Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-23
CHAPTER XvII.-Continued.

CHAPTER XVII.-Continued.
Celeste. dress me as quickly as pos
sible. Hurry! Something has happened
to Fortune
Never. in all her years Of service, couio
she recoliect such q toilet as madame
made that morning. And never peiore
had she shown such concern over hei
daughter. It was amazing!
1.-THE little fool! The little fool. MIS-
Chedsoye repeatedly murmured as tne
nimble fingers Of the maid flew over her
1.-The silly little fool; and at time IKE
thisr' Not that remorse of any Kiho
stirred Mrs. Chedsoye's conscience: she
was simply extremely annoyed.
She fastened out into the corridor ahe
knocked at the door of her brother
room. No answer She flew downstairs
and there she saw him coming In IRON
the street. He greeted her cheerily.
Its all right Kate: plenty of room or
the Ludwig. We shall take the AFTERNOON
train for Port Said. She sails at dawn
tomorrow instead of tonight. what
up?" suddenly noting his sisters race.
Fortune did not return to her room
last night"
What? Where do you suppose the III
tie fool went, Them
They both seemed to look upon For
tune as little fool.
Yesterday she threatened to rur
away"
run away? Kate, be sensible. How
the deuce could she run away? She
hasn't penny. 1t takes money 70 &c
anywhere over here. She has probably
found some girl friend and has spent the
night with her. Wen soon find ou
where she is The major wasn't Wor'
ried.
Have you seen Horace?" with dis
cernible anxiety.
sleeping off night Of it. You know nj:
falling
Find out if he is in his room. Go t
the porter's bureau and inquire for botf
him and Jones'
The major, perceiving that his sistel
was genuinely alarmed, rushed over tx
the bureau. No, neither Mr. Ryanne mol
~ Jones had been in the hotel since
yesterday. Would the porter send some
one up to the rooms of those gentlemen
to make sure? Certainly. NO, there was
no one in the rooms. The major was now
himself perturbed. He went back to Mrs
Chedsoye.
Kate neither has been in his room
since yesterday. If you want my opinion
it is this: Hoddy has sequestered Jones
all right, and is somewhere In town
sleeping off the effects of a night of 1t
HE has run away with Fortune! sh'
cried. Her expression was tragic Sht
couldn't have told whether it was due tt
her daughters disappearance or to H &c,
aces detection. did he not threaten
Ssh, not SO loud, Kate
"The little simpleton defied me yester
day and declared she would leave me.
"Oho!" The major fingered his impe
rial THAT puts a new face to the sub
We cannot move till we find out what ha:
become of him. l know. I'll jump int
a carriage and see if he got as far as the
English bar
Mrs. Chedsoye did not go upstairs. bu
paced the lounging room, 1.-THE and pan
therish Frequently she paused, as II ex
amining the patterns in the huge carpets
She entered the reception room, came
back wandered off into the ballroom
stopped to inspect the announcement
hanging upon the bulletin board, returned
to the windows and watched the feluccas
sail past as the great bridge opened; anG
during all these aimless occupations bu
single thought busted her mind-wha
could a man like Horace see in Chi
like Fortune?
major put in an appearance. He was
out of breath and temper.
Come up to the room" Once there he
sat down and babe her do likewise
There's the devil to pay. You heard
Hoddy speak of the niger who guarded
to get out of Cairo before he turned up
Well he turned up. He fooled Hoddy te
the top of his bent. So far as l could
learn, Fortune and Hoddy and Jones are
all in the same boat. kidnapped by this
Mahomed and carried out into the desert
headed. God knows where. Now. dom
get excited. Take it easy. Luck is witt
us, for Hoddy left all the diagrams with
me. We need him, but not SO much that
we can't go on without him. You see
4 he lind ,o1
anything that concerns their religion and
they'll have your hair Off How Fortune
got into it I can't imagine, unless Ma
hOmed saw her with Hoddy and jumped
to the conclusion that they were lovers
All this Mahomed wants is the rug; and
he is going to hold them till he gets it
No use notifying the police. No one
would know where to find him. None OF
them will come to actual harm. Anyhow
the coast is clear. Kate, there's big
thing in front. No nerves. We've got
to go today. Time is everything. Our
butler and first man cabled this morning
that they had just started in and that
everything was running like clockwork
Well get into New York in time for the
coup. Remember, l was against the
whole business at the start. but now I'm
going to see it off,
Feverishly Mrs. Chedsoye prepared for
the journey. She was irritable to Ce-
leste, she was unbearable to her brother,
ment to be rid of her. 1t was only when
they went aboard the steamer that night
that she became reconciled to the inevi-
table. At any rate, the presence of Jones
would counterfeit any influence Horace
might have gained over Fortune. That
the three of them might suffer unheard-
OF miseries never formed thought in her
mind. 1t appealed to- her in the sense OF
comedy which annoyed rather than
amused her.
They were greeted effusively by Wal
lace, he Of the dubious nose, and his first
inquiry was of Ryanne. Briefly the ma
jor told him what had happened and
added his fears. Wallace was greatly
cast down. Hoddy had so set his heart
upon this venture that 1t was a shame to
proceed without him. He had warned
him at the beginning about that Internal
rug; but Hoddy was always set in his
daredevil schemes So long as the major
had the plans, he supposed that they
could turn the trick without Hoddy's as
sistance; only, it seemed rather hard for
him not to be in the sport.
He told me that nothing would give
him greater pleasure than to stick his
fist into the first bag of yellow boys
There was something mysterious in the
way he used to chuckle over the thing
when / first sprung it on him. He saw
a joke somewhere Let's go into the
smokeroOm for peg. 1t won't hurt
either of us. And that poor little girl
It's q hell Of world, eh?"