The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1919-06-04
"The Dark Star"
By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
Use Dumont Announces Intention of
Giving Herself Up Despite
Neeland's Protests

-
Neeland turned and looked At
Use Dumont. She stood mottonless
on. the sidewalk, in the clear, color
less light, staring nxedly across the
street at the debris OF the gaping.
shattered Cafe des Bulgars. Her
evening gown hung in hlmy tinted
shreds; her thick, dark hair In lus-
trous disorder Swallowed her white
shoulders, q streak OF dry blood
striped one delicate bare arm
To see her standing there on the
sidewalk in the full, unshadowed
morning light, silent, disheVeled,
scarcely clothed, seemed to him
part Of the CHASTITY unreality Of this
somber and menacing vision, from
which he ought to rouse himself.
She turned her head slow
Iy: her haSgard eyes met his
without expression; and he found
his tongue with the effort OF q man
who strives for utteranee through
q threatening dream:
"We can't stay here" he said.
The sound Of his own voice steadied
and cleared his senses. He glanced
down at his own attire, blood stain
ed and ragged; felt for the loose
end OF his collar, rebuttoned IL, and
knotted the draggled white tie with
the unconscious indifference OF
habit
What a night mare?' he muttersd
to himself tsThe world has been
turned upside down over night" He
looked up at her. I've can't stay
here" he repeated. "Where do you
liVe?"
She did not appear to hear him
She had already started TO move to-
ward the Rue Wilma, where the
troopers barring that street still sat
their FESTIVE horses. They were
watching her and her disheveled
companion with the sophisticated
amusement Of men who, by clean
daylight, encounter fagged-out rev.
elers of a riotous night.
Neeland spoke to her again, then
followed her and took her arm.
where are you going?" he re-
peated, uneasily.
'T shall give myself up" she re-
piled in a duh voice.
ITO whom?"
ITO the Municipals over there"
"Give yourself up"' he repeated
'Why?"
She passed a slender hand over
her eyes, as though unutterably
weary.
'NeeIand," she said, II am lost
already. And I am very
Tired"
"What do you mean?" he demand
ed, drawing her back under asporte-
cochere. 'rYou live somewhere, don't
you? II it's safe for you to 80 back
to your lodgings, I'll take you there.
Is it,"
NO"
well, then, I'll take you some
where else. I'll ind somewhere to
take you"
She shook her head
cit is useless, NeelsDd. There Is
no chance Of my leaving the city
|, now-no chance left-no hope. tits
simpler for me to end the matter
Cant you go to the Turkish en-
bassy?",
She looked up at him in a sur
prised, hopeless way:
do you suppose that any en-
bassy ever receives a spy in trou-
BILE? Do you really imagine that
any government ever admits en-
ploying secret agents. or stirs
finger to aid them when they are in
need?"
At told you I'd stand by you" he
reminded her bluntIy.s
'You have been-kind-Neela
"And you have been very loyal to
me, Scheherazad& shall not aban-
don you"
How can you help me? can't
get out of this city. Wherever I go
now, il will be only a matter Of
few hours before am arrested"
"The American embassy. There
is a man there" he reminded her.
She shrugged her naked shoul-
ders.
at cannot get within sight OF the
Trocadero before the secret police
arrest me. Where shall I go?
have no passport, no papers, not
even false ones. II / go to the
lodgings where I expected to md
shelter. 1t means my arrest, court
martial, and execution in a ca
serne within twenty-four hours.
And il would involve others who
trust me-condemn them instantly
to a firing squad-if I am found
by the police in their company!
No, Neeland. There's no
hope for me. Too many know me
in Paris. I took a risk in coming
here when war was almost certain.
I took my chances and lost It's
too late to whimper now"
As he stared at her something
suddenly frightened above them;
and he looked up and saw the first
sunbeam painting a chimney, top
with palest gold.
Come" he said. we've got to
get out of this! We've got to go
somewhere-find a taxicab and get
under shelter
She yielded to the pressure OF his
arm and moved forward beside him.
He halted for a moment on the
curb, looking up and down the
empty streets for cab Of any sort,
then, with the instinct of u man
for whom the Latin Quarter had
once been a refuge and a home, he
started across the boulevard, his
arm clasping hers.
All the housetops were glittering
with the sun as they passed the
ranks of the municipal cavalry.
A young officer looked down mis-
chieveously as they traversed the
boulevard the only moving objects
in that vast and still perspective
Mon Dieuw he murmured. "a
night like that is something to re-
member in the winter of old age"
Neeland heard him. The gay,
bantering, irresponsible Gallo wit
awoke him to himself; the rising
sun, tipping the city's spires with
IRE. seemed to relight little, long