&POOL JHj
FLAMll^g
fcy LOUIS JOSEPH
17
SYNOPSIS.
The story opens at Uonte Carlo with
Col. Terence O'Uourko, a military free
iance and something of a gambler. In his
note). Leaning on 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 htm. One is the Hon. Bertie
?ilynn, while his companion Is Viscount
Des Trebes, a duelist. The viscount tells
him the French government has directed
him 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
Healed package to O'Rourke, who Is not
to open It until on the ocean. A pair of
dainty slippers are seen protruding from
under a doorway curtain. The Irishman
finds the owner of the mysterious feet to
be 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
100,000 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 Chambret 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 by 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. Des
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
Hie captain to be a smuggler who tries to
steal the jewel. It is finally secured by
the captain and O'Rourke escapes to
land. With the aid of one Danny and
his sweetheart, O'Rourke recovers the
I'ool of Flame. On board ship once more,
hound for Rangoon, a mysterious lady
appears. O'Rourke comes upon a lascar
about to attack the lady, who Is a Mrs.
Prynne, and kicks the man Into the hold.
Mrs. Prynne claims she Is eg route for
Indiana on a mission for the king.
O'Rourke is attacked by the lascar. who
secures the Pool of Flame, the captain
Is shot and the lascar Jumps Into the sea.
The ship arrives in port. Danny hands
O'Rourke the Pool of Flame which he
has stolen from Mrs. Prynne. It Is the
real jewel, the one lost at sea being a
counterfeit. O'Rourke goes to Calcutta
and discovers Des Treheg disguised. He
now knows that Mrs. Prynne was an ac
complice.
CHAPTER XXIX.
As time went on, however, if his un
■easinpss were not sensibly dimin
ished, nothing happened, the voyage
proving entirely uneventful; and
O'Rourke was forced to the conclusion
that, if Monsieur de Hyeres were real
ly the Vicomte des Trebes, ho was
strangely content to play a waiting
game.
The Irishman, however, had known
stranger things than that one man
should seem the counterpart of an
other. And by nothing more than
this questionable accident of resem
blance did De Hyeres give him reason
to believe lilm anything but what he
■cliamed to be. The man's demeanor
was consistently discreet and self
contained; he moved about the ship
■openly and without any apparent at
tempt to pry upon the doings of the
adventurer, whom he fell into the
easy ship-board way of greeting ami
ably but coolly. Only In one instance.
Indeed, did they exchange more than
but courteous salutations, and then
De Hyeres himself seemed to seek
the interview, approaching O'Rourke
■directly.
This was at night, when O'Rourke
occupied a chair on the leeward side
of the saloon deck, consuming a medi
tative after-dinner cigar. De Hyeres
stepped out of the companlonway,
glanced swiftly this way and that, and
sauntered toward the Irishman with
an unlighted cigarette held conspicu
ously between his fingers.
O'Rourke likewise surveyed his sur
roundings in two brief glances: and
was contented to find that they were
alone, or as much alone as two can be
upon a steamship. For they were,
after all, woll matched; and one of
them he knew to be armed. Shifting
In his chair so that his revolver lay
convenient to his hand, as De Hyeres
approached the Irishman removed his
cigar from between his teeth, flicked
away an inch of ash and silently prof
fered it in the prescribed fashion.
The Frenchman accepted the cour
tesy with a bow. applied the tire to his
cigarette. Inhaled deeply and returned
the cigar with a formal phrase of
thanks. He lingered for a moment,
puffing and gazing off over the black,
starlit expanse of the Bay of Bengal,
lonely to its dim and far horizon, then
observed quietly: "I am not mistaken,
1' believe, in understanding I have the
honor to address Monsieur le Colonel
O'Rourke, Chevalier of tho Legion of
Honour?"
"You are not mistaken, monsieur,"
returned O'Rourke pleasantly, then
■wuli the directness which he some
times found useful, watching the man
closely as he spoke: "And I believe
It is my pleasure to recognize Mon-
Bler Le Vicomte des Trebes?"
"Des Trebes, monsieur?" The
Frenchman's look of wonder was be
yond criticism and there was no least
trace of discomfiture to be detected
In his manner. "But no. You arm
under a mistake. I am merely a
French gentleman without a title;
Raoul do Hyeres is ray name."
"Ah!" said the wanderer. " 'Twas
the resemblance misled me. Pardon,
monsieur."
"Granted, my dear sir. . . . Des
Trebes? The name has a familiar
sound. Do I not remember reading
somewhere that the Vicomte des
Trebes died last spring? In Tunis,
was itT . . . Suddenly, I believe."
"Is it so?" said O'Rourke drily. "Pos
sibly. The vicomte lived In the man
ner of those who meet with sudden
deaths."
The subject languished, and after a
few more noncommittal observances
De Hyeres wandered off, presumably
in search of the English girl, to whom
he had been paying assiduous atten
tion.
On closer scrutiny, she had proved
to be a remarkably pretty girl; al
though, in point of fact, O'Rourke, for
all that he admired her looks im
mensely, had purposely avoided her.
This he did from motives of prudence:
he mistrusted the combination formed
by De Hyeres and the The latter
might be all that she looked and claim
ed to be: a sweet, wholesome and rath
er ingenuous young Englishwoman, an
orphan, resident in Rangoon in the
household of an uncle, to whom she
was returning after a visit with
friends in Simla. On the passenger
list her name stood as Emilia Pyn
sent. But the adventurer felt it the
course of wisdom to deny himself the
pleasure of her acquaintance, so long
as she permitted the attentions of the
Frenchman.
Altogether, considering the hot
weather and such self-imposed re
strictions, O'Rourke considered the
voyage hardly a success from a social
point of view. He kept pretty much
to himself and to Danny, and to make
assurance doubly sure he Instituted a
new regime with regard to the Pool
of Flame: that jewel never left his
stateroom. When O'Rourke was on
The Frenchman Accepted the Courtesy With a Bow.
deck or at meals, Danny sat behind
bolts, alert and under arms, and vice
versa. By night they stood regular
watches together, the one on guard
while the other slept. Clearly the ad
venturer was determined that no lack
of safeguards on his part should again
deprive him of the ruby.
But it's no easy matter to avoid
meeting any particular person'on a
ship with a small saloon list, unless
one Is willing to be purposely rude
and discourteous. For all his wari
ness the Irishman was to carry with
him a personal Impression of Mis*
Pynsent.
On the laßt day of the passage, to
ward evening, the Poonah raised the
coast of Burmah; by dark she was
steaming steadily southwards along
the littoral, heading for the delta of
the Irrawaddy.
A still, bright night with little wind: |
O'Rourke was not one to resist Its al
lure. Four bells saw him lounging at
the rail below the bridge, staring hun
grily over toward the land. It was In
his mind that another twelve hours
or so would see him relieved of his
trust; and as the time drew nigh im
patience burned hotly within him; he
had become full weary of the Pool of
Flame and was anxious to be free of
the thing, to have Its chapter in his
history closed forever.
Far over the water a white and
flashing light lifted up and caught his
eye, a nameless beacon bright against
the darkness at the base of the Ara
kan hills, guardian of the perils of
those shallow seas. And simultane
ously he became conscious of a pres
ence at his elbow; as he turned sharp
ly the English girl addressed him in
a voice sweet-toned and quiet.
"What Is that light, if you please.
Colonel O'Rourke?"
"Faith, that I can't Bay, Miss Pyn
sent.".
Her eyes flashed a laugh upon him
in the gloom. "Then you know my
name?"
"Even as yourself knew mine.
'Twould be strange otherwise, with
our ship's company so small."
"But I," she returned, animated, "ara
such an insignificant person—while
you are the Colonel O'Rourke."
"Ye do me an honor I'm not deserv
ing, Miss Pynsent, but 'tis proud I
am entirely that a humble soldier of
fortune should be known to ye be
reputation."
"Oh, I've grown quite weary of your
fame. Colonel O'Rourke," she coun
tered with a trace of laughing Impu
dence. "Hardly anything has inter
ested Monsieur De Hyeres, these past
few days, save anecdotes of your ex
ploits."
" 'Tis kind of him, to be sure. I
must cultivate his acquaintance and
learn from him to know meself, 1
see."
If she detected the Irony she over
looked or failed to understand It.
"He's very entertaining," she com
mented, pleasantly. "Out then most
Frenchmen are, don't you think? 1
hope to see much oi him in Rangoon."
"So he's landing there, too?"
O'Rourke filled in the pause.
"I believe so. And you. Colonel
O'Rourke?"
"I may have to wait over until the
next steamer," he admitted warily.
"I sympathise heartily with your
disgust at the prospect." laughed the
girl.
"Eh? And why? 'Tin a land of fair
repute for climate and beauty."
"Ah, but I live In Burmah, you aee.
and so have come to know it far too
well. But that's the way with all ex
patriates. Isn't It—to hate their h#mes
so far from home?"
"Must ye endure It, then, Miss Pyn
■ent?"
"An orphan has little choice. It
seems my kismet to abide in Rangoon
forever and a day. You see, my only
living relative is an uncle, Mr. Lans
downe Sypher, and he's got no one
else to keep house for him."
"Lansdowne Sypher . . . !"
The ejaculation sprang to O'Rourke's
lips before be could restrain it.
"Yes. Do you know him? He's the
junior, you know, of the firm of Sec
retan and Sypher."
"Solicitors, are they not? . . .
No; 'tls me misfortune not to know
your uncle. But the name of his firm
I've heard."
The genial nature of the Irishman,
which had Insensibly warmed to tbe
girl's charm, withdrew abruptly, tor
toise-like, Into a shell of reserve. The
element of coincidence had again en
tered Into his affairs, and he had
learned a bitter lesson from experience
—to distrust coincidence on general
principles. "There's naught so com
mon in life as coincidences," he phil
osophised, "and be the same token
naught so dangerous."
For which reason he invented an
early excuse to terminate the conver
sation, and ungallantly withdrew to the
seclusion of his stateroom, where he
passed a night that seemed Intermina
ble; for he lay long in a wakeful pan
ic of Imagination, scheming out a hun
dred stratgems whereby he might con
fuse as many possible attempts to pre
vent the due and safe delivery of the
Pool of Flame Into the hands of Mr.
Lansdowne Sypher.
CHAPTER XXX.
Toward the close of the following
ijay the Poonah dropped anchor in the
fiver roadstead ofT Rangoon; and with
in the ensuing hour her passengers
had deserted her. De Hyeres and Miss
Pynsent in their van, O'Rourke among
the last to leave. And nothing hin
dered him, not the least hitch delayed
his disembarkation. It was curious,
it was incredible, it was disturbing.
He took away with him no ease of
mind whatever.
There were tlkkagharrles waiting,
and without a breath's delay the ad
venturer and his servant climbed Into
the nearest and desired to be con
veyed to-the offices of Messrs. Sec
retan and Sypher. The vehicle whirled
them swiftly away and into the main
traveled way of Rangoon. Mogul
street.
In front of a structure of stone and
Iron so palpably an office building
that It might have been transplanted
to tbe Strand without exciting com
ment —save for the spotless cleanli
ness of it —their tlkkagharry drew up.
The gharriwallah Indicated the of
fices of Messrs. Secretan and Sypher,
one flight up—and named his fare.
O'Rourke paid him and alighted, with
Danny at his heels and his heart try
ing to choke him. The hour of ful
filment was at hand—and all was
well! lie who bad faced death In a
hundred shapes of terror, unflinching,
found himself In a flutter of nerves
that would have disgraced a school
girl
He dodged into the building, took
the steps three at a stride . . . and
suddenly found himself in the prej
ence of, more than that, closeted with
the man to meet whom he had crossed
half the world at peril of his life:
Mr. lansdowne Sypher.
"Colonel O'Rourke?"' Sypher's man
ner was very cordial. "I'm glad to see
you. You are within your time, yet 1
had begun to despair of you. Be
seated." He Indicated a chair bestde
his desk. "And permit me; you of
all men will appreciate the precau
tion."
He laughed and went to the win
dows, adjusting the wooden shades in
such a. manner that the light was
tempered and no portion of the room
could be visible to anyone spying
from a window in one of the adjacent
buildings. The he turned and smiled
cheerfully at the stupefied adventurer.
"I have it here," said O'Rourke; "safe
be the mercy of several highly poten
tial saints!" He laughed uneasily,
fumbling in his breast pocket. "There
it is," said ho, tossing the stone in Its
chamois covering upon the solicitor's
desk.
Sypher himself betrayed some evl
denceu of nervousness as he sat for
ward and lifted the case by its leath
ern thongs. He let it dangle before
blm for an instant, watching it with a
curious, speculative smile. . . .
"Well," he Bald, "really . . . »"
And after a pause; "I congratulate
you, Colonel O'Rourke. And I admire
you Immensely. . . . You see.
when this commission was offered us,
I considered seriously the project of
going in search of you in person and
bringing the stone back to Rangoon
myself. But then —although I'm not
really a timorous man —l knew the
i circumstances so well —I feared I
ahnnlrt nAvar reach Rnnimna tli>«
Tea." In tttrast • band ■waist
coat pocket and produced a penknife,
with which he began to silt the
stitches that enclosed the ruby.
"You've been wondering, no doubt,
why eo enormous a reward was of
fered. . .
"I ha»o that." assented O'Roiirke.
"It was partly because of the dan
ger," said Sypher, Intent upon his oc
cupation. "You know, these Burmese
are a curiously pious folk; when one
of them grows rich he employs the
major part of his fortune In building
a temple—or in some such work. This
particular gentleman—a very wealthy
merchant —chose to give half of what
be had to the restoration of the Pool
of Flame to the Buddha from which It
was originally stolen. But he, too,
was afraid. He's superstitious about
the stone —believes It bad luck to
touch it so long as it remains away
from Its Buddha. So he came to us.
... I myself am not superstitious,
but , .
He ceased to speak abruptly, for the
Pool of Flame lay naked, a blinding
marvel, In the hollow of his palm.
O'Rourke heard him gasp and was
conscious of his hastened respiration.
Watching the man Intently, he saw
a strange shade of pallor color bis
face.
" 'Tls meself," said the adventurer,
"that's no more superstitious than ye.
sir. Yet I'm willing to confess I'm
glad the thing's out of me hands at
last."
Sypher seemed to recollect himself
as one coming out of a r -te of stu
por. He stood up and I uoned the
ruby carefully Into a pocket of his
trousers. "Come," he said crisply.
"Let us step across the street to the
bank. The money's there for you, sir
—the reward."
CHAPTER XXXI.
Back In his stateroom on the Poo
nah, O'Rourke threw himself into tbe
lower berth and lay there, a forearm
flung across his eyes, thinking ex
citedly, disturbed by formless fore
bodings.
Beside him Danny was packing In
dustriously, with now and again i
pause during which he would stan«
reflective, his gaze fixed upon his em
ployer's face, a little puzzled and per
plexed.
The Poonah was pausing overnight
to discharge and take aboard cargo;
for this reason O'Rourke in his haste
to get ashore had not delayed to take
his luggage with him. . . . On
deck, fore and aft donkey engines
were puffing and chugging and chain
tackles rattling as they lifted freight
to and from the hold and the lighters
alongside.
Abruptly, without moving, O'Rourke
spoke. "I'll want evening clothes,
Danny," said he. " 'Tls dining I am
tonight with Mr. Straker and his
niece. Miss Pynsent, who came with us
from Diamond Harbor. 'Twill save a
bit of bother to dress before 1 go
ashore."
"Aw-w," said Danny, assimilating.
. . . "And the missus?" he said
suddenly, some minutes later. "M'an
ln' Madam O'Rourke, sor. Did ye get
no word from her?"
"For what else would I be driving
to every hotel in the town after leav
ing Mr. Sypher, Danny, but to inquire
for her? She's not here; but she'll
come, be sure. She's still got several
days—three or four—ln which to keep
our tryst. 'Tis discontented I am not
to find her waiting for me, but I'm
satisfied eutlrely she'll keep faith."
"And," insisted Danny eagerly—
"beggin' yer honor's pardon—but what
will ye have to tell her, sor?"
O'Rourke sat up. "Have to tell
her? What d'ye mean?"
"I mean, sor, I'm dyin' wid the wish
to know how ut's all turned out.
Plase, yer honor, won't ye be tellin'
me? Is ut—ls ut all right?"
"Bless your heart, Danny!" laughed
O'Rourke, " 'Tis so dazed I've been
that I never thought to tell ye—think
ing all the time that ye knew. 'Tls
all right. Indeed, me boy. The Pool of
Flame's In Mr. Sypher's keeping and
the money' Bin mine—ln the bank,
Danny, payable to me order. Think of
it —one hundred thousand pounds of
real money, and all me own. 'Tis
ridiculous, 'tls absurd. 'Tls meself
hardly credits the truth of it all; yet
I was there —saw the man, gave him
the jewel, went to the bank with him
and for the space of five minutes sat
at a table, with ail that money before
me, counting It over, bill by bill, a
square hundred of them, each for a
thousand pounds, guaranteed by the
Bank of England! . . . Think of
that—all that belonging tome —to me,
O'Rourke! . .
"Thank God!" breathed Danny de
votedly. "But did ye l'arn nothln'
about the stone?"
"Little enough, Danny—only a part
of the meaning of the whole divllish
business; the rest I'm to know to
night. Mr. Sypher 'll be tellin' me
after we've dined; he wants to hear
me own end of the story, too."
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
A Judge Without Prisoners.
St. Helena Is a curlousity among our
colonies. Inasmuch as its governor is
also chief Justice, although he may
never have opened a law book. The
retiring ruler. Sir Henry Gallnway, is
a soldier, and In reviewing his nine
years' administration the little local
paper mentions that he presided at
33 courts of quarter sessions, but at
21 of them there was no business ex
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absence of serious crime is declared'
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In view of the "struggle for existence,
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