Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 108 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

—_—s- 2. ——— ae Oe ~~ — ~ ~~ - eee ew ow ome + ce -- =. ea —— am » . Se pe ee Re ee eae ae _ ll te lc el A a — -_ — a « — -——, = .-— - = —— <> ee ee oe Sienna - - — ee -— — ee eee ee ee > : hw SE a ee a ~ — -_ — rR ae i ee Sadia —_——— a . different face on the whole business. oe -_ -— —os eae Se a ee ee ee eee - - + waist that positively bristled with knives, pis- tols, yataghans and other murderous-looking implements. In his hand this formidable-look- ing person carried a great black whip two inches thick at the butt, and this whip he held up to his forehead in a sort of military salute. Lorelia shrieked and Helen started back in affright. The pirate at the door smiled in a manner un- eee gentle, and said in a deep bass voice: ‘** Donkeys ready, ladies.” Then aunt Lorelia in trembling tones ven- tured to falter out: ** 'Who—who are you?” “JT, my lady? I’m Nicolo, the hotel cawass. Every one in Cairo know me.” His accent was of the slightest, and the ladies be to perceive they had mistaken a peace- able porter and messenger for a pirate. ** And are you to take us to the bazar?” ask- ed Lorelia, more boldly. ‘* Wherever my lady chooses to go. Pyra- mids if she likes.’ But aunt Lorelia did not want to go to the pyramids. She preferred the bazars and felt perfectly safe now. This piratical cawass was as handsome as a picture in his fine imposin style and Lorelia secretly wished, as he lifted her bodily like a baby to put her on her donkey, that she could have such a splendid fellow to show off in London. ‘What a sensation he’d make behind a car- riage in the Park, Helen,” she whispered, as Nicolo stepped out beside their donkeys on the wey to the bazar. ever had Lorelia enjoyed herself so much as she did that day under the guidance of Nicolo in the bazars. That wonderful cawass knew every one and love Sour 3 in the bazar, super- intended her purchases that she might not be cheated (getting twenty-five per cent. commis- sion on profit from the various shopkeepers for his little services) and telling her everything she wanted to know. When at last they left those seducing pre- cincts the Hon. virgin’s purse was much lighter than when it went in, and Helen was complete- ly satiated with color and picturesqueness. Nicolo the cawass had done that a service he did not quite understand, but which was none the less a valuable one to Sir Lumley Lawton. He had kept the ladies in the native part of the town and out of all hearing of the newsboys crying the Bord du Nil, and it was with perfect tranquillity that they went down to dinner that evening, where they found Sir Lumley already deep in his soup and apparently as tranquil as if he had but just parted from them.” ‘Well, Lumley, I must say you are a valu- able escort,” remarked bis sister, in her iciest tones. “Here you have left us all alone since yesterday morning. Do you suppose we can go out alone?” ‘‘Seems you have,” returned Sir Lumley, grufily. ‘Nicolo can do the honors here bet- r than I can. Have you seen enough of Cairo?” ‘*‘Why, papa, we’ve only just begun to see it!” eried Suen, animatedly. ‘‘ Those bazars are just too awfully lovely for anything.” Poor Helen was not proof against the seduc- tions of slang. ‘*Well,” replied her father, in a hard, con- strained sort of voice, ‘‘ to-day will have to sat- isfy you. We start for Alexandria by the six o'clock train to-morrow morning, and you'll — todo your packing to-night, girls; that’s There was an immediate duet of protests and entreaties, but the baronet was firm as a rock, He knew so much of which they were blissfully ignorant that Cairo had become a place of tor- ture to him in which blow after blow came driving at his unprotected head. Owen’s severe wound, his utter incapacity to stem the current of newspaper clamor by stop- ing the Bord du Nil or cutting off the ears of nkly, as he had boasted he would do, put a The jour- nal sold through the streets as only spicy social scandals can sell and there was no one to stop the yelling of the newsboys. Colonel Hamilton was powerless, now. In the —— of his heart he had violated the law for his friend’s sake, and had already received a private hint, coming from the Khedive, that no notice would be taken of the matter unless there was any further trouble, in which case the Viceroy would be obliged to ae the Bord dw Nil, and at the same time to write to the Brit- ish Government requesting Hamilton’s dis- ’ missal. Thus, as we have said, the Lawtons were powerless, father and son, and had to sit still in a darkened room, while all Cairo wagged its tongues about them. Poor Owen was reduced to the weakness of a he who had been 60 strong and domineer- ing, and he lay on his back looking gloomily at the wall and thinking, with vain regret, of the lost arm he would never see again. “Tf it had gone in battle, I could have stood it: but to lose it in a dnel, and just now when ose other hounds are opening cry on you, sir; find it pretty hard ine [ tell you.” the orifice an in labored Eng - eS The Duke of Diamonds. ; ee ere ee Te Sir Lumley had no consolation to offer, and | ness now; came out of his hole, revealing him- tried none, as Owen went on: | self as a slenaer, bowed old man, in a red velvet ‘‘ And that’s not the worst of it. There’s the jacket, white silk petticoat, and red velvet leg- Snapper waiting at Suez,and I absent fromher. gings; a yellow sash round his waist completing They’ll court-martial me for this assoon as I get | an attire about as unlike sober, serious business home. Curse that Diamantina! I wish I’d nev- er seen his face.” He opened a door in the dingy wall, led the And Owen groaned impatiently. way up a dark, winding and dusty staircase, “‘T wish we none of us had, Owen,” assented | into a second story of vast silent warerooms, his father. ‘‘But, how did he manage to do it, | full of merchandise, piled up to the open roof, my dear boy?” . fiity feet above them. ‘I don’t know, sir. I never saw such a fel- hreading their way through a devious path low in my life. He wouldn’t cross swords like | among walls of bales, they came to another a man and fight it out, but he had some infer- | staircase, which climbed up to the open roof, nal monkey-tricks of dodging a blow, and then | and Clarence asked, in amazement: coming inside your guard, flourishing his blade ‘*Is the office up there?” close to your face, | never sawin anyone. I The old Greek laughed. could have cut him fifty times, for he never ‘*'You-a—vill-a—see-a,” he answered, slowly, rded; but I was afraid of taking a return and with evident difficulty in giving his Greek low at the same time, and the swords were thought English words. just like razors. Then at last I grabbed him, ! Then they went up the staircase as far as the and in the same moment he cut off my left arm | tie-beams of the roof, when they came on a as if it had been a carrot.” light gallery which took them out to the side of Again Owen groaned impatiently, and turned | the house; and Clarence saw that they were en- to the wail. tering a large square tower, which overlooked ‘“Confound this stump. It feels as hot asfire. | the whole port, and was itself a deliciously cool Won’t some one dress it for me, or am I tolie | retreat on that hot day. here and die all alone?” Here at last he found the private office of the Sir Lumley called for the nurse, an old soldier | great firm, and into a cool room, witha polished from tbe military hospital, who managed to | tile floor, a circular divan and a few stools and make the patient more comfortable in a short | low tables, he was introduced by the old Greek, ae of time, and then it was determined that | who said, indicating,a gentleman inside: they should all leave Alexandria as soonasthe | ‘‘Papadoulos.” doctor said Owen could be moved, so as to get Clarence entered, a little at a loss what lan- back to the Snapper before any trouble arose. ge to use, but he was set at ease by Mr. The doctor pronounced that after the second | Papadoulos, who proved to be a fine gray- day the patient could go a short journey by | bearded old man in the picturesque Greek dress, rail, as the wound-fever would be over and sup- | who came to meet him, saying: puration have set in toward recovery. | ‘*Mr. Hart, I have expect you to-day, sare. Accordingly, prompt to the appointed hour, | Is’all be glad to ses you now. You’ave just and before fashionable modern Cairo had quit- | arrive?” ted its bed, the Lawtons were steaming toward “Yes, sir, b as anything ever conceived of or read about. —— direction of—” Alexandria at twenty miles an hour, the ca ‘Yes, yes, [know. MM. le Duc de Diaman- tain in a separate car, attended by the old a: tina. You are his secretaire, his good friend. dier-nurse, his father and female relatives in | Were you ever at Melapetros, Monsieur Hart?” another car, the women even ignorant of his vicinity, much more of his danger. CHAPTER XXVI. ‘No, sir, never heard of the piace till now, I assure you.” Mr. Papadoulos laughed. “You s’all seea beautiful place, de residence A GREEK COMMISSION HOUSE. of Madame la Princesse. Yous’all have pas- Tur Greek house of Papadoulos, Demetri & | sage on de barque Euphrosyne. She sail to- Co., dealers in figs takia tobacco, dates, | morrow. Do you know my partners, sare?” olives, rice, cotton, rhinoceros horns, elephant °* No, sity” tusks, hides, antelo horns, hippopotamus ‘* Well, well, you shail. Mr. Demetri, he is teeth, gold-dust, calicoes, hardware, te and | now at Marseilles directing our agency there, coffees, candles and molasses, was one of the | but here comes our junior partner, Mr. Glyp- most respectable firms in Alexandria. teros. He has been in Ainerica many years. Clarence Hart, landing at the station, asked | Let me introduce you: Mr. Hart from Ameri- for this house, and was rattled away to the | ca, Mr. Glypteros.’ handsome quay by the Old Port, where, within Clarence bowed before a tall thin man in sight of the floating dock, Ras-el-Teen light- | glossy black clothes, whose solemn, clean- house, and a forest of shipping: stretched the | shaven face looked asif it had just moved out dingy yellow warehouses of ‘‘Papadoulos, De- | ofa portrait of William M. Evarts, and would metri & Co.,” as several hundred feet of black | bein its best place behind the reading-desk of a paint informed you. country Methodist parish in Connecticut. Papadoulos, Demetri & Co. seemed to be do- ‘““Very happy to make your acquaintance,” ing a flourishing business, from the tremendous | said Mr. I ene in a regular Yankee tone of row that was going on round about them. voice. ‘It does me good tosee a Borsting face Their warehouses occupied a large and long | once more.” , block of buildings, and hundreds of porters were staggering about, or wheeling trucks with boxes, barrels, and es of all shapes and di- mensions, in and out of the black, cavernous archways of the lower story. Carts are not used to any great extent in Alexandria for the transport of merchandise and therefore there was an absence of the usual and deafening thunder and rattle that attendsa great commercial house; but the porters made up for it by all sorts of cries, as they staggered in and out of the building under loads that would have killed any horse. The hackman pulled up outside of this Babel of voices and hustling porters, and Clarence CHAPTER XXVIL MR. GLYPTEROS. CLARENCE Hart looked with scme astonish- ment at the long thin man who talked English with a down-East twang, and who was intro- duced to him as a Greek gentleman, Mr. Glyp- teros, “Is it true that you have been in America, Mr. Glypteros?’ he asked, with curiosity. “Waal, yes, I used to live there once,” drawled Mr. Glypteros;‘‘and I hain’t forgotten how to talk yet, i ess.” ‘‘T should think not,” remarked Hart, point- Hart got out and entered the huge warehouses. | edly. ‘I should have taken you for an Ameri- There was no one to direct him: not a single | can anywhere. You could never disguise that rter seemed to care whether he ran against accent.” Mr, Glypteros smiled, till bis face looked like a parchment on which water had been spilt till it shriveled up in creases. ‘Don’t ye be too sure of that,” he observed. ‘‘T’vageen the time when my own blood rela- tions couldn’t tell who I was, from my voice,” “Oh, I suppose. you mean your Greek friends,” assented Hart. ‘*That’s quite likely. Tapping at this window, it was opened by 4 | I never should have taken you for a Greek, my- little weazen-faced, black-eyed old Greek in a | self, you know. But you could never hide the velvet cap, who popped out his head and squeak- | Yankee accent if you spoke English,” im or not; and he had to wander about in the midst of piles of merchandise of all varieties of smell, from the pleasant fragrance of figs and raisins to the decidedly objectionable odors of raw hides, badly cured, till he spied, off in one corner of the warehouse, a@ little weg an oe | shed with a window, which he naturally too for some sort of an office. ee ee ed out something in Romaic, of which Hart was | ‘‘Guess not,” remarked Glypteros, with a blissfully ignorant. wink at Mr. Papadoulos. ‘The Americans are ‘‘T want to see Mr, Papadoulos or any one of | a darned sight sinarter than the Greeks; ain’t the firm ”—be Clarence, in English, when | they, Papadoulos? the old Greek jabbered away faster than ever, Clarence could not understand what the joke holding up « card and gesticulating violently. was between the two, but from some cause or Clarence produced one of bis own cards which other the old merchant began to laugh in a he had procured in Cairo, and the sight seemed | soft, polite way, and Mr. Glypteros sniggered to mollify the old Greek, for he smiled appro- | audibly, while the head of the house extracted val, stuck the card in a little box beside him in his snuff-box from the red sash he wore and of- the wall, and Hart saw it go up the ordinary fered it to Hart, saying: shoot used in most newspaper offices. ‘Will you not take a pinch sare? I use it for In a few minutes came a whistle down a | my eyesight. aking-tube, and the old Greek set his ear to | derfully.” . pe turned to Hart, saying | And then all three laughed again, Hart not b: understanding the joke, but taking it good-na- maronly, if, as he began to surmise, it was par- tially at his own expense, I am told it clears the sight won- ** You-a-—please-a—come a,”’ ' He bowed and smiled with the utmost polite- comicbooks ’ (ECO) ——— i PEE Er