Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-03-18

neatly and handed II to the purchaser.
The latter and his friend said good
morning in a civil and lefsurely man
ner, sauntered out, took hanson a
few steps farther down the street.
and drove away.
The little paper twist containing Lo-
gotheti's ruby was still exactly where
Mr.. Pinney had placed 1t on the coun-
ter, and he was going to examine the
stone and weigh IL at last, when two
IDENTIFY foreigners, and moreover Of a
sort unfamiliar to the good jeweler,
and especially suspicious.
The two were Baraka and Ter inter
prefer and servant, whom Logotheti
had called q Turk, and who was real
ly Turkish subject and a Mohamme-
dan, though as to race, he was q half
bred Greek and Dalmatian. Now
Dalnatians are generally honest,
truthful, and Trustworthy. and the low
class Greek of Constantinople is u.s.
ually extremely sharp, If he is nothing
more definitely reprehensible; and
BaPlka's man was a CROSS between
the two, as have said, and had been
brought up as a Musulman in a rich
Turkish family. and recommended to
Baraka by the Persian merchant in
whose house she had lived He had
been originally baptized Christian
under the name of Spiro, and had
been subsequently renamed Salim
when he was made a real Moslem at
IL years old. 50 he used whichever
lame suited the circumstances in
which he was placed. At present he
was Spiro.
The interpreter spoke broken but
iltelligible English. He called Ba-
raka his master and explained that
the latter wished to see some rubies, If
Mr.. Pinney had any. cut or uncut. The
young gentleman. he said, did not
speak English, but was a good Judge
of stones.
For one moment the jeweler forgot
the little paper twist as he turned
towards his safe, pulling out his keys
at the same time. To reach the safe
he had to walk the whole length of
the shop, behind the counter, and
before he had gone half way he re-
membered the stone, turned, came
back and slipped it into his waistcoat
pocket. Then he went and got the
little japanned stronghold with a pat
emit lock, in which he kept loose stones,
some wrapped up in little pieces of
paper, and some in pill boxes. He
brought 1T to his customers, and
opened it before them.
Thay stayed a long time, and Spiro
asked many questions for Baraka,
chiefly relating to the sliding scale of
prices which is regulated by the
fly is equally good, and Baraka made
notes of some sort in a little Eng
lish memorandum book, as If she had
done 1t all her life; but Mr.. Pinney
could not see what she wrote. He was
careful, and watched the stones when
she took them In her fingers and held
them up against the light, or laid
them on a sheet of white paper to
look at them critically.
She bought nothing. and when she
had seen all he had to show her, she
thanked him very much through Spiro,
said she would come back another
day, and went out with leisurely,
oriental gait, as If nothing in the
world could hurry her. Mr.. Pinney
counted the stones again, and was go
ing to lock the box, when his second
man came in, having finished string
ing the duchess pearls. At the same
moment, 1t occurred to Mr.. Pinney
that he might as we'll go to luncheon,
and that he had better put Lcgothstfa
ruby into the little strong-box anu
lock 1t up In the safe until he at last
had q chance to weigh 1t. He &C
cordingly took the screw Of paper
from his waistcoat pocket. and as a
matter of Formally he undid it again.