The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-01-07

approval. as if she were seeking in me
the cause of her daughters weak
nesses; as much as to say: What
other nonsense have you been putting
into the poor child's head, you wretch"
I went up to have a parting .romp
with Rosemary on the last night Of
her stay with me, to have my last sip
of honey from her delectable neck.
The Countess paid but little attention
TO us, She sat over in the window and
stared out into the dusky shadows of
the falling night. My heart was sore.
l was miserable. The last romp!
Blake finally snatched Rosemary off
to bed. 1t was then that the Countess
with a sad little smile on her lips.
Good night" she said. rather visit
fully. holding out her hand to me.
deliberately glanced at my watch.
ITS only 10 minutes past g." ! said,
4 know" she said, quietly. Good
night"
CHAPTER XVIII
I Speed the Parting Guest.
-Four O'CLOCK in the morning is a
graceless hour. Graveyards may
yawn at u, but even they are on
tent to slumber at 4. don't believe
there is anything so desolate in this
world as the mental perspective one
obtains at 4 o'clock. Tombstones are
bright beacons of cheer as compared to
the monumental regret one expert
ences on getting up to greet the alleged
and vastly oyer.rated glories Of a
1t is a deadly, dour thing. 1t may be
pink and red and golden and full Of all
the splendors of the east, but ii is a
resurrection and YOU can't make any
thing else out Of it. Staying up Till 4
and then going to bed gives one an
idea Of the sunrise that Is not sup
ported by the facts; there is but one
way to appreciate the real nature of
the hateful thing called dawn, and that
is to get up with it instead of taking
it to bed with you.
still, | suppose the sun has to. come
up and perhaps 1t is just as well that
it does so at an hour when people are
least likely to suspect it Of anything
SO shabby.
Four o'clock is more than a grace
less sodden hour when 1t ushers in a
day that you know is to be the un-
happiest in your life; when you know
that you are to say farewell forever
to the hopes begot and nurtured in
other days; when the one you love
but not for you, And that is just what
4 o'clock on the morning of the 18th
of September meant to me.
Britton and | set forth in the auto
mobile just at the break of dawn, cross
ing the river a few miles below the
the right hand bank, where we were
to await the arrival Of the boat con-
veying the Countess and her escort.
Her luggage, carefully disguised as
Grated merchandise, had gone TO Trieste
by fast express a couple of days be-
fore, sent in my name and consigned
to a gentleman whose name I do not
now recall. but who in reality served
as a sort Of middleman in transferring
the shipment to the custody Of a cer-
tain yachts commander.
1t was required of me-and OF my
machine, which is more to the point
that the distance of 100 miles through
the foothills OF the Austrian Alps
should be covered and the passengers
delivered at q certain railway station
so miles or more south of Vienna be-
fore 10 o'clock that night. There they
were to catch a rain for the little
seaport on the upper Adriatic, the name
of which ] was sworn never to reveal,
and, AS l have not considered II worth
while to be released from that oath,
am Of necessity compelled to omit the
mention of it here.
Mr.. Bangs went on to Vienna the
night before our departure, taking with
him Helene Marie Louise Antoinette, a
rather shocking arrangement you
would say unless you had come to
know the British lawyer as we'll as we
knew him. They were to proceed by
the early morning train to this obscure
seaport. Collingraft Titus elected to
accompany his sister the entire length
of the journey, with the faithful Blake
and Rosemary. .
Billy Smith was to meet US a few
miles outside the town for which we
We're bound, with a word of warning
If there was anything sinister in thu
wind.
l heard afterwards from Poopendykt
that the departure of the Countess ant
Rosemary from the castle in the gray
forlorn dawn of that historic 14th wa
attended by a demonstration of griei
on the part of the -four Schmicks tina
was far beyond his powers Of descrip.
ton, and he possesses a wonderful
ability to describe lachrymose situa'
lions. rather running. to that style O
incident, may say. The elder Schmieks
walled and b~oo-hooed and proclaimed
to the topmost turrets that the SUI
would never shine again for either o
them, and to prove that she was quit,
off the dock into the river and wa
nearly drowned before Jasper. Jr,, coult
dive in and get her. Their sons, botl
Of whom cherished amorous feelings
for Blake, sighed so p~rodigiously al
the way down the river that the boa
rocked. incidentally, during the ex
element, Jinko, who was to remail
behind and journey westward later OF
with Mrs: Titus and Jasper. Jr. sue
in smartly nipping the calf of Hawkes.
left leg, a feat OF which he no doub
was proud but which sentenced m.
impressive butler TO an everlasting