Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 108 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

The Duke of Diamonds. 7 could see them both, by all means the hand somest pair in Cairo. The princess, whom he knew to be thirty-six, looked like the duke’s sister, in her tight riding habit, English style, with its tall hat and vail. Diamantina, in a white riding dress of severe simplicity, looked, as he was, a perfect cava- lier; and even in their rapid passage, Sir Lum- ley noted the extraordinary beauty of their animals, dark chestnut mares without spot or blemish of any sort, the flower of Fyzoul Ab- dallah’s stud. He had heard the history of their escape from Helen, and all Cairo was rav- ing about Al Sabok and the two mares. hen Sir Lumley started, to find himself bare- headed, gazing after the duke; and he hastily cla ped on his hat and went into the hotel. yt soon as he made his appearance in the of- fice, the clerk, now wide awake and full of busi- ness, accosted him re tfully: “Letter for you, Sir Lumley—Colonel Ham- ilton left it. Said it needed no answer, sir.” With fingers that trembled in spite of them- selves, Sir Lumley tore open the note. He felt what was in store for him, and kept his iron calm of manner as he read: **Dear Sir Lumuey: Please come over to the con- sulate as soon as 7 can; but keep the thing quiet, for it’s an affair of honor. Owen's been hurt pretty badly—not dangerous, you know, but very painful and much loss of blood. Keep it from the ladies, and every one else. ours, ‘*ReGINALD HAMILTON.”’ Sir Lumley kept his face inscrutable and ask- ed the clerk, as he folded up the note: **'Where’s the consulate? But not waiting for the answer, he stalked out, jum into a hack and drove over to the British Consulate, which every one in Cairo knew. He asked for Colonel Hamilton, and was met by that gentleman himself, who hurried him to ‘his own “dige apartments in haste. There Sir Lumley broke down and gasped: ‘‘ What is it, Hamilton? Is the boy dead? Tell me the worst.” The consul-general shook his head. **No, no; not as bad as that. But that Bra- zilian’s a devil with the sword. Poor Owen will lose his rightarm. In fact it’s just been ampu- tated, to save his life.” Sir Lumley uttered a hollow groan and sunk powerless into a chair. CHAPTER XXIV. THE EXTRA SHEET. THE Bord du Nil made its bow to the foreign public of Cairo every Saturday morning, with a regularity that testified to Mr. Frankly’s talents as a bill collector; for it is a melancholy fact that ns: Sean and daily journals cannot be printed without money to pay printers and paper-makers. ike many other Levantine papers, it was ublished in two languages, half being in Ital- an, the other half French, with an occasional extra edition in which English was substituted for one of the other languages. Most of these polyglot papers are edited b vagabond Italians, who murder the Englis rts of their journals in a ghastly manner; but he Bord du Nil was an honorable exception to the rule. ; Frankly had been in Egypt for at least ten years, having drifted there from another ten ears in Europe, and had become a very expert nguist in all the Mediterranean tongues, with a large stock of Arabic in the form of slang. Like most newspaper men of his roving ways, he was a Bohemian writer, who delighted in nothing so much as a ‘‘slashing” article, and believed devoutly in the power of the press, muzzled though it be in Egypt. - On the day after that in which Sir Lumley had been stunned by the aoe sgh ry disaster happening ‘o his son, the Bord du Nil came out with an English extra which was hawked about the streets of Cairo in true Yankee fashion, and sold like wildfire, as Dom Gil had predicted. Clarence Hart, who had been hunting all over the city to find Dom Gil Grabador, whom he had at last begun to suspect of being the miss- ing Gilbert Carver, heard the boys yelling out their praises of the paper in a dozen different languages, and caucht the words: : ‘* Gran duello entre el e de Diamantina e'l signor Inglese.” (Great duel between the Duke of Diamantina and the English gentle- man.) Much surprised, for he had not heard a whis- per of any such thing, he bought a paper at once, paying double price in his ignorance of iene prices, and saw before him a real news- paper, with an extra sheet, printed in English, with displayed head lines, short paragraphs, and a general ‘‘newsy Wi that did his heart good. It looked like home. He had not been able to find Dom Gil since’ they first entered Cairo, for the Brazilian had suddenly disappeared from the house of Dia- mantina as soon as he had set it in order for his chief, and the duke did not give Clarence any information on the subject. Therefore Hart, feeling uneasy and anxious, sin into the paper rather to distract his thoughts than for any other purpose, 7 His eye was immediately caught by the head- lines, arranged in true sensational style: “TAE WAGER OF BATTLE. DIAMONDS ARE TRUMPS, Sanguinary Duel Between Foreigners. Northern Beef Against Southern Nerve, THE SOUTH WINS!!!!” The account beneath these startling headings was as follows: Thanks to the unequaled energy of our STarF the Nite Bank is to-day the only paper in the world that contains an account of the duel fought behind the great pyramid of Gizeh, while our regular edition was polng to press. ** We were there. “The Nrtgz BANK staff wouldn’t miss a duel like that. _We’re not in that business. ‘**1t was all arranged in a club-house that shall be nameless. The D. of D. and Capt. O. L. of H. B. M. Navy, had a little difference about a lady who shall be nameless, and to carve each other, in gen- tlemanly style, behind the great pyramid, at six o'clock P. M. “To accommodate them, we kept back our regu- lar edition for a couple of hours, and we had our re- ward. Both men were on time. “The duel was just perfect. “The appearance of the combatants when they stripped was a t contrast. The English person was a two hundred-pounder, with a good deal of fat about him. He looked solid but slow. “The D. of D. was what our old friend John C. Heenan would have called a ‘daisy.’ With fifty unds less on his bones than John Bull, he was as as a nut and as quick as a flash of Jersey light- ning. “No time was lostin preliminaries. We shal] not ve the names of the seconds, because it might not o them any good with the Khedive, but will only say this: They were (‘here all the time. ‘John Bull got to work as soon as the blades cross- ed, with a well-intended cut at the D.’s head. Un- fortunately the gentleman from Brazil was not there when it came, and Mr. Bull had a narrow escape from decapitation in return. ‘Then ensued the queerest duel we ever saw. After the first clash the blades never crossed: and John Bull had to stand on the defensive, while the D. of D. was most of the time behind his enemy’s back waving his sword in close ey to the other’s . Any one could see that Bull’s life was in his ' foe’s hands whenever he wished to take it. ‘*Atlast, furious and disappointed, the Englishman managed to catch the D. with his left hand, and threw back his sword to give a down cut that would have split his skull. In that instant up went the D.’s saber, and cut off his enemy’s arm just above the elbow, as clean asif it had been done by a surgeon. “We had the P cmpere: of examining the weapon with which this feat was performed, and found that a = just as sharp as the razor of the best barber airo. ‘This ended the affair at once, Two surgeons were on hand, and they had the artery tied ap in a iffy, while the D. of D., with a polite bow to his late oe, went off to keep anengagement with a lady.” Thus ended the account in the Bord du Nil of what Hart began to think nothing but an inge- nious hoax, He had seen the duke on the pre- vious evening, and he certainly did not look like a man who had just been fighting a duel. Hart had found himat home, just preparing for his evening ride with the princess, and the duke had been as quiet and gracious as usual. To his own inquiry after Dom Gil, Diamantina had answered: ‘** Ma dear sare, I never keep track of Dom Gil. He comes and goes, and as long as the household goes well I ask no questions. Aw re- voir, sare. I shall not need your services till to-morrow afternoon. Till then, see Cairo. Enjoy yourself.” d that was all. Dom Gil had not been home all night; none of the servants knew anything about him; and Hart had all day been hunting for him in vain through Cairo. The article in the Bord du Nil interested him so much that he glanced through the rest of the paper to see if there was anything else that concerned him or his friends. He soon came to the French leader which was repeated in Italian on the opposite pa e. It was much shorter than the account o the duel, and in a different style. It said: **We regret to record the withdrawal by consent from the rolls of the Khediye Club of the name of Sir Lumley Lawton, in consequence of the article we copied from last week’s London Times. Sir Lumley should have insisted on open charges and showed himself innocent. His retreat shows that he fears an investigation. We are able to say from private information that the watch of the Rajah of Krishna- poor, which Sir Lumley obtained by such peculiar means, is now in Cairo, sported by a lady who seems to be quite proud of the stolen property. Respect for the sex alone restrains us from givi her name, but we would advise Sir Lumley to seek 1 land as soon asmay be. Egyptian air is fatal to fly-blown reputations.” Then Hart folded up his paper and fell into a fit of deep musing as he walked homeward. He was too acute not to have divined from all he had seen the identity of the duke and the rincess. O’Shea’s stories told him at various mes before they ever saw the duke had pre pared him for it, and the princess’s emotion at sight of Sir Lumley told him the rest. He only wondered at his own infatuation in not sooner recognizing his uncle, Gilbert Carver, in the sham Brazilian Dom Gil Grabador. But what " womy was the duke’s object then in saving Helen Lawton from the Arabs? If he wanted ven- eance, he surely could have had it there by eaving her alone to Fyzoul Abdallah’s mercy. Pondering over the mystery, he arrived at the Diamantina mansion, rung the bell, and was admitted by a smart Egyptian watchman in military uniform, who said, in reply to his surprised ook: ** Dey all gone, Howadji. Me watchman till dey come back. What name, Howadji?’ ‘Hart. I’m the duke’s secretary. What does all this mean?” asked the young man, be- wildered. ‘‘I left the house only three hours ago and all was quiet.” The watchman grinned, ** Di’mond great lord, Howadji. He go quick when go. Letter for you, Howadji.” And he handed Clarence a note in the delicate running hand of the duke, which Hart hastily perused. It was in the curt form of an order to himself: **On receipt of this go to Alexandria, call at Papa- doulos, Demetri & Co. They will give you further orders and funds. Youare to come to Melapetros. ** DIAMANTINA.”” ** Melapetros,” repeated Hart to himself ina dreamy way; ‘‘ I never heard of such a place.” But all the same, he took the train to Alex- andria that evening. CHAPTER XXYV. FLITTING, THE Hon. Lorelia and her niece were yawn- ing in the hotel — at Shepherd’s after breakfast, which they had been compelled to take alone, Sir Lumley not having made his a pearance since he went to the Consulate the evening before. } “Oh, dear me, Helen,” cried aunt Lorelia, ruefully. ‘‘ How ever shall we get through an- other hot day like yesterday in this horrible lace? What a change from that dear duke! op) Mig we to be ashamed of himself, leay- ing us like this allday. If we only had an es- cort I’d not mind, but there isn’t so much as a boy visible. What shall we do?” “Why not take a carriage and drive out to the pyramids, aunt? Wecan take one belong- ing to the hotel and be all safe.”’ ‘But it wouldn’t be quite the correct thing, Helen, to go alone. e might be robbed or murdered by some of those Arabs.” Helen smiled. ‘*Oh, no, aunt. Mr. Hart told me there was nothing to fear in Egypt; the Arabs are in as good control as the Ag of London.” ‘“‘T wish we could find Captain O’Shea, or even Mr. Hart,” observed the elder lady, mus- ingly. ‘‘ It’s a dreadful change to be left alone like this. I believe we’ll ask the proprietor what’s best to do.” She rung the bell in the sublime faith ofa British female in the integrity of hotel-keepers, and soon had that functionary before her, ques- tioning him about Sir Lumley and a dozen dif- ferent things. She noticed, or rather Helen did for her, that the landlord was very ready to answer, and that he eyed her with a certain protecting fa- miliarity that was Me to his usual ways. ‘‘He would advise the ladies not to worry about Sir Lumley. There were a number of formalities that foreign residents ’ad to pass through, and no doubt Sir Lumley was busy at the Consulate wine: ‘em done. I’d advise the ladies not to go to the pyramids now. It’s too ’ot for pleasure. Better take the ’otel eawass and a couple of donkeys and go to the bazars. They’re nice and shady. You won’t suffer from the ’eat there, ladies.” Lorelia, imagining the cawass to be some sort of a carriage, answered resignedly: ‘Very well, then. Get the cawass ready and we'll go. We'll be back for dinner.” As she spoke, she drew out that fatal watch, the innocent cause of so much trouble, and con- sulted it with her usual languidly affected in- difference. The landlord looked at it, bowing and rub- bing his hands. ¥ pardon, my lady, [I’m sure, but that’s a monstrously pretty watch of yours. Can’t ’el noticing it, you know. Pa, paruon, my lady.” _ This tickled Lorelia mightily, and she opened it very slowly for consultation, so that the landlord might have a good look. Flattery was sweet to her, no matter from whose lips. Then the landlord backed out, and as soon as = — down-stairs observed to the room clerk: “That ’ere paper’s right, Dobbs. She’s got the watch, sure asa gun. i never saw sich a sparkler in all my days.” Meantime auut and niece attired themselves in their coolest Indian dresses and hats, and waited in patience for the waiter to tell the ag ot ry ready. | esently a came at the door, and Lorelia cried: ‘‘ Come in.” A huge, piratical-looking man, with a black beard that covered his broad chest; with shoul- ders like Atlas and the muscles of a Hercules; stood at the door, dressed in ruby velvet and gold lace, with 4 yellow silk sash round hig C O miicbooksicot ‘ ry