REPUBLICAN NEWS-ITEM PnbUhed by C fr. I»A t Hit* MAX. Imm kAPOUTt PA. Pwttch your order to butlermllh end keep tt 01. The demon of Ihe air l» busy theae reaping hi* gruesome harvest. The man who doesn't worry Is gen erally h man with nothing to worry l bout. TMs season's most popular song looms to be Just as Inane as Its prede tcssor* Notwithstanding their heavy fm fonts, the bears ar« active on ths itock exchange. This would bo a happy, happy world t garden truck could be raised as easily as dandelions. If thy tight collar grievously afflict eth thy neck, take It off. Why should the spirit of mortal be prouA? THirtng the heated term, however. II Is perfectly safe to Indulge In light ex ercise, such as swatting flies. New York is booming itself as a mninier resort and here and there we understand people are falling for It. The new flag of forty-eight stars points with pride, confounding super itltion, to the fact that It started with thirteen Kxcltable people should not talK politics during the hot weather. There will be cool days for that sort of thing presently. Newport lately had a lobster fam ine, from which It appears that the rich also have their share of the suf ferings of life. Speaking of family tangles, the Ohio man who married his son's widow now knows how It feels to be his wife s father-in-law. Perhaps Rudyard Kipling's latest magazine story w ?h a dollar a word, but personally wo would rather have the $5,000. A ir.edical authority Informs us that there are only 146 lepers in the I'nlted States, but in the matter of leprosy, a Utile goes a long war. A historian breaks Into print with the claim that the liberty bell Is a take. All of which goes to show how easy It is to break into print. The New York police department has been enlisted In the fl.v-swattinu rampalgn. Now every member of th« force can boast that he Is a fly cop. A foreign count now visiting this country says that ho has found only one reul gentlemaTl In the United States. How much does ho owe him! Burglars broke Into a London Jail »nd stole the warden's money from hi* ofllce desk. After this. It Is not quit# talr to say the British have no seus« of humor. The death rate of New York hh« keen reduced ote-half since lS6t>. But then most of the visitors in New York manage to get back home befor« they die. People who have waited to buy • flag until all the Btars were on may ipend their money without hesitation BOW. The 1012 model Is likely to stand lor a good many years. A man In Germany was sent to jail for turning the face of a bust of the emperor to the wall. The lese majest* business, which lang»lshed for awhile, Biust be looking up. Why go away for the summer when there is a perfectly good one at home? What Is tho connection between holidays and accidents? Is It that things nre rushed or because the holi day spirit is a reckless one? A modern Trilby breaks Into print Kith the claim that she can be hyp. Botized Into Blugiug like a grand opera itar. Why not make her debut befors tii audience of tuuriues? One professional aviator has given up his dangerous pursuit to win a bride. Nuturaliy enough, his prc.speo' tlve wife did not like the Idea of a bus band always up In the nlr. The pedestrlau may be weary and worn with the heat, but the motor car pursues htm with ail Its old time fe eoclty. We yearn for the sight of a motor ear overcome by a cunstroke. A fisherman claims that ho has caught a catfish 131 years old In the Mississippi. Ordinary fishermen pre varicate about the weight of their catch, but this angler has originality. A book ngent, who 1s 100 years old and sttll on the job, doclarcs his long evity and enterprise are due to butter milk. But wheu It comes to butter milk encouraging book ugants to live a hundred years, It is time to put it under ban. A Pennsylvania phyßtclan proclaims that "the family cat must go." We have no grudge against the family cat, but we are strong for the exter mination of the cat which deserts lta family and ainfts on the back fence night, iplasKaE COpYR^CHTI9O() LCUIS JOSEPH VANCE 1- / -\ SYNOPSIS. The story opers nt Monte Parlo with Col Ter. nee tvKourke. a military free lance and something of a gambler, In hi* hotel leaning mi the balcony lie sees a beautiful (rlil who suddenly enters the elevator and pnP l -' s from sight. At the gaming tsi>le O'Rourke notices two men watching lilm. oil'' l« tho lion. Rertle tilvnn. while his companion Is Viscount 1 >.* Treh. s, a duelist Tho viscount tells him the 1 -Tench government has directed him t" O'Rourkr ns a man who would undertake a secret mission. At his apart ment, O'Rourke. who hud agreed to un dertake the mission, finds i» mysterious letter The viscount arrives. hands n •ealo.l package to O'Rourke. who 1" not to open It vmtll on the ocean A pair of dainty slippers nre seen protruding rrom under a doorway curtain Ti e Irishman finds the owner of the mysterious feet to he his wife. Beatrix, from whom lie had run nway n year previous They nre reconciled. and opening the letter he finds that a Rangoon law llmi offers him l.n.imo pounds for n Jewel known ns the Pool of l lame and left to hlni by a dy ing friend, but now In keeping of one named worsts the nobleman In a duel. The wife bids <Vllourke farewell and he promises to soon return with the reward lie dis covers both Olynn and the vlseount on hoard the ship As ho Amis Ohambret there Is an attack hv bandits and Ills fit. tul dies telllni! O'Rourke that he has left the Pool of Flan,e with the governor general who at sight of a signet ring Riven the colonel will deliver over the i Jewel. Arriving at Algeria the Irishman | ilnds the governor general away. Des Trebes makes a mvsterlous appointment, and tells O'Rourke that he has pained possession of the Jewel by stealing it. In a dMI (VRourke misters the vlseount. secures possession of the Pool of 1* lame anil starts by ship for Rangoon. He finds the captain to be a smuggler who tries to Steal the Jewel. It Is filially secured by the captain and O'Rourke escapes to land. CHAPTER XVI. At midnight the mueze.in Inn neigh boring minaret turned his face to the windswept sky and summoned the faithful to prayer and meditation. O'Rourke pulled thoughtfully at his pipe until the musical, melancholy wail had been whipped away by the breath of the khamsin, and there was silence pave for the dull, heavy roar- In* overhead. Then he resumed the conversation where it had been inter rupted. "And ye say ye love the young wom an, Danny?" "I do that, yer honor." "And ye would marry her?" "Wid yer honor's consint—l'm ready. 1 sor." "1 bless the banns. Ye may have ; her on one condition." "Aw-w?" "I've need of ye, as I've pointed out—" "Sure, yer honor knows ye can count | on mo to the last breath in me. sor." j "Then ye'll come with me to Bur mall?" "Do you think, sor, I could slnpe of | nights, after hcarln' from your own lips what ye've been through and sus- I pectin' what more ye must go through with before ye've won? Will 1 be , coniin', is ut? Faith. I'll go whether ! ye want me or not." "And afterwards ye can come back | to Miss Psyche here, or whatever her j name may be." "Viss, yer honor, and thank ye kind- ' ly." . . . Abruptly Danny started | up. "They'll be comin' now. sor.' he said in an excited whisper. "I'm think- j in' I hear thlm bluudhcring down the alley." Ho turned toward the renr of the \ house, and as O'Rourke rose to follow j him, the signal sounded on the metal j door. Danny quickened his steps, and j as he disappeared his master slipped quietly into the shadows beneath the overhanging gallery. From this point of seclusion he could hear distinctly the Jar of the bolts as Danny opened the iron door, followed by his hoarse whisper: "Whist! is ut yersllves, now ?" Hole's voice answered him huskily: "Who the hell else would it be? Let us in, you damn' harp." Tue door creaked upon its hinges: and was cautiously closed. The boits rattled again. Footsteps shuffled slowly, as of men heavily burdened, over the floor of earth. Then, while O'llourke gathered himself together, exultation in his heart, and the fore taste of revenge sweet in his mouth, two cloaked figures scuffled Into the courtyard, breathing hard beneath their b'irdens of smuggled drug. Hole promptly dumped his share of the load down upon the bench and swung upou Danny. "Where's Nlc covie?" he demanded, evidently in aa ugly a mood as he could muster. "Where is 'e? Stop standln' there and starin' with yer balmy trap open, yer—" "That will he about enough," sug gested O'Rourke pleasantly, in a con versational tone, stepping from nis place of concealment. "Don't call names. Hole—ye're too near your Clod —lf ye have one, which I misdoubt." In the clear, bright starlight the pis tols In his hands were plainly evident; and one stared the captain in the eye; one covered the head of the Pelican's first oflicer. "Ye wiU not motel" said O'Rouiue, "What For?" Demanded the Scot, Advancing. sharply, "save and except to put your hands above your heads. So —don't delay. Mr. Dennison; I've never known me temper to be shorter." Hole began to splutter excitedly. "Save your breath, ye whelp!" O'Rourke counseled him curtly. "Ye'll have need of It before I'm done with ye." He added; "Search and dis arm them. Danny." The servant set about his task with alacrity; it is safe to say that he left not so much as a match in the pocket of either. While he was about it, Hole, with his eyes steadily fixed upon the unwavering muzzles of O'Rourke's revolvers, managed to master his emo tion enough to ask coherently; "What are you going to do with us?" "Ye'll see in good time," returned O'Rourke grimly. "Have ye found it. Danny?" Danny backed away from Hole, whom he had searched after Denni son. "Ylss, sor," he returned. "At least. I think so. Is this ut?" "I can't look at this moment. Danny. Is it a leather bag with something hard inside, the size of a hen's egg. or a bit larger?" "The very same, yer honor." "Very well." O'Rourke suppressed the tremble of relief in his voice, j "Put it in your pocket, Danny—the I very bottom of your pocket. Did ye i find a gun on either of them?" j "One on each, sor." "Loaded?" "Yiss, sor." ! "Then cover them, Danny." j For himself O'Rourke put down his ! pistols and calmly stripped off his 1 coat, rolling up his sleeves. "Hole," he said, tersely. "don't | move. If ye do, Danny will puncture I ye. Your turn comes last. Denni son', ye may step out." i "What for?" demanded the Scot, ad -1 vanclng. j "To receive payment, with Interest, 1 for that blow ye gave me this even ' Ing, nie man. Put up your hands. ' I'm going. In your own words, Mr. Den ; nlson. to hammer the fear of Ood Into as cowardly and despicable a pair of s< oundrels as I've ever encoun tered. And." reflectively, "I've met ' a good many. But most of the others were Men." CHAPTER XVIi. Two battered and sore sailormen sat back to back, their arms lashed to one another and to the central up right so that neither could move, both half-submerged in the fountain of Nic covle the Greek. "Ye'll fl;.i :he bath quite refresh ing." O'Rourke told them, preparing to depart, "as well as a novel experi ence. 'Twill do ye a world of good. Captain Hole, as anyone will tell ye who has ever bad the misfortune to I stand to leeward of ye. LOUR IUOUU/ nnd other belongings ye'll find on tbe | bench here, if «ver 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 re fuse to pay my bill for passage from Athens to Alexandria. If ye care to dispute it, me solicitors in Dublin will be pleased to enter into litigation with ye. Gentlemen!" he bowed ironically, "I bid ye good night." He was still chuckling over the out come when, twenty minutes later, he and Danny were trudging through the silent 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 acci dent, 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, beln' what ye lent me, yer honor, while all the rlst is yours for the taking." "That's fine, Danny, fine!" sighed O'Rourke. " 'TIs yourself will never re gret investing it in Pool of Flame, Un limited. I'll personally guarantee tbe 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 morning, as It happened, the Pelican had discreetly left the har bor. CHAPTER XVIII. It was mid-afternoon of a sultry day. No air stirred. The Panjnab was coal ing at Port Said. O'Rourke eyed the vessel with dis favor from the shore; then dropped into a harbor dinghy, ensconced him self 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 back; another boat had forestalled him, another passenger was shipping for the East. 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 self-possession. At the top she paused, turned, . looked down, watching the transfer of her luggage and her maid. . . . From Bundry intangible Indications O'Rourke as sumed tbe second woman's figure to be the lady's maid. And so did Donny. Tbe one eyed the mistress, the other 1 her servant, both with Interest J The woman uu deck threw back ber veil. She seemed to promise uncom mon beauty of tho Ktigiish type, full colored and of classic mold. . . . The Irishman was much too far away to be certain, but he fancied that her eaye wandered toward him and—but this, of course, was only Imagination —that she started slightly. At all even's, she was quick to drop tho veil and turn away. lier maid Joining her, both vanished beneath the canvas awnings. The boat that had 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 to the 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, lie slipped down again his back, panted, and wiped hl3 brow. Danny, recognizing that he was not expected to respond, and being a young man remarkably acute to diag nose his master's moods, prudently re frained from comment. He sat hunch ed up 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 in vaded the stateroom, until that mo ment 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 book against the bulk head 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," said he proudly. "M'anln" no onrespect to yer honor," he added hastily. O'Rourke took the subject of discus sion in his 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 com mented on what he discovered with out; " 'tis passing Suez we are this blessed minute. Praises be. we caught a boat that doesn't stop here." Danny scratched an ankle thought fully. "Yiss, yer honor," he assented, dubious. "But, for all that, phwat's to hinder annywan from lioordin' 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 indulgence. 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 Dan ny and assured himself that the key hole was properly wadded, that no crack existed through which his move ments might be observed from the gangway. Shrugging his broad shoul ders he returned to the seat vacated by his valet and thrust a hand be neath the coat of his pajamas, with drawing it a moment later, fingers tightly wrapped about a rather bulky object. And the Pool of Flame lay glitter ing 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 new receptacle and drawing the lanyard tight about its puckered throat, he stood up und 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. "Divvle a sowl!" he announced tri umphantly. "Sure, 'tis ourselves have given thim the slip entirely!" He fished a brand new kit-box from beneath the berth and. opening it, be ban to lay out O'Rourke's clothing. His master indulged in a sigh of re lief. "Then no boat put off to us nt all?" be questioned indifferently. "Only wan," replied the servant, "and thot wid no wan in ut but a nay i «ur." "A negro?" demanded O'Rourke, fn cing about. "What do yc moan? Did he come aboard?" "Sure and he did thnt, yer honor, and caught us bo no tnoore thin the skin av his tathe and—" O'Rourke bent over the man and seizing him by the shoulders swung him around so that their eyes met. "What the dlvvle!" demanded the ad venturer, "did ye mean by telling me nobody boarded us, then? What —" "Sure, yer honor. . . . Aw. yer honor! . . . 'Tla mosllf meant no harrm at all, at all!" protested Danny. "Didn't 1 say thot dlvvle a sowl came aboord? Sure, thin. Is a naygur a hu man?" With an exasperated gesture O'Rourke released the boy. "'Tls too much for me ye are," he said help lessly. "Now and again 1 believe ye have the makings of a man in ye, and then ye go off and play the fool! If I didn't believe ye a pure simpleton with not an ounce of mischief in your body, I'd take that out of your worth less hide. Get on with ye! Tell me about this 'naygur.' What sort of a black man is he?" "Sure, sor," whimpered Danny. " 'tis mesilf that w'u'd die rather thin have ye tall; to me thot way, yer honor. Upon me sowl, 1 niyer thought ye'd worry about a poor divvle av a nay gur, 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?" inquired O'Rourke. "Dlvvle a bit, rayspicts to ye." More cheerfully Danny struggled with the studs In O'Rourke's shirt. "The pur ser was all for kicking him back into his boat, sor, whin he offered to pay passage In the steerage. So they let him stay, sor." "Seemed to have money—eh?" "Aw, no, yer honor. 'Twas barely able he was to scrape ut all together." "Lascar?" "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 pacific ally, "belike he's what he seems, Dan ny, and has no concern with us at all. Whether or no. care killed the cat. . . . D'ye mind, Danny," he swung off on one of his characteristically acute tangents, "the little woman with the red hair? Though 'tis meself should beg the lady's pardon for men tioning the color of her hair in the same room with that outrageous head light of yours. Danny. . . . D'ye mind her, 1 mean?" "The wan ve observed at Poort Said, sor? The wan ye told me to discover the name av?" " 'Tls a brave detective ye would make, Danny." Ye have me mefiing entirely!" "Aw, yiss." Danny'R 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 ad mitted. He rose, and as he did so, O'Rourke gently but firmly twisted him around by the ear and as deliberately and thoughtfully kicked him. "What the divvle is the matter with ye, Danny?" he inquired in pained re monstrance. "It is mad ye are. or have ye no judgment at all, ye scut, that ye speak to me In that tone?" Solicitously Danny rubbed the chastened portion of his person, grum bling but unrepentant. O'Rourke grinned tolerantly, retain ing his hold upon the servitor's ear. "Her name?" "Ow, yer honor, leggo! . . . Missus Prynne, sor!" The wanderer gave the ear nnother tweak, by way of enforcing the les son. "Prynne, is it? And how did you learn that, Danny?" " 'Twas her maid told me, eor. Leg go, yer honor, plaze—" "And how did her maid come to tell ye, ye great ugly, long-legged oniadhaun?" "Sure—ow! —'twas onjy a bit av a kiss I was by way av givin' her, sor—" "That'll do, Danny," O'Rourke chuc kled. The peal of the trumpet announcing dinner Interrupted his contemplated lecture on the ethics of Investigation and the perils of flirtation as between maid and man servant. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Same Thing. "And be 6ald he was willing to dil tor me?" "Not exactly in those words, bui that was the impression be was evl dtntly trying to convey." "What did he nay?' "He said he waa ready to eat youl , cooking any time you said th« ward.' I —Houston Pogfc
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