River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-11-13

OF Delhi
The powerful League OF Lost
Causes had sent him upon an under
taking involving the destruction OF
Englaad's power in India. He had
failed miserably. and, It the moment
OF his failure had encour tered the
eyes of the mysterious woman who
had induced MIN to leave America
and to devote his millions to the pur-
poses Or the League. She had seen
lis disgrace and read and reflected
the abatement in his eyes.
He loved her. this beautiful I'M
known lady Of lofty rank, though, in
obedience to the command which she
had laid on him, he had never sought
to discover her identity. lie was ig-
norant even Of her name. He had
believed her a parsonage of title at
the Austrian court; behold she was
in India an unsuspected watcher of
the way in which he carried out his
mission and her mandate!
A flood Of anger and resentment
swept over him; anger against him.
self, that he had been blind enough
to allow himself to be used as a tool;
resentment against his friend Rosny,
the Leagues Paris secretary, that he
should have duped him so many
times by the promise of some day
meeting the girl again.
Now he would be fooled no longer.
He would seek her out, find her,
though he searched Delhi for days;
he would speak face to face with her,
plead his own cause, as was the right
of every American, and stand or fall
by her answer.
1t seemed madness, but it was a
glorious madness that enWrapped him,
enmeshing spirit and senses until
nothing seemed longer impossible to
Paul Imagining that Mademoiselle
the only name by which he knew
her-was a visitor at the Durbar at
the invitation of some ambassador,
lie haunted the railroad station for
days until the last of the visitors had
departed, searching and scanning ev-
cry face eagerly in hope of seeing
her again. But all his efforts were
to no purpose, and at last, sick at
heart, he resolved to abandon his OBJ
League, to see Rosny no more, and
to return home to America again.
He took ship for Egypt; thence he
embarked aboard a French steamer
for Marseilles The sun was warm,
the sky bright and cloudless. The
vessel skirted the low sand-dunes of
the Tripoli coast preparatory to head
ing north for Malta.
On the second morning the white
sides of a warship appeared some
miles astern AS the hours wore on
she began to draw nearer. At last
the watchers. through their tele-
scopes, could make out the Italian
flag at her foremost. The French
ship turned northward, being then
within half a mile of the Tripoli
shore; as she shifted her course, how
vessel 1t was a blank shot, signify
ing that the liner was to heave to
until her papers could be examined
The coast being blockaded, this or
der excited much comment, but no
alarm, among the passengers, who
crowding the liners decks, watched
with interest the approach of the pur
suing warship She anchored about
half a mile distant and cutter left
her side, containing a boats crew
with an officer in charge.
But an astonishing effect was pro-
duced by this maneuver among a
small fleet of Arab fishing vessels,
which had been placidly sailing be-
tween the liner and the shore. AS
the warship hove to they turned and
began to scurry toward the beach.
One, which had been caught between
the liner and the battleship, passed
close under the Frenchmans bow as
she beat her course landward. Paul.
watching idly from the taffrail, saw
two bronzed oarsmen pulling to sup
plement the power of their Tapping
sail, and then
Seated in the bow, yelled, attired
in white from head to foot, a woman
in Arab garb guided them, issuing
short. curt orders as they tugged at
the oars. All the blood in Paul's body
rushed through his veins furiously at
the sight of her 1t was the woman
he sought He had no doubt of it.
Loves intuition would have told him
that, but apart from it there was no
mistaking that trim, slight figure, that
imperiOus mien, displayed even under
the desert veil
AS the boat passed under the liners
bow and scurried toward the shore
Paul hesitated no longer. Without
a thought. actuated solely by that
overpowering impulse which pos
sessed him, he vaulted over the taft
rail and leaped into the sea.
A cry of horror went up from the
liners decks. The Arab dhow. as
though fearing some hostile design in
this maneuver, redoubled it's efforts
to make the land As Paul came up
he saw the taffrail crowded with ex-
cited, shouting, gesticulating passen-
gers, and, twenty yards in the dis
tance the flying boat. Two hundred
yards from the opposite side of the
liner was the Italian cutter. AS the
officer perceived him rise to the sur
face he issued an order to his men,
and the boat, altering its course,
pulled directly toward him.
Paul struck out for the shore.
On that triangular race he ever
looked back with establishment that
he should have won, though but
a hairs breadth separated him from