Lutha

“ I cannot wonder that you have mistaken me for the king, since all those I have met within Lutha have leaped to the same error, though not one among them made the slightest pretense of ever having seen his majesty. A ridiculous beard started the trouble, and later a series of happenings, no one of which was particularly remarkable in itself, aggravated it, until but a moment since I myself was almost upon the point of believing that I am the king. ”

“ Among the faces beneath him he suddenly descried that of a beautiful young girl whose eyes, filled with the tears of a great happiness and a greater love, were upturned to his. To reveal his true identity would lose him this girl forever. None save Peter knew that he was not the king. All save Peter would hail him gladly as Leopold of Lutha. How easily he might win a throne and the woman he loved by a moment of seeming passive compliance. ”

“ At sight of it Barney's heart sank. The look of the thing was all too familiar. Before the yellow one had commenced to read aloud from it Barney had repeated to himself the words he knew were coming.
"'Gray eyes,'" read the brigand, "'brown hair, and a full, reddish-brown beard.' Herman and Friedrich, my dear children, you have stumbled upon the richest haul in all Lutha. Down upon your marrow-bones, you swine, and rub your low-born noses in the dirt before your king." ”

“ At the end of the barley harvest, this great and good rich man, Boaz, fell in love with Ruth, and she became his wife. The old mother, Naomi, [Pg 133] went to live with them in their large and beautiful house, and she never was in want again. When a little son came to them, Ruth called his name Obed, and when he grew to be an old man, he was the grandfather of King David. So Ruth, the gleaner, who was kind and loyal to her mother-in-law, became the great-grandmother of the greatest King of Israel. ”

“ Maná went every day of good weather in a little canoe about the islet of Motu-Uta, at a certain distance prescribed by the guards, and made a gesture to Monsieur Lutz, who sat or stood within an enclosure and looked out to sea. Poor Lutz! He died of an aneurism, or, if you will, of a broken Prussian heart.
Mademoiselle Narbonne one day went toward Papenoo. At Faaripoo she saw the inclosure of the leprosarium, where the three or four score lepers are confined. She returned to the Marquesas Islands.
Pauvre fille! Personne n’a voulu se marier avec elle et elle vit avec un vieux Canaque de Taaoa. ”

“ There is positively not a vestige of roadway up the whole steep mountain pass, nothing but large rocks and broken marbles, though the traveller in search of the picturesque is amply repaid the discomfort of the ride. But compared with the village of Lutra, which was the destination of the nuns, this wild and dangerous-looking path is a kind of preliminary paradise. No word-painting of the most realistic school could do justice to the horror of Lutra to-day—and what must it have been there before the refining influence of those nuns touched it? ”

“ Now Olelbis called Lutchi and Sutunut, and said: “You, Lutchi, go north, pry up the sky and prop it; here is a sky pole and a sky prop.” Turning to Sutunut, he plucked a feather from each of his wings and said: “Go to Kahit in Waiken Pom Pui Humok Pom; tell him to come south with Mem Loimis. She lives not far from him. Her house is in the ground. And tell him to blow his whistle with all his breath. Put these two feathers on his cheeks just in front of his ears.”
Lutchi went quickly. No one could travel as fast as he. He reached the sky on the north, raised and propped it. ”

“ Lute replied, “except Mrs. Grantly. It is her favorite phantom, it seems.”
“A weird little thing,” he remarked. “Bundle of nerves and black eyes. I’ll wager she doesn’t weigh ninety pounds, and most of that’s magnetism.”
“Positively uncanny... at times.” Lute shivered involuntarily. “She gives me the creeps.”
“Contact of the healthy with the morbid,” he explained dryly. “You will notice it is the healthy that always has the creeps. The morbid never has the creeps. It gives the creeps. That’s its function. Where did you people pick her up, anyway?” ”

“ When they have made a little fortune, unless they are like 390Guillitoue, or Hemeury François, who are more Canaque than the Canaques, they go back to marry innocent and unsuspecting women.”
I cannot imagine why I mentioned Lutz. I had never seen him with Mademoiselle Narbonne, and she had not sounded his name. Of course, he was the only possibly eligible man other than the whites already enumerated. However, such thoughts did not come by chance, for the apostolic vicar’s solicitude against him was matched by the boisterous roarings of Commissaire Bauda, the reincarnated musketeer. ”

“ When Sedit and Patkilis were ready, Sedit said, “I wish this road on which I must travel to be short, very short.”
They started, and found the road so short that [Pg 193] Lutchi was waiting at the edge of the sky only a little while when they were with him. Lutchi pried up the sky a second time, and the three passed under to the western side. Again there was an awful noise, and the whole world trembled.
“Now I am going quickly; you can move as you like,” said Lutchi. He went west like a flash, and just as the sun was peeping over the mountains he was back at Waida Dikit’s. ”

“ That had been majestic though forboding, while the intonation of Song of the Nightingale was personal and harsh. Maybe he hated Lutz as did Lemoal. Le Brunnec corroborated my suspicion.
“Lutz found him stealing a demijohn of rum, and had him sent to prison for several months,” said the Breton. 413“But, granted that every one hates the German,” he continued, “you are wasting your sympathy and time. I predict that Lutz will get Mademoiselle Narbonne, but that the taua and his magic will snare her finally. These people are born to be unhappy and to die under our Christian dispensation.” ”

“ She has as much strength of will as he has. Her father was the chief of Papenoo, in Tahiti, and Lutz had to steal her away 395to bring her here. I remember her then because the schooner, on which they were, made port in Oomoa for a few days. Lutz was in his twenties, with a year in Tahiti to learn the business before his firm sent him to the Marquesas. Now, you know, for Maná to leave her folks and her island meant a very unusual courage and will, and she has stuck with Lutz all this time. He is heavy-handed, too, when vexed over waste. ”

“ Each day of progress brought to Rutland a greater feeling of exultation. At last he was free from all influence of the Church which had cast him out. Here in this barren region he could live like the natives, free from care. He would seek some far-off band, and become one of them. He had read much about the Indians, and their picturesque life had always appealed to him most strongly. He would watch his opportunity, steal away, and live and die in their midst, more of an outcast than they. ”

“ And how softly the runaway girl must have crept out of bed and out of the room for Ruth–who had been awake–not to hear her!
“She certainly is a sly little thing!” gasped Ruth.
But as she turned back to see what had become of the figure running beside the path, the lantern light was flashed into her eyes. Again the beam was shot through the window and danced for a moment on the wall and ceiling.
“It is a signal!” thought Ruth. “There’s somebody outside besides Nita–somebody who wishes to communicate with her.”
Even as she realized this she saw the lantern flash from the dock. ”

“ Packing up in a small basket I had for the purpose, the little articles I had been engaged during the last few days in making, I gave way to a final fit of coughing so hollow and sepulchral in its tone, that it awoke a curse from the next room deep as the growl of a wild beast, and still continuing, finally brought Luttra to the door with that look of compassion on her face that always called up a flush to my cheek whether I wished it or no. ”

“ It seems to me, Lutie, you have a precious lot of work downstairs, for you try to slip out every chance you get.”
“Miss Rhoda, she hyar,” Lutie began protestingly.
“I know she was here, but she is not now. I never thought you would neglect your own Miss Letty, Lutie; especially when she is half sick, and cannot get around without some one’s help. Haven’t I always been good to you?”
“Yass, miss, yuh has indeed.”
“Then look here; tell me the truth. Now don’t look so scared; I am not going to have you whipped. [Pg 202] You know you never had a whipping in your life, except from your own mammy. ”

“ How can you reconcile it with your ideas of devotion, Luttra?”
“My ideas of devotion look beyond the present, Mr. Blake. It is to save you from years of wearing anxiety that I consent to the infliction upon you of a passing pang.”
He took a bold step forward. “Luttra, you do not know a man’s heart. To lose you now would not merely inflict a passing pang, but sow the seeds of a grief that would go with me to the grave.”
“Do you then”—she began, but paused blushing. Mrs. Daniels took the opportunity to approach her on the other side. ”

“ This was Lutchi Herit. Two more came and saluted Olelbis. “Go into the sweat-house,” said he. These were the two brothers, Tilichi. A fifth person came, Kuntihle, and then a sixth, Sutunut, a great person. Lutchi kept darting around, looking toward the north and calling: “Kahit cannot take me! Kahit cannot take me!” Kahit was getting angry by this time, and thinking to turn and look at Lutchi, for though far away, he heard the noise of his darting and his calling. “That old Kahit [Pg 21] may come out, but he cannot catch me!” called Lutchi, as he darted around, always watching the north. ”

“ And you have a wonderful record for long-distance flying. And luck it was!—if you had been of my mind. Tell me, did not they give you plain instructions?"
"Do 'they' ever speak plainly?" von Herrnung scoffed; and Luttha answered calmly:
"Yes, to an ordinary man, who does not understand obscure language, they would have said: 'Lieutenant Commander Luttha, here is a brown leather satchel, with something inside it belonging to the Emperor. You will convey the satchel to Nordeich and deliver it to His Majesty's hands. ”

“ She was a good Methodist and there was no doubt in her mind that Providence was responsible. When she rose to testify in prayer-meeting she always mentioned her “cross” and everybody knew that the cross was Luther. She carried him, but it is no more than fair to say that she didn't provide him with cushions. She never let him forget that he was a steerage passenger. However, Lute was well upholstered with philosophy, of a kind, and, so long as he didn't have to work his passage, was happy, even if the voyage was a rather rough one. ”

“ The Sudanese fixed his eyes upon Luttrell's foot and Luttrell began to talk, rapidly and rather to himself than to his audience. Hillyard could make neither head nor tail of the strange scene. It was evident that Luttrell was rehearsing a speech, but why? And what had the Sudanese with the mallet to do with it?
A sudden and rapid sequence of events brought the truth home to him with a shock. At a point of his speech Luttrell stamped twice, and the Sudanese soldier swung his mallet with all his force. The head of it struck the great support full and square. ”

“ Immediately Du Luth resolved to go to the Sault and seize the assassin. At dawn of the next day he embarked with two canoes. In one was the Jesuit missionary Enjalran, Chevalier Fourcelle, Cardonniere, and Du Luth; in the other, Baribaud, [27] Le Mere, La Fortune, and Maçons. A league from the Sault, Du Luth and party left the canoe, and through the woods walked to the mission house to prevent the guilty one from escaping, and soon arrested him, and placed him under a guard of six Frenchmen. ”

“ Lutz's black eyes narrowed, his face tightened to an expression of hard shrewdness. 'As I see it, your theory depends upon your establishing the fact that the vase came out of that Persian junk; unless you can guarantee that, the whole theory goes smash. I think you'll find no one who'll swear to that. ”

“ THE SONG OF TIADATHA CHAPTER I
THE JOINING OF TIADATHA
Should you question, should you ask me
Whence this song of Tiadatha?
Who on earth was Tiadatha?
I should answer, I should tell you,
He was what we call a filbert,
Youth of two and twenty summers.
You could see him any morning
In July of 1914,
Strolling slowly down St. James’s
From his comfy flat in Duke Street.
Little recked he of in those days,
Save of socks and ties and hair-wash,
Girls and motor-cars and suppers ”

“ When she was at Home she would suck Lemons and complain about Draughts and tell why she didn't like the Other Girls' Voices. She began to act like a Prima Donna, and her Mother was encouraged a Lot. Lutie certainly had the Artistic Temperament bigger than a Church Debt.
Now before Lutie started in to do Things to her Voice she occasionally Held Hands with a Young Man in the Insurance Business, named Oliver. This Young Man thought that Lutie was all the Merchandise, and she regarded him as Permanent Car-Fare. ”

“ It was Virgy Still. She appeared to be in a state of great agitation, and began to tell Ruth a story in which her father and Rupert Gray and Major Leech were all mixed up so incoherently that, but that Ruth had just heard the facts, she could never have been able to unravel it. At length Ruth was able to calm her and to get her account. She had sent a man over to tell Ruth, but she was so afraid he had not come that she had followed him. “They want to get rid of Mr. Rupert. It has something to do with the case against pa and your father. They are afraid Mr. ”