Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-10

s,late The policeman, black as his prey also wore
paiarnas but plus the insignia of authority,a nose
strapped much dented helmet gold earrings, belt and
a large, white. rascaly grin.
A facre of early Victorian vintage drawn by tired
horse LACED along the refuse Uttered boulevard until one
of its back wheels detaching itself palnessly as
childs first TOOTH it to rest in the exact center OF
black pool and out of it scrambled backer ladysh1p
in Partisan frocl and boots. She Immediately raised
crimson parasol and began picking her way, with the
help of and other less gernane articles lying
about the roadside, where from the pretty border OF
smelly mud she directed argon of selected French IN
vectve in SOFT pleasant voice while the driver drowse
unmoved.
Paynaster Bascom Lee, U. S. ~ standing at a long
window in the first floor of the Consulate felt the dis
gust that had filled his soul-and nOstrS-ever since
stepping upon the quay of this city of the cutters half
an hour before giving to reluctant hmor 1t all
seemed to belong to sordd farce acted in front OF
sinister backcloth He not new to tropical duty on
this side of the CONTINENT he had Others of these set
Elements centuries old and still no bigger than plnheas
on the untouched expanse OF their background. lie
had before steamed past picturesque old forts AMI
sunen batteries, ruins overgrown with creepers, and
in the background beautiful hills crowned by deserted
ctadels- to land and find damp hot towns, ulcers
of nsanitation with faint of mbece rapaclty coming
off from the official encountered like Whit from Oil
some corpse. Nowhere had he stopped long enough to
get particularized impression; but here, with
revolutionary setting barely pushed to the flies he was
finding opera boufe. There touch OF insanity in
all this sense of lugubrious drolery.
This hunor, however, was IN passing, and glance
at the gray hull of the glnboat out III the harbor
recalled that he belonged to world of straightforward
facts and at present rather TOT
Bascom Lee, Southerner, had not found any hunor IN
the situation when he ordered ashore to complete
some negotiations in diplomatic amlty with the black
ruler of this place.
An element of something like grim anticipation had
come into his assignment when, just before taking the
launch he had learned that the Consul General to whom
he was to report John DE Witt Carroll unins-
takablv the Jack Carroll, brother of-we, brother OF
the very real embodiment OF that surrnised romance
with which the women he met wont to invest the
case of Bascom Lee, naval officer, good looking I'M
married, and thirty-two.
dts the chance I've wanted. I'll make myself ask
how she isf she's married. I've got to know how it is
with vo1-Vera-" Lee thought staring into the street,
deserted except for the seagoing hack that had
brought him from the wharf Its box seat was deserted;
the driver slouched among the shade of the Con-
sulates bamboo fence with every evidence OF mental
fatigue.
Lee realized that it sometime since an incredibly
aged negro, bent almost double, mere bundle of
acute angles, had shown him in and taken his card He
turned on his heel impateny and there, in the door
way of that bare office, stood Vera Carroll!
CHE had evidently been waiting for him to turn. She
~ was all in white and her fair hair caught all the
manning light in the room in glimmer of gold. She
looked exactly she had when he to her that
time four years ago. just before his court martial that
he thought he must be dreaming.
Captain Lee, my brother IS not at all WE'LL but he
wants to see YOU VIII you be good enough to come
I'm sorry to hear that about Jack-er-the Consul
General" Lee remarked absently. "But 1 heard you
were in Europe he voiced his real thought.
Zone hears strange things"
zone certainly does Why I've heard that you were
to marry Englishman, New York banker. and that
Count What's His Name in Washington" Lees
blood travelling at about million miles
minute.
".All at once2" Her smile had a crook at each end:
signifcd amusement, the other wistful. Lee
remembered that smile. 1t of the tricks of
Vera CAROLS brilliant, varying countenance
"How long have you been in this unspeakable hoe?"
his voice rough with emotion.
1.-TWO years"
allow many other white women are there in the
place." naval officers interrogation is always more
or less like pistol crack.
The girl looked confused. IL think won't make