fellow saved himself by a hair’s breadth and the next minute was after O’Rourke, yelling madly.

The Irishman showed a fleet pair of heels, be sure; but, undoubtedly, the devil himself was in the luck that flight! Who shall describe in what manner a ! rabble springs out of the very cobbles of Alexandria's streets? Men, women, naked children and yapping pariah dogs, fellaheen, Arabs, Bedouins from the desert, Nubians, Greeks, Levantines—the fugitive had not covered two-score yards ere a mob of such composition was snapping at his calves. Turning and twisting, dodging and doubling, smiting this gratuitous enemy full in the face, treating the next as he had the limb of the law (and leaving both howling), he seized the first opening and swung into a narrow back*way, leading inland from the waterfront. He ran as seldota he had run before, straining and laboring, stumbling, recovering and plunging onward. And, by the gods, wasn't it hot! The khamsin raved and tore like a spirit of hell-fire through that narrow alley, turning it into a miniature Inferno. But In the course of some minutes, the end of the tunnel came in view; a lighted rift between house walls, giving upon the illuminated street beyond. The sight brought fdrth a fresh burst of speed from O’RoUrke. He dashed madly out of the alley, stumbled and ran headlong into a strolling Greek, who grappled with him, at first in surprise anrf then in resentment, while the clamor of the pursuing rabble shrilled loud and near and ever nearer. Exhausted as he was, the. Irishman struggled with little skill. before he mastered his own surprise; and in me end saw Ms finis written along the blade of a thin, keen knife which the Greek nad whipped from the folds of his garments and jerked threateningly above his head. It was falling- when O'Rourke saw it In another breath he had been subbed. Unexpectedly the Greek shrieked, dropped the knife as though It had tgnied jodd«nljr wWt»hot la

his hands, and leaped back from O’Rourke, nursing a broken wrist; while a voice as sweet as the ginging of angels rang in the fugitive’s ears, though the spirit of Its melody was simple and crude enough. “O’Rourke, be all th’ powers! The masther himself! Glory, ye beggar, ’tis sorry I am that I didn't split the ugly face of ye wid me sthick! . . This way, yer honor! Come wid me!”' Blindly enough (indeed the world was all awhlrl about him) O'Rourke, his arm grasped by a strong and confident hand, permitted himself to be swung to the right and across the street. In a thought blackness again was all about him, but the hand gripped his arm, hurrying him onward; and he yielded blindly to its guidance —-without power, for that matter, to question or to object; what breath he had he sorely needed. And as blindly he stumbled on for perhaps another hundred yards, while the voice of the rabble made hideous the night behind them. Hardly, indeed, had the two whipped into the mouth of the back-way ere it was choked by a swarm of pursuers. But—“Nlver fear!” said the voice at his side. “ 'Tis ourselves that’ll outwit them. . . . Here, now, yer honor, do ye go straight on wldout sthoppin* ontil ye come to an iron dure in a dead wall at the end av this. Knock there wance, count tin, and knock again. I'll lead 'em away and be wid ye again in a brace av shakes!”

Benumbed by fatigue and exhaustion, O’Rourke obeyed. He was aware that his preserver with a wild whoop had darted aside into a cross-alley, but hardly aware of more. Mechanically he blundered on until brought up by a wall that closed and made a cul-de-sac of the way. With trembling hands he felt before him. fingers encountering the smooth, cool surface of a sheet of metal. This, then, was the door. As carefully as he could he knocked, counted ten, and knocked again—while the mob that had lusted for his blood trailed off down the side alley in frantic pursuit of his generous preserver. And he heard with a smile, the latter’s shrill defiant Irish yells luring them further upon the false scent. "If ’tis not Danny," gasped the adventurer, “then myself’s not the O’Rourke! Bless the lad!” But as he breathed this benediction the iron door swung inwards and he stumbled across the threshold, halffainting, hardly conscious that he had done more than pass from open night to the night of an enclosed space. His foot caught on some obstruction and he went to his knees with a cry that was a cross between a sob and a groan; and incontinently fell full length upon an earthen floor* his head pillowed on his arm, panting as if his heart would break. In the darkness above him'someone cried aloud, a startled cry, and then the door Was thrust to with a clang and rattle of bolts. A match rasped

loudly and a flicker of light leaped from a small hand lamp and revealed to its bearer the fagged and quivering figure on the floor. Some one sat down beside him with a low exclamation of solicitude and gathered his head into her lap. Some one quite simply enfolded his neck with soft arms and pressed his head to her bosom, and as if that were not enough, kissed him full and long upon his lips. "My dear! My dear!” she murmured in French. “What has happened, O, what has happened? My poor, poor boy!" Now the. integral madness of all this was as effectual in restoring O'Rourke to partial consciousness as had been a douche of cold water in his face. damned, and that it was all a dream. And yet, when he looked, it was to see, dim in the feeble glimmer of the lamp, the face of a woman as beautiful as young, as young as beautiful. One glance was enough. O'Rourke shut Ms eyes again. “If I look too long,” he assured himself, “she’ll vanish or—or turn into a fiend. Sure, 'tis a judgment upon me! Too long have I been an amorous dram-drinker; this will undoubtedly bo the dellrtum-tre-mens of love!” And with that he passed quietly into temporary unconsciousness. (To be continued

“The Irishman Was Upon Him"

Exhausted as He Was, the Irishman Struggled With Little Skill.