The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-06-03
BUNKOED BY
A GREEK
BY M. QUAD
Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

i The pair of us had been in Athens
three or four days when party Of
I, English excursionists who were max
ing a tour arrived Among them was
an antiquary. who was looked up to
and respected for his knowledge Of
ancient history and ruins.
! Professor Himstead. as he was ma med.
had been charged to pick up all the old
Greek manuscripts to he had for mon
ey, and it was his inquiries for such
documents that doubtless led to our I'M
doing. One day man named Talanti.
who had somewhat the manners and
dress Of gentleman, brought the pro-
fessor two ancient manuscripts as
present and to show his further good
! will he announced a valuable discovery
which had Just been made on the is
land Of Aegina, about forty miles dis
/; tant. He was the owner Of the island.
! and while his workmen were getting
out some stone they had come across
some rare treasures in art, but had de-
, velopcd only small portion of them.
j. They had partly uncovered stone box
/ which he believed held a large number
Of manuscripts and valuable coins. but
he had delayed the opening of it that
some of his friends might be present.
/ Three or four Of them were going to
his island home tomorrow. and he
would be glad to have on his yacht as
! many of us foreigners go along as
could make it convenient
| Aside from the English party. there
were Americans. Germans and French
men to the number Of twenty in Ath
ems, and when the list was made up
, we numbered over forty. of whom ten
were ladies' When we went on board |
there was considerable surprise at find
,, ing her the craft she was. She was
nothing more than trader. and her
accommodations were Of primitive !
T, character.
My friend the professor could speak
Greek, but when. he entered into con-
versation with Mr.. Talanti's friends he
found them sulky enough. This excit-
ed our surprise, as they were supposed
to be gentlemen When we came to
look them over we began to get little
suspicious.
AS we approached the island we saw
it was fairly covered with trees, yet it
did not have hosptable look. AS we
made close approach we could see
couple of rude huts and primitive
jetty. but Mr.. TalanH explained that
hi ckl IL n n 1,v h0. nd
that he was landing at that point to
save us a long walk.
As soon as the craft was made fast
the three eminent friends Of Mr.. Ia
lanti suddenly produced pistols and
knives and took their station by the
gangway. The sailors divided into two
parties. and, handling their naked
knives in a menacing fashion. they
drove the people into line.
When Professor Himstead had rub
bed his eyes, scratched his head and
got it into his brain that something
not down on the program was going on
Talanti mounted box and smilingiy
observed:
Ladies and gentlemen, you are now
about to pass ashore to behold my
wonderful discoveries, but each one Of
you is required to leave all money
and jewelry behind you. will see
that everything is safely cared fort"
The men cried out in anger, but what
could they do? do not think there
was a firearm among them. while the
Greeks seemed oyeranxious to use
their knives. There were protesta-
tons and threats Of the law, but
Talanti only smiled at them and or
dered the work to 60 on. Each man
in the crowd was regularly held up
that is, his pockets were thoroughly
searched and everything of value TAX
en-. The women were requested to
hand over, and each one had her
watch and rings in hand as she NOV
ed up In the course Of half an hour
every one was ashore, and then Talan-
ii took off his hat, made sweeping
bow and sailed away with his piratical
crew. He had no sooner gone than
half a dozen yillainous looking men
came down from the hut.
They told us they were fishermen,
but their actions belied their state
ment. Their first move was to de-
mand cash, and great was their indig-
nation and disappointment at being