The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-09-22

SYNOPSIS.

SYNOPSIS.
Arthur Warrington, American consul
to BarScheit, tells how reigning Grand
Duke attempts to force his neiCe, Prin-
cess Hildegarde, to marry Prince Dopple-
kim, an old widower. Warrington does
not know the princess even by sight.
While horseback riding in the country
night overtakes him and he seeks accom-
modationS in a dilapidated castle. Here
he finds two women and an old man
servant. One woman is Princess Hide
garde and the other a friend, Hon. Betty
Moore, of England. They detain hin to
witness a mock marriage between the
princess and a disgraced army officer,
~Steinbock, done for the purpose of foiling
the grand duke. Steinbock attempts to
kiss the princess and she is rescued by
Warrington. Steinbock disappears for
good. Max Scharfenstein, an old Ameri-
can friend of W~arrington's reaches Bar
scheit.
CHAPTER ~.
He came straight to the consulate
and l was so glad to see him that l
sat him down in front of the s~ideboard
and left orders that l was at home to
no one. We had been classmates and
roommates at college, and two better
friends never lived. We spent the
whole night in recounting the good
old days, sighed a little over the de-
parted ones, and praised or criticized
the living. Hadn't they been times,
though? The nights we had stolen up
to Philadelphia to see the shows, the
great Thanksgiving games in New
York, the commandments, and all
that!
Max had come out of the far west.
He was a founding who had been
adopted by a wealthy German ranch
man named Scharfenstein, which name
Max assumed as his own, it being as
good as any. Nobody knew anything
about MaX's antecedents, but he was
so big and handsome and jolly that no
n cared a hang. For all that he die
not know his parentage, he was a gen.
tleman, something that has to be bred
in the bone. Once or twice l remem-
Der seeing him angry; in anger he was
arrogant, deadly, but calm. He was a
god in track-linen, for he was what
few big men are, quick and agile. The
big fellow who is catlike in his move
ments is the most formidable of ath-
letes. One thing that invariably
amused me was his inordinate love of
uniforms. He would always stop when
he saw a soldier or the picture of one,
and his love of arms was little short
of a mania. He was an expert fencer
and q dead shot besides. pardon the
parenthesis, but l feel it my duty to
warn you that nobody fights a duel in
this little history, and nobody gets
ki1led.)
On leaving college he went in for
medicine, and his appearance in the
capital city of Barscheit was due OBJ
viously to the great medical college,
famous the world over for it's nerve
specialists. This was Max's first adj
venture in the land of gutturals. 1 ex-
planned to him, and partly unraveled,
the tangle of laws; as to the language,
he spoke that, not like a native, but
as one
Max was very fond of the society of
women, and at college we used to twit
him about it, for he was always eager
10 meet a new face, trusting that the
new one might be the ideal for which
he was searching.
We'll, you old Dutchman," said I.
have you ever found that ideal wom-
an of yours?"
"Bah!"-lighting a pipe. "She will
never be found. A horse and a trusty
dog for me; those two you may event
ually grow to understand. OF course
l don't say, if the woman came along
the right one-I mightn't go under.
I'm philosopher enough to admit that
possibility. l want her tall, hair like
cornsilk, eyes like the c~orn-iower, of
brilliant intellect, reserved, and digni-
fled, and patient. l want a woman
not humorous, but who understands
humor, and l have never heard of one.
So, you see, it's all smoke; and l never
talk woman these times unless I'm
smoking with a gesture which ex-
planned that he had given up the idea
altogether. "A doctor sees so much
of that he finally sees nothing
OF woman"
ooh, If you resort to epigrams. 7
car see that it's all over"
All over. I'm so used to being
alone that | shouldn't know what to
do with a wife" He pulled seriously.
All! the futility of our desires. of
our castles, of u dreams! The com.
placency with which we jog along in
what we deem to be our own particular
groove! l recall a girl friend of my
youth who was going to be a celibate.
a great reformer, and toward that end
was studying for the pulpit. She is
now the mother of several children.
the most peaceful and lucrative WON.
an I know. You see, humanity goes
whirring over various sidetracks.
thinking them to be the main line. till
fate puts its peculiar but happy hand
to the switch. Scharfenstein had been