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president of the Metropolitan Oriental nug company of New York, thirsting for ro mance, is in Cairo on a business trip. Horace Ryanne arrives at the hotel in Cairo with a carefully guarded bundle. Ryanne sells Jones the famous holy Yhi ordes rug which he admits having stolen *rom a pasha at Bagdad. CHAPTER IV.?(Continued.) Some light steps, a rustle, and he wheeled In time to see a woman open door, stand for a minute in the full light, and disappear. It was she. George opened the door of his own room, threw the rug inside, and tip toed along the corridor, stopping for the briefest time to ascertain the number of that room. He felt vastly more guilty in performing this harm less act than in smothering his men tor. There was no one in the head-por ter's bureau; thus, unobserved and un embarrassed, he was free to inspect the guest-list. Fortune Chedsoye. He had never seen a name quite like that. Its quaintnesB did not suggest to him, as it had done to Ryanne, the pas toral, the bucolic. Rather it remind ed him of the old French courts, of . J rapiers and buckleB, of powdered wigs and furbelows, masks, astrologers, love-intrigues, of all those colorful, mutable scenes so charmingly de scribed by the genial narrator of the exploits of D'Artagnan. And abruptly out of this age of Lebrun, Watteau Moliere, reached an ice-cold hand. If that elderly codger wasn't her father, who was he and what? The Major?for George had looked, him up also?was in excellent trim for his age, something of a military dandy besides; but as the husband of so young and exquisite a creature! Out upon the thought! He might be her guardian, or, at most, her uncle, but never her husband. Yet (O poisonous doubt!), at the table she had ignored the Major, both his jests and his at tentions. He had seen many wives, Joyfully from a safe distance, act to ward their husbands in this fashion. r*v? rAfi . Tf Mo nowA n~ii~i v/u, ivi? a j. 1110 naiUT: nao vauuilttJl and hers Chedsoye, they could not possibly be tied in any legal bonds. He dismissed the ice-cold hand and turned again to the comforting warmth of his ardor. He had never spoken to young wom en without presentation, and on these rare occasions he had broached the weather, suggested the possibilities of the weather, and concluded with an apostrophe on the weather at large. It was usually a valedictory. For he was always positive that he had acted like a fool, and was afraid to speak to the girl again. Never it failed? ten minutes after the girl was out of sight, the brightest and cleverest things crowd ed upon his tongue, to be but wasted on the desert air. He was not particu larly afraid of women older than himself, more's the pity. And yet, had he been as shy toward them as toward the girls, there would have been no stolen Yhiordes, no sad-eyed maiden, no such thing as The United Romance and Adventure Company, Ltd.; and he would have stepped the even tenor of his way. unknown of grand passions, swift adventure, life. George was determined to meet For fune Chedsoye, and this determination, the first of its kind to take definite form in his mind, gave him a novel sensation. He would find some way, and he vowed to best his old enemy, diffidence, if it was the last fight he ever put up. He would maneuver to get in the way of the Major. He never found much trouble in talking to men. Once he exchanged a word or two with the uncle or guardian, he would make it a point to renew the acquaint ance when he saw the two together. Jt appeared to him as a bright idea, and he was rather proud of it. Even cow he was conscious of clenching his ? f Asked a Hundred for It." teeth strongly. It's an old saying that he goes farthest who shuts his teeth longest He was going to test the pre cept by Immediate practice. He had stood before the list fully three minutes. Now he turned about face, a singular elation tingling his blood. Once he set his mind upon a thing, he went forward. He had lost many pleasurable things in life be cause he had doubted and faltered, not because he had Teached out to ward them and had then drawn back He was going to meet Fortune Ched soye; when or how were but details. And as he discovered the Major him self idling before the booth of the East Indian merchant, he saw in fancy the nArtniillin o/? ow/1 +V10 ^^foil pv* i^uiuo hot; auu uian U11U5C lan to the castle of enchantment He strolled over leisurely and pretended to be Interested In the case containing mediocre jewels. "This Is a genuine Bokhara em broidery?" the Major waB inquiring. "Oh, yes, sir." "How old?" The merchant picked "up the tag and squinted at It. "It Is between two and three hundred years old, sir." To George's opinion the gods them selves could not have arranged a more propitious moment. "You've made a mistake," he inter posed quietly. "That is Bokhara, but the stitch is purely modern." The dark eyes of the Indian flashed. "The gentleman is an authority?" sar castically. ''Upon that style of embroidery, ab solutely." George smiled. And then, mnro qHa Vto n'an + a? rw rviiuuui uiw* v ?uv, nv;uv ua iu ^A" plain the difference between the an tique and the modern. "You have one good piece of old Bokhara, but it isn't rare. Twenty pounds would be a good price Tor it." The Major laughed heartily. "And just this moment he asked a hundred for it. I'm not much of a hand in judging these things. I admire them, but have no Intimate knowledge re garding their worth. Nothing tonight," he added to the bitter-eyed merchant. "The Oriental is like the amateur fish erman; truth is not in him. You seem to be a keen judge," as they moved away from the booth. "I suppose it's because I'm inor dinately fond of the things. I've really a good collection of Bokhara em broideries at home in New York." "You live in New York?" with mild interest. The Major sat down and graciously motioned for George to do the same. "I used to live there; twen ty-odd years ago. But European travel spoils America; tne rusn mere, ice hurry, the clamor. Over here they dine, there they eat. There's as much difference between those two perform ances as there is between The Mikado and Florodora. From Portland in Maine to Portland in Oregon, the same dress, same shops, same ungodly high buildings. Here it is different, at the end of every hundred miles." George agreed conditionally. (The Major wasn't very original in his views.) He would have shed his last drop of blood for his native land, but he was honest in acknowledging her faults. Conversation idled in various chan nels, and finally became anchored at . jewels. Here the Major was at home, nnH }\o Iavp^ omprnlrlc ohnvo all er stones. He proved to be an engag ing old fellow, had circled the globe three or four times, and had had an adventure or two worth recounting. And when he incidentally mentioned his niece, George wanted to shake his hand. Would Mr. Jones join him with a peg to sleep on? Mr. Jones certainly would. And after a mutual health, George diplomatically excused himself, retired, buoyant and happy. How sim ple the affair had been! A fellow could do anything if only he set his mind to it. Tomorrow he would meet Wp* :>: # /?5'l J;f<N t 'l ly/. -.v- y ''-;: Vf f| l$w; m Mo ((ilSJlWi Is | wlx ^HAROLD AvrfKor of HEAR JDhe MAN Ofl IllvistralioT\5 by I* COPVR.IGHT 1911 by BOBJ Fortune Chedsoye, and may Beelzebub shrive hini If he could not manage to control his recalcitrant tongue. As he passed out of sight, Major Callahan smiled. It was that old fa miliar smile which, charged with gen tle mockery, we send after departing fools. It was plain that he needed another peg to keep company with the first; for he rose and gracefully wend ed his way down-stairs to the bar. Two men were already leaning against the friendly, inviting mahogany. There was a magnum of champagne stand ing between their glasses. The Major ordered a temperate whisky and soda, drank it, frowned at the magnum, paid the reckoning, and went back up-stairs again. "Don't remember old friends, eh?" said the shorter of the two men, caressing his Incarnadined proboscis. "A smile wouldn't have hurt him any, do you think?" "Shut up!" admonished Ryanne. "You know the orders; no recognition on the Dublie floors." "Why, I meant no harm," the other protested. He took a swallow of wine. ''But, dash It! here I am, more'n four thousand miles from old Broadway, and still walking blind. When Is the show to start?" "Not so loud, old boy. You've got to have patience. You've had some good pickings for the past three months, in the smoke-rooms. That ought to soothe you." "Well, it doesn't. Here I come from New York, three months ago, with a wad of ,money for you aid a great game in sight. It takes a week to find you, and when I do . . . Well, you know. No sooner are you awake, than what? Off you go to Bagdad, on the wildest goose-chase a man ever heard of. And that leaves me with nothing to do and nobody to talk to. I could have cried yesterday when I got your letter saying you'd be in today." "Well, I got it" "The rug?" "Yes. It was wild; but aifter what I'd been through I needed something wild to steady my nerves; some big danger, where I'd sfmply have to get together." '[And you got It?" There was frank wonder and admiration in the pursy gentleman's eyes. "All alone, and you got it? Honest?" "Honest. They nearly had my hide, though." "Where is it?" "Sold." "Who?" "Percival." "Horace, you're a wonder, If there ever was one. Sold it to Percival! You couldn't beat that in a thousand voars. You're a ereat man." "Praise from Sir Hubert" "Who's he?" "An authority on several matters." "How much dijj.he give you for it?" "Tut, tut! It was all my own little jaunt, Wallace. I should hate to lie to you about it." "What about the stake I gave you ?" Ryanne made a sign of dealing cards. 1 "Threw it aw&y on a lot of dubs, after all I've taught you!" "Cards aren't my forte." "There's a yellow streak in your hide, somewhere, Horace." "There is, but it is the tiger's stripe, my friend. What I did with my money is my own business." "jyill she allow for that?" "Would it matter one way or the other?" "No, I don't suppose it would. Some times I think you're with us as a huge joke. You don't take the game Beri ous enough." Wallace emptied his glass and tipped the bottle carefully. "You're out of your class, somehow." "So?" "Yes. You have always struck me as a man who was hunting trouble for one end." "And that?" Ryanne seemed inter ested. Wallace drew his finger across his throat. Ryanne looked him squarely in the eye and nodded affirmatively. "I don't understand at all." "You never will, Wallace, old chap. I am the prodigal son whose brother ate the fatted calf before I returned home. I had a letter today. She will be here tomorrow sometime. You may have to go to Port Said, if my plan doesn't mature." "The Ludwig?" "Yes." "Say, what a Frau she would have made the right man!" Ryanne did not answer, but glow ered at his glass. "The United Romance and Adven ture Company." Wallace twirled his glass. "If you're a wonder, she's a marvel. A Napoleon in petticoats! It does make a fellow grin, wnen you look It all over. But this Is going to be her Austerlitz or her Waterloo. And you really got the rug; and on top of that, you have sold it to George P. A. Jones! Here's?" "Many happy returns," ironically. They finished the bottle without further talk. There was no convivial ity here. Both were fond of good wine, i but the more they drrtnk, the tighter j grew their lips. Men who have been ! in the habit of guarding dangerous I secrets become taciturn in their cups. From time to time, fiittingly, there appeared against one of the windows, just above the half-curtain, a lean, dark face, which, in profile, resembled the kite?the hooked beak, the watch ful, preyful eyes. There were two hungers written upon that Arab face, food and revenge. "Allah is good," he murmured. * He had but one eye in use, the oth MACGRATH TS AND nASKS ffiE BOX ctc. L.G.Kjettjntbr? < d>$ - MERRILL COMPA/SY er was bandaged. In fact, the face ex hibited general indications, of rough warfare, the skin broken on the bridge of the nose, a freshly healed cut un der the seeing eye, a long strip of plaster extending from the ear to the mouth. There was nothing of the beg gar in his mien. His lean throat was erect, his chin protrusive, the set of .his shoulders proud and defiant. Ordi narily, the few lingering guides would rudely have told him to be oft about his business; but they were familiar with all turbans, and in the peculiar twist of this one, soiled and ragged though it was, they recognized some prince from the eastern deserts. Pres ently he strode away, but with a stiff ness which they knew came from long journeys upon racing-camels. George dreamed that night of magic carpets, of sad-eyed maidens, of fierce Bedouins, of battles in the desert, of genii swelling terrifically out of squat bottles. And once he rose and turned on the lights to assure himself that the old Yhiordes was not a part of these vivid dreams. He was up shortly after dawn, in white riding-togs, for a final canter to Mena House and return. In two days more he would be leaving Egypt be hind. Rather glad in one sense, rath er sorry in another. Where to put the rug was a problem. He might carry it in hie steamer-roll; it would be handier there than in the bottom of his trunk, stored away in the ship's hold. Besides, his experience had taught him that steamer-rolls were 4ncrvAnf/j/l Ynr will ULliy iUUlUCiVUU/ 1UU ^VV/UVUt A vu (Tiil observe that the luster of hln Wgh ideals "was already dimming. H?? rea soned that inasmuch as he was bound to smuggle and lie, It might be well to plan something artistically. He wished now that he was going to spend Christ mas in Cairo; but it was too late to change his booking without serious loss of time-and money. He had a light breakfast on the veranda of the Mena House, climbed up to the desert, bantered the donkey boys, amused himself by watching the desoent of some German tourists who had climbed the big Pyramid before dawn to witness the sun rise, and threw pennies to the horde of blind beggars who instantly swarmed about him and demanded, in the name of Al lah, a competence tof the rest of their days. He finally escaped them by footing it down the incline to the ho tel gardens, where his horBe stood waiting. x It was long after nine when he slid A 1a i?4 hUa 1 rum iiiv dquuic at iuc Diur t'liuaiito of the Semiramis. He was on his way to the bureau for his key, when an exquisitely gloved hand lightly touched his arm. "Don't you remember me, Mr. Jones?" said a voice of vocal honey. George -did. In his confusion he' dropped his pith-helmet, and in stoop ing to pick it up, bumped into the por ter who had rushed to his aid. Re member her! Would he ever forget her? He never thought of her with out dubbing himself an outrageous ass. He straightened, his cheeks afire; blushing was another of those uncon trollable asininitles of his. It was really she, come out of a past he had hoped to be eternally JnresuBcitant; the droll, the witty woman, to whom in one mad moment of liberality and Galahadism he had loaned without se curity one hundred and fifty pounds at the roulette tables in Monte Carlo; she, for whom he had always blushed when he recalled how easily she had mulcted him! And here she was, se rene, lovely as ever, unchanged. "My dear," said the stranger (Georga couldn't recall by what name he had known her); "my dear," to Fortune Chedsoye, who stood a little behind her, "this is the gentleman I've often told you about. You were at school at the time. I borrowed a hundred and fifty pounds of him at Monte Carlo. And what do you think? When I went to pay him back the next day, he was gone, without leaving the slightest clue to his whereabouts. Isn't, that droll? And to think that I should meet him here!" That her name had slipped his memory, if indeed he had ever known it, was true; but one thing lingered incandescently in his mind, and that Hitherto Strc -* ' But Now He Had Run Against Some thing That Caused His Nerve to Forsake Him. "I cftme, sir, in answer to your ad vertisement. You said you wanted to employ a man who ,was a total stranger to fear." "Are you a brave man?" "I am, sir. 1 have given proof of my courage in many parts of the world." "Yes?" "I have faced bullets in Mexico ana machetes in Cuba." "Good!" ! "I helped to defend the missionaries against the Boxers, and I was pres ent at the siege of Port Arthur." "Fine." "I have fought 1:be infuriated walrus of Baffin bay and. the maddened bull elephants of Central Africa, and I went through an Armenian massacre without losing my nerve." "You seem to be the man I want. Would you. be willing to go out on a field in front of 20,000 fair-minded, sport-loving Americans and umpire a baseball game honestly, deciding against the homa team when neces sary?" i t ! was, he had written hsr, following minutely her own spec.fic directions and inclosing his banker's address in Paris, Naples and Cairo; and for many passings of moons he h;id opened his foreign mail eagerly and hopefully. But hope must have something to feed upon,.and after a struggle lasting two years,/she rendered up the ghost. ... It wasn't the loss of money that hurt; It was the finding of dross metal where he supposed thera was naught but gold. Perhaps his later shyness was due as much to tbis disillusion ing Incident as to hl3 middle names. "Isn't it droll, my d?'ar?" the en chantress repeated; and George grew redder and redder under the beautiful, grateful eyes. "I must give him a draft this very morning." "But . . . Why, my dear Ma dame," stammered George. "You must not ... I . . i ?" Fortune laughed. Somehow the qual ity of that laughter pierced George's confused brain as somelimes a shaft of sunlight rips into a log, suddenly, stiletto-like. It was full of malice. CHAPTER V. The Girl Who Wasn't Wanted. If any one wronged George, defraud ed him of money or credit, he was al ways ready to forgive, agreeing that perhaps half the fault'had been his. This was not a sign of weakness, but of a sense of justice too well leavened with mercy. Humanity errs in the one as much as in the other, doubtless with some benign purpose in perspec tive. Now, it might be that this charm ing woman had really never received his letter; such things have been known to go astray. In any case be could not say that he had written. That would have cast a doubt upon her word, an unpardonable rudeness. So, for her very beauty alone, he gave her the full, benefit of the doubt. "You mustn't let the matter trouble you in the least," he said, his helmet now nicely adjusted under his arm. "It "was so long ago I had really for gotten all about It." Which was very well said for George. "But I haven't. I have often won dered what you must have thought of me. Monte Carlo is such ?. place! But I munt present my daughter. I am Mrs. Chedsoye." "I am glad to meet you, Mr. Jones;" and in the sad eyes there was a glim mer of real friendliness. More, she extended her hand. It was well -worth while, that hun dred and fifty pounds. It was well worth the pinch here and the pinch there which had succeeded that loan. "So that's the job, is it?" replied the man of courage, and broke into a cold perspiration and a run for the door simultaneously. Ray T. Baker, warden of the Nevada penitentiary, is abolishing, with suc cess, all the brutalizing rules of the old-time prison system. Mr. Baker'? prisoners lead healthy, industrious lives. They study and they work. And on leaving prison they engage in honest labor. "Our institution," Mr. Baker said to a reporter, "isn't much like a' reformatory I once visited in inger Quite Unique. my youth. " 'A very strange thing happened in this reformatory back in '89,' a warden said to me. "'Yes? And what was that?' I asked. "One of our prisoners,' he replied, 're form-' " Evolution Idea. Wolff put forth his theory of "epl genesis" in 1759. Lamarck, in lS0s>, propounded the theory that all ani mals had been developed from "mo nad." In 1827 Baer of Konigsberg undertook to prove that all mammals are developed from a "minute egg not a hundredth of an Inch in diameter." vo Often Told You About." For he had determined to return to America with a pound or two on his letter of credit, and the' Buccess of this determination was,- based upon many a sacrifice in comfort, sacrifices he had never cpnfided to his parents. It was not in the nature of things to confess that the first woman he had met In his wanderings should have been the last. As he took the girl's hand, with the ulterior intent of hold ing It till death do us part, he won dered why she had laughed like that. The echo of it stHl rang in his ears. And while he could not have described it, he knew instinctively that ft had been born of bitter thought. They, chatted for a quarter of an hour or more, and managed famously. It seemed to him that Fortune Ched soye was the first young woman he had ever met who could pull away sudden barriers and open up pathways for speech, who, when he was about to flounder into some cul-de-sac, guided him adroitly Into an alley round it. Not once was it necessary to drag In the weather, that perennial if threadbare topic. He was truly aston ished at the ease with which he sus tained his part In the conversation, and began to think pretty well of himself. It did not occur to him that wQen two ciever anu imiauno set forth to make a man talk .(al ways excepting he Is dumb), they nev er fail to succeed. To do this they contrive to bring the conversation within the small circle of his work, his travels, his preferences, his ambi tions. To be sure, all this is not fully extracted in fifteen minutes, but a woman obtains in that time a good idea of the ground plan. Two distinct purposes controlled the women in this instance. One desired to interest him, while the other sought to learn whether he was stupid or only I any. At last, when lie left them to change his clothes and hurry down to Cook's, to complete the bargain for the Yhior des, he had advanced so amazingly well that they had accepted his Invi tation to the polo-match that after noon. He felt that Invisible Mercuri al wings had sprouted from his heels, for in running up the stairs, he was aware of no gravitatlve resistance. That this anomaly (an acquaintance with two women about whom he knew nothing) might be looked upon askance by those who conformed to the laws and by-laws of social usages, worried him not in the least. On the contrary, he was thinking that he would be the envy of every other man out at the club that afternoon. (TO BE CONTINUED.) These were what may be called the beginnings of the theory of evolution. In 1859 Mr. Darwin came along with his "Origin of Species," which he sup plemented (in 1871) with his "Descent of Man." In 1873 Haeckel published hia "History of Creation," since which time the theory has worked its way throughout the reading world. It is generally conceded that evolution is not necessarily atheistic. Dog Policeman Travels Beat. An Irish terrier named Jerry, which has developed a wonderful capacity for police work, is now stationed at Surbiton, England. The terrier, own ed by a sergeant of the Metropolitan police, knows all the "beats" in the district, and always accompanies his master when making patrol by cycle. Jerry's "speciality" is in the captur ing of stray dogs. 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