Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-13
AT LOV E'S
COMMAND,
CHAPTER V,
OhAH1Eh V. THE SEARCH FOR DONALD GORDON.

| viOus. The achievement was not difficult. 4 few significant hints and the sight of my letters and drafts brought every man of them as near to bursting as the frog in the fable. Some envied me the money, some the adventures, others said it was the beau tiful combination of both that took their fan. s-i all agreed had certainly been born with the coveted silver spoon in my mouth.
 Its one of the shameless tricks of Madam Fortune" said an embryonic divine, slap ping me on the shoulder. Here you go out there to ride elephants and shoot tigers and order fiunkies and enrich yourseG from inexhaustible treasures of gold and gems, while 1 am left to wrestle with narrowing problems in theology. Do you call that fairs''
 1 was to write them volumes about the wonders of the Indies and was to give par ticular information on these two points namely, the feeling inspired by wounded tiger charging full upon you when your gun is empty and what I thought of the hea- then gods-from a financial point of view
 Il believe" remarked one with a taste for finance, 'those unconscionable pagans make themselves deities of the finest ore set with precious stones while we haven't cash enough for an afternoons outing. Just send us god, old chappie, till we see how the heather abomination would melt in the crucible of Christian goldsmith
 They escorted me in a body to my coach. For, being prosperous now, acquaintances became friends. They gave a prolonged cheer as the vehicle moved off and a unani- nous injunction to mind my liver and be on my guard against the encroachments of pride when, as nabob with retinue of slaves, hobnobbed with the dusky and luxurious potentateS of the east.
 Only one thing marred my enjoyment. I had it set in my mind to give Peter Gle phane the soundest drubbing he had ever had in his life, but as he happened to be absent in Dundee my virtuous intent did not blossom into action.
 Arrived in London, my first business was to find Captain Rogers. He had heard from Sir Thomas and received me with great affability and consideration, under taking to have me bestowed in the best part of the ship and to let me see something of the town before we started. In me, as 1 remember, our sightseeing expeditions pro- duced perhaps as much bewilderment as pleasure I wandered through the seeth- ing, roaring wilderness of the largest city of the world eager to learn and admire, yet feeling so utterly out of my element, so much confounded by the din and smoke ard rush, by the ruthless self asserkiveners and indifference that seemed to character iza men and things alike, by the squalor and splerdor so grotesquely blended and tragicaily contrasted-in word, so dazed by the distracting throb and tumult of a nations mighty heart, that I was glad to get away.
 W hen the time came to sail, the river sides were thronged with people to witness the spectacle of our departure; for, that being just the beginning of the era of steam, it was thought miraculous thing to see a stately three decker sailing off with never 2 stitch of canvas set nor any visible means of getting forward save by a wheel that frantically churned the water into foam; and if it was strange to the spectators on shore to see a big ship going bravely on in- lependently of wind and tide I must own it was rather startling to one at least of those on board to be caged upon the waters with a belching, pounding, wheezing, screeching fire demon that seemed to be crying out in eternal agony and struggling with all its frenZied might to burst its bonds and wreak destruction on all about it.
 Often in the night have lain listening to it in its miniature pandemonium, never silent, never slumbering, never for one brief moment at peace, but forever wrench ing and writhing, forever setting up the
 same inappeasable cry of laboring pain and the same terrible threat of vengeance. Nowadays we have grown so familiar with the fire fiend that, as it were, we stroke him complacently on the back, but l never come near him in steamer or hissing loco motive without shudder at the thought of the vengeance he will one day wreak on this world.
 But in that fresh experience curiosity and interest soon mastered fear There was gladness in the ease and speed with which our flame fed slave carried us down the riv- CT and along the coast of Kent and past
 the tall white cliffs of Dover," the last
 prominent spot on which the eXile's strain ing eye rests when he is leaving England
 for the east and the first on which it wist-
 fully falls when happily he returns. The sun was going down in a soft suhusion of color as we entered the strait, casting a glamCrous iridescent light on the receding land and the sails of the many stately ships
 that were bearing gallantly up and down, some, like ourselves, outward bound, oth- CTS, their wanderings for the present over, bound for the home we had left. l stood on the deck gazing backward till the land melted into darkness, then Captain Rogers l quietly slipped his arm in mine, and we went below to supper.
 The Pearl of the Orient made a quick and prosperous passage, landing us in Bombay | in a day less than the time reckoned for | the voyage before starting. You may be | sure 1 did not allow Sir Thomas business | to lag.
 Having presented my letters of introduc- ton and undergone brief but fiery course ! of hospitality, set vigorously to the work before me- assisted by the numerous friends l of my patron. l had no difficulty in dis | covering that Donald Gordon had been | i'll Bombay some IS months before and had l suddenly disappeared. But whither he had | gone, whether he had departed by land or | by sea, or been dispatched by the hand of l the assassin, no one had the least idea. | There were of course conjectures in plenty. | He might be hunting in the jungle, or talk l ing the cool air among the hills, or traffick- | ing with oily natives in another town. He
 might be in China or Japan or Australia
 or the South Sea islands or Peru, or in the | interior of some enterprising shark. The
 possibilities were endless, but there was ! only one certainty-that he had completely | slipped all his friends in Bombay. In my first report home, then, l had
 nothing better to send than hope, of which | I was no niggard. 1 stated, truthfullS | enough trust, that had already learned | something about Donald; also, fear not | quite so truthfully, that was not without | reasonable ground for thinking that he and | l should shortly have a dish of curry to | gether. I did not tell them that as last resource had employed the cleverest pri vate detective In the city to help me, and
 that he had failed to find so much as 6
 single clue. Had I written what was in my mind I should have said frankly that so fal | as could then be seen there was not the remotest chance of being able to trace Don
 aid. Perhaps the better course would have
 been to say that. I saw this more clearly | when the letter was gone, and had strong | CT reason to conclude he must be really | dead.
 | argued in this way: Donald Gordon hal i a multitude of friends in Bombay, and il | he wished to leave he would certainly have | told them of his intention, and the direction
 ke purposed to take, and what he intended ! to do. There is ample evidence that he nev