Ceredo advance. [volume], April 30, 1913, Image 9

About Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939

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AvrtW of HEARTS AND AlASKS
A\AK ON THE BOX *
11 SssgESfrstf : |
It Wu Ryanne—the Erstwhile Affable Ryanne—
u
SYNOPSIS.
Oeorye Panel val Algernon Jones, vice
president of the Metropolitan Oriental
Rug company of New York, thirsting for
romance, Is in Cairo on a buslm-as trip.
Horace Ryanne arrives at the hotel In
Cairo with a carefully guarded bundle. I
Ryanne sells Jones the famous holy Yhl
®rdes rug which he admits having stolen
from a pasha at Bagdad. Jones meets
Major Callahan and later Is Introduced to I
Fortune Chedsoye by a woman to whom
tie had loaned 150 pounds at Monte Carlo
•ome months previously, and who turns
out to be Fortune’s mother. Jonea takes
Mr*. Chedsoye and Fortune to a polo
game. Fortune returns to Jones the
money borrowed by hsr mother. Mrs.
Cbedsoye appears to be engaged In some
mysterious enterprise unknown to the
daughter Kyanne interests Jonea In the
United Romance and Adventure com- j
1>any, a concern which for « price will J
arrange any kind of sn adventure to or
-der. Mrs. Chedsoye. her brother. Major 1
■Callahan. Wallace and Rvanno. as the
United Romance and Adventure company,
•plan a risky enterprise Involving Jones, j
Ryanne makes known to Mrs. Chedsoye i
tits Intention to marry Fortune. Mrs.
Chedsoye declares she will not permit It. I
Plans are laid to prevent Jones sailing
for home. Ryanne steals Jones' letters
and cable dispatches. He wires agent In
Ntw York. In Jones' name, that he Is
renting house In New York to some
friends. Mahomed, keeper of the holy
-carpet. Is on Rynnne's troJI. Rvanno
promise* Fortune that he will see that j
Jones comes to no hsrm as a result of hts I
purchase of the rug Mahomed accosts
Rynnne and demands the Yhlordes rug.
Ryanne tells him Jonea has the rug and
suggests the abduction of the New York |
merchant as a means of securing Its re
turn. The rug disappears from Jones’
room. Fortune quarrels with her mother I
when the latter refuses to explain her .
mysterious actions. Fortune gets a roes- |
sage purporting to be from Ryanne ask
myaterlous actions. Fortune gets a mes j
sage purporting to be from Ryanne ask- i
Ing her to meet him In a secluded place
• hat evening. Jonea receives a message
asking him to met Ryanne at the English- I
Bar the same evening. Jones Is carried
o(T Into tha desert by Mahomed and his ;
accomplices after a desperate fight
CHAPTER XII.—(Continued.)
The wind blew cold against his
cheat, and the fact that be could nei
ther see, nor use his tongue to moist
en his bruised lips, added to the dis
comforts. Hack and forth bo swayed
* and rocked. The pain In his side was
gradually minimized by tho torture
bearing upon bis ankles, his knees,
across hie shoulders. Finally, when
In dull despair he was about to give
up and slide off. Indifferent whether
tho camels following trampled him or
not, a halt was called. It steadied
Mm. Borne one reached up and un
tied tbe thong that strangled the life
In Ms hands. Forward again. This
was a trifle better. He could now
ease himself with his hands. No one
Interfered with him when be tore off
tho bandages over his eyes and
« ' snouth. The camels were now urged
to a swifter pace.
Egyptian night, well railed, he
thoughL He could discern nothing
■but phantom-like grey silhouettes that
%obbed up and down after the fashion
of corks upon water. Before him and
Itehlnd him; how many camels made
op the caravan he could not tell. He
could hear the faint slip^sllp as (he
beasts shuffled forward in the fine
heavy sand. They were well out Info
/.he desert, but what desert was aa
st a mystery. He had forgotten to
peep the points of the compass In his
nd. And to pick out his bearings
any particular star was to him no
simple than translating Chinese,
r, far away behind he saw a lumi
pallor In the sky. the reflected
iOf Cairo. And only a few hours
had oomplained to the bead
OMUM of the hits of cork
floating in his glass of wine. Ah, for
the dregs of that bottle now; warmth,
revival, new courage! . . . Curse
tlio luck! There went one of his
pumps. He called out. The man rid
ing in front and leading George's
camel merely gave a yank at the rope.
The camel responded with a cough
and a quickened gait
Presently Gc-orge became aware of
a singular fact: that he could see out
of one eye better than the other;
and that the sem! useless orb shot out
little stars with every beat of his
heart. One of his ears, too, began to
throb and burn. He felt of it It was
less like an ear than a mushroom. It
had been a rattling good mlx-up, any
how; and he accepted the knowledge
rather proudly that the George Percl
val Algernon, who but lately had en
tered the Engllsb-Bar sprucely and
had made his exit In a kind of negli
gible attire, had left behind one char
acter and brought away another. Nev
er again was ho going to be shy: the
tame tiger, as It were, had had his
first taste of blood.
Dawn, dawn; If only the horlxon
would brighten up a little so that he
could get his bearings. By now they
were at least fifteen or twenty miles
from Cairo; but In what direction?
Hour after hour went by; over this
huge grey roll of sand, down into that
cup-llko valley; soundless save when
the camels protested or his stirrup
clinked against a buckle; all with the
somber aspect of a scene from Dante.
Several black spots, moving In circles
far above, onoo attracted George; and
he knew them to be kites, which will
follow a caravan Into the desert even
as a gull will follow a ship out to sea.
loiter, a torpid Indifference took pos
session of h!m, and the sense of pain
grew Irss under the encroaching
numbness.
Ana wnen at last the splendor of
♦he dawn upon the desert flashed like
a sword-blade along the sky In the
east, grew and widened, Oeorge com
prehended one thing clearly, that they
were In the Arabian deeert, out of the
main traveled paths, In the middle of
nowhere.
His sense of beauty did not respond
♦o the marvel of ths transformation.
The dark grey of the sand hills that
became violet, at their baaes. to fade
away upward Into little pinnacles of
shimmering gold; the drab, formless,
scattered boulders, now assuming
clear-cut shape*, transfused with ruby
and sapphlra glowing; the sun Itself
that presently lifted Us rosal warm
ing circle above the stepping-off
place- Oeorge saw but noted not. The
physical picture was overshadowed by
the one he drew In his mind: the good
ship Ludwig, boring her way out Into
the sea.
The sun was free from the desert's
rim when the leading camel was halt
ed. A confusion ensued; the camels
following stupidly Into one another, In
a kind of panic. Out of the silence
name a babble of voices, a grunt.ng, a
clatter of pack baskets and saddle
bags. Oeorge, as his camel kneeled,
slid off Involuntarily and tumbled
against a small hillock, and lay there,
without any distinct sfmse of what
was goipg on round him. The asnd.
fine and mutable, formed a couch com
fortingly under his aching body; and
he fell aeleep, exhausted. Already the
impalpable dust, which had risen and
followed the caravan all through the
night, had powdered his clothes, aud
Ills fuce was stained and streaked.
His heed lay In the sand, his soft Fe
dora crushed under bis shoulders.
What with the bruises visible, the
reuts In hts coat, the open shirt,
6olled, crumpled, collarless, he In
vited pity; only none came from the
busy Arabs. As he slept, a frown
gathered upon his face and remained
there.
When he came back from his
troubled dreams, a bowl of rice,
thinned by hot water, was given him.
He cleaned the bowl, not because he
was hungry, but because he knew that
somewhere along this Journey he
would need strength; and the recur
ring fury against his duress caused
him to fling the empty bowl at the
head of the camel-boy who had
brought It. The boy ducked, laugh
ing. George lay down again. Let
them cut his throat If they wanted to;
It was all the same to him. Again he
Blopt, and when ho was roughly and
forcibly awakened, he sut up with a
snarl and looked about.
His head wag clear now, and he
began to tnko notes. Ilo counted
ten, eleven, twelve camels, a car
van In truth, prepared for a long and
continuous Journey. There were three
pack-camels, laden with wood, tents,
and such cooking utensils as the fru
gal Arab had need of. Certainly Ma
homed was a rich man, whether he
owned the camels or hired them for
the occasion. Vpon one of the beasts
they were putting up a mahtnal. a can
opy used to protect women from the
suu while riding. One Arab, tuller,
more robust th:in the others, moved
hither and thither authoritatively.
Wound about his tarboosh or fez was
a bright green cufia, signifying that
the wearer had mado tlie pilgrimage
to Holy Mecca. Tills individual
Georgo assumed to be Mahomed him
self. And he recognized him as the
beggar over whom ho had stumbled
two nights gone. Pity he hadn’t
known, and pitched him into the Nil*
when ho had the chance.
Mahomed completed his directions,
anti walked leisurely toward George,
but his attention was not directed
toward him. A short distance away,
at George’s left, was a man, stretched
out as If in slumber. Over his inert
figure Mahomed watched. He drew
back his foot and kicked the sleeping
man soundly, smiling amiably the
while; a kick which, had Mohamed’s
foot been cased in western leather,
must have stove in the sleeper’s ribs.
Strange, the victim did not stir. Ma
homed shrugged, and returned to the
Business of breaking camp.
George was keenly interested lu
this man who could accept such a
kick apparently without feeling or re
sentment. He stood up for a better
i view. One glance was sufficient. It
was Ryanne, the erstwhile affable
Ryanne of the reversible cuffs: his
feet and hands still in bondage, bis
clothes torn, his face battered and
bruised like a sailor’s of a Sunday
morning on shore-leave. The sight of
Ryanne brightened him considerably.
Although he was singularly free from
the spirit of malevolence, he was, nev
ertheless, human enough to subscribe
to that unwritten and much denied
creed that the misery of one man rec
I onolles another to his. And here was
| company such as misery loved; here
j was a man worse off than himself,
whose prospects were a thoussnd
times blacker. Poor devil! And here
I he was, captivo of the men he bad
I wronged and beaten and robbed. As
seen through George’s eyes, Rysnne’s
outlook was not a pleasant thing to
contemplate. Rut oh! the fight this
one must have been! If It had taken
five natives to overcome him, how
many had It taken to beat Ryanne
into such a shocking condition? He
was genuinely sorry for Ryanne, hut
In his soul he was glad to see him.
One white man could accomplish
nothing In the face of these odds; hut
two while men, that was a different
matter. Ryanne, once he got his legs,
strong, courageous, resouroeful, Ry
anns would get them both out of It
somehow. . And If Ryanne
hadn’t the nig, who the dickens had?
The Jumble of questions that rose
In bis mind, seeking answers to the
riddle of ^hlordes rug. subsided even
as they rose. The bundle to the far
side of Ryanne stirred. He had, in his
general survey of the scene, barely
set a glance upon It, believing 1t to
be a conglomeration of saddlebags
(made of wool and cotton) and blan
kets. It stirred again. George stud
ied It with a peculiar sense of detach
ment. A woman; a woman In what
had but recently been a smart Paris
ian tailor-made street-tfress. The
woman, rubbing her eyes, bore her
self up p&lufully to a sitting posture.
8he was white. All the blows of the
right past were as nothing In com
pari son with this Invisible one which
seemed to strike at the very source
of his life.
Fortune Chedsoyet
CHAPTER XIII.
Not a Cheerful Outlook.
George, his bmlu in tumult, a fierce
tigerish courage giving fictitious
strength to his body, staggered toward
her. It was a mad dream, a mirage
of his own disordered thoughts. For
tune there? It was not believable.
What place had she In this tangled
web? He ran his fingers Into his hair,
gripped, and pulled. If It was a dream
the pafu did not waken him; Fortune
sat there still. Through what ter
rors might she not have passed the
preceding night? Alono In the desert,
without any of those conveniences
which are to women as necessary as
the air they breathe! He tried to run.
but his feet sank too deeply In the
palo sand; he could only plod. He
must touch her or hear her voice;
otherwise he stood upon the brink of
madness. There was no doubt In his
mind now; ho loved her, loved her as
deeply and passionately us any sto
ried knight loved his lady; loved her
without thought of reward, unselfish
ly. with great nod tonder pity, for un
consciously ho saw that she. like he.
was all alone, not only hero in the
desert, but nlong tho hlghwuys where
men sot up their dwellings.
.Manomed, having an eye npon all
things, though apparently seeing only
that wbloh was under hls Immediate
concern, saw the young roan's Inten
tion, ami more, read the secret In hls
face. He was Infinitely uiuuned.
There were two of them, so It seemed.
Quietly he slipped In between George
and th© girl, and hls movement freed
George's mind of its bewilderment,
l nhesftAtingly, ho flung himself npon
tho Arab, striving to reach the lean,
brown throat. Mahomed, strong and
unwearied, having no hand In the ac
tual warfare, thrust Georg© back so
vigorously that tho young nian lost
hla balanre and fell prone upon the
sand. Ho was so weak that the fall
stunned him. Mahomed stepped for
ward, doubtless with the generous im
pulse to prove that In th© matter of
kicks he desired to show no partial
ity. when a hand caught at his bur
nouse. He paused and looked down.
It was the girl.
“Don't! A brave man would not do
that.”
Mahomed, moved by some feeling
that eluded Immediate analysis,
turned ubouL It was time to be off,
If he wished to reach Berapeum the
following night. Pursuit he knew to
be out of the question, since who
was there to know that there was any
thing to pursue? Hut many miles In
tervened between her© and hls desti
nation. He dared not enter Berapeum
iu the daytime. Lying upon th© canal
bank as It did, th© possibility of en
countering a stray white man con
fronted him. Every camel-way fro
quented by Europeans must of ne
cessity be avoided, every town of any
size skirted, and all fh© while he must
keep parallel with known paths or be
come lost himself. Not to become
lost himself, that was hls real con
cern. Th© caravan was provisioned
for months, and he knew Asia-Minor
os well as th© lines upon hls palms.
There were sand-storms, too; but
against these blighting visitations he
would match his vigilant eye and the
Instinct, of the camels. The one way
In which these peculiar storms might
distress him lay In th© total oblitera
tion of the way-signs, certain rocks,
certain hills, without the guidance of
which, like a good ship bereft of Ifs
compass, he might fall away from hls
course, notwithstanding that he would
always travel toward tne sun.
And there was also the vital ques
tion of water; ho must measure the
time between each well, each oasis.
So, then, aside from these dangers
with which he felt able to cope, there
was one unforeseen: the chance meet
ing with a wandering caravan headed
by white men In search of rugs and
carpets. These fools were eternally
hunting about the wastes of the
world; they were never satisfied un
less they were prowling Into countries
where they had no business to be, were
always breaking the laws of the ca
liphs and the Koran.
The girl was beautiful In her pale,
foreign way; beautiful as the stsr of
the morning, as the first rose of the
Persian spring; and be sighed for
the old days that were no more. She
would have brought a sultan's ransom
In the markets. Hut the accursed
Feringhi were everywhere, and these
sickly If handsome wlMre women were
more to them than their heart's blood;
why, he had never ceased to wonder.
But upon this knowledge he had
mapped out his plan df torture In re
gard to Rya.nne. The idea of selling
Fortune had dimly formed In his
I mind, while his blood had burned
| anger; but
Saw Fortune, Unresisting, Placed U^H
him the futility of such a procedure.
Ho would Imvo to make the beet of a
foolish move; for the girl would
oventunlly prove an encumbrance. At
any rate, he would wring one white,
man's heart till it beat dry In his
breast. That her health might be ru
ined, that alio might sicken and die,
In no manner uroused bis pity. This
attribute was destined never to be
awakened in Mahomed’s heart.
Tho klsweh, the klsweh, always the
Holy Yhlordcs; that he must have,
even if ho had to forego the pleasure
of breaking Ilyanne. lie was too old
to start life anew; at least, too old
to stir ambition. He had wielded au
thority too many years to surrender It
lightly; he had known too long his
golden-flaked tobacco, his sherbet,
hla syrupy coffee, the pleasant loaf
ing In the bazaars with his merchant
friends. To return to tho polnoe, to
confess to tho Pasha that his carelefts
ncss had lost him the rug, would re
sult either in death or banishmeut;
and so far as he was concerned be
had no choice, the one was us bad as
the other. So, If the young foci who
had bought the rug of Ryann* told
the truth when ho declared that It
had boon stolen again, then itynnne
'•"5W where It was; and he rould be
made to tell* be Mahomed, would at
tend to that. And when Ryanne con
fessed. the girl and the other would
be conveyed to the nearest telegraph
post. That they might at. once report
the abduction to the Rnglish authori
ties did not worry Mahomed. Not tha
fleetest racing-cp el could And hkn,
and behind tbe walls of the palace
of Bagdad, only Allah could tou/h
him. He had figured It all out closely,
| and he was an admirable strategist
I in his way. Revenge upon Ryanne for
! the dishonor and humiliation, and the
return of the rug; there waa nothing
more beyond that.
Before George had the opportunity
of speaking to Fortune, he was raised
from the sand and bodily lifted npon
bis camel; and by way of passing
pleasantry, his hat was Jammed down
over his eyes. He swore as he pulled
up tbe brim. Swearing was another
accomplishment added to the list et
transformations. He had a deal to
learn yet, but in bis present mood he
was likely to prooeed famously. He
readjusted the hat In time to see ftp*
anne unceremoniously dumped Ini*
one of the yawning pack-baskets, hla
arms and legs hanging out, his he%*
lolling against bis shoulder, exact*?
like a marionette, cast aside for th#
time being. A man of ordinary stanr
lna would have died under such treat
ment. But Ryanne possessed an *4
traordlnary constitution, against wblcfP
years of periodical dissipation had as
yet made no permanent inroads. Mmy*
over, he never forgot to keep hla chip
up and hla waist-line down. They pur
him Into the pack-basket
there waa no alternative,
was Incapable of aitt
el’s back.
Next,
slstii
CMS
t ln> uiW /
cam# la,
nndoi^W'
lila watch, wmH
overlooked big
and found It sl^
1 y. It was after nj
fort to Learn that]
been Injured. Mcm
leal In the matt^l
how desultory tSj
things. Thore
ness In kno«rrhjH|
whether It posing
It drags M
Further lij»:.;
'hat. hf» lett/*H
torbed and tha«||
eessor of HiX (Kb
box of elenr^JIV
♦bought of being daj
■mote him almost poi
an inveterate smoker,
that the supply was so
gave unusual coat to his
now longed for the tang
upon his lips, but he held
fully. He would not touch a cigar os {
cigarette till nightfall, and then he ?
made up hia mind to smoke half of '
either. The touch, selfish and calcg*
latfng, of the miser, stole over hlna.
If Uyanne was without the soother,
so ftnuch the worse for him. The six
cigrrs he would not share with the
archangel Michael, supposing that
gerftleman came down for a smoke. *
Forward, always forward, winding
In and out of the valleys, trailing over
the hills, never faster, never slowei^
Noon came, and the brilliance of sft*
emoon dimmed and faded Into the
short twilight. Were they never gt>
irg to stop? One hill more, and
(feorge, to his Infinite delight, saw a
cluster of date-palms ahead, a rolh
dr so; and he knew that this was te
>e the haven for the ship of the deo>
ert. The caravan came to It unde#
the dim light of the few stars that
had not yet attained their refulgence A
Under the palms were a raw desert«4 B
mud houses, huddled dejectedly toafl
.gether, like outcasts seeking the neanB.
ness rather than 0ie companionship <S|
the co unfortunates Men had dwe^H
here onoe upon a time, but the pl^JBpl|
had doubtless counted them ou^B
by one. They mnd*^
w i. wilioh h*!51 rn
||g, .^