The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-02
The Garden Of Lies
By Justus Miles Forman
Copyright by A. Company
BY Justus Miles Forman
CHAPTER XIV.

.-'.-'-s CHAPTER XIV.
But meanwhile T had grown tired OF
waiting for Denis to finish his walk in the
garden-he seemed so long over it-and at
last went off grumbling to my rooms in
the Boulevard Montparnasse to dress, for
I was dining across the river with some
friends. (. >-
We dined at Durand's in the Place de la
Madeleine, and saw the others into their
cabs outside the door at something like 1O
o. clock or bit after. Then turned
down the Rue Royale toward the Place de
Ia Concorde. for I'd some notion of drop
ping in at Maxim's, but the Taverne Roy
ale looked SO bright and gay and attract
| i've as passed; and the refrain of a waltz
which the Spanish orchestra was playing
sounded so alluring that turned in there
instead and looked about for a vacant ta-
ble.. The big sale was nearly full, but ]
found a table at last in the forward cor
ner, and made my way over to it through
the crowd of late diners and smartly
dressed loungers who were listening to the
music.
The table at my left was surrounded by
a group Of young Frenchmen of the we'll
to-do etudiant type, that is to say, grown
children, irrepressible in spirits and mis-
chief. They seemed to have picked for
the temporary butt Of their silly and ILL
natured jokes a man who sat alone at the
little table on. my right, a very German
looking person of 40 or thereabouts, with
fiercely turned-up mustaches a lEmperu1
Guillaume.
A German may, nowadays, work among
the rapins of a Latin quarter studio, sub
ject to little or no insult, so common has
he become but these particular young
ruffans of the Taverne Royale seemed de-
termined to avenge poor wreath-hune
Strasbourg, there in the Place de la Con-
corde, and were making things interesting
in quiet but sufficiently audible manner
for the gentleman with the upturned mus
taches.
AS for me, I was trying to determine
where 1 had seen him before. His face
had oddly familiar look. I knew nc
end of Germans. 1 had hobnobbed with
from Frankfort to Vienna, but I coulc
place this man nowhere in the list.
He was drinking biere de Munich-Spa-
tenbrau-in great half liter mugs which
he ground solemnly upon the table, with
that little rotary motion, before raising tc
his lips. His left eyelid had a chonic
droop that gave him rather sinister look
and he wore a monocle over that eye
Where had 1 seen that dropping eyelid?
/ l leaned over and begged him for g
ma tch-there was no box upon my table
and he turned to me with a sort of eager.
ness. The Frenchmen had annoyed him
| despite his German stolidity. l made
some commonplace remark, I remember
about the music or the weather, and he
| answered with IN apparent delight al
| hearing his mother tongue. He dropped
! the monocle from his eye as he spoke, anG
had to lower my gaze swiftly and choke
| back the exclamation that rose to my
| lips, for knew him now. 1t was the eye.
| glass that had deceived me.
| Then I set in, unashamedly, to pump the
| man, on the chance that among many
| lies there might be truth or hint O
| value.
It was rather good sport, for he had ne
notion whatever that we had met-'in {
way O. speakin' " as Mackenzie would say
| before.
Was he in Paris merely as a traveller
1 then? 49, '@ - >t.-
Yes, he was here for short time only
He was from Vienna. ''And that sait
I inwardy, ''is indirectly true" Hi
name was schwartzkopfen-" by an,
chance Won Steinbrucke?" said I again
to myself My name was Jenkins and
was from Manchester where I nlanufac
tured toys. Herr Won Schwartzko opfel
was in Paris for no long stop then?
No, oh no, he was here on mission
'"True again. thought Ia mission whicl
would be consummated within the mex
two or three days. :.
The devil it ,will!'' said I to myself
"Td give something to know just wha
the mission is, my friend.'' After whic
certain events must determine his move
ments for the next fortnight.
And he had found pleasant quarter
while in the city? He was stopping a
one of the hotels, of course?
But here Herr SchWartzkopfen vo
Steinbrucke caressed the fierce NOUS
taches and 1nurmured something vagu
about friends on the other side of tn
river, and changed the topic to a safer
remoter one, for it wouldn't do at all
alarm the man. There might be some
thing wormed out of him unawares.
We talked for a long time of man
things-"shoes and ships and sealing wa
and cabbages and kings and I foun
Herr van Steinbrucke, ex-card sharl
sometime blackmailer refugee from Aus
trian justice, and presently Pavelovitc
catspaw, interesting in the extreme.
He told me tales, wondrous tales!
only I could put them upon paper! Tale
of queer happenings at Vienna, at Tr
4 este, at SalZburg. at Weisbaden, tales
carelessly- -cloaked great names-I had no
shunted him from Spatenbrau to mol
potent and fiery things, so that his tongu
1 was loosened and his face grew redde
He told me tales of his own deed
boastfully and with no seeming shame
he was drinking brandy now-deeds III
4 speakable for utter blackguardism; and
smiled and showed the little decanter tt
1 ward him. He told me bits of cou
4 gossip from Vienna, of strange bargain
. made end promises given, of strange pla1
4 afoot for repainting of the ma
of Europe, when the believe
old Emperor should come to his deaf
! BY my faith the press Of the civiliz,
world would have burned the next mornil
i With startling news could those ramblil
gutteral Viennese accents have reach
9 its ears! .-.
: And at last, when the husky voice HI
Il ! grown lower and had come to Wanderil
n into silly reptitions and foolish pleasan
q ries. steered the talk again-with inwa
a trembling-to the present time
u Doubtless his mission in Paris was co
$ nected with some Of these great folk, ma
q ters to be trusted only to one old in crs
s. and secret business? +.-,
The foolish head wagged knowingly a
: that sinister left eyelid dropped lower.
His mission, by heaven, was importa
enough, if any one should ask you'll It h
= to do with prince! Herr Gott,- yes!, +
| =