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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 8, 1904)
f Romance: A Chronicle of the Adventures of John Kemp in (Copyright, 1304, by MnClurc, rhinps & Co.) CHAPTER IV. (Continued.) England and Jamaica -By Joseph Conrad A 8$ H! WW HAD FORGOTTEN." I hoard her voice and feit hep form In my arms. Her lips at my ear pronounced: "Remember, Juun. Two lives, one death only." she was gone so quickly that It but And was us If sho hail passed through the wood Ct the massive panels. Tho Chlca crouched on her knees. "What do you fear from him?" I asked. flho looked up; moved nearer to me on fci-r knees. "I don't know." She dhl not know. I.lko myself! Was there anything In tho way of our undoing which It wu not In my power to achieve? I went to my room, walking upon air, noon tempestuous air, In a feeling of In security and exultation. I stood two candlesticks on a table. I left the door of my room open on purpose, ao that he should know I was back there and ready for him. I took down a long, straight blade, like a rapier, with a basket Wit. It was a cumbrous weapon, and with a blunt edge; still, it had a point, and I was ready to thrust and parry against the world. Homebody was coming toward me along the stlent galleries. It was he; I knew It. He was coming nearer and nearer. In the profound, tomb-like stillness of the great house, I heard the sound of his foot steps on the tesmdated pavement from afar. Now he had turned tho cornpr, and tha calm, strolling pace of his approach was enough to strike awe Into an adversary' heart. It never hesitated, not once; never hurried; never slowed till they stopped. I suppose, In that big room, by the light of two candles, I most have presented an Impressive picture of a menacing youth all In black, with a tense face, and holding a naked, long rapier In his hand. At any rate, he stood still, eyeing ma from the doorway, the picture of a dapper Spanish lawyer In a lofty frame; all In black, also, With a fair head and a well-turned log ad vanced In a black silk stocking. There was no weapon In his hand, or at his Ide. I lowered the point, and, seeing he re mained on the doorstep, h tf not willing to trust Ihmself within, I said disdain fully: "You don't suppose I would muitler a defenseless man." "Am I defenseless? He had a slight lift of the eyebrows. "That Is news. Indeed, It Is you who are supposing. I have been a very certain man for this many a year." "How can you know how an English gentleman would feel and act? I am neither a murderer nor yet an Intriguer." He walked right In rapidly, and. getting round to the other side of the table, drew a small pistol out of his breeches pocket. "You see I am not trusting too much to your English generosity." He laid the pistol negligently on the table. I had turned about on my heels. As wa stood, by lunging between the two candle sticks, I should have been able to run him through the body before he could cry out. I laid the sword on the table. Ho remained for some time with his eyes fixed on the table, and when he looked up at mo It was with a Bort of amused Incred ulity. His tono was not resentful. He spoke In a business-like manner, a little contemptuously. I had only Don Carlos ta thank for the position In which I found myself. What the "poor devil over there" expected from mo, he. O'Hrien. would not Inquire. It was a ridiculous boy and girl affair. If those two meaning Carlos and Seraphlna had not been so mighty clever, I should have been safo now In Jamaica Jail, on a charge of treasuonable practice Jle seemed to find the idea funny. Well, anyhow, he had meant no worse by me than my own dear countrymen. When he, O'llrlen, had found how absurdly he had been hoodwinked by lion Carlos the poor devil and misled by Ramon he would make him smart for It, yet all he had in tended to do was to lodge me In Havana Jail. On his word of honor. "Me In Jail!" I cried angrily. "Toil you would dare! On what charge? Tou could not. "You don't know what Tat O'Brien can do In Cuba." The little country solicitor came out In a flash from under the Spanish lawyer. Then be frowned slightly at me. "Tou being an Englishman, I would have had you taken up on a charge of stealing." Blood rushed to my face. I lost control over myaolf. "Mr. O'Brien," I said. "I daresay you could have trumped up any thing against me. Tou are a very great scoundrel." "Why? Recause I don't lie about my mo tives, as you all do? I would wish you to know that I would scorn to He cither to myself or to you." I touched tho haft of the sword on the tablu. It was lying with the point his way. "I had been thinking," said I, in great heat, "to propose to you that we should fight it out between us two, man to mun, rebel and traitor as you have been." "Tho devil you have!" he muttered. "Rut really you are too much of a walked away from the table; came back. and gazed Into my face In a marked, ex pectant manner. He was not prompted by any love for me, he suid, and had an uncertain laugh. He walked away from the table trying to snap his fingers, and, suddenly, he reeled; he reeled as If he had been overcome by tho poison of his Jealousy as If a thought had stabbed him to the heart. There was an Instant when the sight of the man moved me more than anything I had seen of passionate suffering before (and that was nothing) or have seen since. He longed to kill me I felt it In the very air of the room; and he loved her too much to dare. He laughed at me across tho table. I had ridiculously misunderstood a very proper and natural kindness of a girl with not much worldly experience. Ho bad known "Well, at your age It's excusable!" he mumbled. "A career that " "I see," I said slowly. Toung as I was. It was Impossible to mistake his motive Only a man of mature years, and really possessed by a great pasalon by a passion that had grown slowly, til It was exactly as big as his soul could have acted like this with that profound simplicity, with such resignation, with such horrible moder ation. Rut I wanted to find out more. "And when would you want me to go?" I asked, with a dissimulation of which I would not have suspected myself capable a moment before. I was maturing In the fire of love, of danger; In the light of life piercing through my youthful Inno cence. "Ah," he said, banging the pistol ont the table hurriedly. "At once. Tonight, I HT MiV-V.r,'i(,3iIJIIl1Il i I DON'T KNOW WHO IT WAS THAT picaroon. I think tho gallows should be your end." "It may bo your lot yet," he said. I burst Into a nervous laugh. For a moment I could not Btop myself. "I won't murder you," I cried. To this ho said astonishingly, "Will you go to Mexico?" It sounded like a" Joke. He was very serious. "I shall send one of the schooners there on a little affair of mine. I can make use of you. I glvo you this chance." It was as If ho had thrown a bucketful of water over me, I became cool. It was his turn now to let himself go. It was a matter of delivering certain papers to the Spanish commandant In Tlmaullpas. There would be sonio em ployment found for me with the royal troops. I was a relation of tho Rlegos. And there crime upon his voice a strange ardor; a swiftness luto bin utterance. He THRUST INTO MY HANDS THE MU8 KKT WHICH I USED A3 A CLUB. her from the earliest childhood. "Take my word for It," he stammered. It seemed to me that there were tears In his eyes. A stiff smile was parting his lips, lie took up the pistol, and evi dently not knowing anything about It, looked with an air of curosity into the barrel. It was time to think of making my ca reer. That's what I ought to be thinking of at my age. "At your age at your oge," he repeated almlersly. I was an English man. Ho hated me and It was easy to believe this, though he neither glared nor grimaced. Ho smiled. He smiled continu ously and rather pitifully. Hut his devo tion to a a person who Ills de votion was great enough to overcome even that, even that. Did I understand? I owed It to the lady's regard, which, for tho rest, I had misunderstood stupldldly mi understood. Now." "Without seeing anybody?" "Without seeing Oh, of course. In your own Interest." He was very quiet now. "I thought you looked Intelligent enough," he said, appearing suddenly very tired. "I am glad you see your position. Tou shall go far in the royal service, on the faith of Pat O'Brien, English as you are, I will make it my own business for the sake of the Rlego family. There la only one little con dition." Ho pulled out of his pocket a piece of paper, a pen, a traveling Inkstand. He looked tho lawyer to the life; the Spanish family lawyer grafted on an Irish at torney. "You can see nobody. But you ought to write. Dona Bernphlna naturally would be Interested. A cousin and I shall explain to Don Balthazar, of course.