Mountain advocate., 1916-03-10
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lnarticulate acknowledgment of
Marcel's salutation. and passed bla.
family into further slumbers.
Marcel deposited his tray on table
beside the bed. then moved quietly to
the windows, closed them, and drew
the lace curtains together. The dress.
ing table between the two windows
displayed, amid the silver and copper,
more gold coins than IL commonly did
some eighteen or twenty louis alto.
gether. Adroitly abstractins In pass
ing a piece Of ten francs, Marcel went
on his way rejoicing. touched match
to the fire ready laid In the crate, and
was nearing the door when. casting
one casual parting glance az the bed,
he became aware Of notable phenom.
enon--the snoring was going on lus-
tily but Bourke was watching him
with both eyes vide and filed with in.
terest.
Startled, and, to tell the truth, q
bit indignant, the boy stopped as
though at word of command. But
after the first flush OF astonishment
his young face hardened to immobil-
ity. Only his eyes remained constant
TO BOurke's.
The Irishman, sitting up In bed, de-
manded and received the gold piece,
and went on to indict the boy for the
embezzlement of several sums run.
ming into q number of louis.
Marcel. rejecting that Bourke's
reckoning was still some louis shy,
made no bones about pleading guilty.
Interrogated. the culprit deposed that
he had taken the money because he
needed it to buy books. No, he wasn't
sorry. Yes, it was probable that,
granted further opportunity, he would
do ii again. Advised that he was ap-
parently case-hardened young crimi.
nal, he replied that youth was not his
fault; with years and experience be
would certainly improve.
Puzzled by the boys attitude,
Bourke agitated his hair and won.
dered aloud how Marcel would like II
II his employers were informed OF his
populations.
Marcel looked panied, and pointed
out that such a course on the part of
Bourke would be obviously unfair; the
only real difference between them, he
explained, was that where he filched
q louis Bourke filched thousands, and
IL Bourke insisted on turning him over
to the mercies Of Nine. and Papa
Troyon, who would certainly summon
a sergeant de vile, he, Marcel, would
be quite justified in retaliating by
telling the prefecture de police all that
he knew about Bourke.
This was no chance shot, and went
home. When, dismayed the lrishman
clustered, demanding to know what
the boy meant by his damned impu-
dence, Marcel quietly advised him
that one knew what one knew--if one
read the English newspaper In the
cafe, as Marcel did, one could hardly
fail to remark that monsieur always
came to Paris after some notable bur.
glary had been committed In London;
and if one troubled to follow mon
sieur by night, as Marcel had. ii be-
came evident that monsieur's first
calls in Paris were invariably made
at the establishment of a famous
fence in the Rue des Trois Freres;
and, finally. one drew ones own con-
illusions when strangers dining in the
restaurant-as on the night before, by
way of Observation-Disclosures who
wore all the hallmarks of police de-
tectives from England, catechized one
about a person whose description was
the portrait of Bourke, and promised
a hundred.franc note for information
concerning the habits and where
abouts of that person. II seen.
Marcel added, while Bourke gasped
for breath, that the gentleman in ques-
ton had spoken to him alone, in the
absence of other walters, and had
been fobbed off with lie.
But why-Bourke wanted TO know
had Marcel lied to save him. when the
truth would have earned him hun
dred francs?
Because" Marcel explained coolly,
81, too, am a thief Monsieur will per
ceive it was matter OF professional
honor"
Now the Irish have their faults, but
ingratitude Is not Of their number.
Bourke. packing hastily to leave
Paris. France, and Europe by the first
feasible route, still found time to Ques-
ton Marcel briefly, and what he
learned from the boy about his ante
cedents so worked with gratitude upon
the Irishman's sentimental nature that
when. on the third day following, tho
Cunarder Carpathia left Naples for
New York. she carried among her
first-class passengers not only a gen.
tleman whose brilliant black hair and
glowing pink complexion rendered him
a bit too conspicuous for his own COM
fort but also, in the second cabin, his
valet, a boy of sixteen who looked
eighteen.
The gentleman's name on the pas
senger list didn't. Of course, in the
least resemble Bourke. HIS Wallets