Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1907-03-16
1905 BY Bobbs-Merriii Co.
CHAPTER II.


made no difference to me whether the
market rose or fell. Something of the
spirit of adventure that had been my
curse quickened in my heart as
walked through crowded Broadway
past Trinity church to a bank and
drew the balance remaining on my
letter of credit. 1 received in currency
slightly less than 81, 1000.
As turned from the teller's window
/ ran into the arms of the last man in
the world I expected to see-
This, let it be remembered, was in
October of the year of our Lord, nine
teen hundred and one
Don't mention my name an thou
lowest mel" said Laurance Donovan,
and he drew me aside, ignored my
hand and otherwise threw into our
meeting a casual quality that was
somewhat amazing in view of the fact
that we had met last at Cairo.
allah il Allahi'
1t was undoubtedly Larry 1 felt the
heat of the desert and heard the camel
drivers cursing and our Sudanese
guides plotting mischief under a win
dow far away.
'sWelIi" we both exclaimed interrO-
gatively.
with his hands in his pockets, on the
tile floor of the banking house. 1 had
seen him stand thus once on time
when he had eaten nothing in four
days-it was in Abyssinia, and our
guides had lost us in the worst posi-
BILE place-with the same untroubled
look in his eyes.
please don't appear surprised, or
scared or anything, jack he said,
with his delicious information. Il saw
a fellow looking for me an hour or SO
ago. He's been at it for several
months; hence my presence on these
shores of the brave and the free. He's
probably still looking, as he's a per-
sistent devil. I'm here, as we may
say, quite incog- Staying at an East
Side lodging house, where 1 shan't in
vite you to call on me. But must see
you"
Dine with me tonight, at Sher-
rvs
TOO big, too many people"
Therein lies security, if you're in
trouble. I'm about to go into exile,
and / want to eat one more civilized
dinner before 1 CO..
Perhaps it's just as well. Where
are you off for,-not Africa again.
mo. Just Indiana,-one of the SOW
ereign American states, as you ought
to know
.Indians?"
mo; warranted all dead"
Pack -balloon-automobi
camels,-how do you get there?"
Vanished cars. It's easy. It's not
the getting there; it's the not dying of
ennui after you're on the spot
"Humph. What hour did you say
for the dinner?"
Seven o'clock. Meet me at the en-
trance
TN be there if I'm not in Jail. Kind
1y allow me to precede you, and don't
follow, please,''
He walked away, his ,gloved hands
clasped lazily behind him, lounged out
upon Broadway and turned toward the
Battery. l waited until he disap-
peared, then took an uptown car
My first meeting with Laurance DON
ovan was in Constantinople, at cafe
where was dining. He got into row
with an Englishman and knocked him
down 1t was not my affair. but liked
the ease and definiteness with which
Larry put his foe out of commission.
learned later that it was a way he had
My friend, the American consul gen.
eral at Constantinople, was not with
out a sense of humor. and I easily en-
listed him in Larry's behalf. The Eng
lishman thirsted for vengeance and in
voked all the powers. He insisted,
with reason, that Larry was a British
subject and that the American consul
had no right to give him asylumsa
point that was, I understand, thor
oughly well-grounded in law and fact
Larry maintained, on the other hand
that he was not English but Irish, and
that, as his country maintained no
representative in Turkey, it was his
privilege to find refuge wherever it
was offered. Larry was always the
most plausible of human beings, and
between us,-he, the American consul
and I've made an impression, and
got him off,
did not realize until later that the
real joke lay in the fact that Larry
was English-born, and that his devo-
ton to Ireland was purely sentimental
and quixotic. His family had, to be
sure, come out of Ireland some time
In the dim past, and settled in Eng
land; but when Larry reached years of
knowledge, il not of discretion, he cut
Oxford and insisted on taking his de-
gree at Dublin He even believed,-or
thought he believed,-in banshees. He
allied himself during his university
days with the most radical and turbu-
lent advocates of a separaff, national