The Missourian Read online

  THE MISSOURIAN

  "JACQUELINE""She was the spirit of the enigma, the very personification of theNapoleonic sphinx"]

  THE MISSOURIAN

  by

  EUGENE P. LYLE, Jr.

  "In my predestin'd Plot of Dust and Soul."--Omar

  Illustrated by Ernest Haskell

  New YorkDoubleday, Page & Company1905

  Copyright, 1905, byDoubleday, Page & CompanyPublished, August, 1905

  All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreignlanguages, including the Scandinavian

  To

  MY TWO BEST FRIENDS

  My Father and my Mother

  CONTENTS

  PART I.

  THE THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES

  I. A Wilful Maid Arrives 3 II. A Fra Diavolo in the Land of Roses 11 III. The Violent End of a Terrible Bandit 18 IV. _La Luz_, Blockade Runner 27 V. The Storm Centre 34 VI. A Bruising of Arms for Jacqueline 45 VII. Swordsmanship in the Dark 55 VIII. The Thoughts of Youth May Be Prodigiously Long Thoughts 64 IX. Toll-Taking in the Huasteca 69 X. The Brigand Chief 80 XI. The Cossacks and Their Tiger Colonel 89 XII. Pastime Passing Excellent 98 XIII. Unregistered in Any Studbook 108 XIV. The Herald of the Fair God 114 XV. The Ritual 122 XVI. He of the Debonair Sceptre 131 XVII. Rather a Small Man 140 XVIII. Little Monarchs, Big Mistakes 149 XIX. A Tartar, _and_ a Tartar 156 XX. In the Wake of Princely Cavalcades 164 XXI. The Red Mongrel 173 XXII. "Equidad en la Justicia" 182 XXIII. A Curious Pagan Rite 188 XXIV. The Man Who Did Not Want to be Shot 193 XXV. The Person on the Other Horse 200 XXVI. The Strangest Avowal of Love 209 XXVII. Berthe 219 XXVIII. "Mike" 228 XXIX. The Whisper of the Sphinx 238 XXX. The Ambassador 242 XXXI. Carlota 253 XXXII. The Woman Who Did Not Hesitate 258 XXXIII. A Sponsor to the Fat Padre 266

  PART II.

  THE ROSE THAT WAS A THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES

  I. Meagre Shanks 273 II. The Black Decree 284 III. As Between Women 293 IV. The Lacking Coincidence 298 V. The Missourians 306 VI. If a Kiss Were All 315 VII. A Crop of Colonels 324 VIII. Royal Resolution 335 IX. Interpreter to the Almighty 344 X. Alone Among His Loving Subjects 351 XI. Fatality and the Missourian 359 XII. The Rendezvous of the Republic 369 XIII. A Buccaneer and a Battle 380 XIV. Blood and Noise--What Else? 391 XV. Of All News the Most Spiteful 406 XVI. Vendetta's Half Sister, Better Born 422 XVII. Under a Spanish Cloak 434 XVIII. El Chaparrito 443 XIX. In Articulo Mortis 459 XX. Knighthood's Belated Flower 465 XXI. The Title of Nobility 475 XXII. The Abbey of Mount Regret 484 XXIII. The Contrariness of Jacqueline 496 XXIV. The Journalistic Sagacity of a Daniel 506