Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-12
/ h e
| Social Bucaneer
By Frederic s. Isham
convrioht 1910, by Bobbs- Merrill Company.
By Frederic s. Ish a m
copyriaht 1910, by the Bobbs-MsrriIl Company.

ness pertaining to the awakening and
the future of this vast empire.
The powers at home were interest
ed, curious; they wanted to know
much and to do a great deal. Dis
daining compensation for his service,
Bruce had mixed somewhat in the
game between nations, never out
wardly, but secretly, with true oriental
subtlety. He understood these peo-
Pile, liked and trusted them, and they
knew him.
The wanderlust for the wastes and
the deserts and the walled cities that
loom up like magic to startle the
vision, was on him again; the big
port, half f-Europeanized, had begun to
pail on his fancy. Now he walked
once or twice back and forth, in the
wonderful little shop; touched here
and there with caressing finger some
object; paused at the sight of the
newspaper that had dropped from his
hand to the soft rug. News from
home!-He continued to regard the
sheet. Paltry news, that told him
only of what he already knew. Sun
dry, to the public uneXplainable, re-
payments to Goldberg, Morrow, Page
and others. Wis comica? Instead Of
Morrow, for example, returning to the
widows and orphans what that emf
nently respectable gentleman and pill
lar of society had stolen through his
big asphalt swindle, it had been he,
Bruce. after all, who had made restitu-
tion from his own pocketbook. An
ironical turn Of fortune! How Nor
row, ct al, would have a right to rub
their hands complacently If they only
knew the details! Travesty-burlesque
farce! His poor socialistic theories!
AS excellent as any; perhaps, a little
better
Had he ever really believed in, or
cared for them? The end justifying
the means? Or had the sardOnic jest
of it all, the risks, the mad excitement
appealed to an odd. wild. seemingly
untamable substratum in his nature?
Who might say? The Then was 50
much a puzzle as the Now. The in
congruous Now! To have yielded to
old fashioned conventionalism, to have
gone back, refrigerated, become mere
cog, the usual ordinary, unthinking
cog! Alack and alas! But it was to
be; had been ordained; it could not
ha, hnnY, nfh iCn or
happened; as if some potter had
nodded anew the clay. Totally anew!
Oh, the near-tragedy of being just a
mere part of an orderly machine!
Bruce touched the paper with his foot.
Paltry news, indeed!
A slight indentation appeared on his
brow; he tapped a beautiful crystal
ball carelessly. If one could but real
ly look into it and span oceans with
the gaze; cOnjure the picture one most
wished to see, to the shining depths of
the spheres pellucid center!
We'll, I'll go now and pack the little
bag" murmured Bruce, at length, alb
sently. Life. after all, was mostly
made up of packing and unpacking a
grip.
Can Tings Elder Brother do any
thing more?" asked the Chinaman.
The young man paused in the door
way, his figure outlined against the
sunlight on the pavement of the colon
made. Not unless you are really
necromancer as we'll as a magic mer-
chant" he answered facetiously.
And if so-what want?" said the
other, relapsing into Pidgin- English.
Nothing much, or very unreasona-
ble," laughed Bruce. You might
bring me to the sleeping princess; the
way the genii did in the Arabian fairy
tale. What was her name-Badoura?
She lived in some remote part of
China"
Plenty other princesses right here"
suggested the active partner insinuat-
ingly.
why, so there are!" in a lively
tone. And Chatfield Bruce walked
out
AS he made his way along the
cool colonnade, few of those other
princesses Tings Elder Brother had in
mind looked, more or less shyly, out of
the corners of their eyes at the grace
full, tall figure, clad in the light, i'm
maculate garments; but Chatfield
Bruce, with head well up, seemed now
only to gaze over the heads of the
passers-by. princesses and all! At a
corner he turned and walked down a
block or two, to gaze out at the ship
ping.
What boats had come in, he asked
one of the agents in front of an office
on the harbor front. The man told
him the names of two or three liners
that had just dropped anchor.
That's the Cynthia, over there,
from Bombay" added the informant,
indicating with a finger. Bruce glance
about the Cynthia to attract atten-
ton. She had brought a fair cargo
and a goOdly list of passengers; the
latter had already been conveyed
ashore by the noisy hotel launches,
and were, no doubt, distributed by this
time, in the various hostelries, among
the shops or at the top of the hill,
for the world famed view.
Bruce stepped quickly on; he was
i'm mood for action. He did not take
the inclined railroad to his house and
garden. several hundred feet up on
the hillside, hut climbed briskly thith-
er whilst restless. mercurial thoughts
ran through his brain. Was it only
that the wandering spirit had again
bitten him? He passed his hand light
ly across his brow and threw back his
shoulders.
Naporuus vagaries: he would have
no more To do with them: he would
think only of the practical concerns
of the hour
Unlocking Il gate. set in n vine-COv-
cred wall. he found himself in a gar
den of rare flowers and plants. The
4 1tsl.