Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE FLAMING JEWEL ROBERT W. CHAMBERS ROBERT W. CHAMBERS _The Flaming Jewel_ TRIANGLE BOOKS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY TRIANGLE BOOKS EDITION PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1942 TRIANGLE BOOKS, 14 West Forty-ninth Street, New York, N. Y. PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE AMERICAN BOOK--STRATFORD PRESS, INC., N. Y. C. TO MY FRIEND R. T. HAINES-HALSEY WHO UNRESERVEDLY BELIEVES EVERYTHING I WRITE To R. T. I Three Guests at dinner! That's the life!-- Wedgewood, Revere, and Duncan Phyfe! II You sit on Duncan--when you dare,-- And out of Wedgewood, using care, With Paul Revere you eat your fare. III From Paul you borrow fork and knife To wage a gastronomic strife In porringers; and platters rare Of blue Historic Willow-ware. IV Banquets with cymbal, drum and fife, Or rose-wreathed feasts with riot rife To your chaste suppers can't compare. V Let those deny the truth who dare!-- Paul, Duncan, Wedgewood! That's the life! All else is bunk and empty air. ENVOI The Cordon-bleu has set the pace With Goulash, Haggis, Bouillabaisse, Curry, Chop-suey, Kous-Kous Stew-- I can not offer these to you,-- Being a plain, old-fashioned cook,-- So pray accept this scrambled book. R. W. C. CONTENTS PAGE EPISODE ONE EVE 9 EPISODE TWO THE RULING PASSION 33 EPISODE THREE ON STAR PEAK 56 EPISODE FOUR A PRIVATE WAR 75 EPISODE FIVE DROWNED VALLEY 93 EPISODE SIX THE JEWEL AFLAME 110 EPISODE SEVEN CLINCH'S DUMP 134 EPISODE EIGHT CUP AND LIP 157 EPISODE NINE THE FOREST AND MR SARD 180 EPISODE TEN THE TWILIGHT OF MIKE 209 EPISODE ELEVEN THE PLACE OF PINES 233 EPISODE TWELVE HER HIGHNESS INTERVENES 255 THE FLAMING JEWEL EPISODE ONE EVE I During the last two years Fate, Chance, and Destiny had been too busy to attend to Mike Clinch. But now his turn was coming in the Eternal Sequence of things. The stars in their courses indicated the beginning of the undoing of Mike Clinch. From Esthonia a refugee Countess wrote to James Darragh in New York: "--After two years we have discovered that it was Jose Quintana's band of international thieves that robbed Ricca. Quintana has disappeared.