Evening Star Newspaper, September 27, 1927, Page 25

'THE BLACK JOKER BY ISABEL OSTRANDER. (Continued from Y N ) | “But that's absurd! 1've been paint- ing here all the afternoon and I looked into the tent just a little while | ago for matches for my pipe!” There was well feigned ind. young man’s laugh. “Why in uniform if you're from an a You look like a bunch of tram “Think we want to go around ing the countryside with news t one of the inmates has broke loose It w terda 0 W once Janet recognized it the taxi chauffeur of y cowed as he went on: look without interfereuce, you painter, or do we settle you first? We'd rather do it peaceable, and if | the young woman ain't there we | won't bother you again.” There was a se and then her veins chilled at the reply, even though | she realized its inevitability “Look ahead, then!” The young | man added an oath. “It'll be more | than one to six, though, when I get | hold of the sheriff of this hick place, I promise you! Janet flung herself face downward on the ground in an agony of de- spair. There was no help it—she was lost! Then an idea, born of their own excuse ally, en- tered her mind h her really i and the strain of what she through, they would take her but they could hardly try to fc her to speak of that mysterious thing for which she had been hounded! She heard the tramp of approac feet and, when the tent flap lifted, she raised wildly sta to greet those of Rill wh from beneath a soiled banda he was the man ouiside he rgom door, whom Alford had hurt! Flercely, she was glad of it, but al- lowed no hint of recognition to creep into her bk “Told you ly, and the back, iing was he shouted exultant- group of rough-loc men behind him echoed it out and no nonsense! What's matter with you?” He added the quest den change of tone detected dismay, for she tered unintelligibly and arms. | “What!” The pseudoartist had come up back of them and his voice | was that of one lost in amazeme: “Is that her? How did she get her There was a gleam of understand- ing in his eyes, however, and Janet gestured vaguely once more and cried out the first name that came to her mind. “Soeur Angelique! Soeur Angeli the | n with a .-m1-} which Janet | had mut- waved her ye! “What's she sayin'?” One of the men behind Bill stepped back un- easil. “It's French,” volunteered her friend, suddenly. “Any of you un-| derstand it?"” | Bill fell into the trap and shook his_head. “No. I told you she was cucko She'll soon be all right when we get her back, but I wonder what that meant?” “She was calling for ‘Sister An- geline’; sounds like a nun's name. Shall I try her?” Before they co prevent him the young man advan and said: “Regardez le ciel demain! “Look at the sky tomorrow!" was repeating his former inexplicable instructions, and in response she only dared murmur the final words that her tailisman invoked: “Clest toujours sep! “It is always sev The young man turned at Bill's angrily sus- picious growl and declared, with every. appearance of candor, “She’s crazy, all right! I told her to listen and be- have herself, and she said something about ‘Joseph!' Say, take her away! Forget what I said about the sheriff, you boys are all right! I don’t know how she managed to crawl in here without my seeing her, but 1 guess she's better off back where she came from, only don’t hurt her! The poor girl doesn't know what she's doing!” Knabe Ampico Studios. HOMER L. KITT CO., 1330 G St. N.W. | has she? | you can sce she must ha e was playing hid part to perfec- tion, and Janet rose waveringl her feet, tottering out to still dazedly, Angelique!” had taken her cue; she went docilely she would® not be harmed, and although every instinct rebelled, she forced herself to acqulescence. Without another glance at her all; she permitted them to lead her away, stumbling and leaning heavily on Bili's hated arm. What is it?” one of the men mut- She ain't actually gone crazy, We didn’t bargain with the old man for this!"™ “Shut your fool mouth!” Bill re- torted. “She’'s delirious, that's all. Got a kind of a_fever, maybe, from tiying to swim the pond last night; > been in tere it up to her neck! 3 right and we'll have no trouble get- ting her there, that's sure. If she can't make it to the bus, we'll carry her!” Janet took the unmitting hint and “made” the light, covered truck that wail, a hundred yards down the ried road. She had no mind to be carried by these ruffians, to the anger of having her hair fall down lose the weapons concealed v to hide Carlin woman 3 Be. Bill helped her not ungently into the truck, and put the seat cushion under her head when she sank down upon its floor. Two 'of the men climbed up heside him and the other at on the tailboard shoulder Ider to conceal her, their feet ng over, longed to scream, to thrust them aside and leap out, but that would undo all her former efforts and end only in recapture; besides there young man's warnin althoush ‘she could mot undes e meant to obey and watch the 1l fix_her up ick, with Bill at the wheel, - good speed, but the road wa: stantly twisting and_turning, and re had no means of knowing how far the distance had been which she b veled that weary day. Dusk came and night fell before they drew up, once more, at the porch of the house among the willows, and with opening_door a strange man’s n those of the rest. What news?” *“Got her. Bill responded briefly, but with an odd sort of respect in tones. “She's sick, though; out her head. Don’'t make any trouble, < kind of rambling. Guess talk to some pur- heavy voice remarked, We don't want your bring her in!” This- time Janet permitted herself to be carried, muttering and tossing, but through her half-closed eyes she looked at the stranger whose tone was that of a master. She saw a thick-set man with a mouth like iron and a mane of tangled, sandy hair. Could this be the leader of her fath- er's mysterious enemies? She was borne upstairs and lald upon the same bed from which she had risen to hoped-for freedom on the previous night, and then the sandy- haired man commanded from the doorway: “That'll do! Send May up to her and then come to me. I want this story straight, do you hear?” Bill obeyed and Janet heard the clang of new bolts being shot home on the door. Instantly she had slipped from the bed and torn the file and knife-blade from her hair. A fresh- 1y lighted candle stood on the dresser, and by its wavering glow she glanced about wildly for a place of conceal- ment, when all at once she saw that the matting*which covered the floor had been worn through near the foot of the bed. It was the work of a moment to slip the two implements under the loose flap, and when Mrs. Carlin hurried in, she found the girl ossing with unbound hair upon her m S| meaning of the watch W She undressed her, after a few futile efforts to recall the seemingly wandering mind, and bandaged the torn, aching feet, then brought broth and medicine whieh Janet decided to take docilely. Afterward. the woman sottled herself in the rocker beside the candle with a book, as though prepared to read the night through. Her presence was intolerable and Janet lay quietly, breathing with deep as though she were asleep. Carlin would go, per- haps . . . But the continued strain had been too severe and, before she could com- bat it, the feigned slumber became real. When she opened her eyes once more, the sun was high and the dis- tant church clock she had hea before was striking eleven, while Mrs. Carlin had disappeared. The s She must watch the sky! Janet sprang from bed, wincing at every tortured footstep, and hurried to the window. Stout wire netting had been nailed over its opened lower sash, but through it she peered anxiously upward. Was she too late? She did not know what to expect and nothing met her gaze in tho vast ex- panse of blue but an oddly shaped cioud of grayish white, drifting lazily downward. There was a faint, faraway buzzing in her ears like the distant hum of bees. Could it be an airplanc? She could discern no floating speck in the higher air, but the little cloud caught her eye once more. It was changing, streaking down like an uncoiled, lace-edged ribhon be- low a short horizontal line reaching out to the left of it. It looked like a gigantic, blurred flgure “7." Seven! It was the signal, the mes sage from the s net held her breath, for more t puffs of smoke were coming into view from some unknown source. Could it be an air- | plane at an altitude so high as to be | invisibl s dike daylight & sent up from Some- where The puffs of smoke were resolving themselves as before, but with maddening slowness and in curving lines like written letters haz- ily_outlined in the infinite! Janet pressed her face hard against the screen. Surely the letter “T" was | forming itself and the streak flowed ward, making an upward loop, but ller than the first. “T-e! A word as forming! What stupendous mysterious power < this at the disposal of Alford and s comrades, the men who knew the hands that nointed to seven! at did it mean, that they would risk their lives for an unknown_girl who displayed it in ex- tremity? But then, Daddy knew it, too, and had given it into her keeping! He was one of them and this marvel of the air was at his command also! “T-en,” and that was all! The first part had already disintegrated and floated away in mist. The figure “seven” and written word “ten!"” Why had they been so differentiated? The figure was surely the signal to call her attentlon, but the word...? What was its message? The clock had struck eleven, Janet reflected; could it mean to be ready if some. thing happened at ten that night? But footsteps and the rustle of a skirt sounded along the hall, and Janet had only time to reach the side of her bed and seat herself upon it when Mrs. Carlin entered. She read recognition in the girl's eyes and ex- claimed: “You're better now? That's good: There's some one waiting downstairs for a little talk with you!" (Continued in Tomorrow's Star.) R Glaciers that creep down the sides of Mount Rainier are slowly grinding the mountain away. Chickering Ampico Studios. 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