3E OMAHA DAILY BEE; SATURDAY, MAY 14; 190.
T
THE SCARABEUS
BV EDWARD STRATTOIM HOLLOWAY.
(Copyright, 1904. by Edward Btratton Hol
loway.) - -1. ;
The hock given iy the cabled new had
not ceased to paralyse and numb. Orson
tood peering out Into the gray dimness of
London) but hla thoughts were among the
narrow itreets, the white mosques and un
der the tarlng blue eky of Cairo. And
Juit then the last letter Arkwrlght hnd
ever written waa put Into . hla hand the
letter of a man who had taken hie own
life.
It read:
"Before me la a vial of the ancient poison.
There! I have taken It. Queer the aolutlon
never came to me before. It came just
now an Inspiration. I have not alept for
night. The last drop waa wrung out of
life. What to dd With the UleleM thing?
Destroy It, of course. Of course!"
Orson dropped hla hand. "Mad! But
thank Ood that he waa when he did that,
He read on:
"The treasures of the old kings are U
your. All I But let me whisper to you;
bend over. No 8shl There Is Thya. Don't
tell her I waa going to whisper that. Don't,
I say. Ood! I tell you don't!
"And the Ptah-Hotep Bcarabeus. Do you
remeTnber how it glowed and burgeoned;
how the little fires of hell seemed licking
up In ItT That la here, too.
"Ask Thya. Bhe will give you all at the
old stand. But you must com and get
them. Tou will not get them else. I have
told her of you. Bhe will know.
"But llBten! Maybe you'd better sink
them in the Nile. No! Ye gods of Egypt,
Ink them! No! I say."
The writing trailed oft illegibly Into noth
ingness. Orson stood thinking. The warn
lng wns plain before him; but Orson was
a passenger on the next P & O. steamer.
II.
Orson paused outside the low door In
the eastern Inferno he knew so well the
narrow streets of the Oriental quarter of
Cairo thronged with natives, ews, Greeks
ana aaoors, wun occasional gnmpaes 01
falr-halred Circassians, negresse and the
luscious-eyed maidens of Upper Nubia.
He knocked. There was no reply. H
knocked again the old, queer signal. In a
moment the door swung inward. He
opened his llpe to speak, but said nothing.
A slow, scornful smile came Into Thya's
face. He had expected and had shrugged
his shoulders. But this was a queen. She
paid little attention, merely standing aside.
He bent his broad shoulders and passed
within,
"I am Orson," he said simply.
She spread her hands (.bout her. "It Is
yours." Then, taking from her dreas the
scarab, she placed It In his hand.
The place filled him with many mem
ories; he glanced abouU-then turned to
the girl to speak, .
Bhe was gone.
Orson lit a cigarette and sat down,
lit
It was a fortnight later. A strange rest
lessnesa had taken hold of Orson. Fresh
from the encounter on the desert he sat
with his comrades in Julian's cafe. Cath-
cart was speaking.
"And Orson here, with his blond aureole
and angel-blue eyes" Cathcart laughed
"the devil's got him, too. Tou should
have seen him handle the Arabs tha4 got
after the stuff."
"And I've seen him shift his step so he
wouldn't crush a cricket," put In Zavakos.
Orson flushed uneasily. "They were not
cricket."
Cathcart persisted. "No more than you
are the old Orson." He turned again to
Zavakos. "It wasn't the doing he was as
quiet as a scythe mowing grass, but" he
laughed again "Orson, all bell looked out
of your eyes.'
"Drop It I" .
At the note In Orson's voice the two
men looHed at each other. . But Orson was
already talking of other things, his tones
as gentle as before.
Zavakos bent across the table that he
might hear for the air was full of the
clanking glasses, clamoring voices, the
strumming of guitars, the clash of cym
bals. Red rays from the perforated lamp
above turned the blue wreaths of smoke
into a hase of purple, and, beyond,
through the archway of the court hung
the flat, orange disk of the rising moon.
Orson had his glass half way to hla
lips then set It dowrt. That was alL
There was not the change of a feature;
but for Orson the world had turned
over.
There had been a man to whom, after
months of legal contest, the courts had
given Orson believed with a vile Injus
tice the title and estates Orson ha
claimed as his own. That man was also
winning the one woman Orson would ever
love.
Then when the typhoon of 1902 had
.truckrtha "Equator" In the Indian ocean
and It bad gone down with all on board,
with her had gone the man who stood
between Orson and his estates, between
himself and the woman. To him, as next
. heir, the first had already come; the sec
ond In due time he hoped to win.
Now, across, the cafe, there In the arch
way -where the moonlight fell, sat the
man.
There was no halt I nthe swing of the
Inoident Orson told, but he was thinking
a a man thinks who has but an Instant
In which to decide his fate. He finished
his story and, as the laughter of the
others mingled with the noise about them,
his glance fell upon his hand as It lay
upon the table rested upon the Ptah
Hotep scarabeus In Arkwrlghts ring-setting,
encircling his finger.
Its color was chnnglng irldescently Its
opalesque tints showing sea-green and the
Pink of the early dawn. Then among
these, as of the sunrise, shot reddish
lights, until within all seemed a living
flame. And now In Orson's syes were the
same glints of fire.
He looked about him. Close by, beam
ing, his one white hand rubbing the other,
strolled Julian among his customers.
"Pardon a moment." Orson rose.
The cafe keeper turned at the sound of
Orson's voice met the eyes fixed upon his
own. He was under an obligation to the
Norseman that villain though he was
Julian would not likely soon forget. And,
In that Instant of silence, Orson's gate
seemed to remind him of many things.
"Do you see that man there In the left
of the erehwsy?" Orson asked carelessly.
"Rather badly used up he Is; head leaning
on his hsnd. Put a gentle dope In the
next drink he orders gentle, mind you."
Orson resumed his seat
IV.
It was morning. The sun had risen with
the startling quickness of the east, nt
now the cry, "Allahu Akbar! AIlalHj
Akbarl Allahu Akbar! Ashhadu an la
liana 111" Alan!" sounded from the neigh
boring mosque.
Iq the house which had been Arkwrlght'
sat Orson, looking down upon the man
stretched upon a couch. He tossed, mutter
ing Incoherently. Orson forced a few drops
of liquid between his caked lla. then re
sumed his watch and his Inward struggle.
The man's condition was clear to Orson.
Worn to the bone with privation and the
mephitlo atmosphere of the lower coast,
fever had again begun Its ravages. The
dost oX the night before still further be
clouded the workings of his brain, but this
would disappear.
Te Orson, familiar with the disease, the
course to pursue waa equally clear. He
wa as safe In Orson's hsnds as In those of
a phyalclan fever a Ion considered. But
the light showed Orson's face ss haggard
as the man's own. The struggle hsd been
night-long. Remember! Orson hsd but to
withhold his hand and all would again be
his.
An hour later and Orson had not moved.
There was a voice at his shoulder, slowly
scornful--
"In the days when there were men, what
a man wanted he took!"
Orscn got to his foot, facl.ig the womai
ORSON'S HAND8 WERE ABOUT HIS
who on that first day, two weeks before
had turned over to him John Arkwrlght'
possessions.
The change In her was appalling. Her
fresh beauty had died. Save to the variable
lights in her eyes, life seemed to have gone
out of her, leaving her shrunken, numbed.
But as her glance rested upon the scarab
on Orson's finger, her old animation re
turned and into her cheeks came again
the rich glow of youth.
"You!" said Orson. "Why?"
"Am I. not needed?"
"No ". said Orson, harshly.
"Then you do propose to take what you
wish." She nodded toward the figure on
the couch.
Ha shook his head slowly from side to
side.
'I thought not. Then you had better
take that haggard face of yours away to
rest. He is safe. What Is It to meT"
And, though this waa but the second time
he had seen the woman, Orson felt that
there was little sublunary Indeed for which
she cared. He rose, left the room and
threw himself upon his bed.
e
Hours later, when . be again appeared,
she would not go till he had sought his
restaurant and eaten. Then, "I will come
tomorrow with the muessin's call."
He thanked her, but protested.
Bhe glanced again at the unconscious
man and asked suggestively:
"Do you wish, then, to get someone ih to
care for him?"
There was no reply that could be made.
Toward evening the man opened hi syes
Intelligently and looked Into Orson's face.
Reading no pity there he turned to the
waU.
Then over Orson came a spasm of re
morse. He had seen In the countenance
of the man before him the vestiges of that
struggle which one knows who goes down
Into death, and who, having by a miracle
escaped It, with life, riches, love before him,
had opened his eyes upon the face of one
who would grant no quarter himself, Or
son.
And then the other side Orson's own
once wronged out of all those things which
make life good, Ood himself had seemed to
stretch out his hand against the wrong
doer. Bo his possessions had come to Or
son with the hope also that when time
had dulled the edge of sorrow, her lovs
might return to him who had once believed
It his own.
Then had come the summons here, and
with it some strange force into his life,
which sometimes seemed to twist his na
ture, aa be knew It, all awry. And now
this! "
The hour struck, and Orson, rising, took
up the medicine and bent over the oouch.
The man looked up Incredulously; then
came the ord mocking smile that had al
ways set Orson's blood on fire. But the
man opened his mouth for the dose.
Neither had spoken a word.
VI.
The next morning when the man awoki)
he looked up Into the face of Thya, bend
lng over him.
Hla eyes opened Wonder-wide; he passed
his hand across them as If to brush away
the visions of fevered hours. But aha waa
there still her haud now upon his fore
head, delU-lously soft and Sympathetic.
He took the medicine she ottered, mur
muring his thanks.
Often his eyes sought her aa row she
leaned among the pillows of the divan. In
her was both the listless charm and the
swift alertness of the serpent, and In her
lightly poised head, once more full of dark
Egyptian beauty, was fascination. Twice,
as she smiled, meetlug his gase, her eyes
held his, but for the most part she seemed
unconscious of bis presence.
At last he spoke.
"Why am I heref
Bhe shrugr.ed her shoulders.
The fierce hate again shone In his face.
"What are you to him OraonT"
"Nothing." Indolently she took a seat
by his pouch.
"Then why are you here. If I may ask?"
' She i untied atffUy. "Net on hU account.
yon may b sure. But yon must not talk.
Tou have been 111."
Again she bent toward him, touching Ms
forehead. "The fever I gone." Her finger
pressed his eyelid shut, and he was con
tent. For months he had not known the
touch of a woman's hand.
Neither moved. It would have been In
structive to trie man could he have seen
the emotions which played In her eyes
amused, half tender, scoffing, satisfied, al
ways subtle always evil.
So sitting, st length she started and
looked up, for Orson stood beside her.
With contempt he looked her through. And
to Orson, also, It would have been In
structive could he have seen her face as
he turned away.
VII.
It became an Immediate question what
Orson should do with his prisoner. He
wasted no time In searching for the mo
tives of his holding. Though still resisting
that mocking suggestion now with hint
i
THROAT, THEN OVER ORSON AQAIN
day and night "What they wanted they
took" he had ht mnn and meant to keep
his clutches 'upon him. Wherefore, using
the tools which littered Arkwrlght's
strange rookery, he soon made fast the
few avenues of escape from the inner room
and transferred his prisoner thence.
Thya he trusted not at all, but, after
that second day, gracefully banished her
from the house, though Inquiring how he
might serve her In return for her kind
ness. Bhe half turned, laughing over her shoul
der. "Fear not as to that reward It will
come."
Orson did not admire complications. He
shut the door with a shrug of relief.
Then, to his wrath, he discovered dally
evidence of her presence. He must go out
for aid and food, and during these absences
Ehe came and gloried In leaving traces of
er visits. It was clear that she possessed
some means of entrance unknown to him
self. That she came and went without vis
ible means he, with his Norse mysticism,
was almost. Indeed, ready to believe..
And the prisoner? The second day, aa
Orson left food by his bed, he looked up.
"Fattening the calf for butcheryor
what?"
Orson's voice was quiet, but It cut the
air. "Tou know what I want Olga and my
estates." .
The man met Orson's gase a long minute
with all his wealth of Insolence; then rolled
back, again with his face to the wall.
Orson's fingers ached to wring out his
life. It was the hour of the siesta and the
streets without were silent. Orson waa
alone with his enemy. The power grasped
him, and his great frame moved. Inch by
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Inch closer, closet. Now he bent over. The
force of that terrible, silent struggle be
tween good and evil reached the man wpon
the bed.
Though Orson did not know, beads of
sweat stood out upon his forehead; hi
hands were clenched beneath the sheet. He
would not cry out, but his body quivered.
He expected death.
Then Orson gaeped, staggered a little and
went out.
VIII.
Thya sat upon the divan, her feet earled
beneath her. Her hand were preseed to
her cheek, holding the scarab within them.
Her long, black hair was down, and be
tween Its strands looked out her face,
alight with joy and passion,
"And you, my scarab," she crooned,
"again we are together. Centuries of ob
livion In the tomb, and now he took you
from me, but the curse still works. Didn't
n see It that Arkwrlght engraved there
CAME THAT PASSION TO KILL.
t warn? When he profaned the tomb was
he In too great haste to see, or did he fail
to heed? Well, he Is in torment now, and,
we being here together, the other will fol
lowsoon." Bhe bent her head, caressing the scarab,
laughing softly.
"Ah! now I see: loose In your golden
setting that Is why he left you as ha went
out. The glow lights up In you. It will not
be long now. He will again wear you
upon hi finger, and then The days have
passed and the other Is now strong. He Is
there, quiet, alert, a cobra, watching bit
Chance to strike."
"But here, my scarab, Is M'sieu Orson
at the door. All honor to M'sieu till bell
take him swift and strong. He shall find
you where be left you. Now. my scarab,
oon!"
e e e
Orson was at work upon the setting of
the ring; but his tools were not delicate.
Arkwrlght's necessity had mainly been for
heavy Implements hammers, bar and
wodges with which to force the tombs of
ancient kings.
He had difficulty In closing the setting
about the stone, and the ring remained
somewhat distorted. Orson slipped it on hla
finger, where It stayed. He leaned over,
pressed It carefully against the anvil,
rounding out Its contour.
Bshind him, at the farther end of the
room, silently, the girl was at the door to
the Inner chamber. It opened. Bhe stood
aside, pressing Into the man's band, as be
came out, a long chisel. He stole down
the room toward Orson. He raised the
weapon. Orson turned and threw up his
arm. The chisel flew from the man's grasp.
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Orson's hands were about Ms throat
Then over Orson came again that passion
to kill. Before his eyes swam a red mist.
He saw nothing of the man's face growing
darker, more purple under his granp; noth
ing of the wcmiB at the end of the long
room, smiling, malignant, triumphant Or
son was but dimly conscious of hi hands
before him, grasping; while out of that en
meshing mist glowed one spark of flame
upon his finger. '
Then the light broke upon him. It was
this that dragged him down. Throwing his
enemy from him, he wrenched It from hi
finger, dropped It upon the anvil at his side,
swung over It a huge hammer.
The woman sprang forward with a cry.
It waa too late. The hammer descended
the scarab flew Into fragments.
The woman pitched forward upon the
floor. Over her bent the man, and now
be cried to Orson:
"Take your cold, whit woman Olga.
This is she I love."
He lifted the prostrate figure and raised
her against his knee. She was a dried and
withered mummy.
THE INDIAN CHIEF'S FAREWELL
Pat net l Cplsode la the Weary Life
f a Big Brkve Italklag
the Pike.
The Indian chief had stood silently smok
ing his calumet for nearly half an hour, a
contemplative expression in his eagle eye,
with his navy blue blanket pulled tightly
around his lithe and towering form. The
sun was biasing down upon his bare head,
but he, of course, fared naught for that,
reared, a he had been, to the heats Of
summer and the tempests of winter, with
out any head covering to shield him from
the elements, except ht long black hair,
glossy aa a raven's wing. It was also
glossy as a crow's wing, but the crow Is
a common kind of bird, and no one ought
to' use It in a story like this Is going to
be. Many strands of red and yellow yarn
were twisted about the two braids Into
which hia locks were separated, and down
the center of the parting of his hair he
had rubbed a pinch of red ochre after the
custom of his tribe. Across his eyelids
and extending from their outer edge to his
ears was a broad band of yellow. There
were other dabs of color where his dis
criminating fancy had encouraged him to
continue the frescoing of his physiognomy.
And he stood contemplating. Borne writers
think that when the Indian thus stands or
more generally sits, for hours, silent and
melancholy, he Is brooding over the fading
away of his race before the conquering
paleface, but since the census bureau has
discovered that the Indian la not fading, but
increasing in numbers, some other reason
must be assigned for this meditative tem
per of hla. But these reflection are de
laying. One of our party, after gaelng
upon the Indian chief for some time In
deep sympathy, turned to us and saldi
"He Is thinking of his people tvien they
used to roam over this country and It was
all their own. I've no doubt It rankle in
his bosom to see us building towns and
railroads all over it, and using him a part
of our show, when we hold a world's fair,
I am going to sp to him."
He stepped up and, holding out his hand
to the Indian chief, said, "How?" The In
dlan chief, without changing his expression
or looking at him, took ths offered hand
with a dignified gesture, and answered,
"How."
"What tribe you?" asked our companion,
"Blaekfeet," was the answer, and you
could oatch the proud Inflection In his voice,
"They great tribe, once."
"Yes; great tribe long age."
"Are you with the show?"
"Yes; Indian how."
"Do you like show?"
"Not me Ilka be free back In north, where
my people were long ago."
"How aad," Said our friend, tumtng to us,
and ws felt all the pathos of that wild un
tutored being's yearning for his native land.
Just then we were startled by the Indian
chief, relaxing the faraway and dejected
lo:.&t In his countenance and saying: "Have
yiu got a cigar i"
One of us handed him a Havana. He lit
It, took a few deliberate puffs, and broke
out: "Do you know, gents, I hate to smoke
that blanked old pipe; It's a nuisance- But
It's In the contract to go lugging this con
founded old blanket around, too. It's worse
than a Turkish bath. If It wasn't for the
money there waa In It I'd keep out of the
exposition business, but they have so many
expositions now that It makes me a regular
Income. I've been at Buffalo and Omaha,
Chicago, Paris, and two years In London,
snd I sxpect to go to Portland next year.
But It's thunder to have to dress like this
In hot weather." Then, turning to us, hs
grinned and said: "Great chief done. Qood
by," and "stalked" off. Really, we could
see that he walked like any other man,
only it Is proper that an Indian should
stalk. Then ws alt slapped our friend on
the back with loud roars and he set 'em
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