Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-01-08

bed of ease. Let him sleep. Many
days were to pass ere he would again
know the comfort of linen sheets, the
luxury of down under his ear.
What to do? unused the rogue. On
the morrow Mr.. Jones would leave for
Port Said. Ryanne shook his head
and with his cane !eat a light tattoo
against the side of his shin. Abduc-
ton was rather out of his sphere of
action. And yet, the suppression of
Perciyal was by all odds the most i'm
poFtant move to be made He had
volunteered this service and accom-
plish it he must, in face of all obsta-
cles, or poof! went the whole droIl
fabric. For to him it was drolI, and
never it rose in his mind that he did
not chuckle saturninely. 1t was
kind of nightmare where one hung in
mid-air, ones toes just beyond the
flaming dragons jaws The rewards.
would be enormous, but these he
would gladly surrender for the SUI
preme satisfaction of turning the
poisoned arrow in the heart of that
canting hypOcrite, that SNUG church
deacon, the sanctimonious, the sleek,
the well-fed first-born And poor Per
cival Algernon, for no blame of his
own, must be taken by the scruff of
his neck and thrust bodily into this
tangled web of scheme and under
scheme. It was infinitely humorous.
He had had vague plan regarding
| MahOmed, guardian of the Holy Yhi-
ordes, but it was not poss Bile for him
to be in Cairo at this early date. That
he would eventually appear Ryanne
never doubted. He knew the Oriental
mind Mahomed- El-Gebei would cross
every barrier less effective than death.
It was serious matter to the Mos
lem. If he returned to the palace at
Bagdad, minus the rug, it would mean
free transportation to the Arabian
gulf, Eereft of the most important
part of his excellent anatomy. his
head. Some day, if he lived, Ryanne
intended telling the exploit to some
clever chap who wrote; it would look
rather we'll in print
To turn Mahoraed against Percival
as being the instigator would be an
adroit bit Of work; and it would rid
him of both Of them Gioconda said
that she wanted no rough work. How
like woman! Here was a mans
game, a desperate one; and Giocon-
| da, not forgetting that it was her
inspiration, wanted it handled with
| gloves! 1t was bare-hand work, and
! the sooner she was made to realize
this, the better. 1t was no time for
tuning fiddles.
Mahomed out of it, there was Ger
tain English bar in the Quarter Reset
ii, place of dubious repute. Many
derelicts drifted there in search of
employment still more dubious. Dregs.
scum; the bottom and the top of the
| kettle; outcasts, whose hand and
animus were directed against society;
black and brown and white men; not
soldiers of fortune, like Ryanne, but
their camp-followers In short, it was
there (and Ryanne still felt dull
shame of IT'D that Wallace, carrying
the final instructions of the enterprise,
had found him, sleeping off the effects
| of shabby rout of the night before
It was there also that he had heard
of the history and the worth of the
Yhiordes rug and the possibility of it's
theft. He laughed. To have gone upon
an adventure like that, with nothing
but the fumes of wine in his head!
For few pieces of gold he might
enroll under his shady banner three
or four shining lights who would un-
! dertake the disposal Of Percival. Not
that he wished the young man any
harm-no; but business was business,
and in some way or another he must
be made to vanish from the sight and
presence Of men fer at least two
months.
AS for Major Callahan's unforeseen
danger, the devil could look out for
that.
Ryanne consulted his watch cheap
but trustworthy article, costing q dol
lar, not to be considered as an avail
able asset. He would give it away
later in the day; for he had decided
that while he was IN funds there would
be wisdom in the purchase of a fine
gold Longines. "a good watch, as ev-
ely one knows, is always as easily
converted into cash as a London bank
note. providing, of course, one is
| lucky enough to possess either. Many
watches had he left behind, in this
place or in that; and often he had
| exchanged the ticket for a small bottle
with a green neck. Wherever fortune
had gone against him heavily at cards,
there he might find his latest watch.
Besides getting a new time-piece, he
was strongly inclined to leave the
bulk of his little fortune in the hotel
| safe One never could tell
/ And another good idea, he unused,
as he swung the time-piece into his
vest-pocket, would be to add the splen-
dor of a small white stone to his mod
est scarf. There is only one we'll
defined precept among the sporting
fraternity; when flush, buy jewelry
| Not to the cause OF vanity. not at ALL