(ffi '
FQ or
The Quest of
eiiy Lancey
By MA.CH a. r. WEST
Copyright, 1909, by W. 0. Crupnua. Oopyrifbt In Grwt Brttala
CHAPTER XI. (Continued.)
Tyoga hesitated. Then, "Alright."
he said shortly, and led the way down
the hatchway to the laboratory where
Betty had regained consciousness that
first remembered morning. Since then
Betty had never been there. She had
a doll-baby suite of rooms well for
ward, hardly tenable for one so tall
and athletic as Betty. While most of
her time, even In stormy weather, was
pent on deck, still many of her meals
were served In the tiny sitting room,
all gay with blue and gold blue the
color of Betty's eyes, and gold like the
aun in June weather.
Betty stumbled along the unfamiliar
passageway. Tyoga knocked twice at
a bolted door and after a little wait the
portal swung Inward and Tyoga thrust
Betty within.
"She wanted to see you," she an
nounced, brusquely. "I've got to get
dinner.".
Le Malheureux bowed low. "I'm glad
of your company," he said. "I have
a lonely life, and such an interruption
is a pleasant one."
"Well, If you appreciate my coming
bo much, Bhow your appreciation," sug
gested Betty, "do tell me why I am
here, and who you are?"
"I will do neither," answered Ie
Malheureux. "Do not ask me. I dis
like to be compelled to be so discour
teous as to refuse you, but I must
You have been very ill, hut health Is
returning to you, and when you re
turn home you will think of this jour
ney only as a pleasant dream. You
have had no cause to complain of your
treatment here, save you?".
'"No," faltered Betty.. "Orly I'm ac
customed to knowing why and where
fore, that's all."
" 'That's all,' you say," said Le Mal
heureux. "Don't you know that 'Why's'
and 'wherefore's' are the sum total of
existence? Don't ask me about them.
Ask me anything else!"
"Then I shall promulgate a 'who, "
chanced Betty, desperately. "Tell me,
lo you know who murdered Cerisse
Wayne?"
She was unprepared for the reply,
yet Intuitively knew that It was what
he had anticipated.
"Yes," assented Le Malheureux.
"What Is more," he continued, watch
ing a swift question form on Betty's
lips, "I saw the deed whan It was
done!"
Betty shrunk from him with eyes
dilated, mouth agape.
"Then you she began.
"I did not," promptly retorted Le
Malheureux. "I did. not kill her. I
-would have saved her if I could. But
It was impossible. The tragedy was
Inevitable, It was foreordained and it
had to happen. Nobody can ever
clinch with Destiny. The first few
days you were aboard this boat you
tried it, my dear Miss Lancey. The
reaull? You nearly had a second at
tack of fever and nervous prostration.
When you resigned yourself to events
as they course, you commenced to feel
better, as you must admit To dis
miss the unattainable, and to welcome
what may come, Is the right doctrine
of living. Why do you worry with
what you cannot affect?"
"I don't dare to think," said Betty.
"But since you, whoever you are, have
hauled me off In this high-handed
fashion, I consider there's some largess
coming to me. If you knew who mur
dered Cerisse Wayne, why don't you
tell me? That Is, unless you're in duty
bound to protect the murderer! Come,
tell me, do."
"What benefit would that be to you?"
questioned Le Malheureux.
"You forget I'm a newspaper worn
anu," argued Betty, "and I draw salary
for gathering the news and turning It
tn to my city editor."
"Some distance from your city editor
now, aren't you?" suggested La Mal
heureux. "Well, couldn't I send my paper a
wireless?" flashed Letty. "You've an
Instrument there!"
"Ho, ho!" laughed Le Malheureux.
"So that's why you wanted to come
Into my laboratory, Is It? You heard
the clicking, recognized it, and thought
If you dared enough you might com
municate with your friends. A great
Idea, that! And I must confess you
are a plucky girl, Miss Betty, but I
warn you, if you tamper with these
Instruments In here, you'll tamper with
eternity, and rd advise you to let these
apparatuses alone."
"Bah I I'm not afraid," sneered Bet
ty. "Neither has any troublemaker ever
been afraid of the trouble she started
till It's too late to stop it You're a
woman, and of course you'll do. as you
please, but" he shrugged himself
again "you'd better be warned."
"I'll promise not to meddle if you'll
tell me one thing," persisted Betty.
"You should have been a corpora
tion lobbyist," responded Le Malheur
eux; "still I shall be generous! But
What is it?"
"Who did kill Cerisse Wayne?"
"A man who loved her," replied Le
Malheureux, laconically. "Come here
and see what I have done to this ger
anium leaf. It is magnified and remag
nifled. Look how its eyes have re
sponded to the influence of these con
vergent rays a new ray I have dis
covered myself. I have found the eyes
of plants and their souls! Some day I
shall uncover the human soul itself,
not only the physically corporate, but
those that ride, as Omar says, 'naked
on the air of heaven.' "
Betty looked into the globe he held
out before her. Within she saw a
pulpy green substance, throwing out
dozens of the most minute of antennae.
These writhed and fluttered most
weirdly.
"Oh, I can't stand this," she declar
ed, "nor the air In here. Tyoga! Tyo
ga! come and take me upstairs."
When the old negress had led her
back to her shady seat on deck Betty
Lancey sat and scanned the offing for a
sail, and wondered how she could get
word to Larry Morris where she was,
and how in the world she could send
the news she had to the "Inquirer" of
fice. Somehow her hunger for Larry was
far worse than her desire to satisfy
the newspaper appetite of delivering
her portion of the solution to the
Wayne murder mystery. Betty, self
rellant Betty, weakened by the first se
vere illness she had ever known; Bet
ty, stripped of the practical routine
adjuncts of the daily life to which she
was accustomed; Betty, who had open
ly flouted at poetry and romanticism,
this same Betty plunged into a fire of
mystery, murder and death, convalesc
ing from a malignant attack of brain
fever, was beginning to discover that a
woman is a weakling after all, and that
when she needs a strong arm to lean
on, she wants It sadly. And In the
mist and mirage of the life from which
she had so suddenly been taken away,
It was Larry Morris, his face, his fig
ure and his personality that Betty's
heart and soul reached out for vainly.
If she could have found an empty
bottle anywhere she would have
chanced that old pastime of the mari
ner and last refuge of the shipwreck
ed a note in a bottle. But bottles
there were none, nor anything else fea
sible, and Betty plunged into despair.
With returning health, however, came
a renewed Interest in life. She had
good food, the weather was fine, and
Betty a splendid sailor. She possessed
the exuberance of youth and all of a
newspaper woman's curiosity for the
what Is to happen next Le Malheu
reux, though extremely repulsive, was
also decidedly Interesting, and their
conversations and Intimacy grew with
the voyage.
Le Malheureux was well read, cour
teous, a polished gentleman, gracious,
and a delightful companion when he so
chose. But he never saw her for more
than an hour a day, and was reticent
about himself and his people. Betty
gathered that he had long lived in Af
rica, though he had been educated in
England, France and Germany. By
education he was a physician, by for
tune independent, and by occupation a
research worker in the extensive fields
of electro-therapy. But there were
three things he never did he never
removed or shifted any of his somber
draplngs, his hands tiwere always glov
ed, and the thick veil of full green was
never lifted from his face.
CHAPTER Xn.
At the close of a long, hot day, the
enchanted yacht sighted rand a blur
of gray and green to the left As the
night deepened this verged into a
splash of tropic green, washed with a
spendthrift moon. Betty begged to be
allowed to stop on deck to watch this
dawning beauty, and Tyoga, muffled In
a long white cloak, stood beside her.
As they approached the harbor, Betty
saw it was the Jettying mouth of a
river, the banks lined with mosshung
palms, springing from a matted
growth of reeds, entwined vines, rush
es and lush grass. Straight up the
river they went in the moonlight
through a current so slow that the
stream appeared stagnant No sign of
habitation met the eye, and the jun
gles to either side were still as death
Tsave for the occasional roar of a Hon,
or snarl of some angered panther.
The river verged into a lake, black
and forbidding, wlthm bleak beaches of
yellow sand, and from there they rush
ed Into another river roofed with en
tangled trees through which filtered a
blood-red sunrise. All day they fol
lowed this river, pimpled at Intervals
with lakes, small or large, and clear
or muddled. The white heron and the
storn watched them unheeding. A
crocodile or two sidled after them, and
at intervals some huge snake, untwin
ing from a long hanging bough, would
stretch Its slimy length across the
snowy deck. Twice they passed a herd
of elephants coming down to drink, and
often sent an affrighted lioness hurry
ing back from the water's edge to her
mewing kittens. The purple lotus
spread Itself despairingly over some of
the slimiest pools as If to patch up
black hldeodsness with perfect bloom.
All this tropical splendor finally wear
led even Betty's rapt eyes, and she
clung gratefully to Tyoga's arm as the
negrea.satd: "We are at our journey's
end." And with It had come the night
The yacht had swung through an
archway, and shot Into a roofed pas
sage, water dripping from the stones
and moss above them, and a raven
cawed as they stopped at a stubby
wharf, from which led up a dizzy flight
of dimly lighted granite steps.
The stairs ended in a vaulted corri
dor hung with a few antique brass
lamps. Placed at Intervals along the
sides were low, stone couches covered
with leopard skins.
To one of these Tyoga motioned Bet
ty, and then ipursing her thick black
lips she emitted a peculiar whistle. In
stantly there darted forward from one
of the dusk-hung niches a comely
young negro girl, her glistening body,
satiny as ebony, nude save for a kilt of
striped silk, and a short tunic of gauze.
She bowed low before Tyoga, who
addressed to her a few half audible re
marks in a strange dialect.
The girl nodded her head in the af
firmative, stealing occasional surrep
titious glances at Betty, and then tak
ing up one of the smoking brass lamps
she led the way toward the end of the
long hall. Here more steps, two flights
of them, of time-harried stone, moss
grown in the corners, greeted them.
There were more corridors and more
stairs in a dizzying never-ending se
quence, till them, came upon a hall
longer, lighter and lower than the rest
A hundred archways with tapestry
hangings opened upon this hallway
and in the center arch the slave girl
bowed low again and, pushing aside
the draperies, stood apart for them to
enter.
The room was furnished in skins,
Ivory, ebony and gold. The couch of
ebony had no springs, but to Betty's
later surprise the down cushions and
skins piled upon it made It the softest
bed she had ever rested upon. There
were stone stools, chairs of oddly twist
ed tropic woods, and a great mirror of
ebony, ivory and gold, studded with
hundreds of precious stones. Swing
ing from the celling was an ornate
lamp of filigree and jewels, and this
burned low and duU.
"You will be glad to rest, I know,"
said Tyoga. "Meta there will bring
you a glass of warm milk, and then
you must rest Rest the sweetest you
have ever done, my lady. To-night I
shall not be with you; I have other
duties; but Meta will sleep here on a
pallet by your side. Good-night Be
unafraid." She stooped low and kissed
Betty's hand, and Betty could have
sworn a tear fell upon It.
Tyoga spoke truly. Meta brought
the milk as deliciously warm and fra
grant as If roses had been steeped
within Its limpid depths. The cool
linen garment the slave wrapped
around Betty rested her fevered skin,
and the pillows were magic wings that
bore her away to Forgetfulness Land.
Sleep came, Just sleep, no dreams, and
the sun was topping the heavens when
blue-eyed Betty awakened. Tyoga
was not yet returned, but Meta, faith
ful and silent, stood by the couch gen
tly waving a huge palm branch.
"A modern Cleopatra; but where Is
my Antony?" smiled Betty to herself,
snuggling comfortably back Into her
nest She stretched her feet luxuri
ously back and forth under the silken
coverlids, then roused to full conscious
ness with a start
"A sorry newspaper woman, I," she
scolded, mentally; "here am I with a
whole live mystery between my thumb
and forefinger and doing never a thing
to solve it! Ah, Betty, Betty!"
She rose hurriedly, In pantomime
beseeching Meta to hasten with her
garments. For the thoes Betty had
kicked off and left on the floor of the
Directory Hotel the night of her ill
fated visit to the Harcourt apartments
Tyoga had substituted a quaint pair
of high-heeled slippers, as unlike Bet
ty's usual substantial footgear as a
rose is like a radish. And in place of
her strictly tailored waist Betty was
now wearing soft draperies of vari
colored silk. What had become of her
clothes she didn't know, and Tyojra
had successfully resisted all importun
ing that might tell Betty the why and
wherefore of her present Incarnation
(To be continued.)
Why lie Cried. ,
The sympathetic neighbor asked, "l
your little brother 111 this morning,
Johnnie. I heard him crying In the
most heartrending manner.'
"No, not exactly," Johnnie replied,
"but Willie pulled down a Jug of mo
lasses on himself in the pantry, and
mother has been trying to comb his
hair."
A New Came o( Intemperance.
Hyperbola Is the source of muck,
fun. If not of much wit. A young
cadet, says a writer In Harper's
Weekly, was complaining of the tight
fit of his uniform.
"Why, father," he declared, "the
collar presses, my Adam's apple so
hard that I can taste cider!"
Arithmetically Denionatrated.
"A man should sleep at least eight
hours a day."
"It can't be done," answered the
weary-looking citizen; "not when one
of your neighbors runs a phonograph
till midnight and another keeps a
rooster that crows at 6 a. m."
Gallant.
Beautiful Widow Do you know, I
am forty years old to-day. Gallant
Bachelor Madam, you are Just twen
ty. I never believe more than halt of
what I hear
FIRE BLIGHTJIN APPLE TREES
LEPERS 07 THE HA WATTS.
A Brief Description oi the Disease
and Its Cure.
By H. 8. Jaduon, Oregon Agricultural College,
Corvaltia.
Fire blight is thejmost serious of all
the diseases which attack the pear and
apple. It is a contagious disease of
bacterial origin which, Junder proper
conditions, may attack'any part of the
tree. Besides thejpear and apple, the
quince, wild crab apple, hawthorns,
mountain ash, serviceberry and some
other pomaceous trees are subject to
attacks of this disease.
Myriads of germs are present in all
freshly blighted portions of the tree
and in the sticky ooze exuding from
cankers. The germs live almost en
tirely in the sappy portion of the bark,
though in some vigorous-growing vari
eties of pears the germs have been
known to invade the sap wood to a
limited extent Fire blight occurs in
more or less severity in nearly all
parts of the United States where
pears and apples are grown.
In Oregon . fire blight has appeared
in two general localities one in the
Southwestern part of the state, includ
ing the Rogue River valley, the other
in the Northeastern part.
Beginning in the spring the first ap
parent damage produced by the disease
in an infected orchard is the blighting
of the blossoms. Infection is brought
about by insects, principally bees,
which have visited a case of hold-over
blight and become covered with the
uigttjilaiiui cuiitaincJ in Vuo fii.2i.ky ex
udation, inoculating the flowers in
their search for nectar. The organ
isms divide and multiply in the nectar
and are able to enter the living tissues
through the unprotected nectaries
Having entered the tissues they quick
ly blight the blossoms, pass down the
blossom-stem and into the fruit spur.
killing the tissues and cutting off the
leaves from water supply, causing
them to shrivel and dry, thus produc
ing "fruit spur blight." The latter
occurs several weeks after blossom in
fection. In very serious cases nearly
all the fruit spurs may be blighted in
this way and the trees set no fruit
Usually the germs die out and do not
grow into the twig or branch on which
the spur occurs, but occasionally the
germs may continue into the bark of
the branch at the base of the fruit spur
and form a typical canker. Fruit spurs
on the larger branches are a fruitful
source of body infection and many
cases of blight canker originate in
this way.
The name "fire blight" is given to
this disease because of the characteris
tic appearance of pear foliage on twigs
or branches which have been killed by
the organisms. The leaves turn black
as though scorched by fire and fre
quently remain on the tree during the
following winter. It should be noted
that this color of the foliage is charac
teristic of the pear when it has been
killed during the growing season. If a
grower not familiar with the pear
blight desires to known how the "twig
blight looks let him girdle a twig in
mid-summer and watch the results.
The cankers are also quite character
istic, but are very variable in appear
ance. The disease progresses most
rapidly in the fleshy outer layer of the
bark and at first produces a watery
appearance in the affected area. Later
the tissues of the bark are more or less
broken down and the cankers become
dark in color.
One of the most fruitful sources of
infection has been by the pruning
shears or saw. In pruning, if an
active canker is cut into, the tools be
come infected and serve as inoculating
instruments to spread the disease.
The only method known of control
ling fire blight is to cut out all cases
of cankers wherever they appear.
Spraying with fungicides is of only
supplementary value and the various
blight cures are worse than useless.
Experience has shown that it is of
little permanent value to attempt to
cut out the fruit spur and twig blight
as they appear. Unless these forms
of the disease extend into the branches
on which they occur and a canker is
formed the disease usually becomes
naturally limited and the germs gradu
ally die.
The efforts of the grower should be
directed to cutting out all , cases of
blight canker and body canker during
the fall, winter and early spring, when
the cankers have become more or less
limited in their growth and are not
actively spreading.
Summer cutting is intelligently ap
plied is frequently of great value,
particularly where there is only a little
blight In the autumn before the
leaves fall is a good time to do the cut
ting, as all cases of twig blight are
easily observed.
The trees should be particularly ex
amined for cases of the collar rot. It
is this form of the disease that causes
many trees to be killed outright
In cutting out cankers it is neces
sary that the tools be kept moist
with some good disinfectant. If this
is not done each cut will reinoculate
the germs into the bark at the edges
of the canker and the labor may thus
be useless.
Corrosive sublimate in a solution of
one part to one thousand of water has
been found to be the most satisfactory
disinfectant The solution is a violent
poison. It must be kept in glass.
Condition on the Island of MoIm
kal Hare Been Mlaanderatood.
No irreater mlHcnnf pntlnn nf aur
public institution prevails to-day than
tne general idea of the leper settle
ment on the 'lRlnnd nf Mnlnkal R R.
Kldd says In Harper's Weekly. In
stead or the entire Island being used
for such purpose, the settlement com
prises only eight square miles of a
total area of 261 square miles. It oc
cupies a toneue of land on the north
ern side of Molokal. The north, east
and west shores of this tiny spot are
washed by the Pacific, while on. the
south side rise precipitous cliffs of
from 1.800 to 4.000 feet, which maVa
the isolation seem even more hopeless
than the beautiful deep-blue waters of
the sea ever could. The most difficult
and dangerous trail, constantly
manned by government guards, foils
escape, If It were ever contemplated
by the land side.
Naturally the fear of being isolated
at the settlement caused the natives
to thwart segregation. Generally it
was done by secreting their afflicted,
yet there are Instances of lepers us
ing violence to resist arrest. The ne
cessity of severing ties of the strong
est affection involved grief of the deep
est description, and many are the
cases of abnegation where the clean
have accompanied the afflicted to the
settlement to die there with them.
Then, too, by degrees there grew up
the belief among the natives that ter
rible mistakes of diagnosis by the
physicians wpr rnnnlpnlnp Innocent
and helpless people to the living sepul
cher. And as each year failed to eradi
cate the disease as had been represent
ed, but still claimed Its toll, the belief
became almost universal that a larger
proportion of those - committed were
sacrifices to the despotism and Ig
norance of the white man's medical
science that boasted but could not
cure.
By degrees, as the government real
ized the Inability of the afflicted to
care for themselves, conditions were
improved, until finally the authorities
took entire charge of the lepers, and
to-day the appropriations for the main
tenance and care of these wards are
most generous and exceed $125,000 an
nually. JADED GLOBE TROTTERS.
Alany Cheerleaa American Tonrlata
Who Luck Annlmllatlon.
On a day of winter sunshine last
January I chanced to be In Yokohama,
and found that agreeable city enduring
an unusual Invasion, George Gascoyne
says in the National Review. A swarm
of American tourists had been
"dumped" on the shores of Tokyo bay
from a great German liner, which lay
at anchor In the roadstead. I forget
how many hundreds they numbered,
but they seemed to pervade the entire
landscape.
They had started from New York
and were making a tour around the
world at express speed, and they were
not an exhilarating party. They were
Mark Twain's pilgrims over again, the
passengers of the Quaker City on a
new and extended scale. At Yoko
hama they had plainly reached the
stage of Intense, unutterable boredom.
Luncheon was the only thing that real
ly interested them. They sat In stolid
rows In the lounge of their hotel, they
hung about, the entrance hall, they
filled every seat in the drawing room.
They were too languid to talk to one
another, and they even foreot to ex
plain to the unsuspecting stranger that
tney were American.
The comment of the head waiter
was Instructive. "One small ginger
ale is the only order I've had all
through lunch," was his melancholy
complaint. It 'was tolerably obvious
that their one desire was to get back
to New England, from whence most of
them seemed to hall.
Those cheerless tourists at Yoko
hama, with their leaden eves snri
dazed expressions, have learned too
late one great truth about world
travel, lou cannot vegetate for fifty
years In a small town or city office
and then expect to swallow the whole
world at a gulp.
Another Nature Pake.
The Owl I get my reputation for
wisdom by staying up all night and
hooting at everything; but hanged If
I ever was "drunk or blled."
Looking Ahead.
Bill And do I understand that von
accept money from your wife's father?
Jill Certainly I do! I'm getting to
gether a fund I will need some day
when I'll have to pay my wife ali
mony. Yonkers Statesman.
There has been invented in Spain
a cylindrical barrel for grapes, divid
ed Into four sections, to ventilate the
contents and prevent them from being;
crushed.
Only a linguist can bore you la
more languages than one