The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-12-15
,essseseeesssees 90 sessssseeeess!
"TRUXTON KING"

fore he curbed the thrilling i'm
pulse to fare forth in search of
Diversion on this first night; he
conquered himself and went to
bed early-and to sleep at once,
IL that may serve to assist you
in getting an idea of what time
and circumstances had done for
his character.
A certain hard-earned philoso-
| ply had convinced him long ago
that adventure is quite content to
wait over from day to day, but
that when a man is tired and
worn it isn't sensible to expect
sleep to be put off regardless.
With a fine sense of sacrifice.
therefore, he went to bed, forsak-
ing the desire to tread the dim
strets of city by night in advance
of more cautious survey by day
light. He had come to know that
lit is best to make sure of your
ground, in a measure, at least.
before taking too much for grant
to speak. And so, his mind ting
ling with visions of fair ladies
and goodly opportunities, he went
to sleep--and did not get up to
breakfast until noon the next day.
And now it becomes my deplor-
able duty 20 divulge the fact
that Truxton King, after two full
days and nights in the city of
Edelweiss, was quite ready to
pass on to other fields, complete
| ly disillusioned in his own mind,
and not a little disguised with
himself for having gone to the
trouble to visit the place. To his
intense chagrin, he had found the
quaint old city very tiresome.
! True, it was wonderful old
town, rich in tradition, pictur-
esque in character, hoary with
! age, bullying with the secrets of
an active past; but at present.
according to the well Travelled
Truxton, it was a poky old place
about which historians either had
lied gloriously or had been taken
| in shamelessly. In either case,
Edelweiss was not what he had
come to believe it would be. He
had travelled overland for nearly
a month, out of the heart of Asia,
to find himself, after all, in a
graveyard of great expectations!
He had explored Edelweiss, the
capital. He had ridden about the
lramparts; he had taken snapshots
of the fortress down the river and
had not been molested; he had
gone mule-back up the mountain
to the snow capped monastery of
st. Valentine, overlapping and
Overlooking the green valleys be-
low; he had seen the tower in
which illustrious prisoners were
reported to have been held; he
had ridden over the Kings Road
to Ganlook and had stood on
American bridges at midnight
all the while wondering why he
was there. Moreover, he had
ltraversed the narrow, winding
streets of the city by day and
might; never, in all his travels,
had he encountered a more peace
Iful less spirit-stirring place or
Ipopulace.
Everybody was busy, and
thrifty, and law abiding. He might
just as well have gone to Prague
or Nuremberg: either was as old
and as quaint and as stupid as
this lukewarm city in the hills.
Where were the beautiful wom-
en- he had read about and dream
ed of ever since he left Teheran?
On his soul, he had not seen half
a dozen women in Edelweiss who
were more than passably fair to
loko upon. True, he had to adj
nit, the people he had seen were
of the lower and middle classes
the shopkeepers and the shop
girls, the hucksters and the fruit
vendors. What he wanted to
know was this: What had be-
come of the royalty and the no.
bility of Graustark? Where were
the princes, the dukes and the
barons, to say nothing of the
feminine concomitants to these
excellent gentlemen?
Continued Tomorrow IS