Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, March 31, 1915, Page 2

) in The man in Tear seat & weirdly sonorous voice: < | “Stop!” he cried. “Stop this mnom- | Drop that man! Judith, I ‘sense! command you—" “Be silent!” the girl cut in sharply. 1 command here—if it’s necessary to tell you.” There was a pause of astonishment. Then the old man broke out in exas- peration that threatened to wax into fury: “Judith! What do you mean by this? Has it indeed come to this that my own daughter defies me to my face?” “Apparently!” she shot back, with a short laugh. “Judge for yourself!” “Have you forgotten your vow to me?” “No. But I take it back and cancel , 4t: that is my privilege, I believe. . . . Silence!” she stormed as he strove | to gainsay her. ‘“‘Silence—do you hear?—or it will be the worse for you!” As well command the sea to still its voice: her father raged like a mad- | man that he was, for the time being | divested of his habitual mask of frigid | heartlessness. And seeing that there was no other | way of quieting him, the girl turned | to the third man. “Now Jimmy!” she said crisply. “Into that car—and be quick about it —and gag him!” “If you do,” her father foamed, “I'll have your life—" A flourish of her weapons gained instant obedience. She stepped up on the running board and shot a quick, searching glance at the face of the chauffeur. “Straight ahead, my man!” she said. “Make for the nearest pass through those hills yonder, and don't delay unless you are anxious for trouble. Off you go!” The car began to move. She swept the three men in the desert a mocking bow, jumped into the body of the car and slammed the door. They made no effort to plead their cause and secure passage even as far as the edge of the desert; doubtless they knew too well the futility of that, she thought, as she settled back in a seat, chuckling with the memory of those three masks of dismay unmiti- gated. It was not until five minutes later. ‘when she straightened up from making Alan comfortable that she realized ‘what had made them so content to abide by her will. Then she heard their voices lifted together in a long, shrill howl that was quickly answered by fainter yells from & distant quarter of the desert, then by pistols popping and flashing some two miles away, then by a growing rumble of galloping hoofs. The night glasses in the car afforded her flashes of a body of several horse- men—some six or seven, she judged— making at top speed toward the spot ‘where Marrophat, Hicks and Jimmy waited beside a beacon which they had built and lighted. Half a dozen sentences exchanged with the chauffeur advised her that these were horsemen from the town of Mesa who had charged themselves with the duty of avenging the death of Hopi Jim Slade. A sardonic chuckle from within ‘Trine’s gag goaded the girl into a sul- len fury. Exacting his utmost speed from the chauffeur, under penalty of her dis- pleasure, she set herself to revive Alan. With the aid of such stores of food and drink as the car carried, this was quickly enough accomplished. Strangling with an overdose of ‘drendy too little diluted with water, Alan sat up, grasped the conditions dn a flash, and gained further informa- ‘tion as he devoured sandwiches and omptied a canteen. The mountain pass was now, he Judged, a mile distant. The light on the hillside, according to the chauf- feur, was that of a prospector who had camped there temporarily. There ‘was nothing, then, to be feared from that quarter, but solely from the rear —where the horsemen, having picked up Marrophat and his companions, had instituted hot pursuit, and were Dow strung out in a long, straggling line, three horses carrying double the farthermost—perhaps & mile and a half away—one with a single rider the nearest, well within three-quar- ters of a mile. Nobly mounted, this last came on like the wind, gaining on the motor car with every stride; for his horse was trained to such going, whereas the car at best could only labor heav- ily in dust and sand. . None the less, it had won to a point within a quarter of a mile from the pass before the horseman got within what he esteemed the proper range, ani opened fire. He fired thrice. His first shot winged wide, his second by illchance ripped through a rear tire of the car, thus placing upon it an additional handi- cap, while his third sought the zenith as his hands flew up and he dropped from the saddle, drilled through the 'body by Alan’s only shot. A longrange pistol duel was in progress- before the car had covered half the remaining distance to the pass. By the time it entered this last, which proved to be a narrow ravine with towering side of crambly earth and shale and broken rock, the pur- suit was not a hundred yards behind, whils the firing was well-nigh contin- wous. woman running town the hillside at nu(_l_‘.’_tolnlma._u_r_m The Trey O’ Hearts By Louis Joseph Vance “Straight Ahead, My Man!” She Said. hundred yards from the mouth of the pass. As it drew near the spot where she paused, waving both hands frantically, the head of the pursuing party swept into the mouth of the ravine. At the same time the chauffeur no- ticed that the two men on the hillside were following the woman pellmell, throwing themselves down the slope with gigantic leaps and bounds. And then a great explosion rent the peaceful hush of night—that till then had been profaned by the pattering cracks of the revolver fusillade, As the roar of dynamite subsided the entire side of the hill shifted and slid ponderously down, choking the ravine with debris to the depth of some thirty or forty feet, burying the ‘leaders of the pursuit beyond hope of rescue. Only a instant later the motor car jolted to a halt and Alan pulled him- selt together to find that Rose and Barcus were standing beside the door and jabbering joyful greetings, mixed with more or less incoherent explana- tions of the manner in which they had come to seek shelter for the night in the prospector’s shack and, roused by the noise of firing and recognizing Alan in the car by the aid of spy- glasses, had with the prospector’s aid hit upon this scheme of shooting a landslide in between the pv-3uit and its devoted quarry CHAPTER XLIII. Camp-forthe-Night. “Well, gents!” the driver observed cheerfully, withdrawing head and hands from long and intimate com- munion with the stubborn genius be- meath the hood. “I reckon you-all may's well make up yore minds to christen this hyeh salubrious spot Camp-for-the-Night. You won’t be goin’ no fartheh—not just 't present. Pulling this old wagon through them desert sands back yondeh has just naturally broke’ the heart of that en- gine!” “What, precisely, is the trouble?” Alan Law inquired, rousing from anx- fous preoccupation. “Plumb bust’ all to hell,” the chaut- feur explained tersely. “Nothing could be fairer, more ex- act and comprehensive than that,” Tom Barcus commented. Law nodded a head too weary to respond to the other's humor. His worried eyes reviewed the scene of the breakdown. “What's to be done?” Mr. Law won- : "S.A E H fore sunup.” “Where are you going?” Barcus de- manded. “Walkin', friend; just walkin'—" “What for? “To fetch help—leastways, onless yo've got some kick comin’ and 'ud ruther stop hyeh permanent’—" He turned off and busied himself with preparations against his journey. “It's simply things like this make me belieive this isn’t, after all, noth- ing more nor less than a long-drawn- out nightmare,” Barcus observed pen- sively. But Mr. Law was no more attend- ing: he had turned away and was just then standing by the running-board of the motor car and civilly explaining to Miss Judith Trine the purpose of the chauffeur's expedition. Discovery of this circumstance worked a deep wrinkle between the brows as well as into the humor of Mr. Barcus. Here, he promised himself, was a situation to titillate the Comic Muse ftself. “He pointed out in turn the sev- eral component parts: the motor car derelict in the hollow of those awful and silent hills—for all the world like a mouse petrified with fright at inding itself in the midet of a herd of ele- phants; in the car, that aged monoma- niac, Mr. Seneca Trine, author of all their woes and misadventures, gnash- ing his teeth in impotent rage to find her in the friendliest fashion imag- inable, precisely as if she had not |Service his erstwhile antagonist had | No Doubt Which Came First in His Esteem. fallen little short of compassing his death, not once, but half a dozen times; Judith herself poised on the running-board and smiling down at her victim with a warmth patently even more than the warmth of friend- ship; and at some little distance, Rose, Mr. Law's flancee and Judith’s sister, eating her heart out with jealousy of this new-sprung intimacy between her sister and her lover! “Bad business, my friend!” Barcus mentally apostrophized the unwitting Alan Law. He interrupted himself to nod know- ingly and with profound conmviction: “I knew it. Now it begins again!” For Rose had abruptly taken a hand in the affair, a gesture of exasperation prefacing her call: “Alan!” To her Mr. Law turned instantly, with such alacrity that none who watched might doubt which of the two women came first in his esteem. Nor was this wasted upon the undér- standing of Judith. Eyeing her nar- rowly though furtively, Mr. Barcus saw her handsome face darken omin- ously. And her father was as quick to recognize these portents of trouble and to seek to advantage himself of them. His head craned out horribly on his long, wasted neck as he pitched a eibilant whisper for her ears, and his face in the moonlight seemed to glow with the reflection of that inferno which smoldered in his evil bosom. But one was silenced, the other quenched, all in *a twinkling. His daughter turned on him in a flash of imperial rage. Barcus caught snatches of the wom- an’s tirade. “Be silent!” he heard her say, “Be silent, do you hear? Don't ever speak to me again unless you want me to re- place that gag. I say, don’t speak to me! I am finished with you once and for all time; mever again shall you pervert my nature to your daninable purposes—never again shall word or wish of yours drive me to lift my hand against a man who has never done you the least harm, though your persecution of him would have acquitted him of a charge of man- slaughter in any court—on grounds of self-defense! . Understand me!” she raged. “I'm through. Henceforth I go my way, and you yours . ., .” Her voice broke. She clenched her hands into two tight fists with the effort at self-control, and lifted a writhen face to the moonlight. “God help us both!” she cried. CHAPTER XLIV. As In a Glass, Darkly. Thoughtfully Mr. Barcus returned his attention to the lovers. If the evidence of his senses did not mislead him, he was witnessing their first difference of opinion. It was not an argument acute enough to deserve the name of quarrel; but undoubtedly the two were at odds upon some ques- tion—Rose insistent, Alan reluctant. The last gave way in the end, shrugged, returned to the car. “'m going back up the trail” he announced, and hesitated oddly. “Feeling the need of some little ex- ercise, no doubt,” Barcus suggested. “Rose thinks it's dangerous to stop here,” Alan began to explain, ignoring the interruption. “Miss Rose is right—eh, Miss Ju- dith?” Barcus interpolated. Judith nodded darkly. “So I'm going to see if I can’t buy burros from the prospector back there. Rose says he has some—doesn’t know how many—" “Three will be enough,” Judith inter- posed. “I mean, don't get one for me. I'm stopping here.” “But—" Alan started to protest. She gave him pause with a weary gesture, “Please! 1It's no good arguing, Mr. Law: I've made up my mind; I can be most helpful here, by my father’s side,” she asserted, and nodded at Trine with a significant smile that maddened him. “He needs me—and no harm can come to me; I'm pretty well able to take care of myself!” At this the innocent bystander breathed an unheard but fervent little prayer of thanksgiving, whose spirit he doubted not was shared by Alan. For it stuck in the memory of Bar cus that their friend, the prospector (whose shack had sheltered Rose and Barcus after their transit of the desert and prior to the man-made avalanche, which had afforded this temporary im- munity from pursuit) had mentioned remembering doge him. If"Gily"Judith might not find cause to change her mind! He set himselt sedulously to divert Judith with the magic of his conversa- tional powers—an offering indifferent- ly received. He was still blithely gossiping when Judith flung away to her sister's side. The ensuing quarrel seemed but the more portentous in view of the re- straint imposed upon themselves by both parties thereto. He believed, however, that a crisis impended when the tinkle of mule- bells sounded down the canyon road; and at this he threw discretion to the {winds and ran toward the two with bands upheld in mock horror and a manner of humorous protest. in similar fashion. “Ladies, ladies!” he pleaded. “I' Not until she had been put down be-, | beg of you both, let dogs delight to ' gide him did he discover that Alan: lhrk and bite—" | was likewise a captive—trussed to a | He got no farther: Judith’s ears tree at some distance. ] 'wer‘ as quick as his own; she, too, The remaining arrangements of had caught the sound of bells behind | their captors were swiftly and deftly the base of the hill. And of a sudden, ' consummated, though their design re- | without another word, she turned and | mained obscure to Mr. Barcus until | flung away into the heavy thickets of he, after Rose, was dumped like a bale undergrowth that masked all the can- into a huge bucket, and therein by yon, to either side of the wagon-trail. ' means of rope and windlass lowered In a twinkling she had lost herself to to the bottom of the shaft—a descent, view in their labyrinthine shadows. he estimated shrewdly, of something The remainder of that business was }ike a hundred feet. transacted rapidly enough. There A hideous screeching followed, the were no preparations to be made; | protests of rusty and greaseless ma- once Alan had ridden up with his chinery. Twisting his neck, Barcus three burros, nothing remained but to | gaw the dim opening of the shaft mount and make off without delay. slowly closing, as if a curtain were Before morning they were all rid-| peing drawn down over it. Jimmy ing like so many hypnotized subjects, | was closing the bulkhead door, leav- fatigue bearing so heavily on all their ing them definitely prisoners, beyond senses that none spoke or cared t0 human aid, there in that everlasting speak. black hole. . . . Broad daylight surprised them in| With a final squeal and thump the this state, still stubbornly traveling; i bulkhead settled into place. A con- and shortly afterward showed them ' fusion of remote sounds thereafter in- one place so perilous that it shocked | dicated that Jimmy (with, perhaps, them temporarily awake, Marrophat’s assistance) was making This was simply a spot where the 'the bulkhead fast beyond question— trail came abruptly to an end on one ! wedging and blocking it with timbers. side of a cleft in the hills quite thirty ; These ceased—and the allence was feet wide and several hundred in . A depth, and was continued on the far- | b'fl:i':c:"m'" s voice. sm bein| 4 :m:'fl":::' ;)(Jot::.nm:;e.t‘ c'::::?;:{ The latter grunted soulfully by way no more than a footway of bonrdsfi',,?f‘v'ew“:;r::d“:?’ ::‘“‘l’o“:::':' i ) bound together with ropes none too pursued 10 & horrisd whisper, “but iy hands are tled behind my back. Are yours? Grunt once for ‘yes’.” Dutifully Bracus grunted a solitary grunt. - “Then roll over on your face and glve me a chance to work them free that way, given time ., . " “Time!” was the mirthless thought of Barcus. “Haven't we got all eter- nity?” neath the knees, and he was lugged laboriously out into the sunlight, car- ried a considerable distance, and de- posited unceremoniously within a few feet of the mouth of the abandoned mine just at the moment when he had satisfled himself that the purpose of his captors was simply to throw him into the black well. He wasted a look of appeal on the frozen mask of villainy that was Mar- rophat’s (who bore the burden of Bar- cus’ head and shoulders) and got laughed at for all his pains. Then he was left to himself once more, but only for a few moments; the interval ended when the two ap- peared again, this tfme bringing Rose SR B GBI DR DRSSPI DEDIIIDIDEAIIEIIIEIIISLPOPIIIEE S5 000 substantial in seeming, with another rope, breast-high, to serve as a hand- rail. Alan tested the bridge cautiously. It bore him. He returned, helped Rose to cross, and with her once safely landed on the other side, took his life in his hands and, aided by a Barcus unaffectedly afflicted with qualms, somehow or other (meither of them Land of Cocoa. Beuador’s chiet product is cocoa. It Armour Star Hams Uncanbassed at 18 Cents E. 6. TWLEEDELL PHONE 59 And He Did. LAAA G R et ettt ittt ittt et aa St knew precisely how) persuaded the burros to cross. After that, though the way grew more broad and easy and even showed eymptoms of a decline, they had not enough strength left to sustain through another hour. And what they thought good for- tune, opportunely at this pass, brought them to a clearing dotted with the buildings of an abandoned copper mine, Not a soul was in evidence there, but the rude structures offered shelter for beast as well as man. Barely had they made Rose as com- fortable as might be upon the rough plank flooring.of one of the sheds and tethered the burros out of sight, when Alan collapsed as if drugged, while Barcus, who had elected himself to keep the first watch and purposed doing it in a sitting position, with his back against the door-jamb, felt sleep overcoming bhim like a demse, dark cloud. CHAPTER XLV. ‘The Bowels of the Earth. Awaking befell Mr. Barcus in a fashion sufficiently sharp and startling to render him indifferent to the benefi- cial eftects of some eight hours of dreamless slumber. He discovered himself lying flat on his face, with somebody’s inconsider- ate, heavy hand purposely grinding the said face into the aged and splintery planks of the shed flooring. At the same time other hands were busy binding his own together by the wrists and lashing the same to the small of his back by means of & cord For all that, he wasted no time whatever in obeying Alan’s suggestion —then lay for upward of ten minutes with his face in the mold of the tunnel chewed and spat and chewed again at the ropes round the wrists of his friend. It it were in truth no more than ten minutes it seemed upward of an hour before the bonds grew slack and Bar- cus with an effort that cost him much of the skin on one wrist worried a hand free, then loosed the other, re- moved and spat out his gag, and set hastily about freeing his friend. That took but a few instants—little more than was needed to rid Rose of her bonds. That much accomplished, a pause of profound consternation followed. The darkness was absolute in the tun- nel, Jimmy having taken the candle away with him; and its silence was rendered uncanny by the sobs and mur- murs of the lovers, that sounded some- how fearfully remote and inhuman to Barcus—who had turned immediately to the bulkhead and was, without the slightest hope, groping about its joints and crevices in search of some way | ot forcing it. . . “Barcus—old man!” “Yes?” “Have you any idea—" “Devil a one!” A pause . . . “Did you notice what that black- guard had fixed up? “What do you mean?” “Why—at the bottom of the shaft— 1 got only a glimpse coming in—the door of the powder room was open, and I saw a fuse set to the top of & keg of blasting powder . . *» “What's the good of that? We're attended to, his head was | “] geem to remember hearing released. Promptly be lifted it and | peading, some place, that tunnels have essayed to yoll; aa effort remdered | two ends. If that's true, tho far end abortive by the gag that was thrust of this ought to be about the safest between his testh the instant his| pigce when that explosion happens— Jaws opened. 1t 1t ever does.” Then he heard a laugh, & cold,| “Something in that!™ Now the blood of Thomas Barcus | quired, as Alan hurriedly helped Rose ran cold (or he thought it did; which amounts to much the same thing). For if his senses had played fair, the laugh he had heard was the laugh of Mr. Marrophat, head-devil in the serv- ice of Seneca Trine. He twisted his head to one side and glancing along the floor, saw noth- ing but the wall. Twisted the other way, at the cost of a splinter in his nose, the effort was repaid by the dis- covery of Rose Trine in a plight like his own—wrists and ankles bound, gagged into the bargain—the width of the shed between them. But of Alan Law, no sign. . . . The heart of Mr. Barcus check momentarily; he shut his eyes and shivered in an uncontrollable seizure ; of dread. Then, tormented beyond endurance by the fears he suffered for the safety of his friend, he began to wriggle and squirm like a crippled snake, pain- fully inching his way across the floor , open doorway into temporary eclipse. | of the tumnel. 4 justnatupllybeghdtoseeyw | Another followed it. Boots clumped | But even as Alan lifted his hands to at any time. ‘mmumm?hfima:‘h:-mmm“ - I neath the shoulders, the other be- LAKELAND, FLA. to her feet. “Never one.” “Nor I. We'll have to feel our way along. Let me lead. It I step over the yell and warn you in time.” passing and pressed it warmly—a ca- ress eloquent of his gratitude to Bar cus for taking their peril lightly, or pretending to, for the sake of Roee. A ticklish business, that—groping their way through blackness 8o opaque that it seemed as palpable as a pool of ink. And haste was indi- cated; they stumbled on with what caution was possible against pitfalls— a gingerly scramble. Then an elbow in the tunnel—sensed rather than felt or seen—cut them off from direct communication with the bulkhead, and at the same time opened up & while Alan chewcd and spat and | trade. brink of a pit or anything, I'll try to! | Alan caught his friend’s hand in s the largest grower of this com- modity in the world. The bean is per~ haps the richest and most highly fla- + vofed and is in great demand in the Europe buys 80 per cent of this article, and although we are the biggest individual consumer of choco- late on earth, our merchants purchase but 20 per cent direct. An Englishwoman “Soldier.” The most famous Englishwoman “soldier” was Dr. James Barry, who Joined the medical corps in 1813 and served at Waterloo and in Crimea. In 1868, after many promotions, she be- came inspector general, and it was not until many years later that the fact that she was a woman was discovered. A country deacon went home one evening and complained to his wite that he had been abused down at the store shamefully. “One of the neigh- bors.” he said, “called me a liar.” Her eyes flashed with indignation. “Why didn’t you tell him to prove it?” she exclaimed. “That's the very thing— that’s the trouble,” replied the hus- band; “I told him to prove it, and he did.” Earth’s Diameter. The earth’s greatest diameter is not necessarily at the equator. According to the eminent Professor Henkey, the actual greatest diameter is that taken from the summit of Mount Chimbo- razo. The line drawn from this point to the opposite side on a point in 8u- matra gives a diameter of 7,939 miles. v v o o 'MODE Set of Teeth $8.00 Up Fillings soc Up Offie Hours 8 to 6. i : P CAPITAL STOCK $10.000.00 This is a day and age of Specializing. in every branch of GOO D DENTISTRY. Our Modern Equipment and years of practical exper- ience insures you Best Work at Reasonable Prices. Crown and Bridge $4.00 Up Riggs disease, Loose Teeth treated and cured. Teeth extracted without pain. Come and let me examine your B teeth and make.you estimate. OFFICE UPSTAIRS FUTCH AND GENTRY BLDG. By Appointment 7 to 9 Evenings Separate Rooms and Equipment for White and Colored. Children’s Teeth extracted, under ten years, FREE. PHONE 94 Dr. W. H. Mitchell’s Painless Dental Office We Are Al Ready to ‘l“m' . ENTISTRY We are Specialists Work Ten Years Practical Suite 10-12-14 furnish estimates on your lum- ber and material bills; and to im- part any information we may be able to give. We don’t expect an order every time you hove in sight, and will with you about building plans, \