The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1912-01-26

hiC dOOuI tuC OOi vi ldiue.
The O'Mahoney left It with me
when he went to South Africa" ex-
planned O'Rourke. "'Twas a paste
board box the size of me fist, wrapped
In brown paper and tied with BIT of
string, that he brought me one even
ing. saying he was about to leave, and
would I care for 1t In his absence. I
knew no more of It than that twas
something he valued highly, but put
II away in safe-deposit vault-which
he might've done II he hadn't been
scatterbrain-an Irishman.
Then he wrote me a letter. got
It weeks after his death-saying he
felt he was about to go out, and that
the Pool Of Flame was mine. He
went on to explain that the box con-
tanned monstrous big ruby and gave
me its history, as far as he knew 1t.
ut seems that there's a certain
highly respectable temple in one of
the Shan States OF Burmah Otis me-
self forgets the name Of it) and in
that temple there's an idol, a Buddha
Of pure gold, It's said. 1t would be a
perfectly good Buddha, only that 1t
lacks an eye; there's an empty socket
in its forehead, and It's there the
Pool of Flame belongs-or come from.
In the old days the natives called this
stone the Luck Of the State, and
maybe they were right; for when 1t
disappeared the state became a Brit
ish possession.
"In the war Of 'eighty-fve, says the
O'Mahoney, a small detachment OF
British troops out Of touch with their
command, happened upon this temple
we're speaking of and took it, dispos-
sessing priests and populace without
so much as days notice. The officer
in command happened to see this eye
in the Buddha's forehead, pried 1t out
and put 1t in his pocket. In less than
an hour the natives surrounded the
temple and attacked in force. The
British stood them off for three days
and then were relieved; but in the
meantime the officer had been killed
and the Pool of Flame had vanished.
For several years it stayed
quiet, so far as is known. Then the
curse of the thing began to work, and
it came to the surface in a drunken
brawl in the slums of Port Said. The
police, breaking into some dive to
stop row, found nobody in the place
but dead Greek; they say twas a
shambles. One of the police found the
big ruby in the dead mans fist and
before his companions guessed what
was up slipped away with the stone.
He was murdered some months
later in Genoese bagnio, by a French
girl who got away with it somehow.
The O'Mahoney came across
the thing in Algeria. when he was
serving with the Foreign Legion. He
was in Sidi Bel Abbas one night, off
duty, and wandering about, when he
heard a man cry out for help in one
Of the narrow black alleys Of the
place. He thought he recognized a
comrades voice. and surely enough,
when he ran down to aid him, he
found a Dutchman, man of his own
regiment, fighting with half a dozen
natives. He was about done for, the
Dutchman, when the O'Mahoney came
up, and so were three of the Arabs.
The O'Mahoney took care of the rest
Of them, and left seven dead men be-
hind him when he went away-the
six natives and the Dutchman, who
had died in his arms and given him
the Pool of Flame with his last whis-
per. :.
That's how 1t came to me-" said
O'Rourke.
"And where Is it now?"
"Back in Algeria, If I'm not mistak.
en-. Ye remember Chambret
he was with us in the desert and
wanted we to marry him afterwards?
He has 1.-THE dear man; l love him
like brother. He sickened of
Europe when he found his case with
you was hopeless, and went to AL
giers, joining the Foreign Legion"
"But how"
"Well, we were fond of each other,
Chambret and l. l helped him out
of some tight corners and he helped
me along when me money ran short
as 1t always did. and will, I'm
thinking. After a while I got to won
dering how much l owed the man
and figured 1t up; the sum total
frightened the life out of me, and
made him take the ruby by way Of Sc
curity-and never was able to redeem
it. for twas only little after that
that l came into me enormous patri-
mony and squandered 1t riotously get
ting married to the most beautiful
woman living.
"He warned me to hold the stone.
the O'Mahoney did, saying that the
time would come when some native
prince would offer to redeem the Luck
Of the State as an act of piety and pa
triotism. He prophesied reward OF
ut least fifty thousand pounds. And
now it's come-twice Overt"
"And now what can you do?"
"Do?" cried O'Rourke. Faith.
what would be doing? Dye realize
what this means to me. dear heart?