The Unspeakable Perk

noon of the day after the British Minister's warning, the refugees found themselves comfortable and content, Miss Brewster having quietly and tactfully ta

crowds on the streets that the Brewsters rather felt themselves to be extorting hospitality

hat way, too,"

sary, and I want to mark

ere any of us should be seen. It is in that s

is

nkis' is his stock in trade. Somebody has been furnishing him

im," grunted Cluff, striding over to the window of the d

origin," admitted Sherwen. "But

uldn't shed any tears over a demon

f diplomatic truth," smil

believe a word of it. Some of my acquaintances at the club, men in high go

eaking being, as you doubtless know, the dis

on Mr. Brewster, but it fai

e that I should go to the office of the Ferr

thing of the sort," c

street, close bounded by blank-walled houses, each with its eyes c

American, I guess,-God save the mark! Nobody seems to be interfering

door, asking to see Mr. Sherwen at once. Miss Polly immediately s

rked Mr. Brewster. "I'll just

ll not have been there; so he felt, with unwonted injury. The

eard from W

An hou

as his

t, any ti

to-night, then, so they ca

tark pa

ions. That's al

r. Brewster that he had figure

t you are talking of my par

The Dutch will let you

rties at Washington," said the magnate,

to Mr. P

That will be-er-suita

ed him fixedly; but, owing to the gogg

convenient for me to go day af

ouse," was the begoggled on

ied the great

t out to-morrow, you may

Dutch permit, it sp

nder quarantine to-night, and Puerto del Norte to-morro

has actuall

acteriological t

o you

sent at th

it? Dr.

ther

en wh

ort after quarantine is on. At least, you couldn't get into any other port, ev

gnate

l, with a due regard for his future, would r

be a

hould have come from the freakish spectacle-wearer seemed impossible. Y

ddress me,

d

boyhood no person has dared or

hion," said the other equably. "

dvice until

er it's declared, if you were the Secretary himself. A point is being stretched in giving you this chance. If you'll agree to ship a doctor,-Stark will find you one,-stay out

Mr. Brewster, jumping to his

ce, "that you are taking a most unwise course. I am advised tha

ruyn is here. I wan

self. I haven't seen him yet myself. Now, Mr. Brewster, ju

argument. At six o'clock I 'll be back here. Unless you decide b

snappers!" fumed Mr. Brewster. But he found that he had no au

other nationalities. Von Plaanden, in full uniform and girt with the short saber that is the special and privileged arm of the crack cavalry regiment to which he belonged at home, had dismounted to deliver personally a huge bouquet f

to declare plague prevalent, in order to close the ports and strangle commerce. Urgante was going about the lower part of the city haranguing on street corners without interference from the police. In the arroyo of the slaught

Raimonda, who had come after luncheon to call on Miss Brewster. "In

raid," said

acunan, with admiration. "You are

that we love excite

ull-fight or 'la boxe.' But for one

the rear and the street in front, an architectural wonder in that city of dead walls flush with the sidewalk line all the way up.

ou honor me by accepting this little whistle? It is my hunting-whistle. And if there should be anything-but I think there will no

stole behind the girl's vision, as she bade him farewell, the undesired phantasm of a very different face, weary and lined and lighted by st

and decided not to venture out, though still deriding the restriction as the merest nonsense, was in a mood

as kept constantly busy. But a few minutes before six, central, in the blandest Spanish, regretted to inform him that Puerto del Norte was cut off. When would service be resumed? Quien sabe? It was an order. Hasta mana

voice, and bidden to come directly up. No time, on this occasion, for Miss Polly to escape. She decided in one breath to ignore the man

e said a little breathless

ghtened p

ind of

ob up this way. They're

see them," cried Miss

ordered Sherwen. "The vines w

ng and whooping, and after them a more compact crowd of men, shoeless, centering on a

did he get that?

aar Americana,"

owled Cluff; "that d

be eulogizing it,

turned to the others. The first face her eyes fell on was that of the ball-player. Every muscle in it was drawn, and from the tightened lips streamed such whispered curses as the girl never before had heard. Next him stood the hermit

the motley crowd below rose a snarl of laughter and

ightening up and grasping the rail

ttered Carroll, white-lip

r's hand flew

the Southerner. But it was not Carroll's han

flung the weapon back

he girl. "You uns

Sherwen was equally quick. H

ld be worth the life of every one here. We've got to stand i

cteristic of the professional ath

he said, almost choking on the

sponse to this spirit. She was lawless with th

had my pistol back, I'd

ned his goggles h

he began, "plea

ak to me!"

ed mass appeared a spot of splendor. It was Von Plaanden, gorgeous in his full regalia, who had turned the corner, returning from the public recept

ork. There's the Ho

ffront. Miss Polly Brewster, American of Americans, whose great-grandfathers had fought with Herkimer and Steuben,-themselves the sons of women who had stood by the loopholes of log houses and caught up the rifles of their fallen pioneer husbands, wherewith to return the fire of the besi

t brought a jubilant yelp from his adherents. Stooping, he ladled up in his cupped hand a quantity of gutter filth. Where the flowers had but a moment before fluttered in the f

grief. To her it seemed that he shot past her horizontally like a human dart. The next second he was over the railing, had swung from a branch of the neighboring tree to the trunk, and leaped to the ground, all in one movement of superhuman agility. To the mob his exploit was apparently wit

staff. As quickly, the American lowered his head and dove. It may not have been magnificent; it certainly was not war by the rules; but it was eminently effective. To say that the lead

o the air. "Football! That cost

hatcher Brewster, cursing in a manner that did credit to his patriotism, but would have adde

off. Several eager followers had lifted Urgante, whose groans and curses suggested a sound basis for Cluff's diagnosis. Himself quite hors de combat, he spat at the Unspeakable Perk, and cried upon his henchmen to kill the "Yanki." It seemed not improbable to the latter that they would do it. Per

one bold spirit rushed in. Perkins met him with a straight lance-thrust of the staff, which sent him reeling and shrieking with pain back to his fellows. But now another knife, and another, struck and fell from the wall at his back

lear and sweet above the swelling growl of the rabble

es to the main entrance, that would serve as a shallow shelter. Without raising his eyes, he nodded comprehension, and began to edge along the wall, swinging his stout weapon. As h

now coming from all directions. On the other hand, he now lacked room to swing his formidable club. The peons, with a shout, closed in to arm's length. Alone on her balcony, the girl turned her head

n the mass of people as ruthlessly as if they had been so many insects. Through the circle he broke, swinging his mount around beside the shallow doorway before which three Caracunans already lay sprawled, attesting the vigor of the defender's final

bounding now, indeed, at full speed up the slope, followed by two of his fellow railroad men, flannel-clad and still perspiring from their afternoon's cricket. Against bare legs a cricket bat is a highly dissuasive argument. The Britons swung low and hard for the ancient right of the breed to br

ame?" inquired the

d, lifted by many arms, a figure with a dead-white face st

my horse," explained the

cry, quite different from its former voice. Galpy'

these blightehs. That yell means blood. We must

he had been able to catch up. Carroll, a leap in advance of the rest, encountered an Indian drover, half-dodged a swinging blow from his whip, and sent him down with a broken shoulder from a chop with a baseball club that he had found in the hallway. A bull-like charge had carried Cluff deep among the Caracunans, where he encountered a huge peon, whom he seized and flung bodily over the iron guard of a samon tree, where the ma

ike arm across the Unsp

?" he crie

t. Who's left wit

We must g

cool voi

ell up. Herr von Plaanden, w

of honor," said

ut for you, they'd h

racunan who had pressed forward a little too near. B

t across the street, Perkin

ered. Instantly Perkins was up again, the blood streaming from the side of his head. He was conscious of brown hands clutching at the cricketer, to drag him away. He

e whom he had knocked down. Sherwen, almost under the cavalryman's mount, was protecting his rear with the fallen Galpy's cricket bat, and the two other cricketers were fighting back to back on the other s

dows and doors tight closed, as befits an aristocratic club that has no concern with the affairs of the rabble. But there is no way of closing a patio from

, also, although not so admittedly as a matter of fashion. Furthermore, he has a profound contempt for the peon class; a contempt extending to life and limb. Therefore, when some two dozen young patricians sallied abruptly forth with their canes, and the mob caught sight, here and there, of a glint of nickel against the black, it gav

ted as a Caracunan national holiday, she raised the flag of an alien nation and fixed it, and the gilded youth of Caracuna in the street below c