The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 1, 1904, Page 4

which it had struggled, and vainly, for so many hours. It was hard to think that Dulcine was In that cold tomb suf- fering I knew not what; but to think that she was a captive on that boat— well, I could not, for my brain refused to be urged further, and sank down un- der its load like & spent horse. I fell agleep as the sun began to red- den the windows, and it was not until the morning of the day following that I awoke. For a time I lay still with iy eyes aching at this first glimpse they had of the light. I felt too weak to open them again, and for a few moments I was only conscious of the pain in them. Then a hand touched my brow! I felt that some one was leaning over me, for shortly after the hand became lighter and began moving softly back and forth. Its tender touch ran deftly like & woman’s from one burning tem- ple to the other. It lingered anxiously now and then on my forehead, and again grew heavy as though its pos- sessor was looking intently over me. Now it brushed back my hair, which was wet with perspiration; it held the damp, hot mass away, and then it came back to the old course from one hot temple to another. I knew that hand— but I feared I was dreaming or in a delirium. I opened my averted eyes, and, braving the bright sunlight, I looked about the room. Pak was in a far corner spread- ing down a tiger-skin which had been having an airing; I turned my head slightly, and there before the fire sat Dejneff, looking as ever into his great beard and humming a song softly as he studied. Then suddenly he sat up, and I closed my eyes as he arose and came over toward the bed. “Miss Oranoff,” -he said (and, oh, I ground my teeth in agony that the dream should be so real!) “I believe I'll shave.” A cheery laugh arose behind me. “You could then sing much better, I am sure,” answered Dulcine Oranoff as sweetly as in real life. Dejneff grunted, for the men always taunted the old soldier of his fine “bar- rel-tone” voice; but he called Pak and went out of the room. Dejneff shave! It was too real, too true—too good to be true! I fell back and looked the other way. While the vision lasted I would look upon the one who laughed and spoke behind me! And Dulcine Oranoff clasped me In her arms repeating those brave last words, “We will never part, Robert.” After a sweet, long silence together I began to realize my dream was real. During that time even the crowd of questions that soon after came to my lips were swallowed up In perfect joy. The one great question was answered; my great, killing fear was dead! I sobbed while I kissed her hands, and at last drew her own wet face to mine and held it there until the doctor’s soft step at the bedside aroused us. When he had looked me over and prepared his glasses and gone again, his eyes twink- ling all the time, I gave my hungry questions the right of way. “Who released you, Dulcine?” I could not think of any smoother introduction, and the guestion came bluntly, crowded by the host of other questions behind it, “Father, of course; who else could, and when @id you tell him, Robert' Her “father!’?” “Oh, Menin,” I cried out in ‘my beating heart, “you good mixer of lies and the truth!” “He forgot the signal, though, Robert, and rapped twice; but then he rapped three times & moment after. He was wvery nervous, and the moment Dejneff came he told him to take me home.” “Dejneff came?” I asked, breathing a prayer that the faithful old soldier's days might be long and happier ones than these had been. “Yes; the moment I was out and on my feet. Father was just taking me in his arms. He trembled so I was glad Dejneff came, for Colonel Oranoff was in a hurry to catch the morning boat to Chefu.” “He took you in his arms?” I mur- mured through my teeth. Then I cursed the man under my breath. But, oh, how boldly he had played. What hellish hopes were Menin's when he held in his arms the daughter of Ivan Oranoff—through whom he was sure of driving me to the King with my con- fession! But now Dulcine was over me, and the light in her eyes, as I looked up into them, told me the secret her lips trem- blingly withheld. Tut enly for & mo- ment. Robert, you came to the Jegulior the er night,” she then sall. T thought you were 'n iket fomtb Dulcine.” “No=—bdut—=whom-4i4 you come (o= 0o “BSakid Menin, Duleine, whe imper. sonate@ Colonel Oramoff at the grave -] 9 1 would mention Duicine! It was three days befo Oranoff could come; but > 2 ,,‘:". preparing herself for thc unusua! role; she told me of the hours in the throne room—of how she would have given anything she possessed to have been able to laugh in the King's very face! Blinded as she was, of course nothing of the pomp and majesty of the mum- mery impressed her, and she only saw the absurd side of it all. She told me of the long journey to the mausoleum and the terrific jolting she received within that rude cart; before tiie tomb was reached she had removed the light bands from ner face and hands and the whiie robe which she wore over her own fur coat. When the signal came she was ready to step out and go away in her most ordinary costume; no, she was not frightened and had never once thought of not being re- leased; the fear cf this had never come to her! The only unusual incident had occurred when she opened the sar- cophagus; a young Quelpartien army officer was hidden behind the curtains, evidently a secret guard. When she lifted the glass cover and sat up the young man fell with a groan through the curtains upon the floor. Dejneff had drawn the body and left it there. Poor Kim! The first shock had been a cruel one, which, through each hour in his own cell, watching a casket he knew was empty, preyed upon his mind until he became what I found him. In my turn I told of meeting Menin in the mountains, of his threat, of Nsase and Kysang and Kim, of finding Menin at the Legation and of my esca- pade in the temple of the tomb. It was during one of these long talks in the salon that Colonel Oranoff ar- rived. He kissed Dulcine fondly, hold- ing my hand the while affectionately. Then he turned. “You sent for me, Mart “Yes,” I replied simply; “come, and I will show you why,” and I led him to Sahib Menin. CHAPTER XXXII. That hall was not so long to-night! The room at its end was dimly lighted, but the occupant of the bed fully recognized me when I entered, and he knew, I am sure, the man who came wonderingly after me. The Cos- sacks stood erect as we came in, and Colonel Oranoff went straight to the foot of the bed. I turned on a full flood of light. ¢ The snarl from the pillows was not more suggestive than the soft “Oho” that broke from Oranoff’s lips as his form straightened "and his hands clutched the heavy footboard. There was silence a moment as the two looked each other face to face. “He laughs best who laughs last,” I said with my usual triteness. Then Sahib Menin turned and looked at me. The glance was worth having lived long to see! Dulcine had been under this very roof when he had boasted of having possession of her and he knew I did not know that it was false. He had staked as heavily on my evi- dent ignorance of the fact that he had released Dulcine and turned her over to Dejneff, as he had on making me be- lieve her away on Tuen's yacht.- He looked upon me as the criminal looks upot} the hound that has brought him into the fiercer clutches of the law. “Wrong again,” the wretch answered, even now no whit dismayed; “he laughs best who laughs most!” “Stienca!” burst out Oranoff, and Me- nin’s eyes narrowed to a slit and went to him. “Robert, what of this man?” said Oranoff to me.. “Everything” I asked, knowing only too well that I could tell nothing unless I told it all. “Everything, If so Gvd gives you breath.” e I began with Lynx Island, though acknowledging freely that I was not sure Menin was there; I told of the ac- forward toward ‘the bed. the grate beneath. - of the THE . SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. cidept which gave us our first warning, then ‘of the destruction of the temple. Oranoff sat down and listened with his head in his hand, “I reached Keinning too late,” I went on, holding myself sternly to the bitter truth, “to tell the King that the Queen had been destroyed, and I found a woman who would play the Queen’s part. I promised to release her from the sarcophagus in the temple of the tomb.” Menin's eyes were on me as I spoke, and the old leer was in them; now and then he spoke as to himself. 1 felt— and it made my blood boil—that he hated me most because I was young and ignofant and chosen for a part which 1 graced poorly, and not be- cause I.had balked him. *“But you are a weak "actor,” his eyes continually said. “‘As T was at the sarcophagus to open it, this man, dressed as Colonel Oran- off, called me away. Mad with fear at the words he spoke, I followed him,” here Menin laughed and I ground my teeth, “and in the dark, beyond the army, 1 was struck down from behind and taken into the mountains lashed to a pony's back. This man returned, opened the sarcophagus, and released the priscner, intending to take her cap- tive and hold her until 1 would go to the King and tell' him the truth. But Dejneff came up at that moment, and he turned her over to him.” . " Here Oranoff moved for the first time. With a sigh he turned and threw his face into the other hand. . *This man then came to meet me in the mountains and said hé had brcught the prisoner from the sarcophagus to a vacht which he showed me was an- chored near us, and promised faith- fully to make way with her if I did not g0 to the Kiug in the presence of two of his men and tell him that the Queen’s body had been destroyed on Lynx Island. I escaped the guards, came to Keinning and found this man had been attacked by a Quelpartien mob while again impersonating you in Keinning, and had been .rescued by ° Dejneff and brought here as Colonel Oranoft.” : The room was very still when I ceased speaking, and it was Menin who broke the silence. “The fly caught the spider,” he said, looking now at Oranoff, My nerves had been put on edge to tell the story I haq just completed, and the man had angered me steadily throughout its re- cital. The sting of these words drove me mad, and with an cath I lunged The nearest Cossack blocked the way ‘and pushed me back. In a moment I had myself under control and I begged Oranoff's pardon. : Colonel Oranoff had arisen and was standing now at the mantel, his fingers in his hailr, his eyves upon the coals in I knew he was coming to some definite conclusion with regard to Menin. How -would he deal, I wondered, with the man who had fol- lowed him closely half around the world? 3 I went over and found the brandy and soda and as I drank leisurely I looked through the room. *“What a pretty plcture,” I mused, “at the end play”—Oranoff, twe heavy- armed gendarmes, and the handcuffed Menin! Though Menin was surely thinking of Oranoff, his eyes followed me. What would he have given to have had.the “fiy” once in his hands! At iast Oranoff came swiftly into the center of the room. “Martyn, I will give you an hour,” he sald, looking at his watch, “to re- store to ‘Colonel Oranoff’ everything he wore when he was brought here. Dress him as ‘Colonel Oranoff’ and call hi by that name.” ¢ I was dumfounded, and as Dulcine's father left the room a new light came into Menin’s face. For once, perhaps, FOR HONOR'’S S (Copyright, 1904, by K. A. Whitehead.) HEN a fresh-faced boy grad- ° uate from West Point ar- rived at a Western post, knowing about as muc! about Indian wartare as he did of the halls of Congress, 't was usual to “put him through.” - He was sent out on a scout In charge of o dozen or 2 score ©of men. At a proper time and place an alerm would be glven, and then it was for the tenderfoot lleutenant to show his strategy and nerve. As a rule, he came back with flying colors and’ felt himself a hero until the joke ‘was whispered in his ear. ‘When young Warner reported him- oelf at Fort Emith there had been & treaty of peace with the Indlans for & year, and 80 far as known, not a hostile had been within twenty miles of the post for monthe. On a certain winter'’s day he marched out at the head of & wcors of men to undergo his trial. There was winking and smiling among the men, and nodding and smiling emong the officers. Coy- otes and Jackrabbits would be sfarted up and bustled along, but as for In- @lans, not & moccasin track would be met with in the day’s tramp. Thp young officer was coached, advised and fostructed, and he went forth pre- pared to win his spurs and a record. He had been with Company G only a month, but the men had taken a ' great liking to him and hoped that he would prove a cool hand. When" the little force had covered a- distance of miles, and was ready to swing " to east through the sagebrush and the boulders, Sergeant ‘Whittaker slyly ‘whispered ¢o Corporal O'Flanigan: “Hist now, Mike, but pass the word to the men not to fall evér the boy when the alarm is given. He's the youngest chicken we ever put through . at this pest, and he must. have a fair s ) P ) chance. Ie thinks it's real business, with tomahawks and scalping knives thrown in, and I wouldn't like to see him get rattled. Over yan by the big rock is where the circus is to open.” The circus opened by shouts from three or four of the men—by a mo- ment.of confusion—by a leap to cover and the opening of a rapid fire on a supposed enemy. It was a sudden thing and ‘¢ was @0 real that the young iieutenant iost his nerve for the momeni and -ordered a retreat and hroke back for twenty vards. It was over in flve minutes, and the sergeart reported that the enemy was tn flight but that five minutes had been fata to the boy.. He realized it even before the sergeant looked at him in a pity- ing, reproachful way, and before he had seen the men smiling at each other. He had come out to win his spurs, -and .was to go back to be branded as & coward. That meant soclal ostracism—outlawry—dishonor. The boy sat down on a rock and rested his chin on his hands and kept his eyes on the ground while the ser- geant waited and sympathized. By and by he covered his face with his hands and wept. 3 - “It came‘upen you too moon, lieu.. tenant.” consolingly whispered the old et thnt “replied th “‘Bul 's - no_excuse, e boy. “I was rattied d confused when I should have becn cool and clear-headed. It's my death-blow. They will never overlook it. It miedns that T must send in my resignation the hour we get back.” o . “But we’'ll all go easy on ‘you, an: I'll swear the men to secrecy.” . “But I'm disgraced in my own eyes, sergeant. I'm a coward. Um not fit to carry a musket, let alone wearirig a sword. I—I thought I had courage and nerve—I—I thought——"" < “Just a minute, sir—the men are calling,” interrupted the -sergeant as he started off. One of the men, In scouting about a little, had dlsc he felt outwitted, and the light of fear that was now unmistakably present neither looked nor felt natural. His hands moved nervously; the fingers twitched. I went mechanically to the table where I had thrown the false beard, and the poor wretch accommodated me by raising his head that I might ad- just it on him. “Isn’t this imposing on an impostor?” he asked, with scmething of the old recklessness in his voice; yet the tone died away pitifully before all the words were out. One pities the wildest and fiercest of animals when once brought “hopelessly to bay. I felt that Colonel Oranoff would move swiftly now this man was once in his hands. I could not guess, though for three hours I thought intently, what course he cculd pursue. But the one fact that Menin was now “Colonel Oranoff” was a thrilling omen of what was to come. I rémained at the bed, and it was not until near midnight that there was any noise in the build- ing save the low rattle of the telegraph instruments in the telegraph room across the hall. I knew Menin heard . these; he held his head cocked above his pillow, and it was plain he was studying the messages through the thick#vall. But he could not read them, so I let him listen and trouble himself with the code of the Russian secret service. 1 was not mistaken in Oranoff’s mov- ing quickly. It was after midnight when he returned; and with him came M. Grouchy and Admiral Holstrem and a body of marines who had accom- panied the admiral in his fast ride from Tsi. When all were in the room Grouchy steppéd quickly to the bed, and pro- ducing a dispatch, held it up to the light and read: Colonel Ivan Oranoff.—For treachery to your country and your Emperor I ex- ile you for life to the Kranstoff mipes in Siberia. and God have mercy on\your traitorous soul. NICHOLAS II, Emperor. Though just as a decree from heaven, yet I ached with pity for the brave devil caught in the death-maw of his own trap. He was not deflant tnow. For a while he seemed unable to grasp the meaning of it. But when he did, he only turned on his pillows and hid his face. Before morning he was taken by the marines and Cossacks to Tsi, looking for all the world like Ivan Oranoff. He had avoided a hundred traps set by others and fallen heavily into one set by himself. He had no redress; for the Indian° Menin had disappeared forever from human sight and knowledge and recollection in that Quelpartien hut from which “Colonel Oranoff” emerged! : CHAPTER XXXIIL Colonel Oranoft was compelled to re- “turn to Chefu and go on from Chefu to Port Arthur; anxious as Dulcine and I were to be off, I had some matters which in conscience demanded my at- tepgion before I bade good-by to gray ing and to Quelparte. It was ar- ra®@®d that we, with Captain Dejneff, shovgl follow on a later boat and go on to Port Arthur with Colonel Oranoff. As affairs political quieted, Dulcine and I rode out once more into the bright sunlight, over Silkworm’s Head, or far across the valley of the Phan in- to the brown hills beyond. One morn- ing we rode cut early with Pak, who led, beside his own, another horse. We passed through the Chinese quarter of the city and on by the Queen’s mau- soleum. For a time we stood in si- lence looking at the great mound and the temple of the tomb at its base; neither of us spoke, though little Pak’s eyes, as he glanced now and again at me, said many things. Then we can- tered on and climbed the steep foot- hills to the spot where Nsase gave me the sword. The narrow path beyond AKE--By Allen Forster was rough, but I pushed the horses on; and when noon came we ate our lunch on the summit of one of the gigantic boulders that stood beside the path. Then 1 gave Pak explicit directions, and we watched him go away up the mountain; by midnight he had returned to Keinning, bringing Nsase with him, and leaving a goodly reward with the old woman who had taught the girl that dance that saved my life. Nsase could not express her delight at being brought to us, and Dulcine has found in her a serving maid as faithful as she is interesting. On the day following 1 took M. Grouchy to the house of Kim Ling; the lad had slept almost continuously since the night I had forced him to say that the Queen was yet alive. He happened to be waking as we came, and when I knelt down beside him ne smiled fee- bly. T had had Pak take the doctor to him at the first moment T had been able to’ order it; as I knelt, Kim reached and took my hand. M. Grouchy arranged at once with Kim mother to have him come tg the Rus sian Legation when he had recovered, where a quiet but lucrative position would be made for him. Another watches now, in Kim's stead, that golden sarcophagus in the mausoleum —one whose hair, I trust, will never turn as white as pcor Kim's did, one who will never see the Queen's soul rampant again in those cold gorridors as have the tongueless men in black, who not_at all envy him his appoint- ment! Dejneff had kept his word and wore his long “shave” no more. I camnot say—for I am learning now to tell the truth once more—that it has improved his voice, but I can say that it has im- proved his appearance. I thought of this on our journey to Tsi that bright day when we bade good-by to old Kein- ning. In a fresh uniform and on a spirited horse, a six months’ leave of absence in his pocket, he looked the brave young cavalier Dulcine affirmed. We met Colonel Oranoff at Chefu, and Admiral Holstrem's private launch took us merrily over the eighty blue miles to Port Arthur—the prize we had won! That afternoon we were on deck when Colonel Oranoff suddenly pointed to the blue ~-aves with a significant gesture. + “Blue water,” he said, “how much that means to us!” f “How, Colonel Oranoff?” I acked. Then he drew from his pocket the large card upon one side of which was written the menu of the luncheon to which we had done ample justice. He turned it over, and on the reverse side was a map of the Yellow Sea. He turned this cornerwise and folded it, striking the crease across from Shang- hai to Tsi (Chemulpo). Then he held this up before us all and pointed to the outline of the Yellow Sea. It was the very image of a camel! The head was the Gulf of Liaotunsg; the neck the Straits of Pechili, the back and breast the body of the Yel- low Sea. “You gee the camel’'s head?" he asked quietly. It was exceedingly plain. “The great rivers of China and Korea” (Quelrirte), he went on, “empty into the Yellow Sea the sands which give it its color. We are now running into the blue waters of the Straits of Pechili—and here at the camel’s gullet stands Port Arthur, the Gibraltar of the Yellow Sea over which to-day the flag with the Em- peror’s eagles was flung at sun- rise. Japan's exceptions to our lease of this port were removed upon our promise to throw down the protec- torate established lately over Quel- parte. Russia now is on the Pacific,” here the voice strengthened, “at an ice- free port; at the camel's gullet she will hold by the throat all the commerce ;- | | war party of forty in the snow. It led to the east. The patch on the sole of each moccasin meant the war trail, and that peace no longer existed. The band was going toward Plum Valley. “See, here, laddies,” said the ser- geant after inspecting the trail with his own eyes, “our kid got rattled whenthe pinch came, and he's sitting up there ready to cut his own throat over it I'm sure you'll all swear se- crecy, but that won’t do for him His pride had been wounded lo deaih. How many of you are game io help me save him?” ‘As te how was asked. ‘As to following the trail unif] overiakc the bucks. There's forty to twenty. and they’ll fight like h—I1: but it we are to die, let's do it for the kid —for his honor's sake. A many of you as will go atong o' me np with the right hand. All up, eh”? I knew it would be so. We brought the kid out here and dishonored him, but pleage God, we'll take him bacik ax we bright as a new dollar or find our. graves In the enow. Steady o bit, while I give him the good news."” He found the boy officer still seated on the stone, but now he had & photo- graph in his hand gnd was looking at it through hig tears of humiliation. . “Whisht now, Heutewrant. There's a glorlous chance for you created by’ Providence. There’s a war-trall only forty rods away, and we want:to be atter them bucks hot-foot inside of ten. migutee. IVl be a fight to wipe out: stricken all that's gone befors and make & glorious record for old Company G. The boy officer sprang up and grasped the sergeant’s hand with a “God bless you!” and then they were off. It was a plain trail, as the hos- tiles meant it to be, and it was fol- lowed for miles and miles on the lope and with scarcely a halt. Then there came the report of a single rifie and a bullet dashed the boy’s cap off. The Indians discovered that they were be- ing followed and had taken cover. There was a smile of happiness on the * officer’s face as he picked up his cap and ordered the men to take cover behind trees and boulders, and the smile on the sergeant’s fare was grim as he added: “It's every man for himself, and all of us for the lieutenant. Fight, ye devils, and let us have no wailing over a hurt or two.” It was twenty to forty, and if there was any moral advantage it was off- set by the forty being undegggover. It was a case of sharpshooting—of cunning—of stealth. The kid had a 00l head, and his nerve was with him. He moved along the line from flank to flank, encouraging and direc ing and pausing for a moment. here and there to lift up the musket of a wounded man and fize a shot himself The twenty pressed the forty back slowly, but at fearful cost. At the end of half an hour the sergeant re- ported: “Lieutenant, we have four killed and alx wounded. Thats half our force. Have we cleared the.record vet?” e “Stand by me. sergeant!" pleaded the boy, as he reached out for the other’s hand. - “What we want now is 1o rise up and charge them.” . “Then it's with you we are, but God _will that at least one of us will be left alive to tell the story!” Of a sudden the:ten:charged with shouts and yellp, and the twenty-eight or : thirty . bucks “left: became :panic- fter a moment: and fled, They did not flea from men on their feet-with muskets in their hands, but from men lying on the snow in all postures, dead or grievously wounded. An hour later a rescuing party from the fort found them thus, and the first load of the ambulance contained the only two living—the kid and the sergeant. ““Recommended for promotion,” re- ported the colonel in the lieutenant's case, “Promoted to be orderly sergeant,” was the record in the other, % with Northern China—all approach to Peking.” And before night fell there arose from the water the hills of Port Arthur and on the great mast, above fhe basin of solid masonry in which the huge dredges lay, floated the dcuble eagles of Russia—Peter’'s dream had come an- other hundred leagues nearer its real- ization! CHAPTER XXXIV. We find life in St. Petersburg ex- ceedingly pleasant, and my duty captain in the Czar’s Cuirassiers i the prosaic thing that I had antic “after West Point,” as we were wont to say, as though expecting to be buried alive! Colonel Oranoff is with us fre- quently, though noew I must call him Prince Meranoff; he has a fine estate to-day far down on the Danube. His bold stroke in Quelparte, which gave Port Arthur to Russia without costing an ounce of powder, was a final trl- umph, and the Czar—that “hardest and best-served master in the world"—am- ply repaid his servant. The Prince’s busiest hours are spent in the Foreign Office here in Petersburg, for he is a high officer now in that silent army which is for- warding fast old Peter’s dream. When I read a story, I like to have it close quickly at the end, and now I have told mine my aversion to overtold stories rises up to bid me pause. Yet there is one scene that belongs to this little drama which began in far-away Quelparte, that was acted here in St. Petersburg, which I cannot omit. We had not been settled here long before Dejneff came, and then to our great surprise Prince Meranoff brought us one day an invitation to dine with the Czar—to whom this story of Quelparte had been told. Of course Dejneff was included in the invitation—and even Nsase! All the details of the visit I left gladly to Dulcine and her father. And there, to the Czar and Czarina, M Martyn told her story, while the rest of us put in our parts as we were appealed to for them. Emperor Nicho- las was particularly Interested in the myth of insanity coming upon relatives of desecrated dead. I remembered he was silent while we were laughing at a sober comment which Dejneff put in, and which the Czar plainly heard But when Dulcine had finished Czarina came and kissed her -passion- ately, though Nicholas said slowly in French, “‘But the end is not yet.” Then he told of the later piotting of Tuen against Whang-Su and other things of which even the Times does not tell. At last Dulcine forgot host and hostess and arose unsteadily from her chair, and when she spoke her voice sounded like a child’s ery: “I do not care for sequels, your Maj- esty.” Nicholas sat looking quietly at the flowers as the ladies moved away, the Czarina’s arm thrown around Dulcine, but murmured low, as to himself, “Nor do I, madame.” In an adjoining room, heavily cur- tained at the center, we found happier themes for conversation, when, to my utter surprise, the room suddenly be- came darkened. Dulcine pressed my hand assuringly, and I saw the surprise was for me. The heavy curtain parted, and there in the half-light stood Nsase, a shining sword in each hand—to dance before the Emperor! In the mountains of Quelparte she had danced for my life; now Nsase danced as for her very own. The tiger-skins, her only ralment, her long black hair again wrought into those snakelike Braids, the swords bewilder- ing in their myriad convolutions, were wonderfully beautiful. Though the tragic element, so vital in her perform- ance in that mountain cave, was miss- ing, yet there was an added glory here. The luxurious room, the deep carpet, the heavy hangings, the gilded tinsel of ornate frescoing, were much in keeping with the brilllant performance. The wavering lights, which, as I saw them before, were lost on the dull sides of that mountain cave, were now flashed back from a thousand glittering sur- faces. I sat at the end of the little semi- circle and could look unobserved upon the distinguished little audience. The Czar and the Czarina now saw a thing new even to their eyes; they lost not one curling ray of fire, not one reeling bolt, not one bright crash of flame. Beyond sat old Dejneff—looking as though he had seen the tiger-woman at last! - He nursed his knuckles seriously, and now and then mechanleally stroked his missing beard, whereupon he stirred uneasily, The flickering light played hide-and-seek in the furrows of the man's fave, and I knew he was far away In Quelparte. 1If I never see Dejnett again, I have this vision of his sturdy. . honest phiz to remember—and the memory will be a precious one. Nearer me. just beyond Dulcine. Prince Meranoff leaned forward In o great armchair, his face thrust Into his hand, the steady eyes upon the writhing blades and lighted by the re flected fires. In the position he had happened to assume, one shoulder was higher than another, and a tinge of the old fear of Sahib Menin ran through me as I looked covertly at him. Beside me sat Dulcine, and I looked at her as I felt for her hand in the dark. . She was_ gazing Intently upon .the ‘'mad dance, but as I found her hand she looked up at me quickly—even as she looked that night In my room in: the Russian Legation In Keinning when she had arifen so strongly to such a deed of infinite daring. My thought became her own, and we kissed each other there in the gloom. And as I looked again for & last time from face to face, and then once more upon that thing of fire before us, Quel- parte with the tender vistas of fits paddy-flelds, its white-robed inhabi- tants, their myths and superstitions, gray old Keinning and its secret which the broad river Phan still bears with sealed lips to the sea came back to me as jt can never come again until I see those same faces lighted as they were that night by the trembling flashes shot from the sword-dancer’s blades. the