REPUBLICAN NEWS-ITEM Published by C. 8. DAI'BERMAN, LAPORTE PA. Bathing suits are made to fit the occasion. Mark the returned vacationer. By his tan ye shall know him. Some people goon picnics and oth ers get their shower baths at home. Old General Humidity 1b once more In supreme command of all the forces. Air pockets continue to cause trou ble, but nobody ever tries to pick them. The tides ebb and flow In political battles, but the fly gets swatted all the time. Another way to avoid sunstroke Is to let somebody else do the political ■wrangling. Airship or aeroplane. They can both become engines of death when the unforeseen happens. In Germany, too, the birth rate Is ■declining. Is the whole human race going to commit suicide? New York has again given evidence of Its dislike of dead ones by avert ing the hearse drivers' strike. Not until his wife goes away on a vacation does a man fully realize the Joys of poker as a summer sport. Conflicting emotions sway the plrl "who Is a delight to the eye In a bath ing suit but who freckles in the sue! A historian claims that the liberty bell Is a myth, but our English breth ren have reason to suspect otherwise. Perhaps If the weather bureau will take an Interlude In Its prediction of showers, the perverse skies might fa vor us. A London suffragette who donned Male attire had her shins kicked by a mob. Even the hobble skirt has Its advantages. A suit brought In 1826 has Just been nettled. There must have been some of the law's delays in the good old times, too. Why bother to water the plants while wlfle is away? It's much easier to buy her a new set just before Bhe is expected home. We are becoming a spry and spright ly people, science finds. A reflex, no <ieubt, of the agility acquired in dodg ing automobiles. One pleasurable form of summer va cation is to spend two weelts on one of those scout cruisers now engaged in hunting icebergs. A French town has proposed a grad uated tax on fat residents, those under 335 pounds being tax free. "The weight of opinion is against it. Is the large increase In business ehown by the Indianapolis postofllce for the fiscal year evidence of the in dustry of Indiana's authors? An Austrian count has gone into bankruptcy with assets of $7.20. It looks as if some American heiress might get a bargain there. When a small boy can go around all day attired in nothing but a cotton bathing suit the amenltiep of civiliza tion do not greatly bother him. Over In New York an alimony claim for $28,445 was soid at auction for fIOO. This does not sound like a sporting proposition. It looks more like a donation. There are nearly 12,000 lawyers In active practice In New York city. No wonder some of the people there pre fer to settle their disputes on ihe streets with revolvers. A Pennsylvania farmer says he has A flock of hens that can run the mu sical scale, but what we want In our bens Is less artistic temperament and more egg laying ability. A New Jersey man has been fined for allowing mosquitoes to breed on his land, Hut how can a man disperse a Cock of Jersey skeeters unless he be armed with a gatling gun? A denizen of a Detroit boarding house demands that hi 3 room rent be raturned because he has been forced to kill 28,000 bedbugs. If he does net have a care he will be arrested for hunting without a license. Students of the University of Chi cago have been forbidden to use tooth picks in public. If this sort of tning keeps up, Chicago will BOOH be de prived of all It3 distinguishing charac teristics. It is said that girl scouts must learn to bake bread, wash and iron, do sim ple cooking, build a coal fire, darn sockß and take care of babies. But what's the use? Girls who can do all of those things don't have to do any BCOUtiCg. Pecple who complained of the heat dunug the past few days should have their attention and memory directed to the records of a year ago. Having re tailed the temperatures of that tor rid interval th«y will be duly thauV that Uitj sue alive this yenr. by LOUIS JOSEPH COPYRtCHTI9O9 by I^UI^j^EPH^J^TSCE,^^ SYNOPSIS. The story opens at Monte Carlo with Col. Terence O'Rourke, a military free lance and something of a gambler. In his liotel. leaning 011. the balcony he sees a beautiful girl who suddenly enters the elevator and passes from sight. At the gaming table O'Rourke notices two men watching him. One Is the Hon. Bertie Glynn, while his companion is Viscount r>es Trebes, a duelist. The viscount tells him the French government has directed htm to O'Rourke as a man who would undertake a secret mission. At his apart ment, O'Rourke. who had agreed to un dertake the mission, finds a mysterious letter. The viscount arrives, hands a sealed package to O'Rourke. who Is not to open it until on the ocean. A pair of dainty slippers are se<»n protruding from under a doorway curtain. The Irishman finds the owner of the mysterious to he his wife, Beatrix, from whom he had run away a year previous. They are reconciled, and opening the letter he finds that a Rangoon law firm offers him 300.000 pounds for a jewel known as the Pool of Flame and left to him by a dy ing friend, but now in keeping of one named Chainbret in Algeria. O'Rourke worsts the nobleman in a duel. The wife bids O'Rourke farewell and he promises to soon return with the reward. He dis covers both Glynn and the viscount on board the ship. As he finds Chambret there Is an attack bv bandits and his friend dies telling O'Rourke that he has left the Pool of Flame with the governor general, who at sight of a signet ring given the colonel will deliver over the Jewel. Arriving at Algeria the Irishman finds the governor general away. Pes Trebes makes a mysterious appointment, and tells O'Rourke that he has gained possession of the jewel by stealing It. In a duel O'Rourke masters the viscount, secures possession of the Pool of Flame and starts by ship for Rangoon. He finds the captain to be a smuggler who tries to steal the jewel. CHAPTER XlV.—(Continued.) He ran as seldom he had run be fore, straining and laboring, stumbling, recovering and plunging onward. And. by tho 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 be yond. The sight brought forth 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 and 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; ana in tne end saw his 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 stabbed. Unexpectedly the Greek shrieked, dropped the knife as though it had turned suddenly white-hot in his hands, and leaped back from O'Rourke, nursing a broken wrist; •while a voice as sweet as the singing 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!" Hlindly enough (indeed the world was all awhirl about him) O'Rourke, his arm grasped by a strong and confi dent 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 blind ly he stumbled on for perhaps another hundred yards, while the voice of the rabble made hideous the night be hind them. Hardly, indeed, had the two whipped into the mouth of the back-way ere it was choked by a swarm of pursuers. But—"Xiver fear!" said the voice at his side. "'Tis ourselves that'll outwit them. . . . Here, uow, ver honor, do ye go straight on sthoppin' ontil ye come to an iron dure in a dead wall nt 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!" Henumbed by fatigue and exhaus tion. O'Rourke obeyed. He WM aware that his preserver with a wild whoop had darted aside into a crosa-allev, 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 bis generous pre-erver. And beard with a smile, the letter's bhrUJ defiant Irish yells luring them further upon the false scent. "If 'tis not Danny," gasped the ad venturer, "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, half fainling, 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 lie went to his knees with a cry that was a cross between a sob and a groan; and incontinently fell lull length upon an earthen floor, his head pillowed on his ann, 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'llourke to partial consciousness as had been a douche of cold water In his face. Blankly he told himself that he was 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 beauti ful as young, as young as beautiful. One glance was enough. O'Rourke shut his eyes again. "If I look too long," he assured himself, "she'll van ish or —or turn Into a fiend. Sure, 'tis a judgment upon me! Too long have I been an amorous dram-drinker; this will undoubtedly be the delirium-tre inens of love!" And with that he passed quietly into temporary unconsciousness. CHAPTER XV. He opened his eyes again, alone on the cool, damp, earthen floor, but as sured that the feminine element in his adventure had been no hallucination, after all; for he could see the girl standing a little to one side and look ing down upon him, her face so deep in shadow that he could gather noth ing from its expression, whether It were of displeasure or of perplexity. From this and that, however, he de duced that she, discovering herself lavishing endearments on the wrong man, was not utterly delighted with the situation. The circumstances tak en into consideration, such a state of mind he thought, not unreasonable; and being now to some extent recov ered, he saw no profit in making her suffer more. So with a show of faintness not wholly assumed, he rolled his head to one side, opening wide his eyes and looked the woman in the face, inquiring with his faint, thin brogue: "What's this, now, me dear?" The girl's face darkened. She shook her head impatiently. "I have no Eng lish," she told him in excellent French. "Who are you? Why do you come here? You are not Danny!" "Oho!" commented O'Rourke know ingly. "and that's the explanation, is it?" He sat up, embracing his knees and drawing a rueful face. "Faith, me dear," he admitted, "I concede ye the best of the argument, thus far. I am not Danny—'tis true as Gospel." She frowned. "Then what are you doing here, monsieur? ilow did you learn —who told you—the signal?" "Faith, from no less a person than Danny Mahone himself. He showed me the way and bade me knock—but niver a word said he of yourself, me dear." "Monsieur does not recall that I ad mitted him?" she persisted, but with a lightening: face, "nor anything that happened thereafter?" "Not the least in the world. What did happen, now?" But she flanked that embarrassing question adroitly, evidently much re lieved hv O'Rourke's reassurance. Which was Just what he wished her frame of mind to be. "Nothing that matters," she replied, continuing to employ the French tongue, and that very prettily, with a fetching little ac cent. "I think you fainted. Then—but You know my Danny?" . "Your Danny!" said O'Rourke. his mood quizzical. "None better, me dear. I've known him since he was so high. t,r thereabouts." And he held a palm tome six inches or so above tlie ftoor "And he —he brought you here?" "Who else? How else would I be knowing the signal? Ye see, there was a bit of a shindig down the street and me In the middle thereof and getting all the worst of it —if ye must know — when along comes Danny and lends me a hand and whips me off here and says he'll be back in a moment. He'll tell ye the details himself; but 1" — he eyed her quizzically—"would now ask ye to overlook the unceremonious manner of me entrance and a certain lack of dignity as to me attire, which I beg ye to believe is not me ordinary evening dress, and—and faith! me throat is baked entirely, if me clothes are not. May I ask for a drink at mademoiselle's fair hands?" He was on his feet now and en joying the situation hugely. "And 'tis the Irish eye for beauty Danny has!" he told himself. "I commend his taste, the rogue!" Kor the girl was exceedingly fair to see; slender and straight and girlish and sweet; a Greek, if he were to judge of her features and her dress, and in that odd light, with perturba tion in her pose, a smile half-perplexed trembling on her lips (because of O'Rourke's conceit) and the shadow of anxiety clouding her eyes, she made a charming picture indeed. She was quick to grant his request. "Danny will explain," she agreed with conviction. "This way, then, if you please, monsieur, and" —as they passed through a low doorway—"if you will have the patience to wait here, I will fetch wine." She smiled enchantingly, dropped him a bewitching little courtesy with a deference evoked, no doubt, by the man's subtle yet ineradicable air of distinction, and left him wholly capti vated. "Bless her heart and pretty face!" he murmured, eyeing her re treating figure. "'Tis Danny who's the lucky dog . . . not that he's not deserving. . . ." He reviewed his refuge summarily, discovering that he stood in one cor ner of a small courtyard, the center of a hollow cube of masonry; a dwell ing of two stories, round whose upper floor ran an inner gallery to which steps led up from the court and from which access was to be had to the liv ing rooms —all dark and silent In the center of the courtyard a little fountain tinkled, a tiny jet of water rising from the central upright of stone to spray the black, star-smit ten pool beneath. There was a little Exhausted a• He Was, the Irishman Struggled With Little Skill. plot of grass, likewise, with flowers generous of their cordial perfume. Tiie girl came silently out from the shadows beneath the gallery, bringing lilm u cup and a jar of earthenware brimming with wine. He accepted the service with a bow "Mademoiselle is as kind as she is beautiful!" said he.and with the ap preciation of a connoisseur first watched her blush, then drained the jus 10 iu last drop and felt the grate ful fluid grapple with his fatigue, tem per it, and send new strength leaping through his veins. "And as good, I'm sure, as she is kind," he added; and "Ah!" he sighed, resuming his seat but rising again, and quickly, as a second summons clanged upon the iron door and sent the girl flying to wards the rear of the house. "That will be Danny now," O'Rourke opined as she swept past him. She murmured a response he did not clearly catch. "What's that?" he called after her. "Or, possibly," she repeated, pausing at the entrance to the rear chamber, "it may be Monsieur the Captain Hole!" "The divvle!" cried O'Rourke, and was on his feet in a twinkling, cast ing about him for a weapon. "That can't be —" Nothing offered itself suitable either for olTense or defense, save and except the jug he had been drinking from, and the Irishman was weighing thl3 thoughtfully with a definite intention of hurling it at Captain Hole's head, if Indeed he had heard aright, when the entrance of quite another person relieved his mind, however tempo rarily. It was Danny, plainly enough; Dan ny, the same as of old, with his half sheepish. half-impudent grin and his shock of flaming hair, his upper lip that was long even for an Irish boy's, his roving and tw-inkling blue eyes, his tip-tilted nose, his short, sturdy physique. "Faith," said O'Rourke. "the gods are not so unkind after all! 'Tis as welcome as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, the sight of ye, Danny!" And "Danny!" he observed with some severity, "I'll ask ye to ex plain what the divvle at all ye're do ing here." Danny's assurance deserted him on the instant. He had done his former master a signal service that night, bpt in his estimation nothing more than was due the O'Rourke. Whatever he felt, he looked to perfection a boy caught at mischief—hanging his head and eyeing O'Rourke under his brows, shamefaced and 111 at ease. "Aw!" he deprecated, "sure, now, yer honor, now —" "Danny," demanded O'Rourke stern ly, "does Miss Cleopatra here under stand English?" "Divvle a word!" the ex valet pro- tested earnestly. "Beyond Greek and French and Arabic, sure, she's iguor ant as Paddy's pig!" So much was plainly evident from the girl's manner and expression of puzzlement. Reassured, O'Rourke pro ceeded : " 'Tis good hearing. Faith, if she understood the King's Rnglish. 'tis me hair she would be tearing out by the roots in one minute. Danny, I gather that the U be way oi Ilk fug ye more than ye deserve. In tt in love with you the is?" Danny stole a sidelong glance at the girl. "Begprin" yer honor's pardon." he stammered, "and I belave she is that." "tlmm!" snorted O'Rourke. "And what, if ye please, about poor Annie Bragin, at home? Is it marrying a Greek ye would be. and leavin;; poor Annie t,o cry her eyes out tor ye, ye worthless scut?" "Divvle a bit, respects to yer hon or! Sure, 'tis only for amusement —" "And who may she be, that ye make so free to amuse yourself with her?" "The daughter av me partner, yer honor, Noccov.a, the Greek tobaccy merchant." "This will be his house, then?" "No, sir, but a—a sort av a Bthore house, in a way av speaking. 'Tis jist 'round th' corner they do be llvin' in a gran' foine house, sir." "Then what's the young lady doing here?" "Waiting for me to take her place, sir. Noccovie is away and—and." in a blurted confession, " 'tis a bit of hashish smuggling we be doing on the side. The stuff is always brought here, sor; and tonight's the night a consignment's due." "Ah-h!" observed O'Rourke darkly. One by one, it seemed, he was gather ing the trumps again into his own hand. He resumed his catechism of the boy. "Danny, Is this the way a decent man should be behaving himself?" he browbeat him. "Is it your mother's son and the sweetheart of Annie Bragin that's become no more than an idle breaker of hearts? Danny, Dan ny, what would Father Malachl be saying If he could hear what ye've just told me? Whin, boy, did ye con fess last?" Danny cowered. "Aw, dear!" he whimpered. "Aw, dearie-dear! And meself meant no harm at all!" "Thin take your light-o'-love home, Danny, and come back to me here at once with a change of clothes!" "Yiss, yer honor. I'll do that, yer honor. But will ye hark for the signal at the door and let Cap'n Hole In?" It was true, then! "I will. But see that ye don't for get the change of clothes, Danny, and don't be lingering too long over your fond farewells with the lady, If ye're not looking for a hiding, and — Danny!" "Yis, sor?" "Have ye a revolver?" "Here, sor." "Give it here, and bring another back with ye. Lively, now!" Alone, O'Rourke seated himself on the edge of the fountain and consid ered gravely the uncertainties of life. " 'Tis fate," he concluded soberly, at length. "And 'tis hard upon eleven now. They will not dare to run that cargo before midnight; and—meself sorely needs a bath." Deliberately he stripped off rags and tatters and plunged into the fountain. Danny was back with the promised I wearing apparel ere he had finished splashing. And while O'Rourke dressed, and for long thereafter, the two sat and j smoked and confabulated, talked of j Men and Things and the turn o( the Wheel of the World. (TO BE CONTINUED.) CUT RATE FOR AN AMERICAN Judge Donnelly's Amusing Experience With the Sharp Irish Cab Driver in Dublin. Chief Justice Joseph G. Donnelly of the civil court, in illustrating an Irish man's idea of wit, told a story of an adventure with an Irish hack driver In Dublin, relates the Milwaukee Wiscon sin. "1 asked liim how much he would take to drive me to Ho»el he said. "The driver looked at me and said: 'You are from the states, aren't you?' 1 answered yes. " 'Well,' he said, 'since you are from the states, and I've driven nothing but Englishmen all day, I'll drive you to the hotel for three shillings.' "As 1 thought that was reasonable. I got into the hack. We drove on and on for hc*rs, over hills and across streams, until we finally got to tha hotel. While driving, I wondered at the difference between this hack driver and those in America, and won dered what an American hack driver would say if I were to hand him threa shillings for such a long ride. "1 went to bed and slept sound that night. When 1 woke up early in the morning, I went down and out on the front steps. 1 almost fainted, for di rectly in front of the hotel was the self-same depot that I arrived at on the train. I suppose the hack driver thought he was having a pile of fun while driving me arouud the city and country." In the Garden of Eden. "Did you know this was my birth day 1" asked Eve. "Could 1 lorget it?" answered Adam "Let's see —how old are you, this year —now don t answer—iei mo guess. Your are —ah—seven!" "You hateful wretch!" cried Eve. "I'm only five, and you know It. "But that Is Just like you men— you try to pretend that the time is dragging and that your wives ar« growing old! Just because you are over six, and have lots ol fray huirs, you think you can insult your wtie!" Eden was never the same alter lhal Utt. Inexpensive. "1 am thinking of going to Kurop* on a vacation." "You are! I didn't know you had that much money." "1 haven't, but, you see. It doesnl cost anything to think of going."— Llppincott'a.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers