Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-03-09

some moments. but at last Van Torp
turned, and came back
Thank you" he said. in low
voice.
Margaret smiled and passed her
hand over her eyes quickly. as If to
dispel a vision she had seen. Then
she spoke.
do you really not know what that
music is?" she asked. Really.
really?"
"Oh. quite honestly 1 DON'T"
you're not joking? You're not
laughing at me?"
"I?" He could not understand st
shouldn't dare." he said
You've been whistling some of
"Parsifal," some OF the most beauti-
fui music that ever was written-and
you whistle mavellously. for it's any
thing but easy Where in the world
did you learn It? Don't tell me that
those are old tunes you picked up
on California ranch,"
TITS true, all the same" Van Torp
answered.
He told her. Of the two foreigners
who used to whistle together in the
evenings, and how one was supposed
to have been shot and the other had
disappeared, no one had known with
er, nor had cared.
All sorts OF young fellows used to
drift out there" he said, "and one
couldn't tell where they came from,
though I can give a guess at where
some Of them must have been, since
I've seen the world There were
younger sons of English gentlemen,
fellows whose fathers were genuine
lords, maybe, who had not brains
enough to get into the army or the
church. There were cashiered Prus-
sian officers, and Frenchmen who had
most likely killed women out of teai-
ousy, and Sicilian bandits, and brok-
en- society men from New York There
were all sorts. And there was me-
And we all spoke different kinds of
English and had different kinds of
tastes, good and ead-mostly bad.
There was only one thing we could
all do alike, and that was to ride"
'T never thought of you as riding"
Margaret said.
We'll. why should your But 1 can,
because was just common cowboy
| and had to, for living"
TITS intensely interesting-what a
strange life you have had Tell me
more about yourself. won't your"
There's not much to tell, it seems
to me-" said Van Torp. From being
cowboy 1 turned into miner. and
struck a little silver, and I sold that
and got into nickel, and I made the
Nickel Trust what 1t is, more by
financing it than anything else, and
got almost all of 1t. And now I've sold
the whole thing"
sold the Nickel Trust?" Margaret
was quite as much surprised as Lady
Maud had been.
Yes. I wasn't made to do one
thing long, I suppose II were, I
should still be a cowboy Just now,
I'm here to go to 'Parsifal.' and since
you say those tunes are out of that
opera, dare say I'm going to like IL
very much"
Its all very uncanny," Margaret
said thoughtfully. "T wonder who
those two men were, and what became
of the one who disappeared"
i've a strong impression that I saw
him in New York the other day" Van
Torp answered 'If I'm right, he's
made money-doing quite well, /
should think It wouldn't surprise me
to hear he'd got together a million or
So"
Really? What is he doing? Your
stories grow more and more inter-
esting'
IF he's the fellow we used to call
Levi Longlegs on the ranch, he's a
Russian now. I'm not perfectly sure,
for he had 40 hair on his face then,
and now he has beard like a French
sapper But the eyes and the nose
and the voice and the accent are the
same, and the age would about cor
respond Handsome man, I suppose
you'd call him. His name is Kralinskv
just at present, and he's found whole
mine OF rubies somewhere"
Really? I love rubies. They are
my favorite stones"
Are they? That's funny. I've got
an uncut one in my pocket now. if
you'd like to see it. believe it comes
from Kralinsky's mine, too. though
got 1t through a 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 waist
coat in search of the stone.
''Mr. Logotheti,'' he said. just as he
found 1t. Hes discovered a hand
some young woman from Tartary, or
somewhere, who has few rubies TO
sell that look very much like Kra-
lihsky's This is one of them"
= He had unwrapped the stone now
and he offered It to her, holding it out
in the palm of his hand. She took il
delicately and laid it in her own,
which was so white that the gem
shed a delicate pompegranate-color