Part 8 (1/2)
”I hope you have succeeded to your own satisfaction?”
”It may amuse you to know that though I had many good letters of introduction to editors in this country, I could not get a single article accepted till some friends of mine in Asia came to my aid.”
”You speak in riddles.”
”Perhaps you remember reading, last August, of an outbreak of some tribes in the Hindoo Kush? Those hill peoples are in a state of perennial ferment, and usually Europe pays no attention to their bellicose proceedings; but luckily for me, the English premier, at that particular moment, was holding his unwilling Parliament together in an attempt to pa.s.s something, and finding it intractable in that matter, he cleverly used this outbreak to divert attention and excite enthusiasm.
Rising in the House of Commons, he virtually charged the outbreak to Russian machination against the beloved Emir, and pledged the nation to support that civilized humanitarian against the barbaric despot of Russia. At once the papers were full of unintelligible cablegrams telling of the doings in those far-away mountains; and my hurriedly written editorials and articles, which nevertheless showed some comprehension of the geography and people, were snapped up avidly, and from that time I have found papers or periodicals glad to print what I write.”
You laughed, and said, ”How strangely the world is tied together in these days, that the speech of an English prime minister about some Asian septs should give a German author entree to New York editorial sanctums!”
”The cables have done more in aid of the brotherhood of man than all the efforts of the missionaries.”
”I thought you were a conservative, and disapproved of modern innovations,” you suggested archly.
”With innovators, yes.”
”Then the Levantine does not entirely disapprove of our Hesperian city?”
”My knowledge of New York is about as deep,” I answered, smiling, ”as my Eastern blood.”
”Only skin-deep,” you said.
”Just sufficient for a disguise.”
”As long as you are silent, yes.”
”Is my English so unmistakable?”
”Not your tongue, but your thought. Of course your vicinage, costume, and complexion made me for a moment accept your joke of nationality, at that first meeting, but before you had uttered half your defense of the older races I felt sure that you were not a product of one of them.”
”Why was that?”
”Because it is only Christians who recognize and speak for the rights of other peoples.”
”You forget that the religion of Buddha is toleration. We Christians preach the doctrine, but practice extermination, forgiving our enemies after killing them,” I corrected. ”I do not think we differ much in works from even El Mahdi.”
”Would El Mahdi ever have spoken for other races?”
”You know the weak spot in my armor, Miss Walton,” I was obliged to confess.
”That is due to you, Dr. Hartzmann. What you stated that night interested me so deeply that I have been reading up about the Eastern races and problems. I wonder if you have seen this new book of travel, The Debatable Lands between the East and West?”
”Yes,” I a.s.sented, thinking that twenty over-lookings of it in ma.n.u.script and proof ent.i.tled me to make the claim.
”You will be amused to hear that, when reading it, I thought of you as the probable writer, not merely because it begins in the Altai range and ends at Tangier, but as well because some of the ideas resemble yours.
Mr. Whitely, however, tells me he has private information that Professor Humzel is the author. Do you know him?”
”He was my professor of history at Leipzig.”