THE EASTERNERS. OR MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10479, 16 November 1911, Page 2

THE EASTERNERS. OR MARRIAGE BY PROXY.

CHAPTER. XXlV—Continued. } 'You!" Rotan glared at his now cringing servant in withering oontempt. "Who made you? Who raised you / from a base peasant, to ran* and station? To serve my purpose, I procured you a position at our Amerilegation. How have you rewarded me? After being my proxy, representing me, you dishonored me and refiled my name by making love to my wife!" "Pardon, Your Higlmess. Not your wife. Allah be the judge." "Name not the princess, nor discuss my actions. They are above your base presumptions. But Madam Rotan, having escaped from you, told me all. Therefore will I punish you. Ho, there!" The pasha here raised his voice. "Without, there!" "So far from dishonoring you," interrupted Mustafa, pale, yet still firm, "I.have brought you another 'servant, even the sister of Madam Rotan, and she is even more lovely than the other." "What the devil do you mean?" Rotan, astonished into plain English, l with a gesture dismissed the soldier who reappeared. "The girl is even now in your private apartments. When I siezed her to-day, near Mahmoud Paslia Street, I thought that she was Madam Rotan, and, knowing your desire, brought her here." "A sister of Alma!" gasped the paslia. "She must indeed be a beauty, for already Madam Rotan makes my other women commonplace by comparison. Such a spirit has this American wife of mine, so outraged is she by my .manner of bringing her from the train, that I have not yet/ told her of my other wives. lam just here from Scutari, and have seen her but once. Yet she has already told me, slave, of your brazen behaviour."' "She does not know yet of the princess " "Not a word from you on that head. Know this: If Alma Burian sees you she will insist on your punishment. She is hot on wrath against you,. Mustafa " "Your Highness," exclaimed Mustafa, more boldly, and drawing forth the letters of credit on the Ottoman Bank in favour of Rotan Pasha, here is a. balm for her scorn and your own dignity. If I incurred the one and seemed to slight the other, it was to secure you, my patron and - benefactor, nearly one half a million j dollars." ! 1 Rotan, taking the letters, seemed 1 dumbfounded. He glanced stupidly at them, stared at Mustafa, and breathed heavily. "Look at them, master,"continued this artful scoundrel. "They represent the Armenian fund sent from America, destined to comfort those Christian dogs, your enemies, in Anatolia.. How I obtained it is a story; but I got is and it is yours. Now, if you have tho heart, punish thy servant—l care not. Though I left my post I had good reasons, and they lay to-day in your name in the vaults of the Ottoman Bank."

CHAPTER XXV. I WHAT THE EGYPTIAN DID. , As ■ spoil <as Rotan mastered the golden meaningof the stamped- letters in Ilis hands—one in English, one in Turkish—-his doubt and suspicion gave way tq exultation, with a suddenness that evinced the variableness of his character. Even more thah he loved women he loved money and power. "Well done!" cried the pasha, folding Mustafa in litis arms. "Say what thou will Iherafter, thou art still my faithful servant. Without,.there!" When the same soldier appeared, Rotan commanded : "Take t'liis gentleman, my friend, to the best spare chamber. Give him the bath and a suitable attire befitting a gentleman and a. bey. Give him, also, anything else that.be wants, in Allah's name." Mustafa, turned to depart and Rotan again embraced him warmly. Then lie 'held him off at arm's length, and looking him in the eyes, said: "Well hast thou tserved me. Go, my brother. I will come to thee after thou hast eaten." In consequence of this great change of heart 011 the part of Rotan, the astute Mustafa, an hour or two later, found himself bathed, rested, fed and clothed in a manner becoming his rank. In the clean-shaven, well-

OJJR SERIAL.

BY WILLIAM PERRY BROWN

groomed young man, idly smoking a cigarette, few would have recognised the haggard, unkompt dervish with a cast in his oyo and a broken nose. When the pasha entered the latter exclaimed :

"Now you look like Mustafa Bey, pray relate to me your various adventures."

Mustafa did so lengthily. Rotan frowned slightly over the bold robbery of the Mist at Liverpool. "Yet it was the only way," he concluded, "that this money—the true sinews of war —could bo diverted from

those rebellious Armenian dogs to use of His Majesty the Sultan and myself. I am again appointed to the governorship of tha accursed province, and to me will fall the uise of most of this treasure. Thou, Mustafa, shall be my lieutenant. You will have the picking of their bones after we have crushed those rebels. Dalmar himself sfoaJl be hung from the walls of the castle of his ancestors as a traitor. Ha was not this Dalmar also seeking Alma, my favourite concubine and her inheritance?"

"Truly, yes. Thelma, her sister, confessed to me that Dalvorig and his party are even now hidden in Stamboul."

"A desperate man is this same Dalmar. Men who served in the old Armenian wars tell me that he has slain five men at once, in single combat, with is word and pistol. Would that I could have liim before me under similar circumstances." "You would best him, I know, valiant as he is said to be. The Armenians are stirring uneasily even here. They resent the massacres —the slaves too!"

Rotan surveyed his own stalwart person serenely, then drew forth the curved dress scimitar that he wore, and made a few dexterous passes, so that "the bright steel glinted through the air.

"One day in Washington," confessed Mustafa, "I would have given much for a sword; but there no one wears arms in public, and the law forbids even concealed weapons on the person."

"What a country! Tis the same in Western Europe. But now, listen, to me, my faithful servant. We will at once draw .that half million from the bank. It is too public a place for a deposit. Abdul Hamid loves gold. Though his revenue is great his expenses are greater. Gold is the price of his favour. Therefore, we. will take it from the government bank, and secrete it here in my private vault. Then we can dole it out to better advantage, and What now ? Who gave tliee leave to enter?" A .servant of the coppery hue and garb of an Egyptian had quietly pushed through the curtains and stood motionless. Had Rotan known that the slave had -been listening for several minutes, it is likely that the pasha would have cut down the slave with the still drawn scimitar. "Your ihigliness, I am just from the city. It is -rumoured that the Christians are about to nise. Extra patrols are out in all the streets." "Who sent you hither?" "The master of horse at Yildiz Ki•osk, excellency. The captain, Ahmed Bey—" • "Stay!" Are you one of his retinue of Egyptians?" "Excellency, yes. Permit me to return now that my errand is done." "Tell Ahmed Bey that I will pay my respects to liim to-morrow." Rotan turned to Mustafa. "If we cannot send money, we can surely send the sister of Alma. Even Abdul Hamid wall have eyes for beauty so unparalleled except by Alma herself." The Egpytian prostrated himself, withdrew, and giving a certain sign to the guards he met, .stole into a dark comer of a secluded court. Here he produced from bis baggy garments a woman's cloak and turban, wrapped himself, enveloped (his face behind a white veil, so that, when done, he resembled some old negro servitor, such as may be met in any large Turkish harem. Humping.his shoulders to simulate infirmity and old age, he boldly passed the doors leading to the hareinlik, and by subtly-devised queries and manoeuvres, found his way eventually to the apartments occupied by Alma, or Madam Rotan, as she was already known. "The person I seek waits for mo inside," said 'he to the eunuch stationed there. "I come from bis highness." "Where is thy warrant?" demanded the slave then on duty, and not very experienced in the wiles of the harem. (To be Continued.)