Active Service......................................................................................................................................................1

Stephen Crane..........................................................................................................................................1

MARJORY walked pensively along the hall. In the cool shadows made by the palms on the window ledge,

her face wore the expression of thoughtful melancholy expected on the faces of the devotees who pace in

cloistered gloom. She halted before a door at the end of the hall and laid her hand on the knob. She stood

hesitating, her head bowed. It was evident that this mission was to require great fortitude.

At last she opened the door. " Father," she began at once. There was disclosed an elderly, narrowfaced man

seated at a large table and surrounded by manuscripts and books. The sunlight flowing through curtains of

Turkey red fell sanguinely upon the bust of deadeyed Pericles on the mantle. A little clock was ticking,

hidden somewhere among the countless leaves of writing, the maps and broad heavy tomes that swarmed

Go away! " he cried in a rage. " Go away. Go away. Get out " " He seemed on the point of arising to eject the

visitor. It was plain to her that he had been interrupted in the writing of one of his sentences, ponderous,

solemn and endless, in which wandered multitudes of homeless and friendless prepositions, adjectives

looking for a parent, and quarrelling nouns, sentences which no longer symbolised the languageform of

thought but which had about them a quaint aroma from the dens of longdead scholars. " Get out," snarled

Father," faltered the girl. Either because his formulated thought was now completely knocked out of his mind

by his own emphasis in defending it, or because he detected something of portent in her expression, his

manner suddenly changed, and with a petulant glance at his writing he laid down his pen and sank back in his

The girl took a chair near the window and gazed out upon the snowstricken campus, where at the moment a

group of students returning from a class room were festively hurling snowballs. " I've got something

important to tell you, father," said she, but i don't quite know how to say it."

"Something important ? " repeated the professor. He was not habitually interested in the affairs of his family,

but this proclamation that something important could be connected with them, filled his mind with a

The girl glanced furtively at him. She did not seem to be able to frame a suitable sentence.

As for the professor, he had, like all men both thoughtless and thoughtful, told himself that one day his

daughter would come to him with a tale of this kind. He had never forgotten that the little girl was to be a

woman, and he had never forgotten that this tall, lithe creature, the present Marjory, was a woman. He had

been entranced and confident or entranced and apprehensive according' to the time. A man focussed upon

astronomy, the pig market or social progression, may nevertheless have a secondary mind which hovers like a

spirit over his dahlia tubers and dreams upon the mystery of their slow and tender revelations. The professor's

secondary mind had dwelt always with his daughter and watched with a faith and delight the changing to a

woman of a certain fat and mumbling babe. However, he now saw this machine, this self sustaining,

selfoperative love, which had run with the ease of a clock, suddenly crumble to ashes and leave the mind of

a great scholar staring at a calamity. " Rufus Coleman," he repeated, stunned. Here was his daughter, very

obviously desirous of marrying Rufus Coleman. " Marjory," he cried in amazement and fear, "what

The girl seemed to feel a strong sense of relief at his prompt recognition of a fact. Being freed from the

necessity of making a flat declaration, she simply hung her head and blushed impressively. A hush fell upon

them. The professor stared long at his daugh. ter. The shadow of unhappiness deepened upon his face. "

Marjory, Marjory," he murmured at last. He had tramped heroically upon his panic and devoted his strength

to bringing thought into some kind of attitude toward this terrible fact. " I amI am surprised," he began.

Fixing her then with a stern eye, he asked: "Why do you wish to marry this man? You, with your

opportunities of meeting persons of intelligence. And you want to marry" His voice grew tragic. "You want

"Wait a moment; don't talk," cried the professor. He arose and walked nervously to and fro, his hands flying

in the air. He was very red behind the ears as when in the Classroom some student offended him. " A

gambler, a sporter of fine clothes, an expert on champagne, a polite loafer, a witness knave who edits the

Sunday edition of a great outrage upon our sensibilities. You want to marry him, this man? Marjory, you are

insane. This fraud who asserts that his work is intelligent, this fool comes here to my house and"

He became aware that his daughter was regarding him coldly. "I thought we had best have all this part of it

He confronted her in a new kind of surprise. The little keen eyed professor was at this time imperial, on the

verge of a majestic outburst. " Be still," he said. "Don't be clever with your father. Don't be a dodger. Or, if

you are, don't speak of it to me. I suppose this fine young man expects to see me personally ? "

" He was coming tomorrow," replied Marjory. She began to weep. " He was coming tomorrow."

" Um," said the professor. He continued his pacing while Marjory wept with her head bowed to the arm of the

chair. His brow made the three dark vertical crevices well known to his students. Some. times he glowered

murderously at the photographs of ancient temples which adorned the walls. "My poor child," he said once,

as he paused near her, " to think I never knew you were a fool. I have been deluding myself. It has been my

The girl raised her face and looked at him. Finally, resolved to disregard the dishevelment wrought by tears,

she presented a desperate front with her wet eyes and flushed cheeks. Her hair was disarrayed. "I don't see

why you can call me a fool," she said. The pause before this sentence had been so portentous of a wild and

rebellious speech that the professor almost laughed now. But still the father for the first time knew that he

was being undauntedly faced by his child in his own library, in the presence Of 372 pages of the book that

was to be his masterpiece. At the back of his mind he felt a great awe as if his own youthful spirit had come

from the past and challenged him with a glance. For a moment he was almost a defeated man. He dropped

"Yes," replied the girl. "She knows. She has been trying to make me give up Rufus."

"But please don't call him so before me," said the father with icy dignity. " I do not recognise him as being

named Rufus. That is a contention of yours which does not arouse my interest. I know him very well as a

gambler and a drunkard, and if incidentally, he is named Rufus, I fail to see any importance to it."

" Um. He drinks heavilythat is well known. He gambles. He plays cards for moneymore than he

" So I did. So I did," answered the professor sharply. " I often find myself liking that kind of a boy in college.

Don't I know themthose lads with their beer and their poker games in the dead of the night with a towel

hung over the keyhole. Their habits are often vicious enough, but something remains in them through it all

and they may go away and do great things. This happens. We know it. It happens with confusing insistence. It

destroys theo ries. Therethere isn't much to say about it. And sometimes we like this kind of a boy better

than we do thethe others. For my part I know of many a pure, pious and fine minded student that I have

positively loathed from a personal pointofview. But," he added, " this Rufus Coleman, his life in college

and his life since, go to prove how often we get off the track. There is no gauge of collegiate conduct

whatever, until we can get evidence of the man's work in the world. Your precious scoundrel's evidence is

"I would be if they all wanted to marry my daughter," rejoined the professor. " Rather than let that man make

love to youor even be within a short railway journey of you, I'll cart you off to Europe this winter and keep

you there until you forget. If you persist in this silly fancy, I shall at once become medieval."

Marjory had evidently recovered much of her composure. "Yes, father, new climates are alway's supposed to

" It isn't so much the old expedient," said the professor musingly, "as it is that I would be afraid to leave you

" Father, I have to ask you not to use such terms in speaking of the man that I shall marry."

There was a silence. To all intents, the professor remained unmoved. He smote the tips of his fingers

thoughtfully together. " Yees," he observed. "That sounds reasonable from your standpoint." His eyes

studied her face in a long and steady glance. He arose and went into the hall. When he returned he wore his

hat and great coat. He took a book and some papers from the table and went away.

Marjory walked slowly through the halls and up to her room. From a window she could see her father making

his way across the campus labouriously against the wind and whirling snow. She watched it, this little black

figure, bent forward, patient, steadfast. It was an inferior fact that her father was one of the famous scholars

of the generation. To her, he was now a little old man facing the wintry winds. Recollect. ing herself and

Rufus Coleman she began to weep again, wailing amid the ruins of her tumbled hopes. Her skies had turned

to paper and her trees were mere bits of green sponge. But amid all this woe appeared the little black image

IN a highwalled corrider of one of the college buildings, a crowd of students waited amid jostlings and a

loud buzz of talk. Suddenly a huge pair of doors flew open and a wedge of young men inserted itself

boisterously and deeply into the throng. There was a great scuffle attended by a general banging of books

upon heads. The two lower classes engaged in herculean play while members of the two higher classes,

standing aloof, devoted themselves strictly to the encouragement of whichever party for a moment lost

The combat, waged in the desperation of proudest youth, waxed hot and hotter. The wedge had been instantly

smitten into a kind of block of men. It had crumpled into an irregular square and on three sides it was now

It was a matter of wall meet wall in terrific rushes, during which lads could feel their very hearts leaving them

in the compress of friends and foes. They on the outskirts upheld the honour of their classes by squeezing into

paper thickness the lungs of those of their fellows who formed the centre of the melee

The first lancelike attack of the Sophomores had been formidable, but the Freshmen outnumbering their

enemies and smarting from continual Sophomoric oppression, had swarmed to the front like drilled

collegians and given the arrogant foe the first serious check of the year. Therefore the tall Gothic windows

which lined one side of the corridor looked down upon as incomprehensible and enjoyable a tumult as could

mark the steps of advanced education. The Seniors and juniors cheered themselves ill. Long freed from the

joy of such meetings, their only means for this kind of recreation was to involve the lower classes, and they

had never seen the victims fall to with such vigour and courage. Bits of printed leaves, torn notebooks,

dismantled collars and cravats, all floated to the floor beneath the feet of the warring hordes. There were no

blows; it was a battle of pressure. It was a deadly pushing where the leaders on either side often suffered the

most cruel and sickening agony caught thus between phalanxes of shoulders with friend as well as foe

Charge after charge of Freshmen beat upon the now compact and organised Sophomores. Then, finally, the

rock began to give slow way. A roar came from the Freshmen and they hurled themselves in a frenzy upon

To be under the gaze of the juniors and Seniors is to be in sight of all men, and so the Sophomores at this

important moment laboured with the desperation of the half doomed to stem the terrible Freshmen.

In the kind of game, it was the time when bad tempers came strongly to the front, and in many Sophomores'

minds a thought arose of the incomparable insolence of the Freshmen. A blow was struck; an infuriated

Although it had seemed that no greater noise could be made by the given numbers, the din that succeeded this

manifestation surpassed everything. The juniors and Seniors immediately set up an angry howl. These

veteran classes projected themselves into the middle of the fight, buffeting everybody with small thought as

to merit. This method of bringing peace was as militant as a landslide, but they had much trouble before they

could separate the central clump of antagonists into its parts. A score of Freshmen had cried out: "It was

Coke. Coke punched him. Coke." A dozen of them were tempestuously endeavouring to register their protest

The upper classmen were swift, harsh and hard. "Come, now, Freshies, quit it. Get back, get back, d'y'hear?"

With a wrench of muscles they forced themselves in front of Coke, who was being blindly defended by his

These meetings between the lower classes at the door of a recitation room were accounted quite comfortable

and idle affairs, and a blow delivered openly and in hatred fractured a sharply defined rule of conduct. The

corridor was in a hubbub. Many Seniors and Juniors, bursting from old and iron discipline, wildly clamoured

that some Freshman should be given the privilege of a single encounter with Coke. The Freshmen themselves

were frantic. They besieged the tight and dauntless circle of men that encompassed Coke. None dared

confront the Seniors openly, but by headlong rushes at auspicious moments they tried to come to quarters

with the rings of darkbrowed Sophomores. It was no longer a festival, a game; it was a riot. Coke,

wildeyed, pallid with fury, a ribbon of blood on his chin, swayed in the middle of the mob of his classmates,

comrades who waived the ethics of the blow under the circumstance of being obliged as a corps to stand

against the scorn of the whole college, as well as against the tremendous assaults of the Freshmen. Shamed

by their own man, but knowing full well the right time and the wrong time for a palaver of regret and

disavowal, this battalion struggled in the desperation of despair. Once they were upon the verge of making

unholy campaign against the interfering Seniors. This fiery impertinence was the measure of their state.

It was a critical moment in the play of the college. Four or five defeats from the Sophomores during the fall

had taught the Freshmen much. They had learned the comparative measurements, and they knew now that

their prowess was ripe to enable them to amply revenge what was, according to their standards, an execrable

deed by a man who had not the virtue to play the rough game, but was obliged to resort to uncommon

methods. In short, the Freshmen were almost out of control, and the Sophomores debased but defiant, were

quite out of control. The Senior and junior classes which, in American colleges dictate in these affrays, found

their dignity toppling, and in consequence there was a sudden oncome of the entire force of upper classmen

football players naturally in advance. All distinctions were dissolved at once in a general fracas. The stiff and

Suddenly a voice rang brazenly through the tumult. It was not loud, but it was different. " Gentlemen!

Gentlemen!'" Instantly there was a remarkable number of haltings, abrupt replacements, quick changes. Prof.

Wainwright stood at the door of his recitation room, looking into the eyes of each member of the mob of

three hundred. "Ssh! " said the mob. " Ssh! Quit! Stop! It's the Embassador! Stop!" He had once been

minister to AustroHungary, and forever now to the students of the college his name was Embassador. He

stepped into the corridor, and they cleared for him a little respectful zone of floor. He looked about him

coldly. " It seems quite a general dishevelment. The Sophomores display an energy in the halls which I do not

detect in the class room." A feeble murmur of appreciation arose from the outskirts of the throng. While he

had been speaking several remote groups of battling men had been violently signaled and suppressed by other

students. The professor gazed into terraces of faces that were still inflamed. " I needn't say that I am

surprised," he remarked in the accepted rhetoric of his kind. He added musingly: " There seems to be a great

The throng moved restlessly. A manful silence, such as might be in the tombs of stern and honourable

knights, fell upon the shadowed corridor. The subdued rustling had fainted to nothing. Then out of the crowd

" Oh, Mr. Coke," said the professor, "I would be glad if you would tell the gentlemen they may retire to their

The professor returned to his room for some books, and then began his own march across the snowy campus.

The wind twisted his coattails fantastically, and he was obliged to keep one hand firmly on the top of his

hat. When he arrived home he met his wife in the hall. " Look here, Mary," he cried. She followed him into

the library. " Look here," he said. "What is this all about? Marjory tells me she wants to marry Rufus

Mrs. Wainwright was a fat woman who was said to pride herself upon being very wise and if necessary, sly.

In addition she laughed continually in an inexplicably personal way, which apparently made everybody who

The professor straightened in his chair. " I do not see any illumination in those remarks, Mary. I understand

from Marjory's manner that she is bent upon marrying Rufus Coleman. She said you knew of it."

There was nothing in her tone which proved that she admired the event itself. She was evidently carried away

The professor looked at her affectionately. "You knew it all along, then, Mary? Why didn't you tell me, dear ?

The professor was glaring. Finally he spoke in tones of grim reproach. "Mary, whenever you happen to know

anything, dear, it seems only a matter of partial recompense that you should tell me."

The wife had been taught in a terrible school that she should never invent any inexpensive retorts concerning

bookworms and so she yawed at once. "Really, Harris. Really, I didn't suppose the affair was serious. You

could have knocked me down with a feather. Of course he has been here very often, but then Marjory gets a

great deal of attention. A great deal of attention." The professor had been thinking. " Rather than let my girl

marry that scalawag, I'll take you and her to Greece this winter with the class. Separation. It is a sure cure that

"Well," said Mrs. Wainwright, "you know best, Harris. You know best." It was a common remark with her,

and it probably meant either approbation or disapprobation if it did not mean simple discretion.

THERE had been a babe with no arms born in one of the western counties of Massachusetts. In place of

upper limbs the child had growing from its chest a pair of finlike hands, mere bits of skincovered bone.

Furthermore, it had only one eye. This phenomenon lived four days, but the news of the birth had travelled up

this country road and through that village until it reached the ears of the editor of the Michaelstown Tribune.

He was also a correspondent of the New York Eclipse. On the third day he appeared at the home of the

parents accompanied by a photographer. While the latter arranged his, instrument, the correspondent talked to

the father and mother, two coweyed and yellowfaced people who seemed to suffer a primitive fright of the

strangers. Afterwards as the correspondent and the photographer were climbing into their buggy, the mother

crept furtively down to the gate and asked, in a foreigner's dialect, if they would send her a copy of the

photograph. The correspondent carelessly indulgent, promised it. As the buggy swung away, the father came

from behind an apple tree, and the two semihumans watched it with its burden of glorious strangers until it

rumbled across the bridge and disappeared. The correspondent was elate; he told the photographer that the

The office of the New York Eclipse was at the top of the immense building on Broadway. It was a sheer

mountain to the heights of which the interminable thunder of the streets arose faintly. The Hudson was a

broad path of silver in the distance. Its edge was marked by the tracery of sailing ships' rigging and by the

huge and manycoloured stacks of ocean liners. At the foot of the cliff lay City Hall Park. It seemed no larger

than a quilt. The grey walks patterned the snowcovering into triangles and ovals and upon them many tiny

people scurried here and there, without sound, like a fish at the bottom of a pool. It was only the vehicles that

sent high, unmistakable, the deep bass of their movement. And yet after listening one seemed to hear a

singular murmurous note, a pulsation, as if the crowd made noise by its mere living, a mellow hum of the

eternal strife. Then suddenly out of the deeps might ring a human voice, a newsboy shout perhaps, the cry of

From the level of the ordinary roofs, combined in many plateaus, dotted with short iron chimneys from which

curled wisps of steam, arose other mountains like the Eclipse Building. They were great peaks, ornate,

From some of the windows of the Eclipse office dropped the walls of a terrible chasm in the darkness of

which could be seen vague struggling figures. Looking down into this appalling crevice one discovered only

the tops of hats and knees which in spasmodic jerks seemed to touch the rims of the hats. The scene

represented some weird fight or dance or carouse. It was not an exhibition of men hurrying along a narrow

It was good to turn one's eyes from that place to the vista of the city's splendid reaches, with spire and spar

shining in the clear atmosphere and the marvel of the Jersey shore, pearl misted or brilliant with detail.

From this height the sweep of a snowstorm was defined and majestic. Even a slight summer shower, with

swords of lurid yellow sunlight piercing its edges as if warriors were contesting every foot of its advance, was

from the Eclipse office something so inspiring that the chance pilgrim felt a sense of exultation as if from this

peak he was surveying the worldwide war of the elements and life. The staff of the Eclipse usually worked

To one of the editorial chambers came a photograph and an article from Michaelstown, Massachusetts. A boy

placed the packet and many others upon the desk of a young man who was standing before a window and

thoughtfully drumming upon the pane. He turned at the thudding of the packets upon his desk. " Blast you,"

he remarked amiably. " Oh, I guess it won't hurt you to work," answered the boy, grinning with a comrade's

Insolence. Baker, an assistant editor for the Sunday paper, took scat at his desk and began the task of

examining the packets. His face could not display any particular interest because he had been at the same

The first long envelope he opened was from a woman. There was a neat little manuscript accompanied by a

letter which explained that the writer was a widow who was trying to make her living by her pen and who,

further, hoped that the generosity of the editor of the Eclipse would lead him to give her article the

opportunity which she was sure it deserved. She hoped that the editor would pay her as well as possible for it,

as she needed the money greatly. She added that her brother was a reporter on the Little Rock Sentinel and he

had declared that her literary style was excellent. Baker really did not read this note. His vast experience of a

fortnight had enabled him to detect its kind in two glances. He unfolded the manuscript, looked at it

woodenly and then tossed it with the letter to the top of his desk, where it lay with the other corpses. None

could think of widows in Arkansas, ambitious from the praise of the reporter on the Little Rock Sentinel,

waiting for a crown of literary glory and money. In the next envelope a man using the notepaper of a Boston

journal begged to know if the accompanying article would be acceptable; if not it was to be kindly returned in

the enclosed stamped envelope. It was a humourous essay on trolley cars. Adventuring through the odd

scraps that were come to the great mill, Baker paused occasionally to relight his pipe.

As he went through envelope after envelope, the desks about him gradually were occupied by young men

who entered from the hall with their faces still red from the cold of the streets. For the most part they bore the

unmistakable stamp of the American college. They had that confident poise which is easily brought from the

athletic field. Moreover, their clothes were quite in the way of being of the newest fashion. There was an air

of precision about their cravats and linen. But on the other hand there might be with them some indifferent

westerner who was obliged to resort to irregular means and harangue startled shopkeepers in order to

provide himself with collars of a strange kind. He was usually very quick and brave of eye and noted for his

inability to perceive a distinction between his own habit and the habit of others, his western character

The men, coming one and one, or two and two, flung badinage to all corners of the room. Afterward, as they

wheeled from time to time in their chairs, they bitterly insulted each other with the utmost goodnature,

taking unerring aim at faults and riddling personalities with the quaint and cynical humour of a newspaper

office. Throughout this banter, it was strange to note how infrequently the men smiled, particularly when

A wide door opened into another apartment where were many little slanted tables, each under an electric

globe with a green shade. Here a curlyheaded scoundrel with a corncob pipe was hurling paper balls the size

of apples at the head of an industrious man who, under these difficulties, was trying to draw a picture of an

awful wreck with ghastlyfaced sailors frozen in the rigging. Near this pair a lady was challenging a German

artist who resembled Napoleon III. with having been publicly drunk at a music hall on the previous night.

Next to the great gloomy corridor of this sixteenth floor was a little office presided over by an austere boy,

and here waited in enforced patience a little dismal band of people who wanted to see the Sunday editor.

Baker took a manuscript and after glancing about the room, walked over to a man at another desk, Here is

something that. I think might do," he said. The man at the desk read the first two pages. " But where is the

" Oh, I forgot," said Baker. He brought from his desk a photograph of the babe that had been born lacking

arms and one eye. Baker's superior braced a knee against his desk and settled back to a judicial attitude. He

took the photograph and looked at it impassively. " Yes," he said, after a time, " that's a pretty good thing.

In the little office where the dismal band waited, there had been a sharp hopeful stir when Rufus Coleman,

the Sunday editor, passed rapidly from door to door and vanished within the holy precincts. It had evidently

been in the minds of some to accost him then, but his eyes did not turn once in their direction. It was as if he

had not seen them. Many experiences had taught him that the proper manner of passing through this office

The dismal band turned then upon the austere office boy. Some demanded with terrible dignity that he should

take in their cards at once. Others sought to ingratiate themselves by smiles of tender friendliness. He for his

part employed what we would have called his knowledge of men and women upon the group, and in

consequence blundered and bungled vividly, freezing with a glance an annoyed and importunate Arctic

explorer who was come to talk of illustrations for an article that had been lavishly paid for in advance. The

hero might have thought he was again in the northern seas. At the next moment the boy was treating almost

courteously a German from the cast side who wanted the Eclipse to print a grand full page advertising

description of his invention, a gun which was supposed to have a range of forty miles and to be able to

penetrate anything with equanimity and joy. The gun, as a matter of fact, had once been induced to go off

when it had hurled itself passionately upon its back, incidentally breaking its inventor's leg. The projectile

had wandered some four hundred yards seaward, where it dug a hole in the water which was really a menace

to navigation. Since then there had been nothing tangible save the inventor, in splints and out of splints, as the

fortunes of science decreed. In short, this office boy mixed his business in the perfect manner of an

underdone lad dealing with matters too large for him, and throughout he displayed the pride and assurance of

As Coleman crossed the large office his face still wore the stern expression which he invariably used to carry

him unmolested through the ranks of the dismal band. As he was removing his London overcoat he addressed

the imperturbable back of one of his staff, who had a desk against the opposite wall. " Has Hasskins sent in

that drawing of the mine accident yet? " The man did not lift his head from his work, but he answered at

once: " No; not yet." Coleman was laying his hat on a chair. " Well, why hasn't he ? " he demanded. He

glanced toward the door of the room in which the curlyheaded scoundrel with the corncob pipe was still

hurling paper balls at the man who was trying to invent the postures of dead mariners frozen in the rigging.

The office boy came timidly from his post and informed Coleman of the waiting people. " All right," said the

editor. He dropped into his chair and began to finger his letters, which had been neatly opened and placed in a

It was publicly believed that the Sunday staff of the Eclipse must have a kind of aesthetic delight in pictures

of this kind, but Coleman's face betrayed no emotion as he looked at this specimen. He lit a fresh cigar, tilted

his chair and surveyed it with a cold and stony stare. " Yes, that's all right," he said slowly. There seemed to

be no affectionate relation between him and this picture. Evidently he was weighing its value as a morsel to

be flung to a ravenous public, whose wolflike appetite, could only satisfy itself upon mental entrails,

abominations. As for himself, he seemed to be remote, exterior. It was a matter of the Eclipse business.

Suddenly Coleman became executive. " Better give it to Schooner and tell him to make a halfpageor,

no, send him in here and I'll tell him my idea. How's the article? Any good? Well, give it to Smith to rewrite."

An artist came from the other room and presented for inspection his drawing of the seamen dead in the

rigging of the wreck, a company of grizzly and horrible figures, bonyfingered, shrunken and with awful

eyes. " Hum," said Coleman, after a prolonged study, " that's all right. That's good, Jimmie. But you'd better

work 'em up around the eyes a little more." The office boy was deploying in the distance, waiting for the

The artist was cheerfully taking away his corpses when Coleman hailed him. " Oh, Jim, let me see that thing

How am I going to change it?" said the other, glowering at Coleman. " That's the way it ought to be. How am

" No, it isn't at all," said Coleman. "You've got a spar sticking out of the main body of the drawing in a way

The artist was a man of remarkable popular reputation and he was very stubborn and conceited of it,

constantly making himself unbearable with covert, threats that if he was not delicately placated at all points,

" That's the way it ought to be," he repeated, in a tone at once sullen and superior. "The spar is all right. I can't

" And I can't give up the whole paper to your accursed spars, either," said Coleman, with animation. " Don't

you see you use about a third of a page with this spar sticking off into space? Now, you were always so

clever, Jimmie, in adapting yourself to the page. Can't you shorten it, or cut it off, or something? Or, break

" Yes, I s'pose I could do that," said the artist, mollified by a thought of the ease with which he could make

the change, and mollified, too, by the brazen tribute to a part of his cleverness.

" Well, do it, then," said the Sunday editor, turning abruptly away. The artist, with head high, walked

majestically back to the other room. Whereat the curlyheaded one immediately resumed the rain of paper

balls upon him. The office boy came timidly to Coleman and suggested the presence of the people in the

outer office. " Let them wait until I read my mail," said Coleman. He shuffled the pack of letters indifferently

through his hands. Suddenly he came upon a little grey envelope. He opened it at once and scanned its

contents with the speed of his craft. Afterward he laid it down before him on the desk and surveyed it with a

He presently swung around in his chair, and for a time held the entire attention of the men at the various

desks. He outlined to them again their various parts in the composition of the next great Sunday edition. In a

few brisk sentences he set a complex machine in proper motion. His men no longer thrilled with admiration at

the precision with which he grasped each obligation of the campaign toward a successful edition. They had

grown to accept it as they accepted his hat or his London clothes. At this time his face was lit with something

of the selfcontained enthusiasm of a general. Immediately afterward he arose and reached for his coat and

The office boy, coming circuitously forward, presented him with some cards and also with a scrap of paper

upon which was scrawled a long and semicoherent word. " What are these ? " grumbled Coleman.

"They are waiting outside," answered the boy, with trepidation. It was part of the law that the lion of the

anteroom should cringe like a cold monkey, more or less, as soon as he was out of his private jungle. "Oh,

Tallerman," cried the Sunday editor, "here's this Arctic man come to arrange about his illustration. I wish

you'd go and talk it over with him." By chance he picked up the scrap of paper with its cryptic word. " Oh,"

he said, scowling at the office boy. "Pity you can't remember that fellow. If you can't remember faces any

better than that you should be a detective. Get out now and tell him to go to the devil." The wilted slave

turned at once, but Coleman hailed him. " Hold on. Come to think of it, I will see this idiot. Send him in," he

Coleman lapsed into a dream over the sheet of grey note paper. Presently, a middleaged man, a palpable

German, came hesitatingly into the room and bunted among the desks as unmanageably as a tempesttossed

scow. Finally he was impatiently towed in the right direction. He came and stood at Coleman's elbow and

waited nervously for the engrossed man to raise his eyes. It was plain that this interview meant important

things to him. Somehow on his commonplace countenance was to be found the expression of a dreamer, a

fashioner of great and absurd projects, a fine, tender fool. He cast hopeful and reverent glances at the man

who was deeply contemplative of the grey note. He evidently believed himself on the threshold of a triumph

of some kind, and he awaited his fruition with a joy that was only made sharper by the usual human suspicion

" Oh, it's you, is it ? " he remarked icily, bending upon the German the stare of a tyrant. "So you've come

again, have you? " He wheeled in his chair until he could fully display a contemptuous, merciless smile.

"Now, Mr. What'syourname, you've called here to see me about twenty times already and at last I am

going to say something definite about your invention." His listener's face, which had worn for a moment a

look of fright and bewilderment, gladdened swiftly to a gratitude that seemed the edge of an outburst of tears.

" Yes," continued Coleman, " I am going to say something definite. I am going to say that it is the most

imbecile bit of nonsense that has come within the range of my large newspaper experience. It is simply the

aberration of a rather remarkable lunatic. It is no good; it is not worth the price of a cheese sandwich. I

understand that its one feat has been to break your leg; if it ever goes off again, persuade it to break your

neck. And now I want you to take this nursery rhyme of yours and get out. And don't ever come here again.

Do You understand ? You understand, do you ?" He arose and bowed in courteous dismissal.

The German was regarding him with the surprise and horror of a youth shot mortally. He could not find his

tongue for a moment. Ultimately he gasped : "But, Mister Editor "Coleman interrupted him tigerishly. "

You heard what I said? Get out." The man bowed his head and went slowly toward the door.

Coleman placed the little grey note in his breast pocket. He took his hat and top coat, and evading the dismal

band by a shameless manoeuvre, passed through the halls to the entrance to the elevator shaft. He heard a

movement behind him and saw that the German was also waiting for the elevator. Standing in the gloom of

the corridor, Coleman felt the mournful owlish eyes of the German resting upon him. He took a case from his

pocket and elaborately lit a cigarette. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a cage of bronze, gilt and steel

dropped, magically from above. Coleman yelled: " Down!" A door flew open. Coleman, followed by the

German, stepped upon the elevator. " Well, Johnnie," he said cheerfully to the lad who operated this machine,

"is business good?" "Yes, sir, pretty good," answered the boy, grinning. The little cage sank swiftly; floor

after floor seemed to be rising with marvellous speed; the whole building was winging straight into the sky.

There were soaring lights, figures and the opalescent glow of ground glass doors marked with black

inscriptions. Other lifts were springing heavenward. All the lofty corridors rang with cries. " Up! " Down! " "

Down! " " Up! " The boy's hand grasped a lever and his machine obeyed his lightest movement with

Coleman discoursed briskly to the youthful attendant. Once he turned and regarded with a quick stare of

insolent annoyance the despairing countenance of the German whose eyes had never left him. When the

elevator arrived at the ground floor, Coleman departed with the outraged air of a man who for a time had

He walked quickly away. Opposite a corner of the City Hall he was impelled to look behind him. Through the

hordes of people with cable cars marching like panoplied elephants, he was able to distinguish the German,

motionless and gazing after him. Coleman laughed. " That's a comic old boy," he said, to himself.

In the grillroom of a Broadway hotel he was obliged to wait some minutes for the fulfillment of his orders

and he spent the time in reading and studying the little grey note. When his luncheon was served he ate with

MARJORY paused again at her father's door. After hesitating in the original way she entered the library. Her

father almost represented an emblematic figure, seated upon a column of books. " Well," he cried. Then,

seeing it was Marjory, he changed his tone. " Ah, under the circumstances, my dear, I admit your privilege of

interrupting me at any hour of the day. You have important business with me." His manner was satanically

The girl fingered a book. She turned the leaves in absolute semblance of a person reading. "Rufus Coleman

The professor was silent for a time. " Well, Marjory," he said at last, "what do you want me to say?" He

spoke very deliberately. " I am sure this is a singular situation. Here appears the man I formally forbid you to

"You wish to see him?" enquired the professor. "You wish to see him " Marjory, I may as well tell you now

that with all the books and plays I've read, I really don't know how the obdurate father should conduct

himself. He is always pictured as an exceedingly dense gentleman with white whiskers, who does all the

unintelligent things in the plot. You and I are going to play no drama, are we, Marjory? I admit that I have

white whiskers, and I am an obdurate father. I am, as you well may say, a very obdurate father. You are not to

marry Rufus Coleman. You understand the rest of the matter. He is here ; you want to see him. What will you

" I will say that you refuse to let me marry him, father and" She hesitated a moment before she lifted her

eyes fully and formidably to her father's face. " And that I shall marry him anyhow."

The professor did not cavort when this statement came from his daughter. He nodded and then passed into a

The girl made a sad gesture. "I don't know. I don't know. Perhaps when you come to know Rufus better"

" Know him better. Know that rapscallion better? Why, I know him much better than he knows himself. I

know him too well. Do you think I am talking offhand about this affair? Do you think I am talking without

"Well," said the professor, "you may see Coleman on condition that you inform him at once that I forbid your

marriage to him. I don't understand at all how to manage these situations. I don't know what to do. I suppose I

Still the girl made no reply. Her head sank forward and she breathed a trifle heavily. "Marjory," cried the

professor, it is impossible that you should think so much of this man." He arose and went to his daughter. "

Marjory, many wise children have been guided by foolish fathers, but we both suspect that no foolish child

has ever been guided by a wise father. Let us change it. I present myself to you as a wise father. Follow my

wishes in this affair and you will be at least happier than if you marry this wretched Coleman."

The professor turned abruptly from her and dropped into his chair at the table. He resumed a grip on his pen.

" Go," he said, wearily. " Go. But if you have a remnant of sense, remember what I have said to you. Go." He

waved his hand in a dismissal that was slightly scornful. " I hoped you would have a minor conception of

what you were doing. It seems a pity." Drooping in tears, the girl slowly left the room.

Coleman had an idea that he had occupied the chair for several months. He gazed about at the pictures and

the odds and ends of a drawingroom in an attempt to take an interest in them. The great garlanded paper

shade over the piano lamp consoled his impatience in a mild degree because he knew that Marjory had made

it. He noted the clusters of cloth violets which she had pinned upon the yellow paper and he dreamed over the

fact. He was able to endow this shade with certain qualities of sentiment that caused his stare to become

almost a part of an intimacy, a communion. He looked as if he could have unburdened his soul to this shade

Upon the appearance of Marjory he sprang up and came forward rapidly. " Dearest," he murmured, stretching

out both hands. She gave him one set of fingers with chilling convention. She said something which he

understood to be " Goodafternoon." He started as if the woman before him had suddenly drawn a knife. "

Marjory," he cried, "what is the matter?." They walked together toward a window. The girl looked at him in

polite enquiry. " Why? " she said. " Do I seem strange ? " There was a moment's silence while he gazed into

her eyes, eyes full of innocence and tranquillity. At last she tapped her foot upon the floor in expression of

mild impatience. " People do not like to be asked what is the matter when there is nothing the matter. What

Coleman's face had gradually hardened. " Well, what is wrong? " he demanded, abruptly. "What has

She raised her glance in a perfect reality of wonder. "What is wrong? What has happened? How absurd! Why

nothing, of course." She gazed out of the window. " Look," she added, brightly, the students are rolling

Coleman, now wearing a bewildered air, made some pretense of being occupied with the scene. " Yes," he

" Oh," said Marjory, suddenly, " I forgot to tell you. Father is going to take mother and me to Greece this

" I don't doubt it," he replied. His composure May have displeased her, for she glanced at him furtively and in

"Oh, of course," she said, in a glad voice. " It will be more fun. We expect to nave a fine time. There is such a

n ice lot of boys going Sometimes father chooses these dreadfully studious ones. But this time he acts as if he

He reached for her hand and grasped it viselike. "Marjory," he breathed, passionately, " don't treat me so.

She wrenched her hand from him in regal indignation. " One or two rings make it uncomfortable for the hand

that is grasped by an angry gentleman." She held her fingers and gazed as if she expected to find them mere

debris. " I am sorry that you are not interested in the students rolling that man in the snow. It is the greatest

He was regarding her as a judge faces a lying culprit. " I know," he said, after a pause. " Somebody has been

" Some stories ? " she enquired. " Some stories about you? What do you mean? Do you mean that I remember

There was another pause and then Coleman's face flared red. He beat his hand violently upon a table. " Good

God, Marjory! Don't make a fool of me. Don't make this kind of a fool of me, at any rate. Tell me what you

She laughed at him. " Explain? Really, your vocabulary is getting extensive, but it is dreadfully awkward to

He glanced at her, " I know as well as you do that your father is taking you to Greece in order to get rid of

" And do people have to go to Greece in order to get rid of you? " she asked, civilly. " I think you are getting

" Marjory," he began, stormily. She raised her hand. " Hush," she said, "there is somebody coming." A bell

had rung. A maid entered the room. " Mr. Coke," she said. Marjory nodded. In the interval of waiting,

Coleman gave the girl a glance that mingled despair with rage and pride. Then Coke burst with halftamed

rapture into the room. " Oh, Miss Wainwright," he almost shouted, " I can't tell you how glad I am. I just

heard today you were going. Imagine it. It will be moreoh, how are you Coleman, how are you " "

Marjory welcomed the newcomer with a cordiality that might not have thrilled Coleman with pleasure.

They took chairs that formed a triangle and one side of it vibrated with talk. Coke and Marjory engaged in a

tumultuous conversation concerning the prospective trip to Greece. The Sunday editor, as remote as if the

apex of his angle was the top of a hill, could only study the girl's clear profile. The youthful voices of the two

others rang like bells. He did not scowl at Coke; he merely looked at him as if be gently disdained his mental

calibre. In fact all the talk seemed to tire him; it was childish; as for him, he apparently found this babble

Finally he arose like an old man climbing from a sick bed. "Well, I am afraid I must go, Miss Wainwright."

Then he said affectionately to Coke: " Goodbye, old boy. I hope you will have a good time."

Marjory walked with him to the door. He shook her hand in a friendly fashion. " Goodbye, Marjory,' he

said. " Perhaps it may happen that I shan't see you again before you start for Greece and so I had best bid you

Godspeedor whatever the term is now. You will have a charming time; Greece must be a delightful

place. Really, I envy you, Marjory. And now my dear child "his voice grew brotherly, filled with the

patronage of generous fraternal love, " although I may never see you again let me wish you fifty as happy

years as this last one has been for me." He smiled frankly into her eyes; then dropping her hand, he went

Coke renewed his tempest of talk as Marjory turned toward him. But after a series of splendid eruptions,

The professor was in his. library apparently absorbed in a book when a tottering palefaced woman appeared

to him and, in her course toward a couch in a corner of the room, described almost a semicircle. She flung

herself face downward. A thick strand of hair swept over her shoulder. " Oh, my heart is broken! My heart is

The professor arose, grizzled and thriceold with pain. He went to the couch, but he found himself a

handless, fetless man. " My poor child," he said. " My poor child." He remained listening stupidly to her

Suddenly the girl lifted herself and swept the strand of hair away from her face. She looked at the professor

with the wide open dilated eyes of one who still sleeps. " Father," she said in a hollow voice, " he don't love

me. He don't love me. He don't love me. at all. You were right, father." She began to laugh.

" But," she said, " I thought he loved meI was sure of it. But it don'tdon't matter. II can't get over it.

She did not heed his appeal, but continued in a dull whisper. " He was playing with me. He waswaswas

flirting with me. He didn't care when I told himI told him I was goinggoing away." She turned her face

wildly to the cushions again. Her young shoulders shook as if they might break. " Womenwomenthey

By a strange mishap of management the train which bore Coleman back toward New York was fetched into

an obscure sidetrack of some lonely region and there compelled to bide a change of fate. The engine

wheezed and sneezed like a paused fat man. The lamps in the cars pervaded a stuffy odor of smoke and oil.

Coleman examined his case and found only one cigar. Important brakemen proceeded rapidly along the

aisles, and when they swung open the doors, a polar wind circled the legs of the passengers. " Well, now,

what is all this for? " demanded Coleman, furiously. " I want to get back to New York."

The conductor replied with sarcasm, " Maybe you think I'm stuck on it " I ain't running the road. I'm running

this train, and I run it according to orders." Amid the dismal comforts of the waiting cars, Coleman felt all the

profound misery of the rebuffed true lover. He had been sentenced, he thought, to a penal servitude of the

heart, as he watched the dusky, vague ribbons of smoke come from the lamps and felt to his knees the cold

winds from the brakemen's busy flights. When the train started with a whistle and a jolt, he was elate as if in

When he had arrived in New York, a cab rattled him to an uptown hotel with speed. In the restaurant he first

ordered a large bottle of champagne. The last of the wine he finished in sombre mood like an unbroken and

defiant man who chews the straw that litters his prison house. During his dinner he was continually sending

out messenger boys. He was arranging a poker party. Through a window he watched the beautiful moving life

of upper Broadway at night, with its crowds and clanging cable cars and its electric signs, mammoth and

Word was brought to him that the poker players were arriving. He arose joyfully, leaving his cheese. In the

broad hall, occupied mainly by miscellaneous people and actors, all deep in leather chairs, he found some of

his friends waiting. They trooped up stairs to Coleman's rooms, where as a preliminary, Coleman began to

hurl books and papers from the table to the floor. A boy came with drinks. Most of the men, in order to

prepare for the game, removed their coats and cuffs and drew up the sleeves of their shirts. The electric

globes shed a blinding light upon the table. The sound of clinking chips arose; the elected banker spun the

Later, during a pause of dealing, Coleman said: " Billie, what kind of a lad is that young Coke up at

" Oh, you mean the Sophomore Coke? " asked the friend. " Seems a decent sort of a fellow. I don't know.

" He's one of those Ohio Cokesregular thing father millionaireused to be a barbergood old boy why?

" Nothin'," said Coleman, looking at his cards. " I know the lad. I thought he was a good deal of an ass. I

" Oh, his people are all rightin one way. Father owns rolling mills. Do you raise it, Henry? Well, in order to

" I'll see it," observed Coleman, slowly pushing forward two blue chips. Afterward he reached behind him

To the others Coleman seemed to have something bitter upon his mind. He played poker quietly, steadfastly,

and, without change of eye, following the mathematical religion of the game. Outside of the play he was

savage, almost insupportable. " What's the matter with you, Rufus ? " said his old college friend. " Lost your

job? Girl gone back on you? You're a hell of a host. We don't get any. thing but insults and drinks."

Late at night Coleman began to lose steadily. In the meantime he drank glass after glass of wine. Finally he

made reckless bets on a mediocre hand and an opponent followed him thoughtfully bet by bet, undaunted,

calm, absolutely without emotion. Coleman lost; he hurled down his cards. " Nobody but a damned fool

It was when a grey, dirty light of dawn evaded the thick curtains and fought on the floor with the feebled

electric glow that Coleman, in the midst of play, lurched his chest heavily upon the table. Some chips rattled

The other players with difficulty extracted five cards from beneath Coleman's pillowed head. " Not a pair!

Come, come, this won't do. Oh, let's stop playing. This is the rottenest game I ever sat in. Let's go home. Why

When Coleman awoke next morning, he looked back upon the poker game as something that had transpired

in previous years. He dressed and went down to the grillroom. For his breakfast he ordered some eggs on

toast and a pint of champagne. A privilege of liberty belonged to a certain Irish waiter, and this waiter looked

" Yes, Pat," answered Coleman, " I did. It was all because of an unrequited affection, Patrick." The man stood

near, a napkin over his arm. Coleman went on impressively. " The ways of the modern lover are strange.

Now, I, Patrick, am a modern lover, and when, yesterday, the dagger of disappointment was driven deep into

my heart, I immediately played poker as hard as I could and incidentally got loaded. This is the modern point

of view. I understand on good authority that in old times lovers used to. languish. That is probably a lie, but

at any rate we do not, in these times, languish to any great extent. We get drunk. Do you understand, Patrick?

" The waiter was used to a harangue at Coleman's breakfast time. He placed his hand over his mouth and

" Of course," continued Coleman, thoughtfully. " It might be pointed out by uneducated persons that it is

difficult to maintain a high standard of drunkenness for the adequate length of time, but in the series of

experiments which I am about to make I am sure I can easily prove them to be in the wrong."

" I am sure, sir," said the waiter, " the young ladies would not like to be hearing you talk this way."

" Yes; no doubt, no doubt. The young ladies have still quite medieval ideas. They don't understand. They still

" At any rate, sir, I don't see that your heart is sure enough broken. You seem to take it very easy. "

" Broken! " cried Coleman. " Easy? Man, my heart is in fragments. Bring me another small bottle."

Six weeks later, Coleman went to the office of the proprietor of the Eclipse. Coleman was one of those

smoothshaven oldyoung men who wear upon some occasions a singular air of temperance and purity. At

these times, his features lost their quality of worldly shrewdness and endless suspicion and bloomed as the

face of some innocent boy. It then would be hard to tell that he had ever encountered even such a crime as a

lie or a cigarette. As he walked into the proprietor's office he was a perfect semblance of a fine, inexperienced

youth. People usually concluded this change was due to a Turkish bath or some other expedient of

recuperation, but it was due probably to the power of a physical characteristic.

" Yeh," said the secretary, jerking his thumb toward an inner door. In his private office, Sturgeon sat on the

edge of the table dangling one leg and dreamily surveying the wall. As Coleman entered he looked up

quickly. "Rufus," he cried, " you're just the man I wanted to see. I've got a scheme. A great scheme." He slid

from the table and began to pace briskly to and fro, his hands deep in his trousers' pockets, his chin sunk in

his collar, his light blue eyes afire with interest. " Now listen. This is immense. The Eclipse enlists a battalion

of men to go to Cuba and fight the Spaniards under its own flagthe Eclipse flag. Collect trained officers

from here and thereenlist every young devil we seedrill 'embest riflesloads of ammunition

provisionsstaff of doctors and nurses a couple of dynamite gunseverything complete best in the world.

Now, isn't that great ? What's the matter with that now ? Eh? Eh? Isn't that great? It's great, isn't it? Eh? Why,

Coleman did not seem to ignite. " I have been arrested four or five times already on fool matters connected

with the newspaper business," he observed, gloomily, " but I've never yet been hung. I think your scheme is a

Sturgeon paused in astonishment. " Why, what happens to be the matter with you ? What are you kicking

" That's what I've come to see you about. I've had a pretty heavy strain on me for three years now, and I want

" I know it hasn't been you, but, of course, I wanted the paper to go and I wanted to have my share in its

success, but now that everything is all right I think I might go away for a time if you don't mind."

" Mind! " exclaimed Sturgeon falling into his chair and reaching for his check book. "Where do you want to

" I don't want very much. And as for where I want to go, I thought I might like to go to Greece for a while."

Sturgeon had been writing a check. He poised his pen in the air and began to laugh. " That's a queer place to

go for a rest. Why, the biggest war of modern timesa war that may involve all Europeis likely to start

" I know that," answered Coleman. " I know there is likely to be a war there. But I think that is exactly what

"You are a queer bird," answered Sturgeon deeply fascinated with this new idea. He had apparently forgotten

his vision of a Cuban volunteer battalion. " War correspondence is about the most original medium for a rest I

"Oh, it may seem funny, but really, any change will be good for me now. I've been whacking at this old

Sunday edition until I'm sick of it, and some,. times I wish the Eclipse was in hell."

That's all right," laughed the proprietor of the Eclipse. " But I still don't see how you 'are going to get any

vacation out of a war that will upset the whole of Europe. But that's your affair. If you want to become the

chief correspondent in the field in case of any such war, why, of course, I would be glad to have you. I

" I'll take care of that," answered Coleman. " When I take a vacation I want to take it my own way, and I

think this will be a vacation because it will be different don't you seedifferent ? "

" No, I don't see any sense in it, but if you think that is the way that suits you, why, go ahead. How much

Sturgeon scribbled on his check book and then ripped a check from it. " Here's a thousand dollars. Will that

"Oh," said Sturgeon. " You're in a hurry." This impetuous manner of exit from business seemed to appeal to

him. " Tomorrow," he repeated smiling. In reality he was some kind of a poet using his millions

romantically, spending wildly on a sentiment that might be with beauty or without beauty, according to the

momentary vacillation. The vaguelydefined desperation in Coleman's last announcement appeared to delight

him. He grinned and placed the points of his fingers together stretching out his legs in a careful attitude of

indifference which might even mean disapproval. " Tomorrow," he murmured teasingly.

" By jiminy," exclaimed Coleman, ignoring the other man's mood, " I'm sick of the whole business. I've got

out a Sunday paper once a week for three years and I feel absolutely incapable of getting out another edition.

It would be all right if we were running on ordinary lines, but when each issue is more or less of an attempt to

beat the previous issue, it becomes rather wearing, you know. If I can't get a vacation now I take one later in a

" Why, I'm not objecting to your having a vacation. I'm simply marvelling at the kind of vacation you want to

take. And 'tomorrow,' too, eh ? " " Well, it suits me," muttered Coleman, sulkily.

" Well, if it suits you, that's enough. Here's your check. Clear out now and don't let me see you again until

you are thoroughly rested, even if it takes a year." He arose and stood smiling. He was mightily pleased with

himself. He liked to perform in this way. He was almost seraphic as he thrust the check for a thousand dollars

Then his manner changed abruptly. " Hold on a minute. I must think a little about this thing if you are going

"The big chance is that all Europe will be dragged into it. Of course then you would have to come out of

"No, I wouldn't care to do that," said Coleman positively. "I just want to take care of the Greek end of it."

" Well, it suits me," muttered Coleman again. " I tell you what it is" he added suddenly. "I've got some

Sturgeon was radiant with joy. " Private reasons." He was charmed by the sombre pain in Coleman's eyes and

his own ability to eject it. "Good. Go now and be blowed. I will cable final instruction to meet you in

London. As soon as you get to Greece, cable me an account of the situation there and we will arrange our

But here the real tyrant appeared, emerging suddenly from behind the curtain of sentiment, appearing like a

SWEEPING out from between two remote, halfsubmerged dunes on which stood slender sentry light.

houses, the steamer began to roll with a gentle insinuating motion. Passengers in their staterooms saw at

rhythmical intervals the spray racing fleetly past the portholes. The waves grappled hurriedly at the sides of

the great flying steamer and boiled discomfited astern in a turmoil of green and white. From the tops of the

enormous funnels streamed level masses of smoke which were immediately torn to nothing by the headlong

wind. Meanwhile as the steamer rushed into the northeast, men in caps and ulsters comfortably paraded the

decks and stewards arranged deck chairs for the reception of various women who were coming from their

In the smoking room, old voyagers were settling down comfortably while new voyagers were regarding them

with a diffident respect. Among the passengers Coleman found a number of people whom he knew, including

a wholesale wine merchant, a Chicago railway magnate and a New York millionaire. They lived practically

in the smoking room. Necessity drove them from time to time to the salon, or to their berths. Once indeed the

When the Irish coast was sighted Coleman came on deck to look at it. A tall young woman immediately

halted in her walk until he had stepped up to her. " Well, of all ungallant men, Rufus Coleman, you are the

" Awfully sorry, I'm sure," he murmured. " Been playing poker in the smoking room all voyage. Didn't have a

look at the passenger list until just now. Why didn't you send me word?" These lies were told so modestly

and sincerely that when the girl flashed her, brilliant eyes full upon their author there was a mixt of

" Send you a card " I don't believe you can read, else you would have known I was to sail on this steamer. If I

hadn't been ill until today you would have seen me in the salon. I open at the Folly Theatre next week. Dear

" Of course, I knew you were going," said Coleman. "But I thought you were to go later. What do you open

" Fly by Night. Come walk along with me. See those two old ladies " They've been watching for me like

hawks ever since we left New York. They expected me to flirt with every man on board. But I've fooled

As the pair moved toward the stern, enormous and radiant green waves were crashing futilely after the

steamer. Ireland showed a dreary coast line to the north. A wretched man who had crossed the Atlantic

eightyfour times was declaiming to a group of novices. A venerable banker, bundled in rugs, was asleep in

" Well, Nora," said Coleman, " I hope you make a hit in London. You deserve it if anybody does. You've

"Worked hard," cried the girl. "I should think so. Eight years ago I was in the rear row. Now I have the centre

of the stage whenever I want it. I made Chalmers cut out that great scene in the second act between the queen

and Rodolfo. The idea! Did he think I would stand that ? And just because he was in love with Clara

Coleman was dreamy. " Remember when I was dramatic man for the Gazette and wrote the first notice ? "

" Indeed, I do," answered the girl affectionately. " Indeed, I do, Rufus. Ah, that was a great lift. I believe that

was the first thing that had an effect on old Oliver. Before that, he never would believe that I was any good.

Give me your arm, Rufus. Let's parade before the two old women." Coleman glanced at her keenly. Her voice

" Good heavens," he said. " You are the same old Nora Black. I thought you would be proud and 'aughty by

" Not to my friends," she murmured., " Not to my friends. I'm always the same and I never forget. Rufus."

" If anybody does me a favour I never forget it as long as I live," she answered fervently.

" Oh, you mustn't be so sentimental, Nora. You remember that play you bought from little Ben Whipple, just

because he had once sent you some flowers in the old days when you were poor and happened to bed sick. A

sense of gratitude cost you over eight thousand dollars that time, didn't it? " Coleman laughed heartily.

" Oh, it wasn't the flowers at all," she interrupted seriously. " Of course Ben was always a nice boy, but then

his play was worth a thousand dollars. That's all I gave him. I lost some more in trying to make it go. But it

was too good. That was what was the matter. It was altogether too good for the public. I felt awfully sorry for

"Too good?" sneered Coleman. "Too good? Too indifferently bad, you mean. My dear girl, you mustn't

She paused abruptly and faced him. This regal, creature was looking at him so sternly that Coleman felt awed

for a moment as if he, were in the presence of a great mind. " Do you mean to say that I'm not an artist ? " she

Coleman remained cool. " I've never been decorated for informing people of their own affairs," he observed,

Frowning slightly, she reflected upon this reply. Then, of a sudden, she laughed. " There is no use in being

angry with you, Rufus. You always were a hopeless scamp. But," she added, childishly wistful, "have you

ever seen Fly by Night? Don't you think my dance in the second act is artistic? "

" No," said Coleman, " I haven't seen Fly by Night yet, but of course I know that you are the most beautiful

It seemed that her hand tightened on his arm. Her face was radiant. " There," she exclaimed. " Now you are

When Miss Black went to her cabin, Coleman strolled into the smoking room. Every man there covertly or

openly surveyed him. He dropped lazily into a chair at a table where the wine merchant, the Chicago railway

king and the New York millionaire were playing cards. They made a noble pretense of not being aware of

him. On the oil cloth top of the table the cards were snapped down, turn by turn.

Finally the wine merchant, without lifting his head to address a particular person, said: " New conquest."

The millionaire said: " He's a sly cuss, anyhow." The railway man grinned. After an elaborate silence the

wine merchant asked: " Know Miss Black long, Rufus?" Coleman looked scornfully at his friends. " What's

wrong with you there, fellows, anyhow?" The Chicago man answered airily. " Oh, nothin'. Nothin',

At dinner in the crowded salon, Coleman was aware that more than one passenger glanced first at Nora Black

and then at him, as if connecting them in some train of thought, moved to it by the narrow horizon of

shipboard and by a sense of the mystery that surrounds the lives of the beauties of the stage. Near the

captain's right hand sat the glowing and splendid Nora, exhibiting under the gaze of the persistent eyes of

many meanings, a practiced and profound composure that to the populace was terrfying dignity.

Strolling toward the smoking room after dinner, Coleman met the New York millionaire, who seemed

agitated. He took Coleman fraternally by the arm. " Say, old man, introduce me, won't you ? I'm crazy to

" Why, I don't know that I have a right. Of course, you know, she hasn't been meeting anybody aboard. I'll

" Thanks, old man, thanks. I'd be tickled to death. Come along and have a drink. When will you ask her? " "

They had not been long in the smoking room, however, when the deck steward came with a card to Coleman.

Upon it was written: "Come for' a stroll?" Everybody, saw Coleman read this card and then look up and

whisper to the deck steward. The deck steward bent his head and whispered discreetly in reply. There was an

Coleman leaned carelessly back in his chair, puffing at his cigar. He mingled calmly in a discussion of the

comparative merits of certain transAtlantic lines. After a time he threw away his cigar and arose. Men

nodded. "Didn't I tell you?" His studiously languid exit was made dramatic by the eagleeyed attention of the

On deck he found Nora pacing to and fro. "You didn't hurry yourself," she said, as he joined her. The lights of

Queenstown were twinkling. A warm wind, wet with the moisture of rain stricken sod, was coming from the

"No, I don't care. Only it's rather absurd to be watched all the time." He said this precisely as if he abhorred

being watched in this case. "Oh by the way," he added. Then he paused for a moment. "Awa friend of

minenot a bad fellow he asked me for an introduction. Of course, I told him I'd ask you."

She made a contemptuous gesture. "Oh, another Willie. Tell him no. Tell him to go home to his family. Tell

"He isn't a bad fellow. He" said Coleman diffidently, "he would probably be at the theatre every night in a

"yes, and get drunk and throw a wine bottle on the stage instead of a bouquet. No," she declared positively, "I

Coleman did not seem to be oppressed by this ultimatum. "Oh, all right. I promised himthat was all."

They walked in the shadow. "How long are you going to be in London, Rufus?" asked Nora softly.

"Who? I? Oh, I'm going right off to Greece. First train. There's going to be a war, you know."

"Why, that's dreadful, Rufus," said the girl, mournfull and shocked. "You might get hurt or something."

"Oh," he answered, puffing out his lips, "I may stop in Londom for three or four days on my way home. I'm

"Oh, I can't tell. It may be in three or four months, or it may be a year from now. When the war stops."

"Do you know," said Nora at last, "I like you, Rufus Coleman. I don't know any good reason for it either,

unless it is because you are such a brute. Now, when I was asking you if you were to be in London you were

"It isn't so much what you said" began Nora slowlly. Then she suddenly changed her manner. "Oh, well,

don't let's talk about it any more. It's too foolish. Onlyyou are a disagreeable person sometimes."

In the morning, as the vessel steamed up the Irish channel, Coleman was on deck, keeping furtive watch on

the cabin stairs. After two hours of waiting, he scribbled a message on a card and sent it below. He received

an answer that Miss Black had a headache, and felt too ill to come on deck. He went to the smoking room.

The three cardplayers glanced up, grinning. "What's the matter?" asked the wine merchant. "You look

angry." As a matter of fact, Coleman had purposely wreathed his features in a pleasant and satisfied

"Confound the girl," he thought to himself. "She has succeeded in making all these beggars laugh at me." He

mused that if he had another chance he would show her how disagreeable or detestable or scampish he was

under some circumstances. He reflected ruefully that the complacence with which he had accepted the

comradeship of the belle of the voyage might have been somewhat overdone. Perhaps he had got a little out

of proportion. He was annoyed at the stares of the other men in the smoking room, who seemed now to be

reading his discomfiture. As for Nora Black he thought of her wistfully and angrily as a superb woman whose

" What's the matter? " persisted the wine merchant. " You look grumpy." Coleman laughed. " Do I?"

At Liverpool, as the steamer was being slowly warped to the landing stage by some tugs, the passengers

crowded the deck with their handbags. Adieus were falling as dead leaves fall from a great tree. The

stewards were handling small hills of luggage marked with flaming red labels. The ship was firmly against

the dock before Miss Black came from her cabin. Coleman was at the time gazing shoreward, but his three

particular friends instantly nudged him. "What?" "There she is?" "Oh, Miss Black?" He composedly walked

toward her. It was impossible to tell whether she saw him coming or whether it was accident, but at any rate

she suddenly turned and moved toward the stern of the ship. Ten watchful gossips had noted Coleman's travel

in her direction and more than half the passengers noted his defeat. He wheeled casually and returned to his

three friends. They were colicstricken with a coarse and yet silent merriment. Coleman was glad that the

After the polite business of an English custom house, the travellers passed out to the waiting train. A nimble

little theatrical agent of some kind, sent from London, dashed forward to receive Miss Black. He had a

firstclass compartment engaged for her and he bundled her and her maid into it in an exuberance of

enthusiasm and admiration.. Coleman passing moodily along the line of coaches heard Nora's voice hailing

" Rufus." There she was, framed in a carriage window, beautiful and smiling brightly. Every near. by person

" Oh," said Coleman advancing, " I thought I was not going to get a chance to say goodbye to you." He held

She pouted. " Why, there's plenty of room in this compartment." Seeing that some forty people were

transfixed in observation of her, she moved a short way back. " Come on in this compartment, Rufus," she

On the way to London, he brooded in his corner on the two divergent emotions he had experienced when

refusing her invitation. At Euston Station in London, he was directing a porter, who had his luggage, when he

heard Nora speak at his shoulder. " Well, Rufus, you sulky boy," she said, " I shall be at the Cecil. If you

" Thanks, I'm sure, my dear Nora," answered Coleman effusively. "But honestly, I'm off for Greece."

A brougham was drawn up near them and the nimble little agent was waiting. The maid was directing the

establishment of a mass of luggage on and in a fourwheeler cab. " Well, put me into my carriage, anyhow,"

Afterward she addressed him from the dark interior. Now, Rufus, you must come to see me the minute you

strike London again of She hesitated a moment and then smiling gorgeously upon him, she said: " Brute! "

As soon as Coleman had planted his belongings in a hotel he was bowled in a hansom briskly along the

smoky Strand, through a dark city whose walls dripped like the walls of a cave and whose passages were only

Walkley the London correspondent of the Eclipse, whirled from his chair with a shout of joy and relief at

sight of Coleman. " Cables," he cried. "Nothin' but cables! All the people in New York are writing cables to

you. The wires groan with them. And we groan with them too. They come in here in bales. However, there is

no reason why you should read them all. Many are similar in words and many more are similar in spirit. The

sense of the whole thing is that you get to Greece quickly, taking with you immense sums of money and

" The most astute journalists in Europe have been predicting a general European smashup every year since

1878," said Walkley, " and the prophets weep. The English are the only people who can pull off wars on

schedule time, and they have to do it in odd corners of the globe. I fear the war business is getting tuckered.

There is sorrow in the lodges of the lone wolves, the war correspondents. However, my boy, don't bury your

face in your blanket. This Greek business looks very promising, very promising." He then began to proclaim

trains and connections. " Dover, Calais, Paris, Brindisi, Corfu, Patras, Athens. That is your game. You are

supposed to skyrocket yourself over that route in the shortest possible time, but you would gain no time by

starting before tomorrow, so you can cool your heels here in London until then. I wish I was going along."

Coleman returned to his hotel, a knight impatient and savage at being kept for a time out of the saddle. He

went for a late supper to the grill room and as he was seated there alone, a party of four or five people came

to occupy the table directly behind him. They talked a great deal even before they arrayed them. selves at the

table, and he at once recognised the voice of Nora Black. She was queening it, apparently, over a little band

Either by accident or for some curious reason, she took a chair back to back with Coleman's chair. Her sleeve

of fragrant stuff almost touched his shoulder and he felt appealing to him seductively a perfume of orris root

and violet. He was drinking bottled stout with his chop; be sat with a face of wood.

" Oh, the little lord ? " Nora was crying to some slave. "Now, do you know, he won't do at all. He is too

awfully charming. He sits and ruminates for fifteen minutes and then he pays me a lovely compliment. Then

he ruminates for another fifteen minutes and cooks up another fine thing. It is too tiresome. Do you know

what kind of man. I like? " she asked softly and confidentially. And here she sank back in her chair until.

Coleman knew from the tingle that her head was but a few inches from his head. Her, sleeve touched him. He

turned more wooden under the spell of the orris root and violet. Her courtiers thought it all a graceful pose,

but Coleman believed otherwise. Her voice sank to the liquid, siren note of a succubus. " Do you know what

kind of a man I like? Really like? I like a man that a woman can't bend in a thousand different ways in five

minutes. He must have some steel in him. He obliges me to admire him the most when he remains stolid;

stolid to me lures. Ah, that is the only kind of a man who cap ever break a heart among us women of the

world. His stolidity is not real; no; it is mere art, but it is a highly finished art and often enough we can't cut

through it. Really we can't. And, then we may actually come toercare for the man. Really we may. Isn't

Alt the end Coleman arose and strolled out of the. room, smoking a cigarette. He did not betray, a sign.

Before. the door clashed softly behind him, Nora laughed a little defiantly, perhaps a little loudly. It made

every man in the grillroom perk up his ears. As for her courtiers, they were entranced. In her description of

the conquering man, she had easily contrived that each one of them wondered if she might not mean him.

Each man was perfectly sure that he had plenty of steel in his composition and that seemed to be a main

Coleman delayed for a time in the smoking room and then went to his own quarters. In reality he was

Somewhat puzzled in his mind by a projection of the beauties of Nora Black upon his desire for Greece and

Marjory, His thoughts formed a duality. Once he was on the point of sending his card to Nora Black's parlour,

inasmuch as Greece was very distant and he could not start until the morrow. But he suspected that he was

holding the interest of the actress because of his recent appearance of impregnable serenity in the presence of

her fascinations. If he now sent his card, it was a form of surrender and he knew her to be one to take a

merciless advantage. He would not make this tactical mistake. On the contrary he would go to bed and think

In reality he found it easy to fasten his mind upon the prospective war. He regarded himself cynically in most

affairs, but he could not be cynical of war, because had he seen none of it. His rejuvenated imagination

began to thrill to the roll of battle, through his thought passing all the lightning in the pictures of Detaille, de

Neuville and Morot; lashed battery horse roaring over bridges; grand cuirassiers dashing headlong against

stolid invincible redfaced lines of German infantry; furious and bloody grapplings in the streets of little

villages of northeastern France. There was one thing at least of which he could still feel the spirit of a

debutante. In this matter of war he was not, too, unlike a young girl embarking upon her first season of opera.

Walkely, the next morning, saw this mood sitting quaintly upon Coleman and cackled with astonishment and

glee. Coleman's usual manner did not return until he detected Walkely's appreciation of his state and then he

snubbed him according to the ritual of the Sunday editor of the New York Eclipse. Parenthetically, it might

be said that if Coleman now recalled Nora Black to his mind at all, it was only to think of her for a moment

When the train drew out of the station, Coleman felt himself thrill. Was ever fate less perverse ? War and

lovewar and Marjorywere in conjunction both in Greeceand he could tilt with one lance at both gods. It

was a great fine game to play and no man was ever so blessed in vacations. He was smiling continually to

himself and sometimes actually on the point of talking aloud. This was despite the presence in the

compartment of two fellow passengers who preserved in their uncomfortably rigid, icy and uncompromising

manners many of the more or less ridiculous traditions of the English first class carriage. Coleman's fine

humour betrayed him once into addressing one of these passengers and the man responded simply with a

wide look of incredulity, as if he discovered that he was travelling in the same compartment with a zebu. It

turned Coleman suddenly to evil temper and he wanted to ask the man questions concerning his education

and his present mental condition: and so until the train arrived at Dover, his ballooning soul was in danger of

collapsing. On the packet crossing the channel, too, he almost returned to the usual Rufus Coleman since all

the world was seasick and he could not get a cabin in which to hide himself from it. However he reaped much

consolation by ordering a bottle of champagne and drinking it in sight of the people, which made them still

more seasick. From Calais to Brindisi really nothing met his disapproval save the speed of the train, the

conduct of some of the passengers, the quality of the food served, the manners of the guards, the temperature

In time he passed as in a vision from wretched Brindisi to charming Corfu, from Corfu to the little warbitten

With a smile of grim content and surrounded in his carriage with all his beautiful brown luggage, he swept

through the dusty streets of the Greek capital. Even as the vehicle arrived in a great terraced square in front of

the yellow palace, Greek recruits in garments representing many trades and many characters were marching

up cheering for Greece and the king. Officers stood upon the little iron chairs in front of the cafes; all the

urchins came running and shouting; ladies waved their handkerchiefs from the balconies; the whole city was

vivified with a leaping and joyous enthusiasm. The Atheniansas dragomen or otherwisehad preserved an

ardor for their glorious traditions, and it was as if that in the white dust which lifted from the plaza and

floated across the oldivory face of the palace, there were the souls of the capable soldiers of the past.

Coleman was almost intoxicated with it. It seemed to celebrate his own reasons, his reasons of love and

When the carriage arrived in front of the Hotel D'Angleterre, Coleman found the servants of the place with

more than one eye upon the scene in the plaza, but they soon paid heed to the arrival of a gentleman with

such an amount of beautiful leather luggage, all marked boldly with the initials "R. C." Coleman let them lead

him and follow him and conduct him and use bad English upon him without noting either their words, their

salaams or their work. His mind had quickly fixed upon the fact that here was the probable headquarters of

the Wainwright party and, with the rush of his western race fleeting through his veins, he felt that he would

choke and die if he did not learn of the Wainwrights in the first two minutes. It was a tragic venture to

attempt to make the Levantine mind understand something off the course, that the new arrival's first thought

was to establish a knowlege of the whereabouts of some of his friends rather than to swarm helterskelter

into that part of the hotel for which he was willing to pay rent. In fact he failed to thus impress them; failed in

dark wrath, but, nevertheless, failed. At last he was simply forced to concede the travel of files of men up the

broad, redcarpeted staircase, each man being loaded with Coleman's luggage. The men in the hotelbureau

were then able to comprehend that the foreign gentleman might have something else on his mind. They raised

their eyebrows languidly when he spoke of the Wainwright party in gentle surprise that he had not yet

learned that they were gone some time. They were departed on some excursion. Where? Oh, reallyit was

almost laughable, indeedthey didn't know. Were they sure? Why, yesit was almost laughable, indeed they

were quite sure. Where could the gentleman find out about them ? Well, theyas they had explaineddid not

know, butit was possiblethe American minister might know. Where was he to be found? Oh, that was very

simple. It was well known that the American minister had apartments in the hotel. Was he in? Ah, that they

could not say. So Coleman, rejoicing at his final emancipation and with the grime of travel still upon him,

burst in somewhat violently upon the secretary of the Hon. Thomas M. Gordner of Nebraska, the United

States minister to Greece. From his desk the secretary arose from behind an accidental bulwark of books and

govermental pamphets. " Yes, certainly. Mr. Gordner is in. If you would give me your card"

Directly. Coleman was introduced into another room where a quiet man who was rolling a cigarette looked

him frankly but carefully in the eye. "The Wainwrights " said the minister immediately after the question.

"Why, I myself am immensely concerned about them at present. I'm afraid they've gotten themselves into

" Yes. That little professor is rathererstubborn; Isn't he ? He wanted to make an expedition to Nikopolis

and I explained to him all the possibilities of war and begged him to at least not take his wife and daughter

"But that little old man had a head like a stone and only laughed at me. Of course those villainous young

students were only too delighted at a prospect of war, but it was a stupid and absurd. thing for the man to take

his wife and daughter there. They are up there now. I can't get a word from them or get a word to them."

The minister gazed suddenly in comprehension of the man before him. " Nikopolis is in Turkey," he

Turkey at that time was believed to be a country of delay, corruption, turbulence and massacre. It meant

everything. More than a half of the Christians of the world shuddered at the name of Turkey. Coleman's lips

tightened and perhaps blanched, and his chin moved out strangely, once, twice, thrice. " How can I get to

The minister smiled. " It would take you the better part of four days if you could get there, but as a matter of

fact you can't get there at the present time. A Greek army and a Turkish army are looking at each other from

the sides of the river at Artathe river is there the frontierand Nikopolis happens to be on the wrong side.

You can't reach them. The forces at Arta will fight within three days. I know it. Of course I've notified our

legation at Constantinople, but, with Turkish methods of communication, Nikopolis is about as far from

Coleman arose. "They've run themselves into a nice mess," he said crossly. " Well, I'm a thousand times

The minister opened his eyes a trifle. You are not going to try to reach them, are you ? "

" Yes," answered Coleman, abstractedly. " I'm going to have a try at it. Friends of mine, you know"

At the bureau of the hotel, the correspondent found several cables awaiting him from the alert office of the

New York Eclipse. One of them read: "State Department gives out bad plight of Wainwright party lost

somewhere; find them. Eclipse." When Coleman perused the message he began to smile with seraphic bliss.

Whereupon he whirled himself in Athens. And it was to the considerable astonishment of some Athenians.

He discovered and instantly subsidised a young Englishman who, during his absence at the front, would act

as correspondent for the Eclipse at the capital. He took unto himself a dragoman and then bought three horses

and hired a groom at a speed that caused a little crowd at the horse dealer's place to come out upon the

pavement and watch this surprising young man ride back toward his hotel. He had already driven his

dragoman into a curious state of Oriental bewilderment and panic in which he could only lumber hastily and

helplessly here and there, with his face in the meantime marked with agony. Coleman's own field equipment

had been ordered by cable from New York to London, but it was necessary to buy much tinned meats,

chocolate, coffee, candles, patent food, brandy, tobaccos, medicine and other things.

He went to bed that night feeling more placid. The train back to Patras was to start in the early morning, and

he felt the satisfaction of a man who is at last about to start on his own great quest. Before he dropped off to

slumber, he heard crowds cheering exultantly in the streets, and the cheering moved him as it had done in the

morning. He felt that the celebration of the people was really an accompaniment to his primal reason, a

reason of love and ambition to conquer in loveeven as in the theatre, the music accompanies the heroin his

progress. He arose once during the night to study a map of the Balkan peninsula and get nailed into his mind

COLEMAN'S dragoman aroused him in the blue before dawn. The correspondent arrayed himself in one of

his new khaki suits riding breeches and a tunic well marked with buttoned pockets and accompanied by

The ride to Patras is a terror under ordinary circumstances. It begins in the early morning and ends in the

twilight. To Coleman, having just come from Patras to Athens, this journey from Athens to Patras had all the

exasperating elements of a forced recantation. Moreover, he had not come prepared to view with awe the

ancient city of Corinth nor to view with admiration the limpid beauties of the gulf of that name with its olive

grove shore. He was not stirred by Parnassus, a faraway snowfield high on the black shoulders of the

mountains across the gulf. No; he wished to go to Nikopolis. He passed over the graves of an ancient race the

gleam of whose mighty minds shot, hardly dimmed, through the clouding ages. No; he wished to go to

Nikopolis. The train went at a snail's pace, and if Coleman bad an interest it was in the people who lined the

route and cheered the soldiers on the train. In Coleman s compartment there was a greasy person who spoke a

little English. He explained that he was a poet, a poet who now wrote of nothing but war. When a man is in

pursuit of his love and success is known to be at least remote, it often relieves his strain if he is deeply bored

The train was really obliged to arrive finally at Patras even if it was a tortoise, and when this happened, a

hotel runner appeared, who lied for the benefit of the hotel in saying that there was no boat over to

Mesalonghi that night. When, all too late, Coleman discovered the truth of the matter his wretched dragoman

came in for a period of infamy and suffering. However, while strolling in the plaza at Patras, amid newsboys

from every side, by rumour and truth, Coleman learned things to his advantage. A Greek fleet was

bombarding Prevasa. Prevasa was near Nikopolis. The opposing armies at Arta were engaged, principally in

an artillery duel. Arta was on the road from Nikopolis into Greece. Hearing this news in the sunlit square

made him betray no weakness, but in the darkness of his room at the hotel, he seemed to behold Marjory

encircled by insurmountable walls of flame. He could look out of his window into the black night of the north

and feel every ounce of a hideous circumstance. It appalled him; here was no power of calling up a score of

reporters and sending them scampering to accomplish everything. He even might as well have been without a

tongue as far as it could serve him in goodly speech. He was alone, confronting the black ominous Turkish

north behind which were the deadly flames; behind the flames was Marjory. It worked upon him until he felt

obliged to call in his dragoman, and then, seated upon the edge of his bed and waving his pipe eloquently, he

described the plight of some very dear friends who were cut off at Nikopolis in Epirus. Some of his talk was

almost wistful in its wish for sympathy from his servant, but at the end he bade the dragoman understand that

be, Coleman, was going to their rescue, and he defiantly asked the hireling if he was prepared to go with him.

But he did not know the Greek nature. In two minutes the dragoman was weeping tears of enthusiasm, and,

for these tears, Coleman was overgrateful, because he had not been told that any of the more crude forms of

sentiment arouse the common Greek to the highest pitch, but sometimes, when it comes to what the

Americans call a "show down," when he gets backed toward his last corner with a solitary privilege of dying

for these sentiments, perhaps he does not always exhibit those talents which are supposed to be possessed by

the bulldog. He often then, goes into the cafes and take's it out in oration, like any common Parisian.

In the morning A steamer carried them across the strait and landed them near Mesalonghi at the foot of the

railroad that leads to Agrinion. At Agrinion Coleman at last began to feel that he was nearing his goal. There

were plenty of soldiers in the town, who received with delight and applause this gentleman in the

distinguishedlooking khaki clothes with his revolver and his field glasses and his canteen and; his

dragoman. The dragoman lied, of course, and vocifcrated that the gentleman in the distinguishedlooking

khaki clothes was an English soldier of reputation, who had, naturally, come to help the cross in its fight

against, the crescent. He also said that his master had three superb horses coming from Athens in charge of a

groom, and was undoubtedly going to join the cavalry. Whereupon the soldiers wished to embrace and kiss

There was more or less of a scuffle. Coleman would have taken to kicking and punching, but he found that by

a series of elusive movements he could dodge the demonstrations of affection without losing his popularity.

Escorted by the soldiers, citizens, children and dogs, he went to the diligence which was to take him and

others the next stage of the journey. As the diligence proceeded, Coleman's mind suffered another little

inroad of illfate as to the success of his expedition. In the first place it appeared foolish to expect that this

diligence would ever arrive anywhere. Moreover, the accommodations were about equal to what one would

endure if one undertook to sleep for a night in a tree. Then there was a devildog, a little blackandtan

terrier in a blanket gorgeous and belled, whose duty it was to stand on the top of the coach and bark

incessantly to keep the driver fully aroused to the enormity of his occupation. To have this cur silenced either

by strangulation or ordinary clubbing, Coleman struggled with his dragoman as Jacob struggled with the

angel, but in the first place, the dragoman was a Greek whose tongue could go quite drunk, a Greek who

became a slave to the heralding and establishment of one certain fact, or lie, and now he was engaged in

describing to every village and to all the country side the prowess of the gentleman in the

distinguishedlooking khaki clothes. It was the general absurdity of this advance to the frontier and the

fighting, to the crucial place where he was resolved to make an attempt to rescue his sweetheart ; it was this

ridiculous aspect that caused to come to Coleman a premonition of failure. No knight ever went out to

recover a lost love in such a diligence and with such a devildog, tinkling his little bells and yelping insanely

to keep the driver awake. After nightfall they arrived at a town on the southern coast of the Gulf of Arta and

the goaded dragoman wasthrust forth from the little inn into the street to find the first possible means of

getting on to Arta. He returned at last to tremulously say that there was no single chance of starting for Arta

that night. Where upon he was again thrust into the street with orders, strict orders. In due time, Coleman

spread his rugs upon the floor of his little room and thought himself almost asleep,. when the dragoman

entered with a really intelligent man who, for some reason, had agreed to consort with him in the business of

getting the stranger off to Arta. They announced that there was a brigantine about to sail with a load of

soldiers for a little port near Arta, and if Coleman hurried he could catch it, permission from an officer having

already been obtained. He was up at once, and the dragoman and the unaccountably intelligent person hastily

gathered his chattels. Stepping out into a black street and moving to the edge of black water and embarking in

a black boat filled with soldiers whose rifles dimly shone, was as impressive to Coleman as if, really, it had

been the first start. He had endured many starts, it was true, but the latest one always touched him as being

There were no lights on the brigantine and the men swung precariously up her sides to the deck which was

already occupied by a babbling multitude. The dragoman judiciously found a place for his master where

during the night the latter had to move quickly everytime the tiller was shifted to starboard.

The craft raised her shadowy sails and swung slowly off into the deep gloom. Forward, some of the soldiers

began to sing weird minor melodies. Coleman, enveloped in his rugs, smoked three or four cigars. He was

content and miserable, lying there, hearing these melodies which defined to him his own affairs.

At dawn they were at the little port. First, in the carmine and grey tints from a sleepy sun, they could see little

mobs of soldiers working amid boxes of stores. And then from the back in some dun and green hills sounded

a deepthroated thunder of artillery An officer gave Coleman and his dragoman positions in one of the first

boats, but of course it could not be done without an almost endless amount of palaver. Eventually they landed

with their traps. Coleman felt through the sole of his boot his foot upon the shore. He was within striking

But here it was smitten into the head of Coleman's servant to turn into the most inefficient dragoman,

probably in the entire East. Coleman discerned it immediately, before any blunder could tell him. He at first

thought that it was the voices of the guns which had made a chilly inside for the man, but when he reflected

upon the incompetency, or childish courier's falsity, at Patras and his discernible lack of sense from Agrinion

onward, he felt that the fault was elemental in his nature. It was a mere basic inability to front novel situations

which was somehow in the dragoman; he retreated from everything difficult in a smoke of gibberish and

gesticulation. Coleman glared at him with the hatred that sometimes ensues when breed meets breed, but he

saw that this man was indeed a golden link in his possible success. This man connected him with Greece and

its language. If he destroyed him he delayed what was now his main desire in life. However, this truth did not

The two little men who were induced to carry Coleman's luggage as far as the Greek camp were really

procured by the correspondent himself, who pantomined vigourously and with unmistakable vividness.

Followed by his dragoman and the two little men, he strode off along a road which led straight as a stick to

where the guns were at intervals booming. Meanwhile the dragoman and the two little men talked, talked,

talked. Coleman was silent, puffing his cigar and reflecting upon the odd things which happen to chivalry in

He knew of many men who would have been astonished if they could have seen into his mind at that time,

and he knew of many more men who would have laughed if they had the same privilege of sight. He made no

attempt to conceal from himself that the whole thing was romantic, romantic despite the little tinkling dog,

the decrepit diligence, the palavering natives, the superidiotic dragoman. It was fine, It was from another

age and even the actors could not deface the purity of the picture. However it was true that upon the

brigantine the previous night he had unaccountably wetted all his available matches. This was momentous,

important, cruel truth, but Coleman, after all, was takingas well as he could forgeta solemn and knightly joy

of this adventure and there were as many portraits of his lady envisioning. before him as ever held the heart

of an armourencased young gentleman of medieval poetry. If he had been travelling in this region as an

ordinary tourist, he would have been apparent mainly for his lofty impatience over trifles, but now there was

in him a positive assertion of direction which was undoubtedly one of the reasons for the despair of the

Before them the country slowly opened and opened, the straight white road always piercing it like a

lanceshaft. Soon they could see black masses of men marking the green knolls. The artillery thundered loudly

and now vibrated augustly through the air. Coleman quickened his pace, to the despair of the little men

carrying the traps. They finally came up with one of these black bodies of men and found it to be composed

of a considerable number of soldiers who were idly watching some hospital people bury a dead Turk. The

dragoman at once dashed forward to peer through the throng and see the face of the corpse. Then he came

and supplicated Coleman as if he were hawking him to look at a relic and Coleman moved by a strong,

mysterious impulse, went forward to look at the poor little claycoloured body. At that moment a snake ran

out from a tuft of grass at his feet and wriggled wildly over the sod. The dragoman shrieked, of course, but

one of the soldiers put his heel upon the head of the reptile and it flung itself into the agonising knot of death.

Then the whole crowd powwowed, turning from the dead man to the dead snake. Coleman signaled his

This incident, this paragraph, had seemed a strange introduction to war. The snake, the dead man, the entire

sketch, made him shudder of itself, but more than anything he felt an uncanny symbolism. It was no doubt a

mere occurrence; nothing but an occurrence; but inasmuch as all the detail of this daily life associated itself

with Marjory, he felt a different horror. He had thought of the little devildog and Marjory in an interwoven

way. Supposing Marjory had been riding in the diligence with the devildogatop ? What would she have

said ? Of her fund of expressions, a fund uncountable, which would she have innocently projected against the

background of the Greek hills? Would it have smitten her nerves badly or would she have laughed ? And

supposing Marjory could have seen him in his new khaki clothes cursing his dragoman as he listened to the

And now he interwove his memory of Marjory with a dead man and with a snake in the throes of the end of

life. They crossed, intersected, tangled, these two thoughts. He perceived it clearly; the incongruity of it. He

academically reflected upon the mysteries of the human mind, this homeless machine which lives here and

then there and often lives in two or three opposing places at the same instant. He decided that the incident of

the snake and the dead man had no more meaning than the greater number of the things which happen to us in

On a spread of plain they saw a force drawn up in a long line. It was a flagrant inky streak on the verdant

prairie. From somewhere near it sounded the timed reverberations of guns. The brisk walk of the next ten

minutes was actually exciting to Coleman. He could not but reflect that those guns were being fired with

As they drew nearer they saw that the inky streak was composed of cavalry, the troopers standing at their

bridles. The sunlight flicked, upon their bright weapons. Now the dragoman developed in one of his

extraordinary directions. He announced forsooth that an intimate friend was a captain of cavalry in this

command. Coleman at first thought. that this was some kind of mysterious lie, but when he arrived where

they could hear the stamping of hoofs, the clank of weapons, and the murmur of men, behold, a most dashing

young officer gave a shout of joy and he and the dragoman hurled themselves into a mad embrace. After this

first ecstacy was over, the dragoman bethought him of his employer, and looking toward Coleman hastily

explained him to the officer. The latter, it appeared, was very affable indeed. Much had happened. The

Greeks and the Turks had been fighting over a shallow part of the river nearly opposite this point and the

Greeks had driven back the Turks and succeeded in throwing a bridge of casks and planking across the

stream. It was now the duty and the delight of this force of cavalry to cross the bridge and, passing, the little

force of covering Greek infantry, to proceed into Turkey until they came in touch with the enemy.

Coleman's eyes dilated. Was ever fate less perverse ? Partly in wretched French to the officer and partly in

idiomatic English to the dragoman, he proclaimed his fiery desire to accompany the expedition. The officer

immediately beamed upon him. In fact, he was delighted. The dragoman had naturally told him many

falsehoods concerning Coleman, incidentally referring to himself more as a philanthropic guardian and,

valuable friend of the correspondent than as, a plain, unvarnished. dragoman with an exceedingly good eye

Coleman wanted to ask his servant if there was any chance of the scout taking them near Nikopolis, but he

delayed being informed upon this point until such time as he could find out, secretly, for himself. To ask the

dragoman would be mere stupid questioning which would surely make the animal shy. He tried to be content

that fate had given him this early opportunity of dealing with a Medieval situation with some show of proper

form ; that is to say, armed, ahorse back, and in danger. Then he could feel that to the gods of the game he

was not laughable, as when he rode to rescue his love in a diligence with a devil dog yelping atop.

With some flourish, the young captain presented him to the major who commanded the cavalry. This officer

stood with his legs wide apart, eating the rind of a fresh lemon and talking betimes to some of his officers.

The major also beamed upon Coleman when the captain explained that the gentleman in the

distinguishedlooking khaki clothes wished to accompany the expedition. He at once said that he would

provide two troop horses for Coleman and the dragoman. Coleman thanked fate for his behaviour and his

satisfaction was not without a vestige of surprise. At that time he judged it to be a remarkable amiability of

individuals, but in later years he came to believe in certain laws which he deemed existent solely for the

benefit of war correspondents. In the minds of governments, war offices and generals they have no function

save one of disturbance, but Coleman deemed it proven that the common men, and many uncommon men,

when they go away to the fighting ground, out of the sight, out of the hearing of the world known to them,

and are eager to perform feats of war in this new place, they feel an absolute longing for a spectator. It is

indeed the veritable coronation of this world. There is not too much vanity of the street in this desire of men

to have some disinterested fellows perceive their deeds. It is merely that a man doing his best in the middle of

a sea of war, longs to have people see him doing his best. This feeling is often notably serious if, in peace, a

man has done his worst, or part of his worst. Coleman believed that, above everybody, young, proud and

brave subalterns had this itch, but it existed, truly enough, from lieutenants to colonels. None wanted to

conceal from his left hand that his right hand was performing a manly and valiant thing, although there might

be times when an application of the principle would be immensely convenient. The war correspondent arises,

then, to become a sort of a cheap telescope for the people at home; further still, there have been fights where

the eyes of a solitary man were the eyes of the world; one spectator, whose business it was to transfer,

Coleman and his servant were conducted to two saddled troop horses, and beside them, waited decently in the

rear of the ranks. The uniform of the troopers was of plain, dark green cloth and they were well and sensibly

equipped. The mounts, however, had in no way been picked; there were little horses and big horses, fat

horses and thin horses. They looked the result of a wild conscription. Coleman noted the faces of the troopers,

and they were calm enough save when a man betrayed himself by perhaps a disproportionate angry jerk at the

The major, artistically drooping his cloak from his left shoulder and tenderly and musingly fingering his long

yellow moustache, rode slowly to the middle of the line and wheeled his horse to face his men. A bugle

called attention, and then he addressed them in a loud and rapid speech, which did not seem to have an end.

Coleman imagined that the major was paying tribute to the Greek tradition of the power of oratory. Again the

trumpet rang out, and this parade front swung off into column formation. Then Coleman and the dragoman

trotted at the tail of the squadron, restraining with difficulty their horses, who could not understand their new

places in the procession, and worked feverishly to regain what they considered their positions in life.

The column jangled musically over the sod, passing between two hills on one of which a Greek light battery

was posted. Its men climbed to the tops of their interenchments to witness the going of the cavalry. Then the

column curved along over ditch and through hedge to the shallows of the river. Across this narrow stream

was Turkey. Turkey, however, presented nothing to the eye but a muddy bank with fringes of trees back of it.

It seemed to be a great plain with sparse collections of foliage marking it, whereas the Greek side, presented

in the main a vista of high, gaunt rocks. Perhaps one of the first effects of war upon the mind, is a. new

recognition and fear of the circumscribed ability of the eye, making all landscape seem inscrutable. The

cavalry drew up in platoon formation on their own. bank of the stream and waited. If Coleman had known

anything of war, he would have known, from appearances, that there was nothing in the immediate vicinity

to, cause heart jumping, but as a matter of truth he was deeply moved and wondered what was hidden, what

was veiled by those trees. Moreover, the squadrons resembled art old picture of a body of horse awaiting

Napoleon's order to charge. In the, meantime his mount fumed at the bit, plunging to get back to the ranks.

The sky was, without a cloud, and the sun rays swept down upon them. Sometimes Coleman was on the

verge of addressing the dragoman, according to his anxiety, but in the end he simply told him to go to the

At last an order came, and the first troop moved with muffled tumult across the bridge. Coleman and his

dragoman followed the last troop. The horses scrambled up the muddy bank much as if they were merely

breaking out of a pasture, but probably all the men felt a sudden tightening of their muscles. Coleman, in his

excitement, felt, more than he saw, glossy horse flanks, greenclothed men chumping in their saddles,

There were some Greek infantry in a trench. They were heavily overcoated, despite the heat, and some were

engaged in eating loaves of round, thick bread. They called out lustily as the cavalry passed them. The

Presently there was another halt and Coleman saw the major trotting busily here and there, while troop

commanders rode out to meet him. Spreading groups of scouts and flankers moved off and disappeared. Their

dashing young officer friend cantered past them with his troop at his heels. He waved a joyful good bye. It

was the doings of cavalry in actual service, horsemen fanning out in all forward directions. There were two

troops held in reserve, and as they jangled ahead at a foot pace, Coleman and his dragoman followed them.

The dragoman was now moved to erect many reasons for an immediate return. It was plain that he had no

stomach at all for this business, and that he wished himself safely back on the other side of the river. Coleman

looked at him askance. When these men talked together Coleman might as well have been a polar bear for all

he understood of it. When he saw the trepidation of his dragoman, he did not know what it foreboded. In this

situation it was not for him to say that the dragoman's fears were founded on nothing. And ever the dragoman

raised his reasons for a retreat. Coleman spoke to himself. "I am just a trifle rattled," he said to his heart, and

after he had communed for a time upon the duty of steadiness, he addressed the dragoman in cool language. "

Now, my persuasive friend, just quit all that, because business is business, and it may be rather annoying

business, but you will have to go through with it." Long afterward, when ruminating over the feelings of that

morning, he saw with some astonishment that there was not a single thing within sound or sight to cause a

rational being any quaking. He was simply riding with some soldiers over a vast treedotted prairie.

Presently the commanding officer turned in his saddle and told the dragoman that he was going to ride

forward with his orderly to where he could see the flanking parties and the scouts, and courteously, with the

manner of a gentleman entertaining two guests, he asked if the civilians cared to accompany him. The

dragoman would not have passed this question correctly on to Coleman if he had thought he could have

avoided it, but, with both men regarding him, he considered that a lie probably meant instant detection. He

spoke almost the truth, contenting himself with merely communicating to Coleman in a subtle way his sense

that a ride forward with the commanding officer and his orderly would be depressing and dangerous

occupation. But Coleman immediately accepted the invitation mainly because it was the invitation of the

major, and in war it is a brave man who can refuse the invitation of a commanding officer. The little party of

four trotted away from the reserves, curving in single file about the waterholes. In time they arrived at

where the plain lacked trees and was one great green lake of grass; grass and scrubs. On this expanse they

could see the Greek horsemen riding, mainly appearing as little black dots. Far to the left there was a squad

said to be composed of only twenty troopers, but in the distance their black mass seemed to be a regiment.

As the officer and his guests advanced they came in view of what one may call the shore of the plain. The rise

of ground was heavily clad with trees, and over the tops of them appeared the cupola and part of the walls of

a large white house, and there were glimpses of huts near it as if a village was marked. The black specks

seemed to be almost to it. The major galloped forward and the others followed at his pace. The house grew

larger and larger and they came nearly to the advance scouts who they could now see were not quite close to

the village. There had been a deception of the eye precisely as occurs at sea. Herds of unguarded sheep

drifted over the plain and little ownerless horses, still cruelly hobbled, leaped painfully away, frightened, as if

they understood that an anarchy had come upon them. The party rode until they were very nearly up with the

scouts, and then from low down at the very edge of the plain there came a long rattling noise which endured

as if some kind of grinding machine had been put in motion. Smoke arose, faintly marking the position of an

intrenchment. Sometimes a swift spitting could be heard from the air over the party.

It was Coleman's fortune to think at first that the Turks were not firing in his direction, but as soon as he

heard the weird voices in the air he knew that war was upon him. But it was plain that the range was almost

excessive, plain even to his ignorance. The major looked at him and laughed; he found no difficulty in

smiling in response. If this was war, it could be withstood somehow. He could not at this time understand

what a mere trifle was the present incident. He felt upon his cheek a little breeze which was moving the

grassblades. He had tied his canteen in a wrong place on the saddle and every time the horse moved quickly

the canteen banged the correspondent, to his annoyance and distress, forcibly on the knee. He had forgotten

about his dragoman, but happening to look upon that faithful servitor, he saw him gone white with horror. A

bullet at that moment twanged near his head and the slave to fear ducked in a spasm. Coleman called the

orderly's attention and they both laughed discreetly. They made no pretension of being heroes, but they saw

plainly that they were better than this man. Coleman said to him : " How far is it now to Nikopolis ? " The

But of course there was no going to Nikopolis that day. The officer had advanced his men as far as was

intended by his superiors, and presently they were all recalled and trotted back to the bridge. They crossed it

An important part of Coleman's traps was back with his Athenian horses and their groom, but with his present

equipment he could at least lie smoking on his blankets and watch the dragoman prepare food. But he

reflected that for that day he had only attained the simple discovery that the approach to Nikopolis was

The same afternoon Coleman and the dragoman rode up to Arta on their borrowed troop horses. The

correspondent first went to the telegraph office and found there the usual number of despairing clerks. They

were outraged when they found he was going to send messages and thought it preposterous that he insisted

upon learning if there were any in the office for him. They had trouble enough with endless official

communications without being hounded about private affairs by a confident young man in khaki. But

Coleman at last unearthed six cablegrams which collective said that the Eclipse wondered why they did not

hear from him, that Walkley had been relieved from duty in London and sent to join the army of the crown

prince, that young Point, the artist, had been shipped to Greece, that if he, Coleman, succeeded in finding the

Wainwright party the paper was prepared to make a tremendous uproar of a celebration over it and, finally,

When Coleman went forth to enquire if anybody knew of the whereabouts of the Wainwright party he

thought first of his fellow correspondents. He found most of them in a cafe where was to be had about the

only food in the soldierladen town. It was a slothful den where even an ordinary boiled egg could be made

unpalatable. Such a common matter as the salt men watched with greed and suspicion as if they were always

about to grab it from each other. The proprietor, in a dirty shirt, could always be heard whining, evidently

telling the world that he was being abused, but he had spirit enough remaining to charge three prices for

The correspondents consoled themselves largely upon black bread and the native wines. Also there were

certain little oiled fishes, and some green odds and ends for salads. The correspondents were practically all

Englishmen. Some of them were veterans of journalism in the Sudan, in India, in South Africa; and there

were others who knew as much of war as they could learn by sitting at a desk and editing the London stock

reports. Some were on their own hook; some had horses and dragomen and some had neither the one nor the

other; many knew how to write and a few had it yet to learn. The thing in common was a spirit of adventure

which found pleasure in the extraordinary business of seeing how men kill each other.

They were talking of an artillery duel which had been fought the previous day between the Greek batteries

above the town and the Turkish batteries across the river. Coleman took seat at one of the long tables, and the

astute dragoman got somebody in the street to hold the horses in order that he might be present at any

One of the experienced correspondents was remarking that the fire of the Greek batteries in the engagement

had been the finest artillery practice of the century. He spoke a little loudly, perhaps, in the wistful hope that

some of the Greek officers would understand enough English to follow his meaning, for it is always good for

a correspondent to admire the prowess on his own side of the battlefield. After a time Coleman spoke in a

lull, and describing the supposed misfortunes of the Wainwright party, asked if anyone had news of them.

The correspondents were surprised; they had none of them heard even of the existence of a Wainwright party.

Also none of them seemed to care exceedingly. The conversation soon changed to a discussion of the

Coleman silently commented that this remarkable appearance of indifference to the mishap of the

Wainwrights, a little party, a single group, was a better definition of a real condition of war than that bit of

longrange musketry of the morning. He took a certain despatch out of his pocket and again read it. " Find

Wainwright party at all hazards; much talk here; success means red fire by ton. Eclipse." It was an important

matter. He could imagine how the American people, vibrating for years to stories of the cruelty of the Turk,

would trembleindeed, was now tremblingwhile the newspapers howled out the dire possibilities. He saw

all the kinds of people, from those who would read the Wainwright chapters from day to day as a sort of

sensational novel, to those who would work up a gentle sympathy for the woe of others around the table in

the evenings. He saw bar keepers and policemen taking a high gallery thrill out of this kind of romance. He

saw even the emotion among American colleges over the tragedy of a professor and some students. It

certainly was a big affair. Marjory of course was everything in one way, but that, to the world, was not a big

affair. It was the romance of the Wainwright party in its simplicity that to the American world was arousing

great sensation; one that in the old days would have made his heart leap like a colt.

Still, when batteries had fought each other savagely, and horse, foot and guns were now about to make a

general advance, it was difficult, he could see, to stir men to think and feel out of the present zone of action;

to adopt for a time in fact the thoughts and feelings of the other side of the world. It made Coleman dejected

Of course they were men who when at home manifested the most gentle and widereaching feelings; most of

them could not by any possibility have slapped a kitten merely for the prank and yet all of them who had seen

an unknown man shot through the head in battle had little more to think of it than if the man had been a

ragbaby. Tender they might be; poets they might be; but they were all horned with a provisional, temporary,

but absolutely essential callouse which was formed by their existence amid war with its quality of making

them always think of the sights and sounds concealed in their own direct future.

They had been simply polite. " Yes ? " said one to Coleman. "How many people in the party? Are they all

Americans? Oh, I suppose it will be quite right. Your minister in Constantinople will arrange that easily.

Where did you say? At Nikopolis? Well, we conclude that the Turks will make no stand between here and

Pentepigadia. In that case your Nikopolis will be uncovered unless the garrison at Prevasa intervenes. That

" Oh, I think it is about thirty kilometers," replied the others. " There is a good miltary road as soon as you

cross the Louros river. I've got the map of the Austrian general staff. Would you like to look at it?"

Coleman studied the map, speeding with his eye rapidly to and fro between Arta and Nikopolis. To him it

He had received a cordial invitation from the com mander of the cavalry to go with him for another ride into

Turkey, and he inclined to believe that his project would be furthered if he stuck close to the cavalry. So he

rode back to the cavalry camp and went peacefully to sleep on the sod. He awoke in the morning with

chattering teeth to find his dragoman saying that the major had unaccountably withdrawn his loan of the two

troop horses. Coleman of course immediately said to himself that the dragoman was lying again in order to

prevent another expedition into ominous Turkey, but after all if the commander, of the cavalry had suddenly

turned the light of his favour from the correspondent it was only a proceeding consistent with the nature

which Coleman now thought he was beginning to discern, a nature which can never think twice in the same

place, a gageous mind which drifts, dissolves, combines, vanishes with the ability of an aerial thing until the

man of the north feels that when he clutches it with full knowledge of his senses he is only the victim of his

ardent imagination. It is the difference in standards, in creeds, which is the more luminous when men call out

So Coleman and his dragoman loaded their traps and moved out to again invade Turkey. It was not yet clear

daylight, but they felt that they might well start early since they were no longer mounted men.

On the way to the bridge, the dragoman, although he was curiously in love with his forty francs a day and his

opportunities, ventured a stout protest, based apparently upon the fact that after all this foreigner, four days

out from Athens was somewhat at his mercy. " Meester Coleman," he said, stopping suddenly, " I think we

make no good if we go there. Much better we wait Arta for our horse. Much better. I think this no good.

There is coming one big fight and I think much better we go stay Arta. Much better."

" Oh, come off," said Coleman. And in clear language he began to labour with the man. " Look here, now, if

you think you are engaged in steering a bunch of woodenheaded guys about the Acropolis, my dear partner

of my joys and sorrows, you are extremely mistaken. As a matter of fact you are now the dragoman of a war

correspondent and you were engaged and are paid to be one. It becomes necessary that you make good. Make

good, do you understand? I'm not out here to be buncoed by this sort of game." He continued indefinitely in

Perhaps the dragoman was dumbfounded that the laconic Coleman could on occasion talk so much, or

perhaps he understood everything and was impressed by the argumentative power. At any rate he suddenly

wilted. He made a gesture which was a protestation of martyrdom and picking up his burden proceeded on his

When they reached the bridge, they saw strong columns of Greek infantry, dead black in the dim light,

crossing the stream and slowly deploying on the other shore. It was a bracing sight to the dragoman, who then

went into one of his absurd babbling moods, in which he would have talked the head off any man who was

not born in a country laved by the childish Mediterranean. Coleman could not understand what he said to the

Two light batteries had precariously crossed the rickety bridge during the night, and now this force of several

thousand infantry, with the two batteries, was moving out over the territory which the cavalry had

reconnoitered on the previous day. The ground being familiar to Coleman, he no longer knew a tremour, and,

regarding his dragoman, he saw that that invaluable servitor was also in better form. They marched until they

found one of the light batteries unlimbered and aligned on the lake of grass about a mile from where parts of

the white house appeared above the treetops. Here the dragoman talked with the captain of artillery, a tiny

man on an immense horse, who for some unknown reason told him that this force was going to raid into

Turkey and try to swing around the opposing army's right flank. He announced, as he showed his teeth in a

smile, that it would be very, very dangerous work. The dragoman precipitated himself upon Coleman.

" This is much danger. The copten he tell me the trups go now in back of the Turks. It will be much danger. I

think much better we go Arta wait for horse. Much better." Coleman, although be believed he despised the

dragoman, could not help but be influenced by his fears. They were, so to speak, in a room with one window,

and only the dragoman looked forth from the window, so if he said that what he saw outside frightened him,

Coleman was perforce frightened also in a measure. But when the correspondent raised his eyes he saw the

captain of the battery looking at him, his teeth still showing in a smile, as if his information, whether true or

false, had been given to convince the foreigner that the Greeks were a very superior and brave people,

notably one little officer of artillery. He had apparently assumed that Coleman would balk from venturing

with such a force upon an excursion to trifle with the rear of a hard fighting Ottoman army. He exceedingly

disliked that man, sitting up there on his tall horse and grinning like a cruel little ape with a secret. In truth,

Coleman was taken back at the outlook, but he could no more refrain from instantly accepting this

halfconcealed challenge than he could have refrained from resenting an ordinary form of insult. His mind

was not at peace, but the small vanities are very large. He was perfectly aware that he was, being misled into

the thing by an odd pride, but anyhow, it easily might turn out to be a stroke upon the doors of Nikopolis. He

The infantry was moving steadily afield. Black blocks of men were trailing in column slowly over the plain.

They were not unlike the backs of dominoes on a green baize table ; they were so vivid, so startling. The

correspondent and his servant followed them. Eventually they overtook two companies in command of a

captain, who seemed immensely glad to have the strangers with him. As they marched, the captain spoke

through the dragoman upon the virtues of his men, announcing with other news the fact that his first sergeant

A number of columns were moving across the plain parallel to their line of march, and the whole force

seemed to have orders to halt when they reached a long ditch about four hundred yards from where the shore

of the plain arose to the luxuriant groves with the cupola of the big white house sticking above them. The

soldiers lay along the ditch, and the bravest man in the world spread his blanket on the ground for the captain,

Coleman and himself. During a long pause Coleman tried to elucidate the question of why the Greek soldiers

wore heavy overcoats, even in the bitter heat of midday, but he could only learn that the dews, when they

came, were very destructive to the lungs, Further, he convinced himself anew that talking through an

interpreter to the minds of other men was as satisfactory as looking at landscape through a stained glass

After a time there was, in front, a stir near where a curious hedge of dry brambles seemed to outline some sort

of a garden patch. Many of the soldiers exclaimed and raised their guns. But there seemed to come a general

understanding to the line that it was wrong to fire. Then presently into the open came a dirty brown figure,

and Coleman could see through his glasses that its head was crowned with a dirty fez which had once been

white. This indicated that the figure was that of one of the Christian peasants of Epirus. Obedient to the

captain, the sergeant arose and waved invitation. The peasant wavered, changed his mind, was obviously

terrorstricken, regained confidence and then began to advance circuitously toward the Greek lines. When he

arrived within hailing dis tance, the captain, the sergeant, Coleman's dragoman and many of the soldiers

yelled human messages, and a moment later he was seen to be a poor, yellowfaced stripling with a body

which seemed to have been first twisted by an illbirth and afterward maimed by either labour or oppression,

His reception of the Greek soldiery was no less fervid than their welcome of him to their protection. He threw

his grimy fez in the air and croaked out cheers, while tears wet his cheeks. When he had come upon the right

side of the ditch he ran capering among them and the captain, the sergeant, the dragoman and a number of

soldiers received wild embraces and kisses. He made a dash at Coleman, but Coleman was now wary in the

game, and retired dexterously behind different groups with a finished appearance of not noting that the young

Behind the hedge of dry brambles there were more indications of life, and the peasant stood up and made

beseeching gestures. Soon a whole flock of miserable people had come out to the Greeks, men, women and

children, in crude and comic smocks, prancing here and there, uproariously embracing and kissing their

deliverers. An old, tearful, toothless hag flung herself rapturously into the arms of the captain, and Coleman's

brickandiron soul was moved to admiration at the way in which the officer administered a chaste salute

upon the furrowed cheek. The dragoman told the correspondent that the Turks had run away from the village

on up a valley toward Jannina. Everybody was proud and happy. A major of infantry came from the rear at

this time and asked the captain in sharp tones who were the two strangers in civilian attire. When the captain

had answered correctly the major was immediately mollified, and had it announced to the correspondent that

his battalion was going to move immediately into the village, and that he would be delighted to have his

The major strode at the head of his men with the group of villagers singing and dancing about him and

looking upon him as if he were a god. Coleman and the dragoman, at the officer's request, marched one on

either side of him, and in this manner they entered the village. From all sorts of hedges and thickets, people

came creeping out to pass into a delirium of joy. The major borrowed three little pack horses with

ropebridles, and thus mounted and followed by the clanking column, they rode on in triumph.

It was probably more of a true festival than most men experience even in the longest life time. The major

with his Greek instinct of drama was a splendid personification of poetic quality; in fact he was himself

almost a lyric. From time to time he glanced back at Coleman with eyes half dimmed with appreciation. The

people gathered flowers, great blossoms of purple and corn colour. They sprinkled them over the three

horsemen and flung them deliriously under the feet of the little nags. Being now mounted Coleman had no

difficulty in avoiding the embraces of the peasants, but he felt to the tips of his toes an abandonment to a kind

of pleasure with which he was not at all familiar. Riding thus amid cries of thanksgiving addressed at him

equally with the others, he felt a burning virtue and quite lost his old self in an illusion of noble be. nignity.

Miserable little huts straggled along the sides of the village street as if they were following at the heels of the

great white house of the bey. The column proceeded northward, announcing laughingly to the glad villagers

that they would never see another Turk. Before them on the road was here and there a fez from the head of a

fled Turkish soldier and they lay like drops of blood from some wounded leviathan. Ultimately it grew

cloudy. It even rained slightly. In the misty downfall the column of soldiers in blue was dim as if it were

They came to the ruins of a church and there the major halted his battalion. Coleman worried at his dragoman

to learn if the halt was only temporary. It was a long time before there was answer from the major, for he had

drawn up his men in platoons and was addressing them in a speech as interminable as any that Coleman had

heard in Greece. The officer waved his arms and roared out evidently the glories of patriotism and soldierly

honour, the glories of their ancient people, and he may have included any subject in this wonderful speech,

for the reason that he had plenty of time in which to do it. It was impossible to tell whether the oration was a

good one or bad one, because the men stood in their loose platoons without discernible feelings as if to them

this appeared merely as one of the inevitable consequences of a campaign, an established rule of warfare.

Coleman ate black bread and chocolate tablets while the dragoman hovered near the major with the intention

of pouncing upon him for information as soon as his lungs yielded to the strain upon them.

The dragoman at last returned with a very long verbal treatise from the major, who apparently had not been

as exhausted after his speech to the men as one would think. The major had said that he had been ordered to

halt here to form a junction with some of the troops coming direct from Arta, and that he expected that in the

morning the army would be divided and one wing would chase the retreating Turks on toward Jannina, while

the other wing would advance upon Prevasa because the enemy had a garrison there which had not retreated

an inch, and, although it was cut off, it was necessary to send either a force to hold it in its place or a larger

force to go through with the business of capturing it. Else there would be left in the rear of the left flank of a

Greek advance upon Jannina a body of the enemy which at any moment might become active. The major said

that his battalion would probably form part of the force to advance upon Prevasa. Nikopolis was on the road

Coleman spent a long afternoon in the drizzle Enveloped in his macintosh he sat on a boulder in the lee of

one of the old walls and moodily smoked cigars and listened to the ceaseless clatter of tongues. A ray of light

penetrated the mind of the dragoman and he laboured assiduously with wet fuel until he had accomplished a

tin mug of coffee. Bits of cinder floated in it, but Coleman rejoiced and was kind to the dragoman.

The night was of cruel monotony. Afflicted by the wind and the darkness, the correspondent sat with nerves

keyed high waiting to hear the pickets open fire on a night attack. He was so unaccountably sure that there

would be a tumult and panic of this kind at some time of the night that he prevented himself from getting a

reasonable amount of rest. He could hear the soldiers breathing in sleep all about him. He wished to arouse

them from this slumber which, to his ignorance, seemed stupid. The quality of mysterious menace in the great

gloom and the silence would have caused him to pray if prayer would have transported him magically to New

The chill dawn came at last and with a fine elation which ever follows a dismal night in war; an elation which

bounds in the bosom as soon as day has knocked the shackles from a trembling mind. Although Coleman had

slept but a short time he was now as fresh as a total abstainer coming from the bath. He heard the creak of

battery wheels; he saw crawling bodies of infantry moving in the dim light like ghostly processions. He felt a

tremendous virility come with this new hope in the daylight. He again took satis. faction in his sentimental

journey. It was a shining affair. He was on active service, an active service of the heart, and he' felt that he

was a strong man ready to conquer difficulty even as the olden heroes conquered difficulty. He imagined

himself in a way like them. He, too, had come out to fight for love with giants, dragons and witches. He had

The dragoman announced that the major had suddenly lent their horses to some other people, and after

cursing this versatility of interest, he summoned his henchmen and they moved out on foot, following the

sound of the creaking wheels. They came in time to a bridge, and on the side of this bridge was a hard

military road which sprang away in two directions, north and west. Some troops were creeping out the

westward way and the dragoman pointing at them said: " They going Prevasa. That is road to Nikopolis."

Coleman grinned from ear to car and slapped his dragoman violently on the shoulder. For a moment he

Their traps were in the way of being heavy, but they minded little since the dragoman was now a victim of

the influence of Coleman's enthusiasm. The road wound along the base of the mountain range, sheering

around the abutments in wide white curves and then circling into glens where immense trees spread their

shade over it. Some of the great trunks were oppressed with vines green as garlands, and these vines even ran

like verdant foam over the rocks. Streams of translucent water showered down from the hills, and made pools

in which every pebble, every eaf of a water plant shone with magic lustre, and if the bottom of a pool was

only of clay, the clay glowed with sapphire light. The day was fair. The country was part of that land which

turned the minds of its ancient poets toward a more tender dreaming, so that indeed their nymphs would die,

one is sure, in the cold mythology of the north with its storms amid the gloom of pine forests. It was all wine

to Coleman's spirit. It enlivened him to think of success with absolute surety. To be sure one of his boots

began soon to rasp his toes, but he gave it no share of his attention. They passed at a much faster pace than

the troops, and everywhere they met laughter and confidence and the cry. " On to Prevasa! "

At midday they were at the heels of the advance battalion, among its stragglers, taking its white dust into

their throats and eyes. The dragoman was waning and he made a number of attempts to stay Coleman, but no

one could have had influence upon Coleman's steady rush with his eyes always straight to the front as if thus

to symbolize his steadiness of purpose. Rivulets of sweat marked the dust on his face, and two of his toes

were now paining as if they were being burned off. He was obliged to concede a privilege of limping, but he

At nightfall they halted with the outpost batallion of the infantry. All the cavalry had in the meantirne come

up and they saw their old friends. There was a village from which the Christian peasants came and cheered

like a trained chorus. Soldiers were driving a great flock of fat sheep into a corral. They had belonged to a

Turkish bey and they bleated as if they knew that they were now mere spoils of war. Coleman lay on the

steps of the bey's house smoking with his head on his blanket roll. Camp fires glowed off in the fields. He

Within the house, the commander of the cavalry was writing dispatches. Officers clanked up and down the

stairs. The dashing young captain came and said that there would be a general assault on Prevasa at the dawn

of the next day. Afterward the dragoman descended upon the village and in some way wrenched a little grey

horse from an inhabitant. Its pack saddle was on its back and it would very handily carry the traps. In this

matter the dragoman did not consider his master; he considered his own sore back.

Coleman ate more bread and chocolate tablets and also some tinned sardines. He was content with the day's

work. He did not see how he could have improved it. There was only one route by which the Wainwright

party could avoid him, and that was by going to Prevasa and thence taking ship. But since Prevasa was

blockaded by a Greek fleet, he conceived that event to be impossible. Hence, he had them hedged on this

peninsula and they must be either at Nikopolis or Prevasa. He would probably know all early in the morning.

He reflected that he was too tired to care if there might be a night attack and then wrapped in his blankets he

went peacefully to sleep in the grass under a big tree with the crooning of some soldiers around their fire

And now, although the dragoman had performed a number of feats of incapacity, he achieved during the one

hour of Coleman's sleeping a blunder which for real finish was simply a perfection of art. When Coleman,

much later, extracted the full story, it appeared that ringing. events happened during that single hour of sleep.

Ten minutes after he had lain down for a night of oblivion, the battalion of infantry, which had advanced a

little beyond the village, was recalled and began a hurried night march back on the way it had so festively

come. It was significant enough to appeal to almost any mind, but the dragoman was able to not understand

it. He remained jabbering to some acquaintances among the troopers. Coleman had been asleep his hour

when the dashing young captain perceived the dragoman, and completely horrified by his presence at that

place, ran to him and whispered to him swiftly that the game was to flee, flee, flee. The wing of the army

which had advanced northward upon Jannina had already been tumbled back by the Turks and all the other

wing had been recalled to the Louros river and there was now nothing practically between him and his

sleeping master and the enemy but a cavalry picket. The cavalry was immediately going to make a forced

march to the rear. The stricken dragoman could even then see troopers getting into their saddles. He, rushed

to, the, tree, and in. a panic simply bundled Coleman upon his feet before he was awake. He stuttered out his

tale, and the dazed, correspondent heard it punctuated by the steady trample of the retiring cavalry. The

dragoman saw a man's face then turn in a flash from an expression of luxurious drowsiness to an expression

of utter malignancy. However, he was in too much of a hurry to be afraid of it; he ran off to the little grey

horse and frenziedly but skilfully began to bind the traps upon the packsaddle. He appeared in a moment

tugging at the halter. He could only say: "Come! Come! Come! Queek! Queek! " They slid hurriedly down a

bank to the road and started to do again that which they had accomplished with considerable expenditure of

physical power during the day. The hoof beats of the cavalry had already died away and the mountains

The dragoman muttered hastily his last dire rumours. Five hundred Circassian cavalry were coming. The

mountains were now infested with the dread Albanian irregulars, Coleman had thought in his daylight tramp

that he had appreciated the noble distances, but he found that he knew nothing of their nobility until he tried

this night stumbling. And the hoofs of the little horse made on the hard road more noise than could be made

by men beating with hammers upon brazen cylinders. The correspondent glanced continually up at the crags.

From the other side he could sometimes hear the metallic clink of water deep down in a glen. For the first

time in his life he seriously opened the flap of his holster and let his fingers remain on the handle of his

revolver. From just in front of him he could hear the chattering of the dragoman's teeth which no attempt at

more coolness could seem to prevent. In the meantime the casual manner of the little grey horse struck

Coleman with maddening vividness. If the blank darkness was simply filled with ferocious Albanians, the

horse did not care a button; he leisurely put his feet down with a resounding ring. Coleman whispered hastily

to the dragoman. " If they rush us, jump down the bank, no matter how deep it is. That's our only chance. And

All they saw of the universe was, in front of them, a place faintly luminous near their feet, but fading in six

yards to the darkness of a dungeon. This repre sented the bright white road of the day time. It had no end.

Coleman had thought that he could tell from the very feel of the air some of the landmarks of his daytime

journey, but he had now no sense of location at all. He would not have denied that he was squirming on his

belly like a worm through black mud. They went on and on. Visions of his past were sweeping through

Coleman's mind precisely as they are said to sweep through the mind of a drowning person. But he had no

regret for any bad deeds; he regretted merely distant hours of peace and protection. He was no longer a hero

going to rescue his love. He was a slave making a gasping attempt to escape from the most incredible tyranny

of circumstances. He half vowed to himself that if the God whom he had in no wise heeded, would permit

him to crawl out of this slavery he would never again venture a yard toward a danger any greater than may be

incurred from the police of a most proper metropolis. If his juvenile and uplifting thoughts of other days had

reproached him he would simply have repeated and repeated: "Adventure be damned."

It became known to them that the horse had to be led. The debased creature was asserting its right to do as it

had been trained, to follow its customs; it was asserting this right during a situation which required conduct

superior to all training and custom. It was so grossly conventional that Coleman would have understood that

demoniac form of anger which sometimes leads men to jab knives into warm bodies. Coleman from

cowardice tried to induce the dragoman to go ahead leading the horse, and the dragoman from cowardice

tried to induce Coleman to go ahead leading the horse. Coleman of course had to succumb. The dragoman

was only good to walk behind and tearfully whisper maledictions as he prodded the flanks of their tranquil

In the absolute black of the frequent forests, Coleman could not see his feet and he often felt like a man

walking forward to fall at any moment down a thousand yards of chasm. He heard whispers; he saw skulking

figures, and these frights turned out to be the voice of a little trickle of water or the effects of wind among the

Then the poignant thing interpolated. A volley crashed ahead of them some half of a mile away and another

volley answered from a still nearer point. Swishing noises which the correspondent had heard in the air he

now know to have been from the passing of bullets. He and the dragoman came stock still. They heard three

other volleys sounding with the abrupt clamour of a hail of little stones upon a hollow surface. Coleman and

the dragoman came close together and looked into the whites of each other's eyes. The ghastly horse at that

moment stretched down his neck and began placidly to pluck the grass at the roadside. The two men were

equally blank with fear and each seemed to seek in the other some newly rampant manhood upon which he

could lean at this time. Behind them were the Turks. In front of them was a fight in the darkness. In front it

was mathematic to suppose in fact were also the Turks. They were barred; enclosed; cut off. The end was

Even at that moment they heard from behind them the sound of slow, stealthy footsteps. They both wheeled

instantly, choking with this additional terror. Coleman saw the dragoman move swiftly to the side of the road,

ready to jump into whatever abyss happened to be there. Coleman still gripped the halter as if it were in truth

a straw. The stealthy footsteps were much nearer. Then it was that an insanity came upon him as if fear had

flamed up within him until it gave him all the magnificent desperation of a madman. He jerked the grey horse

broadside to the approaching mystery, and grabbing out his revolver aimed it from the top of his improvised

"Halt. Who's there?" He had expected his voice to sound like a groan, but instead it happened to sound clear,

stern, commanding, like the voice of a young sentry at an encampment of volunteers. He did not seem to have

He waited then, blanched and hopeless, for death to wing out of the darkness and strike him down. He heard a

voice. The voice said: " Do you speak English? " For one or two seconds he could not even understand

English, and then the great fact swelled up and within him. This voice with all its new quavers was still

A CHANGE flashed over Coleman as if it had come from an electric storage. He had known the professor

long, but he had never before heard a quaver in his voice, and it was this little quaver that seemed to impel

him to supreme disregard of the dangers which he looked upon as being the final dangers. His own voice had

When he spoke, he spoke in a low tone, it was the voice of the master of the situation. He could hear his

dupes fluttering there in the darkness. " Yes," he said, " I speak English. There is some danger. Stay where

you are and make no noise." He was as cool as an iced drink. To be sure the circumstances had in no wise

changed as to his personal danger, but beyond the important fact that there were now others to endure it with

him, he seemed able to forget it in a strange, unauthorized sense of victory. It came from the professor's

Meanwhile he had forgotten the dragoman, but he recalled him in time to bid him wait. Then, as well

concealed as a monk hiding in his cowl, he tiptoed back into a group of people who knew him intimately.

He discerned two women mounted on little horses and about them were dim men. He could hear them

breathing hard. " It is all right" he began smoothly. "You only need to be very careful"

Suddenly out of the blackness projected a half phosphorescent face. It was the face of the little professor. He

stammered. " Wewedo you really speak English? " Coleman in his feeling of superb triumph could almost

have laughed. His nerves were as steady as hemp, but he was in haste and his haste allowed him to administer

" Didn't you hear me ? " he hissed through his tightening lips. " They are fighting just ahead of us on the road

Another face loomed faintly like a mask painted in dark grey. It belonged to Coke, and it was a mask figured

in profound stupefaction. The lips opened and tensely breathed out the name: " Coleman." Instantly the

correspondent felt about him that kind of a tumult which tries to suppress itself. He knew that it was the most

theatric moment of his life. He glanced quickly toward the two figures on horseback. He believed that one

was making foolish gesticulation while the other sat rigid and silent. This latter one he knew to be Marjory.

He was content that she did not move. Only a woman who was glad he had come but did not care for him

would have moved. This applied directly to what he thought he knew of Marjory's nature.

There was confusion among the students, but Coleman suppressed it as in such situation might a centurion. "

Sssteady! " He seized the arm of the professor and drew him forcibly close. " The condition is this," he

whispered rapidly. "We are in a fix with this fight on up the road. I was sent after you, but I can't get you into

the Greek lines tonight. Mrs.Wainwright and Marjory must dismount and I and my man will take the horses

on and hide them. All the rest of you must go up about a hundred feet into the woods and hide. When I come

back, I'll hail you and you answer low." The professor was like pulp in his grasp. He choked out the word

"Coleman" in agony and wonder, but he obeyed with a palpable gratitude. Coleman sprang to the side of the

shadowy figure of Marjory. " Come," he said authoritatively. She laid in his palm a little icy cold hand and

dropped from her horse. He had an impulse to cling to the small fingers, but he loosened them immediately,

im parting to his manner, as well as the darkness per mitted him, a kind of casual politeness as if he were

too intent upon the business in hand. He bunched the crowd and pushed them into the wood. Then he and the

dragoman took the horses a hundred yards onward and tethered them. No one would care if they were stolen;

the great point was to get them where their noise would have no power of revealing the whole party. There

After he had tied the little grey horse to a tree he unroped his luggage and carried the most of it back to the

point where the others had left the road. He called out cautiously and received a sibilant answer. He and the

dragoman bunted among the trees until they came to where a forlorn company was seated awaiting them

lifting their faces like frogs out of a pond. His first question did not give them any assurance. He said at once:

"Are any of you armed?" Unanimously they lowly breathed: "No." He searched them out one by one and

finally sank down by the professor. He kept sort of a hypnotic handcuff upon the dragoman, because he

foresaw that this man was really going to be the key to the best means of escape. To a large neutral party

wandering between hostile lines there was technically no danger, but actually there was a great deal. Both

armies had too many irregulars, lawless hillsmen come out to fight in their own way, and if they were

encountered in the dead of night on such hazardous ground the Greek hillsmen with their white cross on a

blue field would be precisely as dangerous as the bloodhungry Albanians. Coleman knew that the rational

way was to reach the Greek lines, and he had no intention of reaching the Greek lines without a tongue, and

the only tongue was in the mouth of the dragoman. He was correct in thinking that the professor's deep

knowledge of the ancient language would give him small clue to the speech of the modern Greek.

As he settled himself by the professor the band of students, eight in number pushed their faces close.

He did not see any reason for speaking. There were thirty seconds of deep silence in which he felt that all

were bending to hearken to his words of counsel The professor huskily broke the stillness. Well * * * what

Coleman was decisive, indeed absolute. "We'll stay here until daylight unless you care to get shot."

" All right," answered the professor. He turned and made a useless remark to his flock. " Stay here."

Coleman asked civilly, " Have you had anything to eat? Have you got anything to wrap around you ? "

" We have absolutely nothing," answered the professor. " Our servants ran away and * * and then we left

Coleman moved softly in the darkness and unbuckled some of his traps. On his knee he broke the hard cakes

of bread and with his fingers he broke the little tablets of chocolate. These he distributed to his people. And at

this time he felt fully the appreciation of the conduct of the eight American college students They had not yet

said a wordwith the exception of the bewildered exclamation from Coke. They all knew him well. In any

circumstance of life which as far as he truly believed, they had yet encountered, they would have been

privileged to accost him in every form of their remarkable vocabulary. They were as new to this game as,

would have been eight newlycaught Apache Indians if such were set to run the elevators in the Tract Society

Building. He could see their eyes gazing at him anxiously and he could hear their deep drawn breaths. But

they said no word. He knew that they were looking upon him as their leader, almost as their saviour, and he

knew also that they were going to follow him without a murmur in the conviction that he knew tenfold more

than they knew. It occurred to him that his position was ludicrously false, but, anyhow, he was glad. Surely it

would be a very easy thing to lead them to safety in the morning and he foresaw the credit which would come

to him. He concluded that it was beneath his dignity as preserver to vouchsafe them many words. His

business was to be the cold, masterful, enigmatic man. It might be said that these reflections were only

halfthoughts in his mind. Meanwhile a section of his intellect was flying hither and thither, speculating upon

He unbuckled his blanket roll and taking one blanket placed it about the shoulders of the shadow which was

Mrs.Wainwright. The shadow protested incoherently,. hut he muttered "Oh that's all right." Then he took his

other blanket and went to the shadow which was Marjory. It was something like putting a wrap about the

shoulders of a statue. He was base enough to linger in the hopes that he could detect some slight trembling

but as far as lie knew she was of stone. His macintosh he folded around the body of the professor amid quite

senile protest, so senile that the professor seemed suddenly proven to him as an old, old man, a fact which

had never occurred to Washurst or her children. Then he went to the dragoman and preempted half of his

blankets, The dragoman grunted but Coleman It would not do to have this dragoman develop a luxurious

temperament when eight American college students were, without speech, shivering in the cold night.

Coleman really begun to ruminate upon his glory, but he found that he could not do this well without

Smoking, so he crept away some distance from this fireless, encampment, and bending his face to the ground

at the foot of a tree he struck a match and lit a cigar. His retun to the others would have been somewhat in the

manner of coolness as displayed on the stage if he had not been prevented by the necessity of making no

noise. He saw regarding him as before the dimly visible eyes of the eight students and Marjory and her father

and mother. Then he whispered the conventional words. " Go to sleep if you can. You'll need your strength in

the morning. I and this man here will keep watch." Three of the college students of course crawled up to him

and each said: " I'll keep watch, old man." " No. We'll keep watch. You people try to sleep."

He deemed that it might be better to yield the dragoman his blanket, and So he got up and leaned against a

tree, holding his hand to cover the brilliant point of his cigar. He knew perfectly well that none of them could

sleep. But he stood there somewhat like a sentry without the attitude, but with all the effect of responsibility.

He had no doubt but what escape to civilisation would be easy, but anyhow his heroism should be preserved.

He was the rescuer. His thoughts of Marjory were somewhat in a puzzle. The meeting had placed him in such

a position that he had expected a lot of condescension on his own part. Instead she had exhibited about as

much recognition of him as would a stone fountain on his grandfather's place in Connecticut. This in his

opinion was not the way to greet the knight who had come to the rescue of his lady. He had not expected it so

to happen. In fact from Athens to this place he had engaged himself with imagery of possible meetings. He

was vexed, certainly, but, far beyond that, he knew a deeper adminiration for this girl. To him she represented

the sex, and so the sex as embodied in her seemed a mystery to be feared. He wondered if safety came on the

morrow he would not surrender to this feminine invulnerability. She had not done anything that he had

expected of her and so inasmuch as he loved her he loved her more. It was bewitching. He half considered

himself a fool. But at any rate he thought resentfully she should be thankful to him for having rendered her a

great service. However, when he came to consider this proposition he knew that on a basis of absolute manly

COLEMAN suddenly found himself looking upon his pallid dragoman. He saw that he had been asleep

crouched at the foot of the tree. Without any exchange of speech at all he knew there had been alarming

noises. Then shots sounded from nearby. Some were from rifles aimed in that direction and some were from

rifles opposed to them. This was distinguishable to the experienced man, but all that Coleman knew was that

the conditions of danger were now triplicated. Unconsciously he stretched his hands in supplication over his

charges. "Don't move! Don't move! And keep close to the ground!" All heeded him but Marjory. She still sat

straight. He himself was on his feet, but he now knew the sound of bullets, and he knew that no bullets had

spun through the trees. He could not see her distinctly, but it was known to him in some way that she was

mutinous. He leaned toward her and spoke as harshly as possible. "Marjory, get down! " She wavered for a

moment as if resolved to defy him. As he turned again to peer in the direction of the firing it went through his

mind that she must love him very much indeed. He was assured of it. It must have been some small outpour

between nervous pickets and eager hillsmen, for it ended in a moment. The party waited in abasement for

what seemed to them a time, and the blue dawn began, to laggardly shift the night as they waited. The dawn

itself seemed prodigiously long in arriving at anything like discernible landscape. When this was

consummated, Coleman, in somewhat the manner of the father of a church, dealt bits of chocolate out to the

others. He had already taken the precaution to confer with the dragoman, so he said : " Well, come ahead.

We'll make a try for it." They arose at his bidding and followed him to the road. It was the same broad, white

road, only that the white was in the dawning something like the grey of a veil. It took some courage to

venture upon this thoroughfare, but Coleman stepped outafter looking quickly in both directions. The party

tramped to where the horses had been left, and there they were found without change of a rope. Coleman

rejoiced to see that his dragoman now followed him in the way of a good lieutenant. They both dashed in

among the trees and had the horses out into the road in a twinkle. When Coleman turned to direct that utterly

subservient, group he knew that his face was drawn from hardship and anxiety, but he saw everywhere the

same style of face with the exception of the face of Marjory, who looked simply of lovely marble. He noted

with a curious satisfaction, as if the thing was a tribute to himself, that his macintosh was over the professor's

shoulder, that Marjory and her mother were each carrying a blanket, and that, the corps of students had

He addressed them to say: " Now, approaching outposts is very dangerous business at this time in the

morning. So my man, who can talk both Greek and Turkish, will go ahead forty yards, and I will follow

He directed the ladies upon their horses and placed the professor upon the little grey nag. Then they took up

their line of march. The dragoman had looked somewhat dubiously upon this plan of having him go forty

yards in advance, but he had the utmost confidence in this new Coleman, whom yesterday he had not known.

Besides, he himself was a very gallant man indeed, and it befitted him to take the post of danger before the

eyes of all these foreigners. In his new position he was as proud and unreasonable as a rooster. He was

continually turning his head to scowl back at them, when only the clank of hoofs was sounding. An

impenetrable mist lay on the valley and the hilltops were shrouded. As for the people, they were like mice.

Coleman paid no attention to the Wainwright party, but walked steadily along near the dragoman.

Perhaps the whole thing was a trifle absurd, but to a great percentage, of the party it was terrible. For

instance, those eight boys, fresh from a school, could in no wise gauge the dimensions. And if this was true of

the students, it was more distinctly true of Marjory and her mother. As for the professor, he seemed Weighted

Suddenly the dragoman wheeled and made demoniac signs. Coleman halfturned to survey the main body,

and then paid his attention swiftly to the front. The white road sped to the top of a hill where it seemed to

make a rotund swing into oblivion. The top of the curve was framed in foliage, and therein was a horseman.

He had his carbine slanted on his thigh, and his bridlereins taut. Upon sight of them he immediately wheeled

The dragoman was throwing wild gestures into the air. As Coleman looked back at the Wainwright party he

saw plainly that to an ordinary eye they might easily appear as a strong advance of troops. The peculiar light

would emphasize such theory. The dragoman ran to him jubilantly, but he contained now a form of

intelligence which caused him to whisper; " That was one Greek. That was one Greekwhat do you

Coleman addressed the others. He said: "It's all right. Come ahead. That was a Greek picket. There is only

His obedient charges came forward at his word. When they arrived at the top of this rise they saw nothing.

Coleman was very uncertain. He was not sure that this picket had not carried with him a general alarm, and in

that case there would soon occur a certain amount of shooting. However, as far as he understood the business,

there was no way but forward. Inasmuch as he did not indicate to the Wainwright party that he wished them

to do differently, they followed on doggedly after him and the dragoman. He knew now that the dragoman's

heart had for the tenth time turned to dogbiscuit, so he kept abreast of him. And soon together they walked

into a cavalry outpost, commanded by no less a person than the dashing young captain, who came laughing

Suddenly losing all colour of war, the condition was now such as might occur in a drawing room. Coleman

felt the importance of establishing highly conventional relations between the captain and the Wainwright

party. To compass this he first seized his dragoman, and the dragoman, enlightened immediately, spun a

series of lies which must have led the captain to believe that the entire heart of the American republic had

been taken out of that western continent and transported to Greece. Coleman was proud of the captain, The

latter immediately went and bowed in the manner of the French school and asked everybody to have a cup of

coffee, although acceptation would have proved his ruin and disgrace. Coleman refused in the name of

courtesy. He called his party forward, and now they proceeded merely as one crowd. Marjory had dismounted

The moment was come. Coleman felt it. The first rush was from the students. Immediately he was buried in a

thrashing mob of them. "Good boy! Good boy! Great man! Oh, isn't he a peach? How did he do it? He came

in strong at the finish ! Good boy, Coleman!" Through this mist of glowing youthful congratulatioin he saw

the professor standing at the outskirts with direct formal thanks already moving on his lips, while near him

his wife wept joyfully. Marjory was evidently enduring some inscrutable emotion.

After all, it did penetrate his mind that it was indecent to accept all this wild gratitude, but there was built

within him no intention of positively declaring himself lacking in all credit, or at least, lacking in all credit in

the way their praises defined it. In truth he had assisted them, but he had been at the time largely engaged in

assisting himself, and their coming had been more of a boon to his loneliness than an addition to his care.

However, he soon had no difficulty in making his conscience appropriate every line in these hymns sung in

his honour. The students, curiously wise of men, thought his conduct quite perfect. " Oh, say, come off ! " he

protested. " Why, I didn't do anything. You fellows are crazy. You would have gotten in all right by

As soon as the professor had opportunity he came to Coleman. He was a changed little man, and his

extraordinary bewilderment showed in his face. It was the disillusion and amazement of a stubborn mind that

had gone implacably in its one direction and found in the end that the direction was all wrong, and that really

a certain mental machine had not been infallible. Coleman remembered what the American minister in

Athens had described of his protests against the starting of the professor's party on this journey, and of the

complete refusal of the professor to recognise any value in the advice. And here now was the consequent

defeat. It was mirrored in the professor's astonished eyes. Coleman went directly to his dazed old teacher. "

Well, you're out of it now, professor," he said warmly. " I congratulate you on your escape, sir." The

professor looked at him, helpless to express himself, but the correspondent was at that time suddenly

enveloped in the hysterical gratitude of Mrs. Wainwright, who hurled herself upon him with extravagant

manifestations. Coleman played his part with skill. To both the professor and Mrs. Wainwright his manner

was a combination of modestly filial affection and a pretentious disavowal of his having done anything at all.

It seemed to charm everybody but Marjory. It irritated him to see that she was apparently incapable of

He was actually compelled to go to her and offer congratulations upon her escape, as he had congratulated the

professor. If his manner to her parents had been filial, his manner to her was parental. " Well, Marjory," he

said kindly, "you have been in considerable danger. I suppose you're glad to be through with it." She at that

time made no reply, but by her casual turn he knew that he was expected to walk along by her side. The

others knew it, too, and the rest of the party left them free to walk side by side in the rear.

" This is a beautiful country hereabouts if one gets a good chance to see it," he remarked. Then he added:

Did you note those streams from the mountains " That seemed to me the purest water I'd ever seen, but I bet it

would make one ill to drink it. There is, you know, a prominent German chemist who has almost proven that

There was a period of silence, during which he was perfectly comfortable because he knew that she was ill at

ease. If the silence was awkward, she was suffering from it. As for himself, he had no inclination to break it.

His position was, as far as the entire Wainwright party was concerned, a place where he could afford to wait.

She turned to him at last. "Of course, I know how much you have done for us, and I want you to feel that we

all appreciate it deeplydeeply." There was discernible to the ear a certain note of desperation.

" Oh, not at all," he said generously. " Not at all. I didn't do anything. It was quite an accident. Don't let that

"Well, of course you would say that," she said more steadily. " But Iwewe know how good and howbrave

As a matter of fact," replied Coleman, with an appearance of ingenuous candor, " I was sent out here by the

Eclipse to find you people, and of course I worked rather hard to reach you, but the final meeting was purely

As he had anticipated, Marjory shot him a little glance of disbelief. " Of course you would say that," she

" Oh, if I had been a great hero," he said smiling, "no doubt I would have kept up this same manner which

now sets so well upon me, but I am telling you the truth when I say that I had no part in your rescue at all."

She became slightly indignant. " Oh, if you care to tell us constantly that you were of no service to us, I don't

Suddenly he felt vulgar. He spoke to her this time with real meaning. " I beg of 'you never to mention it

He replied "How do you like Greece? Don't you think that some of these ruins are rather out of shape in the

popular mind? Now, for my part, I would rather look at a good strong finish at a horserace than to see ten

She was immediately in the position of defending him from himself. "You would rather see no such thing.

You shouldn't talk in that utterly trivial way. I like the Parthenon, of course, but I can't think of it now

" Naturally," she answered. " I suppose I was more frightened for mother and father, but I was frightened

"No, it wasn't," said Coleman. "I could hardly believe my senses, when the minister at Athens told me that,

you all had ventured into such a trap, and there is no doubt but what you can be glad that you are well out of

She seemed to have some struggle with herself and then she deliberately said: "Thanks to you."

Coleman embarked on what he intended to make a series of highminded protests. " Not at all" but at that

moment the dragoman whirled back from the vanguard with a great collection of the difficulties which had

been gathering upon him. Coleman was obliged to resign Marjory and again take up the active leadership. He

disposed of the dragoman's difficulties mainly by declaring that they were not difficulties at all. He had

learned that this was the way to deal with dragomen. The fog had already lifted from the valley and, as they

passed along the wooded mountainside the fragrance of leaves and earth came to them. Ahead, along the

hooded road, they could see the blue clad figures of Greek infantrymen. Finally they passed an encampment

of a battalion whose line was at a right angle to the highway. A hundred yards in advance was the bridge

across the Louros river. And there a battery of artillery was encamped. The dragoman became involved in all

sorts of discussions with other Greeks, but Coleman stuck to his elbow and stifled all aimless oration. The

Across a plain, the hills directly behind Arta loomed up showing the straight yellow scar of a modern

entrenchment. To the north of Arta were some grey mountains with a dimly marked road winding to the

summit. On one side of this road were two shadows. It took a moment for the eye to find these shadows, but

when this was accomplished it was plain that they were men. The captain of the battery explained to the

dragoman that he did not know that they were not also Turks. In which case the road to Arta was a dangerous

path. It was no good news to Coleman. He waited a moment in order to gain composure and then walked

back to the Wainwright party. They must have known at once from his peculiar gravity that all was not well.

He had at first some oldfashioned idea of concealing the ill tidings from the ladies, but he perceived what

flagrant nonsense this would be in circumstances in which all were fairly likely to incur equal dangers, and at

any rate he did not see his way clear to allow their imagination to run riot over a situation which might not

turn out to be too bad. He said slowly: " You see those mountains over there? Well, troops have been seen

there and the captain of this battery thinks they are Turks. If they are Turks the road to Arta is

This new blow first affected the Wainwright party as being too much to endure. " They thought they had gone

through enough. This was a general sentiment. Afterward the emotion took colour according to the individual

Another student piped out: " How do they know they are Turks? What makes them think they are Turks "

Another student expressed himself with a sigh. "This is a long way from the Bowery."

The professor said nothing but looked annihilated; Mrs. Wainwright wept profoundly; Marjory looked

As for the correspondent he was adamantine and reliable and stern, for he had not the slightest idea that those

"OH," said a student, " this game ought to quit. I feel like thirty cents. We didn't come out here to be pursued

Coleman was remarking: "Really, the only sensible thing to do now is to have breakfast. There is no use in

They spread the blankets on the ground and sat about a feast of bread, water cress and tinned beef. Coleman

was the real host, but he contrived to make the professor appear as that honourable person. They ate, casting

their eyes from time to time at the distant mountain with its two shadows. People began to fly down the road

from Jannina, peasants hurriedly driving little flocks, women and children on donkeys and little horses which

they clubbed unceasingly. One man rode at a gallop, shrieking and flailing his arms in the air. They were all

Christian peasants of Turkey, but they were in flight now because they did not wish to be at home if the Turk

was going to return and reap revenge for his mortification. The Wainwright party looked at Coleman in

Suddenly the dragoman gave a shout and dashed up the road to the scene of a melee where a little ratfaced

groom was vociferously defending three horses from some Greek officers, who as vociferously were stating

their right to requisition them. Coleman ran after his dragoman. There was a sickening powwow, but in the

end Coleman, straight and easy in the saddle, came cantering back on a superb openmouthed snorting bay

horse. He did not mind if the halfwild animal plunged crazily. It was part of his role. "They were trying to

steal my horses," he explained. He leaped to the ground, and holding the horse by the bridle, he addressed his

admiring companions. " The groom the man who has charge of the horses says that he thinks that the

people on the mountainside are Turks, but I don't see how that is possible. You see" he pointed wisely"

that road leads directly south to Arta, and it is hardly possible that the Greek army would come over here and

leave that approach to Arta utterly unguarded. It would be too foolish. They must have left some men to

cover it, and that is certainly what those troops are. If you are all ready and willing, I don't see anything to do

but make a good, stouthearted dash for Arta. It would be no more dangerous than to sit here." The professor

was at last able to make his formal speech. " Mr. Coleman," he said distinctly, "we place ourselves entirely in

your hands." It was some. how pitiful. This man who, for years and years had reigned in a little college town

almost as a monarch, passing judgment with the air of one who words the law, dealing criticism upon the

universe as one to whom all things are plain, publicly disdaining defeat as one to whom all things are

easythis man was now veritably appealing to Coleman to save his wife, his daughter and himself, and really

declared himself de. pendent for safety upon the ingenuity and courage of the correspondent.

The attitude of the students was utterly indifferent. They did not consider themselves helpless at all. they

were evidently quite ready to withstand anything but they looked frankly up to Coleman as their intelligent

leader. If they suffered any, their only expression of it was in the simple grim slang of their period.

" This is not so bad as trigonometry, but it's worse than playing billiards for the beers."

And Coke said privately to Coleman: " Say, what in hell are these two damn peoples fighting for, anyhow? "

When he saw that all opinions were in favour of following him loyally, Coleman was impelled to feel a

responsibility. He was now no errant rescuer, but a properly elected leader of fellow beings in distress. While

one of the students held his horse, he took the dragoman for another consultation with the captain of the

battery. The officer was sitting on a large stone, with his eyes fixed into his field glasses. When again

questioned he could give no satisfaction as to the identity of the troops on the distant mountain. He merely

shrugged his shoulders and said that if they were Greeks it was very good, but if they were Turks it was very

bad. He seemed more occupied in trying to impress the correspondent that it was a matter of soldierly

indifference to himself. Coleman, after loathing him sufficiently in silence, returned to the others and said: "

They looked to him to arrange the caravan. Speaking to the men of the party he said: " Of course, any one of

you is welcome to my horse if you can ride it, butif you're not too tiredI think I had myself better ride, so

His manner was so fine as he said this that the students seemed fairly to worship him. Of course it had been

most improbable that any of them could have ridden that volcanic animal even if one of them had tried it.

He saw Mrs. Wainwright and Marjory upon the backs of their two little natives, and hoisted the professor into

the saddle of the groom's horse, leaving instructions with the servant to lead the animal always and carefully.

He and the dragoman then mounted at the head of the procession, and amid curious questionings from the

soldiery they crossed the bridge and started on the trail to Arta. The rear was brought up by the little grey

Coleman, checking with difficulty the battling disposition of his horse, was very uneasy in his mind because

the last words of the captain of the battery had made him feel that perhaps on this ride he would be placed in

a position where only the best courage would count, and he did not see his way clear to feeling very confident

about his conduct in such a case. Looking back upon the caravan, he saw it as a most unwieldy thing, not

even capable of running away. He hurried it with sudden, sharp contemptuous phrases.

On the. march there incidentally flashed upon him a new truth. More than half of that student band were

deeply in love with Marjory. Of course, when he had been distant from her he had had an eternal jealous

reflection to that effect. It was natural that he should have thought of the intimate camping relations between

Marjory and these young students with a great deal of bitterness, grinding his teeth when picturing their

opportunities to make Marjory fall in love with some one of them. He had raged particularly about Coke,

whose father had millions of dollars. But he had forgotten all these jealousies in the general splendour of his

exploits. Now, when he saw the truth, it seemed. to bring him back to his common life and he saw himself

suddenly as not being frantically superior in any way to those other young men. The more closely he looked

at this last fact, the more convinced he was of its truth. He seemed to see that he had been impropererly elated

over his services to the Wainwrights, and that, in the end, the girl might fancy a man because the man had

done her no service at all. He saw his proud position lower itself to be a pawn in the game. Looking back

over the students, he wondered which one Marjory might love. This hideous Nikopolis had given eight men

chance to win her. His scorn and his malice quite centered upon Coke, for he could never forget that the

man's father had millions of dollars. The unfortunate Coke chose that moment to address him querulously :

"Coke," said Coleman, " I don't suppose you take me for a tourist agency, but if you can only try to

distinguish between me and a map with the scale of miles printed in the lower left hand corner, you will not

The march was not rapid. Coleman almost wore out his arms holding in check his impetuous horse. Often the

caravan floundered through mud, while at the same time a hot, yellow dust came from the north.

They were perhaps half way to Arta when Coleman decided that a rest and luncheon were the things to be

considered. He halted his troop then in the shade of some great trees, and privately he bade his dragoman

prepare the best feast which could come out of those saddlebags fresh from Athens. The result was rather

gorgeous in the eyes of the poor wanderers. First of all there were three knives, three forks, three spoons,

three tin cups and three tin plaies, which the entire party of twelve used on a most amiable socialistic

principle. There were crisp, salty biscuits and olives, for which they speared in the bottle. There was potted

turkey, and potted ham, and potted tongue, all tasting precisely alike. There were sardines and the ordinary

tinned beef, disguised sometimes with onions, carrots and potatoes. Out of the saddlebags came pepper and

salt and even mustard. The dragoman made coffee over a little fire of sticks that blazed with a white light.

The whole thing was prodigal, but any philanthropist would have approved of it if he could have seen the

way in which the eight students laid into the spread. When there came a polite remonstrancenotably from

Mrs. WainwrightColeman merely pointed to a large bundle strapped back of the groom's saddle. During the

coffee he was considering how best to get the students one by one out of the sight of the Wainwrights where

There was an agitation on the road toward Arta. Some people were coming on horses. He paid small heed

until he heard a thump of pausing hoofs near him, and a musical voice say: "Rufus! "

He looked up quickly, and then all present saw his eyes really bulge. There on a fat and glossy horse sat Nora

Black, dressed in probably one of the most correct riding habits which had ever been seen in the East. She

was smiling a radiant smile, which held the eight students simpty spellbound. They would have recognised

her if it had not been for this apparitional coming in the wilds of southeastern Europe. Behind her were her

peoplesome servants and an old lady on a very little pony. " Well, Rufus? " she said.

Coleman made the mistake of hesitating. For a fraction of a moment he had acted as if he were embarrassed,

He arose and came forward too late. She was looking at him with a menacing glance which meant difficulties

for him if he was not skilful. Keen as an eagle, she swept her glance over the face and figure of Marjory.

Without. further introduction, the girls seemed to understand that they were enemies.

Despite his feeling of awkwardness, Coleman's mind was mainly occupied by pure astonishment. "Nora

Black? " he said, as if even then he could not believe his senses. " How in the world did you get down here ?

She was not too amiable, evidently, over his reception, and she seemed to know perfectly that it was in her

power to make him feel extremely unpleasant. " Oh, it's not so far," she answered. " I don't see where you

come in to ask me what I'm doing here. What are you doing here? " She lifted her eyes and shot the half of a

glance at Marjory. Into her last question she had interjected a spirit of ownership in which he saw future woe.

It turned him cowardly. " Why, you know I was sent up here by the paper to rescue the Wainwright party, and

" I am here," she said, giving him the most defiant of glances, " principally to look for you."

Even the horse she rode betrayed an intention of abiding upon that spot forever. She had made her

communication with Coleman appear to the Wainwright party as a sort of tender reunion.

Coleman looked at her with a steely eye. "Nora, you can certainly be a devil when you choose."

" Why don't you present me to your friends? Mis,; Nora Black, special correspondent of the New York

Daylighi, if you please. I belong to your opposition. I am your rival, Rufus, and I draw a bigger salarysee?

"Erwhere you goin'you can't "blundered Coleman miserably "Awthe army is in retreat and you must go

"Is it?" she agked. After a pause she added coolly: "Then I shall go back to Arta with you and your precious

GIVING Coleman another glance of subtle menace Nora repeated: "Why don't you present me to your

friends? " Coleman had been swiftly searching the whole world for a way clear of this unhappiness, but he

knew at last that he could only die at his guns. " Why, certainly," he said quickly, " if you wish it." He

sauntered easily back to the luncheon blanket. "This is Miss Black of the New York Daylight and she says

that those people on the mountain are Greeks." The students were gaping at him, and Marjory and her father

sat in the same silence. But to the relief of Coleman and to the high edification of the students, Mrs.

Wainwright cried out: " Why, is she an American woman? " And seeing Coleman's nod of assent she rustled

to her feet and advanced hastily upon the complacent horsewoman. " I'm delighted to see you. Who would

think of seeing an American woman way over here. Have you been here long? Are you going on further? Oh,

we've had such a dreadful time." Coleman remained long enough to hear Nora say: " Thank you very much,

Then he heard Mrs. Wainwright cry: " Oh, are you indeed ? Why we, too, are going at once to Arta. We can

all go together." Coleman fled then to the bosom of the students, who all looked at him with eyes of cynical

penetration. He cast a glance at Marjory more than fearing a glare which denoted an implacable resolution

never to forgive this thing. On the contrary he had never seen her so content and serene. "You have allowed

your coffee to get chilled," she said considerately. "Won't you have the man warm you some more?"

Nora, changing her mind, had dismounted and was coming with Mrs. Wainwright. That worthy lady had long

had a fund of information and anecdote the sound of which neither her husband nor her daughter would

endure for a moment. Of course the rascally students were out of the question. Here, then, was really the first

ear amiably and cheerfully open, and she was talking at what the students called her "thirty knot gait."

"Lost everything. Absolutely everything. Neither of us have even a brush and comb, or a cake of soap, or

enough hairpins to hold up our hair. I'm going to take Marjory's away from her and let her braid her hair

From time to time the cool voice of Nora sounded without effort through this clamour. " Oh, it will be no

trouble at all. I have more than enough of everything. We can divide very nicely."

Coleman broke somewhat imperiously into this feminine chat. "Well, we must be moving, you know, " and

his voice started the men into activity. When the traps were all packed again on the horse Coleman looked

back surprised to see the three women engaged in the most friendly discussion. The combined parties now

made a very respectable squadron. Coleman rode off at its head without glancing behind at all. He knew that

they were following from the soft pounding of the horses hoofs on the sod and from the mellow hum of

For a long time he did not think to look upon himself as anything but a man much injured by circumstances.

Among his friends he could count numbers who had lived long lives without having this peculiar class of

misfortune come to them. In fact it was so unusual a misfortune that men of the world had not found it

necessary to pass from mind to mind a perfec t formula for dealing with it. But he soon began to consider

himself an extraordinarily lucky person inasmuch as Nora Black had come upon him with her saddle bags

packed with inflammable substances, so to speak, and there had been as yet only enough fire to boil coffee

for luncheon. He laughed tenderly when he thought of the innocence of Mrs. Wainwright, but his face and

back flushed with heat when lie thought of the canniness of the eight American college students.

He heard a horse cantering up on his left side and looking he saw Nora Black. She was beaming with

satisfaction and good nature. " Well, Rufus," she cried flippantly, " how goes it with the gallant rescuer?

Coleman reflected upon the probable result of a direct appeal to Nora. He knew of course that such appeals

were usually idle, but he did not consider Nora an ordinary person. His decision was to venture it. He drew

his horse close to hers. " Nora," he said, " do you know that you are raising the very devil? "

She lifted her finely penciled eyebrows and looked at him with the babystare. " How ? " she enquired.

"Raising the very devil?" she asked. " How do you mean?" She was palpably interested for his answer. She

waited for his reply for an interval, and then she asked him outright. " Rufus Coleman do you mean that I am

In reality he had meant nothing of the kind, but this direct throttling of a great question stupefied him utterly,

for he saw now that she' would probably never understand him in the least and that she would at any rate

always pretend not to understand him and that the more he said the more harm he manufactured. She studied

him over carefully and then wheeled her horse towards the rear with some parting remarks. " I suppose you

should attend more strictly to your own affairs, Rufus. Instead of raising the devil I am lending hairpins. I

have seen you insult people, but I have never seen you insult anyone quite for the whim of the thing. Go soak

Not considering it advisable to then indulge in such immersion Coleman rode moodily onward. The hot dust

continued to sting the cheeks of the travellers and in some places great clouds of dead leaves roared in circles

about them. All of the Wainwright party were utterly fagged. Coleman felt his skin crackle and his throat

seemed to be coated with the white dust. He worried his dragoman as to the distance to Arta until the

dragoman lied to the point where he always declared that Arta was only off some hundreds of yards.

At their places in the procession Mrs. Wainwright and Marjory were animatedly talking to Nora and the old

lady on the little pony. They had at first suffered great amazement at the voluntary presence of the old lady,

but she was there really because she knew no better. Her colossal ignorance took the form, mainly, of a most

obstreperous patriotism, and indeed she always acted in a foreign country as if she were the special

commissioner of the President, or perhaps as a special commissioner could not act at all. She was very

aggressive, and when any of the travelling arrangements in Europe did not suit her ideas she was won't to

shrilly exclaim: " Well ! New York is good enough for me." Nora, morbidly afraid that her ex pense bill to

the Daylight would not be large enough, had dragged her bodily off to Greece as her companion, friend and

protection. At Arta they had heard of the grand success of the Greek army. The Turks had not stood for a

moment before that gallant and terrible advance; no; they had scampered howling with fear into the north.

Jannina would fallwell, Jannina would fall as soon as the Greeks arrived. There was no doubt of it. The

correspondent and her friend, deluded and hurried by the lighthearted confidence of the Greeks in Arta, had

hastened out then on a regular tourist's excursion to see Jannina after its capture. Nora concealed from her

friend the fact that the editor of the Daylight particularly wished her to see a battle so that she might write an

article on actual warfare from a woman's point of view. With her name as a queen of comic opera, such an

Coleman had been the first to point out to Nora that instead of going on a picnic to Jannina, she had better run

back to Arta. When the old lady heard that they had not been entirely safe, she was furious with Nora. "The

idea!" she exclaimed to Mrs. Wainwright. "They might have caught us! They might have caught us ! "

" Well," said Mrs. Wainwright. " I verily believe they would have caught us if it had not been for Mr.

" Yes; that's him. Oh, he has been simplee splendid. I confess I was a little bitersurprised. He was in

college under my husband. I don't know that we thought very great things of him, but if ever a man won

"Yes?" said Mrs. Wainwright insidiously. "Is he? I didn't know. Of course he knows so many people." Her

mind had been suddenly illumined by the old lady and she thought extravagantly of the arrival of Nora upon

the scene. She remained all sweetness to the old lady. "Did you know he was here? Did you expect to meet

him? I seemed such a delightful coincidence." In truth she was being subterraneously clever.

" Oh, no; I don't think so. I didn't hear Nora mention it. Of course she would have told me. You know, our

coming to Greece was such a surprise. Nora had an engagement in London at the Folly Theatre in Fly by

Night, but the manager was insufferable, oh, insufferable. So, of course, Nora wouldn't stand it a minute, and

then these newspaper people came along and asked her to go to Greece for them and she accepted. I am sure I

" Mrs. Wainwright was gasping. " You don't mean that she is she is Nora Black, the actress."

" Why, how strange," choked Mrs. Wainwrignt. Nothing she knew of Nora could account for her stupefaction

and grief. What happened glaringly to her was the duplicity of man. Coleman was a ribald deceiver. He must

have known and yet he had pretended throughout that the meeting was a pure accident She turned with a

nervous impulse to sympathist with her daughter, but despite the lovely tranquillity of the girl's face there was

something about her which forbade the mother to meddle. Anyhow Mrs. Wainwright was sorry that she had

told nice things of Coleman's behaviour, so she said to the old lady: " Young men of these times get a false

"Oh, really nothing. Only, to us he seemed rather er prematurely experienced or something of that kind.

The old lady did not catch the meaning of the phrase. She seemed surprised. " Why, I've never seen any

fullgrown person in this world who got experience any too quick for his own good."

At the tail of the procession there was talk between the two students who had in charge the little grey

horseone to lead and one to flog. " Billie," said one, " it now becomes necessary to lose this hobby into the

hands of some of the other fellows. Whereby we will gain opportunity to pay homage to the great Nora. Why,

you egregious thickhead, this is the chance of a lifetime. I'm damned if I'm going to tow this beast of

" That's all right. Do you mean to say that you prefer to continue towing pack horses in the presence of this

queen of song and the dance just because you think Coleman can throw out his chest a little more than you.

Not so. Think of your bright and sparkling youth. There's Coke and Pete Tounley near Marjory. We'll call

'em." Whereupon he set up a cry. " Say, you people, we're not getting a, salary for this. Supposin' you try for

a time. It'll do you good." When the two addressed bad halted to await the arrival of the little grey horse, they

took on glum expressions. " You look like poisoned pups," said the student who led the horse. " Too strong

for light work. Grab onto the halter, now, Peter, and tow. We are going ahead to talk to Nora Black."

" What do you think of him ? " said Coke. " Seems curious, all 'round. Do you suppose he knew she would

"Well," said Coke, " seems to me he is playing both ends against the middle. I don't know anything about

The three other students expressed themselves with conviction and in chorus. " Coleman's all right."

" Well, anyhow," continued Coke, " I don't see my way free to admiring him introducing Nora Black to the

"Anyhow he's a brick," said Peter Tounley. "We mustn't forget that. Lo, I begin to feel that our Rufus is a fly

guy of many different kinds. Any play that he is in commands my respect. He won't be hit by a chimney in

" One thing is plain," replied Coke. " She has got him somehow by the short hair and she intends him to

" Well, he won't holler murder," said one of them with conviction. " I'll bet you he won't. He'll hammer the

" Old Mother Wainwright will be in his wool presently," quoth Peter Tounley musingly, " I could see it

coming in her eye. Somebody has given his snap away, or something." " Aw, he had no snap," said Billie. "

Couldn't you see how rattled he was? He would have given a lac if dear Nora hadn't turned up."

They began to laugh. " If she had had an umbrella she would have basted him over the head with it. Oh, my!

" Nevertheless," said Peter Tounley, " I refuse to worry over our Rufus. When he can't take care of himself

Coleman in the meantime had become aware that the light of Mrs. Wainwright's countenance was turned

from him. The party stopped at a well, and when he offered her a drink from his cup he thought she accepted

it with scant thanks. Marjory was still gracious, always gracious, but this did not reassure him, because he felt

there was much unfathomable deception in it. When he turned to seek consolation in the manner of the

professor he found him as before, stunned with surprise, and the only idea he had was to be as tractable as a

When he returned to the head of the column, Nora again cantered forward to join him. " Well, me gay

She laughed loud enough to be heard the full length of the caravan. It was a beautiful laugh, but full of

insolence and confidence. He flashed his eyes malignantly upon her, but then she only laughed more. She

could see that he wished to strangle her. " What a disposition ! " she said. " What a disposition ! You are not.

nearly so nice as your friends. Now, they are charming, but youRufus, I wish you would get that temper

mended. Dear Rufus, do it to please me. You know you like to please me. Don't you now, dear? " He finally

But at his laugh she was all sunshine. It was as if she. had been trying to taunt him into good humour with

her. "Aw, now, Rufus, don't be angry. I'll be good, Rufus. Really, I will. Listen. I want to tell you something.

Do you know what I did? Well, you know, I never was cut out for this business, and, back there, when you

told me about the Turks being near and all that sort of thing, I was frightened almost to death. Really, I was.

So, when nobody was looking, I sneaked two or three little drinks out of my flask. Two or three little

Nora smiled rosily at him. " Oh, I'm all right," she answered. " Don't worry about your Aunt Nora, my

I'm not going to prance. I'm going to be as nice as pie, and just ride quietly along here with dear little Rufus.

Only * * you know what I can do when I get started, so you had better be a very good boy. I might take it into

Bound hand and foot at his stake, he could not even chant his defiant torture song. It might precipitate in

fact, he was sure it would precipitate the grand smash. But to the very core of his soul, he for the time hated

Nora Black. He did not dare to remind her that he would revenge himself; he dared only to dream of this

revenge, but it fairly made his thoughts flame, and deep in his throat he was swearing an inflexible

persecution of Nora Black. The old expression of his sex came to him, " Oh, if she were only a man ! " she

had been a man, he would have fallen upon her tooth and nail. Her motives for all this impressed him not at

all; she was simply a witch who bound him helpless with the pwer of her femininity, and made him eat

cinders. He was so sure that his face betrayed him that he did not dare let her see it. " Well, what are you

" 0ooh," she drawled, impudently. "Nothing." He could see that she was determined not to be confessed. "

I may do this or I may do that. It all depends upon your behaviour, my dear Rufus."

As they rode on, he deliberated as to the best means of dealing with this condition. Suddenly he resolved to

go with the whole tale direct to Marjory, and to this end he half wheeled his horse. He would reiterate that he

loved her and then explain explain ! He groaned when he came to the word, and ceased formulation.

The cavalcade reached at last the bank of the Aracthus river, with its lemon groves and lush grass. A battery

wheeled before them over the ancient bridge a flight of short, broad cobbled steps up as far as the centre of

the stream and a similar flight down to the other bank. The returning aplomb of the travellers was well

illustrated by the professor, who, upon sighting this bridge, murmured : " Byzantine."

This was the first indication that he had still within him a power to resume the normal.

The steep and narrow street was crowded with soldiers; the smoky little coffee shops were ababble with

people discussing the news from the front. None seemed to heed the remarkable procession that wended its

way to the cable office. Here Coleman resolutely took precedence. He knew that there was no good in

expecting intelligence out of the chaotic clerks, but he managed to get upon the wires this message :

" Eclipse, New York: Got Wainwright party; all well. Coleman." The students had struggled to send

messages to their people in America, but they had only succeeded in deepening the tragic boredom of the

When Coleman returned to the street he thought that he had seldom looked upon a more moving spectacle

than the Wainwright party presented at that moment. Most of the students were seated in a row, dejectedly,

upon the kerb. The professor and Mrs. Wainwright looked like two old pictures, which, after an existence in a

considerate gloom, had been brought out in their tawdriness to the clear light. Hot white dust covered

everybody, and from out the grimy faces the eyes blinked, redfringed with sleeplessness. Desolation sat

upon all, save Marjory. She possessed some marvellous power of looking always fresh. This quality had

indeed impressed the old lady on the little pony until she had said to Nora Black: "That girl would look well

Coleman called the professor and the dragoman for a durbar. The dragoman said: "Well, I can get one

" Carriage be blowed! " said Coleman. " What these people need is rest, sleep. You must find a place at once.

These people can't remain in the street." He spoke in anger, as if he had previously told the dragoman and the

Coleman remarked that there was no course but to remain in the street until his dragoman had found them a

habitation. It was a mournful waiting. The students sat on the kerb. Once they whispered to Coleman,

suggesting a drink, but he told them that he knew only one cafe, the entrance of which would be in plain sight

of the rest of the party. The ladies talked together in a group of four. Nora Black was bursting with the fact

that her servant had hired rooms in Arta on their outcoming journey, and she wished Mrs. Wainwright and

Marjory to come to them, at least for a time, but she dared not risk a refusal, and she felt something in Mrs.

Wainwright's manner which led her to be certain that such would be the answer to her invitation. Coleman

" Well, my work is over, sir," said Coleman. " My paper told me to find you, and, through no virtue of my

own, I found you. I am very glad of it. I don't know of anything in my life that has given me greater

The professor was himself again in so far as he had lost all manner of dependence. But still he could not yet

be bumptious. " Mr. Coleman," he said, "I am placed under lifelong obligation to you. * * * I am not

thinking of myself so much. * * * My wife and daughter" His gratitude was so genuine that he could not

The dragoman finally returned and led them all to a house which he had rented for gold. In the great, bare,

upper chamber the students dropped wearily to the floor, while the woman of the house took the Wainwrights

to a more secluded apartment., As the door closed on them, Coleman turned like a flash.

" Have a drink," he said. The students arose around him like the wave of a flood. "You bet." In the absence of

changes of clothing, ordinary food, the possibility of a bath, and in the presence of great weariness and dust,

Coleman's whisky seemed to them a glistening luxury. Afterward they laid down as if to sleep, but in reality

they were too dirty and too fagged to sleep. They simply lay murmuring Peter Tounley even developed a

It was at this time that Coleman. suddenly discovered his acute interest in the progressive troubles of his

affair of the heart had placed the business of his newspaper in the rear of his mind. The greater part of the

next hour he spent in getting off to New York that dispatch which created so much excitement for him later.

Afterward he was free to reflect moodily upon the ability of Nora Black to distress him. She, with her retinue,

had disappeared toward her own rooms. At dusk he went into the street, and was edified to see Nora's

dragoman dodging along in his wake. He thought that this was simply another manifestation of Nora's

interest in his movements, and so he turned a corner, and there pausing, waited until the dragoman spun

around directly into his arms. But it seemed that the man had a note to deliver, and this was only his Oriental

The note read: " Come and dine with me tonight." It was, not a request. It was peremptory. "All right," he

He did not go at once, for he wished to reflect for a time and find if he could not evolve some weapons of his

A clear, cold night had come upon the earth when he signified to the lurking dragoman that he was in

readiness to depart with him to Nora's abode. They passed finally into a dark courtyard, up a winding

staircase, across an embowered balcony, and Coleman entered alone a room where there were lights.

His, feet were scarcely over the threshold before he had concluded that the tigress was now going to try some

velvet purring. He noted that the arts of the stage had not been thought too cheaply obvious for use. Nora sat

facing the door. A bit of yellow silk had been twisted about the crude shape of the lamp, and it made the play

of light, amberlike, shadowy and yet perfectly clear, the light which women love. She was arrayed in a

puzzling gown of that kind of Gre cian silk which is so docile that one can pull yards of it through a ring. It

was of the colour of new straw. Her chin was leaned pensively upon her palm and the light fell on a pearly

rounded forearm. She was looking at him with a pair of famous eyes, azure, per hapscertainly purple at

timesand it may be, black at odd momentsa pair of eyes that had made many an honest man's heart jump if

he thought they were looking at him. It was a vision, yes, but Coleman's cynical knowledge of drama

overpowered his sense of its beauty. He broke out brutally, in the phrases of the American street. "Your

dragoman is a rubberneck. If he keeps darking me I will simply have to kick the stuffing out of him."

She was alone in the room. Her old lady had been instructed to have a headache and send apologies. She was

not disturbed by Coleman's words. "Sit down, Rufus, and have a cigarette, and don't be cross, because I won't

He obeyed her glumly. She had placed his chair where not a charm of her could be lost upon an observant

man. Evidently she did not purpose to allow him to irritate her away from her original plan. Purring was now

her method, and none of his insolence could achieve a growl from the tigress. She arose, saying softly: "You

look tired, almost ill, poor boy. I will give you some brandy. I have almost everything that I could think to

make those Daylight people buy." With a sweep of her hand she indicated the astonishing opulence of the

As she stood over him with the brandy there came through the smoke of his cigarette the perfume of

A servant began to arrange the little cold dinner on a camp table, and Coleman saw with an enthusiasm which

he could not fully master, four quart bottles of a notable brand of champagne placed in a rank on the floor.

At dinner Nora was sisterly. She watched him, waited upon him, treated him to an affectionate inti. macy for

Slowly he melted. By the time that the boy came with little cups of Turkish coffee he was at least amiable.

Nora talked dreamily. " The dragoman says this room used to be part of the harem long ago." She shot him a

watchful glance, as if she had expected the fact to affect him. "Seems curious, doesn't it? A harem. Fancy

that." He smoked one cigar and then discarded tobacco, for the perfume of orrisroot and violet was making

him meditate. Nora talked on in a low voice. She knew that, through halfclosed lids, he was looking at her

in steady speculation. She knew that she was conquering, but no movement of hers betrayed an elation. With

the most exquisite art she aided his contemplation, baring to him, for instance, the glories of a statuesque

neck, doing it all with the manner of a splendid and fabulous virgin who knew not that there was such a thing

Coleman presently answered her only in monosyllable, making small distinction between yes and no. He

simply sat watching her with eyes in which there were two little covetous steelcoloured flames.

He was thinking, "To go to the devilto go to the devilto go to the devil with this girl is not a bad fatenot a

" Come out on the balcony," cooed Nora. "There are some funny old storks on top of some chimneys near

They moved together out to the balcony, but Nora retreated with a little cry when she felt the coldness of the

night. She said that she would get a cloak. Coleman was not unlike a man in a dream. He walked to the rail of

the balcony where a great vine climbed toward the roof. He noted that it was dotted with. blossoms, which in

the deep purple of the Oriental night were coloured in strange shades of maroon. This truth penetrated his

abstraction until when Nora came she found him staring at them as if their colour was a revelation which

affected him vitally. She moved to his side without sound and he first knew of her presence from the damning

fragrance. She spoke just above her breath. "It's a beautiful evening." " Yes," he answered. She was at his

shoulder. If he moved two inches he must come in contact. They remained in silence leaning upon the rail.

Finally he began to mutter some commonplaces which meant nothing particularly, but into his tone as he

mouthed them was the note of a forlorn and passionate lover. Then as if by accident he traversed the two

inches and his shoulder was against the soft and yet firm shoulder of Nora Black. There was something in his

throat at this time which changed his voice into a mere choking noise. She did not move. He could see her

eyes glowing innocently out of the pallour which the darkness gave to her face. If he was touching her, she

"I am awfully tired," said Coleman, thickly. "I think I will go home and turn in."

She left him again and his galloping thought pounded to the old refrain. " To go to the devilto go to the

devilto go to the devil with this girl is not a bad fatenot a bad fate not a bad fate." When she returned he

drank his glass of champagne. Then he mumbled: " You must be cold. Let me put your cape around you

She made a sweet pretence of rendering herself to his care. " Oh, thanks * * * I am not really cold * * * There

Of course all his manipulation of the cloak had been a fervid caress, and although her acting up to this point

had remained in the role of the splendid and fabulous virgin she now turned her liquid eyes to his with a look

that expressed knowledge, triumph and delight. She was sure of her victory. And she said: "Sweetheart * * *

don't you think I am as nice as Marjory ?" The impulse had been airily confident. It was as if the silken cords

had been parted by the sweep of a sword. Coleman's face had instantly stiffened and he looked like a man

suddenly recalled to the ways of light. It may easily have been that in a moment he would have lapsed again

to his luxurious dreaming. But in his face the girl had read a fatal character to her blunder and her resentment

against him took precedence of any other emotion. She wheeled abruptly from him and said with great

contempt: " Rufus, you had better go home. You're tired and sleepy, and more or less drunk."

He knew that the grand tumble of all their little embowered incident could be neither stayed or mended.

"Yes," he answered, sulkily, "I think so too." They shook hands huffily and he went away.

When he arrived among the students he found that they had appropriated everything of his which would

conduce to their comfort. He was furious over it. But to his bitter speeches they replied in jibes.

"Rufus is himself again. Admire his angelic disposition. See him smile. Gentle soul."

" Yes?" sneered Coleman. "At times I seem to see in you, Coke, the fermentation of some primeval form of

sensation, as if it were possible for you to de velop a mind in two or three thousand years, and then at other

As soon as they had well measured Coleman's temper all of the students save Coke kept their mouths tightly

closed. Coke either did not understand or his mood was too vindictive for silence. " Well, I know you got a

"And how would you know when I got a throw down? You pimply, milkfed sophomore."

" Of course," continued Coleman, " no one would protest against your continued existence, Coke, unless you

insist on recalling yourself violently to people's attention in this way. The mere fact of your living would not

usually be offensive to people if you weren't eternally turning a sort of calcium light on your prehensile

attributes." Coke was suddenly angry, angry much like a peasant, and his anger first evinced itself in a mere

sputtering and spluttering. Finally he got out a rather long speech, full of grumbling noises, but he was

understood by all to declare that his prehensile attributes had not led him to cart a notorious woman about the

world with him. When they quickly looked at Coleman they saw that he was livid. " You"

But, of course, there immediately arose all sorts of protesting cries from the seven noncombatants.

Coleman, as he took two strides toward Coke's corner, looked fully able to break him across his knee, but for

this Coke did not seem to care at all. He was on his feet with a challenge in his eye. Upon each cheek burned

a sudden hectic spot. The others were clamouring, "Oh, say, this won't do. Quit it. Oh, we mustn't have a

fight. He didn't mean it, Coleman." Peter Tounley pressed Coke to the wall saying: " You damned young

They were in the midst of these. festivities when a door opened and disclosed the professor. He might. have

been coming into the middle of a row in one of the corridors of the college at home only this time he carried a

candle. His speech, however, was a Washurst speech : " Gentlemen, gentlemen, what does this mean ? " All

seemed to expect Coleman to make the answer. He was suddenly very cool. "Nothing, professor," he said, "

only that thisonly that Coke has insulted me. I suppose that it was only the irresponsibility of a boy, and I

" Mr. Coke," said the professor, indignantly, " what have you to say to this? " Evidently he could not clearly

see Coke, and he peered around his candle at where the virtuous Peter Tounley was expostulating with the

young man. The figures of all the excited group moving in the candle light caused vast and uncouth shadows

Peter Tounley's task was not light, and beyond that he had the conviction that his struggle with Coke was

making him also to appear as a rowdy. This conviction was proven to be true by a sudden thunder from the

In wrath he desisted and Coke flung himself forward. He paid less attention to the professor than if the latter

had been a jackrabbit. " You say I insulted you? he shouted crazily in Coleman's face.

Coleman was glacial and lofty beyond everything. "I am glad to have you admit the truth of what I have

Coke was, still suffocating with his peasant rage, which would not allow him to meet the clear, calm

expressions of Coleman. "Yes * * * I insulted you * * * I insulted you because what I said was correct * * my

He was interrupted by a chorus from the other students. "Oh, no, that won't do. Don't say that. Don't repeat

Coleman remembered the weak bewilderment of the little professor in hours that had not long passed, and it

was with something of an impersonal satisfac tion that he said to himself: " The old boy's got his warpaint

on again." The professor had stepped sharply up to Coke and looked at him with eyes that seemed to throw

out flame and heat. There was a moment's pause, and then the old scholar spoke, bit ing his words as if they

were each a short section of steel wire. " Mr. Coke, your behaviour will end your college career abruptly and

Coke, his head simply floating in a sea of universal defiance, at once blurted out: " Yes, sir."

"You have been drinking?" cried the professor, ferociously. "Retire to yourretire to yourretire"

Whereupon seven hoodlum students waited a decent moment, then shrieked with laughter. But the old

professor would have none of their nonsense. He quelled them all with force and finish.

Coleman now spoke a few words." Professor, I can't tell you how sorry I am that I should be concerned in

any such riot as this, and since we are doomed to be bound so closely into each other's society I offer myself

without reservation as being willing to repair the damage as well as may be, done. I don t see how I can

forget at once that Coke's conduct was insolently unwarranted, but * * * if he has anything to sayof a nature

that might heal the breach I would be willing to to meet him in the openest manner." As he made these re

marks Coleman's dignity was something grand, and, Morever, there was now upon his face that curious look

of temperance and purity which had been noted in New York as a singular physical characteristic. If he. was

guilty of anything in this affair at allin fact, if he had ever at any time been guilty of anything no mark had

come to stain that bloom of innocence. The professor nodded in the fullest appreciation and sympathy. " Of

course * * * really there is no other sleeping placeI suppose it would be better" Then he again attacked

Coke. "Young man, you have chosen an unfortunate moment to fill us with a suspicion that you may not be a

gentleman. For the time there is nothing to be done with you." He addressed the other students. " There is

nothing for me to do, young gentleman, but to leave Mr. Coke in your care. Goodnight, sirs. Goodnight,

When Coke was bade to " Retire " he had, of course, simply retreated fuming to a corner of the room where

he remained looking with yellow eyes like an animal from a cave. When the others were able to see through

the haze of mental confusion they found that Coleman was with deliberation taking off his boots. "

Afterward, when he removed his waistcoat, he took great care to wind his large gold watch.

The students, much subdued, lay again in their places, and when there was any talking it was of an extremely

local nature, referring principally to the floor As being unsuitable for beds and also referring from time to

time to a real or an alleged selfishness on the part of some one of the recumbent men. Soon there was only the

When the professor had returned to what he called the Wainwright part of the house he was greeted instantly

with the question: "What was it?" His wife and daughter were up in alarm. "What was it " they repeated,

He was peevish. " Oh, nothing, nothing. But that young Coke is a regular ruffian. He had gotten him. self into

some tremendous uproar with Coleman. When I arrived he seemed actually trying to assault him. Revolting!

He had been drinking. Coleman's behaviour, I must say, was splendid. Recognised at once the delicacy of my

positionhe not being a student. If I had found him in the wrong it would have been simpler than finding him

in the right. Confound that rascal of a Coke." Then, as he began a partial disrobing, he treated them to grunted

scrap of information. " Coke was quite insane * * * I feared that I couldn't control him * * * Coleman was

like ice * * * and as much as I have seen to admire in him during the last few days, this quiet beat it all. If he

had not recognised my helplessness as far as he was concerned the whole thing might have been a most

miserable business. He is a very fine young man." The dissenting voice to this last tribute was the voice of

" I know," responded the professor, rather bashfully, but I am confident that he had not touched a drop."

The earlier artillery battles had frightened most of the furniture out of the houses of Arta, and there was left in

this room only a few old red cushions, and the Wainwrights were camping upon the floor. Marjory was

enwrapped in Coleman's macintosh, and while the professor and his wife maintained some low talk of the

recent incident she in silence had turned her cheek into the yellow velvet collar of the coat. She felt

something against her bosom, and putting her hand carefully into the top pocket of the coat she found three

cigars. These she took in the darkness and laid aside, telling herself to remember their position in the

morning. She had no doubt that Coleman: would rejoice over them, before he could get back to, Athens

THE ladies of the Wainwright party had not complained at all when deprived of even such civilised

advantages as a shelter and a knife and fork and soap and water, but Mrs. Wainwright complained bitterly

amid the halfcivilisation of Arta. She could see here no excuse for the absence of several hundred things

which she had always regarded as essential to life. She began at 8.30 A. M. to make both the professor and

Marjory woeful with an endless dissertation upon the beds in the hotel at Athens. Of course she had not

regarded them at the time as being exceptional beds * * * that was quite true, * * * but then one really never

knew what one was really missing until one really missed it * * * She would never have thought that she

would come to consider those Athenian beds as excellent * * * but experience is a great teacher * * * makes

one reflect upon the people who year in and year out have no beds at all, poor things. * * * Well, it made one

glad if one did have a good bed, even if it was at the time on the other side of the world. If she ever reached it

she did not know what could ever induce her to leave it again. * * * She would never be induced

"'Induced!'" snarled the professor. The word represented to him a practiced feminine misusage of truth, and at

such his white warlock always arose. "" Induced!' Out of four American women I have seen lately, you seem

to be the only one who would say that you had endured this thing because you had been 'induced' by others to

Mrs. Wainwright fixed her husband with a steely eye. She saw opportunity for a shattering retort. " You don't

mean, Harrison, to include Marjory and I in the same breath with those two women? "

The professor saw no danger ahead for himself. He merely answered: " I had no thought either way. It did not

" Do you know that you are speaking in the same breath of Marjory and Nora Black, the actress? "

" No," said the professor. " Is that so ? " He was astonished, but he was not aghast at all. "Do you mean to say

" That's exactly who she is," said Mrs. Wainwright, dramatically. " And I consider thatI consider that Rufus

This last declaration seemed to have no effect upon the professor's pure astonishment, but Marjory looked at

her mother suddenly. However, she said no word, exhibiting again that strange and, inscrutable countenance

Mrs. Wainwright was triumphant, and she immediately set about celebrating her victory. " Men never see

those things," she said to her husband. " Men never see those things. You would have gone on forever

without finding out that youryour hospitality was, being abused by that Rufus Coleman."

The professor woke up." Hospitality ?" he said, indignantly. " Hospitality ? I have not had any hospitality to

be abused. Why don't you talk sense? It is not that, butit might" He hesitated and then spoke slowly. " It

might be very awkward. Of course one never knows anything definite about such people, but I suppose * * *

"It Was all a prearranged plan," announced the triumphant Mrs. Wainwright. " She came here on putpose to

meet Rufus Coleman, and he knew it, and I should not wonder if they had not the exact spot picked out where

"I can hardly believe that," said the professor, in distress. "I can, hardly believe that. It does, not seem to me

" Oh yes. Your dear Rufus Coleman," cried Mrs. Wainwright. " You think he is very fine now. But I can

And the parents turned together an abashed look at their daughter. The professor actually flushed with shame.

It seemed to him that he had just committed an atrocity upon the heart of his child. The instinct of each of

them was to go to her and console her in their arms. She noted it immediately, and seemed to fear it. She

spoke in a clear and even voice. " I don't think, father, that you should distress me by supposing that I am

Mrs. Wainwright's consternation turned suddenly to, anger. " He is a scapegrace. A rascal. A a"

" Oh," said Marjory, coolly, " I don't see why it isn't his own affair. He didn't really present her to you,

mother, you remember? She seemed quite to force her way at first, and then youyou did the rest. It should

be very easy to avoid her, now that we are out of the wilderness. And then it becomes a private matter of Mr.

Coleman's. For my part, I rather liked her. I don't see such a dreadful calamity."

"Marjory!" screamed her mother. "How dreadful. Liked her! Don't let me hear you say such shocking things."

The professor was looking helplessly from his daughter to his wife, and from his wife to his daughter, like a

man who was convinced that his troubles would never end. This new catastrophe created a different kind of

difficulty, but he considered that the difficulties were as robust as had been the preceding ones. He put on his

hat and went out of the room. He felt an impossibility of saying anything to Coleman, but he felt that he must

look upon him. He must look upon this man and try to know from his manner the measure of guilt. And

incidentally he longed for the machinery of a finished society which prevents its parts from clashing, prevents

it with its great series of I law upon law, easily operative but relentless. Here he felt as a man flung into the

jungle with his wife and daughter, where they could become the victims of any sort of savagery. His thought

referred once more to what he considered the invaluable services of Coleman, and as he observed them in

conjunction with the present accusation, he was simply dazed. It was then possible that one man could play

two such divergent parts. He had not learned this at Washurst. But no; the world was not such a bed of

After adventures which require great nervous en. durance, it is only upon the second or third night that the

common man sleeps hard. The students had expected to slumber like dogs on the first night after their trials.

Coleman was the first man to arise. When he left the room the students were just beginning to blink. He took

his dragoman among the shops and he bought there all the little odds and ends which might go to make up the

best breakfast in Arta. If he had had news of certain talk he probably would not have been buying breakfast

for eleven people. Instead, he would have been buying breakfast for one. During his absence the students

arose and performed their frugal toilets. Considerable attention was paid to Coke by the others. " He made a

monkey of you," said Peter Tounley with unction. " He twisted you until you looked like a wet, grey rag. You

It was not the night nor was it meditation that had taught Coke anything, but he seemed to have learned

something from the mere lapse of time. In appearance he was subdued, but he managed to make a temporary

" Well, you ought to know," said he who was called Billie. "You ought to know. You made an egregious

snark of yourself. Indeed, you sometimes resembled a boojum. Anyhow, you were a plain chump. You

exploded your face about something of which you knew nothing, and I'm damned if I believe you'd make

"You're a halfbred waterspaniel," blurted Peter Tounley. "And," he added, musingly, "that is a pretty low

Coke was argumentative. "Why am I? " he asked, turning his head from side to side. " I don't see where I was

" Oh, dances, balloons, picnics, parades and ascensions," they retorted, profanely. " You swam voluntarily

Coke, smitten in the face with a wet cloth rolled into a ball, grabbed it and flung it futilely at a welldodging

companion " No," he cried, " I don't see it. Now look here. I don't see why we shouldn't all resent this Nora

Another student said "I don't see how you've been issued any license to say things about Nora Black."

And then three or four spoke at once. " He was very badly rattled when she appeared upon the scene."

Peter Tounley asked: "Well, which of you people know anything wrong about Nora Black? "

He who was called Billie then addressed his com panions. " It wouldn't be right to repeat any old lie about

Nora Black, and by the same token it wouldn't be right to see old Mother Wainwright chummin' with her.

There is no wisdom in going further than that. Old Mother Wainwright don't know that her fair companion of

yesterday is the famous comic opera star. For my part, I believe that Coleman is simply afraid to tell her. I

don't think he wished to see Nora Black yesterday any more than he wished to see the devil. The discussion,

as I understand itconcerned itself only with what Coleman had to do with the thing, and yesterday anybody

They heard a step on the stair, and directly Coleman entered, followed by his dragoman. They were laden

with the raw material for breakfast. The correspondent looked keenly among the students, for it was plain that

they had been talking of him. It, filled him with rage, and for a stifling moment he could not think why he

failed to immediately decamp in chagrin and leave eleven orphans to whatever fate. their general

incompetence might lead them. It struck him as a deep shame that even then he and his paid man were

carrying in the breakfast. He wanted to fling it all on the floor and walk out. Then he remembered Marjory.

But he could not repress certain, of his thoughts. "Say, you people," he said, icily, " you had better soon learn

to hustle for yourselves. I may be a dragoman, and a butler, and a cook, and a housemaid, but I'm blowed if

I'm a wet nurse." In reality, he had taken the most generous pleasure in working for the others before their

eyes had even been opened from sleep, but it was now all turned to wormwood. It is certain that even this

could not have deviated this executive man from labour and management. because these were his life. But he

felt that he was about to walk out of the room, consigning them all to Hades. His glance of angry, reproach

fastened itself mainly upon Peter Tounley, because he knew that of all, Peter was the most innocent.

Peter, Tounley was abashed by this glance. So you've brought us something to eat, old man. That is

Coleman was mollified by Peter's tone. Peter had had that emotion which is equivalent to a sense of guilt,

although in reality he was speckless. Two or three of the other students bobbed up to a sense of the situation.

They ran to Coleman, and with polite cries took his provisions from him. One dropped a bunch of lettuce on

the floor, and others reproached him with scholastic curses. Coke was seated near the window, half militant,

half conciliatory. It was impossible for him to keep up a manner of deadly enmity while Coleman was

bringing in his breakfast. He would have much preferred that Coleman had not brought in his breakfast. He

would have much preferred to have foregone breakfast altogether. He would have much preferred anything.

There seemed to be a conspiracy of circumstance to put him in the wrong and make him appear as a

ridiculous young peasant. He was the victim of a benefaction, and he hated Coleman harder now than at any

previous time. He saw that if he stalked out and took his breakfast alone in a cafe, the others would consider

him still more of an outsider. Coleman had expressed himself like a man of the world and a gentleman, and

Coke was convinced that he was a superior man of the world and a superior gentleman, but that he simply

had not had words to express his position at the proper time. Coleman was glib. Therefore, Coke had been the

victim of an attitude as well as of a benefaction. And so he deeply hated Coleman.

The others were talking cheerfully. "What the deuce are these, Coleman ? Sausages? Oh, my. And look at

these burlesque fishes. Say, these Greeks don't care what they eat. Them thar things am sardines in the crude

state. No ? Great God, look at those things. Look. What? Yes, they are. Radishes. Greek synonym for

The professor entered. " Oh," he said apologetically, as if he were intruding in a boudoir. All his serious

desire to probe Coleman to the bottom ended in embarrassment. Mayhap it was not a law of feeling, but it

happened at any rate. " He had come in a puzzled frame of mind, even an accusative frame of mind, and

almost immediately he found himself suffer. ing like a culprit before his judge. It is a phenomenon of what

" Coleman welcomed him cordially. " Well, professor, goodmorning. I've rounded up some things that at

" You are very good " very considerate, Mr. Coleman," answered the professor, hastily. " I'am sure we are

much indebted to you." He had scanned the correspondent's face, land it had been so devoid of guile that he

was fearful that his suspicion, a base suspicion, of this noble soul would be detected. " No, no, we can never

Some of the students began to caper with a sort of decorous hilarity before their teacher. " Look at the

sausage, professor. Did you ever see such sausage " Isn't it salubrious " And see these other things, sir. Aren't

they curious " I shouldn't wonder if they were alive. Turnips, sir? No, sir. I think they are Pharisees. I have

seen a Pharisee look like a pelican, but I have never seen a Pharisee look like a turnip, so I think these turnips

must be Pharisees, sir, Yes, they may be walrus. We're not sure. Anyhow, their angles are geometrically all

wrong. Peter, look out." Some green stuff was flung across the room. The professor laughed; Coleman

laughed. Despite Coke, darkbrowed, sulking. and yet desirous of reinstating himself, the room had waxed

warm with the old college feeling, the feeling of lads who seemed never to treat anything respectfully and yet

at the same time managed to treat the real things with respect. The professor himself contributed to their wild

carouse over the strange Greek viands. It was a vivacious moment common to this class in times of

Coke arose. " I don't see that I have any friends here," he said, hoarsely, " and in consequence I don't see why

All looked at him. At the same moment Mrs. Wainwright and Marjory entered the room.

"Goodmorning," said Mrs. Wainwright jovially to the students and then she stared at Coleman as if he were

Coleman and the students made reply. " Goodmorning. Goodmorning. Goodmorning. Goodmorning"

It was curious to see this greeting, this common phrase, this bit of old ware, this antique, come upon a

dramatic scene and pulverise it. Nothing remained but a ridiculous dust. Coke, glowering, with his lips still

trembling from heroic speech, was an angry clown, a pantaloon in rage. Nothing was to be done to keep him

from looking like an ass. He, strode toward the door mumbling about a walk before breakfast.

Mrs. Wainwright beamed upon him. " Why, Mr. Coke, not before breakfast ? You surely won't have time." It

was grim punishment. He appeared to go blind, and he fairly staggered out of the door mumbling again,

mumbling thanks or apologies or explanations. About the mouth of Coleman played a sinister smile. The

professor cast. upon his wife a glance expressing weariness. It was as if he said " There you go again. You

can't keep your foot out of it." She understood the glance, and so she asked blankly: "Why, What's the

matter? Oh." Her belated mind grasped that it waw an aftermath of the quarrel of Coleman and Coke.

Marjory looked as if she was distressed in the belief that her mother had been stupid. Coleman was outwardly

serene. It was Peter Tounley who finally laughed a cheery, healthy laugh and they all looked at him with

gratitude as if his sudden mirth had been a real statement or recon ciliation and consequent peace.

The dragoman and others disported themselves until a breakfast was laid upon the floor. The adventurers

squatted upon the floor. They made a large company. The professor and Coleman discussed the means of

getting to Athens. Peter Tounley sat next to Marjory. " Peter," she said, privately, " what was all this trouble

He looked at her quaintly. He was not one of those in love with her, but be was interested in the affair. "

She understood from his manner that she had been some kind of an issue in the quarrel. " No," she answered,

"Oh, I don't mean that," said Peter. "I only meant I only meantoh, well, it was nothingreally."

" It must have been about something," continued Marjory. She continued, because Peter had denied that she

Coleman and the professor decided to accept a plan of the correspondent's dragoman to start soon on the first

stage of the journey to Athens. The dragoman had said that he had found two large carriages rentable.

Coke, the outcast, walked alone in the narrow streets. The flight of the crown prince's army from Larissa had

just been announced in Arta, but Coke was probably the most woebegone object on the Greek peninsula.

He encountered a strange sight on the streets. A woman garbed in the style for walking of an afternoon on

upper Broadway was approaching him through a mass of kilted mountaineers and soldiers in soiled

In his conviction that everybody in the world was at this time considering him a mere worm, he was sure that

she would not heed him. Beyond that he had been presented to her notice in but a transient and cursory

fashion. But contrary to his conviction, she turned a radiant smile upon him. " Oh," she said, brusquely, " you

are one of the students. Good morning." In her manner was all the confidence of an old warrior, a veteran,

Coke grinned at this strange greeting. " Yes, Miss Black," he answered, " I am one of the students."

She did not seem to quite know how to formulate her next speech. " ErI suppose you're going to Athens at

She saw of course that there had been some kind of trouble. She laughed. " You look as if somebody had

kicked you down stairs," she said, candidly. She at once assumed an intimate manner toward him which was

like a temporary motherhood. " Come, walk with me and tell me all about it." There was in her tone a most

artistic suggestion that whatever had happened she was on his side. He was not loath. The street was full of

soldiers whose tongues clattered so loudly that the two foreigners might have been wandering in a great cave

of the winds. " Well, what was the row about ? " asked Nora. " And who was in it? "

It would have been no solace to Coke to pour out his tale even if it had been a story that he could have told

Nora. He was not stopped by the fact that he had gotten himself in the quarrel because he had insulted the

name of the girt at his side. He did not think of it at that time. The whole thing was now extremely vague in

outline to him and he only had a dull feeling of misery and loneliness. He wanted her to cheer him.

Nora laughed again. " Why, you're a regular little kid. Do you mean to say you've come out here sulking

alone because of some nursery quarrel? " He was ruffled by her manner. It did not contain the cheering he

required. " Oh, I don't know that I'm such a regular little kid," he said, sullenly. " The quarrel was not a

"Why don't you challenge him to a duel? " asked Nora, suddenly. She was watching him closely.

They stared at each other, Coke paying her first the tribute of astonishment and then the tribute of admiration.

" Oh," said Nora., " I've known Rufus Coleman for years, and he is always rowing with people."

"That is just it," cried Coke eagerly. "That is just it. I fairly hate the man. Almost all of the other fellows will

stand his abuse, but it riles me, I tell you. I think he is a beast. And, of course, if you seriously meant what

you said about challenging him to a duelI mean if there is any sense in that sort of thingI would challenge

Coleman. I swear I would. I think he's a great bluffer, anyhow. Shouldn't wonder if he would back out.

Nora smiled humourously at a house on her side of the narrow way. "I wouldn't wonder if he did either " she

answered. After a time she said " Well, do you mean to say that you have definitely shaken them? Aren't you

" Oh," she said. She reflected for a time. At last she turned to him archly and asked: "Some words over a

Coke looked at her blankly. He suddenly remembered the horrible facts. " Nononot over a lady."

" My dear boy, you are a liar," said Nora, freely. "You are a little unskilful liar. It was some words over a

Coke felt as though he had suddenly been let out of a cell, but he continued a mechanical denial. "No, no * *

"Nonsense," said Nora. " I know better. Don't you think you can fool me, you little cub. I know you're in love

with Marjory Wainwright, and you think Coleman is your rival. What a blockhead you are. Can't you

"Nonsense," said Nora again. "Don't try to fool me, you may as well understand that it's useless. I am too

He began with great importance and solemnity. "Now, to tell you the truth * * that is why I hate him * * I

hate him like anything. * * I can't see why everybody admires him so. I don't see anything to him myself. I

don't believe he's got any more principle than a wolf. I wouldn't trust him with two dollars. Why, I know

stories about him that would make your hair curl. When I think of a girl like Marjory "

His speech had become a torrent. But here Nora raised her hand. " Oh! Oh! Oh! That will do. That will do.

Don't lose your senses. I don't see why this girl Marjory is any too good. She is no chicken, I'll bet. Don't let

Coke was unaware of his incautious expressions. He floundered on. while Nora looked at him as if she

wanted to wring his neck. " Noshe's too fine and too goodfor him or anybody like himshe's too fine and

Coke had a woodenheaded conviction that he must make Nora understand Marjory's infinite superiority to

all others of her sex, and so he passed into a pariegyric, each word of which was a hot coal to the girl

addressed. Nothing would stop him, apparently. He even made the most stupid repetitions. Nora finally

stamped her foot formidably. "Will you stop? Will you stop ? " she said through her clenched teeth. " Do you

think I want to listen to your everlasting twaddle about her? Why, she'sshe's no better than other people, you

Coke looked at her with the eyes of a fish. He did not understand. "But she is better than other people," he

Nora seemed to decide suddenly that there would be no accomplishment in flying desperately against this

rockwalled conviction. " Oh, well," she said, with marvellous good nature, " perhaps you are right,

In his heart, his jealous heart, he believed that Marjory loved Coleman, but he reiterated eternally to himself

that it was not true. As for speaking it to, another, that was out of the question. " No," he said, stoutly, " she

doesn't care a snap for him." If he had admitted it, it would have seemed to him that. he was somehow

"She doesn't?" He studied her face with an abrupt, miserable suspicion, but he repeated doggedly: " No, she

"Ahem," replied Nora. " Why, she's set her cap for him all right. She's after him for certain. It's as plain as

"You are a fool," said Nora. " It isn't Coleman that's after her. It is she that is after Coleman."

Coke was mulish. " No such thing. Coleman's crazy about her. Everybody has known it ever since he was in

Nora was now very serious, almost doleful. She remained still for a time, casting at Coke little glances of

hatred. " I don't see my way clear to ask any of the other fellows," she said at last, with considerable

Coke felt now that he disliked her, and he read plainly her dislike of him. If they were the two villains of the

play, they were not having fun together at all. Each had some kind of a deep knowledge that their aspirations,

far from colliding, were of such character that the success of one would mean at least assistance to the other,

but neither could see how to confess if. Pethapt it was from shame, perhaps it was because Nora thought

Coke to have little wit ; perhaps it was because Coke thought Nora to have little conscience. Their talk was

mainly rudderless. From time to time Nora had an inspiration to come boldly at the point, but this inspiration

was commonly defeated by, some extraordinary manifestation of Coke's incapacity. To her mind, then, it

seemed like a proposition to ally herself to a butcherboy in a matter purely sentimental. She Wondered

indignantly how she was going to conspire With this lad, who puffed out his infantile cheeks in order to

conceitedly demonstrate that he did not understand the game at all. She hated Marjory for it. Evidently it was

only the weaklings who fell in love with that girl. Coleman was an exception, but then, Coleman was misled,

by extraordinary artifices. She meditatecf for a moment if she should tell Coke to go home and not bother her.

What at last decided the question was his unhappiness. Shd clung to this unhappiness for its value as it stood

alone, and because its reason for existence was related to her own unhappiness. " You Say you are not going

back toAthens with your party. I don't suppose you're going to stay here. I'm going back to Athens today. I

came up here to see a battle, but it doesn't seem that there are to be any more battles., The fighting will now

all be on the other side of'the mountains." Apparent she had learned in some haphazard way that the Greek

peninsula was divided by a spine of almost inaccessible mountains, and the war was thus split into two

simultaneous campaigns. The Arta campaign was known to be ended. "If you want to go back to Athens

without consorting with your friends, you had better go back with me. I can take you in my carriage as far as

the beginning of the railroad. Don't you worry. You've got money enough, haven't you ? The pro fessor isn't

"Yes," he said slowly, "I've got money enough." He was apparently dubious over the proposal. In their

abstracted walk they had arrived in front of the house occupied by Coleman and the Wainwright party. Two

carriages, forlorn in dusty age, stood be fore the door. Men were carrying out new leather luggage and

flinging it into the traps amid a great deal of talk which seemed to refer to nothing. Nora and Coke stood

looking at the scene without either thinking of the importance of running away, when out tumbled seven

students, followed immediately but in more decorous fashion by the Wainwrights and Coleman.

Some student set up a whoop. " Oh, there he is. There's Coke. Hey, Coke, where you been? Here he is,

professor." For a moment after the hoodlum had subsided, the two camps stared at each other in silence.

NORA and Coke were an odd looking pair at the time. They stood indeed as if rooted to the spot, staring

vacuously, like two villagers, at the surprising travellers. It was not an eternity before the practiced girl of the

stage recovered her poise, but to the end of the incident the green youth looked like a culprit and a fool. Mrs.

Wainwright's glower of offensive incredulity was a masterpiece. Marjory nodded pleasantly; the professor

nodded. The seven students clambered boisterously into the forward carriage making it clang with noise like

a rook's nest. They shouted to Coke. " Come on; all aboard; come on, Coke; we're off. Hey, there, Cokey,

hurry up." The professor, as soon as he had seated himself on the forward seat of' the second carriage, turned

in Coke's general direction and asked formally: " Mr. Coke, you are coming with us ? " He felt seemingly

much in doubt as to the propriety of abandoning the headstrong young man, and this doubt was not at all

decreased by Coke's appearance with Nora Black. As far as he could tell, any assertion of authority on his

part would end only in a scene in which Coke would probably insult him with some gross violation of

collegiate conduct. As at first the young man made no reply, the professor after waiting spoke again. "You

understand, Mr. Coke, that if you separate yourself from the party you encounter my strongest disapproval,

and if I did not feel responsible to the college and your father for your safe journey to New York II don't

Although Coke had been silent, and Nora Black had had the appearance of being silent, in reality she had

lowered her chin and whispered sideways and swiftly. She had said: " Now, here's your time. Decide quickly,

and don't look such a wooden Indian." Coke pulled himself together with a visible effort, and spoke to the

professor from an inspiration in which he had no faith. " I understand my duties to you, sir, perfectly. I also

understand my duty to the college. But I fail to see where either of these obligations require me to accept the

introduction of objectionable people into the party. If I owe a duty to the college and to you, I don't owe any

to Coleman, and, as I understand it, Coleman was not in the original plan of this expedition. If such had been

the case, I would not have been here. I can't tell what the college may see fit to do, but as for my father I I

The first one to be electrified by the speech was Coke himself. He saw with a kind of subconscious

amazement this volley of birdshot take effect upon the face of the old professor. The face of Marjory

flushed crimson as if her mind had sprung to a fear that if Coke could develop ability in this singular fashion

he might succeed in humiliating her father in the street in the presence of the seven students, her mother,

When Coke had launched forth, Coleman with his legs stretched far apart had just struck a match on the wall

of the house and was about to light a cigar. His groom was leading up his horse. He saw the value of Coke's

argument more appreciatively and sooner perhaps than did Coke. The match dropped from his fingers, and in

the white sunshine and still air it burnt on the pavement orange coloured and with langour. Coleman held his

cigar with all five fingersin a manner out of all the laws of smoking. He turned toward Coke. There was

danger in the moment, but then in a flash it came upon him that his role was not of squabbling with Coke, far

less of punching him. On the contrary, he was to act the part of a cool and instructed man who refused to be

waylaid into foolishness by the outcries of this pouting youngster and who placed himself in complete

deference to the wishes of the professor. Before the professor had time to embark upon any reply to Coke,

Coleman was at the side of the carriage and, with a fine assumption of distress, was saying: "Professor, I

could very easily ride back to Agrinion alone. It would be all right. I don't want to"

To his surprise the professor waved at him to be silent as if he were a mere child. The old man's face was set

with the resolution of exactly what hewas going to say to Coke. He began in measured tone, speaking with

" Mr. Coke, it has probably escaped your attention that Mr. Coleman, at what I consider a great deal of peril

to himself, came out to rescue this partyyou and othersand although he studiously disclaims all merit in his

finding us and bringing us in, I do not regard it in that way, and I am surprised that any member of this party

should conduct himself in this manner toward a man who has been most devotedly and generously at our

service." It was at this time that the professor raised himself and shook his finger at Coke, his voice now

ringing with scorn. In such moments words came to him and formed themselves into sentences almost too

rapidly for him to speak them. " You are one of the most remarkable products of our civilisation which I have

yet come upon. What do you mean, sir? Where are your senses? Do you think that all this pulling and

pucking is manhood? I will tell you what I will do with you. I thought I brought out eight students to Greece,

but when I find that I brought out, seven students anderanourangoutangdon't get angry, sirI

don't care for your angerI say when I discover this I am naturally puzzled for a moment. I will leave you to

the judgment of your peers. Young gentlemen! " Of the seven heads of the forward carriage none had to be

turned. All had been turned since the beginning of the talk. If the professor's speech had been delivered in one

of the classrooms of Washurst they would have glowed with delight over the butchery of Coke, but they felt

its portentous aspect. Butchery here in Greece thousands of miles from home presented to them more of the

emphasis of downright death and destruction. The professor called out " Young gentlemen, I have done all

that I can do without using force, which, much to my regret, is impracticable. If you will persuade your

fellow student to accompany you I think our consciences will be the better for not having left a weak minded

brother alone among the bypaths." The valuable aggregation of intelligence and refine ment which

decorated the interior of the first carriage did not hesitate over answering this appeal. In fact, his fellow

students had worried among themselves over Coke, and their desire to see him come out of his troubles in fair

condition was intensified by the fact that they had lately concentrated much thought upon him. There was a

somewhat comic pretense of speaking so that only Coke could hear. Their chorus was law sung. " Oh, cheese

it, Coke. Let up on yourself, you blind ass. Wait till you get to Athens and then go and act like a monkey.

The advice which came from the carriage was all in one direction, and there was so much of it that the hum of

Coke spun suddenly and said something to Nora Black. Nora laughed rather loudly, and then the two turned

squarely and the Wainwright party contemplated what were surely at that time the two most insolent backs in

The professor looked as if he might be going to have a fit. Mrs. Wainwright lifted her eyes toward heaven,

and flinging out her trembling hands, cried: " Oh, what an outrage. What an outrage! That minx" The

concensus of opinion in the first carriage was perfectly expressed by Peter Tounley, who with a deep drawn

breath, said : " Well, I'm damned! " Marjory had moaned and lowered her head as from a sense of complete

personal shame. Coleman lit his cigar and mounted his horse. " Well, I suppose there is nothing for it but to

be off, professor? " His tone was full of regret, with sort of poetic regret. For a moment the professor looked

at him blankly, and then gradually recovered part of his usual manner. " Yes," he said sadly, " there is nothing

for it but to go on." At a word from the dragoman, the two impatient drivers spoke gutturally to their horses

and the car riages whirled out of Arta. Coleman, his dragoman and the groom trotted in the dust from the

wheels of the Wainwright carriage. The correspondent always found his reflective faculties improved by the

constant pounding of a horse on the trot, and he was not sorry to have now a period for reflection, as well as

this artificial stimulant. As he viewed the game he had in his hand about all the cards that were valuable. In

fact, he considered that the only ace against him was Mrs. Wainwright. He had always regarded her as a

stupid person, concealing herself behind a mass of trivialities which were all conventional, but he thought

now that the more stupid she was and the more conventional in her triviality the more she approached to

being the very ace of trumps itself. She was just the sort of a card that would come upon the table mid the

neat play of experts and by some inexplicable arrangement of circumstance, lose a whole game for the wrong

man. After Mrs. Wainwright he worried over the students. He believed them to be reasonable enough; in fact,

he honoured them distinctly in regard to their powers of reason, but he knew that people generally hated a

row. It, put them off their balance, made them sweat over a lot of pros and cons, and prevented them from

thinking for a time at least only of themselves. Then they came to resent the principals in a row. Of course the

principal, who was thought to be in the wrong, was the most rescnted, but Coleman be lieved that, after all,

people always came to resent the other principal, or at least be impatient and suspicious of him. If he was a

correct person, why was he in a row at all? The principal who had been in the right often brought this

impatience and suspicion upon himself, no doubt, by never letting the matter end, continuing to yawp about

his virtuous suffering, and not allowing people to return to the steady contemplation of their own affairs. As a

precautionary measure he decided to say nothing at all about the late trouble, unless some one addressed him

upon it. Even then he would be serenely laconic. He felt that he must be popular with the seven students. In

the first place, it was nice that in the presence of Marjory they should like him, and in the second place he

feared to displease them as a body because he believed that he had some dignity. Hoodlums are seldom

dangerous to other hoodlums, but if they catch pomposity alone in the field, pomposity is their prey. They

tear him to mere bloody ribbons, amid heartless shrieks. When Coleman put himself on the same basis with

the students, he could cope with them easily, but he did not want the wild pack after him when Marjory could

see the chase. And so be rea soned that his best attitude was to be one of rather taciturn serenity.

On the hard military road the hoofs of the horses made such clatter that it was practically impossible to hold

talk between the carriages and the horsemen without all parties bellowing. The professor, how ever, strove

to overcome the difficulties. He was apparently undergoing a great amiability toward Coleman. Frequently he

turned with a bright face, and pointing to some object in the landscape, obviously tried to convey something

entertaining to Coleman's mind. Coleman could see his lips mouth the words. He always nodded cheerily in

The road ultimately became that straight lancehandle which Colemanit seemed as if many years had

passedhad traversed with his dragoman and the funny little carriers. He was fixing in his mind a possible

story to the Wainwrights about the snake and his first dead Turk. But suddenly the carriages left this road and

began a circuit of the Gulf of Arta, winding about an endless series of promontories. The journey developed

into an excess of dust whirling from a road, which half circled the waist of cape after cape. All dramatics

were lost in the rumble of wheels and in the click of hoofs. They passed a little soldier leading a prisoner by a

string. They passed more frightened peasants, who seemed resolved to flee down into the very boots of

Greece. And people looked at them with scowls, envying them their speed. At the little town from which

Coleman embarked at one stage of the upward journey, they found crowds in the streets. There was no longer

any laughter, any confidence, any vim. All the spirit of the visible Greek nation seemed to have been knocked

out of it in two blows. But still they talked and never ceased talking. Coleman noticed that the most curious

changes had come upon them since his journey to the frontier. They no longer approved of foreigners. They

seemed to blame the travellers for something which had transpired in the past few days. It was not that they

really blamed the travellers for the nation's calamity: It was simply that their minds were half stunned by the

news of defeats, and, not thinking for a moment to blame themselves, or even not thinking to attribute the

defeats to mere numbers and skill, they were savagely eager to fasten it upon something near enough at hand

Coleman perceived that the dragoman, all his former plumage gone, was whining and snivelling as he argued

to a darkbrowed crowd that was running beside the cavalcade. The groom, who always had been a

miraculously laconic man, was suddenly launched forth garrulously. The, drivers, from their high seats,

palavered like mad men, driving with oat hand and gesturing with the other, explaining evidently their own

Coleman saw that there was trouble, but he only sat more stiffly in his saddle. The eternal gabble moved him

to despise the situation. At any rate, the travellers would soon be out of this town and on to a more sensible

However he saw the driver of the first carriage sud denly pull up boforg a little blackened coffee shop and

inn. The dragman spurred forward and began wild expostulation. The second carriage pulled close behind the

other. The crowd, murmuring like a Roman mob in Nero's time, closed around them.

COLEMAN pushed his horse coolly through to the dragoman;s side. " What is it ? " he demanded. The

dragoman was brokenvoiced. " These peoples, they say you are Germans, all Germans, and they are angry,"

" Well, tell these men to drive on," said Coleman, "tell them theymust drive on."

" They will not drive on," wailed the dragoman, still more loudly. " I can do nossing. They say here is place

" They will note," shrieked the agonised servitor. Coleman looked from the men waving their arms and

chattering on the boxseats to the men of the crowd who also waved their arms and chattered. In this throng

far to the rear of the fighting armies there did not seem to be a single man who was not ablebodied, who had

not been free to enlist as a soldier. They were of that scurvy behindtherearguard which every nation has

in degree proportionate to its worth. The manhood of Greece had gone to the frontier, leaving at home this

rabble of talkers, most of whom were armed with rifles for mere pretention. Coleman loathed them to the end

of his soul. He thought them a lot of infants who would like to prove their courage upon eleven innocent

travellers, all but unarmed, and in this fact he was quick to see a great danger to the Wainwright party. One

could deal with soldiers; soldiers would have been ashamed to bait helpless people ; but this rabble

The fighting blood of the correspondent began to boil, and he really longed for the privilege to run amuck

through the multitude. But a look at the Wainwrights kept him in his senses. The professor had turned pale as

a dead man. He sat very stiff and still while his wife clung to him, hysterically beseeching him to do

something, do something, although what he was to do she could not have even imagined.

Coleman took the dilemma by its beard. He dismounted from his horse into the depths of the crowd and

addressed the Wainwrights. " I suppose we had better go into this place and have some coffee while the men

feed their horses. There is no use in trying to make them go on." His manner was fairly casual, but they

looked at him in glazed horror. " It is the only thing to do. This crowd is not nearly so bad as they think they

are. But we've got to look as if we felt confident." He himself had no confidence with this angry buzz in his

ears, but be felt certain that the only correct move was to get everybody as quickly as possible within the

shelter of the inn. It might not be much of a shelter for them, but it was better than the carriages in the street.

The professor and Mrs. Wainwright seemed to be considering their carriage as a castle, and they looked as if

their terror had made them physically incapable of leaving it. Coleman stood waiting. Behind him the

clappertongued crowd was moving ominously. Marjory arose and stepped calmly down to him. He thrilled

to the end of every nerve. It was as if she had said: " I don't think there is great danger, but if there is great

danger, why * * here I am * ready * with you." It conceded everything, admitted everything. It was a

surrender without a blush, and it was only possible in the shadow of the crisis when they did not know what

the next moments might contain for them. As he took her hand and she stepped past him he whispered swiftly

and fiercely in her ear, " I love you." She did not look up, but he felt that in this quick incident they had

claimed each other, accepted each other with a far deeper meaning and understanding than could be possible

in a mere drawingroom. She laid her hand on his arm, and with the strength of four men he twisted his horse

into the making of furious prancing sidesteps toward the door of the inn, clanking side steps which mowed

a wide lane through the crowd for Marjory, his Marjory. He was as haughty as a new German lieutenant, and

although he held the fuming horse with only his left hand, he seemed perfectly capable of hurling the animal

It was not an exhibition of coolness such as wins applause on the stage when the hero placidly lights a

cigarette before the mob which is clamouring for his death. It was, on the contrary, an exhibition of

downright classic disdain, a disdain which with the highest arrogance declared itself in every glance of his

eye into the faces about him. " Very good * * attack me if you like * * there is nothing to prevent it * * you

mongrels." Every step of his progress was made a renewed insult to them. The very air was charged with

His audacity was invincible. They actually made way for it as quickly as children would flee from a ghost.

The horse, dancing; with ringing steps, with his glistening neck arched toward the iron hand at his bit, this

powerful, quivering animal was a regular engine of destruction, and they gave room until Coleman halted

" My mother and father." But they were coming close behind and Coleman resumed this contemptuous

journey to the door of the inn. The groom, with his newborn tongue, was clattering there to the populace.

Coleman gave him the horse and passed after the Wainwrights into the public room of the inn. He was

A new actor suddenly appeared in the person of the keeper of the inn. He too had a rifle and a prodigious belt

of cartridges, but it was plain at once that he had elected to be a friend of the worried travellers. A large part

of the crowd were thinking it necessary to enter the inn and powwow more. But the innkeeper stayed at the

door with the dragoman, and together they vociferously held back the tide. The spirit of the mob had subsided

to a more reasonable feeling. They no longer wished to tear the strangers limb from limb on the suspicion that

they were Germans. They now were frantic to talk as if some inexorable law had kept them silent for ten

years and this was the very moment of their release. Whereas, their simul taneous and interpolating orations

had throughout made noise much like a coalbreaker. Coleman led the Wainwrights to a table in a far part of

the room. They took chairs as if he had com manded them. " What an outrage," he said jubilantly. " The

apes." He was keeping more than half an eye upon the door, because he knew that the quick coming of the

Then suddenly the storm broke in wrath. Something had happened in the street. The jabbering crowd at the

door had turned and were hurrying upon some central tumult. The dragoman screamed to Coleman. Coleman

jumped and grabbed the dragoman. " Tell this man to take them somewhere up stairs," he cried, indicating the

Wainwrights with a sweep of his arm. The innkeeper seemed to understand sooner than the dragoman, and he

nodded eagerly. The professor was crying: "What is it, Mr. Coleman? What is it ? " An instant later, the

correspondent was out in the street, buffeting toward a scuffle. Of course it was the students. It appeared,

afterward, that those seven young men, with their feelings much ruffled, had been making the best of their

way toward the door of the inn, when a large man in the crowd, during a speech which was surely most

offensive, had laid an arresting hand on the shoulder of Peter Tounley. Whereupon the excellent Peter

Tounley had hit the large man on the jaw in such a swift and skilful manner that the large man had gone

spinning through a group of his countrymen to the hard earth, where he lay holding his face together and

howling. Instantly, of course, there had been a riot. It might well be said that even then the affair could have

ended in a lot of talking, but in the first place the students did not talk modern Greek, and in the second place

they were now past all thought of talking. They regarded this affair seriously as a fight, and now that they at

last were in it, they were in it for every pint of blood in their bodies. Such a pack of famished wolves had

They all had been expecting the row, and when Peter Tounley had found it expedient to knock over the man,

they had counted it a signal: their arms immediately begun to swing out as if they had been wound up. It was

at this time that Coleman swam brutally through the Greeks and joined his countrymen. He was more

frightened than any of those novices. When he saw Peter Tounley overthrow a dreadful looking brigand

whose belt was full of knives, and who crashed to the ground amid a clang of cartridges, he was appalled by

the utter simplicity with which the lads were treating the crisis. It was to them no com mon scrimmage at

Washurst, of course, but it flashed through Coleman's mind that they had not the slightegt sense of the size of

the thing. He expected every instant to see the flash of knives or to hear the deafening intonation of a rifle

fired against hst ear. It seemed to him miraculous that the tragedy was so long delayed.

In the meantirne he was in the affray. He jilted one man under the chin with his elbow in a way that reeled

him off from Peter Tounley's back; a little person in thecked clothes he smote between the eyes; he recieved a

gunbutt emphatically on the aide of the neck; he felt hands tearing at him; he kicked the pins out from under

three men in rapid succession. He was always yelling. " Try to get to the inn, boys, try to get to the inn. Look

out, Peter. Take care for his knife, Peter" Suddenly he whipped a rifle out of the hands of a man and swung

The boy Billy, drunk from some blows and bleeding, was already. staggering toward the inn over the clearage

which the wild Coleman made with the clubbed rifle. Tho others follewed as well as they might while beating

off a discouraged enemy. The remarkable innkeeper had barred his windows with strong wood shutters. He

held the door by the crack for them, and they stumbled one by on through the portal. Coleman did not know

why they were not all dead, nor did he understand the intrepid and generous behaviour of the innkeeper, but

at any rate he felt that the fighting was suspended, and he wanted to see Marjory. The innkeeper was, doing a

great pantomime in the middle of the darkened room, pointing to the outer door and then aiming his rifle at it

to explain his intention of defending them at all costs. Some of the students moved to a billiard table and

spread them selves wearily upon it. Others sank down where they stood. Outside the crowd was beginning

to roar. Coleman's groom crept out from under the little Coffee bar and comically saluted his master. The

dragoman was not present. Coleman felt that he must see Marjory, and he made signs to the innkeeper. The

latter understood quickly, and motioned that Coleman should follow him. They passed together through a

dark hall and up a darker stairway, where after Coleman stepped out into a sunlit room, saying loudly: "Oh,

Three wild people were instantly upon him. " Oh, what was it? What did happen? Is anybody hurt? Oh, tell

us, quick!" It seemed at the time that it was an avalanche of three of them, and it was not until later that he

recognised that Mrs. Wainwright had tumbled the largest number of questions upon him. As for Marjory, she

had said nothing until the time when she cried: " Ohhe is bleedinghe is bleeding. Oh, come, quick!" She

fairly dragged him out of one room into another room, where there was a jug of water. She wet her

handkerchief and softly smote his wounds. "Bruises," she said, piteously, tearfully. " Bruises. Oh, dear! How

When Coleman spoke his voice quavered. " It isn't anything. Really, it isn't anything." He had not known of

these wonderful wounds, but he almost choked in the joy of Marjory's ministry and her half coherent

exclamations. This proud and beautiful girl, this superlative creature, was reddening her handkerchief with

his blood, and no word of his could have prevented her from thus attending him. He could hear the professor

and Mrs. Wainwright fussing near him, trying to be of use. He would have liked to have been able to order

them out of the room. Marjory's cool fingers on his face and neck had conjured within him a vision at an

intimacy tnat was even sweeter than anything which he had imagined, and he longed to pour out to her the

bubbling, impassioned speech which came to his lips. But, always doddering behind him, were the two old

Suddenly a door opened and a youth appeared, simply red with blood. It was Peter Tounley. His first remark

was cheerful. "Well, I don't suppose those people will be any too quick to look for more trouble."

Coleman felt a swift pang because he had forgotten to announce the dilapidated state of all the students. He

had been so submerged by Marjory's tenderness that all else had been drowned from his mind. His heart beat

But she did nothing of the sort. " Oh, Peter," she cried in distress, and then she turned back to Coleman. It

was the professor and Mrs. Wainwright who, at last finding a field for their kindly ambitions, flung them.

selves upon Tounley and carried him off to another place. Peter was removed, crying: " Oh, now, look

here, professor, I'm not dying or anything of the sort Coleman and Marjory were left alone. He suddenly and

forcibly took one of her hands and the blood stained hankerchief dropped to the floor.

From below they could hear the thunder of weapons and fits upon the door of the inn amid a great clamour

of. tongues. Sometimes there arose the argumtntative howl of the innkeeper. Above this roar, Coleman's

He held her close to him. " But you are mine, remember," he said fiercely and sternly. " You are

mineforeverAs I am yoursremember." Her eyes half closed. She made intensely solemn answer. "Yes."

He released her and vphs gone. In the glooming coffee room of the inn he found the students, the dragoman,

the groom and the innkeeper armed with a motley collection of weapons which ranged from the rifle of the

innkeeper to the table leg in the hands of PeterTounley. The last named young student of archeology was in a

position of temporary leadefship and holding a great powbow with the innkeeper through the medium of

peircing outcries by the dragoman. Coleman had not yet undestood why none of them had been either stabbed

or shot in the fight in the steeet, but it seemed to him now that affairs were leading toward a crisis of tragedy.

He thought of the possibilities of having the dragoman go to an upper window and harangue the people, but

he saw no chance of success in such a plan. He saw that the crowd would merely howl at the dragoman while

the dragoman howled at the crowd. He then asked if there was any other exit from the inn by which they

could secretly escape. He learned that the door into the coffee room was the only door which pierced the four

great walls. All he could then do was to find out from the innkeeper how much of a siege the place could

stand, and to this the innkeeper answered volubly and with smiles that this hostelry would easily endure until

the mercurial temper of the crowd had darted off in a new direction. It may be curious to note here that all of

Peter Tounley's impassioned communication with the innkeeper had been devoted to an endeavour to learn

what in the devil was the matter with these people, as a man about to be bitten by poisonous snakes should,

first of all, furiously insist upon learning their exact species before deciding upon either his route, if he

The innkeeper was evidently convinced that this house would withstand the rage of the populace, and he was

such an unaccountably gallant little chap that Coleman trusted entirely to his word. His only fear or suspicion

Suddenly there was half a silence on the mob without the door. It is inconceivable that it could become

altogether silent, but it was as near to a rational stillness of tongues as it was able. Then there was a loud

knocking by a single fist and a new voice began to spin Greek, a voice that was somewhat like the rattle of

pebbles in a tin box. Then a startling voice called out in English. " Are you in there, Rufus? "

Answers came from every English speaking person in the room in one great outburst. "Yes."

" Well, let us in," called Nora Black. " It is all right. We've got an officer with us."

" Open the door," said Coleman with speed. The little innkeeper labouriously unfastened the great bars, and

when the door finally opened there appeared on the threshold Nora Black with Coke and an officer of

" We saw your carriage in the street," cried the queen of comic opera as she swept into the room. She was

beaming with delight. " What is all the row, anyway? Oooh, look at that student's nose. Who hit him? And

Her little Greek officer of infantry had stopped the mob from flowing into the room. Coleman looked toward

the door at times with some anxiety. Nora, noting it, waved her hand in careless reassurance; " Oh, it's, all

right. Don't worry about them any more. He is perfectly devoted to me. He would die there on the threshold if

I told him it would please me. Speaks splendid French. I found him limping along the road and gave him a

lift. And now do hurry up and tell me exactly what happened." They all told what had happened, while Nora

and Coke listened agape. Coke, by the way, had quite floated back to his old position with the students. It had

been easy in the stress of excitement and wonder. Nobody had any titne to think of the excessively remote

incidents of the early morning. All minor interests were lost in the marvel of the present situation.

"Who landed you in the eye, Billie?" asked the awed Coke. " That was a bad one." " Oh, I don't know," said

Billie. " You really couldn't tell who hit you, you know. It was a football rush. They had guns and knives, but

they didn't use 'em. I don't know why Jinks! I'm getting pretty stiff. My face feels as if it were made of tin.

" No; only talk. That little officer managed them. Outtalked them, I suppose. Hear him buzz, now." The

Wainwrights came down stairs. Nora Black went confidently forward to meet them. "You've added one more

to your list of rescuers," She cried, with her glowing, triumphant smile. "Miss Black of the New York

Daylightat your service. How in the world do you manage to get yourselves into such dreadful Scrapes?

You are the most remarkable people. You need a guardian. Why, you might have all been killed. How

exciting it must seem to be regularly of your party." She had shaken cordiaily one of Mrs. Wainwright's

hands without that lady indicating assent to the proceeding but Mrs. Wainwright had not felt repulsion. In

fact she had had no emotion springing directly from it. Here again the marvel of the situation came to deny

Mrs. Wainwright the right to resume a state of mind which had been so painfully interesting to her a few

The professor, Coleman and all the students were talking together. Coke had addressed Coleman civilly and

Nora slipped her arm lovingly through Marjbry's arm. "That Rufus! Oh, that Rufus," she cried joyously. " I'll

give him a good scolding as soon as I see him alone. I might have foreseen that he would get you all into

Marjory did not appear to resent anything. " Oh, I don't think it was Mr. Coleman's fault at ail," she an

" Well, I'd be glad to believe it, I'd be glad to believe it," said Nora. "I want Rufus to keep out of that sort of

thing, but he is so hotheaded and foolish." If she had pointed out her proprietary stamp on Coleman's cheek

" Oh," said the impassive Marjory, " I don't think you need have any doubt as to whose fault it was, if there

were any of our boys at fault. Mr. Coleman was inside when the fighting commenced, and only ran out to

help the boys. He had just brought us safely through the mob, and, far from being hotheaded and foolish, he

was utterly cool in manner, impressively cool, I thought. I am glad to be able to reassure you on these points,

".Yes, they do worry me," said Nora, densely. They worry me night and day when he is away from me."

" Oh," responded Marjory, " I have never thought of Mr. Coleman as a man that one would worry about

much. We consider him very selfreliant, able to take care of himself under almost any conditions, but then,

of course, we do not know him at all in the way that you know him. I should think that you would find that he

came off rather better than you expected from most of his difficulties. But then, of course, as. I said, you

know him so much better than we do." Her easy indifference was a tacit dismissal of Coleman as a topic.

Nora, now thoroughly alert, glanced keenly into the other girl's face, but it was inscrutable. The actress had

intended to go careering through a whole circle of daring illusions to an intimacy with,Coleman, but here,

before she had really developed her attack, Marjory, with a few conventional and indifferent sentences,

almost expressive of boredom, had made the subject of Coleman impossible. An effect was left upon Nora's

mind that Marjory had been extremely polite in listening to much nervous talk about a person in whom she

The actress was dazed. She did not know how it had all been done. Where was the head of this thing? And

where Was the tail? A fog had mysteriously come upon all her brilliant prospects of seeing Marjory

Wainwright suffer, and this fog was the product of a kind of magic with which she was not familiar. She

could not think how to fight it. After being simply dubious throughout a long pause, she in the end went into

a great rage. She glared furiously at Marjory, dropped her arm as if it had burned her and moved down upon

Coleman. She must have reflected that at any rate she could make him wriggle. When she was come near to

him, she called out: "Rufus!" In her tone was all the old insolent statement of ownership. Coleman might

have been a poodle. She knew how to call his same in a way that was anything less than a public scandal. On

this occasion everybody looked at him and then went silent, as people awaiting the startling denouement of a

drama. " Rufus! " She was baring his shoulder to show the fieurdelis of the criminal. The students gaped.

Coleman's temper was, if one may be allowed to speak in that way, broken loose inside of him. He could

hardly beeathe; he felt that his body was about to explode into a thousand fragments. He simply snarled out "

What? " Almost at once he saw that she had at last goaded him into making a serious tactical mistake. It must

be admitted that it is only when the relations between a man and a woman are the relations of wedlock, or at

least an intimate resemblance to it, that the man snarls out " What? " to the woman. Mere lovers say " I beg

your pardon ? " It is only Cupid's finished product that spits like a cat. Nora Black had called him like a wife,

and he had answered like a husband. For his cause, his manner could not possibly have been worse. He saw

the professor stare at him in surprise and alarm, and felt the excitement of the eight students. These latter

were diabolic in the celerity with which they picked out meanings. It was as plain to them as if Nora Black

Coleman would have given his nose to have been able to recall that single reverberating word. But he saw

that the scene was spelling downfall for him, and he went still more blind and desperate of it. His despair

made him burn to make matters Worse. He did not want to improve anything at all. " What?" he demanded. "

Nora was sweetly reproachful. " I left my jacket in the carriage, and I want you to get it for me."

Now it is plainly to be seen that no one of the people listening there had ever heard a man speak thus to a

woman who was not his wife. Whenever they had heard that form of spirited repartee it had come from the

lips of a husband. Coleman's rude speech was to their ears a flat announcement of an extraordinary intimacy

between Nora Black and the correspondent. Any other interpretation would not have occurred to them. It was

so palpable that it greatly distressed them with its arrogance and boldness. The professor had blushed. The

Nora Black had won a great battle. It was her Agincourt. She had beaten the clever Coleman in a way that

had left little of him but rags. However, she could have lost it all again if she had shown her feeling of

elation. At Coleman's rudeness her manner indicated a mixture of sadness and embarrassment. Her suffering

was so plain to the eye that Peter Tounley was instantly moved. " Can't I get your jacket for you, Miss Black?

Coleman was resolved to improve nothing. His overthrow seemed to him to be so complete that he could not

in any way mend it without a sacrifice of his dearest prides. He turned away from them all and walked to an

isolated corner of the room. He would abide no longer with them. He had been made an outcast by Nora

Black, and he intended to be an outcast. Therc was no sense in attempting to stem this extraordinary deluge.

It was better to acquiesce. Then suddenly he was angry with Marjory. He did not exactly see why he was

angry at Marjory, but he was angry at her nevertheless. He thought of how he could revenge himself upon

her. He decided to take horse with his groom and dragoman and proceed forthwith on the road, leaving the

jumble as it stood. This would pain Marjory, anyhow, he hoped. She would feel it deeply, he hoped. Acting

upon this plan, he went to the professor. Well, of course you are all right now, professor, and if you don't

mind, I would like to leave yougo on ahead. I've got a considerable pressure of business on my mind, and I

The professor did not seem to know what to say. " Of course, if you wish itsorry, I'm sureof course it is as

you pleasebut you have been such a power in our favourit seems too bad to lose youbutif you wish itif

" Oh, yes, I quite insist," said Coleman, calmly. "I quite insist. Make your mind easy on that score, professor.

"Well, Mr. Coleman," stammered the old man. " Well, it seems a great pity to lose youyou have been such a

"Oh, you are now only eight hours from the rail way. It is very easy. You would not need my as sistance,

Coleman's dragoman came to him then and said: "There is one man here who says you made to take one rifle

in the fight and was break his head. He was say he wants sunthing for you was break his head. He says hurt."

The dragoman wrestled then evidently with a desire to protect this mine from outside fingers. "II think two

gold piece plenty." "Take them," said Coleman. It seemed to him preposterous that this idiot with a broken

head should interpolate upon his tragedy. " Afterward you and the groom get the three horses and we will

Coleman shot her a quick glance. " I believe my period of usefulness is quite ended," he said. with just a

" It is certainly true that you have had a remark able period of usefulness to us," said Marjory with a slow

Coleman looked at her to see what she could mean. From many women, these words would have been equal,

under the circumstances, to a command to stay, but he felt that none might know what impulses moved the

mind behind that beautiful mask. In his misery he thought to hurt her into an expression of feeling by a rough

speech. " I'm so in love with Nora Black, you know, that I have to be very careful of myself."

" Oh," said Marjory, never thought of that. I should think you would have to be careful of yourself." She did

not seem moved in any way. Coleman despaired of finding her weak spot. She was a'damantine, this girl. He

searched his mind for something to say which would be still more gross than his last outbreak, but when he

felt that he was about to hit upon it, the professor interrupted with an agitated speech to Marjory. "You had

better go to your mother, my child, and see that you are all ready to leave here as soon as the carriages come

"We have absolutely nothing to make ready," said Marjory, laughing. " But I'll go and see if mother needs

anything before we start that I can get for her." She went away without bidding goodbye to Coleman. The

sole maddening impression to him was that the matter of his going had not been of sufficient importance to

remain longer than a moment upon her mind. At the same time he decided that he would go, irretrievably go.

Even then the dragoman entered the room. " We will pack everything upon the horse?"

" Yes, I'm off," answered Coleman recovering him self for Peter's benefit. " See you in Athens, probably."

Presently the dragoman announced the readiness of the horses. Coleman shook hands with the students and

the Professor amid cries of surprise and polite regret. "What? Going, oldman? Really? What for ? Oh, wait

for us. We're off in a few minutes. Sorry as the devil, old boy, to' see you go." He accepted their protestations

with a somewhat sour face. He knew perfectly well that they were thinking of his departure as something that

related to Nora Black. At the last, he bowed to the ladies as a collection. Marjory's answering bow was

affable; the bow of Mrs. Wainwright spoke a resentment for some thing; and Nora's bow was triumphant

mockery. As he swung into the saddle an idea struck him with over whelming force. The idea was that he was

a fool. He was a colossal imbecile. He touched the spur to his horse and the animal leaped superbly, making

the Greeks hasten for safety in all directions. He was off ; he could no more return to retract his devious

idiocy than he could make his horse fly to Athens. What was done was done. He could not mend it. And he

felt like a man that had broken his own heart; perversely, childishly, stupidly broken his own heart. He was

sure that Marjory was lost to him. No man could be degraded so publicly and resent it so crudely and still

retain a Marjory. In his abasement from his defeat at the hands of Nora Black he had performed every

imaginable blockheadish act and had finally climaxed it all by a departure which left the tongue of Nora to

speak unmolested into the ear of Marjory. Nora's victory had been a serious blow to his fortunes, but it had

not been so serious as his own subsequent folly. He had generously muddled his own affairs until he could

He was in the mood for hatred. He hated many people. Nora Black was the principal item, but he did not

hesitate to detest the professor, Mrs. Wain wright, Coke and all the students. As for Marjory, he would

revenge himself upon her. She had done nothing that he defined clearly but, at any rate, he would take

revenge for it. As much as was possible, he would make her suffer. He would convince her that he was a

tremendous and inexorable person. But it came upon his mind that he was powerless in all ways. If he hated

many people they probably would not be even interested in his emotion and, as for his revenge upon Marjory,

it was beyond his strength. He was nothing but the complaining victim of Nora Black and himself.

He felt that he would never again see Marjory, and while feeling it he began to plan his attitude when next

they met. He would be very cold and reserved. At Agrinion he found that there would be no train until the

next daybreak. The dragoman was excessively annoyed over it, but Coleman did not scold at all. As a matter

of fact his heart had given a great joyus bound. He could not now prevent his being overtaken. They were

only a few leagues away, and while he was waiting for the train they would easily cover the distance. If

anybody expressed surprise at seeing him he could exhibit the logical reasons. If there had been a train

starting at once he would have taken it. His pride would have put up with no subterfuge. If the Wainwrights

overtook him it was because he could not help it. But he was delighted that he could not help it. There had

been an inter position by some specially beneficent fate. He felt like whistling. He spent the early half of the

night in blissful smoke, striding the room which the dragoman had found for him. His head was full of plans

and detached impressive scenes in which he figured before Marjory. The simple fact that there was no train

away from Agrinion until the next daybreak had wrought a stupendous change in his outlook. He

unhesitatingly considered it an omen of a good future. He was up before the darkness even contained presage

of coming light, but near the railway station was a little hut where coffee was being served to several

prospective travellers who had come even earlier to the rendezvous. There was no evidence of the

Coleman sat in the hut and listened for the rumble of wheels. He was suddenly appalled that the Wainwrights

were going to miss the train. Perhaps they had decided against travelling during the night. Perbaps this thing,

and perhaps that thing. The morning was very cold. Closely muffled in his cloak, he went to the door and

stared at where the road was whiten ing out of night. At the station stood a little spectral train, and the

engine at intervals emitted a long, piercing scream which informed the echoing land that, in all probability, it

was going to start after a time for the south. The Greeks in the coffee room were, of course, talking.

At last Coleman did hear the sound of hoofs and wheels. The three carriages swept up in grand procession.

The first was laden with students ; in the second was the professor, the Greek officer, Nora Black's old lady

and other persons, all looking marvellously unimportant and shelved. It was the third carriage at which

Coleman stared. At first be thought the dim light deceived his vision, but in a moment he knew that his first

leaping conception of the arrangement of the people in this vehicle had been perfectly correct. Nora Black

and Mrs. Wainwright sat side by side on the back seat, while facing them were Coke and Marjory.

The oddity of the grouping stupefied Coleman. It was anarchy, naked and unashamed. He could not imagine

how such changes could have been consummated in the short time he had been away from them, but he laid it

all to some startling necromancy on the part of Nora Black, some wondrous play which had captured them all

because of its surpassing skill and because they were, in the main, rather gullible people. He was wrong. The

magic had been wrought by the unaided foolishness of Mrs. Wainwfight. As soon as Nora Black had

succeeded in creating an effect of intimacy and dependence between herself and Coleman, the professor had

flatly stated to his wife that the presence of Nora Black in the party, in the inn, in the world, was a thiag that

did not meet his approval in any way. She should be abolished. As for Coleman, he would not defend him.

He preferred not to talk to him. It made him sad. Coleman at least had been very indiscreet, very indiscreet. It

was a great pity. But as for this blatant woman, the sooner they rid themselves of her, the sooner he would

Whereupon Mrs. Wainwright had changed front with the speed of light and attacked with horse, foot and

guns. She failed to see, she had declared, where this poor, lone girt was in great fault. Of course it was

probable that she had listened to this snaky. tongued Rufus Coleman, but that was ever the mistake that

women made. Oh, certainly ; the professor would like to let Rufus Coleman off scotfree. That was the way

with men. They defended each other in all cases. If wrong were done it was the woman who suffered. Now,

since this poor girl was alone far off here in Greece, Mrs. Wainwright announced that she had such full sense

of her duty to her sex that her conscience would not allow her to scorn and desert a sister, even if that sister

was, approximately, the victim of a creature like Rufus Coleman. Perhaps the poor thing loved this wretched

man, although it was hard to imagine any woman giving her heart to such. a monster.

The professor had then asked with considerable spirit for the proofs upon which Mrs. Wainwright named

Coleman a monster, and had made a wry face over her completely conventional reply. He had told her

But Mrs. Wainwright was not to be deterred from an exciting espousal of the cause of her sex. Upon the

instant that the professor strenuously opposed her she becamean apostle, an enlightened, uplifted apostle to

the world on the wrongs of her sex. She had come down with this thing as if it were a disease. Nothing could

stop her. Her husband, her daughter, all influences in other directions, had been overturned with a roar, and

the first thing fully clear to the professor's mind had been that his wife was riding affably in the carriage with

Nora Black. Coleman aroused when he heard one of the students cry out: " Why, there is Rufus Coleman's

dragoman. He must be here." A moment later they thronged upon him. " Hi, old man, caught you again!

Where did you break to? Glad to catch you, old boy. How are you making it? Where's your horse?"

" Sent the horses on to, Athens," said Coleman. He had not yet recovered his composure, and he was glad to

find available this commonplace return to their exuberant greetings and questions. " Sent them on to Athens

In the mean time the engine of the little train was screaming to heaven that its intention of starting was most

serious. The diligencia careered to the station platform and unburdened. Coleman had had his dragoman place

his luggage in a little firstclass carriage and he defiantly entered it and closed the door. He had a sudden

return to the old sense of downfall, and with it came the original rebellious desires. However, he hoped that

somebody would intrude upon him. It was Peter Tounley. The student flung open the door and then yelled to

the distance : " Here's an empty one." He clattered into the compartment. " Hello, Coleman! Didn't know you

were in here! " At his heels came Nora Black, Coke and Marjory. " Oh! " they said, when they saw the

occupant of the carriage. " Oh ! " Coleman was furious. He could have distributed some of his traps in a way

THERE was a demonstration of the unequalled facilities of a European railway carriage for rendering

unpleasant things almost intolerable. These people could find no way to alleviate the poignancy of their

position. Coleman did not know where to look. Every personal mannerism becomes accentuated in a

European railway carriage. If you glance at a man, your glance defines itself as a stare. If you carefully look

at nothing, you create for yourself a resemblance to all woodenheaded things. A newspaper is, then, in the

It was this abominable railway carriage which exacted the first display of agitation from Marjory. She flushed

rosily, and her eyes wavered over the cornpartment. Nora Black laughed in a way that was a shock to the

nerves. Coke seemed very angry, indeed, and Peter Tounley was in pitiful distress. Everything was acutely,

painfully vivid, bald, painted as glaringly as a grocer's new wagon. It fulfilled those traditions which the

artists deplore when they use their pet phrase on a picture, "It hurts." The damnable power of accentuation of

the European railway carriage seemed, to Coleman's amazed mind, to be redoubled and redoubled.

It was Peter Tounley who seemed to be in the greatest agony. He looked at the correspondent beseechingly

and said: "It's a very cold morning, Coleman." This was an actual appeal in the name of humanity.

Coleman came squarely. to the front and even grinned a little at poor Peter Tounley's misery. "Yes, it is a

cold morning, Peter. I should say it to one of the coldest mornings in my recollection."

Peter Tounley had not intended a typical American emphasis on the polar conditions which obtained in the

compartment at this time, but Coleman had given the word this meaning. Spontaneously every body smiled,

and at once the tension was relieved. But of course the satanic powers of the railway carriage could not be

altogether set at naught. Of course it fell to the lot of Coke to get the seat directly in front of Coleman, and

Peter Tounley was inspired to begin conventional babble, in which he took great care to make an appear. ance

of talking to all in the carriage. " Funny thing I never knew these mornings in Greece were so cold. I thought

the climate here was quite tropical. It must have been inconvenient in the ancient times, when, I am told,

people didn't wear near so many erclothes. Really, I don't see how they stood it. For my part, I would like

nothing so much as a buffalo robe. I suppose when those great sculptors were doing their masterpieces, they

had to wear gloves. Ever think of that? Funny, isn't it? Aren't you cold, Marjory ? I am. jingo! Imagine the

Spartans in ulsters, going out to meet an enemy in capeovercoats, and being desired by their mothers to

It was rather hard work for Peter Tounley. Both Marjory and Coleman tried to display an interest in his

labours, and they laughed not at what he said, but because they believed it assisted him. The little train,

meanwhile, wandered up a great green slope, and the day rapidly coloured the land.

At first Nora Black did not display a militant mood, but as time passed Coleman saw clearly that she was

considering the advisability of a new attack. She had Coleman and Marjory in conjunction and where they

were unable to escape from her. The opportunities were great. To Coleman, she seemed to be gloating over

the possibilities of making more mischief. She was looking at him speculatively, as if considering the best

place to hit him first. Presently she drawled : " Rufus, I wish you would fix my rug about me a little better."

Coleman saw that this was a beginning. Peter Tounley sprang to his feet with speed and en thusiasm. " Oh,

let me do it for you." He had her well muffled in the rug before she could protest, even if a protest had been

rational. The young man had no idea of defending Coleman. He had no knowledge of the necessity for it. It

had been merely the exercise of his habit of amiability, his chronic desire to see everybody comfortable. His

passion in this direction was well known in Washurst, where the students had borrowed a phrase from the

photographers in order to describe him fully in a nickname. They called him " Lookpleasant Tounley." This

did not in any way antagonise his perfect willingness to fight on occasions with a singular desperation, which

" Oh, thank you very much, Mr. Tounley," said Nora Black, without gratitude. " Rufus is always so lax in

"I don't know how you know it," said Coleman boldly, and he looked her fearlessly in the eye. The battle had

" Oh," responded Nora, airily, " I have had opportunity enough to know it, I should think, by this time."

" No," said Coleman, " since I have never paid you particular and direct attention, you cannot possibly know

what I am lax in and what I am not lax in. I would be obliged to be of service at any time, Nora, but surely

you do not consider that you have a right to my services superior to any other right."

Nora Black simply went mad, but fortunately part of her madness was in the form of speechlessness.

Marjory and Peter Tounley turned first hot and then cold, and looked as if they wanted to fly away; and even

Coke, penned helplessly in with this unpleasant incident, seemed to have a sudden attack of distress. The only

frigid person was Coleman. He had made his declaration of independence, and he saw with glee that the

victory was complete. Nora Black might storm and rage, but he had announced his position in an

unconventional blunt way which nobody in the carriage could fail to understand. He felt somewhat like

smiling with confidence and defiance in Nora's face, but he still had the fear for Marjory.

Unexpectedly, the fight was all out of Nora Black. She had the fury of a woman scorned, but evidently she

had perceived that all was over and lost. The remainder of her wrath dispensed itself in glares which Coleman

A strained silence fell upon the group which lasted until they arrived at the little port of Mesalonghi, whence

they were to take ship for Patras. Coleman found himself wondering why he had not gone flatly at the great

question at a much earlier period, indeed at the first moment when the great question began to make life

exciting for him. He thought that if he had charged Nora's guns in the beginning they would have turned out

to be the same incapable artillery. Instead of that he had run away and continued to run away until he was

actually cornered and made to fight, and his easy victory had defined him as a person who had, earlier,

indulged in much stupidity and cowardice. Everything had worked out so simply, his terrors had been

dispelled so easily, that he probably was led to overestimate his success. And it occurred suddenly to him. He

foresaw a fine occasion to talk privately to Marjory when all had boarded the steamer for Patras and he

resolved to make use of it. This he believed would end the strife and conclusively laurel him.

The train finally drew up on a little stone pier and some boatmen began to scream like gulls. The steamer lay

at anchor in the placid blue cove. The embarkation was chaotic in the Oriental fashion and there was the

customary misery which was only relieved when the travellers had set foot on the deck of the steamer.

Coleman did not devote any premature attention to finding Marjory, but when the steamer was fairly out on

the calm waters of the Gulf of Corinth, he saw her pacing to and fro with Peter Tounley. At first he lurked in

the distance waiting for an opportunity, but ultimately he decided to make his own opportunity. He

approached them. "Marjory,would you let me speak to you alone for a few moments? You won't mind, will

"Of course. It is not some dreadful revelation, is it? " said Marjory, bantering him coolly.

" No," answered Coleman, abstractedly. He was thinking of what he was going to say. Peter Tounley

vanished around the corner of a deckhouse and Marjory and Coleman began to pace to and fro even as

Marjory and Peter Tounley had done. Coleman had thought to speak his mind frankly and once for all, and on

the train he had invented many clear expressions of his feeling. It did not appear that he had forgotten them. It

seemed, more, that they had become entangled in his mind in such a way that he could not unravel the end of

In the pause, Marjory began to speak in admiration of the scenery. " I never imagined that Greece was so full

of mountains. One reads so much of the Attic Plains, but aren't these mountains royal? They look so rugged

and cold, whereas the bay is absolutely as blue as the old descriptions of a summer sea."

You know well enough," said Coleman, in a head. long fashion. " You must know, you must have seen it.

She knows I care for you and she wants to stop it. And she has no right toto interfere. She is a fiend, a

" Very well," answered Marjory, simply. " I believe you." She managed to give the words the effect of a mere

announcement that she believed him and it was in no way plain that she was glad or that she esteemed the

He scowled at her in dark resentment. " You mean by that, I suppose, that you don't believe me ? "

" Oh," answered Marjory, wearily, " I believe you. I said so. Don't talk about it any more."

"Then," said Coleman, slowly, " you mean that you do not care whether I'm telling the truth or not?"

He did not know, apparently, exactly how to deal with her manner, which was actually so pliable thatit was

marble, if one may speak in that way. He looked ruefully at the sea. He had expected a far easier time. "

" Really," interrupted Marjory, " this is something which I do not care to discuss. I would rather you would

not speak to me at all about it. It seems too toobad. I can readily give you my word that I believe you, but I

would prefer you not to try to talk to me about it oranything of that sort. Mother!"

Mrs. Wainwright was hovering anxiously in the vicinity, and she now bore down rapidly upon the pair. "You

are very nearly to Patras," she said reproachfully to her daughter, as if the fact had some fault of Marjory's

She stood waiting as if she expected Marjory to in stantly quit Coleman. The girl wavered a moment and

then followed her mother. " Goodbye." she said. "I hope we may see you again in Athens." It was a

command to him to travel alone with his servant on the long railway journey from Patras to Athens. It was a

dismissal of a casual acquaintance given so graciously that it stung him to the depths of his pride. He bowed

his adieu and his thanks. When the yelling boatmen came again, he and his man proceeded to the shore in an

At the train, the party split into three sections. Coleman and his man had one compartment, Nora Black and

The little officer was still in tow of Nora Black. He was very enthusiastic. In French she directed him to

remain silent, but he did not appear to understand. " You tell him," she then said to her dragoman, " to sit in a

corner and not to speak until I tell him to, or I won't have him in here." She seemed anxious to unburden

herself to the old lady companion. " Do you know," she said, " that girl has a nerve like steel. I tried to break

it there in that inn, but I couldn't budge her. If I am going to have her beaten I must prove myself to be a very,

" Why did you try to break her nerve ? " asked the old lady, yawning. "Why do you want to have her beaten ?

" Because I do, old stupid," answered Nora. " You should have heard the things I said to her."

" And why should you say anything about Coleman to her?" queried the old lady, still hopelessly befogged.

" Because," cried Nora, darting a look of wrath at her companion, " I want to prevent that marriage." She had

been betrayed into this avowal by the singularly opaque mind of the old lady. The latter at once sat erect. "

Oh, ho," she said, as if a ray of light had been let into her head. " Oh, ho. So that's it, is it ? "

The old lady was amazed into a long period of meditation. At last she spoke depressingly. " Well, how are

you going to prevent it? Those things can't be done in these days at all. If they care for each other"

Nora burst out furiously. "Don't venture opinions until you know what you are talking about, please. They

don't care for each other, do you see? She cares for him, but he don't give a snap of his fingers for her."

" But," cried the bewildered lady, " if he don't care for her, there will be nothing to prevent. If he don't care

for her, he won't ask her to marry him, and so there won't be anything to prevent."

Nora made a broad gesture of impatience. " Oh, can't you get anything through your head ? Haven't you seen

that the girl has been the only young woman in that whole party lost up there in the mountains, and that

naturally more than half of the men still think they are in love with her? That's what it is. Can't you see ? It

always happens that way. Then Coleman comes along and makes a fool of himself with the others."

The old lady spoke up brightly as if at last feeling able to contribute something intelligent to the talk. " Oh,

Nora's eyes looked as if their glance might shrivel the old lady's hair. "Don't I keep telling you that it is no

such thing ? Can't you understand? It is all glamour! Fascination! Way up there in the wilderness! Only one

" I don't say that I am so very keen," said the old lady, somewhat offended, "but I fail to see where I could

improve when first you tell me he don't care for her, and then you tell me that he does care for her."

" Glamour,' ' Fascination,'" quoted Nora. " Don't you understand the meaning of the words ? "

Nora was silent for a time, while a gloom upon her face deepened. It had struck her that the theories for

which she protested so energetically might not be of such great value. Spoken aloud, they had a sudden new

flimsiness. Perhaps she had reiterated to herself that Coleman was the victim of glamour only because she

wished it to be true. One theory, however, re mained unshaken. Marjory was an artful rninx, with no truth in

She presently felt the necessity of replying to the question of her companion. " Oh," she said, care lessly, " I

The old lady was giving the best of her mind to the subject. " If that's the case" she observed, musingly, " if

The talk had so slackened that Nora's unfortunate Greek admirer felt that here was a good opportunity to

present himself again to the notice of the actress. The means was a smile and a French sentence, but his

reception would have frightened a man in armour. His face blanched with horror at the storm, he had

invoked, and he dropped limply back as if some one had shot him. "You tell this little snipe to let me alone! "

cried Nora, to the dragoman. " If he dares to come around me with any more of those Parisian dude speeches,

II don't know what I'll do! I won't have it, I say." The impression upon the dragoman was hardly less in

effect. He looked with bulging eyes at Nora, and then began to stammer at the officer. The latter's voice could

sometimes be heard in awed whispers for the more elaborate explanation of some detail of the tragedy.

Afterward, he remained meek and silent in his corner, barely more than a shadow, like the proverbial husband

"Well," said the old lady, after a long and thoughtful pause, " I don't know, I'm sure, but it seems to me that if

Rufus Coleman really cares for that girl, there isn't much use in trying to stop him from getting her. He isn't

" For heaven's sake, will you stop assuming that he does care for her ? " demanded Nora, breathlessly.

"And I don't see," continued the old lady, "what you want to prevent him for, anyhow."

" I FEEL in this radiant atmosphere that there could be no such thing as warmen striving together in black

and passionate hatred." The professor's words were for the benefit of his wife and daughter. ,He was viewing

the skyblue waters of the Gulf of Corinth with its background of mountains that in the sunshine were

touched here and there with a copperish glare. The train was slowly sweeping along the southern shore. " It is

strange to think of those men fighting up there in the north. And it is strange to think that we ourselves are

"I do not suppose any of us will realise it fully for some time. It is altogether too odd, too very odd."

"To think of it!" cried Mrs. WainWright. "To think of it! Supposing those dreadful Albanians or those awful

men from the Greek mountains had caught us! Why, years from now I'll wake up in the night and think of it!

The professor mused. " Strange that we cannot feel it strongly now. My logic tells me to be aghast that we

ever got into such a place, but my nerves at present refuse to thrill. I am very much afraid that this singular

apathy of ours has led us to be unjust to poor Coleman." Here Mrs. Wainwright objected. " Poor Coleman! I

" Well," answered the professor, slowly, " I am in doubt about our behaviour. It"

" Oh," cried the wife, gleefully," in doubt about our behaviour! I'm in doubt about his behaviour."

" So, then, you do have a doubt. of his behaviour?" " Oh, no," responded Mrs. Wainwright, hastily, " not

about its badness. What I meant to say was that in the face of his outrageous conduct with that that woman,

it is curious that you should worry about our behaviour. It surprises me, Harrison."

The professor was wagging his head sadly. " I don't know I don't know It seems hard to judge * * I hesitate

Mrs. Wainwright treated this attitude with disdain. " It is not hard to judge," she scoffed, " and I fail to see

The professor got angry. "Nonsense! Nonsense! I do not believe that he brought her. If I ever saw a spectacle

of a woman bringing herself, it was then. You keep chanting that thing like an outright parrot."

"Well," retorted Mrs. Wainwright, bridling, "I suppose you imagine that you understand such things, Men

Mrs. Wainwright passed into an offended silence, and the professor, also silent, looked with a gradually

Night was suggested in the sky before the train was near to Athens. " My trunks," sighed Mrs. Wainwright. "

How glad I will be to get back to my trunks! Oh, the dust! Oh, the misery ! Do find out when we will get

But, at last, they arrived in Athens, amid a darkness which was confusing, and, after no more than the

common amount of trouble, they procured carriages and were taken to the hotel. Mrs. Wainwright's impulses

now dominated the others in the family. She had one passion after another. The majority of the servants in the

hotel pretended that they spoke English, but, in three minutes, she drove them distracted with the abundance

and violence of her requests. It came to pass that in the excitement the old couple quite forgot Marjory. It was

not until Mrs. Wainwright, then feeling splendidly, was dressed for dinner, that she thought to open Marjory's

There was no light: there did not seem to be any body in the room. " Marjory ! " called the mother, in alarm.

She listened for a moment and then ran hastily out again. " Harrison ! " she cried. " I can't find Marjory!" The

professor had been tying his cravat. He let the loose ends fly. "What?" he ejaculated, opening his mouth wide.

Then they both rushed into Marjory's room. "Marjory!" beseeched the old man in a voice which would have

The answer was from the bed. "Yes?" It was low, weary, tearful. It was not like Marjory. It was dangerously

the voice of a hcartbroken woman. They hurried forward with outcries. "Why, Marjory! Are you ill, child?

" No," answered this changed voice, " I am not ill. I only thought I'd rest for a time. Don't bother."

The professor hastily lit the gas and then father and mother turned hurriedly to the bed. In the first of the

The effect.of this grief upon the professor was, in part, an effect of fear. He seemed afraid to touch it, to go

near it. He could, evidently, only remain in the outskirts, a horrified spectator. The mother, how. ever, flung

The girl turned her face to the pillow and held out a hand of protest. " Don't, mother! Don't !"

" Don't, mother. Please go away. Please go away. Don't speak at all, I beg of you."

" Don't." The girl lifted a face which appalled them. It had something entirely new in it. " Please go away,

Mrs. Wainwright looked at her husband. " Yes," said the old man, trembling. "Go! " She threw up her hands

in a sorrowing gesture that was not without its suggestion that her exclusion would be a mistake. She left the

The professor dropped on his knees at the bedside and took one of Marjory's hands. His voice dropped to its

She had turned her face again to the pillow. At last she answered in muffled tones, " You know." Thereafter

came a long silence full of sharpened pain. It was Marjory who spoke first. "I have saved my pride, daddy,

butI havelosteverything else." Even her sudden resumption of the old epithet of her childhood was an

additional misery to the old man. He still said no word. He knelt, gripping her fingers and staring at the wall.

The father gave a low groan. He was thinking deeply, bitterly. Since one was only a human being, how was

one going to protect beloved hearts assailed with sinister fury from the inexplicable zenith? In this tragedy he

felt as helpless as an old grey ape. He did not see a possible weapon with which he could defend his child

from the calamity which was upon her. There was no wall, no shield which could turn this sorrow from the

heart of his child. If one of his hands loss could have spared her, there would have been a sacrifice of his

hand, but he was potent for nothing. He could only groan and stare at the wall. He reviewed the past half in

fear that he would suddenly come upon his error which was now the cause of Marjory's tears. He dwelt long

upon the fact that in Washurst he had refused his consent to Marjory's marriage with Coleman, but even now

he could not say that his judgment was not correct. It was simply that the doom of woman's woe was upon

Marjory, this ancient woe of the silent tongue and the governed will, and he could only kneel at the bedside

Marjory raised her voice in a laugh. " Did I betray myself? Did I become the maiden all forlorn ? Did I giggle

to show people that I did not care? NoI did notI did not. And it was such a long time, daddy! Oh, such a

long time! I thought we would never get here. I thought I would never get where I could be alone like this,

where I couldcryif I wanted to. I am not much of a crier, am I, daddy? But this timethistime"

She suddenly drew herself over near to her father and looked at him. " Oh, daddy, I want to tell you one

thing. just one simple little thing." She waited then, and while she waited her father's head went lower and

lower. " Of course, you knowI told you once. I love him! I love him! Yes, probably he is a rascal, but, do

you know, I don't think I would mind if he was aan assassin. This morning I sent him away, but, daddy, he

didn't want to go at all. I know he didn't. This Nora Black is nothing to him. I know she is not. I am sure of it.

YesI am sure of it. * * * I never expected to talk this way to any living creature, butyou are so good,

The sight brought to her a new outburst of sobbing, for her sorrow now had dignity and solemnity from

thebowed white head of her old father, and she felt that her heart was dying amid the pomp of the church. It

was the last rites being performed at the deathbed. Into her ears came some imagining of the low melan.

Finally her father arose. He kissed her on the brow. " Try to sleep, dear," he said. He turned out the gas and

But if his thought was full of chastened emotion, it received some degree of shock when he arrived in the

presence of Mrs. Wainwright. " Well, what is all this about ? " she demanded, irascibly. " Do you mean to say

that Marjory is breaking her heart over that man Coleman ? It is all your fault" She was apparently still

When the professor interrupted her he did not speak with his accustomed spirit, but from something novel in

his manner she recognised a danger signal. " Please do not burst out at it in that way."

"Well," she said, after reflection, "I knew it. I alway's knew it. If you hadn't been so blind! You turned like a

weathercock in your opinions of Coleman. You never could keep your opinion about him for more than an

hour. Nobody could imagine what you might think next. And now you see the result of it! I warned you! I

told you what this Coleman was, and if Marjory is suffering now, you have only yourself to blame for it. I

" If it is my fault," said the professor, drearily, " I hope God may forgive me, for here is a great wrong to my

Here the professor revolted. " Oh, now, do not be gin on that," he snarled, peevishly. Do not begin on that."

" Anyhow," said Mrs. Wainwright, it is time that we should be going down to dinner. Is Marjory com ing? "

" No, she is not," answered the professor, " and I do not know as I shall go myself."

" But you must go. Think how it would look! All the students down there dining without us, and cutting up

" She wants to be left alone," announced Mrs. Wainwright, as if she was the particular herald of this news. "

" Well, I suppose we may as well go down." Before they went, the professor tiptoed into his daughter's room.

In the darkness he could only see her waxen face on the pillow, and her two eyes gazing fixedly at the ceiling.

He did not speak, but immedi. ately withdrew, closing the door noiselessly behind him.

IF the professor and Mrs. Wainwright had descended sooner to a lower floor of the hotel, they would have

found reigning there a form of anarchy. The students were in a smoking room which was also an entrance

hall to the dining room, and because there was in the middle of this apartment a fountain containing gold fish,

they had been moved to license and sin. They had all been tubbed and polished and brushed and dressed until

they were exuberantly beyond themselves. The proprietor of the hotel brought in his dignity and showed it to

them, but they minded it no more than if he had been only a common man. He drew himself to his height and

looked gravely at them and they jovially said: " Hello, Whiskers." American college students are notorious in

their country for their inclination to scoff at robed and crowned authority, and, far from being awed by the

dignity of the hotelkeeper, they were delighted with it. It was something with which to sport. With

immeasurable impudence, they copied his attitude, and, standing before him, made comic speeches, always

alluding with blinding vividness to his beard. His exit disappointed them. He had not remained long under

fire. They felt that they could have interested themselves with him an entire evening. " Come back, Whiskers!

Oh, come back! " Out in the main hall he made a ges. ture of despair to some of his gaping minions and then

A formidable majority then decided that Coke was a gold fish, and that therefore his proper place was in the

fountain. They carried him to it while he strug. gled madly. This quiet room with its crimson rugs and gilded

mirrors seemed suddenly to have become an important apartment in hell. There being as yet no traffic in the

dining room, the waiters were all at liberty to come to the open doors, where they stood as men turned to

Coke, standing with one foot on the floor and the other on the bottom of the shallow fountain, blas phemed

his comrades in a low tone, but with inten tion. He was certainly desirous of lifting his foot out of the water,

but it seemed that all movement to that end would have to wait until he had successfully ex pressed his

opinions. In the meantime, there was heard slow footsteps and the rustle of skirts, and then some people

entered the smoking room on their way to dine. Coke took his foot hastily out of the fountain.

The faces of the men of the arriving party went blank, and they turned their cold and pebbly eyes straight to

the front, while the ladies, after little ex. pressions of alarm, looked As if they wanted to run. In fact, the

" There, now," said Coke bitterly to his companions. "You see? We looked like little schoolboys"

" Oh, never mind, old man," said Peter Tounley. "We'll forgive you, although you did embarrass us. But,

The students took this question of dripping and played upon it until they would have made quite insane

anybody but another student. They worked it into all manner of forms, and hacked and haggled at Coke until

he was driven to his room to seek other apparel. " Be sure and change both legs," they told him. " Remember

After Coke's departure, the United States minister entered the room, and instantly they were subdued. It was

not his lofty stationthat affected them. There are probably few stations that would have at all af

fectedthem. They became subdued because they un feignedly liked the United States minister. They, were

suddenly a group of wellbred, correctly attired young men who had not put Coke's foot in the fountain. Nor

"Well, I am delighted," said the minister, laughing as he shook hands with them all. " I was not sure I would

ever see you again. You are not to be trusted, and, good boys as you are, I'll be glad to see you once and

forever over the boundary of my jurisdiction. Leave Greece, you vagabonds. However, I am truly delighted to

" How in the world did you get out of it? You must be remarkable chaps. I thought you were in a hopeless

" A correspondent," said Peter Tounley. " I don't know if you have met him. His name is Coleman. He found

" Well, glory be to Coleman," exclaimed the min ister, after a long sigh of surprise. " Glory be to Cole

The students were alert immediately. "Why, did you know about it, sir? Did he tell you he was coming after

"Of course. He came tome here in Athens. and asked where you were. I told him you were in a peck of

trouble. He acted quietly and somewhat queerly,. and said that he would try to look you up. He said you were

friends of his. I warned him against trying it. Yes, I said it was impossible, I had no idea that he would really

" No, sir ' " answered Peter Tounley. " He never said much about it. I think he usually contended that it was

" It was no accident," said the minister, sharply. "When a man starts out to do a thing and does it, you can't

" We think so, sir," said be who was called Billie. " He certainly brought us through in style."

" But how did he manage it? " cried the minister, keenly interested. " How did he do it ? "

" It is hard to say, sir. But he did it. He met us in the dead of night out near Nikopolis"

"Yes, sir. And he hid us in a forest while a fight was going on, and then in the morning he brought us inside

Whereupon they told it, or as much as they could of it. In the end, the minister said: " Well, where are the

professor and Mrs. Wainwright ? I want you all to dine with me tonight. I am dining in the public room, but

you won't mind that after Epirus." " They should be down now, sir," answered a Student.

People were now coming rapidly to dinner and presently the professor and Mrs. Wainwright appeared. The

old man looked haggard and white. He accepted the minister's warm greeting with a strained pathetic smile. "

Once at dinner the minister launched immediately into the subject of Coleman. " He must be altogether a

most remarkable man. When he told me, very quietly, that he was going to try to rescue you, I frankly warned

him against any such attempt. I thought he would merely add one more to a party of suffering people. But the.

"Yes, he did," said the professor. " It was a very gallant performance, and we are very grateful."

"Of course," spoke Mrs. Wainwright, "we might have rescued ourselves. We were on the right road, and all

" Yes, but I understand" said the minister. " I understand he took you into a wood to protect you from that

fight, and generally protected you from all, kinds of trouble. It seems wonderful to me, not so much because

it was done as because it was done by the man who, some time ago, calmy announced to me that he was

"And where is he now? " asked the minister suddenly. "Has he now left you to the mercies of civilisation ? "

There was a moment's curious stillness, and then Mrs. Wainwright used that high voice whichthe students

believedcould only come to her when she was about to say something peculiarly destructive to the

sensibilities. " Oh, of course, Mr. Coleman rendered us a great service, but in his private character he is not a

" Indeed" said the minister staring. Then he hastily addressed the students. " Well, isn't this a comic war? Did

you ever imagine war could be like this ? " The professor remained looking at his wife with an air of

stupefaction, as if she had opened up to him visions of imbecility of which he had not even dreamed. The

students loyally began to chatter at the minister. " Yes, sir, it is a queer war. After all their bragging, it is

funny to hear that they are running away with such agility. We thought, of course, of the old Greek wars."

Later, the minister asked them all to his rooms for coffee and cigarettes, but the professor and Mrs.

Wainwright apologetically retired to their own quarters. The minister and the students made clouds of smoke,

The minister had spent days of listening to questions from the State Department at Washington as to the

whereabouts of the Wainwright party. "I suppose you know that you,are very prominent people in, the United

States just now ? Your pictures must have been in all the papers, and there must have been columns printed

about you. My life here was made almost insupportable by your friends, who consist, I should think, of about

half the population of the country. Of course they laid regular siege to the de. partment. I am angry at

Coleman for only one thing. When he cabled the news of your rescue to his news. paper from Arta, he should

have also wired me, if only to relieve my failing mind. My first news of your escape was from

"Coleman had us all on his hands at Arta," said Peter Tounley. " He was a fairly busy man."

" I suppose so," said the minister. " By the way," he asked bluntly, "what is wrong with him? What did Mrs.

They were silent for a time, but it seemed plain to him that it was not evidence that his question had

demoralised them. They seemed to be deliberating upon the form of answer. Ultimately Peter Tounley

coughed behind his hand. " You see, sir," he began, " there iswell, there is a woman in the case. Not that

anybody would care to speak of it excepting to you. But that is what is the cause of things, and then, you see,

Mrs. Wainwright iswell" He hesitated a moment and then completed his sentence in the ingenuous

"Why, it is Nora Blaick, the actress." "Oh," cried the minister, enlightened. " Her Why, I saw her here. She

was very beautiful, but she seemed harmless enough. She was somewhater confident, perhaps, but she did

not alarm me. She called upon me, and I confess Iwhy, she seemed charming." " She's sweet on little Rufus.

" Oh," cried the host, suddenly. " I remember. She asked me where he was. She said she had heard he was in

Greece, and I told her he had gone knight erranting off after you people. I remember now. I suppose she

Every one exchanged glances and laughed a little. " And did you see any actual fighting ? " asked the

Afterward, as they were trooping up to their rooms, Peter Tounley spoke musingly. " Well, it looks to me

" At any rate, we are sure now that Coleman had nothing to do with Nora's debut in Epirus."

They had talked much of Coleman, but in their tones there always had been a note of indifference or

carelessness. This matter, which to some people was as vital and fundamental as existence, remained to

others who knew of it only a harmless detail of life, with no terrible powers, and its significance had faded

After dinner the professor had gone directly to his daughter's room. Apparently she had not moved. He knelt

by the bedside again and took one of her hands. She was not weeping. She looked at him and smiled through

the darkness. " Daddy, I would like to die," she said. " I thinkyesI would like to die."

For a long time the old man was silent, but he arose at last with a definite abruptness and said hoarsely "

Mrs. Wainwright was standing before her mirror with her elbows thrust out at angles above her head, while

her fingers moved in a disarrangement of 'her hair. In the glass she saw a reflection of her husband coming

from Marjory's room, and his face was set with some kind of alarming purpose. She turned to watch him

actually, but he walked toward the door into the corridor and did not in any wise heed her.

He turned a troubled face upon her, and, as if she had hailed him in his sleep, he vacantly said: "What ? "

It was now Mrs. Wainwright's turn to look at her husband with an air of stupefaction as if he had opened up

to her visions of imbecility of which she had not even dreamed. " About Marjory!" she gurgled. Then

suddenly her wrath flamed out. "Well, upon my word, Harrison Wainwright, you are, of all men in the world,

the most silly and stupid. You are absolutely beyond belief. Of all projects! And what do you think Marjory

would have to say of it if she knew it ? I suppose you think she would like it ? Why, I tell you she would keep

her right hand in the fire until it was burned off before she would allow you to do such a thing."

The professor raised his eyes for an ironical glance at his wife. " Oh I have thought of the shame of it!"

" And you'll accomplish nothing," cried Mrs. Wain wright. " You'll accomplish nothing. He'll only laugh at

" If he laughs at me, he will laugh at nothing but a poor, weak, unworldly old man. It is my duty to go."

Mrs. Wainwright opened her mouth as if she was about to shriek. After choking a moment she said: " Your

"'It is my duty to go,"' he repeated humbly. "If I can find even one chance for my daughter's happi ness in a

personal sacrifice. He can do no more than he can do no more than make me a little sadder."

His wife evidently understood his humility as a tribute to her arguments and a clear indication that she had

fatally undermined his original intention. " Oh, he would have made you sadder," she quoth grimly. "No fear!

The professor arose wearily. " Well, I must be going to this work. It is a thing to have ended quickly." There

" Harrison! " burst out his wife in amazed lamenta tion. You are not really going to do it? Not really!"

" Well, there! " ejaculated Mrs. Wainwright to the heavens. She was, so to speak, prostrate. " Well, there! "

As the professor passed out of the door she cried beseechingly but futilely after him. " Harrison." In a

mechanical way she turned then back to the mirror and resumed the disarrangement of her hair. She ad

dressed her image. " Well, of all stupid creatures under the sun, men are the very worst! " And her image said

this to her even as she informed it, and afterward they stared at each other in a profound and tragic reception

and acceptance of this great truth. Presently she began to consider the advisability of going to Marjdry with

the whole story. Really, Harrison must not be allowed to go on blundering until the whole world heard that

Marjory was trying to break her heart over that common scamp of a Coleman. It seemed to be about time for

WHEN the professor arrived before Coleman's door, he paused a moment and looked at it. Previously, he

could not have imagined that a simple door would ever so affect him. Every line of it seemed to express cold

superiority and disdain. It was only the door of a former student, one of his old boys, whom, as the need

arrived, he had whipped with his satire in the class rooms at Washurst until the mental blood had come, and

all without a conception of his ultimately arriving before the door of this boy in the attitude of a supplicant.

Hewould not say it; Coleman probably would not say it; butthey would both know it. A single thought of it,

made him feel like running away. He would never dare to knock on that door. It would be too monstrous.

Coleman's voice said; "Come in." The professor opened the door. The correspondent, without a coat, was

seated at a paperlittered table. Near his elbow, upon another table, was a tray from which he had evidently

dined and also a brandy bottle with several recumbent bottles of soda. Although he had so lately arrived at the

hotel he had contrived to diffuse his traps over the room in an organised disarray which represented a long

and careless occupation if it did not represent t'le scene of a scuffle. His pipe was in his mouth.

After a first murmur of surprise, he arose and reached in some haste for his coat. " Come in, professor, come

in," he cried, wriggling deeper into his jacket as he held out his hand. He had laid aside his pipe and had also

been very successful in flinging a newspaper so that it hid the brandy and soda. This act was a feat of

"Won't you sit down, sir ? " said Coleman cordially. His quick glance of surprise had been immediately

suppressed and his manner was now as if the pro fessor's call was a common matter.

" Thank you, Mr. Coleman, Iyes, I will sit down,". replied the old man. His hand shook as he laid it on the

He halted then and passed his hand over his face. His eyes did not seem to rest once upon Coleman, but they

occupied themselves in furtive and frightened glances over the room. Coleman could make neither head nor

tail of the affair. He would not have believed any man's statement that the professor could act in such an

extraordinary fashion. " Yes, sir," he said again suggestively. The simple strategy resulted in a silence that

was actually awkward. Coleman, despite his bewilderment, hastened into a preserving gossip. " I've had a

great many cables waiting for me for heaven knows how long and others have been arriving in flocks

tonight. You have no idea of the row in America, professor. Why, everybody must have gone wild over the

lost sheep. My paper has cabled some things that are evidently for you. For instance, here is one that says a

new puzzlegame called Find the Wainwright Party has had a big success. Think of that, would you."

Coleman grinned at the professor. " Find the Wainwright Party, a new puzzlegame."

The professor had seemed grateful for Coleman's tangent off into matters of a light vein. " Yes?" he said,

" Yes, really," replied Coleman. " And of course you know thaterwell, all the Sunday papers would of

course have big illustrated articlesfull pages with your photographs and general private histories pertaining

mostly to things which are none of their business." " Yes, I suppose they would do that," admitted the

" Very like not," said Coleman. " I put it to you forcibly so that in the future the blow will not be too cruel.

" Oh, no. And besides the whole episode will probably be forgotten by the time you return to the United

They talked onin this way slowly, strainedly, until they each found that the situation would soon become

insupportable. The professor had come for a distinct purpose and Coleman knew it; they could not sit there

lying at each other forever. Yet when he saw the pain deepening in the professor's eyes, the correspondent

again ordered up his trivialities. " Funny thing. My paper has been congratulating me, you know, sir, in a

wholesale fashion, and I thinkI feel surethat they have been exploiting my name all over the country as the

Heroic Rescuer. There is no sense in trying to stop them, because they don't care whether it is true or not true.

All they want is the privilege of howling out that their correspondent rescued you, and they would take that

privilege without in any ways worrying if I refused my consent. You see, sir? I wouldn't like you to feel that I

" No," said the professor absently. It was plain that he had been a very slack listener. " IMr. Coleman" he

It was obviously only a recognition of the futility of further dallying that was driving the old man on ward.

He knew, of course, that if he was resolved to take this step, a longer delay would simply make it harder for

" Mr. Coleman, I understandor at least I am led to believethat youat one time, proposed marriage to my

The faltering words did not sound as if either man had aught to do with them. They were an expression by the

tragic muse herself. Coleman's jaw fell and he looked glassily at the professor. He said: "Yes!" But already

" I refused my consent to that marriage," said the old man more easily. " I do not know if the matter has

Suddenly the blank expression left Coleman's face and he smiled with sudden intelligence, as if informa tion

of what the professor had been saying had just reached him. In this smile there was a sudden be. trayal, too,

of something keen and bitter which had lain hidden in the man's mind. He arose and made a step towards the

professor and held out his hand. "Sir, I thank yod from the bottom of my heart!" And they both seemed to

The professor had arisen to receive Coleman's hand. His nerve was now of iron and he was very formal. " I

Coleman did not seem to mind the professor's formality. " Don't fear anything. Won't you sit down again?

Will you have a cigar. * * No, I couldn't tell you how glad I am. How glad I am. I feel like a fool. It"

But the professor fixed him with an Arctic eye and bluntly said: " You love her ? "

The question steadied Coleman at once. He looked undauntedly straight into the professor's face. He simply

After some seconds of pregnant silence, the professor arose. " Well, if she cares to give her life to you I will

allow it, but I must say that I do not consider you nearly good enough. Goodnight." He smiled faintly as he

Mrs. Wainwright, in her room was languishing in a chair and applying to her brow a handkerchief wet with

cologne water. She, kept her feverish glarice upon the door. Remembering well the manner of her husband

when he went out she could hardly identify him when he came in. Serenity, composure, even

selfsatisfaction, was written upon him. He, paid no attention to her, but going to a chair sat down with a

She waved her hand impatiently. " Harrison, don't be absurd. You know perfectly well what I mean. It is a

"Oh, I'll tell you after awhile," he said stretching out his legs with the complacency of a rich merchant after a

"No! Tell me now," she implored him. "Can't you see I've worried myself nearly to death?" She was not

"Well, to tell the truth," said the professor with considerable pomposity, " I've arranged it. Didn't think I

It here seemed to strike the professor suddenly that he was not such a flaming example for diplomatists as he

"Itit" began the professor. Then he swelled with indignation. " Why, can't you understand anything at all?

The professor's wrath now took control of him. "Thunder and lightenin' ! You seem to jump at the conclusion

that I've made some horrible mistake. For goodness' sake, give me credit for a particle of sense."

" Well," said the professor, in a burning defiance, " I'll tell you what I did. I went to Coleman and told him

that onceas he of course knewI had re fused his marriage with my daughter, but that now"

" Mercy on us! " cried Mrs. Wainwright, throwing herself back in the chair. " Mercy on us! What fools men

" Now, wait a minute" But Mrs. Wainwright began to croon: " Oh, if Marjory should hear of this! Oh, if she

" But she must not," cried the professor, tigerishly. just you dare! " And the woman saw before her a man

The professor had left Coleman so abruptly that the correspondent found himself murmuring half. coherent

gratitude to the closed door of his room. Amazement soon began to be mastered by exultation. He flung

himself upon the brandy and soda and nego tiated a strong glass. Pacing. the room with nervous steps, he

caught a vision of himself in a tall mirror. He halted before it. " Well, well," he said. " Rufus, you're a grand

man. There is not your equal anywhere. You are a great, bold, strong player, fit to sit down to a game with the

A moment later it struck him that he had appropriated too much. If the professor had paid him a visit and

made a wonderful announcement, he, Coleman, had not been the engine of it. And then he enunciated clearly

something in his mind which, even in a vague form, had been responsible for much of his early elation.

Marjory herself had compassed this thing. With shame he rejected a first wild and preposterous idea that she

had sent her father to him. He reflected that a man who for an instant could conceive such a thing was a

naturalborn idiot. With an equal feeling, he rejected also an idea that she could have known anything of her

father's purpose. If she had known of his purpose, there would have been no visit.

What, then, was the cause? Coleman soon decided that the professor had witnessed some demonstration of

Marjory's emotion which had been sufficiently severe in its character to force him to the extraordinary visit.

But then this also was wild and preposterous. That coldly beautiful goddess would not have given a

demonstration of emotion over Rufus Coleman sufficiently alarming to have forced her father on such an

errand. That was impossible. No, he was wrong; Marjory even indirectly, could not be connected with the

visit. As he arrived at this decision, the enthusiasm passed out of him and he wore a doleful, monkish face.

"Well, what, then, was the cause?" After eliminating Marjory from the discussion waging in his mind, he

found it hard to hit upon anything rational. The only remaining theory was to the effect that the professor,

having a very high sense of the correspond. ent's help in the escape of the Wainwright party, had decided that

the only way to express his gratitude was to revoke a certain decision which he now could see had been

unfair. The retort to this theory seemed to be that if the professor had had such a fine conception of the

services rendered by Coleman, he had had ample time to display his appreciation on the road to Arta and on

the road down from Arta. There was no necessity for his waiting until their arrival in Athens. It was

impossible to concede that the professor's emotion could be anew one; if he had it now, he must have had it in

So, it may be seen that after Coleman had eliminated Marjory from the discussion that was waging in his

mind, he had practically succeeded in eliminating the professor as well. This, he thought, mournfully, was

eliminating with a vengeance. If he dissolved all the factors he could hardly proceed.

The mind of a lover moves in a circle, or at least on a more circular course than other minds, some of which

at times even seem to move almost in a straight line. Presently, Coleman was at the point where he bad

started, and he did not pause until he reached that theory which asserted that the professor had been inspired

to his visit by some sight or knowledge of Marjory in distress. Of course, Coleman was wistfully desirous of

The palpable agitation of the professor during the interview seemed to support it. If he had come on a mere

journey of conscience, he would have hardly appeared as a white and trembling old, man. But then, said

Coleman, he himself probably exaggerated this idea of the professor's appearance. It might have been that he

The correspondent paced his room and smoked. Sometimes he halted at the little table where was the brandy

and soda. He thought so hard that sometimes it seemed that Marjory had been to him to propose marriage,

A desire to talk to somebody was upon him. He strolled down stairs and into the smoking and reading rooms,

hoping to see a man he knew, even if it were Coke. But the only occupants were two strangers, furiously

debating the war. Passing the minister's room, Coleman saw that there was a light within, and he could not

forbear knocking. He was bidden to enter, and opened the door upon the minister, care fully reading his

Spectator fresh from London. He looked up and seemed very glad. "How are you?" he cried. "I was

tremendously anxious to see you, do you know! I looked for you to dine with me tonight, but you were not

" Over the Wainwright affair? By the way, I want you to accept my personal thanks for that work. In a week

more I would have gone demented and spent the rest of my life in some kind of a cage, shaking the bars and

howling out State Department messages about the Wainwrights. You see, in my territory there are no

missionaries to get into trouble, and I was living a life of undisturbed and innocent calm, ridiculing the

sentiments of men from Smyrna and other interesting towns who maintained that the diplomatic service was

exciting. However, when the Wainwright party got lost, my life at once became active. I was all but helpless,

too; which was the worst of it. I suppose Terry at Constantinople must have got grandly stirred up, also. Pity

he can't see you to thank you for saving him from probably going mad. By the way," he added, while looking

keenly at Coleman, " the Wainwrights don't seem to be smothering you with gratitude? "

" Oh, as much as I deservesometimes more," answered Coleman. " My exploit was more or less of a fake,

you know. I was between the lines by accident, or through the efforts of that blockhead of a dragoman. I

didn't intend it. And then, in the night, when we were waiting in the road because of a fight, they almost

"They tell it better," said the minister, severely. " Especially the youngsters."

"Those kids got into a high old fight at a town up there beyond Agrinion. Tell you about that, did they? I

thought not. Clever kids. You have noted that there are signs of a few bruises and scratches?" " Yes, but I

didn't ask" " Well, they are from the fight. It seems the people took us for Germans, and there was an awful

palaver, which ended in a proper and handsome shindig. It raised the town, I tell you."

The minister sighed in mock despair. " Take these people home, will you ? Or at any rate, conduct them out

of the field of my responsibility. Now, they would like Italy immensely, I am sure."

" That's a charming girlMiss Wainwright," said the minister, musingly. "And what a beauty! It does my

exiled eyes good to see her. I suppose all those youngsters are madly in love with her ? I don't see how they

The minister seemed struck with a sudden thought. " You ought to try to win that splendid prize yourself. The

THE next morning Coleman awoke with a sign of a resolute decision on his face, as if it had been a

development of his sleep. He would see Marjory as soon as possible, see her despite any barbedwire

entanglements which might be placed in the way by her mother, whom he regarded as his strenuous enemy.

And he would ask Marjory's hand in the presence of all Athens if it became necessary.

He sat a long time at his breakfast in order to see the Wainwrights enter the dining room, and as he was about

to surrender to the will of time, they came in, the professor placid and selfsatisfied, Mrs. Wainwright

worried and injured and Marjory cool, beautiful, serene. If there had been any kind of a storm there was no

trace of it on the white brow of the girl. Coleman studied her closely but furtively while his mind spun around

his circle of speculation. Finally he noted the waiter who was observing him with a pained air as if it was on

the tip of his tongue to ask this guest if he was going to remain at breakfast forever. Coleman passed out to

the reading room where upon the table a multitude of great red guide books were crushing the fragile

magazines of London and Paris. On the walls were various depressing maps with the name of a tourist agency

luridly upon them, and there were also some pictures of hotels with their ratesin francsprinted beneath. The

Coleman went to the picture of a hotel in Corfu and stared at it precisely as if he was interested. He was

standing before it when he heard Marjory's voice just without the door. "All right! I'll wait." He did not move

for the reason that the hunter moves not when the unsuspecting deer approaches his hiding place. She entered

rather quickly and was well toward the centre of the room before she perceived Coleman. " Oh," she said and

stopped. Then she spoke the immortal sentence, a sentence which, curiously enough is common to the drama,

to the novel, and to life. " I thought no one was here." She looked as if she was going to retreat, but it would

have been hard to make such retreat graceful, and probably for this reason she stood her ground.

Coleman immediately moved to a point between her and the door. "You are not going to run away from me,

Marjory Wainwright," he cried, angrily. " You at least owe it to me to tell me definitely that you don't love

She did not face him with all of her old spirit, but she faced him, and in her answer there was the old Marjory.

"Yesterdayno. Todayyes. Tomorrowwho knows. Really, you ought to take some steps to know your

" Know my own mind," he retorted in a burst of in dignation. "You mean you ought to take steps to know

" My own mind! You" Then she halted in acute confusion and all her face went pink. She had been far

quicker than the man to define the scene. She lowered her head. Let me past, please"

But Coleman sturdily blocked the way and even took one of her struggling hands. "Marjory" And then his

brain must have roared with a thousand quick sentences for they came tumbling out, one over the other. * *

Her resistance to the grip of his fingers grew somewhat feeble. Once she raised her eyes in a quick glance at

him. * * Then suddenly she wilted. She surrendered, she confessed without words. " Oh, Marjory, thank God,

thank God" Peter Tounley made a dramatic entrance on the gallop. He stopped, petrified. "Whoo!" he cried.

"My stars! " He turned and fled. But Coleman called after him in a low voice, intense with agitation.

" Never mind that now. But look here, if you tell a single soulparticularly those other young scoundrelsI'll

" I won't, Coleman. Honest, I won't." He was far more embarrassed than Coleman and almost equally so with

The professor and his wife were in their sitting room writing letters. The cablegrams had all been answered,

but as the professor intended to prolong his journey homeward into a month of Paris and London, there

remained the arduous duty of telling their friends at length exactly what had happened. There was

considerable of the lore of olden Greece in the professor's descriptions of their escape, and in those of Mrs.

Their heads were lowered over their writing when the door into the corridor opened and shut quickly, and

upon looking up they saw in the room a radiant girl, a new Marjory. She dropped to her knees by her father's

chair and reached her arms to his neck. " Oh, daddy! I'm happy I I'm so happy! "

Of course he could not be long in making his conclusion. The one who could give such joy to Marjory was

the one who, last night, gave her such grief. The professor was only a moment in understanding. He laid his

At the personal pronoun, Mrs. Wainwright lum bered frantically to her feet. " What ? " she shouted.

" Yes," answered Marjory. " Coleman." As she spoke the name her eyes were shot with soft yet tropic flashes

Mrs. Wainwright dropped suddenly back into her chair. "Wellofallthings!" The professor was stroking

his daughter's hair and although for a time after Mrs. Wainwright's outbreak there was little said, the old man

and the girl seemed in gentle communion, she making him feel her happiness, he making her feel his

appreciation. Providentially Mrs. Wainwright had been so stunned by the first blow that she was evidently

" I am glad! I am glad! " said the father, but even as he spoke a great sadness came to blend with his joy. The

hour when he was to give this beautiful and beloved life into the keeping of another had been heralded by the

god of the sexes, the ruthless god that devotes itself to the tearing of children from the parental arms and

casting them amid the mysteries of an irretrievable wedlock. The thought filled him with solemnity.

But in the dewy eyes of the girl there was no question. The world to her was a land of glowing promise.

The girl arose from her knees. " I must go away andthink all about it," she said, smiling. When the door of

" Harrison Wainwright," she declaimed, "you are not going to allow this monstrous thing! "

The professor was aroused from a reverie by these words. "What monstrous thing ? " he growled.

The professor crashed his hand down on the table. "Mary! I will not hear another word of it! "

" Well," said Mrs. Wainwright, sullen and ominous, " time will tell! Time will tell!"

When Coleman bad turned from the fleeing Peter Tounley again to Marjory, he found her making the

" Nonsense," lie retorted stoutly. " Only Peter Tounley! He don't count. What of that ? "

' Oh, dear! " She pressed her palm to a burning cheek. She gave him a starlike, beseeching glance. Let me

At the door she turned to look at him, and this glance expressed in its elusive way a score of things which she

had not yet been able to speak. It explained that she was loth to leave him, that she asked forgiveness for

leaving him, that even for a short absence she wished to take his image in her eyes, that he must not bully her,

that there was something now in her heart which frightened her, that she loved him, that she was happy

When she had gone, Coleman went to the rooms of the American minister. A Greek was there who talked

wildly as he waved his cigarette. Coleman waited in wellconcealed impatience for the dvapora tion of this

man. Once the minister, regarding the correspondent hurriedly, interpolated a comment. " You look very

The Greek with the cigarette jawed endlessly. Coleman began to marvel at the enduring good man ners of

the minister, who continued to nod and nod in polite appreciation of the Greek's harangue, which, Coleman

firmly believed, had no point of interest whatever. But at last the man, after an effusive farewell, went his

Coleman arose, and thrusting his hands deep in his trousers' pockets, began to pace the room with long

" What would you like? " asked the minister, benevolently, as he touched the bell.

" A brandy and soda. I'd like it very much. You see," he said, as he resumed his walk, " I have no kind of

right to burden you with my affairs, but, to tell the truth, if I don't get this news off my mind and into

somebody's ear, I'll die. It's thisI asked Marjory Wainwright to marry me, andshe accepted, and that's all."

" Well, I am very glad," cried the minister, arising and giving his hand. "And as for burdening me with your

affairs, no one has a better right, you know, since you released me from the persecution of Washington and

the friends of the Wainwrights. May good luck follow you both forever. You, in my opinion, are a very, very

Seeing that it was important that Coleman should have his spirits pacified in part, the minister continued: "

Now, I have got to write an official letter, so you just walk up and down here and use up this surplus steam.

But Coleman was not to be detained. Now that he had informed the minister, he must rush off some. where,

All right," said the minister, laughing. " You have a wilder head than I thought. But look here," he called, as

Coleman with his hand on the knob, turned im. pressively. He spoke with deliberation. " As far as I am

concerned, I would be glad to see a man paint it in red letters, eight feet high, on the front of the king's

The minister, left alone, wrote steadily and did not even look up when Peter Tounley and two others entered,

in response to his cry of permission. How ever, he presently found time to speak over his shoulder to them.

" Well, be good boys, now, and read the papers and look at pictures until I finish this letter. Then I will tell

They surveyed him keenly. They evidently judged that the news was worth hearing, but, obediently, they said

nothing. Ultimately the minister affixed a rapid signature to the letter, and turning, looked at the students with

The minister was amazed to see the effect of this announcement upon the three students. He had expected the

crows and cackles of rather absurd merriment with which unbearded youth often greets, such news. But there

was no crow or cackle. One young man blushed scarlet and looked guiltily at the floor. With a great effort he

muttered: " Shes too good for him." Another student had turned ghastly pate and was staring. It was Peter

Tounley who relieved the minister's mind, for upon that young man's face was a broad jackolantern grin,

The minister was anxious over the havoc he had wrought with the two other students, but slowly the colour

abated in one face and grew in the other. To give them opportunity, the minister talked busily to Peter

The student who had blushed now addressed the minister in a slightly strained voice. " Are you positive that

" Well," said crudely the one who had blushed, she's a great sight too good for Coleman or anybody like him.

" Oh, Coleman is a good fellow," said Peter Tounley, reproachfully. " You've no right to say thatexactly.

The, response was, first, an angry gesture. " Oh, don't keep everlasting rubbing that in. For heaven's sake, let

up. Supposing I don't. know where I'd be now if,it were not for Rufus Coleman? What of it? For the rest of

The minister saw. that this was the embittered speech of a really defeated youth, so, to save scenes, he gently

ejected the trio. " There, there, now ! Run along home like good boys. I'll be busy until luncheon. And I dare

In the corridor, one of the students said offensively to Peter Tounley : " Say, how in hell did you find out all

Peter's reply was amiable in tone. " You are a damned bleating little kid and you made a holy show of

yourself before Mr. Gordner. There's where you stand. Didn't you see that he turned us out because he didn't

know but what you were going to blubber or something. you are a sucking pig, and if you want to know

"You take one punch in the general direction of my eye, me son," said Peter cheerfully, " and I'll distribute

your remains, over this hotel in a way that will cause your, friends years of trouble to collect you. Instead of

anticipating an attack upon my eye, you had much better be engaged in improving your mind, which is at

present not a fit machine to cope with exciting situations. There's Coke! Hello, Coke, hear the news? Well,

Marjory Wainwright and Rufus Coleman , are engaged.. Straight ? Certainly ! Go ask the minister."

" So the minister told us," they answered, and then these two, who seemed so unhappy, watched Coke's face

to see if they could not find surprised misery there. But Coke coolly said: " Well, then, I suppose it's true."

It soon became evident that the students did not care for each other's society. Peter Tounley was probably an

exception, but the others seemed to long for quiet corners. They were distrusting each other, and, in a boyish

way, they were even capable of maligant things. Their excuses for separation were badly made.

"II think I'll go for a walk." " I'm going up stairs to read." " Well, so long, old man.' " So long." There was

Peter Tounley went to Coleman's door, where he knocked with noisy hilarity. " Come in I " The

correspondent apparently had just come from the street, for his hat was on his head and a light topcoat was

on his back. He was searching hurriedly through some, papers. " Hello, you young devil What are you doing

Peter's entrance was a somewhat elaborate comedy which Coleman watched in icy silence. Peter after a

long,and impudent pantomime halted abruptly and fixing Coleman with his eye demanded: "Well?"

" Is it true? " Peter was extremely solemn. " Say, me bucko," said Coleman suddenly, " if you've. come up

here to twist the beard of the patriarch, don't you think you are running a chance? "

] "I haven't heard the hotel making any remarks lately. Been talking to the other buildings, I sup pose."

"Well, I want to tell you that everybody knows that you and Marjory have done gone and got yourselves

" Oh, nothing," replied Peter, waving his hand. " OnlyI thought it might interest you."

Coleman was silent for some time. He fingered his papers. At last he burst out joyously. "And so they know it

already, do they? Welldamn them let them know it. But you didn't tell them yourself ? "

Then Coleman was again silent for a time and Peter Tounley sat on the. bed reflectively looking at the

ceiling. " Funny thing, Marjory 'way over here in Greece, and then you happening over here the way you

" Because," said Coleman impressively,, " that is why I came to Greece. It was all planned. See?"

" No magic at all." Coleman displayed some complacence. " No magic at all. just pure, plain whatever you

" Holy smoke," said Peter, admiring the situation. "Why, this is plum romance, Coleman. I'm blowed if it

Coleman was grinning with delight. He took a fresh cigar and his bright eyes looked at Peter through the

smoke., "Seems like it, don't it? Yes. Regular romance. Have a drink, my boy, just to celebrate my good luck.

And be patient if I talk a great deal of mymyfuture. My head spins with it." He arose to pace the room

flinging out bis arms in a great gesture. " God! When I think yesterday was not like today I wonder how I

stood it." There was a knock at the door and a waiter left a note in Coleman's hand

"Dear Ruf us:We are going for a drive this afternoon at three, and mother wishes you to come, if you. care

With a radiant face, Coleman gave the note a little crackling flourish in the air. " Oh, you don't know what

" Ssteady the Blues," said Peter Tounley seriously. You'll lose your head if you don't watch out."

" Not I" cried Coleman with irritation. " But a man must turn loose some times, mustn't he?"

When the four, students had separated in the corri dor, Coke had posted at once to Nora Black's sitting

room. His entrance was somewhat precipitate, but he cooled down almost at once, for he reflected that he was

not bearing good news. He ended by perching in awkward fashion on the brink of his chair and fumbling his

hat uneasily. Nora floated to him in a cloud of a white dressing gown. She gave him a plump hand. "Well,

youngman? "she said, with a glowing smile. She took a chair, and the stuff of her gown fell in curves over the

Coke looked hot and bothered, as if he could have more than half wanted to retract his visit. " Iaw we

haven't seen much of you lately," he began, sparing. He had expected to tell his news at once.

No," said Nora, languidly. " I have been resting after that horrible journeythat horrible journey. Dear, dear!

Nothing,will ever induce me to leave London, New York and Paris. I am at home there. But here I Why, it is

worse than living in Brooklyn. And that journey into the wilds! No. no; not for me! "

At the moment a waiter entered the room and began to lay the table for luncheon. He kept open the door to

the corridor, and he had the luncheon at a point just outside the door. His excursions to the trays were flying

ones, so that, as far as Coke's purpose was concerned, the waiter was always in the room. Moreover, Coke

He leaned toward her and replied: " Marjory Wainwright and Coleman are engaged."

To his unfeigned astonishment, Nora Black burst into peals of silvery laughter, " Oh, indeed? And so this is

your tragic story, poor, innocent lambkin? And what did you expect? That I would faint?"

Nora became suddenly businesslike. " But how do you know? Are you sure? Who told you? Anyhow, stay

Coke dropped again into his chair. He studied her in some wonder. " I thought you'd be surprised," he said,

"There's really nothing to tell but the plain fact. Some of the boys dropped in at the minister's rooms a little

"I am sure I can't tell you. Got it first hand, I suppose. He likes Coleman, and Coleman is always hanging up

" Oh, perhaps Coleman was lying," said Nora easily. Then suddenly her face brightened and she spoke with

animation. " Oh, I haven't told you how my little Greek officer has turned out. Have I? No? Well, it is simply

lovely. Do you know, he belongs to one of the best families in Athens? Hedoes. And they're richrich as can

be. My courier tells me that the marble palace where they live is enough to blind you, and that if titles hadn't

gone out of styleor somethinghere in Greece, my little officer would be a prince! Think of that! The

courier didn't know it until we got to Athens, and the little officerthe princegave me his card, of course.

One of the oldest, noblest and richest families in Greece. Think of that! There I thought he was only a

bothersome little officer who came in handy at times, and there he turns out to be a prince. I could hardly

keep myself from rushing right off to find him and apologise to him for the way I treated him. It was awful!

And" added the fair Nora, pensively, "if he does meet me in Paris, I'll make him wear that title down to a

COKE did not stay to luncheon with Nora Black. He went away saying to himself either that girl don't care a

straw for Coleman or she has got a heart absolutely of flint, or she is the greatest actress on earth orthere is

At his departure, Nora turned and called into an adjoining room. " Maude I " The voice of her companion and

" Well, anyhow, luncheon is ready, so you will have to stir your precious self," responded Nora. " You're

" Well, if you don't come out, you'll miss the news. That's all I've got to say."

There was a rustle in the adjoining room, and immediately the companion appeared, seeming much annoyed

" Well I declare! " ejaculated the little old lady. " Well I declare." She meditated for a moment, and then

continued in a tone of satisfaction. " I told you that you couldn't stop that man Coleman if he had feally made

" You're a fool," said Nora, pleasantly. " Why? " said the old lady. Because you are. Don't talk to me about it.

" Yes, 'Marco,'" cried Nora, belligerently. " 'Marco,' Do you object to the name? What's the matter with you,

" Well," rejoined the other, nodding her head wisely, "he may be a prince, but I've always heard that these

"Yes, but who told you so, eh? " demanded Nora, noisily. She herself answered the question. " The English! "

" Anyhow, that little marquis who tagged after you in London is a much bigger man in every way, I'll bet,

" Butgood heavenshe didn't mean it. Why, he was only one of the regular rounders. But Marco, he is

serious I He means it. He'd go through fire and water for me and be glad of the chance."

" Well," proclaimed the old lady, " if you are not the strangest woman in the world, I'd like to know! Here I

"Bosh!" interrupted, the graceful Nora. "I tell you what, Maude; you'd better try to think as little as possible.

It will suit your style of beauty better. And above all, don't think of my affairs. I myself am taking pains not

Mrs. Wainwright, with no spirit of intention what. ever, had sit about readjusting her opinions. It is certain

that she was unconscious of any evolution. If some one had said to her that she was surrendering to the

inevitable, she would have been immediately on her guard, and would have opposed forever all suggestions

of a match between Marjory and Coleman. On the other hand, if some one had said to her that her daughter

was going to marry a human serpent, and that there were people in Athens who would be glad to explain his

treacherous character, she would have haughtily scorned the talebearing and would have gone with more

haste into the professor's way of thinking. In fact, she was in process of undermining herself., and the work

The professor, from the depths of his experience with her, arranged a course of conduct. " If I just leave her to

herself she will come around all right, but if I go 'striking while the iron is hot,' or any of those things, I'll

As they were making ready to go down to luncheon, Mrs. Wainwright made her speech which first indicated

a changing mind. " Well, what will be, will be," she murmured with a prolonged sigh of resignation. " What

will be, will be. Girls are very headstrong in these days, and there is nothing much to be done with them.

They go their own roads. It wasn't so in my girlhood. We were obliged to pay attention to our mothers

" I did not notice that you paid much attention to your mother's wishes when you married me," remarked the

" That was another thing," retorted Mrs. Wainwright with severity. " You were a steady young man who had

taken the highest honours all through your college course, and my mother's sole objection was that we were

too hasty. She thought we ought to wait until you had a penny to bless yourself with, and I can see now

where she was quite right." " Well, you married me, anyhow," said the professor, victoriously.

Mrs. Wainwright allowed her husband's retort to pass over her thoughtful mood. " They say * * they say

Rufus Coleman makes as much as fifteen thousand dollars a year. That's more than three times your income *

* I don't know. * * It all depends on whether they try to save or not. His manner of life is, no doubt, very

luxurious. I don't suppose he knows how to economise at all. That kind of a man usually doesn't. And then, in

the newspaper world positions are so very precarious. Men may have valuable positions one minute and be

penniless in the street the next minute. It isn't as if he had any real income, and of course he has no real

ability. If he was suddenly thrown out of his position, goodness knows what would become of him. Still

stillfifteen thousand dollars a year is a big incomewhile it lasts. I suppose he is very extravagant. That kind of

a man usually is. And I wouldn't be surprised if he was heavily in debt; very heavily in debt. Still * * if

Marjory has set her heart there is nothing to be done, I suppose. It wouldn't have happened if you had been as

wise as you thought you were. * * I suppose he thinks I have been very rude to him. Well, some times I

wasn't nearly so rude as I felt like being. Feeling as I did, I could hardly be very amiable. * * Of course this

drive this afternoon was all your affair and Marjory's. But, of course, I shall be nice to him."

" And what of all this Nora Black business? " asked the professor, with, a display of valour, but really with

" She is a hussy," responded Mrs. Wainwright with energy. " Her conversation in the carriage on the way

" I really believe that her plan was simply to break everything off between Marjory and Coleman," said the

professor, " and I don't believe she had anygrounds for all that appearance of owning Coleman and the rest

" On the other hand," said the professor, " there might be some truth in it." " I don't think so," said Mrs.

" You do not mean to say that you think Coleman a model man ? " demanded the professor.

"Not at all! Not at all!" she hastily answered. " But * * one doesn't look for model men these days."

"It was Peter Tounley this morning. We were talking upstairs after breakfast, and he remarked that he if could

make fifteen thousand, a year: like Coleman, he'dI've forgotten whatsome fanciful thing."

"Of course it's true," said his wife emphatically. " Peter Tounley says everybody knows it."

But it's a. great deal, you know well enough. You know you are always speaking of poverty as an evil, as a

" Well, money is money and poverty is poverty," interrupted his wife. " You don't have to be very learned to

"I do not say that Coleman has not a very nice thing of it, but I must say it is hard to think of his getting any

" Isn't he known as the most brilliant journalist in New York?" she demanded harshly.

" Yyes, as long as it lasts, but then one never knows when he will be out in the street penniless. Of course he

has no particular ability which would be marketable if he suddenly lost his present employment. Of course it

is not as if he was a really talented young man. He might not be able to make his way at all in any new

" I don't know about that," said Mrs. Wainwright in reflective protestation. " I don't know about that. I think

" I thought you said a moment ago" The professor spoke with an air of puzzled hesitancy. "I thought you

Mrs. Wainwright swam over the situation with a fine tranquility. " WellII," she answered musingly, "if I

" No, I suppose not," spoke the professor, and de spite the necessity for caution he could not keep out of his

" Of course," continued the wife, " Rufus Coleman is known everywhere as a brilliant man, a very brilliant

" I have a very poor opinion of that kind of a mind which does well in American politics," said the pro

At that moment, Marjory attired for luncheon and the drive entered from her room, and Mrs. Wainwright

checked the expression of her important conclusion. Neither father or mother had ever seen her so glowing

with triumphant beauty, a beauty which would carry the mind of a spectator far above physical appreciation

into that realm of poetry where creatures of light move and are beautiful because they cannot know pain or a

burden. It carried tears to the old father's eyes. He took her hands. " Don't be too happy, my child, don't be

too happy," he admonished her tremulously. " It makes me afraidit makes me afraid."

IT seems strange that the one who was the most hilarious over the engagement of Marjory and Cole man

should be Coleman's dragoman who was indeed in a state bordering on transport. It is not known how he

learned the glad tidings, but it is certain that he learned them before luncheon. He told all the visible

employes of the hotel and allowed them to know that the betrothal really had been his handiwork He had

arranged it. He did not make quite clear how he had performed this feat, but at least he was perfectly frank in

When some of the students came down to luncheon, they saw him but could not decide what ailed him. He

was in the main corridor of the hotel, grinning from ear to ear, and when he perceived the students he made

signs to intimate that they possessed in com mon a joyous secret. " What's the matter with that idiot?" asked

Coke morosely. " Looks as if his wheels were going around too fast." Peter Tounley walked close to him and

scanned him imperturbably, but with care. " What's up, Phidias ? " The man made no articulate reply. He

continued to grin and gesture. "Pain in oo tummy? Mother dead? Caught the cholera? Found out that you've

swallowed a pair of hammered brass and irons in your beer? Say, who are you, anyhow? " But he could not

The dragoman's rapture reached its zenith when Coleman lent him to the professor and he was commissioned

to bring a carriage for four people to the door at three o'clock. He himself was to sit on the box and tell the

driver what was required of him. He dashed off, his hat in his hand, his hair flying, puffing, important beyond

everything, and apparently babbling his mission to half the people he met on the street. In most countries he

would have landed speedily in jail, but among a people who exist on a basis of'jibbering, his violent gabble

aroused no suspicions as to his sanity. However, he stirred several livery stables to their depths and set men

At fifteen minutes to three o'clock, a carriage with its horses on a gallop tore around the corner and up to the .

front of the hotel, where it halted with the pomp and excitement of a fire engine. The dragoman jumped down

from his seat beside the driver and scrambled hurriedly into the hoiel, in the gloom of which hemet a serene

stillness which was punctuated only by the leisurely tinkle of silver and glass in the dining room. For a

moment the dragoman seemed really astounded out of specch. Then he plunged into the manager's room.

Was it conceivable that Monsieur Coleman was still at luncheon? Yes; in fact, it was true. But the carriage,

was at the door! The carriage was at the door! The manager, undisturbed, asked for what hour Monsieur

Coleman had been pleased to order a carriage. Three o'clock ! Three o'clock? The manager pointed calmly at

the clock. Very well. It was now only thirteen minutes of three o'clock. Monsieur Coleman doubtless would

appear at three. Until that hour the manager would not disturb Monsieur Coleman. The dragoman clutched

both his hands in his hair and cast a look of agony to the ceiling. Great God! Had he accomplished the

herculean task of getting a carriage for four people to the door of the hotel in time for a drive at three o'clock,

only to meet with this stoniness, this inhumanity? Ah, it was unendurable? He begged the manager; he

implored him. But at every word. the manager seemed to grow more indifferent, more callous. He pointed

with a wooden finger at the clockface. In reality, it is thus, that Greek meets Greek.

Professor Wainwright and Coleman strolled together out of the dining room. The dragoman rushed

ecstatically upon the correspondent. " Oh, Meester Coleman! The carge is ready !"

"Well, all right," said Coleman, knocking ashes from his cigar. "Don't be in a hurry. I suppose we'll be ready,

The departure of the Wainwrights and Coleman on this ordinary drive was of a somewhat dramatic and

public nature, No one seemed to know how to prevent its being so. In the first place, the attendants thronged

out en masse for a reason which was plain at the time only to Coleman's dragoman. And, rather in the

background, lurked the interested students. The professor was surprised and nervous. Coleman was rigid and

angry. Marjory was flushed and some what hurried, and Mrs. Wainwright was as proud as an old turkeyhen.

As the carriage rolled away, Peter Tounley turned to his companions and said: " Now, that's official! That is

the official announcement! Did you see Old Mother Wainwright? Oh, my eye, wasn't she puffed up ! Say,

what in hell do you suppose all these jay hawking bellboys poured out to the kerb for? Go back to your

As soon as the carriage wheeled into another street, its occupants exchanged easier smiles, and they must

have confessed in some subtle way of glances that now at last they were upon their own mission, a mission

undefined but earnest to them all. Coleman had a glad feeling of being let into the family, or becoming one of

The professor looked sideways at him and smiled gently. " You know, I thought of driving you to some ruins,

but Marjory would not have it. She flatly objected to any more ruins. So I thought we would drive down to

New Phalerum." Coleman nodded and smiled as if he were immensely pleased, but of course New Phalerum

was to him no more norless than Vladivostok or Khartoum. Neither place nor distance had interest for him.

They swept along a shaded avenue where the dust lay thick on the leaves; they passed cafes where crowds

were angrily shouting over the news in the little papers; they passed a hospital before which wounded men,

white with bandages, were taking the sun; then came soon to the and valley flanked by gaunt naked

mountains, which would lead them to the sea. Sometimes to accentuate the dry nakedness of this valley, there

would be a patch of grass upon which poppies burned crimson spots. The dust writhed out from under the

wheels of the carriage; in the distance the sea appeared, a blue halfdisc set between shoulders of barren land.

It would be common to say that Coleman was oblivious to all about him but Marjory. On the contrary, the

parched land, the isolated flame of poppies, the cool air from the sea, all were keenly known to him, and they

had developed an extraordinary power of blending sympathetically into his mood. Meanwhile the professor

talked a great deal. And as a somewhat exhilarating detail, Coleman perceived that Ms. Wainwright was

At New Phaleruma small collection of pale square villasthey left the carriage and strolled, by the sea. The

waves were snarling together like wolves amid the honeycomb rocks and from where the blue plane sprang

level to the horizon, came a strong cold breeze, the kind of a breeze which moves an exulting man or a parson

Marjory and Coleman did not speak for a time. It might have been that they did not quite know where to

make a beginning. At last Marjory asked: "What has become of your splendid horse?"

"Oh, I've told the dragoman to have him sold as soon as he arrives," said Coleman absently.

"Well, he was a fine" Then he, too, interrupted himself, for he saw plainly that they had not come to this

place to talk about a horse. Thereat he made speech of matters which at least did not afford as many

opportunities for coherency as would the horse. Marjory, it can't be true * * * Is it true, dearest * * I can

" They all told me so, and they were right ! Why, even the American minister said it. Everybody thinks it."

"Why, aren 't they wretches To think of them saying such a thing! As ifas if anybody could be too"

" Do you know" She paused and looked at him with a certain timid challenge. " I don't know why I feel it,

" Is a girl flung at a man's head when her father carries her thousands of miles away and the man follows her

" Confess you knew it all the time! Confess!" The answer was muffled. " Well, sometimes I thought you did,

In a secluded cove, in which the seamaids once had played, no doubt, Marjory and Coleman sat in silence.

He was below her, and if he looked at her he had to turn his glance obliquely upward. She was staring at the

sea with woman's mystic gaze, a gaze which men at once reverence and fear since it seems to look into the

deep, simple heart of nature, and men begin to feel that their petty wisdoms are futile to control these strange

spirits, as wayward as nature and as pure as nature, wild as the play of waves, sometimes as unalterable as the

mountain amid the winds; and to measure them, man must perforce use a mathematical formula.

He wished that she would lay her hand upon his hair. He would be happy then. If she would only, of her own

will, touch his hair lightly with her fingersif she would do it with an unconscious air it would be even better.

It would show him that she was thinking of him, even when she did not know she was thinking of him.

As his head touched her knee, she did not move. She seemed to be still gazing at the sea. Presently idly

caressing fingers played in his hair near the forehead. He looked up suddenly lifting his arms. He breathed

out a cry which was laden with a kind of diffident ferocity. " I haven't kissed you yet"