River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-03-21
CHAPTER /.

A still and suItry dusk had fallen,
closing an oppressive, wearing day:
one of those days whose sole function
seems to reside in rendering US irri-
tably conscious of our too-close cas-
ings of too-solid flesh; whose humid
and inert atmosphere, sodden with
tepid moisture, clings palpably to the
body, causing men to feel as II they
crawled, half-suffocated, at the bot
tom of a sea of rarefied water.
The hour may have been eight; it
may have been not quite that, but it
was almost dark. The windows were
oblongs, black as night in the yellow
walls of O'Rourke's bedchamber in the
Hotel d'Orient. Monte Carlo.
| have the honor to make known
to You the O'Rourke OF Castle
O'Rourke in the county of Galway,
Ireland; otherwise and more widely
known as Colonel Terence ORourke,
a cheyalier of the Legion of Honor OF
France; sometime an officer in the
Foreign Legion in Algiers; wander
er, spendthrift, free-lance, cosmopol
ite-a gentleman adventurer, he's been
termed.
He was dressing for dinner. The
glare of half dozen electric bulbs dis
covered him all but ready for public
appe .rance-not however, quite ready.
In hi shirt sleeves he faced a cheval-
glass, pluckily (if with the haggard
eye of exasperation) endeavoring to
outmaneuver a demon of inanimate
peryersity which had entered into his
dress tie, melting it to refuse to as
sumo, for all his coaxing and his STRAIT
agem8, that effect of nonchalant per-
lection so much sought after, SO sell
dom achieved.
Patiently was the thing possessed
by a devil; O'Rourke made no manner
of doubt of that Though for minutes
at a time he fumbled. tidgeted, fumed
it was without avail.
His room Itself was in a state of
r~nsiderable Notwithstanding due
mainly to ORourkes characteristic eff
forts to find just what he might hap
pen to desire at any given time with
out troubling to think where it ought
properly to be.
Something OF this confusion, mir
Tored in the glass, was likewise re
fected in O'Rourke's eyes, what time
he paused for breath and profanity.
Faith, tbs worse than a davis nest.
the place. he admitted, scandalized.
How ever did lone lone man-do
all that. will We be telling me?" He
flung out two helpless baffled hands,
and let them fall. After meditative
pause he added: Damn that Alsa-
tian!"-with reference to his latest
and least competent valet, who had
but recently been discharged with a
flea in his ear and a months unearn-
ed wage in his pocket. For knowing
me ways" sighed O'Rourke, there
was never anyone the like of Danny"
For as many as three livelong days
this man had been reduced to the ne
cessity of dressing himself with his
own fair hands-and that at least
thrice daily. who did nothing by
halves. And, somehow, mysteriously,
his discarded garments had for the
most part remained where he had
thrown them, despite the earnest eff
forts OF the femme de chambre to re-
store something resembling order from
this man-made chaos. For servants
all liked well the O'Rourke, IMPROVE
dent soul that he was, freehanded
to fault.
You are invited 20 picture to your
self O'Rourke as invariably he was
in one of his not infrequent but ever
transient phases of affluence: that is,
a very magnificent figure indeed.
Standing a bit over six feet. deep OF
chest and lean of flank, with his long,
straight legs he looked what he had
been meant to be, man of arms and
action. His head was shapely, its
dark hair curling the least in the
world; and. incredibly stained trans
parent brown. his features were lean,
eager and rendered very attractive
by quick boyish eyes in whose warm
blue-gray depths humor twinkled
more often than not, though those
same eyes were not seldom thought
full, trace wistful. perhaps, with
the look Of one who recalls dear mem.
cries, old friends and sweethearts
loved and lost For he had
begun to live early In life and had
much to look back upon, though for
all that it's doubtful if he were more
than thirty at the time he became in.
volved in the fortunes of the Pool
OF Flame
For the rest of him, barring the re-
fractory tie, the man was strikingly
well groomed, while his surroundings
spoke for comfortable circumstances
On the authority of the absent and re-
GREETED Danny. who had long served
the O'Rourke in the intimate capaci-
ties of 1ody-servant, confidant and
chancellor of the exchequer (this last.
of course. whenever there happened
to be any exGhequer to require a chan
cellor). there was never anyone at all
who could spend money or wear
clothes like himself, meaning tie mas
ter. And at this time O'Rourke was
Dstensibly in funds and consequently
(as the saying runs) cutting a wide
BWath- Heaven and himself only knew
the limits of his resources: but his
manner a Monte Cristo might have
aped to advantage. His play was a
wonder of the Casino: for the matter
Of that, his high-handed and extrava.
CANT ways had made the entire Prin.
cipaIity of Monaco conscious of his
presence in the land. And Won fail
in the least to understand the nature