The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-01-28
1ruxton King
Story Of Gausak By George Barr McCufcheon
Copyright 1909 George Barr Mecuheon Copyright 1902 By Dd Mead Ga
CHAPTER I.
TRUxTON KING.

TRUxTON KING.
He was a tall. rawboned, rangy
young fellow with face so tanned by
wind and sun that you had the I'M
preston that his skin would feel like
leather IL you could affect the im-
pertinence to test 1t by the sense of
touch. His clothes fitted him loosely
and yet were graciously devoid Of the
bagginess which characterizes the
appearance Of extremely young men
whose frames are not fully set and
whose joints are still parading
through the last stages or college
development.
This tab young man In the panama
hat and gray fiannels was Truxton
King. embryo globe trotter and
searcher after the treasures Of ro-
nance. Somewhere up near Central
park, in one of the fashionable cross
streets. was the home of his father
and his fathers father before him
a home which Truxton had not seen
in two years or more 1t is worthy of
passing notice, and that is all, that
his father was manufacturer; more
than that, he was something of 81
power in the financial world. His
mother was not strictly a social queen
In the great metropolis. but she was
what we might safely call one of the
first ''iadies In waiting" which is
quite good enough for the wife of a
manufacturer. especially when one
records that her husband was manu-
facturer of steel. 1t is also matter
of no little consequence that Trux-
toms mother was more or less averse
n Sfn ltts .sstt f.,,
her SON Be it understood here and
now that she intended Truxton for
the diplomatic service.
But neither TruXton's father, who
wanted him to be a manufacturing
Croesus, nor TruXton's mother, who
expected him TO become a social Solo
mon, appears to have taken the young
mans private inclinations into con-
sideration.
Young Mr.. King believed in ro-
nance. He grew up with an ever In
creasing bump of imagination, con-
ttguous to which. strange to relate,
there WAS a properly developed bump
of industry and application; hence 1t
is not surprising that he was willing
to go Tar afield In search of the things
that seemed more or less worth while
to young gentleman who had sur
fered the i'll fortune to be born In the
nineteenth century instead of the
seventeenth.
We come upon him at last--luckiiy
for us we We're not actually follow
Ing him-after two years of wonder
full but rather disiiiusioning adventure
in mid Asia and all Africa. He had
seen the kongo and the Euphrates,
the Ganges and the Nile. the Yangtse-
kiang and the Yenisei: he had climbed
.txx.
Tibet and Afghanist2a: he had shot
big game in more than one jungle
and had been shot at by small brown
men in more than one forest, TO say
nothing of the little encounters he had
had in most unoccidental towns and
cities.
For twenty days he had travelled by
caravan across the Persian uplands.
through .Herat and Meshhed and Be-
khara- striking off with his guide alone
toward the sea of Aral and the east
ern shores of the Caspian, thence
through the Ural foothills TO the old
Roman highway that led down into
the sweet green valleys of land he
had thought OF as nothing more than
the creation of harebrained fictionist.
Somewhere out in the shimmeriug
east he had learned, to his honest
anlazement that there was such "a
land as G;raustark.-At- first he waafa
not believe. but the English bank in
Meshhed assured him that ne would
come to Ii If he, travelled long enough
and far enough into the north and
west and If he were not afraid of the
hardships that most men abhor. The
dying spirit of romance famed up i'm
his heart His blood grew quick again
and eager. He would not go home
until he had sought out this land of
fair women and sweet tradition. And
So he traversed the wild an1 danger
GUS Tartar roads for days and days,
like the knights of Scheherazade In
the times of old, and came at last to
the gates OF Edelweiss.
Not until he sat down to a rare din
ner in the historic Hotel Regengetz
was he able to realize that he WAS
truly In that tabled, mythical land of
Graustark. a quaint. grim little princi-
pality in the most secret pocket Of the
earth's great mantle. This was the
land OF his dreams, the land OF his
fancy. He had not even dared to
hope that 1t actually existed.
And now 1t becomes my deplorable
duty to divulge the fact that Truxton
King. after two full days and nights
In the city of Edelweiss. was quite
pieteiy disillnsioned In his own mind
and not "a little Disguised with himself
for having gone to the trouble to visit
the place.
Where were the beautiful women
he had read about and dreamed Of
ever since he left Teheran? On his
soul. he had not seen half a dozen
women in EdeIweiss who were more
than passably fair to look upon. True.
he had to admit, the people he had
seen were of the lower ana middle
classes, the shopkeepers and the shop
girls. the hucksters ana rne fruit
vendors. What he wanted to know
was this: What had become Of the
royalty and the nobility Of Graustark?
Where were the princes. the dukes and
the barons. 10 say nothing OF the
feminine coneoHttasts to these ex-
ceiient gentlemen?
One dingy little shop IN the square
interested him. II was directly OPP
positc the Royai cafe. with American
bar attached. and the contents OF Its
grimy little windows presented pc
culiarly fascinating interest to MIN.
They were packed with weapons and
firearms OF ancient design. Once he
ventured inside the little shop. Find
ipg no attendant. he put ABIDE hin
suddenly formed impulse to purchase
4 mighty brondsword.
On several 0ccaaton6 he had oeen d
grim, sharp featured old man Ia the
doorway cf the shop, but II Ness not
until afteF ~ hnd untan6d; ~ xhz1fS
~ ttain ~ II M + n