The evening world. Newspaper, December 30, 1914, Page 13

— = a A —_ (Copsright, 1000, by Street & Smith.) HDING OHAPTER fe bound from on Hh Mf McK wn $1,000 ft Stetsinnon “acca mons Later be be ‘oro putty a Dy slenine the iment wholly in, trea Tara ho” will" foree ‘Gani receipt, McKinnon hy fret. Tie vere jantey to return the a CHAPTER Vil. (Continued.) LICSA BOYNTON laughed quietly and wearily, with @n upthrust of her shoul- ders. } j ‘Can't you see that it's teo late? The price has been paid; the bargain’s been struck, A man Mke Ganley never trades back. The mistake was in the signing of the paper. It was a manifesto, a con- fession. It was the last will and testament of your good name. McKinnon, who had been pacing the cabin, suddenly swung about and faced the young woman in the @teamer-chair. “Why are you saying all this to mo?” he demanded. Her troubled eyes rested on him, most in pity. He was, after all, ttle more than a bo “Because we are facing a common @anger,” she answered, at last, “Be- cause we may yet have to work to- Wether to escape from that danger, “But you haven't told me any- thing! You haven't explained how @r why you are in this danger! Again her studious eyes seemed to be weighing and judging him. He knew, by the mournful anxiety that crept slowly into her face us she watched him, that her decision was Mot altogether w flattering one. I am here because there was no one to take my place,” she answered, @imply enough. can't explain | everything now, but I knew they were Plotting against Guariqui and aguinst My brother. 1 knew Moment, that Ganley w ombia, and 1 | knew \ authorities at \ aanding « to be nea “You mean the Princeton? Bon asked. The woman nodded. she went on, after an- | ether moment of thought. “Anything | may happen before we reach Puerto Locombia, If the Junta have carried out Ganley's plans, everything will be ready for his coup d'etat. If the Fevolutionists hold Puerto Locombia ‘We will at once be placed in quaran- tine there. That will be their pretext for keeping us prisoners of war. It is fn old trick, They draw what they call a ‘dead line’ and they shoot every one who crosses it. ‘That will leav: everything clear for y we will be held there until Guariqui fs carried, ‘That will not be easy, of course, unless the field guns have al- dy ‘been landed, The Palace ts of ne; it could stand to the last—It as built for such purposes. It could hold out for weeks with only the President's body guard, until help orttrom where?” asked McKinnon. “That is what I must explain, When Duran installed the electric light plant at Puerto Locombia he put up “ @ wireless station, one the coast, d another on the palace at Guart- . Unless the guns have been landed there is to be no assault on the capital until Ganley has been heard from, Puerto Locombia, of course, will be in the hands of thé evolutionists. They will destroy the wireless station at the coast, There re few or no ships there now, on account of the yellow fever. It's not the fever, of course, but the quaran- tine, the weeks and wecks of impris- onment, they are afraid of. This ship will be the only one in the roadstead. You are equipped with wireless, That means you will be able to talk with Guariqui. If Duran and my brother are shut up there, calling for help, u will be the only ones to hear Teir messages. Can't you under- stand? The Guariqu! station Is one of high power. It can’t possibly call beyond the coast. Yet the cruiser 13 to be lying somewhere between Cule- bra and Locombia, watting to help, only too anxious to interfere at the first official call. “But that call can never reach thent without being relayed from the road- stead, out across the Caribbean, You may be the only person who can hear and understand Guariqu!'s cry for help! McKin- CHAPTER VIII, - "KINNON drew In his breath, y sharply, but he did not | san) 4 ‘Can't you understand?” the woman was saying. “Ganley has thought this all out. He found out we carry wireless equip- ment, He knew this call would come to us. He has foreseen that we could relay it from Puerto Locembia to the Princeton, He knows that you, and you alone, could send that mes- @age out of Locombia,” “And he's tried to tie me up, keep me from sending it! And tho: ) first despatches he filed were simply is!" Py aa tile pretense of shadowing Ganley was a blind!" McKinnon fell to pacing the cabin FAWN you promixe mo to do nothing Funtil have got this receipt back for "she asked, it!" he said, turning to his ap- paratus, “The cruiser Princeton may be near enough to pick up a message | her What I know and have her Fushed to Puerta Locombia, I’ to ‘He checked himself, Capt, Yandel letood in the doorway. “What's this woman doing here?" ‘@emanided Copt. Yandel. “This woman is my wife!" declared the operator, without so much as a panting girl's colorless As you may have the dis to discover, she t THE GUN-RUNNER TORY OF WAR AND WIRELESS BY ARTHUR STRINGER HAART AA is making this trip as a cabin passen- ger. I mention the fact because you may see her in this cabin again, at many times, and at hours quite as un- usual as the present! The captain of the Laminian # wheeled about and strode out of the cabin, swinging the door shut with a slam that loosened flakes of white- paint from the ceilfi boards. o he's against us, too!” murmur. 4 the operator. There was @ moment of unbroken silence before the woman looked wu: “Why did you say that to him?” she demanded, trembling with indigna- tion. Even her voice shook a iittle as she spoke. “How dare you say @ thing like that?” McKinnon crossed the room, until ‘he stood almost at her side. “L had to say that,’ “Tt waa the only way out!” “h ie base lie like that, the only out?” ‘Yes, the only way, for now that man must not suspect! Because We're going to fight Ganley togethe whatever it costs, however it hurts! CHAPTER IX. T was the next morning that McKinnon came unexpected- ly face to face with Alicia Boynton, in one of the Lam- inian’s narrow companion. got into Ganley’s cabin while he was at breakfast,” she said. “The receipt !s not there. He must be car- rying it in bis wallet. “But there was something else I did find out. It 1s that eight mountain guns are to be shipped out of Mobile this week, invoiced and crated as steam laundry equipment. They are Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns, breech- loading and with fixed ammunition, Those are the guns that are to be landed somewhere in Northern Lo- combla. They can be taken apart, piece by piece, and carried up through the hills to Guariqui on burros. “My second discovery was even moe important. It began with what seems to be a note from one of De Brigard's generals. It mentions elgnty-elght cases of cartridges and 809 Remington rifles which are on this ship, and under this very deck, T! ammunition is in boxes of powdered slag and the rifles are disguised as cases of structural iron. “he for ag I ca ou, i tnis revolution of Ganley's in full y intend to commandeer a cegtain eight: swing! horse-power track-motor’ from the Consolidated Fruit Concern. They are to seize it and take it from the roundhouse just north of Puerto Lo- combia. De Brigard’s men intend to run this motor out on the railway alorg the pier, at night, and keep it hidden in the Fruit Concern’s weigh scales shed, not forty feet from where the Laminian will be sure to dock. Then, as far as | can make out, the slag boxes are to be quietly dropped over the side and piled up in the mo- tor's tonneau, Then it is to be hur- ried out along the railway track to Covonut Hill, where everything ts to be stored in the power house until the ‘unta distributes the supplies to De Rrigard’s men.” “But what power house is thi tnean the clectric light powers housa just outside the town.” “This is worth knowin “Bu, this isn't the problem that's blocklug our way," his companion warned him. “The first thing we must do is .o recover our lost ground. We have wo get back this receipt that ties aown to Ganley!" ‘But even for that we have to walt our chance!" “Why not make the chance? Gan- ley is in hourly dread of every mes- sage that comes into your wireless room. He insists on censoring any- thing that might betray him. Then, after he has gone to bed to-night, why not send for him—hurrtedly call hinaup to your operating room?” Why not insist that he should come, before he has time to dress? The mere fact that he carries this receipt about him on his person, as you sald, shows how precious he holds it to be. But if he's caught off his guard, in that way, he might forget. You might easily enough keep him there with you for tenor fifteen minutes!” “You mean the chances are that he'll simply throw on anything that's nearest him, blanket or @ bath-robe, if it's late enough?’ “Yes.” “But there's the captain,” objected McKinnon, “There's the scene we Weat through last night “Then wait until the captain has Bove to his cabin for the night. The Jawr it is when you call, Ganley, the bester, I can be waiting. The mo- mgpt he has left his cabin, locked or un.ocked, 1 can be there making my eegreh.” “But if he goes back to his cabin wixhout waiting for me to transcribe the message?” Chen you would have to warn ¥ a “Wait,” he said, as a sudden thought came to him. might send one word, ® simplo word like ‘Go.’ You could easily recognize it, then, as a Warning. That would be simple enough, if you could only remember the Morse.” “Would it be hard?’ He tapped out the dots and the dashes with his finger-tips, on the rod of brass from wilfen the berth-cur- tains hung. “That will be the danger signal,” sho agreed, “When I hear it, Vil un- derstand!” Late that night McKinnon sent for a@ steward, “Tell the passenger in stateroom 11 to come to the wireless room at he requested. “Get him here quick, for it's important!" Presently Ganley appeared. Me- Kinnon affected to be busy “receiv. ing” and took no note of his arrival, “Well?” queried Ganley. “You said you wanted to look over anything special that came in,” be- gan the operator, laying down his phones. ‘The man at the table as he tore tne written sheet from his form-pad knew that he was being closely and keenly watched. This prompted him to toy with the situation for another mo- ment or two. Do you know anything about this Locombian mixup?” was McKinnon's casual question as he peered down at the sheet in his hand. Not a whole lot," guardedly an- swered the man in the raincoat, I've picked up a Savannah liner bound north; she relays the news from the Atlas fruiter. They've got “They report that the revolutionary forces under De Brigard met the Gov- ernment forces under Ulloa on Tues- day. It was twenty miles southwest of Puerto Locombia; De Brigard was convoying eight mountain guns up toward Guariqui!l” s “Well?” the stolid and guarded fig- ure demanded; and that was nis only comment. McKinnon bent over as though to consult the message sheet. “They report that De Brigard has pounded his way through the Loco) Dian lines, and has occupied Itzula!" Before McKinnon could realize it the man was on his feet. “One moment,” he called back as he crossed the room. McKinnon caught up a@ message sheet and intercepted his enemy at the door. “I want you to see this despatch, he said, catching at the other's arm and talking against time. “I want you to understand what this ‘Three- Four-Five-Two—Six Refunfuno’ means. You'll see it here in the A B C Telegraphic Code. It means ‘Rev olution broken out here.’ I want you to see it for yourself. Then you'll know"—— “I'm taking your word for it, young man,” retorted the other as he shook his arm free and started through the door, The operator knew only too well what the man's return to hia cabin meant at such a moment, And he darted to his switch lever, pounding out the agreed signal en he ran for Ganley's bin, The cabin was empty. In a nearby stateroom ho heard Alicia's voice. ‘How dare you come Into this cab- she was crying. “This is a little dose of your own ow dare “Cut out that play-acting. 1 stand back against that wal! there, So! Now hand out that stuff of mine; every line and rag of it!" It was the woman who spoke next, “T have nothing to hand out.” orn giv protested Ganley, "I'll give yi conda to get those papers of mine into my hand here, every shred of ‘em {" “Lhave no papers of yours,” declar- ed the more and more terrified woman. “I'm no fool—I saw 'em—I caught you at it “Will you leave my cabin 2" “Then explain what you've got stuck down in your waist.” “It's nothing of yours." “Hand it out, or I'll rip those clothes the woman's answer, scarcely more than a whisper. “Hand it ou Then came a second or two of unbroken silence: “You're going to shoot!" gasped the Woman, It Was only too evid pped closer to 0," he said, his thick voice s @ little with his close-held py “I’m not going to shoot. But I'm ing to pound your lying head in with this gun-grip—I'm going to pound y« ssion, till your own mother wouldn't know youl” The woman uttered a little ery, not shrill enough to be a scream, not low enough to be called a moan, It was then that the waiting McKinnon swung open the door and sprang into the room, He infuriated black handled Colt revoly {ts barrel, charge on the A stood with her back against the cabin wall. He was not in time to prevent the blow that fell on ti girl's oute thrust forearm, as blindly and atinctively she threw it up to gu her head. But as the clubbing gun. butt raised for its second frenied blow, the intruder sprang. As he sprang he caught the swinging revol- ver in his hand, One quick movement, one twist of the levering «rip, wrenchod it free. The next moment McKinnon's fingers were clamped on Ganley’s fat and pendulous throat, and he had the man in the black rain- Coat gasping for breath, pawing tha neon mre SRT we yemer eter The Evening World Daily Magazine. Oiling Up! © we alr with his thick, fat hands. ‘You hound, to treat a woman like that!" was all the overwrought Mc- Kinnon could say. “T caught the she-cat—I caught her coming through my door!" cried Gan- Jey, getting his breath again, “Are you hurt?" the operator de- manded of the woman still motionless the wall. she answered, “Then I'll settle this with the gen- tleman myself, in his own cabin, or in the captai if he prefers!" But Ganley was on his feet at onc “Nobody's going to leave this room, he declared, with an oath, “That woman's lifted documents o' mine that aren't going to get out o' this cabin, ‘Who is this woman?" icKinnon, “Who {ts she!" cried the exasper- ated Ganley, “I know who she is, and she knows I know!” “Have you anything of this man's McKinnon asked the girl suddenly, realizing that his intrusion had not yet amounted to a complete betrayal of his own position, . said the woman, ked the operator. demanded slip of paper, “Then hand it out to me, Ganley. “No, hand It to me,” interposed Mc- Kinnon, as he watched the slowly withdrawn hand that held a crumpled sheet of white paper. It was then that the girl fell back @ step or two along the cabin wall, She held the paper between her hands, as she did so, and with a quick move- ment of her trembling white fingers ordered and before either of the men could stop her, she tore the sheet in two, weain and again, "I'l kill you for that!” choked Gan- shaking and twitching, but not moving from where he stood. McKinnon, with the revolver still In his hand, stepped between them. There's been enough of this prize. ring work,” he cried, as he faced Ganley, “I want to know what all this means.” “Are you the master of this ship?" “I'm the master of this situation,” retorted the wireless operator, with a pregnant upthrust of the revolver which he still held in his hand, “And before our party breaks up I'm going to understand what it means," hen ask this woman what she stole from me!" “It was the contract made between this man and the wireless operator of this ship," she deliberately an- ewered A contract?” said McKinnon, It was the agreement you signed to become a partner of this man.” “And you tore this agreement up? demanded MeKinnon, w an as- sumption of incredulity. You saw me tear it up," she re- ndering, in turn, t what was expected of her, anxious not to endanger him by any foolish misstep rt “Why?” asked MeKinnon “L could not sea any one tled to a man whose hands are stained with blo Ganley laughed a hy mirth. less laugh, as thou nting the theatricality of the woman's phrase hat's @ hell of a reason,” he mum- bled in his sullen gutters “I did it because I know what this man is,"" went on the woman, turning her slow and pugaled stare from the operator to Ganley McKinnon, now in perfec ontrol of himself, wheeled about to Ganley, “You are Richard Duffy, acting with the Consolidated Fruit Concern and the authorities at Washington for the capture of 4 man named Ganley, are you not?" “Tam.” “The man lies," said the girl in her calm and deliberate tones, "This man is Ganley, ‘King-maker Ganley,’ him- You're crazy!" scoffed Ganley. “Look at his hands and you will sec! He went to Lhassa in the pay of @ Russian secret agent, And they Caught bim aad crucified him on one Wea) © of their convent walla—they nailed him there through the hands, You an see the marks! He can't lie those away, for he hung there twelve hours, until @ tribesman set him free and spirited him across the frontier. And this is the great soldier who gave you money “I've bad enough of this,” sald Mc- Kinnon as he held his hand out toward the sullen-faced Ganley. In this outstretched hand was a roll of bills held together by a rubber band. “What's this?” “It's your money!" sald McKinnon as he dropped it on the berth besids the man. ‘This thing's too tangl up for me. I'm out of it! And I’ get a key waiting for me upstairs!” “This woman,” broke out Ganley, “is a cheap little adventuress. She and her crooked brother have coined money on concessions and on cooked up claims. “And when they'd wrung their money out of those,” he went on, “they dished up a Locombian nitrate claim, and drained that dry. And when that was picked clean they wheedled their way into Duran's good graces. And then, to cinch her graft, this woman, this pink-and-white beauty right here before you, married @ Santo Domingan half-caste fillbuster who'd made a half-million out of brandy smuggling and counterfeiting!” CHAPTER X. cKINNON felt as though tho deck under him had opened and let him down into the depths of a chilling sea. “Is this true?” he demanded of the woman before him. ‘o," whispered the woman, "Have you a husband?” And you never married a mangy, half-custe, dlamond-wearing Santo Domingan named De Perralta?’ de manded Ganley 1 married a man named Perraita, “But you have just sald you had no husband," said McKinnon, “He Was dragged from the carriage an hour after the ceremony —aft our marriage, I have not seen hin since that day, Seven weeks later io died of yellow fever.” “And tell him why he was dragged from that carriage,” prompted Gun oy. “He had shot the wife of a govern- vent officlal named Gurmanito in Hogota,” she answered in her listless monotone, “That was oniy one of other things, “Other things which made him al- most worthy of the family he'd mar- ried Into,” Interpolated the Ganley, in luxurious appre her misery, MeKinnon could she was shaking, that her whole body was quivering, When spoke aKain, hurriedly, her voice was highe in pitch, as though the strain upon her was becoming a tension # ! no longer control or endure 1 never spoken of these thi she said in her tremul , prano, facing MeKinnon, “Rut | wa you to understand, It was thr as ako, when 1 was little imo an a schoolgirl, T was under a great deb of gratitude to this man who-to this man Perralt of the Ameri » Thad been left in care an consul at La Guay T had taken an English steamship to Venezuela, after two years ino a French convent. L was to re-embark m [4a Guayra for Puerto Locor . but quarantine was established on account of bubonie plague, befo: T could get away. Thad to live at the consulate on short rations~the Amer fean consul had refused the dem of the Venezuelan Government for a certificate that La ra Was free of the plague, He and his family were taken off hy a United States gunboat, the Paducah, and I would hi peensentto the detention camps had it not been for this m Per ralta, He seemed a gentlen thei and had money and influence. Hoe played his part well. He leased a sea- going tug and had me and my com- Panton, a German woman, carried out @f4be infected district. After we had Wednesday, December passed the necessary period of quar- antine, for observati in the Eng- lish hospital at G iown, we went on to Guariqui—and he followed us. 1 did not understand, then—and L was very grateful to him—t tell you all this because—because | want you to Uunderstane “I do understand,” answered Mc- that all?” asked Ganley, Areloss sneer. that is all ‘Not by a long shot!" retorted Gan- Joy, in heat. “1 want later history than all this! I nt to know just what this woman's got of mine.” ore'a & Very simple way to settle ‘his problem,” MeKinnon suggested, We'll lock this cabin, #0 nothing in it can be interfered with. ‘Tho thres of us will step into your cabin, You'll then go through your belongings, these documents and papers of yours, and I'll check them off as you do so, one by one, It will be easy enough to I then if anything 1s missing.” The proposal aroused no enthusiasm nley. rhis is not the hour of night I care to go into the general-auditing business,” was his reply, altogether the hour of ing a young lady out of then nicy hesitated a moment; rose and left the cabin, “TD have told you an untruth,” sald the «irl, ax she and McKinnon were left alone, “In what way?" asked McKinnon, “I told you that my husband was dead,” she unawered in her low and constrained voice. “Ho is not dead.” “He in not dead?” echoed McKinnon, “1 said that he died of yellow fever. Ho took the fever and was ill with It, Hut he did not die. He was sentenc and gent to tho Island of Malpanto, ¢ the Pacific Coast penal colony is there, there, for life. He was dead the World-ho was dead to me af Itude is ¢ vorce, in And ? have a better reason for belng Against him If he and his Liberal Party once acquire power, Ganley will innul that divores, He will bring Per- relta back to Quariqul and commute He will do this to strike Arturo, to dishonor us *, to hound us out of The Locombian Ho was sent to all his sentence “Won't out for you rendering to the tide of feeling that you let me fight this fight * asked McKinnon, sur- seemed tearing him from all his old anchorages. “If we only could!" she said, Inade- quately “I'd fight hell ttaelf for you," hetold her, CHAPTER XI. CTING on Alicia Boynton's suceestion, MeKinnon kept his station under lock and key Ie so went armed, ay she had pleaded with him to do, though he felt this latter precaution to be unr sary, The Laminian's wire 4 operator sat in his ro one day ould you take a message for me, pu're in touch wit anything?" anley from the doorway it asked McKinnon reached @ long, thin arm the over to back of his operating to give you back As he held y took it dilidently, turned it over in ils fingers, puckered his heavy lips and casually dropped the gun into his aide pocket, ‘Then he looked Up at the other man “That was pretty ucly talk you go} bout me the other night.” he began, sliding low in his chair until his attis tude Was nothing more than a non- chalant lounge. “I suppose you awal- lowed it whole erything that at- tractive young woman said?" “T don't belleve everything I hear." “I tell you you've got to swing in with us,” Ganley suddenly declared to By Robert Minor|S™rr ‘Nett Wee's Gonplele Move in The Evening Wor | | 30. 1914 him. ‘You haven't any show. This and work {9 going to be done quick done quiet.” tut how about leaks?” any leaks. aster that ombia next d there, in Every small t swings in to Puert week is going to quarantine. That won't be anything to worry over, for we're the only elzable thing that's due there. But if any of those tramp tubs should happen to have wireiess aboard—and it isn't lkely—we're going to take over their apparatus as contraband of war. The only thing we don’t want 1s interference from outside. It's our fight, and once we win it there'll be no trouble. We're a nation then, you gee, the New Liberal Party. We're @ government of our own, and we can go back and patch up outside quarrels when we see fit.” “But what will you do with the Lamintan? How about our captain, for Instance?” McKinnon asked. “I'll te him up so tight In quaran- tine that his anchor fiukes‘’ll be bar- nacled before he gets away again, ho said, with a snort of contempt for that saturnine ship's master, = “Oh, this thing figured out as close m in arithmetic. Some night this week our men are to surround their little two-by-four capital, Tues- day morning, by daybreak, !f our guns and stuff are all landed, they'll begin to cannonade. By Tussday afternoon we'll be advancing on the Palace itself. By Wednesday night we'll have Duran and his gang shelled out or our own men shoved in. By q@unup on Thursday we'll have Duran deposed and the new government de- clared, hour after those Palace gates come down, with our own mon in office. There's no use my beating round the bush with you any longer. It's all got to come. And IT don't want you workin’ against us. I don't want to see you outtin’ your own throat. And If you sea us through for the next two or thres days T'll do the right thing by you." “How the right thing Il deed you over a third interest in the Parrote chromium mines and make you minister of telegraphs for the new republic with a salary of six thousand dollars in gold!" “I would rather think It over for a day or two,” was McKinnon’s an- swer “You'll be with us all right," It was two days later that the La- minian swung in toward the coast of Locombia. McKinnon, in his cabin, labored in vain over his tuning box and re- sponder, He had held Ganley off for another day, hoping against hope that something might still be picked up. Already, on navigating officer in soiled duck had picked up ti ‘oajiras Light. Behind that light lay the flat and miasmal Locomblan coast, And somewhere, still farther to the southweat, armies were being arrayed againat each other. Somewhere, across the night, men were ambushing and shoot- ing. ‘Tho night was well advanced when a great wide-shouldered figure passed autetly along the empty bridge-deck. This figure cautlously tried the door of ut found it se~ Then he crept about tho half-open shutter and stood minute after minute, in an titude of listening. McKinnon was at his machine, takin, ‘The call was coming cl ated again and again. came the query through the night. McKinnon, as he listened and “tuned up" to the other man’ tensity, cou of the “send” as one would recognize rcent of a Westerner in Boston erin Dublin, It was the la yet undefinable inflec- tion and cadence of a navy man. It the wireless-room, curely locked, to rort, calling Puerto Locombia, McKinnon wan on hin feet again, tingling with excitement, He threw down his switch-lever, caught up his key, and sent the answering call rat- tling and exploding across his spark- sap, loud above the purr of the wakened dynamo ‘Then he turned again to bis phones and listened. ‘They had not tuned up » him; they had not picked him up. For still again came the call “Pt. Ba," “Pt-Ba It wan out of the Jing. The engine-room d his power, ing him without voltage enough to make th alae that would reach the war- ship. Hut his hand went out to bis form-pad and he bent over tt, busy with his transcription, as the noise ulsing and creeping tn through his elvers translated itself into intel- Hxibility ‘Thin te erulser Prineston tying off harbor of Tyrcehianwal™ Send wom of Wuarigit eaten Ko dewpateh two days ago revurte pwotextion i for Atmerioan tutereats, Hicase hastruct OF Timaediate aivice ‘Linu, venpv, ‘Then came a minute or two of lence, and then the call again, fol lowed by the repeated messa Peta. Are you anive! Why dom. Princeton ort wo einner LeUT Ww ERD. Automatically McKinnon wrote out sspatches, Word for word, as a y of record. His chance had at lust; all he now needed was ‘onpul send power, It would take him but a min Ute to slip down to the engine room, ho concluded, aa he threw on a siriped green’ bathrobe with a hood » a monk's cowl ‘Then he could to it hinaself that they were sling- the right voltage up to him, He sprang for the eabin door, unlocked It and swung it o As he leapod out across the door sill he ran head. on into the arms of Ganley Vd like to glance over that mes- business.” over that message?" ley, leveling a revolver “Read it, if you want to!” Ganley pounced on It, like a eat on a cornered mouse. He backed a to the door, but kept his revolver st poised in front of him while he read, McKinnon, as he watehed the guns runner calmly restore the sheet of paper to bis table, saw the chance ho had at frst hoped for slip past you think we'd better kill that message?" Ganley suggested, h & pregnant movement of his hand “No, [ don't sea why. “Tit tell you why," sald Ganley, “T'm going to be up here on this deck cat, crawling to the further corner ef: hie dynamo of yours to-night—I've decided it’ cooler than that cabin of mine. Seein' B Robert Am the ship's bridge, the 6 deepening th recognize the nature clear, es Bennet this Is our law night at sea, I'm go- ing to enjoy it. And the sound of any Message, of any message whatever, going out ti one wires up there, 's going to spoil my night! Is that Plain enough for you?" You own this “No, but I'm goin’ ley's placid report “And this is your apparatus?* “And my particular little corner of the earth,” responded Ganley. * kill this “And supposing 1 don't sage” “Do you s'pose I'm going to let a couple of children like you"—and he threw a world of contempt Into the word Hildren” as he uttered it— “stop in and try to stop my steam- roller? m You haven't told me why!” ree torted the dogged McKinnon, “Well, this is why,” sald Ganley, and he leaned closer In through the door as he spoke. “It you don't choose to put a padlock on that wire, I'm going to put a padlock on you!” Just what do you mean by that?” T mean that you'll kill that m sage, or I'll kill you!" n he shut the cabin door quietly and the operator was left standing alone in his station. CHAPTER XIil. "KINNON was aroused by @ quick, light knock, repert- ed for the second time. He took up his revolver, aipped it into the loose side pocket of his bathing-robe and cautiously opened the door. It was Alicia Boynton who stepped in as he did so, pushing him sharply back and closing the door even more sharply after her, have heard every word,” she ex- plained, in her low and intimate tone: “I was leaning on the raul, under the bow of the lifeboat. I wait- ed until Ganley passed behind the officers’ quarters. He's walking up and down, smoking—and bei “There's going to be trouble to-night,” he watned her. “I'd rather lu went below. ‘Ll couldn't, now. ‘{ had the Princeton, at Torre-. blanca.” ‘he Princeton! Then we are wast- ing time—we're getting farther and farther away hee every mingt: ‘No, that's impossible if she's lying off Torreblanca. We're drawing & Lit- tle closer to her, if anything. danger is that h leave his instru- ment before I can call again. And I've got to have power from the en- 1¢- FOO! ‘Then I'll watch your key while you go below,” she promptly suggested. He pondered the problem for a mo- ment or two. “No, that would be Inviting danger. I want you to carry thie message to engine-room for me.” ‘But what will you do—when the Power comes?" she asked. “I'm going to send. I'll Gght 1t out with him. Ganley can't dictate to the high seas of the world.” “Why couldn't I go to the captain “That's worse than useless. drunk. And we’ Against us, for he'd order us to keep out of the mess. He'd fight shy of entangling alliances, He'd forbid me to send, for he's got bis ship to clear from that port, He told her briefly the way te the engine room. Then he switched off hi Nght, unlocked th and glanced out to see that the way was Yet he waited at the epen door with his revolver in his hand until he had made sure she was below sini. Then he locked himself in gain. As he waited for the girl's retura s only get him was an American battleship of eome h@ busied himself pulling out trunk and standing it om end, te shoved against the locked door eg @ further reinforcement against sible attack from outalde, The plates themselves, he knew, never be penetrated & bullets tt was the wooden-shuttered wi and the door alone that needed de- fense. Then came footsteps, a o alarm and an answering veloe snarled: Ba se out eo’ here!” t wae Ganiey's voice, shere brusque. The knob of the locked ot twisted and moved; the girl aust have caught hold of it from the eut- side. It was equally plain, from the sound of her sudden gi and ucuffle that followed, that Ganley ~} flung her aside from the ‘Th second was that a great mallet-Hke hand had descended unexpectedly on his own, out of this darkness, aad had sent his revolver rattling aeresa the boards of the cabin floor. Hia next was the knowledge of clinchiag and writhing and struggling wi @ fighting and heaving hulk that Bore him quickly back over his dooralil. ‘Then came @ brief and bitter battle for what seem @ ehort barrelled, heavy-butted revolver in ne of the mallet-like hands, The re- volver fell away from them both in the hot and stifling blackness of the cabin, but still they clawed and panted and writhed from side to elde. Then came the sound of the door slammed shut, and the woman cry- ing to McKinnon to turn on the light. He dropped low and twisted sharply, tearing himself loose from the ape- like arms The light—turn on the light!"* cried the woman, as though appre- henalve of some danger he could not fathom McKinnon, still panting and shak- ing, sprang for his lght-switch and suupped on the current. The blank darkness puffed into a sudden picture. It showed in sparkling high-lights on the wireless apparatus, It revealed the huddled figure of Ganley crouch- ing back against the sleeping berth, It showed the white faced and terri- fied woman close by the cabin doo But that was all; for in the next seo- ond the light went out again, and the cabin was once more blanketed in ut- ter darkness, But McKinnon, in that brief heart- throb of itumiaation, had caught and fixed in his mind's eye the position of his fallen revolver. He was on his hands and knees on the floor like @ ay