The Mena weekly star., 1913-07-17

HIS caravan business has put me out side the pale. I've lost caste"
 You're only desperate and discour aged; you can pull up straight" Much obliged!"
 You haven't looked at life normal iy; that's what the matter is." | Solon, you're right. There's that poor devil back in Bagdad. I've killed man, Percival. It doesn't mix vel, in my dreams"
 You said that it was in self-de fense."
 And God knows 1t was. But if hadn't gone after that damned rug he'd have been alive today. Oh. damn It all; let's go back to the hotel and order that club-steak, or the best imi tation they have. I'm going to have a pint of wine. I'm as dull as a ditch In a paddy-feld"
 "A bottle or two will not hurt any or us. We'll ask Ackermann. Fol God knows where we'd have been to day but for him. And let him do al, the yarning. It will please him."
 And while he gabs, we'll get the best of the steak and wine!" For the hrst time in days Ryanne's laughte, had bit of the erstwhile rollickine tone.
 The dinner was an event. No deli cacy (mostly canned) was overlooked The manager, as he heard the guin eas jingle in Georges pocket. was filled with shame; not over his orfgi nal doubts, but relative to his lack of perception. The tourists who sal at the other tables were scandalized at the popping of champagne-corks Sanctimonious faces glared reproof A jovial spirit in the Holy Land was an anachronism, not to be tolerated And wine! Horriblel Doubtless when they retired to their native back porches, they retold with never-end. ing horror of having witnessed such scene and having heard such laugh ter upon the sacred soil.
 Even Fortune laughed, though Ky. anne's ear keenest then, detected the vague note of hysteria. If the meat was tough, the potatoes greasy, the vegetables f1avorless, the wine fiat none of them appeared to be aware of 1t. If Alderman could talk he could also eat; and the chatter of forks and knives was the theme rath- CT than the variation to the symphony.
 George felt himself drawn deeper and deeper into those tragic waters from which, as in death, there is no return. She was so lonely, so sad and forlorn. that there was as much brother as lover in his sympathy. How patient she had been during all those inconceivable hardships! How brave and steady; and never a mur. mur! The single glass of wine had brought the color back to her check and the sparkle into her eye; yet he was sure that behind this apparent liveliness lay the pitiful desperation of the helpless. He had not spoken again about old Mortimer. He would walt till after he had sent a long cable. Then he would speak and show her the answer, of which he had not a particle of doubt. As mat ters now stood, he could not tell her that he loved her; his quixotic sense of chivalry was too strong to perr t this step, urge as his heart might upon it. She might misinterpret his love as born of p.t-. ard that world be the end of everything. He was con. fident now that Ryaune meent roth. ing to her Her lack ol enthusiasm whenever 2.anne spoke to her in these dass; ,re ac far 1arlzontaiity of her ''- v' avcr Rv. anne offered a trifing courtesy-an pointed to distrust. George felt a guilty gladness. After all, why shouldn't she distrust Ryanne? George concluded that he must ac- quire patience She was far too loyal to run away without first giving him warning. In the event of her refus. ing Mortimer's roof and protection, hs knew what his plans would be. Some one else could do the buying for Nor timer & Jones; his business would be to revolve round this lonely girl, to watch and guard her without her be- ing aware of it. Of what use were riches if he could not put them to whatever use he chose? So he would wait near her, to see that she came and went unmolested, till against that time when she would recognize how futile her efforts were and how wide and high the wall of the world was.
 That mother of hers! To his mind it was positively unreal that one so charming and lovely should be at heart strong as the wind and merci- less as the sea. His mother had been everything; hers. worse than none, an eternal question. What a drama she had moved about in, without un- derstanding!
 George did not possess that easy and adjustable sophistry which made Ryanne look upon smuggling as a clever game between two cheats. His point of view coincided with For tunes; it was thievery, more or less condoned, but the ethics covering it were soundly established. He had come very near being culpable him. self True, he would not have been guilty of smuggling for profit; but none the less he would have tried to cheat the government His sin had found him out; he had now neither the rug nor his thousand pounds.
 All these cogitations passed through his mind, disjointedly, as the dinner progressed toward it's end. The" bade Ackermann good-by and Godspeed, as he was to leave early for Beirut, upon