The Bourbon news., 1912-01-02
CHAPTER l.

seems to reside in rendering us lrrl- |
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 If they
crawled, half-suffocated, at the bot
tom of sea of rarefied water.
The hour may have been eight; 1t
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 O'Rourke;
a chevalier of the Legion of Honor Of
! France; sometime an officer in the
Foreign Legion in Algiers; a wander
er, spendthrift, free-lance, cosmopoi-
ite-a gentleman-adventure he's been
termed.
He was dressing for dinner. The
glare of half dozen electric bulbs dis
| covered him all but ready for public
appearance-not, however, quite ready.
In his shirt sleeves he faced a cheval-
glass, pluckily (if with the haggard
| eye of eXasperation) endeavOring to
outmaneuver a demon of inanimate
perversity which had entered into his
dress tie, melting it to refuse to as
sumo, for all his coaXing and his STRAIT
agems, that effect of nonchalant per-
fection so much sought after, so sell
dom achieved.
Patiently was the thing possessed
by devil; O'Rourke made no manner
of doubt of that. Though for minutes
at time he fumbled, fidgeted, fumed,
it was without avail.
His room itself was in a state of
considerable Notwithstanding due
mainly to O'Rourke's characteristic ef-
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
; rored in the glass, was likewise re-
! flected in O'Rourke's eyes, what time
!; he paused for breath and profanity.
, Faith, tits worse than a DAVIS nest,
the place." he admitted, scandalized.
How ever did lone lone man-do
, all that, will ye be telling me?" He
flung out two helpless baffled hands,
and let them fall. After a 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 ef
forts of the femme de chambre to re
store something resembling order from
this man-made chaos. For servants
all liked we'll the O'Rourke. improvi
dent soul that he was, freehanded
to fault.
You are invited to picture to your
self ORourke 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 o.
chest and lean of flank, with his long
straight legs he looked what he hai
been meant to be, man of arms an(
action. His head was shapely, it:
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 warn
blue-gray depths humor twinkle(
more often than not, though thos'
same eyes were not seldom thought
full, a trace wistful, perhaps, will
the look of one who recalls dear mem
cries, old friends and sweetheart
loved and lost. For he ,ha'
begun to live early in life and ha
much to look back upon, though 70
all that it's doubtful if he were NOR
than thirty at the time he became in
volved in the fortunes of the Poo
of Flame.
For the rest of him, barring the re
fractory tie, the man was strikingl
we'll groomed, while his surrounding
spoke for comfortable circumstances
On the authority of the absent and re
gretted Danny, who had long serve
the O'Rourke in the intimate capac
ties of body-servant, confidant an
chancellor of the exchequer (this las
of course, whenever there happene
4 to be any eXchequer to require a char
cellor), there was never anyone at a
who could spend money or wea
clothes like himself, meaning the ma
ter. And at this time O'Rourke wa
ostensibly in funds and consequent
foC ho covipo rr,ocl QUITTING MID