“THE TREY O
9
HEARTS," T=»a,rt 2, at G-em Theatre.
ths aun, a molten ball wheeling mad­ friend, this side the water, as well bers cl life in that wasted and move­ than to explore this pocket domain.
| He feasted famously again at noon;
ly in the cup of the turquoise sky. as his man of business ”
less frame.
whiled away severaj hours vainly whip­
He paused with an embarrassed ges­
Then dark waters closed over him.
The Hunted Man.
An impish malice glimmered in his ping tbe pools with rod and tackle
He came up struggling and gasping, ture. "So I have ventured to request sunken eyes as he kept her waiting
That day was hot and windless with
fqund in the camp, for trout that he
an unclouded sky—a day of brass and and struck out for something dark tills—ah surreptitious appointment in upon his pleasure. And when at length
that rode the waters near at hand— I order to—ah take the further lib r- he decided to speak. It was with a ring really didn’t hope would rise beneath
burning.
that blazing sun: aud toward three
Leng before any sound audible to something vaguely resembling a I ty of asking whether you have rccent- of hateful irony in that strangely
o’clock lounged back to his aromatic
I ly sent Alan a message?’’
human ears disturbed the noonday canoe.
sonorous voice of hi3.
couch for a nap.
Her look of surprise was answer
But his strength was largely spent,
hush, a bobcat sunning on a log In a
"Rose,” he said slowly—"my daugh­
The westering sun had thrown a
enough,
but
she
confirmed
It
with
vig-
his
breath
had
been
driven
put
of
him
glade to which no trail led, pricked
ter!—I am told you have today been deep, cool shadow across the cove
' have not communi-
ears, rose, glanced over shoulder with by tho force of the fall and he had ■ orous denial: "I
guilty
of
an
act
of
disloyalty
to
me.
”
when he was awakened by Importun­
a snarl and—of a sudden was no more swallowed much water—while the field j rated with Mr. Law in more than a i She said coolly: "You had mo spied
ate hands and a voice of magic.
of his consciousness was stricken with year!”
there.
Rose Trine was kneeling beside him,
"Precisely as I thought,’’ Mr. Digby upon.”
Perhaps two minutes later a succes­ confusion.
"Naturally, with every reason to clutching bls shoulders, calling on him
Within a stroke of an outstretched nodded. "None the lean, Mr Law not
sion of remote crashings began to be
question your loyalty, I had you by name—distracted by an inexplica­
heard, a cumulative volume of sounds paddle, he flung up a hand and went long since received what purported to watched.”
ble anxiety.
down
again.
be
a
message
from
you;
in
fact
—
a
made by some heavy body forcing by
She waited a significant moment,
He wasted no time dlrcrimlnating
Instantly ono occupant of the rose.” And as Miss Trine sat for­
main strength through the underbrush,
then
dropped
an
impassive
monosyl
­
between dream and reality, but gath­
and ceased only when a man broke canoe, a young and very beautiful wo­ ward with a start of dismay, he aded: lable into the silence: "Well?”
ered both into his arms. And for a
Into the clearing, pulled up, stood for man in a man's hunting clothes, epoke "I have the information over Mr. Law’s
“You have visited the man Digby, moment she rested there unresisting,
an Instant swaying, then reeled to a a sharp word of command and, as signature—a letter received ten days servant and friend of the man I hate
sobbing quietly.
seat on the log, pillowing his head on her guide steadied the vessel with his ago—from Quebec.”
|—and you love.”
"What is it? What is it, dearest?”
paddle,
rose
in
her
place
so
Burely
“
Alan
in
America!"
the
girl
cried
arms folded across his knees and shud­
She said, without expression: "Yes." he questioned, kissing her tears away.
that
she
scarcely
disturbed
the
nice
in
undisguised
distress.
dering uncontrollably in all hie limbs.
"Repeat what passed between you.”
“To find you all right. ... I
"He came In response to—ah—the
He was a young man who had been balance of the little craft, and curved
, "I shall not, but on one condition."
was so afraid!” she cried brokenly.
bow,
head-
message
of
the
rose.
”
her
lithe
body
over
the
and would again bo very personable.
’ , "And that is?”
"Of what? Wasn’t I all right when
"But I did not send It!”
Just now he wore the look of one foremost • into • the pool.
"Tell me first whether it was you you left me here this morning?”
«
•
»
•
"I felt sure of that, because," said
hounded by furies. His face was crim­
She disengaged with an effort, rose,
Mr. Law had, in point of fact, en- Mr. Digby, watching her narrowly— who sent the rose to Alan Law—and
son with congested blood and streaked
more, where Judith has been during
and looked down strangely at him.
with sweat and grime; bluish veins dured more than he knew; more than "because of something that accompa­ the last fortnight?”
"I did not leave you here this morn­
throbbed in high relief upon his tem­ even a weathered woodsman could nied the rose, a symbol of another sig­
"I shall tell you nothing, my child.
ples; his lips were cracked and swol­ have borne without suffering, Forty- nificance altogether—a playing card, a Repeat"—the resonant voice rang with ing, Alan. I wasn’t here—”
That brought him to his own feet
len, his eyes haggard, his hands torn eight hours of such heavy woods- trey of hearts.”
inflexible purpose—"repeat what the
in a Jiffy. "You were not!” he stam­
Her eyes were blank. He pursued
and bleeding. His shirt and trousers walking as he had put in to escape ,
man
Digby
told
you!
”
and “cruisers” were wrecks, the latter the forest fire, would have served to : with openly sincere reluctance: “I
The girl was silent. He endured her mered. “Then who—?”
"Judith,” she stated with conviction.
scorched, charred, and broken In a prostrate almost any man; add to this must tell you, I see, that a trey of stare for a long minute, a spark of
"Impossible!
You don’t under­
dozen places. Woods equipment ho (ignoring a dozen other mental, nerv­ hearts invariably foresignaled an at- rage kindling to flame the evil old eyes.
ous and physical strains) merely the ! tempt by your father on the life of
stand.”
I
Then
his
one
living
member
that
fact that he had been half-drowned.
The girl shook her head. “Yet I
Alan’s father.”
had power to serve his iron will, a
He experienced a little fever, a little
know: Judith was here until this
With a stricken cry the girl crouched
i
delirium, then blank slumbers of ex­ back in the chair and covered her face hand like the claw of a bird of prey,
moved toward a row of buttons sunk
haustion.
! with her hands.
in the writing-bed of his desk.
He awoke in dark of night, wholly
“That is why I sent for you,” Mr.
"I warn you I have ways to make
unaware that thirty-six hours had Digby pursued hastily, as if in hope
passed since his fall. This last, how­ , of getting quickly over a most unhap­ you speak—”
With a quick movement the girl
ever, and events that had gone before, py business. “Alan's letter, written
lie recalled with tolerable clearness— and posted on the steamer, reached me bent over and prisoned the bony wrist
allowing for the sluggishness of a within twenty-four hours of his arrival in her strong fingers. With her other
drowsy mind. Other memories, more in Quebec, and detailed his scheme to hand, at the same time, she whipped
vague, of gentle ministering hands, of enter the United States secretly—as open an upper drawer of the desk and
a face by turns an angel’e, a flower’s, he puts it, ’by the back door,' by way took from it a revolver which she
a fiend’s, and a dear woman’s, trou­ of northern Maine—and promised ad­ placed at a safe distance.
"To the contrary,” she said quietly,
bled him even less materially. He vice by telegraph as scon as he
was already sano enough to allow he reached Moosehead Lake. He should "you will remember that the time has
bad probably been a bit out of his have wired me ere this, I am told by passed when you could have me pun­
head, and since It seemed he had been those who know the country he was to ished for disobedience. You will call
saved and cared for, he found no rea­ cross. Frankly, I am anxious about nobody: if Interrupted, I shan’t hesi­
tate to defend myself. And now”—lay­
son to quarrel with present circum­ the boy!”
ing hold of the back of his chair, she
stances.
"And I!” the girl exclaimed pitifully. moved it some distance from the desk
Still, he would have been grateful “To think that he should be brought
—"you may as well be quiet while I
for some explanation of certain phe- | into such peril through me!”
find for myself what I wish to know."
nomena which still haunted him—such ,
"You can tell me nothing?”
I
For a moment he watched in silence
as a faint, elusive scent of roses with ;
"Nothing—as yet. I did not dream as she bent over the desk, rummaging
a vague but Importunate sense of a ' of this—much less that the message
woman's presence in that darkened , of the rose was known to any but Alan its drawers. Then with an Infuriated
gesture of his left hand, he began to
It Was a Rose.
room—things manifestly absurd . . . and myself. I cannot understand!”
curse her.
With
some
difficulty,
from
a
dry
,
li ad none beyond a hunting knife belt­
"Then I may tell you this much
She shuddered a little as the black
throat,
he
spoke,
or
rather
whis
­
ed at the small of his back. All else
more, that your father maintains a oaths blistered his thin old lips, dedi­
pered:
"Water!
”
had been either consumed In the for-
very efficient corps of secret agents.” cating her and all she loved to sin.
In response he heard someone move
est tiro or stolen by his Indian guide—
“You think ho spied upon me?” the Infamy and sorrow; but nothing could
over
a
creaking
floor.
A
sulphur
j
who had subsequently died while at*
I girl flamed with indignation.
stay her in her purpose. He was
match spluttered infamously. A can­
tempting to murder his employer.
“I know he did.” Mr. Digby per­ breathless and exhausted when she
dle
caught
fire,
silhouetting
—
illusion,
Since that event, the man had suc­
mitted himifelf a quiet smile. "It has straightened up with an exclamation
ceeded In losing himself completely. of course!—the figure of a woman in . seemed my business, in the service of of satisfaction, studied intently for a
hunting
shirt
and
skirt.
Water
In seeking shelter from the thunder­
my employer, to employ agents of my moment a sheaf of papers, and thrust Precipitating Both Into That Savage
storm, he had lost touch with his only splashed noisily. Alan became aware own. There is no doubt that your them hastily into her hand-bag, togeth­ (
Welter.
of
someone
who
stood
at
his
side,
one
known and none too clearly located
father sent you to Europe for the sole er with the revolver.
hand
offering
a
glass
to
his
lips,
the
landmarks. Then, after a night passed
Then touching the pushbutton morning. I tell you I know—I saw
furpose of having you meet Alan."
without a fire in the lee of a ragged other gently raising his head that he
which released a secret and little-used her only a few hours ago. She passed
"Oh!
”
she
protested.
"But
what
bluff, he had waked to discover the might drink with ease.
door, without a backward glance she us in a canoe with one of het guides,
Draining the glass, he breathed hie earthly motive—?”
sun rising in the west and the rest of
slipped from the room and, closing the while we watched tn hiding on the
"That
Alan
might
be
won
back
to
the universe sympathetically upside­ thanks and sank back, retaining his
door securely, within another minute banks. Not that alone, but another of
America
through
you
—
and
so
—
”
down; and aimlessly ever since he had grasp on the wrist of that unreal I
had made her way unseen from the her guides told mine she was here
There
was
no
need
to
finish
out
hi»
hand.
It
suffered
him
without
re
­
stumbled and blundered in the maze
with you. She had sent him to South
house.
i
sentence.
The
girl
was
silent,
pale
sistance.
Tlie
hallucination
even
of those grimly reticent fastnesses, for
Portage for quinine. He stopped
and
staring
with
wide
eyes,
visibly
CHAPTER VIII.
the last few hours haunted by a fear went bo far as to say, in a woman’s
I there to get drunk—and that’s how
mustering
her
wits
to
cope
with
this
of falliny reason—possessed by a no­ ■oft accents:
i my guide managed to worm the infor­
emergency.
"You are better. Alan?”
The Incredible Thing.
tion that he was cogged by furtive
mation from him."
"I may depend on you," Mr. Digby
He sighed incredulously: "Rose!” !
enemies—and within lio last hour the
Broad daylight, the top of a morn­
Alan passed a hand across his eyes.
The voice reeponded "Yes!” Then suggested, "to advise mo if you find ing ns rare as ever broke upon the "I don't understand," he said dully.
puppet of blind, witless panic.
Hut even as he strove to calm him­ the perfume of roses grew still more out anything?”
north country: Alan Law opening be­ "It doesn’t seem
possible she
"For even more.” The girl rose and wildered eyes to realize the substance could—”
self and rest, the feeling that some­ strong, Beemlng to fan his cheek
extended
a
hand
whose
grasp
was
firm
thing wns peering at him from behind a woman's warm breath. And a
of a dream come true.
A shot interrupted him, the report
True it proved itself, at least, in of a rifle from a considerable distance
a mask of undergrowth grew intoler­ acle came to pass; for Mr. Law,
realized poignantly that all this
ably acute.
part. He lay between blankets upon a upstream, echoed and re-echoed by the
couch of balsam fans, in a corner of cliffs. And at this, clutching fran­
At length he tumped up, glared wild­ sheer, downright nonsense, distinct­
somebody's camp—a log structure, tically at his arm, the girl drew him
ly nt the spot whero that something ly felt lipB like velvet caress his fore­
weather proof, rudely but adequately through the door and down toward the
no longer was, flung himself fran­ head.
He closed his eyes, tightened his
furnished. His clothing, rough-dried river.
tically through the brush in pursuit of
grasp on that hand of phantasy, and
but neatly mended, lay upon a chair • “Oh, come, come!” she cried wild­
it, and—found nothing.
at his side.
With a great effort he pulled him­ muttered rather inarticulately.
ly. "There's no time!"
The voice asked: "What is it.
He rose and dressed in haste, at I "But, why? What was that?”
self together, clamped his teetli upon
once exulting in his sense of complete i "Judith is returning. I left my
the promise not again to give way to dear?"
rest and renewed well-being, a prey guide up the trail to signal us. Don’t
hallucinations, and turned back to the
He responded: "Delirium . .
to hints of an extraordinary appetite, you know what it means If we don’t
clearing.
But I like it . . . Let me rave!
and provoked by signs that seemed to manage to escape before she gets
Then again he slept.
There, upon the log on which he
bear out the weirdest flights of his de­ , here?”
had rested, he found—but refused to
lirious fancies.
CHAPTER VI.
believe he saw-—a playing card, a
“But how?"
There were apparently Indisputable | "According to the guide the river’s
trey of hearts, face up in the sun­
glare.
evidences of a woman's recent pres­ the only way other than the trail.”
Disclosure».
ence in the camp: blankets neatly i "The current is too strong. They
With a gesture of horror, Alan Law
In a little corner office, soberly fur­
fled the place.
folded upon a second bed of aromatic could follow—pot us at leisure from
nished, on the topmost floor of one of
balsam in the farther corner; an effect the banks.”
While the sounds of his flight were lower Manhattan's loftiest office-tow­
of orderliness not common with
still loud, a grinning half breed guide ers, a little mouse brown man sat over
"But downstream—the current with
guides; a pair of dainty buckskin us—”
etole like a shadow to the log, laughed a big mahogany desk; a little man of
gauntlets depending from a nail In the
derisively after the fugitive, picked up big affairs, sole steward of one of
“Those rapids?”
wall; and—he stood staring witlessly
and pocketed the card, and set out America's most formidable fortunes.
"We must shoot them!"
at
it
for
more
than
a
minute
—
in
an
In tireless, cat-footed pursuit.
Precisely at eleven minutes past
"Can it be done?”
old
preserve
Jar
on
the
table,
a
single
An hour later, topping a ridge of noon (or at the Identical instant chos­
"It must be!”
rose, warm and red, dew upon its
rising ground, Alan caught from the en by Alan Law to catapult over the
Two more shots put a period to
petals!
hollow on its farther side the music of edge of a cliff in northern Maine) the
his doubts and drove it home. He
There was also Are in the cook I offered no further objection, but
c lashing waters. Tortured by thirst, muted signal of the little man's desk
stove, with a plentiful display of | turned at once to launch one of the
ho began at once to descend in reck­ telephone clicked and, eagerly lifting
less haste.
things to cook; but despite his hunger canoes.
receiver to ear, he nodded with a smile
Alan didn’t stop for that, but rushed
What was at first a gentle Blope cov­ and said in accents of some relief:
As soon as it was in the water. Rose
to the door and threw It open and him­ took her place In the bow, paddle in
ered with waist-deep brush and car­ "Ask her to come in at once, please.”
self out Into the sunshine, only to hand, and Alan was about to step in
peted with leaf-mold, grew swiftly
Jumping up, he placed a chaff in In­
pause, dashed, chagrined, mystified.
more declivitous, a mossy hillside, as timate Juxtaposition with his own;
astern when a fourth shot sounded
steep as a roof, bare of underbrush, and the door opened, and a young
There was no other living thing In and a bullet kicked up turf within a
and sparely sown with small cedars woman entered.
sight but a loon that sported far up dozen feet. A glance discovered two
through whose ranks cool blue water
The mouse-brown man bowed. "Miss
Oh, Com», Come!” She Cried Wildly. the river and saluted him with a figures debouching into the clearing.
twinkled far below.
shriek of mocking laughter.
Rose Trine?” he murmured with a
He dropped into place and, planting
The place was a cleft in the hills, paddle in shallows, sent the canoe
The solving moss beds afforded great deal of deference
and vital on his flnjers. A fine spirit
a
table
of
level
land
some
few
acres
|
treacherous footing; Alan was glad
of
resolve
set
her
countenance
aglow.
The young woman returned his bow"
well out with a vigorous thrust.
now and then of the support of a ce­ with a show of perpk-xity: *Mr Dig­ "You may count on me for action on In area, bounded on one hand, be­
Two strokes took It to the middle
neath-
the
cliff
from
which
he
had
dar, but these grew ever smaller, and by?”
my own part. If I find circumstances
of the pool where immediately the
dropped,
by
a
rushing
river
fat
with
more widely spaced and were not al­
“You are kind to come in respom'e warrant it. I promised not to marry
current caught the little craft in its
ways convenient to his hand. Ho to my—ah—unconventional
invita­ Alan because of the feud between our recent rains; on the other by a second urgent grasp and eped It smoothly
came abruptly and at headlong pace tion,” said the little man. "Won’t fathers—but not to stand by and see cliff of equal height. Upstream the through more narrow and higher
within sight of the eaves of a cliff— you—ah—sit down?”
h.’m sacrificed. Tell me how I may water curved round the shoulder of a banks. A moment more and the
and precisely then the hillside seemed
She said, "Thank you,” gravely, and communicate secretly with you—and towering hill, downstream the cliffs mouth of the gorge was yawning for
closed upon It until It roared through
to slip from under him.
took the chair ho indicated. And Mr. let me go as soon as possible!”
them.
a narrow gorge.
His heels flourished tn the air, his Digby, with an admiration
made no I
With the clean balance of an ex­
Near
the
camp,
upon
a
strip
of
CHAPTER VII.
back thumped a bed of pebbles thinly < Sort to conceal, examine»! the fair
shelving beach that bordered the river perienced canoeman. Alan rose to his
overgrown with moss. The stones face turned so candidly to him.
where It widened Into a deep, dark feet for an Instantaneous reconnois-
gave, the moss skin broke, he began to
The Mutineer.
It is qulto comprehenslbl
he said
pool,
two canoes were drawn up, bot­ sance both forward and astern. He
slide—grasped at random a youngish diffidently —‘If you will permit me to
Within the hour Rose Trine stood
toms
to the sun. Dense thickets of looked back first, and groaned In his
cedar which stayed him imperceptibly, say so—now that one sees you. Miss before her father in that somber room
heart to see the sharp prow of th3
ec-nlng away with all its puny roots— Trine. It Is quite comprehe- lslble why wherein he wore out his crippled days, pines, oaks, and balsams hedged tn
second canoe glide out from the
erught at another, no more substan­ my employer—ah—feel» tx>» ard you a» In that place of silence and shadows the clearing.
He was, it seemed, to be left »evere- banks. He looked ahead and groaned
tial—and amid a shower of loose stone he doe».”
whose sinister color-scheme of crim-
»hot out over the edge and down a
The girl flushed. “Mr. Law has told eon and black was the true llvery of ly to himself, that day; when he had aloud. The rapids were a wilderness
of ehouting waters, white and green,
you?”
drop of more than thirty feet
his monomania—his passion for ven- cooked and made way with an enor­
wo^se than anything he had antici­
mous
breakfast.
Alan
found
nothing
[ He was instantaneously aware qf
"I have tile honor to be ,hla nearest igeance that alon» kept warm the * ta­
better to do till time for luncheon pated or ever dreamed of.
CHAPTER V.
But there was now no escaping that
ordeal. The canoe was already spin­
ning between walls where the water
ran deep and fast with a glassy sur­
face.
The next instant it was in the jaws;
and the man settled down to work
with grim determination, pitting cour­
age and strength and experience
against the ravening waters that tore
ut the canoe on every hand, whose
mad clamor beat back and forth be­
tween the walls of the gorge like vaet
i bellowings of infernal mirth.
He fought like one possessed.
There was never an Instant's grace
' for Judgment or execution; the one
i must be synchronous with the other,
i both Instantaneous, or else—destruc-
i tlon.
The canoe wove this way and that
like an Insane shuttle threading come
Satanic loom. Now it hesitated, nuz­
zling a gigantic boulder over which
j the water wove a pale green and
glistening hood, now in the space of
a heartbeat it shot forward twice its
length through a sea of creaming
waves, now plunged wildly toward
what promised Instant annihilation
and cheated that only by the timely
plunge of a paddle, guided by luck or
instinct or both.
The one ray of hope in Alan's mind,
when he surveyed before committing
himself and the woman he loved to
that hideous gauntlet, sprang from
the fact that, however rough, the
, rapids were short. Now, when he had
■ been in their grasp a minute, he
seemed to have been there hours.
His laborlngs were tremendous, un-
I believable, inspired. In the end they
I were all but successful. The goal of
i safety was within thirty seconds’
more of quick, hard work, when Alan’s
paddle broke and the canoe swung
broadside to a boulder, turned turtle
and precipitated both headlong into
that savage welter.
As the next few minutes passed he
was fighting like a mad thing against
overwhelming odds. Then, of a sud­
den, he found himself rejected, spewed
forth from the cataract and swimming
mechanically in the smooth water of
a wide pool beyond the lowermOBt
eddy, the canoe floating bottom up
near by, and Rose supporting herself
with ono hand on it.
Her eyes met his, clear with the
sanity of her adorable courage.
He floundered to her side, panted in­
structions to transfer her hand to his
ehoulder, and struck out for the
nearer shore.
Both found footing at the same
time and waded out, to collapse, ex­
hausted, against the bank.
Then, with a sickening qualm, Alan
remembered the pursuit. He rose and
looked up the rapid JuBt in time to
view the last swift quarter of the
canoe’s descent: Judith in the bow,
motionless, a rifle across her knees, in
the stern an Indian guide kneeling
and fighting the waters with scarcely
perceptible effort in contrast w-ith
Alan’s supreme struggles.
Like a living thing the canoe
seemed to gather itself together to
poise, to leap with all Its strength;'
it hurdled the eddy in a bound, took
the still water with a mighty splash,
and shot downstream at diminished
speed, the Indian furiously backing
water.
As though that had been the one
moment she had lived for, Judith
lifted her rifle and brought it to bear
—upon her sister.
With a cry of horror, Alan flung
himself before Rose, a living shield,
anticipating nothing but immediate
death. This was not accorded him.
For a breathless instant the woman in
They Found a Footing.
the canoe stared along the sights,
then lowered her weapon and, turn­
ing, spoke indistinguishably to the
guide, who instantly began to ply a
brisk paddle.
The canoe sped on, vanished swiftly
round a bend.
After a long time, Alan voiced his
unmitigated amazement:
"Why—in the name of heaven!
Why—?”
The girl said dully: "Don't you
know?” And when he shook his head.
"Her guide told mine you had saved
her life on the dam at Spirit Lake.1
Now do you see?”
Hi" countenance was blank with
wonder: ’’Gratitude?”
Rose smiled wearily: "Not grati­
tude alone, but something more ten,'
rible. ...” She rose and held
out her hand. "Not that I can blame
her. . . . But come; If we strike
through here we will, I think, pick up’
a trail that win bring us to Black
Seaver settlement by dark.”
” »J
a.
.(To be Continued.)
>