Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, January 6, 1915, Page 2

THE BVENING TELEGRAM LAK (Continued from Monday.) CHAPTER V., The Hunted Man. / hat day was hot and windless with and struck out for something dark An unclouded sky—a day of brass and urning. | Long before any sound audible to human ears disturbed the poonday hush, a bobcat sunning on a log in a glade to which no trail Jed, pricked ears, rose, glanced over shoulder with a snarl and—of a sudden was no more there. Perhaps two minutes later a snce ®lon of remote crashings began to be heard, a cumulative volume of sounds made by some heavy body forcing by | main strength through the underbrush, end ceased only when a man broke fnto the clearing, pulled up, stood for an Instant swaying, then reeled to a seat on the log, plllowing' his head on arms folded across his s und shud- | dering uncontrollably in all his limbs. He was a young man who had been and would again be very personable. Just now he wore the look of one hounded by furies. His face was cpim- son with congested biood and streaked with sweat and grime; bluish veins throbbed in high relief upon his tem- | ples; his lips were cracked and swol- len, his eyes ha hands torn and bleeding. His shirt and trousers | and “cruisers” were wrecks, the latter | scorched, charred, and broken in a | dozen places. Woods equipment he It Was a Rose. had none beyond a hunting knife belt- ed at the small of his back. All else bad been efther consumed In the for- est fire or stolen by his Indfan guide— who had subsequently died while ate tempting to murder his employer. Since that event, the man had suc- ceeded in losing himself completely. In seeking shelter from the thunder- storm, he had lost touch with his only known and none too clearly located landmarks. Then, after a night passed without a fire in the lee of a ragged bluff, he had waked to discover the #un rising in the west and the rest of the universe sympathetically upside- ‘down; and aimlessly ever since he had stumbled and blundered in the maze of those grimly reticent fastnesses, for the last few hours haunted by a fear of failing reason—possessed by a no- tion that he was dogged by furtive enemies—and within the last hour the puppet of blind, witless panic. But even as he strove to calm him- self and rest, the feeling that some- thing was peering at him from behind & mask of undergrowth grew intoler- ably acute. At length he jumped up, glared wild- Iy at the spot where that something no longer was, lung himself fran- ®ically through the brush in pursuit of it, and—found nothiug. With a great effort he pulled him- self together, clamped his teeth upon the promise not again to give way to hallucinations, and turned back to the clearing. There, upon the log on which he had rested, he found—but refused to believe he saw—a playing card, a trey of hearts, face up in the sun- glare, With a gesture of horror, Alan Law | fled the place. ‘While the sounds of his flight were | still loud, a grinning half-breed guide stole like a shadow to the log, laughed derisively after the fugitive, picked up and pocketed the card, and set out in tireless,ecat-footed pursuit. An hour later, topping a ridge of rising ground, Alan caught from the hollow on its farther side the music of clashing waters. Tortured by thirst, he began at once to descend in reck- The Trey O’ Hearts Novelized Ve Motion Pictore Drama of the Seme Neme & R radnced by the Urkrerml Pl Co By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE Acthor of “The Fortuns Huntes,” * The Brow Bowl,” " The Black Bug:' Dlestrated with Photographs from the Picture Production | dured more than he knew; more than | allowing for | less haste. What was at first a geutle slope co ered with waist-decp brush and car- peted with ~mold, grew more declivitous, a mossy hillside, as steep as a roof, bare of underbrush, and sparely eown with small cedars through whose ranks cool blue water twinkled far below The shelving 1 showes d a of e 1t over the edge and dowa swiftly | Copyright, 1014, by Louis Joseph Vance { the sum, a molten ball wheeling mad- | 1y in the cup of the turquoise, sky. ‘ Then dark waters closed over him. He came up struggling and gasping, ? that rode the waters near at hand— | eomething vaguely resembling a canoe. But his strength was largely spent, his breath had been driven out of him | by the force of the fall, and he had ! swallowed much water—while the fleld of his consciousness was stricken with confusion. Within a stroke of an outstretched paddle, he flung up a hand and went down again. Instantly one occupant of the canoe, a young and very beautiful wo- man in a man's hunting clothes, €poke a sharp word of command and, as her guide steadied the vessel with his paddle, rose in her placo so surely that she scarcely disturbed the nice ! balance of the little craft, and curved ! her lithe body over the bow, head- foremost into the pool. Cusie e . . s Mr. Law had, in point of fact, en- even a weathered woodsman could | have borne without suffering. Forty: cight hours of such heavy woods- walking as he had put in to escape the forest fire, would h prostrate almost any ma (Ignoring a dozen other mental, nerv- ous and physleal strains) merely the fact that he had been half-drowned. He experienced a little tever, a little delirium, then blank sinmbers of ex- haustion. He awoke in dark of night, wholly | unaware that thirty-six houre had | passed since his fall. This last, how- ever, and events that had gone before, he recalled with tolerable clearness— the sluggishness of a drowsy mind. Other memories, more | vague, of gentle ministering hands, of a face by turns an angel's, a flower's, a fiend's, and a dear woman's, trou- | bled him even less materially. He was already sane enough to allow he had probably been a bit out of hi: head, and since it seemed he had been saved and cared for, he found no rea- son to quarrel with present circum- | stances, Still, he would have been grateful for some explanation of certain phe- nomena which still haunted him—seuch as a faint, elusive scent of roses with & vague but importunate sense of a woman's presence in that darkened room—things manifestly absurd . With some difficulty, from a dry throat, he spoke, or rather whis- pered: “Water!"” In response he heard someone move over a creaking floor. A sulphur match spluttered infamously. A can- dle caught fire, silhouetting—illusion, of course!—the figure of a woman in hunting shirt and skirt. Water splashed noisily. Alan became aware of someone who stood at his side, one hand offering a glass to his lips, the | other gently raising his head that he might drink with ease. Draining the glass, he breathed his thanks and sank back, retaining his grasp on the wrist of that unreal hand. It suffered him without re- sistance. The hallucination even went so far as to say, In a woman's Boft accents: “You are better, Alan?" He sighed incredulously: “Rose!” The voice responded “Yes!” Then the perfume of roses grew still more strong, seeming to fan his cheek like | a woman's warm breath. And a mir- acle came to pass; for Mr. Law, who realized poignantly that all this was sheer, dowuright nonsense, distinct- ly felt lips like velvet caress his fore- head. | He closed his eyes, tightened his grasp on that hand of phantasy, and muttered rather inarticulate The voice asked: “What dear?” He responded: “Delirium . But I like it Let me rav Then again he slept. CHAPTER VI, is 1t Disclosures. ! In a little corner office, soberly fur- nished, on the topmost floor of one of lower Manhattan's loftiest office-tow- ers, a little mouse-brown man sat over a big mahogany desk; a little man of big gole rs, steward of one of | Amer! s most formidable fortunes. Preci at eleven minutes noon (or at the identic en by Alan Law to c: 1 instant chos- apult over the | edge of a cliff in northern Maine) the muted signal of the little man’s desk telephone clicked and, eagerly lifting receiver to ear, he nodded with a smile and said In accents of some relief: her to come in at once, please. Jumping up, he placed a chair in in te juxtaposition with his own; and the door opened, and a young woman ntered n man bowed. “Mi wrmured with bro 38 a gre al of deference The youn n re ed his bow with a “Mr. Dig L& to como In response | nal invita- n. “Won't Thank you,” gravely, and took the chair he indicated. d Mr Digby, wi he made no effort to « mined the fair face turned so candidly to him. te compr “It is qu hensible,” he said you? “1 bave (he houor to be his nearest | seemed my business, in the service of | burpose of having you meet Alan g Trlend, this side the water, as well (hon FopHad wa Tapasalve TOWGEF as his man of business.” He paused with an embarrassed gee- | ture. “So I have ventured to request ' this—ah—surreptitious appointment in order to—ah—take the further lber | ty of aeking whether you have recent- ly sent Alan a message?” Her look of surprise was answer enough, but she confirmed it with vig- orous denial: #I have not communi- cated with Mr. Law in more than a year!"” i “Precisely as I thought,” Mr. Digby | nodded. “None the less, Mr. Law not long since received what purported to be a message from you; in fact—a rose.” And as Miss Trine sat for. ward with a start of dismay, he aded: “I'have the information over Mr. Law's signature—a letter received ten days ago—from Quebee.” 4 “Alan in America!” the girl cried in undisguised distress. “ile came in response to—eh—the message of the rose.” “But I did not send it!" “I felt sure of that, because,” said Mr. Digby, watching ber narrowly— ecause of something that accompa- nied the rose, a symbol of another sig- nificance altogether—a playing card, a ! trey of hearts.” Her eyes were blank. Ho pursued with openly sincere reluctance: “I must tell you, I see, that a trey of : hearts invariably foresignaled an at- | tempt by your father on the life of | | nobody Alan’s father. With a stricken cry the girl erouched | back in the chair and covered her face i with her hands. “That is why T sent for you,” Mr. Digby pursued hastily, as 1f in hope of getting quickly over a most unhap- py business. “Alan's letter, written and posted on the steamer, reached me within twenty-four hours of his arrival n Quebece, and detailed his schemeo to enter the United States secretly—as | he puts it, ‘by the back door,’ by way of northern Maine—and promised ad- vice by telegraph as soon as he reached Moosehead Lake. He should have wired me ere this, I am told by those who know the country he was to cross. Frankly, I am anxious about the boy!"” “And I!"” the girl exclaimed pititully. “To think that he should be brought into such peril through me “You can tell me nothin “Nothing—as yet. 1 did not dream of this—much less that the message of the rose was known to any but Alan and myself. 1 cannot understand!” “Then I may tell you this much more, that your father maintains a very efficient corps of secret agents.” “You think he spied upon me?” the girl flamed with indignation. 3 “I know he did.” Mr. Dighy per- mitted himself a quiet smile. “It has my employer, to employ agents of my own. There is no doubt that your father sent you to Europe for the solol “Oh!™ she protested. ~arthly motive—?" “That Alan might be won back to America through you--and so—" There was no need to finish out his sentence. The girl was silent, pale “But what and staring with wide eyes, visibly mustering her wits to cope with this emergency. “I may depend on you,” Mr. Digby ‘to advise me If you find suggested, out anything? “For even more.” The girl rose and extended a hand whose grasp was firm “Oh, Come, Come!"” She Cried Wildly. and vital on his of resolve set her count “You may unt on me my own part, if T find circumsts warrant it. I promised not to marry Alan because of the feud betwoon our fathers—but not to stand by and seo him sacrificed. Tell me how 1 commu ite secretly i let me go as soon as po: A fine spirit nance aglow action on CHAPTER VIl The Mutineer Rose Trine rin s ot } \ the eme d and mo ered her 1 when a malice length pleasure. in that strangely he decided to speak, it was with a r hateful of irony “Naturally, question your watched.” with loy reason ha to you ELAND, FLA,, JAN. 6, 19 |1n7s iy, "You were not! | mered. “Then who—?" lable tnto the sflence: ‘“Well?” “Judith.” she stated with conviction. | “Judith, “You have visited the man Digby, | “Impossible! You don't under- servant and friend of the man I bate st : —and you love.” The girl shook her head. “Yet I She said, without expression: "Yea: | “Repeat what passed between you. “I shall not, but on ane condition.” “And that fo7" “Tell me first whether it was you | Wwho sent the rose to Alan Law—and more, where Judith has been during | the last fortnight?’ | “I shall tell you nothing, my child | Repeat™—the resonant voice rang with | inflexible purpose—'repeat what the; man Digby told you!” ! The girl was silent. He endured her | stare for a long minute, 8 spark of| rage kindling to flame the evil old eyes. | Then his one lving member tbal‘; had power to serve his iron will, a | know: Judith was here until this | rose, warm and red, dew upon its | stove, with a plentiful | pause, dashed, chagrined, mystified. hand like the claw of a bird of prey, moved toward a row of buttons sunk i in the writing-bed of his desk. | s to make | | “I warn you I have you speak—" With a quick movement the glrl bent over and prisoned the bony wrist in her strong fingers. With her other hand, at the same time, si open an upper drawer of the d took from it a revolver which placed at a safe distance. “To the contrary,” she sald quietly “you w1l remember that the time has passed when you could have me pun- ighed for disobedicnce. tate to defend myself. And now’—1 ing hold of the back of his chair, she | moved it some distance from the desk you may as well be quiet while [ d for myself what 1 wish to know.” For a moment he watchad in silence as she bent over the desk, rummaging its drawers. Then with an infuriated gesture of his left hand, he began to curse her. She shuddered a little as the black oaths blistered his thin old lips, dedi- cating-her and all she loved to sin, infamy and sorrow; but nothing could stay her in her purpose. He was breathless and exhausted when she stralghtened up with an exclamation of satisfaction, studied intently for a | moment a sheaf of pupers, and thrust | them hastily into her hand-bag, togeth- | er with the revol | Then touching the push-button | which released a secret and little-used door, without a backward glance she slipped from the room and, closing the door securely, within another minute had made her way unseen from the house. | CHAPTER VIII. The Incredible Thing. ‘ Broad daylight, the top of a morn- ing as rare as ever broke upon the . north country: Alan Law opening be. wildered eyes to realize the substance | of a dream come true. True it proved iteelf, at least, in part. He lay between blankets upon a | couch of balsam fans, in a corner of somebody's camp—a log structure, ' weather-proof, rudely but adequately | furnished. His clothing, rough-dried ' but neatly mended, lay upon a chalr at his side. He rose and dressed in haste, at | once exulting in his sense of complete rest and renewed well-being, a prey | to hints of an extraordinary appetite, i and provoked by signs that seemed to | bear out the weirdest flights of his de- | lirious fancles. There were apparently indisputable | cvidences of a woman's recent pres- | ence in the camp: blankets neatly | folded upon a second bed of aromatic | " balsam in the farther corner; an effect ' of orderliness not common with guides; a pair of dainty buckskin gauntlets depending from a nail in the wall; and—he stood staring witlessly at it for more than a minute—in an old preserve jar on the table, a single petals! There was also fire in the cook display of ' things to cook; but despite his hunger Alan didn’t stop for that, but rushed to the door and threw it open and him- self out into the sunshine, only to There was no other living thing in | sight but a loon that sported far up the river and saluted him with a shriek of mocking laughter. | The place was a oleft in the hills, a table of level land some few acres | in area, bounded on one hand, be- neath the cliff from which had | dropped, a rushing river fat with recent rains: on the other by a second clift of equal height. Upstream the | water curved round the shoulder of a | towering 1, downstr 1 the clifts closed upon it until it roared through roth p. upon a strip of r beach that bordered the river where it widened into a deep, dark pPool. two canoes were drawn up, bot- toms to the sun. Dense thickets of pines and balsams hedeed In the ¢ ng. He was, it ed, to be left severe- to himsel t day; when he ad with an enor- found do till er to time for lunchson than to explore this pocket don afn, | sly again ¢ | 1y several hours va ping the nools with rod found in the camp, for tr really. didn’t hope would rise that blazi sun; and tc o'cloc rged back to h a T ic couch for a n The west sun ha rown a deep, cool shadow across the cove vhen he was awakened by nportun- ate hands and a voice of 1 vas kne A fc rested tk resisting, quletly. s it? hat is it, dearest?” ioned, k her tears away. “To find you all right was o afraid!” she cried broken y | You will call | if interrupted, I shan't hs«iA[ | | | eliffs. | ning Precipitating Both Into That Savage Welter. morning, 1 tell you I know—I her only a few hours us in a conoe with one of 1 while we watched In hiding on th ban Not that al , but another ot her guides told mine she we ] with you. She had sent him to South Portage for quinine. He stopped there to get drunks--and that's how my guide managed to worm the infor- mation from Alan passed a hand acr m.” “1 don't understand,” he “It doesn't seem pos sha could—" A shot interrupted him, the report of a rifle from a considerable distance L upstream, echoed and re-echoed by the And at this, clutching fran- tically at his arm, the girl drew him through the door and down toward the river. “Oh, come, come!” she cried wild- ly. “There's no time! But, why? What was that?” “Judith {s returning. I left my guide up the trail to signal us. Don't you know what it means if we don't manage to escape before she gets here?” “But how?" “According to the guide the river's the only way other than the trail.” “The current is too etrong. They could follow—pot us at leisure from | the banks.” “But downstream—the current with us—" “Those rapids?” “We must shoot them!” “Can it be done?” “It must be!” Two more shots put a period to his doubts and dwove it home, He offered no further objection, but turned at onco to launch one of the canoes. As soon as it wae in the water, Rose took her place in the bow, paddle in hand, and Alan was about to step in astern when a fourth shot sounded and a bullet kicked up turf within a dozen feet. A glance discovered two figures debouching into the clearing. He dropped into place and, planting paddle in shallows, sent the canoe well out with a vigorous thrust. Two strokes took It to the middle of the pool where immediately the i current caught the little crait in its urgent grasp and eped it gmoothly through more mnarrow and higher banks. A moment more and the mouth of the gorge was yawning for them. With the clean balance of an ex- perienced canoeman, Alan rose to ) feet for an instantancous reconnois- sance both forward and astern. He looked back first, and groaned in his heart to see the sharp prow of the second canoe glide out m the bank: He looked ahead and g oaned aloud. The ranids were a w rness of shouting waters, white and green, worse than 3 g he hud antici- pated or ever ¢ 2d But there was now no e ordeal. ping that The canoe was already spin- between walls where the water 1 dec and fast with a glassy facy The next instant it was in the jaws; an i settled down to work with gr detcrinination, pitting cour- e nd strength and experience | against the ravening waters that tore at the canoce on every hand, whose med ¢ t back and forth be- b or execution; the one ronous with the other, or else—destruc- endous, un. | . when Alan's swung » turned turtle both headlong into avage. welter, and precipitat that sur- | o As the next ew minutes passed was fighting like a mad thing ncdnltd. overwhelming odds. Tben, of 8 l:;d den, he found himself rejected, spe . forth from the cataract and swimming in the smooth water of With a cry of borror, Alag ¢ Himeelt before Rose, a liviug gy tcall e ol beyond the lowermost | anticlpating nOthing but imp :ddy the cance floating bottom up | desth. This was not accordeg ™ For o breathless instant the Womay the canoe stared along thg gy then lowered her weapon apg ing, spoke Indistinguishably ;0 n guide, who instantly began t, S brisk paddle. > The canoe sped on, vanisheg round a bend. After a long time, Alan Voleed i, unmitizated amazement: in the name near by, and Rose supporting herself with one hand on it. Her eyes met his, clear with the sanity of her adorable courage. dered to her side, panted in- i fer her hand to his the i structions to trens! ehoulder, and struck out for | nearer shore. ‘nefloth found footing at the same time and waded out, to collapse, ex- bausted, against the bank. Then, with a sickening qualm, Alan remembered the pursuit. He rose and looked up the rapid just in Ull‘lc to iyiew the last swift quarter of the canoe’s descent: Judith in the bn\.\', motionless, a riile across her knees, in the stern an Indian guide Kneelin waters with s swisy} of ‘girl said dully: " “De Kkno' And when he shool; “Her guide told mine you her life on the dam at ! Now do you see?®” ! [1is countenance was ~ | wonder: “Gratitude?” perceptible effort in contrast With| “pocy smiled wearily: lan’s su tude zlone. but someth e a CaNOS. Erhle. sl o She 1 seemed to gat ther, 10 oot her hand. “Not thar 1 to leap with ail its strengthi ¢ But come it hur the edd a bound, ‘l“lvfi throvgh e we will, 1 the still water with a mighty splash, " ¢ t will brin {and shot downstream diminished poaver g speed, the Indian fuiiously backing (Continued Next water. SGIE) ¥ "J.B. STREATER . CONTRACTOR AND BUILDER IHaving had twenty-one years' experience in buili ° uand contracting in Lakeland and vicinity, 1 feel compet '® 1 render the best services in this line. If comtempls will be pieased to furnish estimates and all i All work guaranteed. mation @ | Phone 169. J. B. STREATE: OGO QEd The Lakeland Steam Laundry BEDDEGIIDEIDBBEEPIDE Sanitary: v SOPEDTOE IS THE HHSBEDE J k é I TR PRRRWWN | No disease germs can live in Clothing that are sen us, and we ace Careful in the Laundrying, not to D the Garment. If you send your Clothing to US, it will not only L Clean and Pure, but IT WILL BE SO. Our wagons cover the entire City. package you are anxious to get to the Laundry before wagon comes around, Phone us, and let us show you: soon the Boy will be there for it. PHONE 13 QO BCHECH | | If you By having your Fall Clothes made’to your,INDIVIDUAL Measure by us,. :-: = Py ings, Trimmed with Contrast Bands — the Season’s latest Concepti 35 Styles S, ENGLISH WOOLEN M Hatters and Tailors Futch & Gentry Bldg., LAKELAND R. A. BLUMBERG sam 6.