The evening world. Newspaper, June 17, 1905, Page 11

Price 1 Cent, Including- Fiction Supplement Sixth Adventure. we «THE WF GIFT + EEMPEROR BY E. W. HORNUNG, (COPYRIGHT, 1890, LY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.) HEN the King of the Cannibal Islands made faces at Queen Victoria and a European monarch set the cables tingling with his compliments on the exploit, the ladignation In England was not less than surprise, for the thing was not so common ds it has since become, But when it transpired that a gift of peculiar significance was to follow the congratulations, to give them weight, the inference prevailed that the white potentate and the black had taken simultaneous leave of their fourteen senses, For the gift was a pearl of price unparalleled, picked aforetime by British cut: lasses from a Polynesian setting and presented by British royalty to the sovereign who seized this opportunity of restoring it to ita original pos- sexgor. The incident would have been a godsend to the press a few weeks later, Even In June there were leaders, letters, large headlines, leaded type, the Dally Chronicle devoting half its literary page to a charming drawing of the island capital which the new Pall Mall, in a leading article headed by a pun, advised the Government to blow to finders. I was my- self driving a poor but not dishonest quill at the time, and the topic of the hour gpaded me into satiric verse which obtained a better place than anything I had yet turned out. I had let my flat in town and taken inex- Densive quarters at Thames Ditton on the plea of a disinterested passion for the river. “Kirst-rate, old boy!" said Rafiles (who must needs come and see me there), lying back in the boat while I sculled and steered, “J suppose they pay you pretty well for these, eh?" “Not a penny,” ‘tNonsense, Bunny! 1 thought they paid so well? Give them time and you'll get your check.” “Oh, no, I sha'n't,” said I gloomily. “I've got to be content with the honor of getting in; the editor wrote to say so in so many words," I added, But I gave the gentleman his distinguished name. “You don't mean to say you've written for payment already?" No; {t was the last thing I had intended to admit. But I had done it. The murder was out; there was no sense in further concealment, I had written for my money because U really needed it: if he must know, I was eursedly hard up, Raffles nodded as though he knew already, I warmed to my woes. It was no easy matter to keep your end Up as a raw free lance of letters; for my part I was afraid I wrote neither well enough nor ill enough for success. I suffered from a persistent ineffectual feeling after style. Verse I could manage, but it did not pay. To personal para- graphs and the baser journalism I could not and I would not stoop, Raffles nodded again, this time with a smile that stayed in his eyes as he leaned back watching me, I knew that he was thinking of other things 1 had stooped to, and I thought I knew what he was going to say. He had sald it before so often; he was sure to say it again. I had my answer ready, but evidently he was tired of asking the same question. His lids fell, he took up the paper he had dropped, and I sculled the length of the old red wall of Hampton Court before he spoke again. “And they gave you nothing for these! My dear Bunny, they're capt. tal, not only qua verses but for crystallizing your subject and putting it in a nutshell, Certainly you've taught me more about it than I knew be- fore. But Is {t really worth £50,000—a single pearl?” “A hundred, I believe; but that wouldn't sean.” “A hundred thousand pounds!” said Raffles with his eyes shut. And again I made certain what was coming, but again I was mistaken, ‘Tf it's worth all that,” the cried at last, ‘there would be no getting rid of it, at all; it’s not Ike a diamond that you can subdivide, But I beg your pardon, Bunny, I was forgetting!” And we said no more about the Emperor's gift, for pride thrives on an empty pocket, and no privation would have drawn from me the pro- posal which I had expected Raffles to make. My expectation” had heen half a hop», though I only knew it now, But neither did we touch again 'con what Raffles professed to have forgotten--my “apostasy,” my “lapse into virtue,” as He had been pleased to call it, We were both a little ellent, a little constrained, each preoccupied with his own thoughts. It was months since we had met, and as I saw him off toward 11 o'clock that Sunday night I fancied {t was for more months that we were saying good- by. But as we waited for the train I saw those clear eyes peering at me under the station lamps, and when 1 met their glance Raffles shook his head. “You don't look well on it, Bunny,” said h this Thames Valley, You want a change of alr I wished I might get it. * “What you really want 1s a sea voyage.” “And a winter at St, Moritz, or do you recommend Cannes or Cairo? It's all very well, A, J., but you forget what I told you about my funds,” “I forget nothing, I merely don’t want to hurt your feelings, But look here, a sea voyage you shall have, I want a change myself, and you shall come with me as my guest. We'll spend July in the Mediterranean.” “But you're playing cricket"—— “Hang the cricket!” ‘Well, I thought you meant It"——. « “Of course I meant’ it, Will you come?” “Like a slot—if you go," And I shook his hand and waved mine in farewell, with the perfectly @ood-humored conviction that I should hear no more of the matter. It ‘was a passing thought, no more, no less, I soon wished it were more; that ‘week found me wishing myself out of England for good and all. I was \making nothing, I could but subsist on the difference between the rent 1 A paid for my flat and the rent at which I had sublet it, furnished, for the Season, And the season was near its end and creditors awaited me in town, Was it possible to be entirely honost? I had run no-bills when I had money in my pocket, and the more downright dishonesty seemed to me tho less ignoble, But from RaMes of course I heard nothing more; a week went by, and If another week; then late “I never did believe in on the second Wednesday night I found a FICTION SUPPLEMENT, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 17,.1905, ght 1905, by the Prevy Publishing Company.) (Copyri “Arrange to leave Waterloo by North German Lloyd special,". he wired, “9.25 A, M, Monday next will meet you Southampton aboard Uhiar. with tickets am writing.” And write he did, a light-hearted lelter enough, but full of serious sol- ieltude for me and for my health and prospects—a letter almost touching in the light of our past relations, in the twilight of thelr complete rup- ture, He said that he had booked two berths to Naples, that we were bound j for Capri, which was clearly the island of the Lotos-eaters, that wo would bask there together “and for a while forget.” It was a charming lettor. ( had never.seen Italy; the privilege of initiation should be his, No mis- ppc pou By The Adventures of RAFFLES. torn,” as though the poetry sprang unbfdden to his pen. To come back to q@arth and prose, I might think it unpatriotic of him to choose a German Boat, but on no other line did you receive such attention and accommoda- tion for your money, There was a hint of better reasons, Raffles wrote, as he had telegraphed, from Bremen; and I gathered that the personal use of some little influence with the authorities there had resulted in a material reduction in our fares, Imagine my excitement and delight! IT managed.to pay what I owed wt Thames Ditton, to squeeze a small editor for a very small check and my tailors for one more flannel suit. IT remember that I broke my last sovers eign to get a box of Sullivan's cigarettes for Raftles to smoke on the yoy- age. But my heart was as light as my purse on the Monday morning, the fairest morning of an unfair sunimer, when the special whirled me through the sunshine to the sea, A tender awaited us at Southampton, Raflles was not on board, nor did I really look for him till we reached the liner's side, And then I looked in vain, His face was not among the many that fringed the rail; hishand was not of the few that wayed to friends, I climbed aboard in a sudden Neaviness, 1 had no ticket, nor the money to pay for one. I did not even know the number of my room, My heart was in my mouth as I waylald a steward and asked if a Mr. Raffles was on board, Thank neaven—he was! But where? The man did not know, was plainly on some other errand, and a-hunting must go, But there was no sign of him on the promenade deck and none below in the saloon; the smoking-room was empty but for a little German with a red mustache twisted into his eyes; nor was itaffles in his own cabin, whither I inquired my way in desperation, but where the alght of his own name on the baggage was certainly a further reassurance, Why he hitmsel’ kept in the background, however, I could not conceive, and only sinister reasons would suggest themselves in explanation. “go there you are! I've been looking for you al¥ over the ship!" Despite the graven prohibition I had tried the bridge as a last resort and there indeed was A. J, Raffles seated on a skylight and leaning over one of the officers’ long chairs, in which reclined a girl in a white drill coat and skirt—-a slip of a girl with a pale skin, dark hair and rather re~ markable eyes, So much I noted as he rose and quickly turned; thereupon I could think of nothing but the swift grimace which preceded a start of well-felgned astonishment “Why, Bunny?” cried Raffles. “Where haye you sprung from?” 1 stammered something as he pinched my hand, “And are you coming In this shin? And to Naples, too? Well, upon my word! Miss Werner, may I introduce him?” And he did so without a blush, describing me as an old school-fellow whom he had not seen for months, with wilful circumstance and gratuitous detail that filled me at once with confusion, suspicion and revolt, I felt myself blushing for us both, and I did not care. My address utterly de- serted me, and I made no effort to recover It, to cary the thing off, Alt would do was to mumble such words as Raffles actually put into my mouth, and that I doubt not with a thoroughly evil grace. *S6 you saw my name In the list of passengers and came in search of me? Good old Bunny! I say, though, I wish you'd share my cabin. I've got a beauty oa the promenade deck, but they weuldn't promise to keep me by myself. We ought to see about it before they shove in some allen. In any case we shall have to get out of this.” For a quartermaster had entered the wheel-house, and even while we had been speaking the pilot had taken possession of the bridge; as we descended the tender left us with flying handkerchiefs and shrill good- bys, and as we bowed to Miss Werner on the promenade deck there came & deep, slow throbbing under foot and our voyage had begun. It did not begin pleasantly between Raffles and me, On deck he had overborne my stubborn perplexity by dint of a forced though forceful jov- fality; in his cabin the gloves were off, “You idiot,” he snarled, “you've givon me away again!’ “How have I given you away?” I {gnored the separate Insult in hia last word, ‘ “How? I should have thought any cloa could see that I meant us to meet by chance!” “After taking both tickets your- seit?” “They know nothing about that on board; besides, I hadn't decided when I took the tickets.’’ “Then you should have let me ow when you did decide, You lay ‘our plans and never say « word, and expect me to tumble to them by light of nature, How was I to know you had anything on?” I had turned the tables with some effect. Raffles almost hung his head, “The fact is, Bunny, U didn't mean , you to knew, You—you've grown y such a plous rabbit in your old age!” My nickname and his tone went far to mollify me; other things went fur- ther, but I had much to forgive him still, “If you were afraid of writing,” I pursued, ‘It was your ‘business’ to glye me the tip the moment I set foot on board, 1 would have taken it all right. I am not so virtuous as all that.” Was it my imagination or did Raft- fles look slightly ashamed? If so iL was for the first and last time in all, the years I knew him; nor can 1 swear to It even now. “That,” said he, “was the very h thing I meant to de—to lie in waitin my room and get you as you passed, But"—— i “You were hetter engaged! sees ener prem: