The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 17, 1907, Page 2

[§ George Barten.) T ng Barnes was hand- w. s long official-looking en- elope conteining the imprint of e State Department. It was © recelvs corre- seat of government, st time he had been rols s of the nation. He quinl and read it [ w avidity, It £ portant and beld revelations were . £ make even such & k with astonish- e ter very carefully 4 a& he concluded [ € & calendar on the wall k tomor g accustomed to suf- 4 sald . sir; I'll go home, pack my and meet you in an hour."” jous, they made their s and were in Fall River an efore the appointel time. As . nged up to the whar? watehing . gel up steam preparstory to trip to New York the ehfef assistant with his most and shadew e man is short ooth face and & tion. Fe carries a little 1sic box, which bas a 114 Geco- r crown The woman angular, with sharp s & big Maltese cat, tnseparable companion.” y deseription!” ex- husiasm getting the er of respectful demeanor. “A fel- - ave to be nesrsighted te = couple liice that.” they were talking & stranger e pier, warbling a French v attentior re descrip- € chief inspector ¢ £ the heavy aroms [ and he carried ax a giit crown o . o8 marched away singing es 1 pt e little cubby e demanded. uez” replied the purses me to consider the pro- question. e chief returned te his assistent, man, a1l right™ he sald. £ under the nam n We mustn't lose asked Clancy, with a full knowledge of the fact that he had no right to ask guestions. You'l now before we reach New B the antime, don’t be sur- s. And for the love is Count to see the say to him.” entured Clancy, with o bs withering ser- dn't be & bad idea to th him.* t acquainted with him!” procured a stateroom, tter of form, because ntention of sleeping at ¢ resently the Count's wife, r aboard and The Count t boat, leaving smoke in his wake. went e carried the t with him. of a sociabdle managed to get into he titied foreigner were chatting away he Count noticed oking 2t the box he ked in & nonchal- 1g of the shoul- sic box adere music B instrument : Yw a @ eves, re ere. Count: T love music t ) s a tune The ur s disconcerted he he e key,” he said, shrug- ¥ g his shoulders. Then as an after 3 g 5 e instrument is out of or- and T must not touch it until it is res L Cla ¥y countrived to intro- The Count, who was lo- was delighted to meet such . He said he was beaith, and Barnes, ment, sald he was e health of the com- of the game Clakey iief carried a pack right arm. He was m what that meant hispered husk! the Count lays down grab it end put it in ceme, almoet imme- hey were at 4he cigar stand. Count Jaid down his box in order & box of cigarettes. Barnes attracted his attemtion € on the other side of the stooped, picked up the rted off in the direction of L e same instant Barnes wrapper off the package 1 and deposited & hox on place of the stolen one. tical with the first one in and when the Count had is change and lighted his he picked up the substituted with a sigh of ntl-nruon, ed away. " was @ rmnr‘nnionlble 3 After the boat had left Fall er and started on §ts all night run New York he invited Barnes and Clancy to join him in & “nightcap” in e little gitting room attached to his abin. They readlly assented. It wae finest room on the boat, with cushioned seats on both sides, The Countess was there with her cat. Af- resentation had been made ightcap” disposed of she ex- and aimed “My dear Bdouard, you are the most houghtful of men!” ‘Ah! you are teasing me,” cried the Coyn shaking his feminine fingers e woman. “You ladies, you ladies, yop are all alike. Flosting like light clodds ‘twixt our gaze and heaven. I ORYof the| By Geor,ge Bart FOR GOD'S SAKE DONT; THE BOX- AND THEN IT BR presses the thougm Having delivered emotional sentiments Count sank tively suggested t! four footed fami there ‘with his arms folded, 3 in the most disconce startiing men: to the most ¢ sagacious of tcen in the erect, the long nose which seemed to be parpeluall\ on lhe scent pointed ears; countenance cter would have said men naturally did the general jeweled person. listened with while Barnes the others as He said there of the (|\fl|ted globe he had not vis- astonishment was no nlrt Madrid and St. was lost in admiration at the (m erness with which the chiet plaved part. Presently begged leave to retire v abse - Sher seal was taken by Jerome ¥ fellow passenger who had become ac- quainted with the Count a short time before and who seemed fascinated by of the nobleman. voiced the general e to hear more of Barnes' travels: Petersburg. Count Velasques da “Surely something out of the ordinary sonal to me,” looking at the other “Incidentally, *“There was nothing per replied Barnes, out of half closed ey though, I heard many quesr storles “Tell us one of them,” continued Barnes, the other had not spoken, interesting of these was the adventure of the distinguished foreigner and the consignment of Italian books. ' said Harvey “Give us thst.” began Barnes, 2t & perfecto, * Mgdrid was increased of & stranger. a foreigner of distin- Buished appearance, pufiing away v the soclety of ¥ the arrival Hy was cultured, thet wes not his native lnngur‘ meny weeks had passed befors he un- dertook to form a little class for in- “That sounds all right” Hnrur. as Barnes paused to pul at "n was all right” smiled Barnes, “for & while, and then, happens {n Spain, it turned out to be al} wrong. There was an agitation Eoing on in the provinces outside of as sometimes despauuon by poverty, were holding secret meetings with a view of rising sgainkt the authorities. The military and the police were constantly on the alert, o0 that the movement aid mnot make much time an English vessel arrived at one of the outlying perts. It had been passed by the proper officials and mgemed perfectly regular. Still, pre- caution is always considered impeor- ant in &pain, and two inspectors wers ) nt to make a scrutiny of the newly arrived vessel. va found nothing out of the or- 2 master of the vessel hav- icclared clean papers, the officials ed and made a report of thetr in- vestigation. But on the following day, after part of the cargo had been transferred to a lighter, it was d covered that several cafes marked ‘Ttallan books’ had been smuggied into the hold of the vessel. The cases wers usually heavy. They were in- voiced to the distinguished foreigner hom I have already mentioned, but se name I can not recall. They were landed on the wharf and the inspectors, whose suspicibns had been oused, mada immediate report to re=. Their first act was {o tory of the foreign among other things, tha P the « found nized a class In the capital dy of Italian. So that made a ship of I1talian books in hix name quite reasonable.” The Count, who had been listenihg tently, moistened his lips with-his tongue ut,” continued Barnes, “once mus- picion has been aroused, reasonmble- ess does not count with the Spanish police. They said in their minds, ‘Why does this man smuggle in his ship- ment? Why does he need several cases of books? Why do those books appear so welghty? Contrary to cus- tom, the bhoxes were not seized on the wharf. The officers resolved to use a little strategy. They would per- wit the consignment to "go to the house of the distinguished foreigner and then be present when the boxes were opened. As soon as the boxes had been delivered, two members of the police force, in plain clothes, pughed their way into the house and informed the affable resident that they desired to purchase some Italian books. He glanced at the intruders and then at the boxes in the hallway, and & knowing look came -4nto his face,” The Count pulled out his handkers chief and mopped the perspiration from his brow. It about dusk" said Barnes, continuing his story, {'the distinguished foreigner, was in ov‘u!n‘ dress, , Be- fore answering, he took his hat off the rack, and throwing his outer coat over his arm, said with easy assurance: “‘Gentlemen, I have an engegement for a dinner party. Iem aiready late; but my man will open these boxes and you can look over the books and talk to me about them in the morning— unless you care to nwtl! Teturn tonight, which will be in Mt two hours,’ “Could anything be more polite or obliging? The police thought net. The man, however, was not so pleasant as Ci his master. He growled terribly at being called upon to open these heavily bound boxes at such an unseasonable hour, It tooR him about twenty min- utes to find the implements with which 1o open the cases. When the hoards were taken off the first box nearly an hour had elapsed. A mass of straw coating of heavy cardboard, and beneath this, in warlike array, was layer after layer of magazines for repeating rifies. The second box was filled to the brim with ammunition. “Horrified at the discovery, the ofi- cers immediately placed the man under arrest, and awaited the return of the and, I master. They may be waiting yet. for all I know. Anyvhow, he pever X ru. mmwrmmb THE WRETCH — OKE OUT WITH THE FAMILIAR STRAINS returned. He must have procesded to the rallway station house and taken the first train out of » sent to the frontier and to all of the stations, but the amiable teacher of Italian was not apprehended. “What was he like?” with sudden interest. , the curious part of ¢ is the fact that I never set eyes on him. I heard of nhls arrival, conversed with those who had arranged (o taks lessons from him, and was even in the house he had leassd for his stay in Madrid, but never came face to face with the man himself." nt breathed easier. He turned asked the Count, distingulshed foreigner, your professor of Italian?” he queried, interrupted Barnes, revolutionist or the backer of a fiM- r an anarchist, title you choose to giv I call him my man of mystery the Government have a de- m?' asked Marver. replied Barnee. 3 issued e circular offering & reward for his apprehension. ng expedition, ., he pulled out a long red sheet of paper printed in Spenish with heavy The Count's eyes fairly danced in his “How sbout the these boxes?" asked Harvey. Barnes lald the circular on the cush- ioned seat by his side before answer- sel that brought “That wes another remarkable thing,” “When they went to find the master of the vessel ecarly the hext morning the craft had disappeared— @isappeared as completel. dropped to the bottom of can imagine how chagrined the offi- It was, perhaps, the bold- ness of the thing that made it even a Of course the papers were permitted to print little or mnothing : but the facts leaked out, as te will, Gespite the rigor of Madrid censorship, and it was the talk of the city for many weeks.” ‘What became of the servant who left at the house?” “He is still in prison, and wiil prob- 8bly remain there for a long while, although no one—not even the Spanish police—believes him gullty of anything They believe he was merely the dupe of a designing ma: “Let Barnes read his d interrupted Harvey. us some idea of the man.” The Chief reached for his circular— He bent over and looked on the floor, but there was no All were puzzled at the queer disappesrance of the bit of pa- as if it had the sea. You “That may give and it was trace of i1, '."l'htt'a certainly strange,” exclaimed lane: said Barnes, drily, “ than the story -iteelf.” “See Harvey to the customs officer, “wasn't thers any sequel to your story? It seemed 80 romentic.” " can’t eay there wWas any sequel” ki witliyhis eyes glued on the Count, “but thers is a little cpl- sode that is collateral to fit, might be called the =tory of the vro- T’ln » the oth: “Tell it chorused the ors. about the time the distin. guished foreigner was organizing his classes in Itallan and preparing for his cou!xnm".; of books a very uum: might add, a very dangero Woman eppeared in the disaffected sec- tion of the country and instituted a ANUTHER BUZZING SOUND CAME FROM ZvERYEQDY WORKS BUY FATHERS propaganda of revolution gmong the people. Now I want you to know that the Spanish Government. which is us- vally severe, at times has lapses from this severity and becomes—what shall T call it?—lax. That is to ssy. there are periods swhen the Government feals like iting socialists and anarchists to ge to the end of -their rope before pouncing upon them with the strong arm of the law.” “I've heard of such things,” said the Count, nodding his head knowingly. ""This seemed to be one of the oc- sions,” continued Barnes, watching Velasquez narrowly. “The woman went by the name of Loulss de Mally, though no one belleved that this was her real name. She affected an ec- centricity in dress which attractad uni- versal attention, wearing & blood-red dress and a straw hat, with a red rose . on each side. In her arms she invari. able carried a big, overfed Maltese cat.” The Count blinked at this, as if the recital affected his eyesight. In the beginning,™ sald Barnes, delivered lectures to her followers, in which she did not hesitate to suggest assassination as a remedy for political inequalities. Indeed it was said that she had from her very youth devoted herself to the cause of anarchy and that only lack of gpportunity had pre- vented her from putting her doctrines into practical effect. Her theorles were so dangerous than gany who had gone with her at first gradually withdrew. Bhe never lacked money, and one of her receptions was attended by the dis- tlngulshed foreigner who was so singu- ‘larly connected with the strange ship- meat of ihe foreign books. Indeed, all the odd people of the locality par- ticipated in the affair. They included believers in sociallsm, poets, novelists whose Dbooks were frowned upon by the Government, men of genius who never appeared to utilize thelr gifts, and, finally, some rich and influential Spaniards who thought the kingdom ‘was misgovgrned and who had the courage to proclaim the belief of their presence at this odd function. But the lion and the lioness of the occasion were the Italian book man and the woman with the red dress. Of course. T speak from hesrsay—from what has been told me—for I never met this re- markable woman and was as ignorant of what she actually looked like as I was of the personal appearance of the curious man who figured in the Italian, book episode. “One- night at 2 largely attended meeting. she worked her hearers up to a perfect frenzy. . She sald there was always work for pure hearts and will- ing hands, and as an illustration of this told in a melodramatic manner the story of the Paris commune. After that meeting the woman in red was cerried about the crowded parts of the city amid the shouts and cheers of the multitude. Tmagine this person—tall, thin, wiry, with coal black hair care- fully parted in middle; the straw hat with its rose on either side and the big Maltese cat under her arm. All that night she harangued the mob; but, as it proved, she had e & step too far. The police learned of it, and before midnight & warrant for her ar- rest was out. “Early rext morning four members of the police force with lmed mul- kets NOGI'M"O purpose o m magistrate, 'In 3"“0 !0 through the !oru:a!y her to jail. The door was pounded on it, but received no reply. They burst it open, and found an empty house. “The bird had flow‘n. pe~ But the culiar part of it, to my mind, was the The San Francisco Sunday Calk fact that her escape was coincldent with the dissppsarance of the dis- the same thought, for the two mn. were described In the same ci ' not in the same circular. It wras in separats circulars” Everyone turned around at this re. mark srhich had come so unégpectedly from Count WVelasques. “Neo,” rejoined Barnes, dell at this fnterruption. “I recall it quite wrell; it was in the same circular” “Ah,” said the Count, with & flourish of the hend, "the gentleman means well, dut he is mistaken.” “what do vou know about 1t, Count™ asked the Chief, with drutal abrupte ness, "were you there?” For a momfent it looked as It the Count, generally so self-contained, was about to be overwhslmed with con- fusion. PBut he quickly recoversd him- self. “]—~I—read sbout It In the French flash. papers at the time,” he sald, with that famous smile which always displayed those remarkable teeth. Barnes and Clancy made some ezcuss for leaving the room for & moment. As they moved Harvey innocently noticed the missing circular sticki out of the Count's pocket. He over and drew It toward him. “Count!” he exclaimed, '“herw’s the ular we thought was lest.” 5 6 nobleman betrayed extreme agl- tation. "Of courss you'rs & friend of mine; —-are you not?” Cifl‘laly. was the pussled re~ ‘"“"-l’. then, destroy that efreular™ Y it will enly fmplicats some poor fellow.” As if tfearing he had overdoens his part, he changed his tone. ‘“My @ear Harver,” he exclalmed, with great affability, “there is the ecircular; of course, as You sald, you are golog to dntrov . " sald the other, frritably. “I promilod you. and my word Is good: but T want to take another look at it.” While Harvey was trying to read the circular, printed In a language he scarcely understood. t Count drummed nervousir with his fingers on the sill of the cabin window. Once or twice he hummed snatches from hia favorite opéras, but there was & quaver in his voice which rendered it ludicrous and untuneful. This continued for some minutes, when both men were startled by the appearsnce of a newcomer. Harvey made as if to conceal the eir- cular, but it was too late, so he helid it down deflantly while he gazed up at Clanoy—for it was the customs oper- ative—in an insolent manner. “Well?" asked Hbrvey. “Oh, nothing,” replied Clancy. “T was simply walking around the boat for want of something better to do.” “Oh, you were, were you?’ was the nmln( comment. 9 responded the other, deters mined to lLeep his t.-por. and aching to get lis hands on the unt Velasques and 1" satd Har- vey, with an attempt at dignity, “were having 2 private discuesion.’ “Oh,” exclaimed Clancy, “I beg your pardon. I won't huw. l'u leave you."” He turued on his heal to c:.;".dm but almost in the same Instant thet he would not be dism in that way. If he could not get lon of the circular he would at least give these two men a bad quarter of an heur. Tlarvey had raised his hand— the hand céntaining the circular, Claney turned on him like a fash, “Hello!” be exclaimed, “there's the circular Barnes lost in the eabin. T see¢ you've found it. How lucky. I¢ you'll give it to me I'll s¢e that he gets it He extended his arm in the direction of the circular. Harvey drew back and held the precious bit of paper toward the floor. “You're impertinent,” he said hoarse- Iy, "“Why dom't you mind your own business?” My dear sir,” said Clancy, deter- mined not to loss any don’t ses any occasion for anger. You have in your possession & bit of prop- erty belonging to my friend Barnes, 1 presumed that you had found it. I didn't suppose it bad ¢ Into your possession in any other any event, I ask you to let me utnm it to Barnes. You refuse?” “Why! Why!” he spluttered. “Sim- ply because—because [ intend to hand it to him myselt.” “Then,” shouted Clancy, with triumph in his volce, “you'll have the oppertuni- ty at once, for Barnes is coming here now.” Harvey was aghast. He wondered wildly what he could do or say. He looked quonw y m tha Count. Velasquez was pleture of death. His face was u white &8 snow—even to the lips. His eyes had & dull, glassy appearance. The sweat stdod out in little beads on hll forohead. He daid not return Harvey's glance. His lips were dumb. In the meantime Harvey, glued to his seat, held the awful ciroular between clinched fingers of his right hand. Clancy stood over him ins threatening attitude, like an avenging angel, wuln Barnes came along the corridor to' the cabin with the rapidity ot hh. Once again Harvey looked toward the Count in helpless pantomime. Why did not the man speak? Why did he not utter one word of Instruction? The seconds ticked by with the weight of hours. When all seemed over the Count moved his bulky form. Harvey breethed. The Count was coming to his reilef. Velasquez put his hand in his pocket and produced—a cigarette. Harvey could have screamed with angry disappointment. But the Count magnificently igmored all of this, and, stooping down with deliberation, struck e match on the sole of his shoe, and then calmly lit his cigarette and leaned back on the cushion of his seat with a placld smile on his face. “What does he mean?” groaned Har- vey to himself. But he looked admir- ingly at the man who could be so calm in such a crieis. Suddenly his attention was distracted from the Count by a burning at his finger tips. He looked down and found the circular in a blaze. He let it fall from between his scorched fingers onto the floor between himself the Count. The Count, too, looked down with & fixed stare. Clancy's first im- pulse was to stamp out the half burned paper, but some irresistible power held him back. So the three men gazed on that tiny blaze as if fascinated by the -?u of some terrible snake. As Barnes them wonderingly. The Count alone was calm and perfectly at ease. The color had returned to his face. He moistened his pale lips with his red tongue. Hewas again the Imperturbable Velasquez. He made a rapld movement 8nd produced his cigarette case. “Gentlemen,” he sald, with a smile, “do me the honor of smoking one of my cigarettes.” And they each dumbly accepted one without having the power to mumble a word of thanks to this person of In- fGnite tact and never failing courtesy. After the party had dispersed for the aight Clancy turned to Bar “For a bright man yo of chances. Why gid bis hands on that elre 3 “I wanted to ses what effect 1t would have on him.” “Well, you've found out chuckled Clancy, “and I in the bargain.” Barnes laughed softly and with real enjoyment. The assistant turned on him “You den’t mean—" he began. Barnes nodded his head and laughed again. Claney was explosive. “That—that,” he stuttered: “the elr- cular was a fake®" “Just s0,” grinned the ( “Where dld youeget it” earnest tones, “Oh, I picked it up befors we for Fall River. It was a Sp lamation of some sort of the paper was just fitted in here 23 nice and old shoe.” Clancy didn't go to bed; ha rested on & cushioned bench In the main saloor in a corner that gave L 11 view of the deor of the Co Barnes, in- his stateroom open eyes, clung closer th to the little black music gilt erown @n the lid. It was 7 o'¢lock In the morning when the Fall River boat dock . York. The Count and his sarly risers and were down the gangplank, he atching the black box, she embracing Maltesa cat. W got te act quickly Qe clsively,” whispered Barnes as they followed at the the couple. At the foot of the wharf the Count stooped down to adjust his shoelace, and a packet of letters dropped from his pocket to the ground. Barnes pi them up Instantly, and, glanecing ly at the superscription, turned to the swarthy-faced one: " Jean Leskus, I'll trouble you to come with me.” The man paled at the mention of tha name of the notorious European anar- chist. “This is 2 joke, “It's deadly ea “That's not erstwhile Count. “Then you shouldn't in that name,” him the papers. on the man’'s face was that fox in a corner. eh-ov was on the othrer Pide of Les- ¥ 1e sald feebly. storted Barnes. protested the letters ad d the Chlef, “?i kus as they marched towaid the near- est police station. The Countess, with the Maitese caf in her arms, followed, MM As they meared the doorway of the house of detention the prisoner sud- denly jerked away from his captors, and, reaching into his pocket, pulled st an ugly looking k e. Instantl Claney put out his right foot, and tha murderous one tripped and fall heavils on the sidewalk. It took fut a second to disarm him. and 1 for security his wrists were slipped tween & pailr of shining handcuis A few words of cxpla sergeant in charge of and the party was escort room at the end of a « “TH mak e final test D pered Barn to Claue) into the apartment. The prisoner was placed on a wooden benci: and his feet fastened together. The ecbony musio box was laid carefully on the floor a few yards away. The room was cleared of all but the anarchist. and the fron “Y barred door closed with a bang. Leskus started to get up; but found Re was held down hand and foot a glared through the bars with the look of a wild beast. “What's the meaning of this?™ he shrieked. “Nothing: only that you can go to sléep with your adored Infernal ma- chine,” replied the Chief. “What are you going to do?” wa the hound. “I'm going to give you some of your own medicine,” said Barnes, grimly. “Let me out!” Let me out! on't you let me out? begged the male factor. “Tm going to make the punishment fit the crime,” was the calm reto i “For God's sake don't; I'll be killed shrieked the wretch. His face worked conv the cold sweat beaded his forehea A whirring sound came from o little black Box. The craven one cried aloud in his agony. and drew himself up in > & trembling ball of humanity prepm for the frightful explosi n Duzzing sound came from the then it broke out with the strains of Everybody works He sits round And so on to the in the wretch was still tr reaction, Barnes brous box that had been taken f the boat and carefully opene efit of the police. It was an infernal machine of the mest aj ed type. The inside was packed with nitro- zed burnt glycerine and finely pu clay. A delicate clockwork arrange- ment was so adjusted as to set the thing off at a given signal o “He's the fellow,” said the Chief, pointing to the culprit wit .!uug “who threw the bomb in t royal prow cession in Madrid “1 thought this was a free country sniveled the prisoner. “Not for such as Barnes hotly. “Wa ha time for monarchy in the but we have a great deal of consider tion for humanity—wherever happen to be. The Secretar has given a lot of attention to your case. He has already furnished the ex- tradition papers, and you and your wifa sall immediately for Spain. whers you will be turned over to the Minlster of Foreign Affairs.” “What made you pi trick on the poor devil” as they started Ngme. “That's an inventien of my own for the punishment of bombd throwers,™ Bsmiled Barnes. “If it was adopted burned all nations we'd sooa stamp out ui chists.” "r‘aw is a modest man, but océa- sionally he shows his intimate friends the insignia of the Order of the Rayal Fleace, which, as the inscription states, was bestowed upon him for “distin- mul services to the Crowa of " at awful asked Claney,