The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-02-22

"cie puHlIS anu CuuSSlu6 anu CHdlh
tackles rafting as they lifted freight
to and from the hold and the lighters
alongside.
Abruptly, without moving, O'Rourke
spoke. I'll want evening clothes
Danny" said he. "'Tis dining | am
tonight with Mr.. Straker and his
niece, Miss Pynsent, who came with US
from Diamond Harhor. Twill save a
bit of bother to dress before 1 GO
ashore"
"Aw-w,' said Danny, assimilating
. And the missus?' he said
suddenly, some minutes later. IN an
in Madam O'Rourke, sor. Did We get
no word from herr"
''For what else would l be driving
to every hotel In the town after leav
ing Mr.. Sypher, Danny, but to inquire
for her? She's not here; but she'll
come, be sure She's still got several
days-three or four-in which to keep
our tryst TITS disconnected I am not
to find her waiting for me, but I'm
satisfied entirely she'll keep faith
And insisted Danny eagerly
"beggin' yer honor's pardon-but what
will We have to tell her, sor?'
O'Rourke sat up. Have to tell
her? What dye mean?'
81 mean, sor, I'm dyin' wild the wish
to know how uts all turned out
Phase, yer honor, won't we be tellin
me? Is ut-is ut all right?'
BLESS your heart, Danny laughed
O'Rourke, TITS SO dazed I've beer
that never thought to tell ye-think
ing all the time that We knew. IT'S
all right, indeed, me boy. The Pool OF
Flames In Mr.. Sypher's keeping and
the moneys in mine-in the bank
Danny, payable to me order. Think OF
it-one hundred thousand pounds OF
real money, and all me own. IT'S
ridiculous, tits absurd. TITS mesel1
hardly credits the truth of it all; YET
l was there-saw the man, gave him
the jewel, went to the bank with him
and for the space of five minutes sat
at a table, with all that money before
me, counting it over, bill by bill, a
square hundred of them, each for a
thousand pounds. guaranteed by the
Bank of England. Think of
that-all that belonging to me-to me.
O'Rourke! :"
THANK God.' breathed Danny de-
votedly. But did ye Iarn nothin
about the stone?'
Little enough, Danny-only a part
of the meaning of the whole diviish
business; the rest I'm to know to-
night Mr.. Sypher III be tellin me
after we've dined; he wants to hear
me own end Of the story, too
Sypher had very explicitly named
his dinner hour, after the formal Eng
lish fashion, nowhere and by nobody
more rigidly observed than by the
Englishman in the Orient; eight fol
eight-thirty," he had said. And as
O'Rourke, a very dignfied and impos
ing O'Rourke in his evening dress
waited for a sampan on the lower
grating of the Poonah's passenger
gangplank he had round three-quar
tiers for an hour for leeway-ample leis
ure for an interested inspection of
that part of Rangoon lying between
the floating jetty and Sypher's resi-
dence in a suburb near Dalhousie
Park.
Danny remained aboard ship only
temporarily, being instructed to follow
with O'Rourke's belongings to suitable
accommodations already engaged at a
roadstead; from whose windows
O'Rourke was promising himself the
pleasure of watching the arrival OF
the steamship bearing his wife to his
arms.
BLESS her dear facet" said he soft
ly. "'Tis meself will be desolated If
she's not aboard that Messageries boat
due tomorrow-now that l can go
back to her, a man of property, no
longer a pauper ne'er-do-well! Think
of that, We lucky dog!'
A sampan slid noiselessly in beside
the grating. O'Rourke let himself eau.
tiously into it and incontinently col
lapsed upon the rear seat as the boat
slid away toward the shore lights,
yielding to the vigorous sweeps of the
single long oar welded by the Bur-
man in the bows.
Ashore, tikkagharry caught him
up and bore him down the silent road
that winds between the Strand and
the rivers edge, then whipped into
Mogul street, where the fluent tide
of life ran broad and deep beneath a
glare of light.
All too quickly the tikka whisked
out of the main channel of the city's
life, out beyond the Mohammedan
mosque and the Chettis hall and the
Christian chapel, and into The soft,
dense night of the countryside-a
world of darkness sparsely studded
with dim, glowing windows, and all
too soon, again, it swung off from
the highway into a private drive,
crunched over gravel and stopped
before the Illuminated veranda of a
native bungalow.