Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, January 29, 1916, Page 3

SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, .1916. ! About The City l Born, to Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Ben- nington, at their home on Doud av- enue, Thursday morning, January 27, 1916, a son. —— D. Dumas of Siding One left last night for that place after having spent the day transacting business in this city. J— Miss Lillian Anderson of Kelliher arrived in the city this morning to spend the next few days as the guest of friends and relatives. One of these nice days you ought to go to Hakkerup’'s and have your picture taken.—Adv. 14t L. W. Bates spent a few hours transacting business between trains yesterday enroute to Kelliher from his home at Cummins, Minn. J. 0. Harris, hotel proprietor of Kelliher, returned last evening to that place, having spent the past several days here on business. Tke Blooston, who has spent the past several days visiting with his brother, L. Blooston, left last night for his home at Minneapolis. B. Getchell, scaler and cruiser, left last night for the cedar forests north of this city where he intends to spend the next few days on busi- ness. Charles Carter, of the Kaye-Carter Lumber company of Hines, returned to that place last night after having spent the day here on business mat- ters. A “Leap Year” dance will be given tonight at the 0dd Fellows hall following the basket ball game. La- dies’ .choice numbers will predom- inate. Mrs. Gladys Johnson of Frohn spent a few hours in this city yes- terday attending to week-end shop- ping and visiting with friends and relatives. Rev. George Larson, pastor of the Free Lutheran church of Nymore, left this morning for Thief River Falls where he will conduct services tomorrow. Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Taylor of Lake Plantaganet were among the out-of- town business visitors 'in Bemidji Friday. They drove to their home in the evening. The Dorcas society of the Scandi- navian Lutheran church met this afternoon for a social session with Miss Mable Croon at her home in the Nicollet hotel. Martin Malzahn arrived in the city last evening from Minneapolis to spend the next several weeks visiting with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Malzahn. Mrs. C. L. Richards, who has been vigiting as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Matt Heffner for the past few CHEERFUL WOMEN Despondency is a thing of evil origin and evil results, Worry produces noth- ing but wrinkles and wretchedness. Let the reader put up a little note on her bureau, on her desk, and at the head of her bed, just two words, DON'T worry. Worry is the greatest foe to the happiness of any household. An anxious, despondent face, a fretful, complaining voice, will make every one uncomfortable. . A woman’s nerves are more truly the cause of worry than outside troubles. The nerves are of a woman’s body the telegraph system, which surely warns her of any trouble in the feminine make-up. . ) Dr. Pierce, during a "long period of practice, found that a prescription made with glycerine, entirely of roots and herbs, without the use of alcohol, cured over ninety per cent. of such cases. After using this remedy for many years in his private practice he put it up in a form that would make it easily procurable. Women are earnestly advised to take it for irregular or painful periods, backache, headache, displacement, ca- tarrhal condition, hot flashes, sallow complexion and nervousness, For girls about to enter womanhood, women about to become mothers, and for the changing days of middle age Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription should always be on hand. In liquid or_tablets. Write Dr. Pierce, Buffalo, N. }’4. for' free 136 page book on woman’s dis- eases. Every woman should have one. Dr. Pierce's Medical Adviser, cloth- Hound, sent free to you on recept of 3 dimes (or stamps) to pay the ecpcnsq-of' mailing_only. Dr. Pierce, Invalids Hotel, Buffalo, N. Y. £ If you are troubled with Indigestion, Constipation, Biliousness, Bilious Head- aches, and a hundred and one ills whi depend upon an inactive liver, use D5, Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets~Adv, Try the Children’s Medicine. Many parents are inclined to be- leve that medicine used for children is not suitable for themselves. While it is true that larger doses are re- quired, it is unreascnable to suppose that a disease in an adult should be - treated any differently than the same ailment in a o¢hild. Mrs. Earl Jen- nings, Lima, Ohio, writes, “Chamber- | brute -and- Hernandez -entered. ‘weeks, returned this morning to her home at Minneapelis. L. E. Rood, representing the Part- ridge Clothing company of Duluth, left this morning for Walker and other points south where he will transact business today. S *Miss Medora Rice, a senior in the Bemidji high school, left last night over Sunday as the guest of her par- ents, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Rice. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Norquist vis- ited with friends in Bemidji between trains yesterday enroute to their home at Louis, from Hibbing, where they visited with their daughter. Mrs. Austin Warner and daughter, Mavis, of Puposky are visiting as in Bemidji this week. < They return- ed this afternoon to their home. Miss Kate LaFontisee left last eve- ning for Minneapolis and St. Paul where she will spend several days investing in spring millery stock for the LaFontisee millinery parlors. ‘W. McDonald returned last night to his home at Domaas after spend- for Tenstrike, where she will visit|the guests of friends and relatives|ing a day here on legal and other business matters. - He also visited with relatives while in the city. . —— Miss Cora Cockings and Mrs. C. M. Badget -left last night for Funkley, after visiting with friends here be- tween trains. They arrived on the noon train from Brinsmay, N. D. Frank Arnold, a business man of Kelliher, returned last night to that two days in Bemidji on legal ‘af- fairs relative to the Kelliher liquor cases. Mrs. W. G. Phillips, mother of Miss Jessie Phillips, music instruc- tor in the Bemidji schools, arrived in the city last night from her home at Minneapolis, having been called here on account of the illness of her place after having spent the past daughter. Mrs. G. Nelson wasf a i:etv_veen train business visitor in Bemidji yesterday, having arrived in the morning from her home at Buena Vista and leaving for there on the evening train. — Mrs. A. P. White left last night for Minneaplois - enroute to San Francisco and Los Angeles where she will spend the winter. She will also By WILLIAM HAMILTON OSBORNE “'Rlumid Piaht.Mm‘é?'h-. g ” e vaw,” “Blue Buckle,” etc. 8YNOPSIS8, On the day of the eruption .of Mount Pelee Capt. John Hardin of the steamer Princess rescues - five-year-old Annette Ilington from an openboat, but is forced |- to leave behind her father and his com- panions. Ilington is .assaulted by Her- nandez and Ponto In'a valn .attempt to get papers which Ilington has managed to send aboard. the Princess with his daughter, pa‘)lel’s proving his title to =nd telling the whereabouts of the lost island of Cinnabar. Ilington’s injury causes his mind to become a hlawk. ' hirteen years elapse. Hernands now an oplum smug- gler, with Ponto, Inez, a female accom- plice, and the mindless brute that once. was Ilington, come to Beaport, where the widow of Captain Hardin is 'living with her son Neal and Annette Ilington, and plot to steal the papers left to Annette by her father. Neal tries for admission to the Naval academy, but through the treachery of Joey Welcher is defeated by Joey and disgraced. Neal enlists in the navy. Inez sets a trap for Joey and the conspirators get him in their power. An- nette discovers that heat applied to the map reveals the location of the lost is- land. Subsequently in a struggle for its possession ‘he map Is torn in three parts. Hernandez, Annette and Neal each secur- ing a portion. Annette sails on the Coro- nado in search of her father. The crew, crazed by cocaine smuggled aboard by Hernandez, mutiny, and are overcome by a boarding party from U. S. Destroyer Jackson, led by Neal. In Martinique An- nette and Neal are captured and taken to & smugglers’ cave to be blown up with dynamite, but are rescued by a sponge diver. Inez forges identification papers for herself as Annette. In an insurrec- :}fndNeaI and Annette are again cap. red. EIGHTH INSTALLMENT THE SUN WORSHIPERS CHAPTER XXXIV. The Jungle Trall. Blindfolded and stumbling. Neal was led for miles over an almost untrod path. As he went he listened, and twice: he could have sworn he heard a wom- an’s voice, a voice that he knew well —the voice of Annette Ilington. Once he heard her scream. Suddenly there was a halt. There was much whispering and the low toned chattering of -many peeple. And: then Neal heard another scream— “Neal! Neal!” There was the trampling of a heavy body through the underbrush and then the rattling of a heavy chain and what seemed to be the unlocking of a door. There was another shriek, then si- lence. Finally without warning Neal was seized in a gigantic pair of arms, tossed lightly over a huge shoulder and was carried rapidly along. An- other du v was opened and Neal felt himself flung—a bit too violently— into the corner of & stone-walled-apart- ment. A door clanged to behind him and was locked and bolted. A voice assalled his ears. “Senor,” said this voice, “it you would be relieved of bonds and blinds, approach me.” Neal—not without apprehension— started up and staggered in the di- rection of the voice. A hand swung him about. Upon his-head and wrists he felt the presaure of cold.steel—the back of a sheath knife. His: bonds fell at his feet. -He swung.ahout, stretched his arms and looked. Grin- ning sardonically at him through the bars was the face of Herpandez and behind ‘Hernandez :with. blinking- eyes stood the ever-present.brute. “We keep you merely for safety, > senor,” said - Hernandez. He. swung on his -heel; thrust the brute out of sight an& disappeared. Neal noted now that he was con- | | fined in a stone cell—dingy, dirty, mis- erable. He jumped at once to :the ‘correct conclusion. This was a fort. Herexamined. his:cell. critically. The 'mortar was ;disintegrating. The fort: was.wery-.old. . He.took .out-his knife’ —they had still left him that—and .stabbed wiciously at the space in be- tweea the stones. There was a rattle at the door of Neal's cell. A .native .insurrecto opened the door.and:set upon the floor a-jug of water-and: a logf of: disreput- able looking bread. Almost at the same: time there.was.a-rattle at :the door of Annette’s dungeon cell. She ceased her.:tapping A suddenly and turned. The brute was entering—also with refreshments, such as they were. Instead of disposing of these at once, he.strode forward,.his huge:body. tewering above her; and-keld them out to her with a strange gleam in his eyes. She took the food and drink and laid them down.upon the:bench, star- ch |ing at the brute the while. The.huge anomaly took this as an invifation. He shambled closer.toward her, never once removing his glance from her up- turned wondering face. Then with- out warning he thrust forth a hand and stroked her hair. Annette was startled. Yet there was so much docility in the expression of this halt man, half animal, that she instinctively submitted to his touch. And there was something else—some- thing struggling: for expression in those strange, wide open eyes. There was a quick step behind the An- Jain's Cough Remedy is a splendid|nette shrank back into a corner of .medicine for children. I have used +1t: myself for colds and it has always ssale by alldealers.—Adv. N given me the desired relief.” For rage struck him sharply on the cell. The brute gazed at him, but still stood his ground. Hernandez in a the shoul- -the-d00K, Novelized from the Photo Play of the Same Name Produced - by the Pathe Exchange, Inc, ‘The Brute, cringing in his turn, half fell, halt shuffled out of the cell, fol- lowed by Hernandez raining blows upon his back. Hours passed. Suddenly an omi- nous whisper spread through the fort —=a whisper of apprehension. There was much bustle. During an interval of comparative quiet there was wafted into the range of Neal's hearing the one word— {Americanos.” Then with two suc- cessive clangs the cell doors, Neal's and Annette’s, were flung back. They were bound and once more blindfolded. Then, each in the cen- ter of an ample escort, they stumbled, plunged and staggered once more through the jungle trail. CHAPTER XXXV. ! Sanctuary. Meantime things had happened. Outside the fort there was camped a gang of about fifty insurrectos. Many were wounded; all seemed to be in tatters. They had with them three Ameri- canos. One was Joe Welcher, who sat sullenly upon the ground smoking a cigarette. Inez Castro was also in evidence. The third Americano was Neal Hardin’s mother. She was the subject of considerable discussion, for she was ill. “Get me two donkeys,” said Her- nandez. “I will send her back down the trail with Senorita Castro and Welcher.” A quarter of a mile away on the top of a jagsed reck that thrust its head above the surrounding foliage there crouched a native scout. He watched a cruiser slowly steaming up the coast. He watched the shore— and the trails leading from the shore. Suddenly he started—he had seen something ominous. He clung to his perch for one instant peering down to make quite certain. Then he scram- bled to the ground and then crawled, leaped, staggered through the brush. He reached the insurrectos’ camp and clutched his leader’s arm. “Americanos, capitan,” he panted breathlessly. “They come.” “From whence?” queried the leader. The insurrecto scout indicated the direction. Fear spread itself over the countenance of the leader. Hernandez grunted. “We must va- moose., Senorita Castro,” he said to Inez, “you and the two Americans shall go thither—east.” He nodded There Was Something Struggling for Expression in Those Strange Eyes. to the leader. “We go west at once— and with our-prisoners.” It takes the trained eye of a native to know a trail when he meets one in the well-nigh impossible jungles of Dolores. The United States marines, a little.squad of 25 men, were begin- ning to realize this fact. For an hour they followed. -blind -trail after -blind trail, only to retrace their steps to a given starting point. “Never mind,” said their officer. “They're up there and we'll get them, and then—" 2 He stopped. A shower of dirt and small stones spattered on his head. The .officer loeked up. Above him towered a cliff, and half way to the iop of this cliff there ran a narrow ledge—a mountain pass. The officer ducked, for there was another shower of dirt and gravel. Then he caught sight of a donkey’s tail swishing out over the precipice. “I've got the trail,” he said, “and & good trail it is, for it leads here—here to our very feet.” He was quite right. Some three- quarters of an hour later Inez and her small party passed that very spot—a spot now deserted. _Suddenly twenty-five .American .ma- rines with drawn bayonets = sprang from the jungle as by magic and sur- rounded them. Inez, excellent actress, breathed an audible sigh of relief. “At last,” she d, ‘“we.bave.found you.” “The_ensign advanced . toward = and saluted. He glanced doubtfully at the half-dozen insurrectos wearing uniforms. . “Who are you?” he demanded of Inez. “These,” said Inez, with a wave of her hand, “are Dolores: regulars who} have befriended us, and we are threei Americans, and one of us is sick. It; is for her that we seek refuge.” He strode swiftlyeto the side of Mrs., Hardin. She was swaying helplessly, from side to side in the saddle of her; donkey, supported by two insurrecto/ lescorts. “Neal, Neal,” she cried. Inez dismounted and approached the. officer. “She has the fever,” she ex- claimed, “and she raves in her speech all the time, lieutenant; she makes up names—all kinds of names.” “There are other Americans in the mountains?” he queried. Inez opened wide her eyes and shook her head. “We saw none, sir,” she said. The ensign pondered. needs immediate attention. “This woman Take her to the launch and thence to the Al bany.” He bowed to Inez and beck- oned to Joe Welcher. “You two must go along,” he said soberly. CHAPTER XXXVIL Corazon dei Sol. After a march of hours in the very thickest of the jungle, Hernandez halt- ed his band of insurrectos. The re- gpite was welcomed. Exhaustion reigned sugreme. Hernandez picked out two of the sleeker looking revo- lutionists. “This trail,” he said to them, “has been lately traveled. See where it leads.” Hernandez went back to his cap- tives. He carried with Bim thick pieces of bread. He unloosed the bandages from their eyes. “Mine hostages,” he said lightly, “eat, drink and be merry.” & Three miles further on there was a clearing in the jungle. Across this clearing was an ancient gateway and & crumbling stone wall, older than his- toric man himself. TWo unprepossess- ing stolid stone figures guarded this gateway. A third guard now entered the foreground and passed through the ancient ruined gateway. He was a living guard, but of a dead race. He was an Aztec. He had heard noises and he had come out to see as ‘well as to hear. And suddenly he saw and was seen in turn. Wriggling through the por- tions of the edge of the clearing sud- denly appeared the two scouts sent forward by Hernandez. They crouched there, staring speechlessly at the Aztec warrior. He-in his turn stared speechlessly at them. But they had seen more than he had. They had caught a glinipse through that gateway of a mass of leaping, twisting flame, and they knew it for the thing it was. An hour later, panting, breathless, with their tongues hanging out and their eyes still wide with terror, they crept up to Hernandez and clutched him by the arms. “Corazon del Sol,” they cried, their faces twisted with terror. Ponto heard them. His eyes gleamed with sudden interest. He waddled to the side of Hernandez and nodded understandingly. “Corazon del Sol,” repeated Hernan- dez. “The Heart of the Sun,” Ponto nodded again. “The Heart of the Sun,” he repeated. s “Well, what of it?” asked Hernan- dez. “The lost tribe,” whispered the scouts. “The Aztecs. Come,” they cried, “we have no time to lose. They will be upon us. Fly.” Hernandez gripped each man by the wrist. “Speak, Ponto,” he demanded. Ponto tapped himself upon his chest. “I am of Aztec bleod myself,” he said. “I have heard of this lost tribe.. I have heard of this city of Corazon del Sol. Many assume it to be a myth, senor, but it is no myth.” Hernandez nodded. “How many in- habitants of Corazon del Sol?” he queried. “Tradition has it,” said Ponto, “that it is a town surrounded by a wall and that its population never increases.” He smiled grimly. “What human be- ings it does not need, it feeds to the Heart of the Sun—the flame.” “It will feed all of us to the flame,” cried the scouts. “We must go back— back.” Hernandez leered. “Ponto,” he said, “In front of us, according to these in- surrectos, is a fiery furnace with a mil- lion foes. Behind us, camping on our trail somewhere, is a handful of Ameri- cdn marines. Which do you choose?” “Forward,” said Ponto, “te the fiery furnace. Deliver me from a handful of marines.” CHAPTER XXXVIL The Anger of a God. ‘Within the walls of Corazen del Sol there lived a god. He didn’t know he lived—he was quite ignoramt of his own existence. If he H&d ever lived he would have died from ugliness. But there were those who knew he lived. They were the inhabitants of this ancient Aztec village—Corazon del Sol, the Meart of the Sun. They knew he lived, because periodically and quite persistently he demanded |- flesh. - % Just now he stared straight before him through the gates of the crum- bling walls, The high priest followed. his_glance. Suddenly the high priest started and held high his hand. A group of Aztec warriors answered the summons. In crude uneven order this crowd rushed: through the gates and stood at bay. JAcross the clearing was another group ' | =Hernddez and his crowd. The twg | groups faced .each other, tense, won dering. The high priest spoke—uttering un- iatelligible jargon. Hernandez turned to Ponto. “What does this old devil say?’ he demanded. H Ponto was panting with terror. { “He says,” said Ponto, “that he wants to talk to you.” i Hernandez pondered for a moment and toyed with the weapon in his hand. Then he crossed the clearing and faced the high priest. Ponto from his vantage point of comparative' safety translated in thin high-strung tones. “You are interlopers,” said the priest angrily, his cruel eyes watching Annette Was Watching With Eyes Wide With Terror. the terror he inspired, “and you shall be destroyed. Behind me is fire, sud- den death. We have many thousand ‘warriors. We have an insatiable god. We brook no strangers—we tolerate no enemies. You are an enemy, you and yours. Go, and go at once.” “We are not cnemies,” returned Her- nandez. “We are travelers—weary travelers. We have lost our way. We need rest and food. To turn back now means death.” The high priest shrugged his shoul- ders. “Follow me,” he said. He turned and passed between the divided group of warriors and entered the gate. Hernandez followed, entering the | walls three paces behind the priest. He led Hernandez to the center of the village. ‘With a long, lean, skinny finger, the high priest pointed to the sun god. He prostrated himself, then rose and gave a sharp command. Two Aztecs, clad in scarlet robes, darted forward, each with a burning brand raised high above his head. Before Hernandez was & pit sunk into the ground. It was piled high with fuel and from this pit there rose quite a familiar odor— the odor of petroleum. In went the burning brands and in the twinkling of an eye the fuel caught fire and a leaping, twisting flame sprang into the air. Hernandez drew back. The flame was hot. It grew hotter as he watched. In a few moments it was a seething, roaring furnace. Hernandez stood with folded arms. The high priest swooped down upon him and denounced him in withering jargon. Hernandez knew what it meant. It meant that they were to go. “Ponto,” he cried, “come here.” Ponto, quivering, crept through the double line of Aztec warriors and through the gate. Hernandez jerked his head toward the priest. “Tefl him,” said Herandez, “that he must take us in.” Ponto obeyed. He began to plead in his oiliest accents. The high priest was firm. Once again he held up his hand and from every hut in the in- closure there sprang forth another group of warriors. “Run, partner,” cried Ponto, “run for your life.” But Hernandez did not run, for sud- denly the countenance of the high priest had changed. A crafty smile spread over his leathery old face. Pon- to followed his glance. At the other end of the clearing with a ray of sun- shine full upon her crouched Annette Tlington. Without removing his glance from the girl the high priest touched Her- nandez on the arm and spoke in high shrill accents. “What does he say?” demanded Her nandez of Ponto. Ponto shivered. “He says,” re- turned Ponto, “the sun god is angry. That he has commanded his people to destroy you all. That he will smite you hip and thigh unless—" “Unless what?” queried Hernandez. “You give the white girl to the god and the rest of you can get food and succor within the walls—the white girl for the god.” ) CHAPTER XXXVIII. i 4 A Bride's Revolt. Hernandez pondered once again. Then he nodded. “We'll do it,” he returned. “Tell that beast out there to bring the ‘white girl in.” Ponto turned and ran waddling out- side the gates. He gave a brief com- mand to the brute and at the word the brute seized Annette and held her high upon his shoulder. At another work of command the brute marched toward the gate and entered it. The high priest stood quivering, watching the approach of Annette and the-brute, The four Aztecs:in-flam: ing red robes darted forward and held out quivering hands toward Annette. “Give her to them,” cried the priest. “Give her to them,” commanded Hernandez. But the brute, his feet planted wide apart, stood his ground. Hernandez sprang toward him, an- grily seized the ever-ready whip from Ponto’s hand and lashed the brute fiercely. He nodded to the four crim- son-clad men and they tore Annette roughly away and dragged her to the temple. Neal hurled himself at the four acolytes, but Hernandez dragged him back. Neal was then thrust into a dungeon and its door was locked. Meantime within the temple things were happening. Annette found her- self in an apartment gorgeously fur- nished with Aztec tapestries. Two old women—toothless, ugly—women with beards, attended Annette, chuck- ling and mumbling to themselves in glee. They produced from the re- cesses of the temple a dress, gorgeous, bizarre. They draped it upon Annette’s slender form. They hung her head, neck and arms with glittering orna- ments, and then they beckoned to her and led her to a window, and pointed, chuckling, through it. Annette knew not what they said, but Ponto without distinguished easily the meaning of the high shrill tones. “The sun god waits—is waiting for his bride.” Annette’s glance traveled past the sun god. She started back in horror. Into that seething Pit beyond the acolytes were casting huge quantities of fuel—pouring the contents of huge Jars of oil upon the flames. Her glance traveled still beyond, and across an intervening space she saw a dungeon window and the white face of Neal. He waved his hand. And then strong hands were placed upon her shoulders and she was lifted from her feet and half dragged, half carried out of the temple into the center of the clear space before the sun god. The cere- mony had begun. Neal tore his glance for a moment from this scene and examined his cell. There was a window at his back— a heavily barred window. - He seized the bars in desperation and found to his surprise that they were loose. With a superhuman effort, he thrust the bars outward, leaped through the aperture and darted swiftly into the Jungle; then he looked about him for a tree and found the one he wanted. It was a high tree, very high. He climbed it swiftly—climbed it to its topmost branches. Cruising slowly ofi the shore—and the shore was not very far away—was his cruiser Al- bany, ~ He braced himself among the branches with his feet, ripped off his shirt, tied it by the arms about a broken branch and signaled to the ship. Within the walls Ponto, still terror- stricken with the sun god’s anger, turned his back for a moment upon that deity and upon that deity’s high priest. Then suddenly he saw some- thing. In fhe top of a high tree without the walls there was a white rag flut- tering to and fro—and something more. A man, Ponto gripped Hernandez’s arm and pointed upward. The face of Hernan- dez froze. He darted toward the dungeon, saw that it was empty, then beckoning Ponto and the brute he darted to the stone wall and with their aid clambered over it. Ponto, with considerably less agil- ity and with the assistance of the brute, followed his companion over, and the brute in turn, his head and shoul- ders lashed with Ponto’s whip wield- ed over the top of the wall, swung himself over and followed them. Annette noticed the confusion—was the first to see it. Suddenly striking an attitude she raised her hand and arm and pointed toward the white flag flutterfug from the tree top. The high priest sturped his droning and fel- lowed the diraction of her hand with his glance. His acolytes stopped and stared—so did everybody else. Annette saw her opportunity. Upon a standard by her side lay a heavy copper scepter. She seized it. Lithe as her body was she had inherited great strength—wonderful agility. Without a moment’s hesitation she swung the scepter viciously about her head, dashing t®e high priest and his acolytes to the ground, knocking the Aztec warriors to right and left. Like & whirlwind she fought her way to- ward the gate, slammed it behind her and sped away. CHAPTER XXXIX. By His Eyelids. Hernandez and his two companions reached the tree. They reconnoitered. Above him in the swaying branches, all ignorant of the group below, Neal wigwagged his signals toward the Al- bany. His heart leaped within him, for the Albany wigwagged in return. She was doing more—she was sending off her fastest launch shoreward, crowded to the gunwale with marines —marines who knew their business. Below Hernandez smiled a diabolical gmile. He was watching, not Neal, but the swaying of the tree. “Look,” he said to Ponto, “see how these roots tug at this scant earthen ~overing. She is a tree growing on-a rock. She totters. And she is more than a tree growing on a rock—she grows on the edge of a cliff. Beast, come hére. Tell him, Ponto, what to do.” Ponto told him, emphasizing his commands with the ever-ready whip. , The brute obeyed. He set his shoul- .ders to the tree trunk and began stead- Ily, tirelessly, persistently to push. “Now, now,” cried Hernandez, in & frenzy of excitement. “On, cn.” b !-The tree crashed -desperately-over } . ? the edge and toppled into the depths beneath. As she did so there was a scream— & woman’s scream—Annette’s. Her- nandez heard it; so did Ponto; but they could not locate it. Out of their sight, somewhere along that cliff, An- nette was crouching watching with eyes wide with terror. She saw the tree bend slowly outward, though she did not know the cause. Then her heart leaped within her, for the trce had dropped, toppling head over heels, so to speak, but by some great chance it had brushed Neal lightly, not heavily, against the cliff, and then had plunged down to its own doom leaving him grappling for his life with a clump of bushes on a narrow ledge below. She saw all this and so did Hernan- dez and his partner, Ponto. Ponto smote the brute upon the shoulder. He pointed to a huge stone at his feet. “Finish him,” he commanded. “Go down and finish him.” The brute seized the stone and crept warily down a narrow path and reached the ledge upon which clung Neal. The brute slowly raised the rock above his head. As he did so a small firm hand clutched him by the shoul- der—a woman’s hand. He turned and looked into the eyes of Annette Iling- ton. As though hypnotized he dropped the rock. i “Help him,” commanded Annette, “help him. Do as I say.” Hernandez, white with rage, thrust Ponto behind him and leaned far over the edge of the cliff shaking his clenched hand impotently at the brute. “Do as I say,” he commanded. “I will flay you if you don’t.” He leaned too far, not for his own safety, but for the safety of some of his belongings. A paper packet wrig- gled easily and joyously out of his breast pocket and slipped easily and Jjoyously down the cliff, landing almost at Annette’s feet. The brute turned suddenly, darted forward, stretched forth a huge hand and jerked Neal from his precarious position up to the ledge—up to safety. The three stood there clinging to the side of the cliff; the brute pant- ing with wonder, Neal and Annette panting with relief. Suddenly Annette stooped and picked up a packet that lay at her feet. She uttered a little cry of recognition—and with good cause. It was the identifying map—part. of the evidence that linked her with the lost Isle of Cinnabar. Ten minutes later Neal flung up his hands and cheered—and with good cause. Over the brow of a hill, clam- bering like mad, there swarmed up through the jungle a crowd of United States marines. Hernandez and Ponto saw them from above and with wild oaths turned and incontinently fled. The brute, obeying a sudden impulse, crept swift- 1y along the ledge and followed his re-' treating masters. d Neal and Annette ascended more cautiously and carefully. They met' The Brute Slowly Raised the Rook! Above His Head. - i the little squad of marines on the top! of the Wliff and joined them ‘in’the double quick toward the Aztec strong- hold. They reached the clearing. The gates of the walled city were open and the walls bristled with armored Azted warriors. The marines fixed their bay- onets and made ready for a cl .| Suddenly, however, Neal held up his hands. “Listen,” he exclaimed. the unseen waters beyond there the boom of a gun. “It’s my gun,” said Neal, “I ko her when she speaks—my llx-lno! gun.” | The officer in charge of the squad| held up his hand. “Halt,” he com- manded. i His squad halted. It was well they, did. Through the open gate m‘y{ could see the sun god’s demoniacal|. countenance twisting and mounting fn| the red glare of the altar's flames., Across the strip of jungle they could' hear the boom-boom of the gun. 1 Neal- slapped his thigh with joy.: “He's got the range already, boys,”. he! cried. “Wait. Look—look—look.” | ‘With a mighty shout of triumph the marines leaped into the air yelling like demons themselves. They had good! cause, for the gunner on the Alb';nyi had more than found the range—hp: had planted an exploding shell in the' very middle of the sun god—and the' sun god and his temple, amid shrieks from a hundred throats—burst into & thousand pieces—and -disappeared.’ (TO BE CONTINUED.)