, 1908-01-30
CHAPTE u.

Don mention my name an thou
lowest me-" 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 N our Sudanese
guides plotting mischief under a win
dow far away.
Welt" we 10Th 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 h4 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. 81 saw
a fellow looking for me an hour or SO
ago. He's been at 1t for several
months; hence my presence on these
shores of the brave II 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
Sid lodging house, where / shan't in.
vite you to call on me. But | must see
you"
Dine with me tonight, at sher-
ry's-"
Too big, too many people,"
Therein lies security, If you're In
trouble. I'm about to go into exile,
dinner before | 60"
Perhaps it's just as we'll. Where
are o off for,-not Africa again."
No. Just lndiana,-one of the SOW
ereign American states. as you ought
to know"
"Indians?"
mo; warranted all dead"
Pack Observation-Disclosures
camels,-how do you get there"
Vanished cars. It's easy. It's not
the getting there; it's the not dying of
go "''CA W. 4 c VII Nv oDol-
"Humph. What hour did you say
for the dinner?"
Seven o'clock. Meet me at the en-
trance"
I'll be there II I'm not in jail. Kind
ly allow me to precede you, and don't
follow, pleased"
He walked away, his sloved hands
plaSnpd laviIu hnhinI him ln,n.Y,d ~,,t
upon Broadway n turned toward the
Battery. l waited until he disap.
peared. then o ar uptown car.
My first meeting with Laurance Don
ovan was in Constantinople, at a cafe
where was dining. He got into a row
with an Englishman and knocked him
down. II was not my affair, but | liked
the sase and definiteness with which
Larry put his foe out OF commission.
learned later that 1t was a way he had.
My friend. the American consul gen.
eral at Constantinople.. was not with.
out a sense of humor, and | easily en-
listed him in Larry's behalf. The Eng.
ishman thirsted for vengeance and in.
voked all the powers. He insisted,
with reason, that Larry was a British
subject and hat the American consul
had no right to give him asylum.-a
point that was. | understand, thor.
onghly 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 II
was offered. Larry Wal always the
most plausible of human beings, and
between us,-he. the American consul
n I've made An impression, and
got him off.
did moi 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
n 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 wears OF
knowledge. II not of discretion. he cut
gree at Dublin. He ven believed,-or
thought he believed.-in banshees. He
allied himself during his university
days with the most radical and turbu.
lent advocates OF a separate national
existence for Ireland, and occasionally
spent a month In jail for rioting. But
Larry's instincts were scholarly: he
made q brilliant record at the uniyor.