The Photo-Play Journal (May-Dec 1917)

THE PHOTO-PLAY JOURNAL FOR JULY, 1917. PAGE 29 'DelbertS.patienport jfiuthor of War &wins fiessie ffiossiecat" J%> Z>rai/ofJ()shesly etc. &ule (FOURTH INSTALLMENT) SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS — After enduring the cruel domineering of her husband, Herbert Force, a wealthy New York lawyer, for several years, Debora, a beautiful young woman of 25 years of age, abandoned him and their three-year-old son, Jimmie, to cast her lot with an affinity, Wesley Martine, a wealthy broker whom she met accidentally while riding alone in a park. Debora failed in her subsequent attempt to secure a divorce from Force, whereupon she conceived the idea of going to the Isle of Iona, inhabited by 50,000 Latins and ruled by a despotic Spaniard named Gioconda. Her purpose was to conquer Gioconda and to appease her passion to rule by becoming queen. Martine deemed it a fine prospect for a good adventure, fitted up his steam yacht, provisioned it with plenty of ammunition and arms, and with Debora, tinder the care of chaperones, he sailed away with a small but stalwart army of experienced soldiers under command of Franklin Graham, 60 years old, and a former United States army captain. One month later the party landed on the Isle of Iona, which they found to be a wild, undeveloped tropical paradise. They soon encountered Chief Gioconda, who resembled both a Spaniard and an Arab. A battle followed, and Graham led his troops to victory from the inception, capturing the port city. In a week of strenuous military campaigning the invaders succeeded in subjugating the entire island, capturing the capital city and Gioconda, in whose headquarters they found a small harem, one of whom was Nadina, a pretty North American Indian girl. She was the first to jubilantly acknowledge Wesley and Debora as the great new king and queen. In another week, the couple had formally proclaimed and established themselves as the rulers of the land. Graham was appointed minister of war. During the first year of their reign Wesley and Debora devoted their time to developing Iona, but one of the first acts was to assemble a constitutional parliament and to enact among other laws a statute whereby Debora could secure her divorce from Force, despite the laws of the United States. This accomplished, she felt free to legally wed Wesley and the ceremony followed. Two months after, a national celebration of the first year of the new reign, a daughter, christened Princess Berenice, was born to the king and queen, and New Hope, the capital city, rejoiced. Soon after wards Nadina, the Indian girl, gave striking evidence of her power to locate hidden treasure by discovering gold, the one thing the island had lacked and needed. This opened an era of great prosperity. Ten years flew by and Debora's passion for ruling was abundantly realized. Instead of taking orders, as she did while under Herbert Force's roof, she issued them. Gioconda still languished in prison, but he more than ever before nursed a determination to get revenge some way. His embittered mind was concentrated on one subject — how to get even with those who brought about his downfall. "Our king and queen would be belter assured if they had executed Gioconda long ago," was the common sentiment, and everyone expected more trouble from him. CHAPTER VI I T was in the seventeenth year of j the reign of King Wesley and I Queen Debora of the Isle of Iona that Sherman Tearle, a dashing, young detective, created a tremendous sensation by his remarkable ability as a genius for ferreting out criminals in New York City. He was only twenty-five years old at the time, and he was always distinguishable for his ravenblack hair and large brown eyes. He was a handsome chap, whose good looks were accentuated by the simple dark-blue clothes and gray-checked caps he wore. The police case which brought him most prominently into the limelight was a baffling murder mystery. When the first report of the tragedy came to police headquarters, Tearle was found seated far back in a chair with his feet cocked high on a table, and he was dreamily smoking a large pipe. From a man resembling a lazy loafer he was instantly transformed into a veritable demon of dynamic energy the minute his superior officer announced the advent of a new mystery. He lost not a second in reaching the scene of the crime where he found an elderly man murdered and a safe rifled. Tearle quickly discovered a trail of small drops of blood, which led him out of the house into the front yard, where it ended in a circle of footprints under a huge shade tree of dense foliage. "Ah, how curious — straight up in the air from here," the young; man muttered, as he stood still contemplating the circle of footprints. Accordingly he deduced with amazing rapidity, and before any of the several other officers who accompanied him for eventualities realized what was going on, the audacious sleuth made one wild leap up in the tree, and with agilitv he climbed to the topmost boughs, where he discovered a large pigeon house, out of the top of which peered an ugly, swarthy face. Within a twinkling the huge form of a man emerged and a powerful hand grabbed the detective. A spectacular and thrilling battle ensued in the tree-top, and this had as its hair-raising climax the fall of the two men to the ground some twenty feet below in a deadly clinch. Once on the ground Tearle had the advantage of the cooperation of his assistants and he made short work of hand-cuffing his prisoner. "Ugly looking chap, this one," the young man remarked coolly as he rearranged his clothing, "and take it from me, he's a unique murderer. He thought by staying close to the scene of his nastv business, something no one else does, he could fool us, but he didn't, thanks to whatever power it is that directs yours truly." The next morning Tearle read the account of his brilliant achievement in a newspaper, and in the course of his further perusal he chanced to see the following advertisement: WANTED.— The services of an experienced American detective in the government service of a South Atlantic kingdom. No limit to salary. Apply John Frye, Agent, Longacre Building, New York. Attracted by the prospect of new adventures Tearle promptly visited Frye's office. "I'll take that job," the detective announced succinctly. "Who are you, please?" Frye asked. "Sherman Tearle." "Sherman Tearle! This Sherman Tearle?" Frye exclaimed in excitement as he grabbed a newspaper and pointed to a picture which accompanied the account of the capture of the strange murderer. "Correct." "Good. You're the very man they want on the Isle of Iona. Name your own salary, and get ready to start at once." "My salary is of no consequence to me," Tearle replied. "If there is plenty of excitement and a little honor in it, I'm ready to start tomorrow." Thus it came about that this clever genius of Gotham set foot on far-away Iona one month later. He was literally received with open arms by King Wesley and Queen Deboi'a, who were familiar with his ability as a wizard in the detection of crime. The royal couple were not at all reluctant to reveal to him their worry over the conditions in their kingdom. "Intrigue is everywhere rampant, and we had had none of this until our bitterest enemy, Gioconda, escaped from prison and disappeared," Wesley explained. "Who is Gioconda?" Tearle asked. "He was the man we usurped in the name of civilization," Wesley replied. "Let us be perfectly frank, dear," Debora put in, "by admitting that it was my desire to rule someone that led us to attempt instilling the idea of American progress here." "Then, like myself, you are lovers of adventure?" Tearle surmised. "Yes; and we are getting more than our share now," Wesley answered. "Good, the more excitement the better; but now, before I start my investigation, I want to warn you that I will act without fear or favor," Tearle continued, getting right down to business. "Oftentimes intrigue involves some of the highest and most trusted officials, and I will not be surprised to find the usual rule obtaining in this case. Am I at liberty to proceed as I see fit?" "You are," both Wesley and Debora assured him. Tearle got quick action and a quick set-back the very next day. He wandered rather aimlessly into a public marketing-place and his attention was drawn to one Lavinia, a very darkcomplexioned woman wearing a garb half Oriental and half Spanish. She was crouched on the stone floor of the market-house conversing confidentially to a group of intensely interested Spanish women. What first aroused Tearle's suspicions was the quick, nervous glance she shot at him and her subsequent act of pursing her lips to her auditors. To disarm the woman of her suspicions and simultaneously to provide a means for confirming his own, the sleuth strolled on nonchalantly without paying the least bit of attention to her. Once out of her sight he hurried outside to an alleyway and located a small window through which he could watch his suspect unobserved. He saw her carefully arrange some fruit in a large basket, which she carried covetously when she left her companions. He hastened around to the entrance out of which she walked and shadowed her out of the business section and down into a residential street to the Royal Flower Garden, in the center of which was the palace in which King Wesley and Queen Debora lived. This garden was surrounded by a granite wall some five feet in height. In that flower garden, Princess Berenice, now a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, was guilelessly and happily playing with a large pet dog. She had just given a demonstration of her inherent passion to rule by sternly scolding the dog for failing to do her bidding to the extent of sitting up. She stamped her foot and insisted on having her way over the dumb brute. "And if you don't obey me I'm going to exile you as much as I love you; but I shall have to so all the dogs won't think I'm a weak mistress," she said, as she pointed her pretty finger at the dog. Just at that instant, Jordan Jules, a wrinklefaced, bald-headed, old financier of the coldblooded and designing sort, emerged from the royal mansion with his fifteen-year-old daughter, Flora. Jules was obviously disgruntled as the result of a business conference with King Wesley, and he paid scant attention to his child, who, upon seeing Berenice, romped gleefully to her. For several years these girls had been boon companions. "Oh, daddy, can't I stay and visit with Berenice for a while?" Flora asked as Jules approached her. "No," he snapped back at her. "Oh yes, daddy, please," she begged. "I said no." "I, Princess Berenice, say yes," Berenice interposed with a fine show of enticing authority. "All right, all right," the old man agreed irritably as he continued on his way without even saying good-bye. Jules had scarcely disappeared from view when Lavinia appeared at a big iron gate and hailed the girls. "Let me in, fair ones, if you would have some of my delicious fruit as a token of my esteem," Lavinia proposed as she forced a smile. Flora promptly turned her gaze from Lavinia to Berenice for the answer, tacitly recognizing her playmate as her superior by virtue of her birth. While Berenice studied Lavinia and her fruit, Sherman Tearle, outside the wall and not a hundred feet away, divined Lavinia's evil purpose and got into the garden ahead of her by leaping over the wall. He hid behind a bush near the gate without being discovered by anyone. He saw Berenice finally open the iron gate, and he took special note of the eagerness with which Lavinia entered. He watched the witch-appearing woman single out a large apple for Berenice, and he observed with alarm her act of resisting Flora's selfish efforts to have that apple, because the fruit she had received was not as nice.