Evening star., 1918-07-28
CHAPTER TX.
While the City Slept.

Night-the night of q great city
with it's myriad Of garish lights and
Its many curious and incongruous
activities.
Who has not felt his Imagination
stirred by the contrasts thus offered
contrasts never more apparent than
at these hours Of supposed rest? Grim
walls, with dimpled children sleeping
behind them! Places of merrymaking
athrob with music and dazzling with
Jets Of incandescent light. with grief
in the heart Of the dancer and despair
making raucous the enforced laugh!
But nowhere in the great city of
which we write on this night of May
%, 1913, was there to be found scene
Of greater contradictions than in the
court and galleries, of itst famous
museum.
Lighted as for a reception, the
architectural beauties of it's Moorish
arcades and carven balustrades flashed
in full splendor. Gems Of antique art,
casts in which genius had stored its
story of the ancients. pillars from
desert sands, friezes from the Par
thenon and bas-reliefs from Ninevah
and Heliopolis, filled every corner,
fors N deahsss 70 sraee or
human power. And no one to heed!
Not an eve to note that the Venus In
one corner seemed to smile in the soft
light with more than its accustomed
allurement, or that the armor in which
kings had fought wore a menacing
sparkle exceeding that Of other times
and quieter days. Ghosts of vanished
ages might parade at will AMONG the
iridescent beaker to their unknown
gods--no one would have noticed or
turned aside to see. For there was
something else within these walls to-
night for the men assembled there t9
which shut the Imagination upon the
past by amply filing 1T with the
;Whas; is this something, Let us
sons grouped in. front Of the tapestry
hanging in. the northern gallery, and
But nrst, OF, whom is thts~6msll and
mystic group co%pSseda, on pos l,,,v ;Who are are
night, In the security of a completely
sheltered building. busy themselves.
not with the sinestlmable, treasures
surrounding them. but with an odd and
tally but Of Keeping with the place
and their absorbed demeanor7 We will
seen here fof the .afst time +. Inspector
Jackson Mr.. Gryce, two lesser detec-
ttves and a strange young man of un-
doubted Indian extraction who kept
much in the background ana yet stood
always at, attention Hike one awaiting
orders. - -. ''
Are these alla Yes, in the one gaf-
lery; but in the other. shadowy figures
are visible among the archss a.. one
end, with whose identity we shall
probably soon be made acquainted.
At what are these various persons,
in the one gallery as in the other, looK-
ing SO intently that all are turned one
way-the. way of greatest interest-the
way the fatal arrow had flown some
fourteen hours before, carrying death
In youthful exuberance2. Is 1t at some
image Of herself they see restored to
hope and Joy? An image Is there, but
alas! 1t is but dummy iaken from
one Of the exhibits and so set up as to
present the same angle to the gallery
front as her young body had done, &C.
cording to Mr.. Travis reluctant dec
laration. .r t't,f
Why so placed, and why regarded
with such concentrated Interest by the
men confronting 1t from the opposite
gallery will become apparent when,
upon the Indians being summoned
from his place Of modest retirement, II
can bo seen that the bow he carries in
one hand is Offset by the arrow lie
holds in the other. 4 test Is to lie
made which viii settsos o. SO they
hope. the truth Of Mr.. Travis story.