THE SEA-HAWK 1
rictus. Part Two By Rafael Sabatini.
(Continued From Yesterday.)
“Let me hear my mother's name
i.ut once again on thy foul tongue,
end I'll have it ripped out by the
roots. Her memory, 1 thank God, is
far above the insults of such a crawl
ing thing as you. Nonetheless, take
care hut to speak of the only woman
whose name 1 reverence.”
And then, turning at bay. as even
the rat will do, Lionel sprang upon
him, with clawing hands outstretched
to reach his throat. Rut Sakr-el
l!ahr caught him in a grip that bent
him howling to his knees.
“You find me strong, eh?” he gibed.
"Is it matter for wonder? Consider
that for six endless months I toiled
at the oar of a galley, and you’ll un
derstand what It was that? tjimed my
body into iron and robbed me of a
sold.”
He flung hint off. and sent him
1 cashing into the rosebush and the
lattice over which It rambled.
"Do you realize the horror of the
rower's bench? to sit day In day out,
right in night out, chained naked to
the oar, amid the reek and stench
of your fellows in misfortune, un
kempt, unwashed save by the rain.
In-oiled and roasted by the sun, fes
tering with sores, lashed and cut and
scarred by the boatswain’s whip as
vou faint under the ceaseless, end
less, cruel toll?
"Do you realize it?” From a tone
of suppressed fury his voice rose sud
denly to a roar. "You shall. For that
I error which was mine by your con
triving shall now be yours until you
*
lie paused, but Lionel made no at
t-mpt io avail himself of this. His
i- ullage all gone out of him again, as
suddenly as it had flickered up, he
cowered where lie had been flung.
“Before you go there is something
else,” Saki'W?l-Bahr resumed, "some
thing for which I have had you
brought hither tonight.
“Not content with having delivered
me to all this, not content with hav
ing branded me a murderer, destroyed
my good name, filched my possessions
and driven nte into the very path of
bell, you must further set about
usurping my place In the false Jieart
of this woman I once loved.
“I hope,” he went on reflectively,
' that in your own poor way you love
her. too, Lionel Thus to the torment
i hat awaits your body shall be added
lorment for your treacherous bouI—
such torture of mind as only the
lamned may know. To that end have
l brought you hither. That you may
realize something of what is in store
for this woman at my hands; that
vou may take the thought of it with
you to be to your mind worse than
the boatswain’s lash to your pam
pered body."
"You devid!" snarled Lionel. "O,
you fiend out of hell'."
“Jf you will manufacture devils: lit
tle toad of n brother, do not unbraid
them for being devils when next you
meet them." •
"Give him no herd. Lionel;" said
Rosamund. "I shall prove him as
much a boaster as he has proved
himself a vallnin. Never think that
he will be able to work his evil will."
“ 'T is you are the boaster there,”
said Sakr-el-Bahr, “And for the rest,
I am what you nnd he, between you,
have made me."
“Did we make you liar and coward"
—for that is what you are indeed,"
she answered.
"Coward?” he echoed, in genuine
surprise. "It will he some lie that
he has toll you with the others. In
what, pray, was I ever coward?"
’’In what? In this that you do now:
in this taunting and torturing of two
helpless beings in your power."
"I speau not of what I am.” he re
plied, "for I have told you that I am
what you have made me. I speak of
what I wax I speak of the past."
She looked at him and she seemed
to measure him with her unwavering
glance.
“You speak of the past?” she
echoed, her voice low. "You speak of
the past and to me? You dare?”
"It Is that we might sjieak of It
together that I have fetched you all
the way from England; that at last I
may tell you things I was a fool to
have kept from you five years ago:
that we may resume a conversation
which ypu interrupted when you dis
missed me.”
"I did you a monstrous injury, no
doubt," she answered him, with bitter
Irony. "I was surely wanting in con
sideration. It would have become me
better to have smiled and fawned
upon my brother's murderer.”
"I swore to you, then, that I was
not hi* murderer," he reminded her
in a voice that shook.
"And I answered you that you lied."
"Ay, and on that you dismissed me
—the word of the man whom you
professed to love, the word of the
man to whom you had given your
trust weighing for naught with you."
"When I gave you my trust,” she
retorted, "I did so in igndrance of
your true self, in a headstrong wilful
Ignorance that would not be guided
by what all the world said of you and
your wild ways. For that blind wil
fulness I have been punished, as per
haps I deserved to me."
"Lies—all lies!" he stormed. "Those
ways of mine—and God knows they
were none so wild, when all is said—
I abandoned when I eame to love you.
No lover since the world began was
ever so cleansed, so purified, so sanc
tified by love as was I."
"Spare me this at least;” she cried
on a note of loathing.
"Spare you?" he echoed. "What
shall I spare you?"
"The shame of it all; the shame that
<9 ever mine in the reflection that for
a season I believed I loved you."
He smiled. "If you can still feci
shame, it shall overwhelm you ere 1
have done. For you shall hear me
out. Here there are none to Interrupt
us, none to thwart niv sovereign will.
Reflect then, and remember. Remem
ber what a pride you took in the
change you had wrought in me. Your
vanity welcomed that flattery, that
tribute to the power of your beauty.
Yet, all in a moment, upon the pal
triest grounds, you believed me the
murderer of your brother."
"The paltriest grounds?" she cried,
protesting almost despite herself.
“So paltry that the justices of Truro
would not move against me."
'“Because,” she cut in, "they ac
counted that you had been sufficiently
provoked. Because you had not
sworn to them as you swore to me
that no provocation should ever drive
you to raise your hand against my
brother. Because they di^i not real
ize how false and how forsworn you
were."
He considered her a moment. Then
he took a turn on the terrace. Lio
nel crouching ever by the rose tree
was almost entirely forgotten by him
now.
"God give me patience with you!"
he said at length. "I need it. For I
desire you to understand many things
this night. T mean you to see how
just is my resentment; how just the
punishment that is to overtake you
for what you have made of my life
nnd perhaps of my hereafter. Ju«
lice Baino and another who is dead,
knew me for innocent."
"They knew you for innocent?"
There was scornful amazement In her
tone. "Were they not witnesses of
the quarrel betwixt you and I’oter
and of your oath that you would kill
him?"
“That was an oath sworn in the
heat of anger. Afterwards I be
thought me that lie was your
brother.”
"Afterwards?" said she. “After you
had murdered him?"
"I say again," Oliver replied calm
ly, "that I did not do this thing"
“And I say again that you lie."
He considered her for a long mo
ment; then lie laughed. "Have you
yver." he asked, "known a man to
die without some purpose? Men lloi
for the safe of profit, they lie out of
cowardice or malice, or else because
they are vain and vulgar Rasters. J
know of no other causes that will
drive a min lo falsehood, save that—
ah, yes!—” and he flashed a sidelong
glance at Lionel)—"save that some
times a man will lie to shield another,
out of self sacrifi.ee. There you have
all the spurs that urge a man to
falsehood. Can any of these be urging
me tonight? Reflect! Ask yourself
what purpose J could serve by lying
to you row. Consider further that
I have cotne. to loathe you for your
unfaith: that I desire naught so much
as "to punish you for that and for all
Its bitter consequences to me; that I
have brought you hither to exact pay
ment from you to the uttermost farth
ing. What end then can 1 serve by
falsehood!"
"All this 1 eing so. what end could
you serve by truth'.'' she countered.
"To make you realize to the lull
the injustice that you did. To make
you understand the wrongs for which
you are called to pay. To prevent
you from conceiving yourself a mar
tyr; to make you perceive fn all its
deadly oitternc-ss that what now comes
to you is the inevitable fruit of your
own faithlessness.”
•
•'.Sir Oliver, do you think me a
fool?” she asked him.
"Madam. 1 do—and worse,” he an
swered.
“Ay. that is clear.” she agreed
scornfully, "since even now you waste
breath in attempting to persuade me
against my reason. But words will
not blot out facts. And though you
talk from now till the day of judg
ment no word of yours can efface
those bloodstain* in the snow that
formed a trail from that poor mur
dered Dody to your own door; no word
of yours can extinguish the memory
of the hatred l«etween him and you,
and of your own threat to kill him:
nor can tt at idle the recollection of
the public voice demanding your pun
ishment. Ycu dare to take such a
tone as you are taking with me? You
dare her* under heaven to stand and
lie to mo that y u may give a f. 1*4
gloss to the villainy of your present
<l*>ed—for that Is the purpose of youe
falsehood, since you asked rne what
purpose there could he for It. W'l |
had you to set against all that. t<i
convince me that your hands soe
clean, to induce in" to keep the tro'U
which—God forgive me!—I had pI,g;■ • •
ed to you?”
(To B# Continued Tomorrow.)
r
New York
• •Day by Day
\ --——/
By O. O. MTNTYRE.
New York, May 21.—Gotham is
adept at creating the illusion of pros
perity. The broker who gives the
hundred dollar tip is not the victim
of open-pursed generosity. He knows
the headwaiter will talk about it.
The broker has made an investment
in word of mouth advertising.
There are thousands who would be
happier in peaceful Jersey communi
ties with a front lawn and garden
yet they crowd into apartments in
exclusive areas. They know they can
cash in on the aiistocratic address.
The appearance of success bezels suc
cess.
it is told of a man who wanted to
interest a big financier in a promoion
scheme. He was flying light finan
cially. He borrowed tlie luxurious
apartment of a friend for an evening.
There were butlers and assistant
butlers.
lie iilvited the financier for din
ner and afterward over coffee in tjie
drawing room he put over his deal.
He had made an impression by the
false show of prosperity. New York
thrills to petty vanity. It takes a
Morgan or a Rockefeller to wear
haggy trousers.
An outward show of opulence here
eften pays dividends. That is why
Xe\v York is the best dressed city in
the world. It accounts for the
crowds and the valet.
A young lawyer on a salary for a
successful legal firm came suddenly
into a small fortune of $5,000. lie
had been nothing more than a legal
i lerk but lie took a slice of his for
tune and paid a month’s rent for the
finest suite in mid-town.
Business boomed from the start.
He joined with two partners and in
six months was making more in a
week than he had made in a year
before. Ho did not have the back
ground of successful legal accomplish
ment. The illusion of prosperity did
t!io trick.
A New York magatdne editor re
cently became a proud father. On
i he night of the baby's arrival he
waited anxiously in the hospital ante
room. Nurses and Internes visltftd
him from time to time to tell him all
was well. But his nervousness in
creased and finally in desperation he
went to the attending doctor and de
manded to know If everything was
all right. “Young man,” said the
doctor, "your worry Is useless, I
have officiated at ii.000 obstetrical
cases and I have never lost a
fa ther.“
111 luck seems to pursue one mem
ber of a theatrical team: It Ir rare
both are successful. The Rialto
points to Bert Williams' wealth and
Walker’s lean days. Fred Htone Is
one of America’s richest actors but
Montgomery died practically with
out funds. Hap Ward of Ward and
Vokes, grew rich but. his partner
was never rated well off. When
Weber and Fields spilt, Weber wgs
enormously rich, but Fields was not.
These are only a few instances but
they are typical of I lie way thlngr
go financially for almost every team
on thu American boards.
A group of writers lunching at the
Brevoort discussed the grammatical
stumbling block that tripped them up
most.' Heven out of eight agreed It
was Hie use of “who’’ and "whom.’’
A woman of our acquaintance has
had a dog as an almost constant com
panion for 15 years. Recently the
>'og fell ill with wli.it was said to
lie an incurable inaludy. The
letcrinary finally told her the only
merciful lliing lo do was to have the
pi t chloroformed and so ahe steeled
herself and carried the dog to the
veterinary's office. Her nerve failed
her at the door and for 10 days she
went each day ami finally she gave It
up. The dog in the meantime showed
improvement ami is now well and
hearty us could be expected for one
of tU years,
•
The Days of Real Sport By Briggs
C'OKNSli-K
ABIE THE AGENT for The Omaha Bee by Hershfield
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DIE.
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no©, who could this, be Vs
froka - A Donation of
A FIFTY DoluAB Bill AND
a ufttfr sunned ANONNMoui |
I
I
MEMBERS WHO CONTRIBUTED
George Holland - $2
Nathan Sachs • * *' * $3
4
Simon Sterling • * * • $5
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%
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J
THE NEBBS WANTED A PUMP. Directed for The Omaha Bee by Sol Hess *
ar
PATIENT_
WE'LL
Announce
TME WINNER
OFTWE-ftEST
NANVE FOR
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WE’VE STU.L
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— WE'RE
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| ONE
5-21
(LET'6 SEE WHAT HORATIO NlBLlCK WAS TO SAY - \
DEAR MR. NE0B: - WHEN l TOOKTWE COMMISSION AS CUSTODIAN Or \
YOUR ESTATE AND MADE THE NOMINAL FEE OF SlO A WEEK — l THOUGHT THE \
DUTIES WERE LOOKING AFTER YOUR ESTATE DURING THE PERIOD OF
. reconstruction and taking Care of such legal matters that
I MIGHT ARtSC - I DIDN’T KNOW IT TOOK WITH IT THE PUMPING AND \
. Shipping of water - I'm not complaining about the compensation
' BUT THE PRESENT METHOD of TAKING WATER FROM the WELL I SOLDER
than the pyramids . the bucket only holds a gallon -the Barrels/
HOLD 50 GALLONS - SO IT TAKES 50 DiPS TOTlLL A BARREL . MY BACK
V IS NEARLY BROKE and my wands ALL BLISTERED And unless you/
—r^-, i, \ will supply a gasoline Pump r guess you will have J
/TLL GET FAVTUFUL NlQUCK a'"\
GASOLINE PUMP — I’M THE ONLV \
Gut that ever put dusters on U—
A LAWTERD WANDS • MOST Or T""™
THEM SlT AROUND THElP OFFICE F=^
= AND WHEN TWETGETACASE THET J
GET A BOOK AnO REAOTHE LAVs/ A
On IT AND THEN GOTO COURT , / M
AND TELL THE JUDGE - ME A'NT/ 1
^GOT TIME TO RE AO IT HIMSELF/ /
tlTE ■ '%
_ x ..
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Barney Google and Spark Plug IT LOOKS HOPELESS TO BARNEY. icopprifiit i»2<> J
r » r . I . . x~". . ; - 7 : - ; - j
DDIMriWP I ID PATI4PR R.*u»tr«d see jiggs and maggie in full Drawn for The Omaha Bee by McManus
DIxlllVjUlvJ VJl r 1 11 HiIV U. S. Patant Olfica PAGE OF COLORS IN THE SUNDAY BEE ICopyripht 1924)
WHEM ARE. to°^ ‘ Vm’gcmNCI *
WE CO>MC,» ^hJ°ThE ^,0N
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I * Vou amo <3baiwaAB- \ |
IViaC hcmcO ufTDrvr* irtr> 1 l-''
I y.)^. yt»vr, lri
