The Argosy, Vol. 83 No. 1 — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

; THE STAR OF ADVENTURE. Had he obeyed the dictates of his heart, he would have gone to one:knee as gal- lantly as any knight and told her that she was the Star of Valois who had brought him to safety. Perhaps his eyes were ex- pressing this while his tongue failed him. He had inherited his mother’s eyes—dark, lively, responsive. It is possible that there was likewise a message in the eyes of the Princess Blanche herself. She felt a moment of swoon. With a little gasp, she turned from Chan to the fishermen who had fol- lowed him. She smiled on Captain Dias. The cap- tain was a slave of impulse in more ways than one. He boldly dropped, not to one knee but to both. The others followed suit. To a man, they believed in fairies and sirens. Perhaps they believed that she was one. : Count du Barry came down the path from the chateau with dignified speed. If he had been greatly put out by this in- terruption in affairs of state he gave no sign of it. He shook Knowlton warmly by the hand. Not in Jean’s attitude, nor in that of the Princess Blanche, nor in that of the Count du Barry had there been any re- minder to Chan that as the fishermen looked so he also must have appeared. His clothing, none too good in the first place, was shrunken and stained by his long sojourn in the sea. His shoes were all but gone. He had no hat. It was a knitted cap he wore when he had appeared at the gates of the park, and this he now carried in his hand. As for his hair, it was long and un- kempt. On cheek and chin there was the shadow of a nascent beard. _ “When did you get in?” Jean asked, quite as if Knowlton had arrived by train or automobile. The whole party, including the fisher- men, for whom the princess had become a patron saint, had started forward in the direction of the chateau. “We got in last night, or rather, early 9. A 129 this morning,” answered Chan. ‘We had been stopped and interviewed so often by warships of one kind or another—British, Spanish, French—that I knew what would be in store for us if we attempted to make a landing in the day time. So we stood off until it was black night. _ ‘“We made the shore like so many smug- glers. The ship that brought us is, I fear, by this time either a complete wreck or in the hands of the authorities. The papers of Nantes this afternoon will have strange speculations as to the ownership and origin of the fishing-sloop Pedro.” “They deserted the ship, then?” “All for the cause. They are folkowers of the star. I had no money. They had raked me out of the sea in their net. All that I had was the thing you had given me and—what I had in my heart, my friend. The coin of daring! You paid your way around the world with it. I bought a ship with it, came from the Azores to the coast of France. But,” Chan added with a laugh, “that doesn’t mean that these friends of mine have been paid. They have followed me here.” “We'll ask them what they expect; then we'll give them twice as much. So should every one be paid who acts on faith—and generally is.” “YT was worried about your own fate, Jean—and those who were with you.” “The chase of the Reine Blanche ended when I ordered the Reine Blanche stopped. Our pursuers had fired a solid shot. We had, as you know, a lady aboard. Then, when they were signaling us to expect a boat, lo, a wireless reached them to make for Brest and lose no time. I know, because the wireless on the Reine Blanche got the message, too, and we have the code. Do you remember that intuition I had about the imminence of war?” “Yes; and the answer is?” “Tt’s more imminent~than ever. We have certain friends in Berlin, in Vienna. The solution is on the knees of the gods.” “Tiens! Isn’t that the Marquis de Warren, up there on the terrace?”’ CORMICLOOOKS (C@)