The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-12-29

board box the size of me fist, wrapped
in brown paper and tied with bit Of
! string, that he brought me one even
| ing, saying he was about to leave, and
would I care for it in his absence.
| knew no more Of it than that twas
something he valued highly, but put
! It away in a safe-deposit vault-which
he might've done if he hadn't been a
| scatt erbrain-an Irishman.
Then he wrote me a letter-I got
! 1t weeks after his death-saying he
! felt he was about to go out, and that
the Pool of Flame was mine He
went on to explain that the box con-
tanned a monstrous big ruby and gave
me its history, as far as he knew it.
| 1T seems that there's certain
highly respectable temple in one Of
! he Shan States of Burmah cts me-
! self forgets the name Of it) and in
! hat temple there's an idol, Buddha
Of pure gold, it's said. 1t would be a
! perfectly good Buddha, only that it
! lacks an eye; there's an empty socket
! in its forehead, and it's there the
! Pool of Flame belongs-or come from.
In the old days the natives called this
stone the Luck of the State, and
maybe they were right; for when it
disappeared the state became a Brit
/ ish possession.
''In the war of 'eighty-fve, says the
! O'NTahoney, a small detachment Of
! British troops out of touch with their
command. happened upon this temple
we're speaking Of and took it, dispos-
sessing priests and populace without
! so much as days notice. The officer
! in command happened to see this eye
! in the BuGGha's forehead, pried it out
and put it in his pocket. In less than
! an hour the natives surrounded the
! temple and attacked in force. The
British stood them off for three days
and then were relieved; but in the
meantime the officer had been killed
and the Pool Of Flame had vanished.
!. For several years it stayed
quiet, so far as is known. Then the
curse Of the thing began to work, and
it came to the surface in a. drunken
! brawl in the slums Of Port Said. The
police, breaking into some dive to
stop a row, found nobody In the place
but a dead Greek; they say twas
shambles. One of the police found the
big ruby in the dead mans fist and
before his companions guessed what
was up slipped away with the stone
He was murdered some months
later in Genoese bagnio, by a French
girl, who got away with it somehow
The O'Mahoney came across
the thing in Algeria, when he was
serving with the Foreign Legion. He
was in Sidi Bel Abbas one night, Oh
! duty, and wandering about, when he
heard a man cry out for help in one
of the narrow black alleys OF the
place. He thought he recognized
comrades voice, and surely enough
when he ran down to aid him, he
found a Dutchman, man OF his OWL
regiment, fighting with half a dozer
natives. He was about done for, the
Dutchman, when the O'Mahoney came
I'D, and so were three of the Arabs
The O'Mahoney took care Of the resi-
of them, and left seven dead men be
hind him when be went away-the
six natives and the Dutchman, VINO
had died in his arms and given hin
the Pool of Flame with his last whis
"That's how it came to me-" saic
0'Rourke.
"And where is it now?"
"Back in Algeria, if I'm not mistak
en-. Ye remember Chambre1
he was with US in the desert anc
wanted ye to marry him afterwards
He has 1.-THE dear man; I love hin
like a brother. He sickened o.
Europe when he found his case witt
you was hopeless, and went to Al
giers, Joining the Foreign Legion"
"But how"
'Well, we we're fond Of each other
Chambret and I. T helped him ou
of some tight corners and he helped
me along when me money ran shor
AS it always did, and will, In
thinking. After while got to won
dering how much I owed the mar
and figured it up; the sum tota
frightened the life out of me, and
made him take the ruby by way OF Sc
curity-and never was able to redeem
it, for twas only little after tina
that l came into me enormous patrl
mony and squandered it riotously get
ting married to the most beautiful
woman living.
"He warned me to hold the stone
the O'Mahoney did, saying that tn
time would come when some native
prince would offer to redeem the Lucl
of the State as an act of pfety and pa
triotism. He prophesied a reward O
Il least fifty thousand pounds. And