The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-11-06

Having gained the room, Ryanne
threw off his coat and relighted his
cigar, which. in a saving mood, he had
allowed to go out. He motioneG George
to be seated.
Gust a little yarn before l show you
the rug. See these cufs?"
Eyes"
"You will observe that I have had
to reverse them. Note this collar?
Same thing. Trousers-hems a bit
frayed, coat shiny at the elbows
Ryanne exhibited his sole fortune.
-Four sovereigns between me and a
Jail"
George became thoughtful. He was
generous and kind-hearted among
! those he knew intimately or slightly,
but he had the instructive reserve or
the seasoned traveller in cases like
this. He waited.
"The truth is, I'm all but done for.
And If l fail to strike a bargain here
with you. . Well, ' should hate
to tell you the result. Our consul
would have to furnish me passage
home. Were you ever up against it to
the extent of reversing your cuffs and
turning your collars? You don't know
| what life is, then"
George gravely produced two good
| cigars and offered one to his host.
There was an absence Of sound.
| broken presently by the cheerful
| crackle Of matches; two billowing
| clouds Of smoke floated outward and
upward. Ryanne sighed. Here was a
! cigar one could not purchase in all the
length and breadth Of the Orient, a
| Pedro Murias. In one Of his doubt
| fully prosperous epochs he had smoked
them daily. How long ago had that
been?
"Yonder is a rug, a prayer-rug, as
holy to the Moslem as the idols eye
is to the Hindu, as the Bible is to the
| Christian. For hundreds Of years 1t
never saw the outside Of the Sultan's
palace. One day the late, the recently
late, Abdul the U~nspeakable Turk,
gave it to the Pasha Of Bagdad.
Whenever this rug makes its appear
| ance in Holy Mecca, 1t Is worshiped,
| and none but a Sultan or a Sultan's
favorite may kneel upon 1t. Bagdad,
| the hundred mosques, The old capital
| Of Suleiman the Great, the dreary
| Tigris and the sluggish E%uphrates, a
muezzin from the turret calls to pray
er, and all that; eh?" . .
George, leaned forward from his
chair, a gentle terror in his heart.
"The Yhiordes? By Jove! Is that the
Y~hiordes?" -.
Admiration kindled in Ryanne's
! eyes. To have hit the bull's-eye with
so free and quick an aim was ample
proof that Percival Algernon had not
boosted when he said that he knew
| something about rugs. J
you've guessed It."
"How did you come by it," George
demanded e~xcitedly.
why do you ask that?"
Man, t%en-thousand pounds could
not purchase that rug, that bit Of car
pet. Collectors from every port have
been after it in vain. And you mean
to tell me that 1t lies there. wrapped
in butchers paper"
"Right-O!" -
Ryanne solemnly detached a cuff
and rolled up his sleeve. The bare
muscular arm was SCARED by two
long, ugly knife-wounds, scarcely
healed. Next he drew up a trousers
leg, disclosing a battered shin. "And
there's another OF my shoulder.blade,
the closest call l ever had. A man
who takes his life in his hands, as /
have done, merits some reward. Mr..
Jones, I'll be frank with you. I am a
kind Of derelict. Since I was a boy, /
have hated the humdrum Of Offices,
Of shops. l wanted to be my own man,
to go and come as I pleased. To do
this and live meant %precarious ex.
ploits. This rug represents one Of
them. I am telling you the family
secret; I am showing you the skele
ton in the closet, c%onf1dentially. I
stole that rug; and when l say that
the labors of our old friend
Hercules were simple diversions COM
pared, you'll recognize the difficulties
l had to overcome. You know some
thing Of the Oriental mind. I hand
led the job alone. 1 may not be out
Of the jungle yet"
George listened %entranced. He could
readily construct the n through
which this adventurer had gone; the
watchful nights, the untiring patience,
the thirst, the hunger, the heat. And
yet. he could hardly believe. He was
a trile skeptical. Many a rogue had
made the mistake Of playing Georges
age against his experience. He had
made some serious blunders in the
early stages Of the business, how
ever; and everybody, to gain some
thing in the end, must lose something
at the start.
IF that rug is the one I have in
mind, you certainly have stolen it.
And if it's a copy, I'll tell you quickly
enough"
That's fair. And that's why"
Ryanne declared, Il wanted you to
look at it. To me, considering what I
have gone through to get 1t, to me 1t
is the genuine carpet. To your expert
eye it may be only a fine copy. l know
this much, that rare rugs and paint
ings have many copies, and that some
one Is being hooked, sold, ~bamboozled,
sandbagged, every day in the week. If