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Captain Sazarac
By Charles Tenney Jackson
tv The Bobbs-Menill Company
■THE PLOT NAPOLEON”
SYNOPSIS. —Under the name ot
•rantain Sazarac,” and disguised,
j el n Lafitte. former freebooter
ot Barataria, proscribed, returns
to the city of Now Orleans He
Is ecognized by two of his old
companions. Alderman: e
and Beluche. At the gaming
tables Sazarac has won much
money from Colonel Carr, Brit
ih officer. John Jarvis, the citys
first bohemi in of the arts and
otters, an oldtime friend of La
fitte, tells of a woman’s face and
smile. As his last wager, Carr
puts up a woman, presumably a
a lave Custom compels Sazarac
to accept the stake. He wins.
Ills old associates and Count
Raoul de Almonaster accost him
as Lafitte. A project of the
vouthful adventurers of New Or
leans is the rescue of Napoleon
Bonaparte from St. Helena, and
a ship, the Seraphlne. has been
made ready. From De Almonas
ter Sazarac learns that the girl
he won” at the card table Is
white, of high estate, and that
the matter has been made a by
word in the city’s resorts. Saz
arac finds Mademoiselle Lestron.
i fellow passenger on a river
steamer a few days before, and
with whom he had fallen in love.
Is the girl and In chivalry fore
goes his revenge against Carr.
Jarvis admires Mademoiselle Les
tron. He is a witness of the
meeting and picks up a camellia
which the girl had thrown, un
noticed. to Sazarac. Jarvis is
dangerous; he talks too much In
his cups. His old associates of
the Barataria days urge Lafitte
to take command of the Sera
phine. ostensibly to rescue Napo
leon but really to fly the black
flag and cruise the seas. He
hesitates.
CHAPTER IV —Continued.
— 6—
“He would be at home anywhere—”
Beluche watched the jester who had
wandered back among the wine tuns
searching for his pewter mug: “Do
you recall how our rough fellows
were amazed when we first tumbled
him off a Sacked merchantman down
among us, and at once—with our pis
tols at his head —he began to bawl
for drink? As I live, thereafter, on
the Petral, he feared nothing save that
the next prize might have more gold
than liquor!”
“He did us ail honor," mused La
fitte. "Eh, the old faces about me!”
Jarvis the youngest cf them all,
save Raoul, staggered to the table.
"Piracy,” he lamented, “ruined me!
1 was treated all too famously by the
cutthroats. But, Jean —now, if we
had a ship —eh, well! The drink this
way!"
“Ah, the ship! It appears we have
forgotten why we are here! The ship?
We have a ship!”
"A ship?” growled anew voice. Nez
Coupe, the small wiry Canary Islander,
with a face most frightfully disfigured
by a saber cut, the most lawless of
the former Grand Terre privateers, an
outlaw still unpardoned, came to the
table lamp. “What talk! Not one of
us all could purchase a yawl boat 1”
Beluche and Dominique fidgeted.
Beluche gestured uneasily to the fas
tidious De Almonaster. It seemed he
must speak ; it was for that they had
fetched him to the council.
“There Is a ship appointed for a
purpose,” began the count, reservedly.
"The Girod ship, fitted by the citi
zenry—for and certain purpose—”
“Bah! That Napoleon folly!"
growled .Tohanness: ‘‘Child’s play ! Ah,
but a-ship for your eye, my captain!"
The grim grizzled faces looked from
the captain to the youngest man.
“It is difficult to announce,” con
tinued Raoul. “But I have, this day,
taken over my aunt’s Interest, and
that of Monsieur Allalu, in the Girod
ship, i have, therefore, a word as to
her. As you ail know, the Napoleon
venture is not a secret. The mayor,
Roultlignac, the Creole families of the
city, are heartily in sympathy with it.
i have heen against it until—Monsieur
Lominique proposed that we intrigue
for Captain Sazarac to command.”
There was a shout —derision, lncre
f | dity, protest. The wilder ones up
rose feverishly. Dominique would
' ave spoken, but Jarvis staggered up,
oup In hand. “A toast! The plot!
Ho, villains, all—to the plot I” And
be roared the louder.
t The devil take you I” growled Be
inche. “The watchman on the cor
ner— ’*
Sazarac raised his hand. “I, to
command? What madness again I The
. ' ung blades of the town are to man
the schooner—they would be spanked
‘ H Lafitte was to be known
amona them!”
t'. e have thought powerful Influ
r* 1 ould be brought to bear for your
Pardon, Monsieur. A rare exploit to
r you—seizing the emperor
■rom his prison isle!”
Sazarac laughed idly: “Quite ira
i ble. Gentlemen, I beg yon—”
A ship!” shouted Johanness, as if,
► to his old eyes had leaped
vision of far sea days: “The Sera
me! Jean, and a ship again! A
ship shaken free In the gulf, and any
flag will serve!”
“Silence, you fool I” gasped Domi
nique.
"Perdition with aldermen! Ho, you
—Beluche, with the gilt gimeracks on
your shoulders —what do you think ?
Jean on the quarter-deck, and you and
I at the lookouts? Name o’ G —d!
One crack at the fat fleets, and then
south across the line!”
“In the swamps off Point Le Garde,”
shouted Nez Coupe, “1 cun enlist a
dozen overnight who once sailed with
Jean and Pierre!”
“Hist!’’ lamented Dominique. “They
can hear you to the levee! Let the
young gentleman talk; then our cap
tain will have it clearly. He shall be
Sazarac until we are cleared, Captain
Caspar Sazarac with recommenda
tions from the Americans of the West.
Monsieur de Almonaster will vouch for
Sazarac. I, myself, the alderman, have
known this worthy Sazarac who is to
be the secluded house guest of Mon
sieur de Almonaster, and introduced
aright ere we broach the Napoleon
matter —”
Jarvis suddenly thrust his drink
swollen face close to the lamp. He
grinned with tipsy awakening. "Why,
so —this Sazarac I Ho, Jean I —a
woman! You are overnight in the
town, and at once a woman!” He
fumbled In his breast and brought
out a crushed flower, and laid it down
with a mock flourish. “Did you ever,
Captain Caspar Sazarac —smell ca
mellias in the moonlight?”
Sazarac stood glancing frur, John
Jarvis to the camellia upon tfc table.
The jester was grinning knowingly.
The Count de Almonaster turned a
puzzled face upon them both.
“The affair of the English woman,”
grumbled Beluche. “Twaddle of the
gossipers on the promenade. A
drunken fool, and an evil jest! Saza
rac need not challenge. The scandal
Is upon Carr and bis two women.’’
But Jarvis continued to leer upon
the leader’s silent face. “I wish 1
could paint love in a woman’s eye— ’’
he mocked. “Then there should be n
mistress with a camellia In her hair
at my studio.” He turned away to
draw I’s measure of wine.
CHAPTER V
Two Gentlemen of Mystery.
The honorable the mayor, Monsieur
Rouiffignac, stood on the stone flags
of the City hall, or Principal, as It
was yet called from the Spanisli days,
and looked contentedly out on the rue
Chartres. He had come early, before
the heat of the day, for some business
with his clerks.
“Heigh-o!” sighed the mayor. "A
long day for met The council will
not meet until ten —but I shall cut
them short! Ah, there —good morn
ing, Monsieur Mudge!”
Mr. Mudge, of the banking firm of
Mudge & Fickert, was turning from
the street: a tall and immaculate gen
tleman in high bell bat and new. long,
tight trousers outside hl3 equally
tight boots; and behind him, the
mayor noted, was Mr. Langhorne, the
consul of Great Britain. The greet
ings were of punctilious respect.
“Whgt makes you so early astir,
gentlemen?” queried His Honor. “As
for me—l am the most lamentably
overworked man in Louisiana. The
governor sends me vast communica
tions —all In the English, these days,
which, unfortunately, I cannot read
so well; and Monsieur La Tour, get
ting up his new city directory, in
sists that I read his proofs—and there
is not a picayune victualer, nor a
mender of pots that he does not get
in so that New Orleans may claim
rank with Philadelphia or New York!
La —la! there are too many of us
now!”
“You may well say,” rejoined Mr.
Mudge- hurriedly, ‘‘complaint has al
ready heen made by the English cap
tain —petty thieves made away with
some of his merchandise on the Al
gierine dock. The customs people
have pursued them—l believe one fel
low was shot in a fracas down Bayou
Barataria, near the plantation of
Monsieur Berthoud.”
“An outrage, sir,” protested the con
sul. "In the name of his majesty I
must make representations—”
“It Is an affair, sir," said Monsieur
Rouiffignac politely, “more for the
United States authorities."
“Yes, but they are laughing about
the town, sir! Rough fellows of the
wineshops and the levees are all agog
with this rumor that the bandit of
Barataria has returned ; and at once
an outrage is put on the port’s ship
ping!"
“Hum,” said the mayor, "I know.
Thirty cases of muskets, by some
mistake, put out from the English
ship on the dock. The port officers—”
“The captain of the Gennron has
protested, sir,” fumed the consul; “the
cargo was destined for the Mexicoes.
But some thieving villains take ad
vantage of the question raised —”
•The Baratarians, Monsieur Mayor!’
blustered the merchant; ‘‘the pardoned
rascals of Jean Lafitte! The very
rumor of his return disturbs com
merce. Look, now—here comes old
THE DANIELSVILLE MONITOR, DANIELSVILLE, GEORGIA.
Gorgio, the crayflsh seller —as big a
villain as is unhung, pardoned by the
President 1 And do you think he will
trouble himself to step off the ban
quette when gentlemen come by, when
he knows that half of Louisiana Ims
come to think of Jean Lafitte as more
patriot than pirate?”
“Hum —hum,” mused the placid
mayor; “some maintain that he
saved the city in 1815. Eh, my clear
consul!—but we are very good friends
now, nre we not? Hum —hum—and
here comes Dominique, who
ought to know something about this
idle gossip of Lafitte.”
Mudge, the banker, bowed stiffly to
the portly alderman; Langhorne, with
a frown—there were some fastidious
gentry who did uot care for equality
with the pardoned and Falstatlian
buccaneer. The mayor turned slyly
to him.
“Ah, Monsieur Dominique I The
gentlemen ask of a matter upon which
you might enlighten us. Lafltte’s re
puted return!"
Tlie councilor raised a fat hand.
“And if It were true, rue Boyale
would he ribboned to welcome him, I
do believe!”
The respectable banker shrugged.
“Enough! Mr. Langhorne, we shall
take our business to the customs!
The city Is a trifler’s town I And this
other jest—the sailing of the Napo
leon ship. Mr. Mayor, the folly leaps
and grows! Sober, decent merchants
entering tlie coffee bouses ave bad
gered by young roisterers fo sub
scribe to the plot Napoleon! Anything
for a fanfaronade, even if it brought
England and the United States to
war!"
Langhorne, the consul, raised a
hand laughingly. “The Seraphlne,
good sirs, will lie well watched once
these crnckbrains put her nose out the
passes! His majesty is not a tremble
at this frolic!’’
And with n bow the two gentlemen
departed. Half a square distant, the
consul turned to the banker.
“Colonel Carr, sir—lias me distract
ed. He brings credentials from Que
bec that I cannot ignore, and yet I
mistrust him. Styled ns a commis
sioner to the rebellious subjects of tlie
Spanish king in New Granada, he lias
seemed overbusied up the Mississippi
on his way overland.”
“You fear Carr’s honesty? Faith,
the fellow has been too drunken to be
dangerous. And you know ills brawl
with this Captain Sazarac? I should
say they are botli men of mystery out
of the Northwest. The old talk of
Aaron Burr’s rival republic in the Mis
sissippi valley is revived again; but
if Englnnd is in it —"
“Perdition, sir! It Is not so! He
who comes to Louisiana thinking to
find friction between the Yankees and
the Creoles must be a better diplomat
than Colonel Carr, sir—lf that is what
you mean!”
The merchant took snuff gravely.
‘‘We trust that he represents nothing
hut some malicious fur-traders, sir.
Last night, I am informed, he had
Madame Page’s pension In an uproar.'
Starting to beat a black girl, he
wound up by striking his wife; and
then having a set-to with some un
known guest or caller. And the lady
who is his wife, sir—is not of mettle
to brook outrage.”
“Mrs. Carr Is of an old Tory family
that fled from New York in the first
war—bitter against the American gov
ernment-far more than the British
themselves. Then there is, Carr’s
ward —”
"I had heard a famous beauty, sir.'’
‘‘The young gallants already are
agog for a peep at her when she is
driven on the Esplanade. But thfe
women seek absolute seclusion, hu
miliated utterly at Colonel Carr's
conduct.”
“The girl is of value to Carr’s
schemes, you think?”
Langhorne took his snuff absently.
"That is the question. She was of a
family that had great estates In the
Islands. She is loyal to the Carrs
through gratitude to those who saved
her life."
The merchant glanced at the clock
in the cathedral facade.
"Well, enough of this. The coffee
houses have already forgotten the af
fair of Carr and this adventurer Sa
zarac.”
“This week the sensation is choos
ing the crew under Bossiere to man
the Napoleon ship. Nothing hns so
tickled the popular fancy of the
Creoles!”
"I trust your government does not
take it seriously?”
The consul laughed shortly. “We
watch It, sir! The clipper may take
twoscore ga!!an‘: out of the city, for
If the thing Is made fashionable
enough, the Seraphine would sail with
her decks crammed by ambitious ad
mirals, commodores, captains and lieu
tenants! Bonaparte, himself, would
he astounded at the urray of per
fumed gentlemen who would greet him
in his exile!"
“Bossiere is to command," mused
Mr. Mudge. “He. at least, is a sea
man."
“I am an evil legacy . . .
and I am forty-two.”
(TO BE CONTINUED^
1,011(2 of
' T
Bulgarian Peasant Girls Going to Market.
(Prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, D. C.)
Bulgaria, where the Balkan pen
chant for turbulence seems to have
mads its first important appearance
since the World war, presents a para
dox. It is a country very largely of
peasants, scornful of idleness and pre
tense, yet producers of what is per
haps the world’s best known symbol
of luxury, attar of roses.
The country is often considered
merely “one of the Balkan states.”
But whatever its faults and its virtues,
it certainly is not colorless, and it
fully deserves to stand on its own
feet. The differences between the Bul
gurs and the Turks are obvious, and
500 years of domination by Hie latter
did not serve to eradicate them. There
is almost as much of a racial gulf be
tween the Bulgars and the Greeks;
and their differences are accentuated
by an ancient enmity dating from the
time when the Bulgars were a threat
ening spear-point against the Greek
Byzantine empire, and later when for
a space Bulgaria was tributary to that
same Byzantium. The Rumanians to
the north are Latins and they, too, are
racially distinct from the Bulgars. The
closest kinsmen which tlia Bulgars
have among their neighbors are the
Serbs and other Jugo-Slavs. But Just
as in smaller families feuds exist, so
there is little love lost 'between Bul
garia and the Kingdom of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes.
Bulgaria long suffered not only
from the tyranny of the non-Christian
Turk, but also from the diplomatic in
trigues' of the Christian powers of
Europe. Russia liberated the country
from the Turkish yoke by the Russo-
Turkish war of 1877-78 and proposed
to set It up as an Independent nation
with considerably more territory than
it has today. But other powers, fear
ful of a strong state in the Balkans,
compelled the transfer of areas to ad
jacent states, divided the territory that
was left into Bulgaria and Eastern
Ruinelia, and placed both back under
tire suzerainty of Turkey. Bulgaria,
a semi-independent principality, elected
a German prince for its ruler and re
mained much as it was created for
seven years. Then by a coup d’etat
Eastern Ruinelia was annexed to the
principality, an arrangement accepted
by Turkey. Full independence came
only In 1908 when the then Prince
Ferdinand proclaimed himself tsar like
the Bulgarian rulers of the country’s
ancient golden age.
Acquires a Bad Name.
Poor leadership during the last
decade has given Bulgaria a bad name
with much of the outside world. After
the war in which Bulgaria, Serbia and
Greece defeated Turkey in 1912, there
was a war over the spoils between
Bulgaria and the ether former allies,
with Rumania finally intervening
against Bulgaria. The responsibility
for tills conflict, whether rightly or
wrongly, has generally been laid at
the door of Bulgaria. During the World
war, perhaps largely because of Hie
Hohenzollern blood of the Bulgarian
tsar, Bulgaria lined up with Germany,
Austria nd Turkey. But the late pre
mier, Stamboutisky, was opposed to
thi3 step and was imprisoned because
ef his opposition. His attitude prob
ably reflected that of his peasant party
which Is now opposing the new regime.
Though Bulgaria produces the usual
grains, fruits, tobacco and live stock
.f its part of the world, It Is best
known for its extensive culture of
••oses for the manufacture of the
fatuous and valuable attar of roses.
The number of acres of roses culti
vated for this purpose in Bulgaria has
approached 20,000. An acre produces
about 4,000 pounds of rose petals, but
tills great bulk of petals yields only
about 20 ounces of attar. The salable
product from n whole acre is there
fore little more than one pound. This
much-souglu essence, however, is worth
from SOO up per pound in Bulgaria
and many times more than tiiat in for
eign countries.
Sofia Like a Western City.
Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, and see jo
of the chief acts in the recent coup
d’etat, is an adequate expression ef
the Bulgars. It is a solid, business
like, modern, thrifty capital, witli little
of (lie picturesque and artistic in its
composition, and nothing of romance
or sentiment. It is u matter-of-fact
Western city, paved with smoot h
squared blocks of asphalt, and its
streets are lined with stone and brick
and stucco buildings, of solid, simple
architecture. As in most American
cities, these buildings were constructed
for Hie display of wares to Hie best
advantage, for obtaining the grealest
possible office floor space or the larg
est number of living apartments rutlier
than for beauty or original effect. For
the complexities of luxury, the Bul
garians have no time, ner have they
learned to feel a need of them.
Their capital Is a comparatively new
city. Travelers who visited there be
fore 1880 described it us a miserably
poor place, “a concourse of red-tiled
huts and'of hovels of wood and plas
ter, of narrow, crooked streets, and of
general filth and depression.” This
was the product of Turkish misudmin
istration, which has nearly disap
peared, the modern Sofia rising out of
the Ottoman ruins. Sofia has 154,000
population and lias heen growing
steadily. It Is a commanding point
upon the shortest trade route between
Europe and Asia. Europe’s railway
freight for the Near East and the
goods of Asia Minor, Persia and Meso
potamia for the West pass through its
valley. The city early became impor
tant as a trade center, and, probably,
would have developed Into one of the
great cities of Europe, had not period
ical destruction, almost continual dan
gers of war, and centuries of misrule
held it back.
The city lies in the midst of a broad
plain, between the Vitosha mountains
and the main Balkan chain. At the end
of almost every vista in the city one
sees these distant hill masses, and this
fringing of mountains Is the only
thing that keeps modern Sofia from
seeming entirely commonplace. Bel
grade lies 200 miles northwest of
Sofia, while Constantinople lies 300
miles southeast The valley at Sofia is
an upland plateau, 1,700 feet above sea
level, and near Hie heart of the penin
sula, which determines the climate as
a sharply continental one. In August,
Their capital city is one of the
peculiar prides of the hard-working,
long-enduring, persistent Bulgarians.
It typifies to them the promise of a
great Bulgarian future, and they, also,
look upon It as an earnest of their
right to a respected place among Hie
civilized nations of the West.
The few touches that bind Sofia to
the past come when through a vista of
modern business buildings—perhaps
over the top's of clanging electric tram
car8 _ o ne catches a glimpse of a
slender minaret of some mosque that
lias survived the religious cataclysm
that turned Moslem “Rumelia” into
Christian “Bulgaria."