Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1912 — The Pool of Flame [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Pool of Flame

By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE

niMtraiwiis by EUaworth Yount

Copyright 1009, by lahlUi Joseph V&uce 'CHAPTER XVII. Two battered and sore sailormen sat back to back, tbeir arms lashed to one another and to the central upright so that neither could move, both half-submerged in the fountain of Nlccovle the Greek. “Ye’ll find the bath quite refreshing,” O’Rourke told them, preparing to depart, “as well as a novel experience. ’Twill do ye a world of good. Captain Hole, as anyone will tell ye who has ever had the misfortune to

stand to leeward of ye. Tour money and other belongings ye’ll find on the bench here, If ever ye are loosed, which I doubt. I call your attention to the fact that I take nothing but me property, of which ye sought to rob me. On the other hand, because of that attempted robbery, I hereby refuse to pay my hill for passage from Athehs' to Alexandria. If ye care to dlepute it, me solicitors in Dublin will be pleased to enter Into litigation with ye. Gentlemen!” he bowed Ironically, “I bid ye good night.” He waß still chuckling over the outcome when, twenty minutes later, he and Danny were trudging through the Client streets of Alexandria, a full mile away from Danny’s lodgings. ‘Danny,” O’Rourke pursued, with just a hint of anxiety in his tone, “would ye happen to be having a bit of lining in your pocket, now —be accident, as they say?” Danny drew himself up proudly. “I’ve eight hoondred and fifty pounds, Ay-gyptian, sor, and two-hundred av that is yours be rights, bein’ what ye lent me, yer honor, while all the rlst Is yours for the taking.”' “That’s fine, Danny, fine!” sighed O’Rourke. “ ’Tls yourself will never regret Investing it in Pool of Flame, Unlimited. I’ll personally guarantee the income from it, Danny.” “Shure, sor, don’t I know?” “And in the morning, early, Danny, ye and I will take boat and go out to the Pelican for me kit-box.” But In the ihoruing, as it happened, the Pelican had discreetly left the harbor.

CHAPTER XVIII. It was mid-afternoon of a sultry day. No air stirred. The Panjnab was coaling at Port Said. . O'Rourke eyed the vessel with disfavor from the shore; then dropped into a harbor dinghy, ensconced himself at the tiller-ropes, and caused himself, with his luggage and his man-servant, to be conveyed alongside the steamer. Near the gangway he was held bade; another boat had forestalled him, another passenger was shipping tor the Bast. O'Rourke was interested Idly. .He saw a woman, a slight, trim fig* ure becomingly attired in white, with a veil about her head, leave the boat and mount the gangway steps with a springy, youthful step, a cheerful and positive air, a certain but Indefinable calm of seU-possQsslon. At the top dm paused, turned, looked down, watching the transfer of her luggage and her maid. . . . From sundry intangible indications O'Rourke assumed the second woman’s figure to be the lady's maid. And so did Danny. The one eyed the mistress, the other ho* servant, both with interest . . . Tlie woman on deck threw hack her veO. She seemed to promise uncommon beauty of the Epgllsh type, fullcolored and of classic mold. . . .. The Irishman was much too far away to-be'oertaln, but he fancied that her gase wandered toward him and —but this, of course, was only Imagination —that she started slightly. r At all events, she was quick to drop the veil and turn away. Her maid joining her, both vanished, beneath the Bgri **iY*n-| had

. . rv- - ..... <; brought her sheered off, and O’Rourke was permitted to board the Panjnab. It was a glad day. 'the O’Rourke told himself, as he trod those decks; It saw him definitely started on his way tolthe East. - O’Rourke roused upon his elbow and peered out of the port of his stateroom. The steamer was plowing through the Bitter Lakes. He saw a string of buoys, a width of water like a Jade, a vista of sand, flat, gray, patched with gray-green desert shrub, bounded only "by the horizon. . ... •*. “Damn . .” said he listlessly. He slipped down again upon his back, panted, and wiped his brow. Danny, recognizing that he was not expected to respond, and fteing a young man remarkably acute to diagnose his master's moods, prudently refrained from comment. He sat hunched ijp on a cabin stool, his intensely red, bullet-shaped head bent low over a bit of chamois skin, which he was sewing into a rough, sturdy bag. As the sun dipped beneath‘the rim of the horizon, a pleasant shadow Invaded the stateroom, until that moment blood-red with Its level rays. And Danny straightened up, dropping thimble and thread, announcing the completion of his needlework by a, brief, contented: “There!” O’Rourke glanced at the article dangling from his valet’s fingers, and slammed the hook against the bulkhead at the foot of his berth. "Finished, is it?” he exclaimed. “Faith, ’tis about time, ye lazy good-for-naught!" Danny smiled serenely. “And a good Job, too, sor,” Bald he proudly. “M’anin’ no onrespect to yer honor," he added hastily. O’Rourke took the subject of discussion in bis fingers and examined it searchingly. “ ’Twill do," he announced. “ Twill serve its purpose, if no more. Lay ,out me evening clothes now,”, He stood up, stopping to stare through the port. “Good enough,” he commented on what he discovered without; “’tis passing Suez we are this blessed minute. Praises be, we caught a boat that doesn't stop here.” Danny scratched an ankle thoughtfully. “Ylss, yer honor,” he assented, dubious. “But, for all that, phwat's to hinder annywan from boordin’ us be boat, If they sh’u’d want to?” O’Rourke turned and eyed the man keenly. “’Tis a-"great head ye have on your shoulders, Danny,” he said. “Sometimes ye betray almost canine lntilligence. I’m be way of having hopes of ye. Now get ye on deck and watch to see who does come aboard, if anyone, and report to me.” • “Yiss, yer honor.” O’Rourke bolted the door after Danny and assured himself that the keyhole was properly wadded, that no crack existed through which bis movements might be observed from the gangway. Shrugging his broad shout ders he returnefKto the seat vacated by his valet and thrust a hand beneath the coat es his pajamas, withdrawing it a moment later, fingers tightly wrapped about a rather bulky object. i And the Pool of Flame lay glittering and stabbing his eyes with shafts of blood-red light. Into Its depths of pellucid fire O'Rourke gazed long and earnestly, in the most profound meditation.

But at length, slipping the ruby Into the hew receptacle and drawing the lanyard tight about Its puckered throat, he stoocTup and threw the loop over his head, permitting the bag with its precious contents to fall beneath the folds of his jacket; and, shaking off the sober mood Inspired in him by the study of the stone, rang for a steward, to whom, when he responded, he entrusted a summons for Danny—“if so be It we’re clear of Suez.” In the course of five minutes or so Danny himself tapped on the door and presented to his master a beaming -face. j*. „ ■, r ■' ‘‘Divvle a sowi!” he announced triumphantly. “Sure, ’tls ourselves have given thim the alip entirely!” . He fished a brand new kit-box from beneath the berth and, opening it, beban to lay out O’Rourke’s clothing. His master indulged In a'sigh of relief. “Then no boat put off to us at all?” he questioned indifferently. “Only wan,” replied the servant, “and tbot wid no wan in at but a naygur.” “A negro?” demanded O’Rourke, facing about. “What do ye mean? Did he come qboard?" - “Suns and he did that, yer honor, and caught us be no moore thin the skin av his tathe and —” V O'Rourke bent over the -man and seizing him by the shoulders swung him around so that their eyes met'

"What theJUwle!” demanded the adventurer, “did ye mean by telling me nobody boarded us, then? What—" “Sure, yer honor. . . . Aw, yer honor! , . ’Tis mesllf meant no bamn at all, at all!” protested Danny. "Didn’t I say thot diwle a aowl came aboord? Sure, thin, is a naygur a human?" With an exasperated gesture O'Rourke released the boy. " Tis too much for me ye are," he said helplessly. “Now and again I believe ys have the makings of a man in ye, and then ye go off and play the tool! If I didn’t believe ye a pure simpleton with not an ounce of mischief in your body, Fd take that out of your worthless hide. Get on with ye! Tell me about this ‘naygur.’ What sort of a black man is he?” “Sure, sor,” whimpered Danny, ",’tis mesllf that w’u’d die rather thin have ye talk to me thot way, yer honor.' Upon me sowl, I nlver thought ye’d worry about a poor dlvvle av a naygur, come aboard wid nothin’ but a say-chist and the clothes he walks in, beggln’ for a chanst to worrk his passage to Bombay, sor.” “Did they let him sign on, then?" inqttired O'Rourke. “Diwle a bit, rayspicts to ye.” More cheerfully Danny struggled with the studs in O'Rourke’s shirt. ‘The purser was all for kicking him back Into his boat, sor, whip be offered to pay passage In the steerage. So they let him stay, sor.” - "Seemed to have money—eh?” “Aw, ho, yer honor. ’Twas barely able he was to scrape ut all together.” “Lascar?" r ;' “I belave so, yer honor. ’Tis harrd for me to say. Wan av thlm naygur’s as much like another as two pays, sor; ’tis all tarred wid the same brush, they be.” “Ah well,” he resumed more pacifically, -“belike he’s what he seems, Danny, and has no concern with us at all. Whether or no, care killed the cat. .

. . D’ye mind, Danny,” be swung off on one of his characteristically acute tangents, “the little woman with the red hair? Though ’tis meself should bfeg the lady’s pardon for mentioning the color of her hair in the same room with that outrageous headlight of yours, Danny. . . . D’ye mind her, I mean?” “The wan ye observed at Poort Said, sor? The wan ye told me to discover the name av?” '“’Tis a brave detective'ye would make, Danny. Te have me meaning entirely!” “Aw, ylss.” Danny’s lips tightened as he laced O’Rourke’s patent-leather shoes. He cast up at his master’s face an oblique glance of disapproval. “I mind the wan ye mane,” he admitted. He rose, and as he did so, O’Rourke gently but firmly twisted him around by the e&r and as deliberately and thoughtfully kicked Mm. “What the divvle Is the matter'with ye, Danny?” he Inquired in pained remonstrance, • “It is mad ye are, or ha ye ye no judgment at all, ye scut, that ye speak to me in that tone?” Solicitously Danny rubbed the chastened portion of his person, grumbling bnt unrepentant. O’Rourke grinned tolerantly, retaining his hold upon the servitor's ear. “Her name?” “Ow, yer honor, leggol • • . Missus Prynne. sor!” The wanderer gave the ear another tweak, by way of enforcing the lesson. “Prynne, Is It? And how did you learn that, Danny ?” “ ’Twas her maid told me, sor. La*go, yer honor, plaze— ** “And how did her maid come to tell ye, ye great ugly, long-legged omadhaun?” •*Sure*-owlT- , twas only a bit av a kiss I was by way av glvln* her, sor —” “That’ll do, Danny,” O’Rourke chuokled. The peal of the trumpet announcing dinner interrupted his contemplated lecture-on tbe ethics of Investigation and the perils of flirtation as between maid and man servant (To be continued

"What For?” Demanded the Scot, Advancing.

Gently but Firmly Twisted Him Around by the Ear.