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FLAM ty LOUIS JOSEPHS I IlL?STRATlONS^Bi' CCOTRICHT1909 By LQUTSjoSEPH ?and types too numerous to catalogu? ?These the adventurer might not rea( ?save individually upon personal coi i tact. If trouble was to come fror them, collectively or individually, h 'would not know until the blow ha fallen. On the other hand, he migh [be able to hazard shrewd surmises a Ito the potential animus Inherent ii any one of the I iropeans who wer to he his fellow passengers. The latter were a mere handful [half a dozen commercial traveler ?from London, Paris, Berlin, their ave cations evident beyond dispute; a sal low English missionary with his with ered wife, sombre figures in the starl i8unlight, a red-faced deputy-sub-some thing-or-other of the Indian govern ment, complacent in white drill anc new pith helmet with a gay puggaree a lone English girl, and a Frenchman The two latter held the Irishman'! attention; the girl because, even at ? distance, her slim white-clad figun and well-poised head seemed singu larly fresh and attractive; the mai because-well, because O'Rourke wat susceptible to premonitions. He was a tall man and broad, th? Frenchman-well-made, well-groomed carrying himself with an indefinable air of distinction. His face was rath er pale (and therefore notable In that concourse of dark skins), its features ?trongly modeled, the mouth and chic masked by a neatly trimmed and pointed beard and mustache. O'Rourke could not have said that he had ever seen the man before; yet there was this and that ?bout him which struck a spark of reminiscence from his memory. A suspicion flashed through his mind which he put aside with disdain, as absurd and far-fetch ed. On the other hand. ... He knit his brows in puzzlement. The very fixity of his regard drew the eyes of its object upwards. They encountered O'Rourke's, lingered brief ly in an unveiled, Inquiring stare In which there was not to be detected the least hint of recognition, and passed onward casually, indifferently, Ignoring the Impertinence. The tender's passengers began to stumble up the gang-plank to a lower deck of the liner; and O'Rourke, with a sober face, went below, taking some care to avoid contact with th? incom ing crowd. He found Danny was in his state room, engaged with some details of repair to the adventurer's wardrobe. O'Rourke remained for a brief space standing in the middle of the cabin, visibly abstracted. Then abruptly some whimsical consideration seemed to resolve his dubiety-as lightning will clear sultry, brooding air; a smile deepened the corners of his mouth, the flicker in his eye merged magically into a twinkle, the shrug of his broad shoulders conveyed an impression of casting care to the winds. "Danny, lad," he remarked reflect ively, throwing himself ungracefully upon the cushioned transom opposite to his berth. "Danny, ye wouldn't lie to me, would ye now?" "Aw-wi" reproved Danny. "Shure, J yer honor knows ut isn't in me at all." j And to himself; "Phat the diwle now?" "Then tell me, Danny, truthfully; i did ye ever see a ghost?" "Aw-wi"-seeing cause to take the qutry as a joke. "A ghost that had grown a beard since :t had become a ghost, Danny?" "Aw-aw-w!"-still willing to, be I amused, if "himself" chose to be face- ' tlous. 1 "Because," continued O'Rourke with ! a slight frown, "I have, and that not five minutes since." y "Aw?" "Wance I left a man for dead, Dan ny, with a clean sword-thrust through the body of him-a misbegotten black guard he was; but I killed h>m in fair fight, sword to sword, and no fa vor. . . . And this bright and beautiful morning, lo and behold ye! . ho should come tripping up the gang plank but his ghost, as lively as ye , please, and with a neat new beard!" "Aw-w ?"-incredulously. O'Rourke frowned impatiently. "Des Trebes," he explained. "Aw-" "Stop it, ye parrot! Stop it, I say! Have ye no word in the dark lexicon of your ignorance other than 'Aw-aw'? Get up, ye omadhaun, and take me re spects to the purser and ask him please will he show ye the passen ger-list" The valet left with circumspect ala crity. Alone, O'Rourke rose and turned thoughtfully to a revolver that made a conspicuous black spot on the white counterpane of the berth, with nerv ous, strong fingers unlimbering the weapon and taking account of the brass dials of the cartridges that nestled snug in its six-chambered cylinder. The machine was in perfect condition; O'Rourke snapped the breech shut and thrust it In his pock et. Then he sat down to think, sub consciously aware from noises with out that the tender had swung off and Ahe anchor was being tripped._ Could the resemblance be acciden tal? It seemed hardly possible. The Des Trebes he had known had been a type distinct, so clear and aloof from the general Frenchman that not even the addition of a beard tc his physiog nomy could have proven a thorou&h disguise. And it seemed reasonable enough to assume that, Mrs. Prynne having failed in her undertaking, Des O'Rourko Could Not Have Said That He Had Ever Seen th? Mon Before. Trebes would resume his office as ac tive head of their conspiracy. If lt were indeed he whom O'Rourke had just seen, there was every chance im aginable that the final chapter in the history of the Irishman's connection with the Pool of Flams would prove an eventful one. "Maybe not," admitted O'Rourke, "maybe I deceive meself. But I'm persuaded I'll do well to keep both me eyes open until the day I'm rid of the damned thing!" At this juncture Danny's knock took him to the door. "Mongsere Raoul de Hyeres," announced the valet breath lessly: "'tis thot the purser says his name is, yer honour." "Yes," assented O'Rourke dubious ly. "But perhaps the purser's mista ken-misinformed." j CHAPTER XXIX. As time went on, however, if his un? easiness were not sensibly dimin ished, nothing happened, the voyage 1 proving entirely uneventful; and ? O'Rourke was forced to the conclusion , 'har, if Monsieur de Hyeres were real if the Vicomte des Trebes, he was strangely content to play a waiting came. 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 him 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- u 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 Do Hyeres himself i-eenic:'! to seek the interview, approaching ORourke 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 companionway, glanced swiftly this way and that, and sauntered toward the Irishman with I an unlighted cigarette held conspicu ously between his fingers. O'Rotrrke likewise surveyed his sur roundings in two brief glances: and was contented to find that they were alone, or as much alone a? two can be upon a steamship. For they were, after all, well matched; ind one of them he knew to be armed. Shifting in his chair so that his revolver lay j convenient to his hand, as De Hyeres approached the Irishman remov??d his cigar from between his teeth, flicked away an Inch of ash and silently prof fered ft 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 ol 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, I believe, In understanding I have the honor to address Monsieur le Colonel O'Rourke. Chevalier of tho Legion of Honour?" K "You are not mistaken, monsieur," returned O'Rourke pleasantly, then with the directness which he some times found useful, watching the man closely as he spoke: "And I believe lt is my pleasure to recognise Mon ster 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 he detected in his manner. "But no. You are under a mistake. I am merely a French gentleman without a title; Raoul de Hyeres is my name." "Ah!" said the wanderer. " Twai the resemblance misled me. Pardon, monsieur." "Granted, my dear sir. . . . Des Trebes? The name has a familiar scund. Do I not remember reading somewhere that the Vicomte dea Trebes died last spring? In Tunis, was it? . . . 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, foi 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 girl. The latter might be all that she looked and claim ed to bec a sweet, wholesome and rath er ingenuous young Englishwoman, an orphan, resident .n Rangoon in the household of an uncle, to whom she was returning after a visit -with friends in Simla. On the. passenger Hst 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 k?pt 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 deck or at meals, Danny sat behind bolts, alert and under arms, and vice versa. By nlght_ they stood regular The J. WiU is after you, Mr Man, your boys your summer cl you with a store full of ur Come and see us before your Augnsta headquartei Our ladies department ii wear shirt waists,suits and The J. Wini 832-824 Broad St. Fe Tennesse Mule The king Keeps your s feed bills dc the best mer* where. Mani UNION cr AND Fl Union City, "Whose If you do not get value re you get inferior goods for 1 we charge you for the gooc yourself. Our 20 years e business and our .'square d thing to the prospective bu} "We can deliver the goods man and beast. ARMNGTON I August; Office and salesroom 863 Br< trac P. S. Hr. M. Gary Satcher ii with t ; watches together, tue one on ?uara . whil' the other slept. Clearly the ad. i Venturer was determined that no lack , of safeguards on his part should again deprive him of the ruby. But lt's no easy matter to avoid i meeting any particular person on a ; ship with a small saloon Hst, unless one is willing to be purposely rude i and . discourteous'. For all his wari ness the Irishman was to carry with I him a personal impression of Miss ; Pynsent. ; On the last day of the passage, to ward evening, the Boonah 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 onr 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 bim 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 c er 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 say, 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, "am 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 (Continued on next page.) ie Levy Co. We wa t to sell you and othes, so we are tempting icommon values.? you buy-make our store rs. s replete with Ready-to dresses. The newest only .e Levy Co., AUGUSTA, GA. ed Horse & Feed of all feeds, tock up and )wn. Sold by chants every ifactured by FY GRAIN SED CO. Tennessee Fault??? :ceived for your money. If vhich you pay as much as I kind, you can blame only ixperience in the grocery eal" policy ?8 worth eome rer and ali we ask is a trial. /' Groceries and feed for BROS. & CO. a, Ga. >ad Warehouse Ga. Railroad :ks. is and will be glad to see his friends LAID RIGHT OVER OLD WOOD SHINGLES 2. 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