Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-02-07
CHAPTER XVIII.

was not a man over whom i'm
agination held any powerful sway His
doubts and misgivings seldom ran to
speculation upon future possibilities.
Nevertheless. the fact that, conscious
II or unconsciously, he had adopted
new attitude toward Eve came home
to him with unpleasant force during
the hours of darkness, and long before
the first hint of daylight had. slipped
through the heavy window curtains be
had arranged a plan of aetion-a plan
wherein. by the simple method of alto
gether avoiding her, he might soothe
his own conscience and safeguard Chill
cote's domestic interests.
1t was a satisfactory if somewhat
negative arrangement and he rose next
morning with a feeling that things had
begun to shape themselves. But chance
sometimes has disconcerting knack of
forestalling even our best planned
schemes. He dressed slowly and de-
scended to his solitary breakfast with
the pleasant sensation of having put
last night out of consideration by the
turning over of new leaf. but scarce
" had he opened Chilcote's letters,
scarcely had he taken cursory glance
at the mornings newspaper than it was
borne in upon him that not only new
leaf. but whole sheaf of new leaves, had
been turned in his prospects by hand
infinitely more powerful and arbitrary
than his own. He realized within the
space of a few moments that the lei
sure Eve might have claimed, the lei
sure he might have been tempted to de-
vote to her was no longer his to dis
pose of, being already demanded Of
him from a quarter that allowed of no
refusal
For the first rumbling of the political
earthquake that was to shake the coun-
try made itself audible beyond denial
on that morning of March 81 when the
news spread through England that. in
view of the disorganized state of the
Persian army and the shah's conse-
quent inability to suppress the open in
surrection of the border tribes in the
northeastern districts of Meshed. Rus
STA, with great show of magnanimity,
had come to the rescue by dispatching
a large armed force from her military
station at Merv across the Persian
frontier to the seat of the disturbance.
To many hundreds of Englishmen
who read their papers on that morning
this announcement conveyed but little.
That there is such country as Persia
we all know, that English interests pre-
dominate in the south and Russian in
terests in the north we have all super
ficiaIIy understood from childhood, but
in this knowledge, coupled with the
fact that Persia is comfortably far
away, we are apt to rest content. 1t Is
only to the eyes that see through long
distance glasses. the minds that regard
the present as nothing more or less
than an inevitable link joining the flu
ture to the past, that this distant, de-
batable land stands out in its true po-
litical significance.
To the average reader of news the
statement of Russia's move seemed
scarcely more important than had the
first report of the border risings in
January, but to the men who had
watched the growth of the disturbance
it came charged with portentous mean
ing. Through the entire ranks of the
opposition, from Fraide himself down
ward, it caused thrill of expectation
that peculiar prophetic sensation that
every politician has experienced at
some moment of his career.
In no member of his party did this
feeling strike deeper root than in Loder.
int in fh0
eastern question, specially equipped by
personal knowledge to hold and pro-
claim an opinion upon Persian affairs,
he read the signs and portents with in
stinctive insight. Seated at Chilcote's
table. surrounded by Chilcote's letters
and papers, he forgot the breakfast
that was slowly growing cold, forgot
the interests and dangers, personal or
pIeasurable, of the night before, while
his mental eyes persistently conjured
up the map of Persia, travelling with
steady deliberation from Mery to Me-
shed. from Meshed to Herat, from Her
at to the empire of India! For it was
not the fact that the Hazaras had risen
against the shah that occupied the
thinking mind, nor was it the fact that
,
Russian and not Persian troops were
destined to subdue them, but the deep
" important consideration that an
armed Russian force had crossed the
frontier and was encamped within
twenty miles of Meshed-Meshed up
on which covetous Russian eyes have
rested ever since the days of Peter the
Great
So Loder's thoughts ran as he read
and reread the news from the varying
political standpoints. and SO they con-
tinued to run when. some hours later,
an urgent telephone message from the
ST. Georges Gazette asked him to call
at Lakeley's Office.
The message was interesting as well
as imperative, and he made an instant
,-aenonsn The thought of LakeleyS