Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-12

to ride
~ never thought of you as riding" Mar
| garet said.
"Well, why should you? But cam because
l was just common cowboy and had to for
living"
Its intensely interesting. What strange
life you have had Tell me more about your
self, won't your"
There's not much to tell, it seems to me"
said Van Torp. From being cowboy l
turned into miner and struck little silver,
and sold that and got into nickel and made
the Nickel Trust what it 1s,-more by flnanc-
ing it than anything else, and got almost all
of it. And now I've sold the whole thing"
"Sold the Nickel Trust!" Margaret was as
much surprised as Lady Maud had been
Eyes. l wasn't made to do one thing long,
| suppose. If | were, should still be cow
boy. Just now, I'm here to go to 'Parsifal.'
and since you say those tunes are out of that
opera. l dare say I'm going to like it very
much"
Its all very uncanny," Margaret said
thoughtfu1ly II wonder who those two men
were, and what became of the who dis
appeared."t
1--WE strong impression that l saw him
in New York the other day." Van Torp
swered. I" If I'm right, he has made money
doing quite well. l should think 1t wouldn't
surprise me to hear he had got together mil
lion So"
Really? What is he doing3 Your stories
grow more and more interesting"
IF he's the fellow we used to call Levi
Longlegs the ranch, he's Russian now.
I'm not perfectly sure; for he had no hair on
his face then, and now he has beard like
French sapper. But the eyes and the nose
and the voice and the accent are the same, and
the age would about correspond. Handsome
| man. | suppose you'd call him. His name is
kralinsky just at present, and he has found
whole mine of rubies somewhere"
REALLY? I love rubies. They are my
s.,
Are they? That's funny. l have an un-
cut in my pocket now, if you'd like to
see it. l believe it comes from Kralinskys
mine too, though got it through friend of
yours two or three days ago"
"a friend of miner"
He was poking his large fingers into one of
the pockets of his waistcoat in search of the
stone.
"Mr. Logotheti" he said. just as he found
it. He discovered handsome young woman
from Tartary or somewhere. who has few
rubes to sell that look very much like kra-
linsky's. This is one of them"
He had unwrapped the stone now. and
offered it to her, holding it out in the palm of
her own, which was so white that the gem
shed a delicate pomegranate colored light on
the skin all round it. She admired it, turned
it over with one finger, held it up toward the
window, and laid it in her palm again.
But Van Torp had set her thinking about
Logotheti and the Tartar girl. She put out
her hand to give back the ruby.
81 should like you to keep it, if you will,
he said. ~ shan't forget the pleasure I've
had in seeing you like this: but you will for
get all about our meeting here-the stone may
just make you remember it sometimes"
He spoke SO quietly, so gently, that she was
taken off her guard, and was touched and
much surprised to feel that she was. She
looked into his eyes rather cautiously,
bering we'll how she had formerly seen
something terrifying in them if she looked an
instant too long; but now they made her
think of the eyes of large. affectionate bull
dog,
she answered after a moments hesitation:
but l don't like to accept anything valu
able. now that I'm engaged to be married.
Konstantin might not like it. But you're
so kind give me any little thing of no value
that you have in your pocket, for l mean to
remember this day. indeed l dol"
Il gave nothing for the ruby" said Van
Torp, still not taking it from her; $50 it has
no value for me. l wouldn't offer you any
thing that cost me money, now. unless it was
theater for your own Perhaps the thing is
glass. after all; I've not shown it to any jew
eler. The girl made me take it, because
l helped her in a sort of way. When wanted
to pay for it she tried to throw it out of the
window. So l had to accept it to calm her
down, and she went off and left no address, and
7 ~ fol how