THE EASTERNERS. OR MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10450, 16 October 1911, Page 2

THE EASTERNERS. OR MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

CHAPTER ll—Continued. "That's it, Sid. I tell you that girl puzzles me. I was in hopeo she would have married you. Take my 'Little Alma' and your 'Bucking Broncho', and there you are. Two of the best mines in the Cripple Creek country to-day. With both in 0112 family, we could hold up our head:; with any of 'em, from Standard Oil to Steel Trust. But the luck changed. Look at the news from Armenia. It is my poor country! It is a. private cable from our patriarchate at Constantinople, through our London hankers ——'' "Oh, hang Armenia! No; of coxirse I don't mean that. But-1 am more interested in Alma, and the mess she lias gotten into. This morning I mjt that cursed little Turk who acted fox 1 ' Rotan last night, and slapped liim in the face, after telling him what I thought of him for failing to pos'fc Alma about Rotan's other wives. Of course, he knows all about Rotan." "You had a row with Mustafa Boy?" queried Marsovian, whosd twenty-five years in free Americe had not wholly rid him of the native awe of Armenia's Turkish masters'. "It was hardly & row. I told the cur what he should have done, then I insulted him a bit. Ho struck at me, and I whirled him into the ly gutter. Let him slide. What I want' to know is this: What are you going to do about Alma?" "First explain what you mean about 'other wives,' " returned the banker, his jaw dropping with a sudden premonition. "Of course in Turkey a pasha can do many things; but I had alwaysi understood that Rotan was truthful and square " "Did your niece show you the letter T gave her to read last night, just before I left?" "No! This is the first I heard that you gave her anything." "You remember Captain Sliolto JDouglas whom we met-iiiLondon and on the Mediterranean : \- Marsovian's keen face lengthened still more, as lie responded: "Was he not'the man who introduced us to Rotan Pasha?" "Right you are. Well, he and I are Quite friendly after his Rocky Mountain trip after bighorns and grizzlies last year. I mentioned in my last letter that I thought Miss Burian had become engaged Rotan Pasha after meeting him in London two years ago. Douglas told me in Colorado that she was greatly taken with the fellow, who pursued her from one end of the season to the other." "Too true, Sidney." threw his hands up in an impassioned gesture. "His Eastern munificence, at the embassy in London and elsewhere, dazzled the poor girl. A pasha, a favorite of our oppressor, Ajbdxtl Hamid, and. alas I—with all her ways and training, she comes of a race oppressed. Still, she does not know Turkey and the Turks, I do. What expatriated Armenian does not ? Tyrants I. Butchers 1. Dogs of Islam!"

In iu$ } mjercurial rag® Marsovian's eyes, glittered and. his felight forttl shook;' Just then, he W&s more the self-exiled patriot thaiV the moneygetting banker and mine-owner. But presently he'.shrugged, his shoulders and sighed deeply, then said to Greer, who regarded him sympathetically:

"What- of that letter? Go on, my young friend." "This Rotan liad not only had two wives all along, but the Sultan has recently bestowed one of his daughters on him as a third. Think what his power and influence at the Porte must be. Think, also, what.such a affairs mustc mean, to Alma when she ari ives in Constantinople, alone, unprotected, and deceived. By the Lord it makes a man's blood boil!" Greer rose and walked rapidly to and fro, his heavy tread jarring-tho floor. Marsovian's wrinkled features took on a more sombre look as he listened, then commented : "This news also means that Alma, under Turkish law, cannot be Rotan'9 wife. When the reigning Sultan gives ttne of his own (blood in marriage toja subject/, the act itself invalidates ail other marriage ties. The princess o'i the blood royal becomes, by her marriage with a subject, that subject's legal wife, and the head of his house. The other wives from then on, are only concubines. They are recognised after a fashion, but their lights are only secondary. This is terrible!" "'Alma must be overtaken!" exclaimed Sidney. "Whether she will or not she must listen to reason." "Ah 1 but will she? Alma is very headstrong.""You must go iwith me at once to New York. Yes, you must! The next express leaves in an hour." Greer consulted his watch. 1 "I cannotl" Marsovian looked embarrassed as well as grieved. "Loo'c here, Marsovian.. Is not your niece's good namo and happiness more to you than business?" \; "Oh \ves, but it, is impossible., £la,n you keep a secret?" •'You ought to know. Have I ever revealed the visit you received when we were in Leadville, and the cold ca&h yoii gave up? You told me nothing. What I saw, I saw, and that was the end of it." "Of course. You saw my office invaded by an imperative man, who, in your presence, held up a symbol." "Right you are. And you, with the palest face I ever saw, merely asked birr 'How much ?' He whispered something, and you handed him a draft on London for fifty thousand dollars. Am I right?"

OUR SERIAL,

BY WILLIAM PERRY BROWN

The banker groaned heavily. "I thought it all mighty queer; think so yet. But did I ever squeal ? Not oil your life." "You acted nobly Sidney. You are a true friend. But you are not an Armenian. You have not had to fly by night from your own country, with hardly the clothes to cover your nakedness; and, that too, wliile your relatives and friends were being butchered, your property confiscated, and everywhere the scimitars of the thricocursed Kurds at your throat whichever way you turned." "I know,- my old friend. But you have long Iveen out of all that mess. Why should yon continue to pay blood money?" "Listen, Sidney. You hardly understand. Though I am safe, others there, are, dear to me by tries of blood and kindred, who are not safe. Only one way so far, exempts thern from being included in theso periodical massacres, whereby the Turk hopes to extinguish my people. That way is by ransom. "God has blessed me here in your great country beyond nieasure. lam rich, and growing richer. Therefore, when one of these butcheries is contemplated by those who surely know, I and other rich exiles give up money, and okflr relatives, who cannot leave Armenia, are for the time spared. But there is no surety of future immunity.l"*.They may run the same risk again, and that risk, like others, calls for more money. More, more — always more! The widows and orphans thus made must likewise be helped. All this takes much. But as long as the baleful influences which prevail at Yildiz continue, there is little .hope of change, except " Here Marsovian became inaudible, and Greer saw his lined face take ou a half-savage expression. "What do you mean by 'except'?" asked Sidney. "I mean revolution. But the time is not yet ripe, although the Prince of Dalvprig woxjld make an ideal leader." "I see. But that is not answering Ime why you cannot go with me I New Yorkxit once." I Marsovian's response was to draw f from his pocket a sheet of paper, on j which was a blood-red cross, surmounted by the Turkish crescent in crimson. Underneath' was the Armenian sentence signifying: "Beware, %t.is coming!" Below this again, in the same language, came the body of the letter, which Marsovian translated, as follows, for Greer's benefit:

"Honourable Sir: Beloved, I kiss 7?ur iianda and feet in love and the true faat'ii; Behold! the beast .is agaire about to be' unloosed. Of what use for us to cry out 'How long, GLord! how long! Remember thou the token.?' ' If so, gird, up thy loin®; and loosen, thypiifsG strings. Go not' to bed this night until thy servant has : yisited thee. Greetings of love to thee in that thou dost remember the stricken who await death and ivdi'Se amid the ruins of tile land of our nativity. - God benvit-h! Thee 1 ' Signed: DALMAR, Of Dalvorig."

"Dalmar?" muttered Greer reflectively. "When I was in Scutari I heard of a noted bandit in Dalvorig Province, Asia Minor, whom the Softas and the Ottoman soldiery were denouncing. Are you sure you are not being played for a fool, my good friend?" Marsovian's eyes glittered. He sprang up and smote the table with his fists, as he angrily began: "You are like all the world. Tell me. Was not Garibaldi called a bandit by the Austrians until <he. struck off the shackles that bound Italy? Then he was called a 'liberator.' " "I fail to see the connection——" "How should you, my friend? But you will see it when the time is ripe. It may not be yet. But it will come. Then Dalmar —the real prince of his native Dalvorig—Armenia's last hope, will bo known for what he is—a liberator." "I hope so, I am sure. The Turks certainly hate him : he has given them the biggest kind, of trouble." "All —and so he will continue. He alone preserves in our mountains that sacred fire—the hope of liberty. He will not submit. After each masacre he marks down the leading butchers. From his fastness about Ararat and above Trebizond his henchmen descend, unknown but terrible 1 One by one these Kurds, or Turks, are struck down. My friend, let me tell you something!"

CHAPTER 111. SIDNEY GREER GOES TO NEW YORK. The weazened features of the banker were lighted by a deadly expression new to Sidney Greer. The undying fire of patriotic purpose so-dom-inated t'he old man that the other stared in astonishment. "Go ahead. I can believe anything you say—now." < "Every massacre for ten years hits been thus silently, ruthlessly avenged. No wonder the Turks fear the name of Dalpiar. No wonder my poor countrymen bless it. Unseen, invincible, he dominates in. Armenia, and in Yikliz Kiosk he is cursed, and also by the Slveik U1 Islam. He is our only hope, and oven my niece's safety must wait when Dalvorig sends me such a message as tlrs,'' (To be Continued.)