Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Lexington wheatfield. (Lexington, Or.) 1905-19?? | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1906)
TH CHAPTER I. The train moved slowly over the sandy mursh which lies between Calais and Bou logne. Roderick was asleep, and Mary's pretty head had fallen against the cushion. As I reclined at greater length on the cu.hions of the stuffy compartment, I thought how strange a company we were then being carried over the dull, drear pasture land of France, to the lights, the music and the life of the great capital. Roderick and I had been at Calus Col legt, Cambridge, together, friends drawn the closer in affection because our condi tions in kith and kin, in possession and in purpose, in ambition and in idleness, were so very like. Roderick was an or phan 24 years of age, young, rich, desir ing to know life, caring for no man, not vital enough to realize danger, a good fellow, a gentleman. His sister was his only care. lie gave to her the strength of an undivided love. For myself, I was 25 when the strange things of Which I am about to write hap pened to me. 5Iy father had left me 50,000, whidh I drew upon when I was a Li 1. .V,nf T all mi M IVTliftt 01 age; uul, Btuitiuc tufc it, I had spent more than 40,000 in four years, and my schooner, the Celsis, with eome few thousand pounds, alone remain ed to me. Of what was my future to be, I knew not. In the senseless purpose of mv life. I said only, "It will come, the irl in mv BiTair3 which taken at the flood should lead on to fortune." And in this supreme folly I lived the days, now in the Mediterranean, now cruising round the coast of England, now flying of a sud den to Paris. A journey fraught with folly, th child of folly, to end in folly, so might it have been said; but who can foretell the supreme moments of our lives, wlhen unknowinely we stand on the . threshold of action? ; And who should ex pect me to foresee that the man who was to touch the spring of my life s action sat before me mocked of me, dubbed the Per fect Bool over whose dead body I was to tread Che paths of danger and the intri cate ways of strange adventure But I would not weary you with more of these facts than are absolutely neces sary for the understanding of this story, surpassing strange. Mary and Roderick slept, while the Perfect Fool and I faced each other, sick to weariness with reflec tions upon the probability of being late t arriving before time. At last he spoke, and, speaking, seemed to be the Perfect Fool no longer. "They're .'both asleep, aren't they?" he asked suddenly. "Would you mind mak ing sure, for I have a favor to ask.'v He was looking at me with a fitful pleading look unlike anything he had shown previously. I assured him at once that he might speak his mind ; that, even if Roderick should overhear us, I would pledge my word for his good faith. "I wanted to, speak to you some days " he said 'earnestly and quickly; as his hands continued to play with a paper. "It must seem curious in your eyes that I, who am quite a stranger to you, should have been In your company for some weeks, and should not have told you more than my name, Martin Hall. As the thing stands, you have been kind enough to . make no Inquiries ; if I am an impostor, .you do not care to know it ; if I am a rascal hunted by the law, you have not t.een willing to help the law ; you do not know if I have money or no money, a home or no home, people or no people, yet 'you have made me shall I say, a friend?" He asked bh question with such a gen tle Inflexion or the voice that I felt a softer chord 'was touched, and in response I shook hands with him. After that he continued to speak. "I am very grateful for all your trust, believe me, for I am a man that has known few friends in life. You have given me your friendship unasked, and ' it is the more prized. What I wanted to say Is this, If I should die before three days have passed, will you open this packet of papers I have prepared and ealed for you, and carry out what Is writ ten there as well as you are able? As for the dangers, they are big enough, but you are the man to overcome them as I hope to overcome them if I live ! The sun fell over the lifeless scene with out as Martin Hall ceased to speak. I had thought the man a fool and witless, flighty in purpose and shallow in thought, and yet be seemed to speak of great mys teries and of death. In one moment the jester's cloak fell from him, and I saw the mail beneath. "Tell me, are you quite certain that you are not talking nonsense?" I asked. "If you are not playing the fool, Hall, you must be more explicit. In the first place, how did you get this absurd notion that you are going to die Into your head? sec ondly, what is the nature of the obligation you wish to put upon me? Why should you, who are going to Paris, as far as I know, simply as a common sightseer, have any reason to fear some mysterious ca lamlty In a city where you don't know a soul?" "Why am I going to Paris without aim, do you ay? Without aim I, who have waited rears for the work I believe that I ball accomplish to-night ! I will tell you. I am going to Paris to meet one who, be fore another year has gone, will oe want ed by erery government in Europe; who, If I do not put my hand upon his throat la th raftst of his foul work, will make man singing and walking at the same time. ! When the noise stopped at last, there was silence, complete and unbroken. Hall stood motionlesw, After that we heard a great yell from the same voice, with the words, "Ahoy, Splinters, shift along the gir, will you?" A mumbled dis cussion seemed to tread on the heels of the hullabaloo, when, apparently having arranged the "gear" to satisfaction, the man stalked to the door, "Hullo the little Jew and his kick shaws ; why, matey, so early in the morn lug?" The exclamation came as he saw us, putting his head round the door, and Showing one arm swathed all up In dirty red flannel. He was no sort of a man to look at. for his head was a mass of graves as thick as pines in the wood there dirty yellow hair, and his face did not kufVu-a ,,, anrwtW month: one who seem to have known an ablution for a E IRON PIRATE A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on ih Sea By MAX PEMBSRT0N is mad and who Is sane, one who, If he knew my purpose, would crush me as I crush this paper ; one who has everything that life can give and seeks more, a man who has set his face against humanity, and who will make war on the nations, who has money and men, who can com mand and be obeyed in ten cities, against wihom the police might as well hope to fight as against the white wall of the South Sea ; a man of purpose so deadly that the wisest in crime would not think of it a man, in short, who Is the product of culminating vice hira I .am going to meet in this Paris where I go without aim without aim, ha !" "And you mean to run him down?" I asked. "What interest have you in him?" "At the moment none ; but in a month the interest of money. As sure as you and I talk of it now, there will be fifty thousand pounds offered for knowledge of him before December comes upon us !" I looked at him as at one who dreams dreams, but he did not flinch. "To-night I shall be with him ; within three days I win all or lose all; for his secret will be mine. If I fall, it is for you to follow up the thread which I have unravelled by three years' hard work. Dare you risk coming with me I meet him at eight o'clock?" "Dare I risk! poor, there can't be much danger." "There is every danger! but, so, the girl is waking!" It was true ; Mary looked up suddenly as we thundered past the fortifications of Paris. Roderick shook himself like a great bear; the Perfect Fool began his banter, and roared for a cab as the lights of the station twinkled in the semi-darkness. I could scarce believe, as I watched his antics, that he was the man who had spoken to me of great mysteries ten min utes before. Still less could I convince myself that he had not many days to live. So are the fateful things ot lite niauen from us. , CHAPTER II, The lights of Paris were very bright as we drove down the Boulevard des Ca puclnes, and drew up at length at the Hotel Scribe, which is by the opera house. Mary uttered a hundred exclamations of joy as we passed through the city of lights; and Roderick, who loved Paris, condescended to keep' awake! "I'll tell you what," he exclaimed, "the beauty of this place is that no one thinks here, except about cooking. Suppose, we plan a nice little dinner for four?" "For two, my dear fellow, If you please," said Hall, with mock of state he was quite the Perfect Fool again. "Mr. Mark Strong condescends to dine with me don't you, Mr. Mark?" "The fact is, Roderick," I explained, "that I made a promise to meet one of Mr; Hall's friends to-night, so "you and Mary must dine alone." Hall and I mounted the stairs of the cozy little hotel, whose windows overlook the core of the great throbbing heart of Paris, and so until we were alone In my room, whither he had followed me. "Quick's the word," he said, as he shut the door, and took several articles from his bat box. "One pair of spectacles, one wig, one set of curiosities to sell do I look like a second-hand dealer In odd lots, Mr. Mark Strong?" I had never seen such an utter change in any man made with such little show, The Perfect Fool was no longer before me ; there was in his place a lounging, shady-looking, greed-haunted Hebrew. The haunching of the shoulders was perfect J the stoop, the walk, were triumphs. "It's five minutes from here," he said, "and the docks are going eight you are right as you are, for you are a cipher in the affair yet." He passed down the stairs and I fol lowed him. So good was his disguise and make-pretense that the others, who were in the narrow hall drew back to let him go, not recognizing him, and spoke to me, asking what I had done with him. Then I pointed to the new Perfect Fool, and without another word of explanation went on Into the street. We walked In silence for some little distance. Finally he turned, crossing a busy thoroughfare and stopped quite sud denly at last in a narrow street. He had something to say to me. "This Is the place," he said. You carry this box of metal" he meant the case of curiosities "and don't open your mouth, Keep a hold on your eyes, whatever you see or whatever you hear. Do I look all right?" "Perfectly but Just a word ; if we are going into some den where we may have a difficulty in getting out again, wouldn't it be as well to go armed?" "Armed! pish!" and he looked un utterahle contempt, treading the passage with long strides, and entering a house at the far end of it. Thither I followed him and found my- self at last on the third floor, before a door of thick oak. Our first knocking upon this had no effect. Then I heard a great rolling voice which seemed to echo on the stairway, end so leapt from flight to flight, almost like the rattle of a can non shot with ks many reverberations. For the moment indistinct, I then be came a war that the voice was that of a week. But there was an ugly jocular look about hU rabblt-llk eyes, and a great mark cut clean into the side of his tacs, which were a At decoration for the red burnt, pitted, and horribly repulsive coun tenance he betrayed. I looked at him and drew back repelled. This he saw, and with a flush and a display of one great stump of a tootJh which protruded on his left lip, he turned, on me. "And who may you be, matey, that you don't go for to shake bands with Roaring John? Dip me in brine, If you was my son I'd dress you down with a two-foot bar. Why dont you teach the little He brew manners, old Josfos ; but there," and this he said as he opened 'the door wider, "so long as our skipper will have to do with shiners to still and land barnacles, what can you look for? walk right along here." The man who called himself "Roaring John" entered the apartment before . us, bawling at the top of his voice, "Josfos, the Jew, and his pardner come aboard I" and then I found myself In the strangest company and the strangest place I have ever set eyes on. So soon as I could see things clearly through the hanging at mosphere of tobacco smoke and heavy vapor, i. made out the forms or sii or eight men, not sitting as men usually do in a place where they est, but squatting on their haunches by a series of low nar row tables, laid round the four sides of the apartment. Each man lolled back on his own pile of dirty pillows and dirtier blankets; each had before him a great metal drinking cup, a coarse knlfo, long rolls of plug tobacco, And a small red bundle, which I doubt not was his portable property. Each, too, was dress ed exactly as his fellow, In a coarse red shirt, seaman's trousers of ample blue serge, a belt, and each had some bauble of a bracelet on his arm, and some strange rings upon his fingers. They were men marked by time as with long service on the sea ; men scarred, burnt, some with traces of great cuts and slashes received on the open face; men fierce-looking as painted demons, with teeth, with none, with four fingers to the hand, with three ; men whose .laugh was a. horrid growl, whose threats chilled the heart to hear, whose very words seemed to poison the air, who made the great room like a cage of beasts, ravenous and ill-seeking. Martin Hall put himself at his ease the moment we entered. He made his way to the top of the room and stood before one who forced from me Individual no tice, so strange-looking was he, and so deep did the respect which all paid him appear to be. He sat at the head of the rude table, but not as the others sat, for there was a pile of rich-looking skins bear, tiger, and white wolf beneath him, end he alone of all the company wore bleck clothes and a white shirt. He was a short man, black-bearded and smooth skinned, with a big nose, almost an In tellectual forehead, small, white-looking hands, all ablaze with diamonds, about whose fine quality there could not be two opinions; and, what was even more re markable, there hung as a pendant to hi watch chain a great uncut ruby which must have been worth five thousand poupds. One trademark of the sea alone did he possess, In the dark, curly ringlets which fell to his shoulders, matted there as long uncombed, but typical In all of the man. This then was the fellow upon whose -every word that company of ruf fians appeared to hang, who obeyed him, as I observed presently, when he did so much as lift his hand the man of whom Martin Hall had painted such a fantastic picture, who was, as I had been told, soon to be wanted by every government In Eu rope. Hall was the first to speak, and It was evident to me that he cloakeo tils own voice, putting on the nasal twang and the manner of an East-end Jew dealer. "I have come, Mr. Black," he said, "as you was good enough to wish, with a few little things beautiful things which cost me moosh money " "Ho, ho!" sang out Captain Black, "here Is a Jew who paid much money for a- few little things ! Look at him, boys ! the Jew with much money ! Turn out his pockets, boys ! the Jew with much money ! Ho, ho !" Ills merriment set all the company roaring to his mood. For a moment their play was far from Innocent, for one light ed a great sheet of paper and burnt It under the nose of my friend. I remem bered Hall's words, and held still, giving banter for banter. In what sort of a company was I, where mere seamen wore diamond rings. Hall gathered up his trin kets and proceeded to lay them out with the well-simulated cuning of the trader. (To be continued.) INTELLECTUAL NEV YORK. More Heading Done There Thau la Any Other City. Boston my claim the palm for Intel lectuality .and real blue-blooded "baked lu the bean" cleverness, but there are few persons who dwell more upon let ters or reud mora lu a lifetime than ttve average New Yorker, ways the New York I'reR. The New Yorker never stops read lng, from the moment he shuts his flat door behind him in the morning until he comes back and shuts It behind him again at night The moment he gets downstairs the bellboy hands him his mall or he takes it out of his own letter box as the case may be. It may not contain a personal letter, but there is never a day that he does not receive from one to three or four advertise ments, booklets, pamphlets or clrculur. Ho always glances over these at least once, and by the time he has finished he has reached the corner and is buying bis morning newspaper. 1 As there Is a newspaper Issued about every hour of the day in New York City and many men try to devour them all the New Yorker spends a good many hours over his pink, yellow or burnt orautfe sheet If he happens to finish one of these while on a street car or elevated train he cannot glance up with out seeing a dozen advertisements along the Hue above the windows waiting to be read. These glare at him so stead fastly and furiously that he cannot fall to read them sooner or later. But 1' one's eyes are tired and he shuts them to the street car ads, or turns them to ward the street, the spell Is still upon him. Signs, big and little ; quick-lunch signs, hotel signs, tailor shop signs; bootblacks, barbers, theaters all have their signs; millions of them, like mi crobes. ' Then there are the names of the streets on the lamp posts as he flashes by. There Is an almost uncontrollable desire to read them as well as the num bers on the automobiles which glare at you and the newsstand signs teeming with vari -colored ads and the billboards and the rubber-neck coaches and the sandwich men. By the time the New Yorker reaches his office and begins to open his mall his eyes and brain are tired ; but he goes on all day long, read ing, reading, reading about baby pow der and fancy preserves and canned soups end health foods and cold cream and hair renewers, etc., and then the Bostonian sneers because we have no time or inclination left for reading mere books. BIG MONEY For you In NEVADA GcPVrd MINES A Few Hundred C. A. STOCKTON, Broker !sV,tli'H1l,"u:.tUd 8 lumber exchange Write Today, PORTLAND, OREGON WANTED In this locality (or elsewhere) a hustler to noli our trees, etc. (Experience not necessary (or success.) Address OREGON NURSERY COMPANY Salem, Orcgen. broken off old rnnts Absolutely without pain. Examin ees Tree. " orK me Best, rnces the Lowest, holiii (told Crown, 14; Brldiie work, $tt.60 per tooth; Cold and Knamel Killing, fl and up; Best Rubber Plates, $7.50 per set; good set, lf. rainless extraction, ouc. Third ana Couch Streets, Portland, Oregon. QUEER WAY OF SMOKING. Waal Indiana Pat Lighted End ot CI war tn Mouth. Visitors to the West Indies and the Spanish main have often noticed the na tive negro carrying a thin, dark object, like a very long cigarette or slender ci gar, In his mouth, and if tawe visitor look lcuig enough they would see smoke Issuing occasionally from between the full, red Hps of a buxom matron or a drled-up granny, says the New York Herald. But even the most observant co,uld see no light on the end of the cl-' gar smoked by the natives of the troj lea. That Is not to be wondered at, how ever, for the reason that it Is the cus tom of the natives in that part of the country to smoke with the lighted end Inside the mouth. That Is curious, of course, but not as remarkatlle as it sounds. Most of the women, who are all great smokers, work very bard. They coal ships, load bananas and do the kind of work usually done by men. When on the docks, where they make hundreds of trips a day from the ship to the coal yard or fruit cars, there Is generally a strong breeze blowing and It would be" almost Impossible to keep a cigar lighted In the teeth of a stiff trade wind. Besides, these hard toll ers, who earn a few pence or a shilling a day, according to the amount of cofifl or fruit they carry, could not afford to take the time to keep their tobacco lighted, so they hit upon the scheme of protecting the light by keeping It in the mouth and thus enjoying a smoke without trouble or loss of time. They have been doing this for so many years that the older ones are experts and never burn their tongues or the inside of their mouths and the younger wom en soon get the hang of it The cigars they smoke are usually made of native tobacco and fashioned very rudely. They are about the size of a lead pencil. Pnaaled. "I don't know whether to be offend ed at Miss Smythers or not!" declared Stax, seriously. "What's the matter?" asked his friend. "About 11 o'clock last night when I was calling on her," he continued, "she said in the sweetest kind of way, 'Mr. Stax, what In the world does that funny word "skldoo" mean?'" Detroit Frte Press. Tho Brase Knocker. An editor looked up from his dog eared copy of "Lorna Doone." "I've read this book about eight times." he said. "What first attracted me to it was a remark of the Arch bishop of Canterbury. In England, some years ago, I saw the archbishop distribute some prize books to school boys. One of the books was 'Lorna Doone,' and as he handed It out the archbishop said : "'I went to school with the writer of this book. As he was a little young- er than me, when he misbehaved used to knock him on the head with a brass hammer.' "Washington Star, The act of forgiving doesn't always take away the power of memory. Importsnt to Timber Owners We are purchasltifc agents for lame timber buyers from all parts of the country. These men are investing- in Oreao" nl Washington timber lands. It will pay you to write us Immediately, Klring legal description! and net prices on your timber lands In these states. Address Timber Department, Northwestern Guarantee & Trust Co. Lumhsr Exchange Ml Second Floor S. 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Morrison Mention paper Portland, Oregon W. L. DOUGLAS 3.50 &'3.00 Shoes BEST IN THE WORLD W.LDouglas $4 Gill Edge line . cannolDeequalleaatanypri To Shoe Draltrn W. L. Douglas' Job. blng House Is the most complete In this country Sendor Catalog SHOES FOB EVEBYBODY AT ALL IBICES. Men's Shoes, fc.S to $1.60. Boys' Shoes, $3 to $1.26, Women's Shoes, $4.00 to $1.60, Missus' at Children's Shoes, $2.20 to (1.00. Try VT. L, Douglas Women's, Misses and Children's shoes; for style, fit and wear they excel other makes. If I could take you Into my large factories at Brockton, Mass., and show you how carefully VV.L. Douglas shoes are made, you would then understand why they hold their shape, fit better, wear longer, and are of greater value than any other make. Wherever you live, you cad obtain W. L. Douglas shoes. His name and price Is stamped on the bottom, which protects you against high prices and Inferior shoes. Takm no tubitlt tute. Aok yourdealer for W. L. Douglas shoes and Insist upon having them. Fast Color Eyelets used; they will not wear brassy. Write for Illustrated Catalog of Pall Styles. W. L. DOUtiLAS, Dept. U, Brockton, Mase. CLASSIF1EDADVERTISING Portland Trade Directory Names and Addresses In Portland of Repre tentative Business Firms. IKK AM tsKPAH A TORS We (tuarant.ee ths U.ti, Separator to be the best. Writs lor tree catalog, iluiel wood Co.. Fllib and Oalc. P. N. U. No. 50-08 WHEN writing to advertisers please mention this paper.