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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1914)
.- V ... . .. - , - - ... x ll.i II-v. r bs. - 7-f , r,4 i?:sim MHkrn. fi&w " ' Y JCTX - III r nif.il.liill.nn-iiii? 'Jg.n'- J I . V , , "T5?...-X' . t rt..,.- f . fc , i I FROM THE SHACK HE The jilifito-flrtima correspond- Intf t' t li i installment of 'The Trey o" IIirt.s" may be seen ;it the Star theatre, Kxlay, Mun- 4 lay ana Tye.niluy. Subsenuent' installnietit.s will be published on thlK tnKe of The Sunday . .lournal Magazine every Sun- day until oniplet.d and on the I'li f publication arid for two lays thereafter readers may foe fuih installment enacted at the movies. Part 12 Mirage. S'Y-NOPKIS The Trey of Hearts Is flic death-sign'- eunpWiyed by Sene.;.( Trine in the private war of vengeance "which, throuKh the agency of hix daughter Judith, he wages against Alan iiw, son of the man, now deid, who- was innocently responsible for the aci jdent which rendered Trine a helpless cripple. AlaJi loves -anj n loved by Kose, Judiths twin and double. Judith .vows t com pass liis ileath, but uniier dramatic oircumstanccs Alan naves her life and m unwillingly, wins her love.- There after Judith s by tu.rns animated b the new love, the old hatred, and jeal ousy of her slater. In escaping" her persecution, Alan and Hose, and- their triend I'.arcus take refuge in the fainted Hills -a range of arid moun tains bordering tile Arizona deserts. Judith, while pursuing, suffers a .ehangf of heart and warnn them in . time to avert an attempt xipon their lives. In return for this she is seized by an outlaw accomplice and bound belpless to the back of a lirwse. Alan shoots the accomplice and the horse runs away, following a perOous moun tain trail. The Man in the SJiadow. IF poetic justice-may be rld to have demanded the death of Hopi Jim Slade. train bandit,- caCtle rustler, two-gun man, jack-of-allt-crimes, in the manner anil at the tinne and place w here it eci urreri, it is oertain that poetic beauty of scene aid circum , stances attended on his puissing. He died as he deserved to die, to wlt: like a, dog, shot in U; back with out warning; dying, he plfcinged back warIs over the brink of a declevity so precipitous as almost to deserve the name f precipice; plunging, he passed in ;m instairt' from the golden light of the new-sprung sun that glorjflod the ragged cre.sts of the Tainted hills, into a canyon like a wide, deep well a-brtm i with translucent purple shadow. Two lTVi'idred feet, if one, he fell from the lip of the cliff. Then sud denly the thing that had been Hol Jim Slade was checked in its "head long descent by the outstanding .trunk of a tree, over which it remained, doubled up, limp, horrible. ' The minlavfure landslide that had been caused Wy his fall went on, set tling gradual ty as the slope becarr.o less sheer. Only part of it, a double handful of p-bldes, gained the bottom of the canyon. Its muffled impact on the ground round his feet roused the man whe hud compassed the bandit's death irom the pose he liad unconsciously assumed on the instant of firing the long barreled Colts .45 still poised and smoking, in his grasp, his gaze still directed upward, to the sun-gildeii heights. He stepped back, thrust the weapon Into the Holster strapped to his thigh, and swinging about snatched up a cas containing binoculars. Not before the glasses were adjusted to his visimi did he find time to re spond absently to the alarmed and insistent inquiries of hla two com panions, a man of his own age and a girl of sone years less, who had been u wakened from their sleep by the re port of the revolver. Now the latter plucked his sleeve, momentarily deflecting the glasses from the object which they were fol lowing so seduously as it moved along the heights; a wildly running horse with a woman bound helpless . upon Its back, both sharply in silhou ette against the burning blu. 'Alan!" the girl demanded, "what is it? Why did you fire? Why won't you answer me? What is it?" "Judith," Alan replied tersely, .again picking up with the glasses the runa way horse that , fled so madly along the perilous and narrow track of the hill trail. The name was echoed from two throats as Alan swung sharply and thrust the glasses into the hands of the girl. "Judith," he affirmed with a look of poignant solicitude. "She's roped to the back of that crazy broncho helpless! See for yourself; one falsa step suppose a stone turns beneath its hoof she'll be killed!" While the girl focused her glasses upon that speck that flew against the sky Alan turned to the two horses ' hobbled near by and seizing a saddle threw it over the back of one. At this the other maa strode to hia z rnpv r hp a nnrc. louts RECOGNIZED ALAN side and dropping a detaining hand upon his arm, asked. "What are you going to do?" Alan shook the hand off and went on with his self appointed task. "Go after her, Tom, of course," he replied. "What else? That animal is crazy, I tell you" "Kven so." Tom Kareus argtted, you can't climb that hilside on horse back and if you could, you'd be too late to catch up, much less prevent an accident -" T know it- But suppose it doesn't fall. . . You know what's beyond these hills desert! And the girl is helpless, I tell you, bound hand and foot. Think of her being carried that way all day, perhaps face up to this brutal sun! She'll, go mad if some thing isn't done " "You've gone mad yourself, already," Mr. Barcus contended darkly. "What's it-to you if she does? Suppose you do succeed in rescuing her: what then? As soon as she gets on her pins she'll try to stick a -knife into you like as hot; What's she been chasing you for. all over this .land!,, of the brave and home of the free, but to take your fool life? And now you want 'to sacrifice yourself to her, out of sheer, down right foolishness in the head! I sup pose you'd like me to call it chivalry. I'll tell you what I call it lunacy." "Don't be an ass," Alan responded temperately, gathering the reins to gether and instinctively lifting a foot to the stirrup. "Who warned us yes terday in time to prevent our beinij crushed by that .rock? Judith! Why was she separated from Marrophat and the others alone up there when that beast sneaked up behind her and roped her to that bronco if it wasn't because she iiad broken with them fot good and all, and started to fight ori our side?" "You're raving,' Barcus commented in a hopeless turn. He looked to the girl. "Rose Miss Trine reason with this madman " Dropping the glasses, the girl came ' swiftly and confidently to her lover's side, lifting her lips to his. "Go, sweetheart," she told hiiru "Save her if you can!" With a look of triumph for the bene fit of Mr. Barcus, Alan Law gathered Rose Trine into his arms. "Did you dream for an instant Roso would see her own sister carried to her death if anything could be done to avert it no matter what we may have suffered at Judith's hands?" he demanded before lowering his head. "Not my Rose , . ." With an indignant grunt, but con siderate none the less, Mr. Barcus ctfught up the glasses and turned his back. "Go on!" he grumbled, pretending to ignore the hand Alan ofered him from the saddle. "I've got no patience with you. . . But go!" he insisted, of a sudden seizing the hand and presin;; it fervently. "And God go with you. my friend!'' Then hoofbeats drumming on the hard packed earth of the canyon trail struck a hundred echoes from its rugged, rocky walls. Mr. Barcus showed Rose Trine a face almost ludicrous, with its an guished smile that was intended to seem reassuring. "Let's look sharp and follow him as quick as may be," he urged. "Light ning will never strike us so long as we stick to Mr. Law of the charmed life but I don't . mind telling you, once out of his company, "I'm just naturally afraid of the dark!" II The Trail of Flying Hoof. IN the still air of that young day the chill of night lingered stub bornly and would until the shadow of the eastern rampart had crep slow ly down the canyon's western wall, telescoped upon itself and vanished, letting in the sun to make the place a pit of torment and of burning. Refreshed from rest and exhilarated by this grateful coolnes, . his horso responded willingly to the first touoh. of Alan's spur. , In a twinkling the over night camp dropped from view behind the rounded shoulder of a hill side, mesquite-cloaked. . He sat upon hla horse, just then at standstill upon the summit of a rounded knoll, the Fainted hills lift ing up behind him, the desert before unfolding like a map but. like a map all blurred, obscured to Incoherence by the heat haze that simmered over it like a cloud of vapor escaping from the mouth of hell. No rest for Alan till he knew. . . Abandoning Immediately all notion of returning through the hills by the ridge trail, he turn.ed and swung away at the best pace he could spur from his broncho, delivering himself into the pitiless embrace of that implacable wilderness of sun and sand. And toward the middle of the after noon he fancied that something , re warded one such effort: something for an instant swam athwart the field of the glasses: something that seemed tq move li&e & weary Jaors with a THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, human figure bound to its back. He could not be sure: almost immediately he lost the vision of it, and all his efforts to regain it proved fruitless. None the less he was persuaded he had gained upon the chase. And drop ping the glasses in his excitement and unconsciously rowelling his horse without mercy, he pressed on. But now phenomena were discerni ble which, had he been more desert wise, would have made him pause ar:d think before he adventured farther from those hills, already beyond reach as they were. The sun had taken on a coppery complexion and swam low, like a ball of molten metai in the heavens. The heat haze had borrowed this coloring: it was as if he rode through a world parched brown with subterranean combustion, ready mo mentarily to break into flames upon its surface. The air was heavy, stir less, of the consistency of liquid fire if without its life, scorching his down cast countenance, blistering his mouth and nostrils, searing his laboring lungs. He did not understand: all this was strange anil terrible to him, but he never dreamed that it foreboded any thing more nearly intolerable. His first appreciated warning came when the surface of the desert seemed to lift and shake like the top of a can vas tent in a gale. At the same time a mighty gust of wind swept athwart the waste, hot as a furnace blast. In a trice dust enveloped man and horse, a stifling cloud of superheated par ticles that stung the flesh like a myr iad of needles. And then darkness fell, the twilight of hades, a copper colored pall. Nothing remained visible beyond arm's length. Head bended and shoulders rounded, he began to forge a way into the teeth of the sandstorm, possessed by de termination not to desert her in this hour of greatest extremity though he died of the trying, bedeviled without mercy by his vision. . . How long he fought on. pitting his strength against the elements, can not be reckoned; he himself retained only the vaguest notion of the flight of time, when it was over; while it lasted, it seemed that an eternity was its span, no less. In the end he stumbled blindly down a slight decline and was abruptly con scious that he had in some way found shelter from ' the full force of the wind. He stood in a well of com parative quiet, though overhead and on either hand the tempest raged ' without ceasing, its voice the yam mering of a legion of demons. He thought of rest for a time, until the storm had spent its greatest strength; but as he laid his shoulder gratefully against the rock and scrub bed the dust from his smarting eyes he saw what he at first conveived to be an hallucination: Judith Trine Btanding within a yard of him, alive, strong, free, completely mistress of herself, in no way needing the help of his generous heart and hand. He stared incredulously, saw her recognize him, open her mouth to ut ter a wondering cry that was inaud ible, and come quickly nearer. Her hand fell upon his arm with the weight of unquestionable reality. Her voice rang in his ears, for the moment ris ing even, above the screaming of the gale, a cry of understanding and of gratitude: "Alan! You came to me! You fol lowed me, through all this!" The bitter irony of this outcome to all his laborings and sufferings ate like acid at his heart. Prints. THOUGH she had been schooled to . hold the very name of Law Jn loathing unspeakable and to think of Alan as a mortal enemy and as one whose death alone could properly re quite the cruel injury that had been done her father; and though the man himself had laughed to scorn her first involuntary confession of that love for him which now consumed her be ing with, its insatiable fires, that love which she had conceived in agony of spirit, against her will and against her pride as well: that same nothing had made nothing of these things; through it Judth had learned to hug to her brused heart the bitterest humiliations it suffered because of her love. What did it matter? she asked her self. All along she had known that he could never love her, that his love was pledged to her own sister, Rose, So why should she complain if he de spised and rebuffed her, preferred the fury of the tempest to refuge of It In her company? Her love was no less sweet to her for that, whose passions thrived on lawlessness: And she could not forget what she did not of a cer tainty know, but had instinctively di vined at first sight of him, back there in the lee of the rock, that he had come In search. of her, in spite of him self, 'spurred inexorably by that senti ment in his nature wheh would not let him spare himself while a woman needed to be served, though that wo man were one abhorrent. And sh PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25. 1914. STRAIGHT AHEAD, MY MAN," SHE SAID. "OFF could sympathize with that feeling which made him turn from her, when once he had found her safe and free through her own endeavors. She knew that feeling, something nearly akin to it was inherent in her own nature. She loved him but the better for thai. Now once it caught her in the open, the storm flew at her throat like a maddened animal that thirsted for her blood. Its shrek of eldritch joy fairly deafened her. And for the moment its strength seemed redoubled. Judith was well nigh swept off her feet, while Alan in the weakness of his fa tigue and suffering was actually stag gering and beaten to his knees. Yet when he was warned of her ap proach by some subtle instinct he rose and battled blindly ori. . . With the meekness of the strong, she made herself his shadow. And she was now the stronger, for sha had had more than an hour's rest be side the waterhole, which he had mssed on the way of that rock wind- break. Sooner or later his strength must fail him and he would need her: till then she was content to bide her hour. It befell presently in startling fash ion: she was not a yard behind him when he vanished abruptly, without warning or apparent excuse; as if he had been a thing of such frail textura that the wind had whpped him bodily away. But the next moment Judith herself was trembling on the crumbling brink of an arroyo of depth and width in determinable in the obscurity of th duststorm. Down this, evidently, Alan had fallen in his blindness. Without faltering, however, sho scouted along the brng until she found a spot which seemed to offer less sheer descent, and let herself down, gaining the bottom with a rush that almost carried her off her feet. Alan she found insensible, lying with an arm bent under him in a pose frightfully suggestive of dislocation. Yet when she turned him on his bact and released the arm, he made no sgn to indicate that the movement had caused the slightest pain. There was a slight cut upon his brow, a bruise about his left temple. She tore linen from her bosom, be neath her coarse flannel shirt, and with sparing aid from the canteen, washed the cut clean and bandaged Jt. Then, seeing that the storm held with fury unabated, she rose, recon noitered and returned to exert all her strength to drag the unconscious man across the dry bed of that ancient water course and under the lee of ta farther bank. There, sitting, she pillowed his head upon her lap, and bending over him made her body an additional shelter to him from the swirling clouds of dust. From the insensibility Induced by that blow upon his temple, the man passed quietly into slumbers of pro found physical exhaustion. And for hours on end Judith nursed him there, scarce daring to move save to minister to his needs, bathing his fevered brow and moistening his parched lips and throat with touch so gently measured that the sleeper never wakened, and enduring without a mur mur the pain and creeping numbs of limbs constraned so long to their un natural pose. In the course of the first hour she. was once startled by the spectral vis ion through the driving sheets of dust of a horse that plodded up the arroyo, bearing two riders on its back. Weary with the, weight of its double burden, i went slowly and passed so near to Judith that she was able to recognize the features of her sister and Tom, Barcus. And these, ridiuy; with head bowed to the blasts, pass-jd from sight without either becoming aware of the fierce-eyed woman who crouched ' there in the lee of the ar royo bank over the body of a man who lay so still that he might have been dead. Be sure she made never a sign to catch their attention. This hour, at least, was hers: Rose would never grudge it to' her when it had passed! He stirred, moaned gently in his sleep, and broke suddenly from its grasp with the wild look of one whose soul has" een astray in purgatory. And hardly had his eyes unclosed and looked up ifito the eyes of Judith bending over him than he started up and out of her embrace, got unsteadily upon his feet and after a moment at pause, watching her rise in turn, strode away or, rather, staggered with the gesture of exorcism. Uncomplaining, hugging her new born humility to her with the ecstacy of the anchorlta his horsehair shirs. Judith followed him patiently, at a little distance. He paid no heed to her .it's doubt ful, indeed, if he had as yet returned altogether to his senses; she noticed something mechanical in his actions, as though the subconscious mind were the only plot at the helm. Not far from where he had' rested there was a break in the overhanging wall of the aroyo, Thxou&h thla iie YOU GO. scrambled painfully, reaching the level of the desert only after cruel effort, the undeeded woman at his heels. A brief pause there afforded both time to regain their breath and survey the desert for signs of assistance: it offered none, other than what they might accomplish through their own exertions. For leagues in any quarter it stretched without a break other than the brack cleft of the arroyo, gleaming a bleached and deathly white in the moonshine like fhe face of a froaen world. No living thing that they could see moved within the compass of their Vision. The southward hills, however, seemed the nearer. They seentted to have won at least two-thirds of the way across. And low down "upon the slope of one of the bordering hills a tiny light shone like a friendly star. "With tacit consent both, .turned that way, Alan lending Judith his pertina cious shadow, with never a word or sign between them te prove that either was aware of the other's company. And of a sudden she collapsed. She felt it coming and dug nails in her palms to restrain a groin. The white world swam giddily about her, rock ing like a confused sea. Her knees became as water. . . She sank si lently to the earth. Instinct alone made Alan glance over-shoulder, for she had made no sound whatever. He turned and came directly back to her, knelt beside her, lifted her head, pillowed it gently on his arm and plied her In turn with the dregs of the canteen. With a sigh, a stifled moan and a little shiver, she revived. For a moment she lay still, search ing his shadowed face wth her eyes that, though the moon was full upon thetn, were themselves pools of enig matic shadow. Then, with a struggle she sat up, accepting Alan's aid without a mur mur. Neither spoke at any time. She shivered again in his arms, and he quietly shrugged out of his coat and put it about her shoulders. Shis suffered this service without so much as a glance for him; it wroung her heart that he should so expose himself for her sake; but not for worlds would she have had it otherwise. He helped her gently to regain hr feet, passed an arm around her. Thus they struggled on in strange, dumb companionship of misery and wonder. But now conditions were again re versed: Alan could ill afford the added stran upon his failing strength; nv ment by moment Judith was growing the stronger; new life flooding her being as the thought persisted and would not be refuted, that he must somehow care for her in spite of all that lay between them. Thus an hour passed; and for all their desperate struggles neither could see that the light on the mountainside was a yard the nearer. Behind them other lights appeared, two staring yellow eyes that peered up over the horizon, seemed to pause a time in search of the two, then leaped out directly toward them. Of this they were altogether ignor ant; and when a deep, droning sound disturbed the desert silence, like the purring of some gigantic cat, both ascribed it to the drumming f their laborng pulses. The two lights were not a mile be hind them when, silently, without a sign to warn the girl, Alan released her, took a step apart and dropped as If shot. Instantly she was kneeling by his side.. But in the act of bending over him, she drew back and remained for several moments motionless, staring at those twin glaring eyes, sweeping down upon them with all the speed ' attainable by a six-cylinder touring car negotiating a trackless desert trackless, at least, since the dust storm had obliterated every sign of the beaten trails. When Judith did move it was not to comfort Alan. On the contrary, her first act was to draw from her pockt a heavy, blunt-nosed revolver, break it at he breech and blow its barrel clear of dust. Her hand went next to the holster on Alan's hip. From th:s she extracted his Colt's .40, treating it as she had the other. Then aiie crouched low above the man she loved, as if thinking perhaps to escape no tice from the occupants of the motor car. If that were her .thought, it was bred of an idle -hope. Alan had chosen to fall in the middle of a wide space so arid that not even sagebrush had ventured to take .root there. When . the glare of the headlights fell upon them it was inevitable that discovery should follow. The motor car stopped within 20 feet. Three men jumpeu out and ran toward the pair, leaving two in the car the chauffeur and one wno occupied a corner of the rear seat; an aged man wth the face of a damned soul, doomed for a little time to live upon this earth in the certain knowl edge of his damnation. As this happened, Judith Trine JOSEPH JUDITH IS ROPED TO THE leaped to her feet and stood over the body of Alan, a revolver poised in either hand. "Haiti"' she ordered imperatively. "Hands up!" The three who had alighted o'heyed without a moment's hesitation; her father's creatures, they knew the daughter's temper far too well to dream of opposing her will. In the six hands that were silhouet ted against the headlight's radiance, three revolvers glimmered; but at her command all three dropped harmless ly to the earth. Then, sharply, "Stand back two paces!" she required. They honored unanimously. Darting forward, she picked up and pocketed the three weapons, then with one of her own singled out the men she named. "Now, Marrophat and you, 'Hicks -pick Mr. Law up and carry him into the car. And treat him gently, mind: If one of you lifts a finger to harm him, that one shall answer to me." Still none ventured to dispute her. The two men designated, without a sign of disinclination, stepped forward. One lifted Alan Law by the shoulders, the other took his legs. Between them they bore him with every care toward the motor car. But now a second will manifested itself. The man in the rear seat lifted up a weirdly sonorous voice: "Stop!" he cried. "Stop this non sense! Drop that roan! Judith, 1 command you " "Be silent!" the girl cut in sharply. "I 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 meV "No. But I take Hback and can cel it: that is my privilege, I believe. Silence!" she storjaed. ,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 the mad man that he was, for the time being divested of his habitual mask of frigid heartlessness. Andseeing that there was no other way of quieting him, the girl turned to the third man. "Now Jimmy!" she said crisply, "iu to that car and be quick about it and gag him!" "If you lo," her father foamed, "I'll have your life " The man named Jimmy hesitated between fear of the one and awe of the other; but his hesitation vanished when, yielding to impatience, the girl pulled trigger and two bullets bored into the earth too near his feet for comfort. Then with alacrity he jumped into the car and, finding a wide silk handkerchief and ignoring the threats, of the old man, proceeded to execute ' Judith's order to the let ter. "Now out with you!" she Instructed in a tolerant tone when that task wis finished and Marrophat and Hicks had . placed Alan gently on the floor of the car. A flourish of her weapons gained In stant indulgence of this wish. 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 un less you're 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 bod 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 mak ing 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 lony, xhriil howl that was quickly answered by fainter yells from a distant quarter of the desert, then by pistols popping and flashing some two miles away, then by a grow ing rumor of galloping hoofs. The night glasses in tae car af forded her flashes of a body of sev eral horsemen some six or seven, she judged making at- top speed toward 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; who bad followed If 1 VANCE S 1 3 I I BRONCHO'S BACK Rose and Barcus until these lastj eluded them in the duststorm; wharj had later effected a junction with thjt car and been purchased to the uses ofJ Seneca Trine, her father. The subsequent division of forces; it appeared, was due to the fact thaj two passes were available for escape t by way of the southern hills. Thfj horsemen had been designated to Inj vestigate and shut up the trail tot; ward the east, while the car witlrj Trine had set out to perform 1U! service in the west. f1; A sardonic chuckle from wlthiiv Trine's gag goaded tho girl into tJ sullen fury. g Exacting his utmost speed from thf-J chauffeur, under penalty of her dis pleasure, she set herself to revival Alan. - St With the aid of such stores of foo? and drink as the car carried, this waw quickly enough accomplished. . :-C Strangling with an overdose of bran' dy too little diluted with water. Ala sat up, grasped the conditions hi .n flash, and gained further information as he . devoured saidwichea arrS emptied a canteen. . ;Kj Then, ignoring the fact that proxlnjii ity with him threatened to put an erfd to the life of Trine with a stroke apoplexy, he stationed himself on tft- rear seat, kneeling, his .45 ready, fp use if the horsemen drew too near. "'I The mountain pass was now, h; judged, a mile distant. The light". oj the hillside, according to the ohauj feur, was that of a prospector wf had camped there temporarily. Theif was nothing, then, to be feared frof that quarter, but solely from the refT where the horsemen, having picket up Marrophat and his companions, hail Instituted hot pursuit, and were nor strung out la a long, straggling liat three horses carrying double, tQs farthermost perhaps a mile antfs half away one with a single ridr the nearest, . well within three-quarters of a mile. 4 Nobly mounted, this last came 'Ji like the wind, gaining on the moKr car with every stride; for his hors was trained to such going, where;, the car at best could only labor heavily in dust and sand. None the less, it had won to a poiy: within a quarter of a mile from tvia pass before the horseman got with? what he esteemed the proper ran and opened fire. Ho fired thrice. His first shjit winged wide, his second by ill-chan&e ripped through a rear tire of the ogj-, thus placing upon it an additlon&l handicap, while his third sought tie. zenith as his hands flew up and in dropped from the saddle, drlllll through the body by Alan s only shL But now their case was deaperajj: the speed of the motor car was Sfc preclably the less for that flat tia on the rear wheel; and the rest of Ujj posse were coming up rapidly. j"f A long range pistol duel was in P In gress before the car had covered hrlt the remaining distance to the pasx The body of the car was struck hJf . a dozen times :its passengers escaped only by what they choso to term 'a miracle. , ?j And a minor miracle of fact w"V)a already at work in their behalf, though they were unconscious- of ltyi Two hundred feet above the trail ' two men were working with desperQ.e haste to some mysterious business though none noticed them. f Only the chauffeur was aware or' a woman running down the hillside atus angle, to intercept the car evti hundred yards fioin the mouth of t lass. ' ; " As it drew, near tho spot where she paused, the .head of the pursuing pafty swept into tlje mouth of the ravinej'f At the sane time the chauffeur ticcd that the two men on the hilLs;tle were following the woman pellmlL throwing themselves down the sl4 with gigantic leaps and bounds. : And then a great explosion rent peaceful hush of night that till tfun had been profaned by the patter cracks of the revolver fusillade. -t From the side of the bill direly opposite the mouth of the pass a wide Kheet of lurid dusky flame spewed )jt. An . the roar of dynamite subsb' ied the entire side of the bill shifted jmJ slid ponderously down, choking ,:-jhe ravine with debris to the depthTTjOf some 3 or 40 feet, burying the lead ers of the pursuit beyond hope ioC rescue. Only an instant later the msJor car jolted to a halt and Alan puCSed himself together to find that Rose:Jjnd Barsus were standing beside the Afor and jabbering joyful greetings, mfied with more or less Incoherent expira tions of the manner in which they piad come to seek shelter for the hlghy in the prospector's shack and, roflseqby the noise of firing and recognjnng Alan in the car by the aid of njjht glasses, had with the pronpectofs-JaiJ hit upon this scheme of shooting a landslide In between the pursuit, ind its devoted quarry. .fj (To Be Continued Next Sntn day). .-11- i 1
