The evening world. Newspaper, February 12, 1916, Page 9

> in every generation “The Red Circle,” repeated Borden dully. It is still there, on my hand, always there. And it has marked one member person marked by it has always been a criminal. The ‘Decoration of the Curse of Heaven,’ I have heard it called!) : 3 Nevelized from the Pathe Photo Play of the Same Name by Wil! M, Ritchey. (Copyright, 1915, by Albert Payson Tertune.) SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS. of my family. The CHAPTER IX. “ Dodging the Law.” | MAHE beach comber was shuffling along the sands, like some fur- tively uncouth night animal. He was a forlorn shaven, iil clad. For a week, now, he bad dwelt in a tumble- down ghack at the far end of Surfton beach—a ¢wo-room hovel, deserted long ago by the const guards and fit only for outcasts. ‘There could be no doubt that the beach comber was an outcast. He @pent his days hidden in the shack. Only after dark did he venture forth in search of food and firewood. The few people who had seen him on ‘these night prowls thought him a mere tramp and nicknamed him “Mike.” ‘This evening Mike was ecouring the shore for driftwood. He had gath- ered an armful of it and was crossing the beach toward the base of the oliff, where lay a bit of wreckage that the moonlight had just revealed to him. He had nearly reached the cliff base when a black cloud momentarily blotted out the moon, making the beach suddenly dark. Mike looked up impatiently to learn the cause of the darkne: Even as he looked, the cloud passed op, and the moonlight burst forth, as vividly clear as before, But, before he could lower this eyes and continue his search for the elusive bit of dirift- wood, Mike's gaze was caught an gripped by something that swayed and. reeled eocentrically on the verge of the oliff far above him. He looked more closely. There, sil- houetted against the brightness of the midnight sky, ho could make out two close-locked bodies, fighting for very life on the cliff edge—bat- ting as wild beasts battle—so mad- dened by the blood lust as to be heed- less of their pertl. A misstep on that perilous verge must send one or both of the combatants crashing over the brink. ‘Mike stared upward, spellbound. ‘Then he shouted. The night wind earried away his cry of warning. Galvanized into feverish activity, he cast aside his carefully hoarded arm- fut of wood and ran to the base of the cliff. The Fight on the Cliff. ‘The lower part of the oliff was boulder strewn and honeycombed with caverns and holes. Above these was a tortuous rath, up along the wheer edge of the precipice—a path that a light ane active man might ossibly climb, PForgettul of his own safety, Mike began yearn 5p this steep trail toward the summit. Max Lamar was yielding, inch by inch, to the fearful pressure of his foe. With every ounce of his 240 pounds, and with every atom of his mighty strength, “Smiling Sam” Fagan was striving to drag Lamar to the cliff brink and hurl him over, ‘The crime speciailst wrenched one arm free and struck. His left fist bettered thuddingly against the sweating flesh of Hagan’s upturned Eagan shifted his hold, so as to pinion the fiercely driven left arm, and twisted his broad face to one side te evade the shower of blows. ‘The manoeuvre enabled Max to tear free his right arm. Bracing himself he threw every atom of his weight and his waning strength into a short- arm uppercut. Rub pat caught Sam the point of the jaw. at itore he could brace himself, La- mar struck again. Eagan reeled backward, dizzy and all but helpless. With boxer's intuition, Max knew a third blow would end the fight. He braced his feet to deliver it, throwing his right foot several inches behind the left. ‘The right foot did not touch ground. Instead, It swung out Into space. For Lamar was on the very edge of the precipice, Understanding bis peril, he flung himself forward. The Beach Comber. ‘Tho movement caused a cave-in of the crumbling verge, beneath his right foot. He threw out his arms to save himself, But it was too late to re- cover his balance, Over the edge and out of sight—his hands clawing vainly at the precipice side for some obstacle to break or check his fall. Sam, his brain clearing from the Jar of the two Jaw-blows, lurched for- ward to peer down at his vanished foe. But at the first uncertain step the paused, Over the side of the cliff, wome ten fect beyond, appeared th head and shoulders of @ man, A mo- ment later the lean body of Mike Beral i to its feet on the summit. Panting and exhausted from his wteep climb, the beach comber moved forward uncertainly, Sam, seeing him approach, fancied the whole man hunt was upon him, and that a dozen or more pursuers might be at hand, He snarled like a wild beast cornered, With one smash of his beefy fist he knocked the panting beach comber half senseless to the ground; then made off at top speed along the sum- mit of the bluff, running with awk ‘wand swiftness toward the nearest gap in the rocks; never once looking back nor slackening his fiight until he had rounded a corner and gained the safety of a pile of distant boulde: ‘The beach comber crawled dazedly to his and looked around him, From below he had seen two men hattling here. Yet when he had ar- rived at the crest only one man had been visible, And that one man was gone. As Mike still blinked uncertainly about | he heard a muffled ery tat eoomeydn atu tiom teow; und a with ca beneath his feet. He jumped to one side in superstitious dread. Bix feet below him and hanging over a sheer three hundred foot drop clung & man—a man who hed broken his fall by eeizing an outcropping jut of stone. To the stone the unfortunate Lamar was clinging with both hands. His body swung helpless below it. His grip on the stone was already failing. Once or twice it seemed gone. But -like agility he would ever renew hi precarious hold. “He can't hang on there more than a few seconds longer,” muttered the beachcomber, noting the increas- weakness of the inded body. ‘ere 1 he Sees Tock tent! I'm to help you can.” "Ate the’ voice, Panar tightened his slipping grasp and looked upward. Above he saw the unshaven face of the tramp glaring wide-eyed down at him. The beachcomber was stretching one arm downward, But he could net reach Lamar by nearly @ yard. “Can you hang on while I run for a rope and some one to help me pull you up?” he called. Lamar did not answer. He had no strength to squander on words. He needed every fraction of his ebbing wer to maintain his Slippery Bae ‘or even a minute longer. e ch~ comber understood. And he wasted no time. An inspiration came to him. He drew back from the edge, yanked off his ragged coat, twisted it ropewise and tied one end firmly around his thin waist. He wound both his spindling legs around an upcropping rock near the edge and once more leaned over. The collar of the coat brushed against Lamar’s face. Max seized It. The weight nearly tore the tramp loose from his impromptu anchorage. But he set his teeth and hauled up: ward. Max, digging his toes in the cliffside, used up every atom of his remaining strength in helping bim- self upward. After what seemed a century of agonized effort he rolled over the edge onto the crisp of the summit, There, side by side, he and his rescuer lay for a space, panting, speechless, too weary for words or for movement. “Heroism!” Presently Lamar muttered, halft- aloud, an old quotation which, un- consciously," he had been repeating over and over to himself as he had clung to the rock in midair: “Heroism means holding one mo- ment longer!” The beachcomber heard the halt- audible words without grasping their meaning. But they told him the res- cued man had recovered his senses and his breath. He got to his feet and, stooping over, helped Lamar to rise, Max was in horrible condition, His evening clothes were torn to ribbons, His face was bidod-smeared and bruised. His palms were raw and bleeding. His lips—the lps that, an hour earlier, had touched June Travis's hair in secret caress—were cut and were swollen and discolored, He was so shaky he could not stand unas- sisted, “Where shall I take you?” asked the beachcomber. “To the Surfton Hotel, pleas swered Max, “ It isn’t very far, If you let me lean on your shoulder—and forgive me for not thanking you before. My head's still befuddled, There's no word of thanks that can express all you've done for me to-night, “Never mind that,” beachcomber, embarrassed, your breath for the walk, ready?” Slowly, Lamar leaning heavily on his new-found friend, they set off to- ward the hotel. Ten minutes later they were in Max's own room; and Mike was easing the Injured man carefully down into a chair, As he did so their eyes met full in the glare of the electric light above them. The beachcomber started violently; his pallid face turned battleship color. He turned and made as though to Yeave the room. “Wait!” panted Lamar. “I can't let you go like this, old man. You've done me a mighty big service—bigger than I can ever repay, What can I do for you in return?" “Nothing at all, Mr. Lamar,” was the beachcomber’s reply. “I’m glad to have been of service to you.” “You know my name!" ejaculated Lamar. T" interrapted the “Bave Are you have seen you several times,” evaded the other. “I thin’ T + some one cal) vor lu knew I would? When. you expe. rey ema, een WHE EVENING WORLD, SATURD ago, down at the far end of the beach. Goodby. I"—— He shuffled quickly out of the room. Lamar stared after him, bewilder- ment momentarily making him forget his pain and fatigue. “Who Is He?” “I know I've seen him before,” he murmured aloud. “But where and when? It wasn't with that tallow white face and hunted look and two weeks’ stubble of beard. I know that. But—but—who is he?” . . . ° The morning sun was bdlazing on the waves and turning Surfton beach into a vista of glittering silver. The cliffs, so forbidding and Wg) at midi it, now shone with reflected Mght from sea and sky, and made a eofttly multichrome background for the panorama of shore and ocean, From a. half-hiaden cave mouth near the base of the bluffs peered forth a puffy and bruised face, “Smiling Sam” Eagan had dered upon this cave in the course of his flight after his battle with Lamar, deeming it a safe hidin; place from the hue and ha crawled into its depths. He had fallen asleep there on a pile of seawood and, th utter exhaustion, had slept like a dead man until the sun was blun- Now waking—stiff and sore in ev. ery limb, parched with thirst, fam. iehed from hunger—he crawled to the rocky entrance of the cavern and ered out. He waa in agony from ia bruised flesh and wrenched mus- cles. Every bone in his big body ached like an ulcerated tooth, But it was the craving for food that poo! him most fiercely of all. He had eaten nothing in more than twen- four hours. And in that time he had taken more violent exercise than during the preceding five years, Al- Ways o glutton, he was now in an- ings for one huge, hot, greasy bowl- ful of beet stew. He looked up and down the gleam- ing beach, wondering if he might dare venture torth to appease his goading hunger; but, even as he took @ etep forward he halted and shrank back again. Along the shore, a furlong distant, two men were strolling, and jo Sam's ckeen eyes their faces were clearly visible, “Jacobs!” he sputtered wrathfully. “And Boyle! The two fly central office detectives that used to work with Lamar, Gee! The police haven't wasted much time in hitting my trail.” He drew back into his cave, paus- ing only for an instant to peer down the beach in the opposite direction from that whence he had seen the two detectives, There, in the distance, two women were sitting on a rock in the sunshine, and toward them a man was hurrying. Then man's back was towand Sam, but the watcher recog- nized the two women as June Travis and Mary, June and her old nurse had not forth on their morning walk along the sands and had paused at the rock to pick out a site for the ptenie lunch the girl had planned for later in the day. As they sat in the sunshine June pointed to a flat-topped boulde further inshore, as an ideal natural lunch-table. “You're Badly Hurt!" They were about to go over and investigate it when a quick step be- hind them in the sand made them turn, Max Lamar was coming to- ward them, Mary shuddered, in voluntarily, and shrank back, But June, with a smile of genuine wol- come, held out her hand in greeting to him, Suddenly, her arms sttll extended, and before her fingers could touch his, she exclaimed in quick sympathy: “You're hurt! You're badly hurt! What fs it?” aad Mary, at the girl's alarmed ex- clamation, glanced at Lamar. His right hand was bandaged. His under Mp was cut, There was a bruise on his cheek. ‘What is it?” repeated June, anx- jously.” “How are you hurt, Mr. Lamar? Tell me." “That?” said Lamar lightly, as he held up bis bandaged hand. “Oh, that's just a little souvenir from your dear ‘old friend, ‘Smiling Sam’ gasped June, in fear, "Yes," ho assured her, “And this ornament on my lip ls a token of one of his love pats.” “Love pats!" echoed Mary. “Lord, sir, but I'd hate to get an anger-slap from him if that was a love-pat! And the mark on your cheek? Was that @ love-pat, too? Or, maybe, did he Kiss you there?’ “No” said Lamar. “It was the wer the precipice that gave mo do ® on the cheek.” urged June, Briefly—and still treating the theme in jest rather than in seriousnese— Max told her the story. “Last night, when this tramp took me home,” he ended, “I was so rat~ tled I let him get away without half thanking him. I wish I'd forced some money on him whether he would take it or not. This morning I telephoned you, but your Jap butler said you had gone to the sands. So I set out to ind you, and at the same time to try to hunt up the tramp. He said something about living in a shack at the lo’ end of the beach. But there are a dozen such shacks scat- tered all along the shore and” —— “Is he slender and little and pale?” asked June, “and is he raising a beard?” “Why, yes. Do you know him?" “No, But as soon as you spoke of his living in a shack I remembered. I saw just such @ man coming out of an old, tumbledown shanty yesterday—a shanty about a quarter mile from here, beyond that point of land where the olfffs run out close to the shore. T'N show you the way.” “T'll_be ever #0 much obliged. For I want to try to square myself with him—as nearly as I can. Besides, ho puzzles me. He seems to be a tramp. But his voice and his language and his bearing are not a hobo's. And— and the fellow’s face, somehow, Is familiar to me, though, for the life of me, I can’t place him.” “Bxcuse me, Mr. Lamar,” said a voice behind Max. ‘They told us at the hotel that you'd started for the May we interrupt you for a minute?” Lamar got up from the rock, glano- ing not overfriendly at the two men who had broken in on his talk. Then FIGHTS FoR LiF: a *EAMAe PRECIPICE GOGE: On THE 49 he recognized the interlgpers his face cleared. “Hello, Boyle!" he said cordially “Hello, Jacobs! Miss ‘Travis, will you excuse me? I sha’n’t be long. I'll be back in five minutes.” He moved away, the two detecti 8 walking one on either side of him. When the trio were out of. earehot from the women on the rock, Jacobs began: “Sorry to butt in, Mr. Lamar Chief's orders. Here's a letter from him. If you don't want to read all of it, I'l give you the gist now, W down here looking for Charles Gor ? don—you remer\ lawyer who embezzled $75,000 worth of Par- well Corporation urities and then kot away from a couple of our men Well, we've traced him down here. Got @ pretty good line on him, too. And we've run down to gather him in. Chief wants to know if you'll help us out, Not that there’s any need, But" "Gordon!" exclaimed Max, a light of memory leaping Into his face. Gordon! Charles Gordon, the crooked lawyer! That's the man! I knew his face was fainiliar, What a dunce I was not to know right | tan meme enemerte ot teem mg mE RS A Mystery Romance of Heredity “You talk as if you had seen him lately and didn’t recognize him tll we spoke about him just now, Did"—— “L?" laughed Lamar. “How should I have seen him here?” What sort of crowd do you suppose I travel with, anyhow, when I'm off duty?” “No offense,” said Jacobs, hastily. “It was just possible you might bave seen him on the beach and not recog- nized him, He's changed a lot, 1 We have 4 tip that de’s living in a hut, down below here, on the shore. Just beyond that point over there. ‘We were on our way there and we were keeping a lookout for you at the same time. What's the matter with your hand?” he broke off. “Your lip'a cut, too,” put in Boyle. “How does the other feliow look after the scrimmage? Is he in the hospital or buying a championship medal? “He's at large,” replied Lamar, ea- gerly grasping the change of subject. “And he's ‘Smiling Sam’ Eagan.” bent cried both men reath. “1 saw him last night, and I gave chase. I caught up with him at the top of the biuff over there, We bad @ tussle and—and”— “And what?" demanded Boyle. ‘And hi fot away,” finished Max lamely. “Now, if you want a real capture, why not start in after Eagan? I notified the Surfton po- lice, of course, and I sent a wire to the chief. But it'll be a big mark for both of you if you can get him.” “Our guns are loaded for runaway lawyers,” returned Jacobs, “not for Sam Eagan. When we've got Gor. don neatly caught can taki whirl at ‘Smiling Sam.’ By the way, @ boy up at the police station was to meet us here, before this time, and show us exactly which hut Gordon's the living In, He said he'd catch up with us and” “What's the use of waiting?” said Boyle, impatiently, “He told us th kK it te, Just around that id, And”—— are about shacks al) along the shore, ther in- terposed Lamar, “Iv'll be true cen- tral office methods for you chaps vo smash noisily into the Wrong house und sive Gordon plenty of time to get Hotter watt for the boy.” He left them and walked hastily back to where June and Mary sat His face was clouded and sad, June once read the trouble in his alert 8, tad news?” she asked, rhe worst sort of bad news @ dozen for me ude worrled answer, “And for th ‘ who saved my life The ‘tri by the way, is Charles Gordon, an mbezzling lawyer, He's in hiding here ‘Those two men are cen- tral office detectives and”—— “They are looking for him? queried June, excited. “They've him to Surfton ?" W They've traced him to hin hut. ‘re on the way there. At least, they were, See, they're start- ing back now to meet a boy who is THE TENTH CHAPTER OF “THE RED CIRCLE” WILL BE PUBLISHED SATURDAY, FEB. 19 AY, FEBRUARY 12,_ ‘a for your sake as for his, going to guide them. And—Chiet a writes asking me to help them, “He Saved Your Life!” “But,” urged June, “you can't. You pha Why, he saved your life. 0" "Dd you suppose I've forgotten that?" retorted Lamar, miserably, “That's why I tried to delay them. rd give my left arm to be able to get there ahead of them and warn him, But how oan 1? I'm @ sworn officer of the law and”—— “But I'm not!" erled Juno, spring- ing to her feet. “And I'm going to warn him!" “Miss Travi “June!” Lamar and Mary exclaimed the protest in unison, But June did not heed, Her brain was aflame. On her right hand—unseen by Lamar—the Red Circle blazed like a flery star. “I am going to warn him!" repeated “Dearie, you mustn’t! You mustn't think of doing such a wicked, rash thing!" bieated , turtively slip- ing the sweater shoe carried over olrole-marred hand. ‘What’ it to you if this criminal goes to jail “I don't believe he’s a criminal at all!" said June, vehemently. “I read ¢ Ca the ta fempen ae the ‘arwell corporation the embezzlement charge because he tried to expose their dishonest business methods. I’m going to warn him, Mr. Lamar, since you can't. It’s as much You owe him a great deal. I'm going!" Lamar, infected, despite himself, with hor enthusiasm, could not voice stern refusal that he tried to frame into words, And the next {n- stant June was speeding across the sands toward the point, Around the headland she vanished, just as the two detectives met the boy who was to guide them, and started off at a fast walk toward the Baer Tonys did not see June, But glancing over hex # ¢ rounded the headiand, oy Sam ace vancing. And she quickened run, Before her was the shack—cloned, soomingty Gesertea. ee reached it nde, @ noted that while the door was apparently locked & window at the rear was not. With- out hesitation she flung open the win- and climbed Hag the Cad a & oubbyhole of @ room whose only articles off niture were a tumbledown cot bed and a rickety table, on which stood an oil hog A crazy door led from this tiny bed- room to the room beyond. June threw wide the door—and confronted &@ soared, crouching man, who blinked at her in dumb terror, “Mr. Gordon!” she said tncisively, as if talking to @ delirium victim. “The police are after you. Get out of that bedroom window and maki for the rocks. I'll hold them till you're out of reach, Go!” Threatening Hand. She selzed him by the arm as she spoke, drawing him toward the win- dow. As she did so @ thunderous knocking sounded at the outer door followed by a sharp summons of: “Open in the name of the law!" Gordon hesitated no longer. He bent and kissed June's hand. Then he bolted out through the rear win- dow and ran Uke a chased rabbit toward the shelter of the headland rocks, June watched him go. She meas- ured with her eyes the distance from hut to headland, then letened to the front door cracking and rending un- der the detectives’ blows. “He'll never make it,” tered, “unless”. She slammed shut the door leading from the bedroom to the front room. Picking up one of a handful of scat- tered matches on the bedroom table, she lighted the dirty little kerosene lamp. At thi me mut- © moment the two detec- tives bu open the outer door and piled into the front room. There, for a second, they halted in wonder, Before them was the slightly open door of the bedroom. Through the crack between door jamb and door- way, appeared a white hand—a wom- an’s band—ond part of an arm. The hand grasped a burning kero- gene lamp whose amoky chimney wab- bled gerously. Yes, and on the back of the white band shone a oir- clot of scarlet. “The Red Circle!" ejaculated Boyle, and started forward—a human hound upon the scent “Back!” shrilled @ woman's voico from behind the half-shut door—-a@ voice that echoed through the bare shack like a@ silver bugie's call. “Back! If you take another step forward I'l throw this lamp.” “Rush her!" yelled Boyle, “We'll wet ‘em both, Gordon and the Red Circle woman! Rush her! He bounded forward Jacobs at his heels lttle room like a whizzed the lamp. For once In the history of the world a woman had thrown straight The blazing lamp crashed to the floor at Jacobs's fect. There was a flare, an explosion, and the room wa thick with blinding smoke. je he spoke; 1 across the flaming meteor Jacobs reeled back, gasping; his lungs burstingly agonized with the kerosene fumes he had swallowed He fell prostrated across the wooden flooring which the burning kerosene had already begun to tgnite Boyle stooped and groped through the smoke for t swoon man, found him and dragged him through the choking fumes to the outer door, then across the threshold and on to the sand outs Thore he worked frantically to restore the stricken detective to consciousness Meanwhile, as soon as she had launched the lamp at her antagonists, June had wheeled about and leaped through the bedroom window While Boyle was seeking to got Ja- cobs out of the burn ack, #he was speeding along the sand toward the rock where she bad left Lamar and Mary. (Gordon, too, had profited mightily by her delay. From the rocks ho made his way to the highroad that led from Surfton to the city. An auto truck, elty-bound, chugged past, just as he reached the road. With a lithe spring, he swung himself up to a pre- carious seat ut its tallboard.) As she ran, June looked backward, Tho shack was a pillar of flame, its dry boards were a swift prey to the blazing kerosene. Men were running toward it from every direction, She hada fleeting glimpse of Boyle, kneel- ¢ inner door. By Albert Payson Terhune The Newest PATHE Picture, Now Being Presented at Leading Motion Picture Theatres of Greater New York “When I am myself,” sobbed June, “I loathe the things The Red Circle makes me do. But when the circle begins to throb and glow on the back of my hand, something scourges me on from one mad crime to another ;—some power I can’t control." ing beside the slowly recovering Ja- cobs, on the sand, Prosently, as she rounded the poin she dropped to a sedate walk. Riary, and Lamar were com! forward from the rock to meet hor. She forced her labored breathing into some éort of regularity and answered the eager question in their eyes by calling out to them: “I was too lat away. But I saw toward the shack. echoed Lamar, looki: toward the smudge of smoke thal began to craw! ‘ard over the jut~ ting shoulder of the point. “I should say #0. And look how every one ia i a Let's go to seo jt." fo was off, at a fast trot, athrill with the mystic impulse that forever senda the human race hurrying to witness a fire, June made as though to. follow, but Mary detained her, Dearie!” watled the old woman in trembling eagerness. “Don't do it! Don't do it, precious! Let well enough alone! Como home. Come Semis p—- By me what really . I could eee you were to him. Tell" sis — He bad gotten dotectives ‘Tm ing to that fire!” insisted June, King off the lovingly de- taining grasp. “If you'll come along TU teil you about it on our way.” Deaf to Mary's pleas, she hurried in Lamar’s wake. The nurse, fright ened, irresolute, ran alongside, plyti hor with proteste and confused ques- mings. Lamar reached the scene of the blaze to find a crowd already there. = LG Sees ber eee ei err with » One oO! bas rey po on his knes. ue x shouldered bis way through the group that hemmed in (4 two. Sam A away, until such time as going might, be ato to venture out on began to lay places on the cloth for in‘ his task and. in accomplishing Mt in is accel with record speed. As the Jap Was not with in his back, he did pg 4 a wer eeee emerge “te a Vouk oa @ lower part of the ry yards behind him. Wagan had tried to sleep fe ied open beach without fear of the police. Drowsing there, been roused by the sound of voices. He had paid little heed to interruptions, until suddenly his leet had been tickled by the smell il Then, at once, his whole starved fb teey| clamored ravenously for some- ing to eat. His craving for food had redoubled since morning, Now it drove away caution and common sense, He must eat, though he xo to Prison for life, In’ payment for dhe meal and Mary, Just below bim a dapper gaged in setting a picnic table. saw—heavenly sight!—a great basket Of food just behind the busy Jap. No hale man who has gone for thirty hours will blame the tive for laying aside his armor of Prudehce at sight and smell of feast that filled the big lunch basket. The Man in Hiding. Yet Eagan did not lose all of his craft, Noiselessly he crept from hiding place. On tiptoe he made his way toward the table, stooping forward, arranging a hand- ful of silver at one of the three plates. i 3 Sam leaned over hi eee coming ound att ae MEMAINE motion caught up the cages amar, sald. moke 4 “4 oO! wal tauen for hist "Gee, bat ne Nea coe a8 Pe bee? oo ee me Queer tino in that shack!" PP Cloth-ends firmly he- “In tho shack?” repeated Lamar. “You surely never went into that fovy Sel du look for your bl "responded \e. nly it. wasn't blazing then, We t In the door and started for And then @ woman’ hand stuck out through the opening and—it had a lighted lamp. Tarew the lamp at nd"~ “A woma: questioned the amas- ed Lamar. “A woman—threw a lamp a your" It wae @ all sted Boyle. “No man evor ad wach © little white hand. idea" —— Bes! gasped Jacobs feebly, a Red Circle on the “No!” gasped Lamar, dumfounded incredulous. “No! It couldn't have been! Not"-——~ “It was, though,” w broke in Lamar, as he caught sight of Juno, who had just come up. “Do you hear this? These men say @ woman waa in that shack—that she threw a lamp at them that there was a Red Circle on her hand.” “No, really?” exclaimed June. “A woman—with the Red Circle?” She checked herself abruptly. La- mars gaze was fixed on her own right hand, carelessly displayed to his view. Her gullty glance fell to the back of her hand, It was snowy, velvety, shapely. "No align of the Hed Circle was visible on its smooth surface, “No,” he said brusquely, as he fought to shake off a feeling of strange mistrust that encompassed him. “No, I can’t. [1 can't!” Then, with an effort, changing the subject, he went on: “My letter from Chief Allen begs me to come back to town and consult with him on the Gordon case, I must cateh the noon train, if I can, Cood- A Cruel Suspicion. Abruptly he turned away, ignoring the girl's pretty gesture of farewell, and strode off alone, muttering as he went: I can't understand it at all. But if I had a third foot, I'd kick myself for being cur enough to doubt her, for one second. She's—she's the most glorious girl God ever made! And— and yet"-—- . * 0 @% oe Mrs. ‘Travis n to the beach at noontide, in her car, On the front seat beside the chauffeur rode Yama, The tonneau was half filled with hampers and baskets. From the table boulder they had chosen for their luncheon board ear- ler tn the morning June and Mary Travis, Then they to help her over the masses of rock that strewed the beach at that part Laughingly June piloted her mother across und betwe the boulders, ex- plaining as they went how very won derful was the natural table they had picked out for thelr feast, and telling the story of the fire, Mary followed, dtrec who staggered along the provisions: as the Jap ts the rock, lunch there, anc «rows of us when And be ready as soon I'm starved, Mrs, Travis as you can. wants to see where the fire was tt morning, We will be back {1 tive minutes, Try to have everything on the table by that time.” The three women strolled away, June’ talking antmatedly about the excitement the tlre had caused among the beach idlera, Mra, Travis, toler- autly amused by the recital, Mary si- Jent and broodi Yuma, as they left him, set to work with @ will to get the luncheon ready Within the brief five minutes jotted him. Opening a wieker ha er 16 drew out a tat i spread it on the rock's wave surface. ‘Then, divin he fished fori! nd leaned again into the hamper @ case of cutlery and t ik of the squealing and vainly struggling little butler, Sam made a rush for the food basket, snatched it up and bounded lumber- Png off among the rocks, seeking a place where he might hide and devour his fragrant prize. Eagan had sense enough not to go back to hia cave with his plunder. ‘That was much too near the scene of hie theft. Possible searchers would see the cavern mouth and explore it. He must get far enough ai to dodge pursuit, before settling down to the delights of his stolen banquet. Ahead of him was a hillock made up of broken bowlders in whose niches man could elude a whole cordon of lice. And toward this hillock Bagac ran, is way took him alon~ a rocky bit of Jump from stone to stone. The tide was in, The water swirled thirstily quone the rocks as he rushed on- ar He came to a place where he cold not astride from boulder to boulder, but must jump from one to the next. He gathéred himself for the leap, and he made !t in mfety. But the rock on which his two hundred and forty pounds landed was slimy and wet sea moss, he threw out both arme to steady himself, The basket of food slipped from his outflung arms, struck the rock and caromed off into three feet of water, where a mischievous wave Promptly washed it out of sight. Droop-jawed, goggle-eyed, Sam watched hie treasure vanish, For a moment he was dumb. Then ceme a Tush of wor Up and down on the slippery rogk Sam Eagan daneed. He threw his fists alo: He cursed in @ way that would have been a Iib- eral education to an audience of long- ehoremen and lumberjacks and canal- boat men, At last his vocabulary and tis voice failed him. And he tried to re- member whether or not there had been more than one basket of food in that picnic lunch, On careful —and ravenous—reflection he rather thought there bad been a second basket. And he turned hungrily back toward the spot he had so nimbly quitted a few minutes earlier, Yama, meantime, had at last freed himself of the tablecloth winding- sheet, clearing away the last folds of from his head and face fust as the three women returned. Loudly und dramatically he told them what had befallen him, And at discovery that the food basket was gone his voluble indignation redoubled, “Some one has played a silly prac- tleal joke on you," decided Travis. “I am going to the e cuard station below here to ask Gavroche sww anybody run in that direction with the basket.” What Sam Eagan Saw, Left alono, June and Mary stare@ at each other in dumb astonishment, Then, all at once, the funny side of the inishap struck June. She threw back her head and laughed. daring cleverness of the thier appealed to the newly awakened criminality in her nature. And, as she laughed, the Red Circle began to throb and’ glow on the back of her hand. Sam Hagan, having crawled as near as he dared’ to the spot where he still hoped to find food, caught sight of June and heard her gay laughter, He paused, hesitant, behind @ rook, jebating whether or not it would be safe to come out and throw himself upon her mercy, He had half-coined a whining speech of penitence for her benefit, when, of @ sudden, the girl clapped her right hand across her mouth to stop her hysterical laugh. Clear as noonday sun could make it, the scarlet sign on her hand-back flashed forth The-tho F Circle!” gurgied. fagan, in stark amas, “The—the Hed Clrele!—June ‘Travis! A gleam of wolfish cunning to replace the blank wonder on his face, (To Be Continued.) yeRLA \ beach, where he must needs —