The Elbert County tribune., 1907-03-28
CHAPTER II.
a Face at Sherrv's.
-opyright 1906 BY Bosb.-nsrilii Co.

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 bank and
drew the balance remaining on nv
letter OF credit. / received in currency
slightly less than $1,000.
AS turned from the teller's window
ran into the arms of the last man in
the world / 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 Allah," \
1t was undoubtedly Larry. | felt the
heat of the desert and heard the camel
drivers cursing and our Sudanese
guides plotting mischief under a win
dow far away.
Welt" we both exclaimed interro-
gatively.
He rocked gently back and forth,
with his hands in his pockets. on the
tile floor of the banking house. | had
seen him stand thus once on a time
when he had eaten nothing in four
days-it was in Abyssinia, and our
guides had lost us in the worst possi-
BILE place-with the same untroubled
look in his eyes.
sp1aaCn ad nr
scared or anything. Jack" he said,
with his delicious intonation. Il saw
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 / shan't in
yite 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 l go
Perhaps it's just as well. Where
are you off for.-not Africa again?'
NO. Just Indiana,-one of the SOW
ereign American states. as you ought
to know"
'Indians?"
mo: warranted all dead"
Pack train-balloon-autom
camels,-how do you get there?" 81
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"
I'll be there if I'm not in jail. Kind
ly allow me to precede you, and don't
follow, please,"
He walked away. his gloyed 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 a cafs
where | was dining. He got into a row
with all 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 way he had.
My friend. the American consul gen
eral at Constantinople, was not with
out sense of humor, and ! easily en-
listed him in Larrys 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 asylum,-a
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 1t
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 jo<e 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. If not of discretion. he cut
Oxford snd 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 senarate national