Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-01-06

consisted or quill pen ana Salety RI
a fourishing encourage Of grass wido
lpapers were filled with cards of thanl
pert eye it may be only a fine copy.
know tnis much, that rare rugs and
paintings have many copies, and that
some one Is being hooked, sold, BAN
boozled, sandbagged, every day In the
! week. If this is the real article, want
you to take it of my hands," the ad-
venturer finished pleasantly.
There will be hue and cry
NO doubt of it,
And the DEVILS own job to get it
out OF Egypt" These were set
phrases of the expert, preliminaries
to bargaining. zone might as we'll
carry round stolen elephant"
"But man who is as familiar with
the game as you are would have little
difficulty. Your integrity is an estab-
lished fact, on both sides Of the water.
You could take it to New York as q
copy. and no appraiser would know
the difference. It's worth the attempt.
Id take it to New York myself, but
you see, am fiat broke. Come; what
do you or | care about a son.of-a'gun
Of q Turk?" drolly. ~.
What do you want for it, suppos-
ing It's genuine"' Georges throat was
dry and his voice harsh. His con-
science reused herself, feebly, for 1t
had been a long time since occasion
necessitated her presence.
Ryanne narrowed his eyes, careful
1 ~ balancing the possibilities. Say,
one thousand pounds. 1t Is like giving
1t away. But when the devil drives,
you know. 1t is beyond any set price;
it is worth what any collector is will
ing to pay for It. I believe l know
the kind of man you are, Mr.. Jones,
and that Is why, when learned you
were in Cairo, ! came directly to you.
i you would never sell this rug. No.
You would become like a miser over
his gold. You would keep 1t with
your emeralds q have heard about
them, tool; draw the curtains. lock
the doors, whenever you looked at 1t,
Eth? You would love it for it's own
sake, and not because 1t Is worth 80
many thousand pounds. You are sail
ing in few days; that will help. The
pasha is in Constantinople. and It will
be three or four weeks before he hears
Of the theft, or the cost, With
grimness .= fj@E
i 1Ou maven nAAlCu oAS oAAS'
whispered George. a., ...a ...
II don't know; perhaps. Christian
Dity against paganism; the occidental
conscience permits it," Ryanne made
a gesture to indicate that he would
submit to whatever moral arraign-
ment Mr. Jones deemed advisable to
make. ~
! But George made none. He rose
hostily. sought his knife and, without
so much as by your leave, slashed the
Irvine, flung aside the paper, and
threw the rug across the counterpart.
It was the Yhiordes. There was not
had heard it described, he had seen a
photograph of it, he knew it's history
and. most vital OF all, he owned a good
copy Of it. 49,
Against temptation that was robust
and energetic and alluring like the
man who insists upon your having q
drink when you want it and ought not
to have it), what chance had con-
science, grown innocuous in the long
period of the young mans good be-
| havior? Collectors are always honest
before and after that moment arrives
when they want something desperate
ly; and George was no more sanity
than his kind And how deep Ryanne
and his confederates had delved into
human, nature, how well they could
read and Judge it, was made manifest
in this moment Of Georges moral re.
lapse
Bagdad, the jinns, Sinbad. the
Thousand and One Nights, Alibaba
and the Forty Thieves: George was
transported mentally to that magic
city. standing between the Tigris and
the Euphrates, in all it's white glory
I of a Thousand years gone. Ryanne,
the room and it's furnishings, all had
vanished, all save the exquisite fabric
patterned out of wool and cotton and
knotted with that mingling love and
skill and patience the world knows no
more. He let his hand stray over it.
How many knees had pressed it's thick
| yet plant substance? How many
strange scenes had it mutely wit
messed, scenes of beauty, Of terror?
1t shone under the light like the hide
Of a healthy hound.
The nerves Of a smoker are gener-
ally made apparent by the rapidity OF
I his exhalations. These two, in the
several minutes, had filled the room
with thick, blue haze; and through
/ this the elder man eyed the younger.
The sign of the wolf cleaned in his
eyes, but without animosity, modified
{ as it was by the half.friendly, half
cynical smile.
/ s"I'n risk it," said George finally
having stepped off the magical car
pet, as it were. Il can't give you a
/ thousand pounds tonight. can give
you three hundred, and the balance
tomorrow, between ten and eleven, at
! Cooks
4 THAT will be agreeable to me.
! George passed over all the available
cash he had. rolled up the treasure
land tucked 1t under his arm. That
somewhere in the world was a true be