Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, January 4, 1915, Page 2

A Novelized Version of the Produ: Copyright, 1914, by Louis Joseph Vance CHAPTER |, | ‘The Message of the Rose. Lapped deep in the leather-bmmd' Juxury of an ample louny,'c,xc!mlr.i walled apart from the world by the venerable solitude of the library of London's most exclusive club, Mr. Alan Law sprawled (largely on the mnape of his neck) and, squinting dis- contentedly down his nose, admitted that he was exhaustively bored. Now the chair filled so gracelessly stood by an open window, some twen- ty fect below which lay a sizable | walled garden, an old English garden | in full flower. And through the win- | dow, now and then, a half-hearted breeze wafted gusts of warm air, sauve and enervating with the heavy | fragrance of English roses. Mr. Law drank deep of it, and in| spite of his spiritual unrest, sighed slightly and shut his eyes. An unspoken word troubled the depth of his consciousness, so that old memories stirred and zled to its surface. The word Rose,” | and for the time seemed to be the| | name neither of a woman nor of a flower, but oddly of both, as though the two things were one. 1lis mental vigion, bridzing the gap . con- Jured up the vision of a lithe, sweet ! sflhouette in white, with red roses et her belt, posed on a terrace of the | Riviera against the burning Mediter ranean blue. i Mr. Law was dully conscious that he ought to be sorry abon But he was really v drow and , drinking ) of wine-sc of roses, he fell gently aslecp, The clock was striking four when he awoke; and before closing eyes he had noticed that its indicated ten minutes to four. could not have slept very long. For some few seconds Alan did not move, but rested as he wi: incredu- Jously regarding a rose wl i 1-d ma- | terialized mysteriously upc the little table at his elbow. He wae qite sure it had not been there when he closed his eyes, and almost as sure that it | was not real. | And in that instant of awakoening | the magic fragrance of the r arden seemed to be even more strong and cloying sweet than ever. Then he put out a gingerly hand and discovered that it was real beyond all question. A warm red rose, fresh- plucked, drops of water trembling and sparkling like tiny diamonds on the velvet of its fleshy petals. And when impulsively he took it by the stem, he discovered a most indisputable thorn —which did service for the traditional | pinch. Convinced that he wasn't dreaming, Alan transferred the rose to his sound hand, and meditatively sucked his The Tremyh 9: ced by i%e Universal Film Co. By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE Acthor of “The Fortune Hunler,” " The Bross Bowl,”* The Biack Bag,” eke. Dlostrated with Photographs from the Pictare Production | clothed . a black woollen rug. | my mother was, while I' | sions. With Red Roses at Her Belt. thumb. Then he jumped up from the chair and glared suspiciously round the room. It was true that a prac- tical joke in that sclemn atmosphere were a thing unthinkable; still, there was the rose. There was no one but himself in the librar; Perplexed to exasperation, Alan fled the club, only pausing on the way out to annex the envelope he found ad- dress to him in the letter-rack. It was a blank white envelope of good qua v, the S8 typewritten, the stamp K 1, and bore & Lon- don postraark half illegible. lan tcre the envelope open in ab- sent-minded fa i started was it stunz. The ¢ He could read quite well t of the rose He D get that Rose of the love me we must that if ev you'll send f 1 ad gr acce 1 to the uaflattering belief that had forgotten him. And now the sign had ccme—but what the deuce did the trey of hearts mean? When morning came, London had Jost Alan Law. No man of his ac quaintance—nor any woman—had re- THE EVENING TELEGRAM LAK ELAND, FLA., JAN. 4, 1915. Hearts Drama of the Same Name day in spring, the clamorous Iife of New York running as fluent as quick- silver through its brilllant streets. Within-doors, neither sound nor eun- beam disturbed a perennial quiet that | Wwas yet not peace. The room was like a wide, deep well of night, the haunt of teeming | shadows and sinister silences. Little, indeed, was visible beyond the lonely shape that brooded over it, the figure of an old man motion- less in a great, leather-bound chair. His hair was as white as his heart was black. The rack of his bones, in a thick black dressing- gown with waist-cord of crimson silk, from the thighs down was covered by He stared un- blinkingly at nothing: a man seven- eizhths dead, completely paralyzed but for his head and his left arm. | Presently a faint clicking signal dis- | turbed the stillne Seneca Trine put | forth his left hand and touched one of a row of crimson buttons embedded in the desk. Something else clicked ' this time a latch. There was the faint possible noise of a closing door and a smallish man stole noise- to the light, paused beside the tited respectfully for leave “A teleg sir—from England.” | “Give it me | The old man ¢ 1 the sheet of yel- low paper, seonncd it hungrily, and | crushed it in his tremulons elaw with a gesture of uncontrotiable emotion. | 1d my davshter Judith here!” ! Two minutes luter a - oung woman ' in street dres 18 admitted to the chnm of shoday “You sent for me, father?” ! “Sit down.” She found and placed a chair at the and chediently settled herself ~tell me—what day is this?" “My birthday. I am twenty-one.” “Anud your sister's birthday: Rose, too, twenty-one.” | “Yes.” “You could have forgotten that,” the old man pursued almost mockingly. “Do you really dislike your twin-sister 80 intensely?” The girl's voice trembled. “You { know,” she sald, “we have nothing in common—beyond parentage and this abominable resemblance. Our natures differ as light from darkness.” “And which would you say was— lght?” “Hardly my own: I'm no hypocrite, ' Rose is everything that they tell me the girl smiled strangely—*"I think—I am more your daughter than my mother's.” | A nod of the white head confirmed the suggestion. “It is true. I have watched you closely, Judith, perhaps ' more closely than even you knew. ! Before I was brought to this"—the wasted hand made a significant ges- | ture—“I was a man of strong pas- Your mother never loved, but ! rather feared me. And Rose is the ! mirror of her mother's nature, gentle, unselfish, sympathetic. But you, Ju- dith, you are like a second self to me” An accent of profound unuamcuon‘l informed his voice. The girl waited in a silence that was tensely expect- ant. “Then, if on this your birthday I were to ask a service of you that might injuriously affect the happiness of your sister—?" The girl laughed briefly: ask it!” “And how far would you go to do my will?” “Where would you stop in the serv- ice of one you loved?" Seneca Trine nodded gravely. And after a brief pause, “Rose is in love,” he announced. “Oh, T know—I know!” the father afirmed with a falnt ring of satisfac- tion. “I am old, a cripple, prisoner of this living tomb; should know—somehow—I come to know in course of time!" | “It's true—that Englishman scraped an acquaintance with on the Rivicra last year—what's his name ?— w, Alan Law.” n the main,” mildly the father corrected ‘you are right. Only, he's not ; alive, bring him to me. “Only | but all things 1! &ha:uu? Answer immediately, she | We Both Loved One Woman. knew T meant jt, and gent Tiis wite and son 'd. Then he died sud- i , of s common ailment—they but 1 He died of « knew hetter e 1a cruel smile: “I had made hi sn of terror. » often 1 wonld send Law, one way It always—a it was my death you know, our name, a group of three. And ‘ ue he received a trey of hearts, ithin twenty-four hours an attempt of some sort would be made upon his life. The strain broke down his nerve, . “Then 1 turned my attention to tho son, but the distance was too T the ditliculties insuperable. The Law millions mocked all my efforts; their alliance with the Rothschilds placed mother and son under the proiection of every secret police in Eurane. But they dared not come home. At length ' I realized T could win only Ly playing A waiting game. T needed three more money; to bring Alan Law back to America; and one agent . T could trust, one incerruptible agent. I ceased to persecute mother and son, ! lulled them into a sense of false se- and by careful speculations repaired my fortunes. In Rose I had the lure to draw the boy back to America; in you, the one person I could trust. “I sent Rose abroad and arranged that she should meet Law. They fell | in love at sight. Then I wrote inform- | ing her that the man she had chosen | was the son of him who had murdered | all of me but my brain. It fell out as | I foresaw. You can imagine the scene of passionate renunciation—pledges of undying constancy—the arrange- ment of a secret code whereby, when she needed him, she would send him a single rose—the birth of a great ro- mance!” The old man laughed sardonically. “Well, there is the history. Now the rose has been sent; Law is already | homeward bound; my agents are watching his every step. The rest is | in your hands.” i The girl bent forward, breathing heavily, eyes atlame in a face that had | assumed a waxen pallor. “What is it you want of me?" “Bring Alan Law to me. Dead or But alive, it you can compass it: I wish to see him die. Then I, too, may die content.” The hand of hot-blooded youth stole forth and grasped the fcy hand of death-in-life, “I will bring him,” Judith swore— “dead or alive, you shall have him here.” CHAPTER III. The Trall of Treachery. But younz Mr. Law was sole agent of his own evanishment; just as he | was nobody’s fool, least of all his own, The hidden meaning of the trey of hearts perplexed him with such dis- trust that before leaving London, he dispatched a code cablegram to his | confidential agent in New York What do you know about the trey of | The answer forestalled his arrival | in Liverpool: | Trine's death sign for your father. For God's sake, look to yourself and Keep way from Ameriea But Alan had more than once vis- Eng! His father was Wellington Law, of Law & Son.” She kunew betier than to interrupt, but her seer : patience was belied by the whitening knue s of a hand that lay within the iittle pool of bloog- red licht And on: “Law ntly the ¢ and 1 ) voice rolled 2 orce nds; then—Iit came to p: an, et we loved vour mother. T won her one wonmn —all but heart: too late she real- ized it was Law ahe loved. He never forgave me, ror I him. Though he arried another woman, still he held 1 me the love of my wife. ating him fre and he wa the t driv ning S 1 was pleked up ins and lived only to be what today. Law tri- umphed in the street while T lay help- onl g remnant of my to me. Then his chaufteur, discharced. came th me and | that should he escape, I would have the life of his son. He 1 could | fted America iuce Ad unknown | to Seneca Trine v | | his own selection | | ight d out of London, a second- | class pa r landed from one of the C.-P. steamships, ne walked the streets of Quebec nd dropped j out of sizht between da | to turn up Canadian ha eng newly and dawn, distant in the gulde p A tack \eaven tre Dame rg border. th part 1eetioned tho wered n- porte atened all -dry with drov On the south offered a falr pros- pect. nd the fires were making southward far faster than man might Fare to travel threugh that grim and olitiens ok up in the northwest, fously be consulted the imp: sive n of the Indian, from whom bis quegtions gained Alan little cory- fort. Jacob Trecommended forced marches to Spirit lake, where canoes might be found to aid their flight; and withdrew into sullen reserve. They traveled far and fast by dim forest tralls before sundown, then again paused for food and rest. And as Jacob sat deftly about preparing the meal, Alan stumbled off to whip the little trail-side stream for trout. | Perhaps a hundred yards upstream, the back-lash of a careless cast by his weary hand hooked the state of Maine. Too tired even to remember the ap- propriate words, Alan scrambled ashore, forced through the thick un- dergrowth that masked the trail, found his fly, set the state of Maine free—and swinglng on his heel brought up, nose to a sapling, trans- fixed by a rectangle of white paste-! board fixed to its trunk, a trey of | hearts, of which each pip had been let. He carricd it back to camp, mean- ing to consult the guide, but on sec- ond thought, held his tongue. It was not likely that the Indian had ov looked an object so conspicuous on the trail. i So Alan waited for him to speak— | and meantime determined to watch Jacob more narrowly, though no other euspicions eircumstznee had marked the several days of their association The first half of the night was, as the day, devoted to relentless prog- southward; thirty minutes of dy j L fiv 1inutes for re 1d repeat. No more quest such urgent wind mutte veils of smol ress on as to the need for : overhead the north out eeasi Thin ed through the f est, hueg cround, like so! tained he glared, livid with re- flected fires. Py midn Alan had come to the bounds of en nee; flegh, hone and rw conld no longer stand th T | Jacoh declared 3 lake now only six ho as far as concerned Al t have said 600 Tlis ot once un rollad, Alan drenoed upon it like one drugeed. The sun wi - hieh when he awak- ered and sat up, 1 Wy eves what had come over the Indian to let him slcep so late Of a sudden he was assailed by sick ening fe that needed only the brief- est inv wtion to confirm, Jacob had absconded with every valuable item of their equipment, Nor was his motive far to seek. Overnight th- fi 1 made tre mendous got And ever and anon the wind w I bring down the rog of the holocaust, dulled by distance but not unlike the growling of wild animals feeding on their kil Alan delayed long enough only to swallow a few mouthfuls of raw food, gulped water from a spring, and set out at a dog-trot or the trail to Spirit Lake. For hours he blundered blindly on, holding to the trail mainly by instinct. At length, panting, gasping, half- blinded, h» staggered into a little nat- | ural clearing and plunged forward headlon 0 bewildered that he could not have said whether he was tripped or thrown; for even as he stumbled a heavy body landed on his back and crushed him savagely to earth, In less than a minute he was over- come; his wrists hitched together, his ankles bourd with heavy cord. When his vision cleared he found | Jacob within a yard, regarding him with a face as immobile as though it had Heen cast in the bronze it resem- bled. Beyond, to one side, a woman fn | a man’s hunting costume stood eye- ing the captive as narrowly as the In- dian, but unlike him with a counte- nanec that seemed aglow with a fierce exultancy over his downfall. But for that look, he could have be- lieved hers the face that had brought him overseas to this mortal pass. Fea- | ture for feature, even to the hue of | her tumbled hatr, she ocounterfetted the woman he loved; only those eyes, | aflame with their look of inhuman | ruthlessness, denied that the two were ona | He seught vatnly to speak. The breath rustled in his parched throat like wind whispering among dead leaves. Thrusting the Indian roughly aside, the woman knelt in his place by Alan's head. No" she said, and smiling cruelly, shook her hend—*"no, I am not your Rose. But [ am her sister, Judith, her twin, born in the same hour, daughter of—can you guess whose daughter? But this!”™ She flashed a card from wit¥in her hunting shirt ana held it before his eves. “You know it, eh? The trey of hearts—the symbol of Trine—Trine, your father's enemy, and urs. and—Rose's father and mine! So, now, pe )8 you know!"™ of wind like a furnace bl * glade. The woman sprang 1 over-should to the for: nd ned to the Indian. CHAPTER 1V, folk, deer, porcupines, a fox or two, a wildeat, rabbits, squirrels, partridges —a dozen more. . ., . tomatic whi ected to relieve him. sharp, spiteful m suddenly to a Jaceh had negl ckling sitting post- neatly punctured by a 22-caliber bul- r- | swiftly to the farther shore Judith | | ing the paddle. within & Bundred yards :‘:y. ll'l'he dead Indian in its bow, living woman helpless in its stern, it swept swiftly onward to destruc- “o}l;'ls next few actions were wholly unpremeditated. He was conscious only of her white, staring face, her strange likeness to the woman that he ved. ’oHe ran out upon the bridge, threw himself down upon the innermost tim- ber, turned, and let his body fall back- ward, arms extended at length, and swung, braced by his feet beneath the outer timber. i With a swiftness that passed con-| scious thought, he was aware of the canoe hurtling onward with the speed of wind, its sharp prow apparently aimed directly for his head. Then hands closed round his wrists like clamps; a tremendous weight tore at his arms, and with an effort of incon- ceivable dificulty he began to lift, to drag the woman up out of the foam- ing jaws of death. Somehow that impossible feat was achieved; somehow the woman gained a hold upon his body, shifted it to his belt, contrived inexplicably to clamber over him to the timbers; and some- how he in turn pulled himself up to safety, and sick with reaction sprawled prone, lengthwise upon that foot-wide ! bridge, above the screaming abyss. | Later he became aware that the tion,"fo find that the Tndian ~had | thoughtfully touched & match to the pyre before departing. At Alan’s feet the twigs were blazing merrily. It would have been easy enough, acting on instinct, to snatch his limbs away, but he did not move more than to strain his feet as far as their bonds permitted. Conscious of scorching heat even through his hunting boots, he suffered that torture until a tongue of flame licked up, wrapped itself round the thick hempen cord and ate it through Immediately Alan kicked his feet free, lifted to a kneeling position, and crawled from the pyre. As for his hands—Alan’s hunting- knife was still in its sheath belted to the small of his back. Tearing at the belt with his hampered fingers, he contrived to shift it round until the sheath knifa stuck at the belt-loop over his left hip. Withdrawing and and conveying the blade to his mouth, he O i dJd. s ) [ -~ i Uit had twenty-one years' mation. All work guaranteed. Phone 169 Sawed the Cords Against the Razor Sharp Blade. B0 gripped it firmly between his teeth and suwed the cords round his wrists acuinst the razor-sharp blade. 13 Hefore Alan could turn and run he ' i saw a vanguard of flames bridge 50 - yards at a bound and start a dead & pine blazing like a torch. £l And then l(|;| was );-l‘lin:;::l l:lkaln mad § the Garment. man across the smoked-filled clearing, | 2 % 5 rin and in less than two minutes broke g If you send your Clothing to US,it will not only Lo from the forest to the pebbly shore of S o JE & a wide-bosomed lake, and within a § Clean and Pure, but IT WILL BE . few hundred feet of a substantial | 5 Our wagons cover the entire Cty. If you have dam, through whose spillway a heavy ij: e ool volume of water cascaded with a roar {@ Package you are anxious to get to the Laundry before ¢ rivaling that of the forest-fire itself, {id % ” e 2 ou ha Two quick glances showed Alan two $ wagon comes around, Fhone us, andlet us show you hv lhlnf:sl. lzlxm (llus on!];' t“:'v of escapo o Soon the Boy will be there for it. was via e am; al ere was a | ¥ solitary canoe at mid-lake, bearing C: Trine and the Indian—the latter wield- Qo«ywflw&‘mww@o: In the act of turning toward the dam he saw Jacob drop the paddle. L 13 The next instant a bullet from a Win- chester .30 kicked up a spurt of peb- bles only a few feet in advance of Alan. He quickened his pace, but the next bullet fell closer, while the third ac- tually bit the earth beneath his run- ning feet as he gained the dam. Exasperated, he pulled up, whipped out his pistol and fired without aim. At the same time, he noted that the distance between dam and canoe had . _Measurejby us No More “You fool! 'I tell you, I have sworn The utter grotesquenes; of it broke upon his intelligence ltky revelation of some enormoyg absurdity laughed a little hysterically. Darkness followed. A fiasy o, ning seemed to flame betweey like a fiery sword. To its ( thunder, he lapsed into uncoyd ness. | When he roused, it was wiy er and a shudder. in torrents from a sky the Across the lake dense of steam enveloped the fipf s fainted beneath the deluge hissing noise filled the wor| even the roar of the spill He was alone. But in his hand, tatte by the downpour, he four mental slate. .fém best services in this line. v e pleased tc furnish estimates ay Sanitary SEBEIDIEIHDEHISB DS the cascades: (Continued 1f J. B. /TREA D = - DDA BRPHPE - % & ~IND BUILY experience Lakeland and vicinity, 1 feel com -of the spill-] woman had crawled to safe o l:,ho farther shore, and pulling fi{,,,","l gether, imitated her example, q earth underfoot, he rose apg swaying, beset by a great weyy, Through the gathering g, | ghastly twilight in which forests on the other shore 1, an unearthly glare—he disc | wan, writhen face of Jy close to his and he hearq scream barely audible aboye mingled voices of the cong Why did you in N Rain Wedn f corter 1 No disease germs can live in Clohing that are sent us, and we are Careful in the Laundring, not to Dama PHONE 13( OEOPOFOHOH Q10 “Save Ten Doliars By.having your Fall Clothes made to your INDIVIDUAL Suits or Overcoats 15 No Les! Large variety of Shapesand’ Shad- ings, Trimmed with Contrast Bands o — the Season's latest Concepticns A Tremendous Weight Tore at Mis & 1 1 er t th to the i ‘ i ot it e % : : w83 Styles 53 Qua: e : e — ° i th § = a s ng " ear. 2 e —————— _\‘ e c— As b response Jacob start. = i ed, dropped his rifle and crumpled up In the bow of the canoe. Simultane ously earth and heavens tN ;ockcd with a terrific clap of thun- er. y : Hatters and Tailors t t bridged the P X 4 Y J i i Futch & Gentry Bidg, LAKELAND, I ‘en a glance aside ! P the overfiow had drawn the canpe £3 ? ary s ig buil Thneg 5 g, UTNegy, OVere] 4 dith 7y Rer v, the g fagn I degg ature, | wag iy " “‘the fool h it! de of she o's pe er ow: clear, . engy was 0—oh, reco think? shall descen| uttere ate w ream, esist, a Indicat he sh recko was inged| ed. N a_grop: gravel his ¢ nd fre leve. was w e kept ously, a real least ere it P of jo his fiy the b ter. Wu are Hserating the ho you hav il want 1l make 1l later, cannot s back, ment rix it were Pprecipi and IIAJ him in eling ths 'rode on He d a