»
14 Part. a/t G-em. Theatre.
be accorded her, and quickly, and Judith had somehow escaped k.*
that
the sacrifice it should demand precipitated over the eaves ot
■1 mount.* Inside the motor -de swept
CHAPTER XLVIII.
from the
shale roof roused him and gave h-
would be complete. ...
like a hunted hare, and without the
CHAPTER XLVII.
Judith at his
Now prayers are sometimes an- I nerve enough to resume the climb 8
"ar
warning
cuine
upon
Harcus
ami
Full Flight.
down the i slope swered when the boon craved is good
It was true, when he found cou«
The Last Warning.
"Oh what can it mean?" Rose whin- luditli. di.i i cunt- J, Harcus bending
others had I van-
to look and see for bim;*»df:
Tn the chill, violet shadowed dusk pered brokenly, clingbg * her lover» over Ids cycle ami tinkering with its
for the soul. ...
within three yards of the brink **
Slowly and painfully these four
of that clear evening, a chapfallen arm. "Surely you <1- n't think . . • motor
only alive but toiled along an obscure trail that fol pine, her face uplifted to the sun
For one horripi'atirg instant colli-
motor car crept sluggishly Into the Surely, it must be accidental
•
stirring; she dared not stir; a »|n^
affected that
lowed the windings of the little river,
!v n seemed unavoidable, Barcus and
little mountain town of Mesquite at Surely it can't mean —"
occupie
1
until
a
branch
struck
into
the
main
the heels of two mutinous mules, driv
"I'm afraid It does.” Alan Law re- ipdith and the motorcycle
Um when congratulations had^been
stream and so discovered to them yet
en by a chauffeur who steered with sponded gravely, eyeing the front of most of the width of Hie road; there
exchanged, there fell an
another trail leading into the west
ono hand while the other flourished the Mountain home "Our luck holds was little room between them and the mutually
The
ey<
s
of
the
four
awkward
pause,
n crackling whiplash over the backs consistently that’s all
It wouldn't d" livity. less between them and the
ward canyon.
ruefully,
each
forest. To try to pass them on the nought one another a
Then again slowly and painfully
of Its sol“ motive power
be us If we didn't pick
but lu-
pair
quick
wilh
the
unuttered
his
Its one pasaenger, a cripple as help place where Marrophat ai d Jimmy : '"er side would be only to dash
they plodd'-d on following blindly an
exorable inquiry: What next?
other trail blazed by Eatc-s as blind as'
less as the car itself, huddled in a I chose to step over night. I-'ortili.ate- brains out against the trees; while to
In the outcome, it was Mr. Barcus
corner of the rear seat, saluted .Mes ly, It's early; I doubt they're up make the attempt on the outside would
they.
w
hie
11
quite with a snarl Though he was In I With half a show we ought to be able be to risk leaving tin road altogether who advanced the suggestion its re
Above them, on the road they had
was
adopted
—
though
ibis
was
sore need of such rude comforts as I to find some way of putting a good and dnHliing off into space . . .
abandoned, the crimson racer doubled
ceptlon
more
through
lack
of
a
better
And It was impossible to stop the
the towii stood prepared to afford him, distance between us and this town
back to the point where It had passed
his demeanor toward U was that of I before they waken .
cycle—so brief was all Ilia warning. than for any actual appeal intrinsic Judith and Barcus; its occupants de
Tom'
in the proposition.
one who suffers an indignity rather
scended, explored, and came present
But Mr. Harcus was already at his In desperation Alan diose the outsi'le
"When we broke down. I saw,” he
than begs accommodation.
! elbow, in thorough sympathy with of the road; and for the space of a I ventured, with a backward jerk of ly upon the trail of the fugitives.
And now, as the ear crawled to a i Alan's Interpretation of Hie slgnitl single heartbeat thought that he might
Bloodhounds could not have set
pause before the Mountain house— I cance to be attached to the card that possibly make It, but with the next Ills thumb to indicate the road, "a can tled down upon a scent with more
yon
branching
off
from
this
one
about
Mesquite's
one
caravanserai—and trembled In R'we's hand.
realized that he would not—seeing the
a quarter of a mile over yonder. If it’s good will and eagerness than Mr. Mar
Mesquite itself, to the last flea-bitten
"Sharp's the word!" he agreed. front wheel swing off over the lip of all tlm same to you people, we might rophat and his faithful aide.
bound, gathered round to view this "And there's a motor car over there. the slope.
The sun was high and blazing above
wonder, Mr. Trine's indignation and In front of the blacksmith's. Prob
At this he acted sharply and upon stroll round that way and see what its the canyon when the pursuit came
natural
attractions
may
be
—
if
any.
chagrin distilled words of poisonous ably we can hire her—”
Bheer instinct. As the cycle left the
within rifle shot of the chase.
But it's sure a mighty poor sort of a
Import.
"Trine's car!" Alan ejaculated, road altogether he risked a broken
A spiteful shot roused the quar-
doesn't
lead
anywhere
—
canyon
that
of
the
Far from resenting tills, Mesquite, swinging round and recognizing the knee by releasing his grasp
tet from a pause of lethargic dismay
could
possibly
be
more
and
nothing
pipe In mouth, hands In pockets, ad automobile at a glance. "Then he's handlebars and straightening out his
due to tardy appreciation of the fact
mired and applauded, and rather re here, as well!”
leg and driving It down forcibly fatiguing to our mercurial and rest- that they had penetrated witlessly al
less tempers than to squat down here
sented tho change that befell when
against
tho
roadbed.
The
effect
of
this
"Looks like It," Barcus admitted,
most to the end of a blind alley.
two other strangers (whose earlier ap “But so much the better. We'll just was to lift him bodily from . ' sad and fold our hands in our laps and
A hasty council of war armed Alan
wait
for
something
to
turn
up—
and
pearance in town had helped make naturally take the darn’ thing off hla dle: the machine shot from be ealh
with Judith's revolver and posted him
that one day memorable beyond all hands, and I'll b* a dollar there isn’t hint like some strange projectile anywav we can't be worse off than we
behind a bowlder commanding the ap
are—and-»-"
others in Mesquite's history) charged
another ear within a radius of fifty hurled from the bore of a great gun;
“Sufficient!" Mr. Law interrupted proaches to the chasm. The weapon,
out of the Mountain house and inter tulles! We'll Im well cut of these and Rose crashed against him in the
a powerful .45, had a range sufficient
with a bleak smile.
rupted the elder devil with cries of I giddy mountains long before he finds same fraction of a second.
Crooking a deferential arm, Barctt3 to numb the impetuosity of the as
greeting and Jubilation.
Headlong
they
plunged
as
one
down
His Screams Brought Attendance.
anything to chase ns with.”
sassins and keep them under cover
offered it to Judith.
The leader of these answered to the
But his confidence was demon- the hillside, struck its shelving sur
and
out
of
sight
of
the
desperate
es
"Everything is lovely In the formal
movement was calculated to set th«
name of Marrophat; his companion strated to be premature by the UÌH- face a good twenty feet from the brink
says the fugitives were making to shale bed again in motion.
was a person named Jimmy.
Meg- covery, which rewarded the first cur
compass an escape.
Painfully he realized that if, as Ban
quite
acquired
this
Information sory examination, that the car was
For in the shed behind an abandoned cus asserted, she had deliberately cut
through paying close attention to the very thoroughly out of commission.
log cabin—souvenir, no doubt, of some the rope herself, Judith had offered
substance of their commuuications
Two minutes later, however, their
forgotten prospector—Barcus had un up her life to spare his own.
with the cripple. More than tills, how
earnest Inquiries elicited the fact
earthed a length of stout hempen rope.
ever, It learned little.
Som'thing that, although Barens was Justified In
seemed to have been accomplished by
With the aid of a rusty shovel he
CHAPTER L.
his surmise that the neighboring
had hacked this into two equal lengths.
the two, something that was highly
country was poverty-stricken In re
gratifying to Heneca Trine: for he was spect of motor cars, Mesquite Itself
One of these lengths he proceeded to
Retribution.
chuckling almost mirthfully when
make fast around his own waist, then
And yet the very consciousness of
boasted two motorcycles whose own
lifted from the car and carried Into ers were not Indifferent to a chance
around Rose's. The other he left to the girl’s danger was all the stimu
III.' hotel.
be similarly employed by Alan and lant that Alan needed to recall him to
to sell them second hand at a con
What passed between tho trio after siderable advance on the retail list
Judith. For it was agreed that they himself.
they disappeared behind that bed price of th** machines, when new.
must climb, and while the cliff offered
Once arrived with Barcus at the top
chamber door Mesquite could by no
no
problem to daunt a mountain climb of the cliff, he lost no time in setting
And thus It was that, within ten
means guess. Hut that a celebration
er of any pretensions, it was consid about preparations to effect her res
minutes from Rose’s discovery of that
of some sort was in progress was evi
ered best that the fugitives should be cue.
chance flung warring in the dust, the
denced by the frequency with which
hitched up in pairs against any pos
party was again in rapid motion.
In this business Fortune smiled upon
Marrophat and Jimmy called on the
sibility of a slip. The pairing had
Ills
beauty
sleep
disturbed
b
the
him, as it were, by predisposition.
bar for more liquid refreshment.
been
determined
by
the
fact
that
A broad roadway ran along the top
And toward midnight one belated departure of th" machine Icaring
Barcus boasted some slight experience
of
the precipice, turning off at a
Mosquito paused in the street outside Harcus and Judith, Seneca Trine
in mountaineering, while Rose was
little distance -to the right, to descend
the Mountain house for one last curi roused on an elbow and looked out of
plainly
the
most
exhausted
of
the
two
ous stare at the lighted windows of the window Just In time to see the
women, the least able to help herself the mountainside. And jutt beyond
record motorcycle gathering momen
this turning Providence had chosen
Mr. Trine's quarters.
in an emergency.
to locate the camp of a hydraulic min
He saw, clearly silhouetted against tum Alan ste ring. Rose in Hie seat
He had worked his cautious way,
ing outfit.
the glowing oblong of tho w indow, the behind
with the girl in tow, to a point mid
Sixty seconds Into n flaunting ban
Mephistophelean profile of Seneca
Alan’s appearance at the top, in
way
up
the
face
of
the
cliff,
following
Trine, distorted with a grimace of tile nor of dust wni all that remained to
fact,
was coincident with the arrival
a long diagcnal that provided the eas
cruelest Joy that ever heart of man remind Mesquite * * at romance had
iest climbing, when Alan stole back at that point of half a dozen excited
passed
that
i
way-
that,
and
a
rerles
conceived
He saw Marrophat ap
to Judith and reported that, on the miners; and he had no more than
proach his master with a drunken of passlonnt to screams emnnnting
evidence of observation and belief, he voiced his demands than three of their
swagger and a speech which, though from th*' b'dehambor of flencca
Trine, where tlm cripple lay posses-
was convinced that the pursuit had number were hastening back to th»
Indistinguishable to the tins...... au
seven
devils
of
Insensate
rage
turned
back—perhaps for want of am camp to procure rope and more handi
sed
by
ditor, unquestionably afforded both of
Within five minutes Alan, "gainst
Ills
screams
brought
attendance;
munition.
perhaps to execute some
the other men ample excuse for ec
less hazardous attempt upon the lives the protests of Rose and Barcus, wai
static glee
Toward Its conclusion but It was a matter of many precious
being lowered over the edge and down
of the fugitives.
Mr. Mnrrophat apparently capped the minutes before Ills demands could be
to the shale roof on which he land
mot
and
Marrophat
and
Jimmy
roused
Without
delay,
then,
he
made
the
peak of Jubilation by fumbling in his
free end of the rope fast around his ed at a spot far to one side of Judith,
coat pocket and bringing forth some from their crapulous slumbers in ad
and half an hour
own waist, and, following the way Bar to escape all danger of sending a seo-
thing which strongly resembled a sin joining chamber
ond landslide down upon her.
elapsed before the chauffeur, roused
cus lfad chosen, began the ascent.
gle playing curd.
from
Ills
own
w
II
earned
rest,
suc
Picking his way carefully down t»
Now when he had contrived to
Two thirds of the climb had been
master Ills mirth, the cripple made a ceeded In convincin'- Hie pair that
accomplished, and Rose and Ilarcus the very brink, Alan edged along this,
Trine
Was
Lifted
From
the
Car
and
Carried
Into
the
Hotel.
gesturo which eloquently abolished pursuit with the motor car was out
had arrived in safety at the top, be- more than once saved a fall to death
this card, h gesture which said quite of the question.
of tile road, and living a.iart tumbled garden," he insisted—"so sweetly ro- fore the temptation to look down only by the rope, until he stood im
But the devil takes <-a.ro of his own: their separate ways down the re.
mediately below Judith.
plainly: "All that is finished. The
proved irresistible. •
within
another half hour what seemed mainder of the drop and into tho mant ic. Are you game for an idlo
Then pausing, he instructed her
thing has served its purpose! To
saunter.
Just
to
while
the
idle
hours
Immediately
beneath
his
heels
the
to be sheer, bull headed, dumb luck friendly shelter of the underbrush.
hell with it!"
carefully, tossed the end of the rope
away?’
face
of
the
cliff
was
deeply
hollowed
Something nearly miraculous saved
Whereupon, with a smart Jerk of his brought a casual automobile to Mes
The woman found spirit enough for out, leaving a drop of 50 feet to a Into her hands, and when she had
two-seated,
wrist, Mr Marrophat sent the card quite a
them whole. Beyond a few scratches a wan smile as she tucked her hand shelving ledge of shale as steep as a wound it twice round her arm, crept
and and bruises and ir severe shaking up,
spinning and sailing out through the racing machine of the
gratefully beneath his arm.
roof, whose eaves—perhaps another up to her side and helped her make it
Irro- they escaped unharmed. And they
open w indow to lv *■ itself In the night. speediest pattern, driven
"You're the cheerfulest soul I ever fifty feet below—jutted out over an fast about her body.
sponsible
wayfarers
who
r
»'
•
The watcher didn't see it fall, mid '
were picking themselves up ami re met," she said demurely. "What I’m other fall of a hundred feet.
His signal to the miners that all
though he spent an unconscionable j too susceptible to MarropJmt's offer . gaining their breath and re collecting going to do without you when—if ever
Alan shuddered and swallowed hard was well educed prompt response.
double
tho
cost
of
th"
car
f
o.
h.
time searching for it In the deep dust
tlieir scattered wits when, with im
There was a giddy interval in which
we get out of this awful business, before resuming the ascent.
Detroit for Its Immedlado surrender. petus no less terriflic than their own
goodness only knows."
Another 20 feet brought him to the two swung perilously between
Tho two piled out promptly enough' had been, the pursuing motor car
|
"Let's talk of something else,” ho a ledge quite six feet wide, offering a heaven and earth. Then they stoed
Marrophat and Jim my jumped lit; swung round the bend and hurled it
suggested hastily.
Trine from his bedroom window sped self directly at the two who
broad and easy path to the summit. once more in safety.
i « uiaiULd
"Unless, of course." she pursued I He gained this with a prayer of heart
Supported by sympathetic hands,
them on their murderous mission w ith upon the road above.
with unbroken gravity, "I marry felt relief and was on the point of the quartet staggered into camp,
a blast of blasphemy.
you. . .
I rising to his feet when a cry of horror their story, as condensed by Barcus
It must have been an hour Inter
CHAPTER XLIX.
"Heaven," the young man prayed
when Ahvn, checking his motorcvclo
from Barcus and a scream of terror and breathlessly confirmed by Alan,
fervently, “forfend!”
as It surmounted tho summit of a
from Rose, watching over the upper already winning them enthusiastic
Sacrifice.
That is hardly gallant—"
long ‘upgrade, looked b"ok and <!’“
edge,
warned him barely in time to champions.
Rut Tom Barcus hadn't failed to
I mean heaven forfend that you enable him to snatch at and grasp a
covorv'd rcvcral miles ill 'ant cn the ' profit by the warning implici
And this was very well for them
in
Alau's
should
throw
yourself
away!"
far tip* g v iodines of the mo'iif.iln accident.
knob of rock before Judith's weight For they had no more than seated
Humph
she mused. "Perhaps
road,, a small crim-on shape that ran
tautened the rope between them and themselves and begun to appreciate
Alan, he told himself shrewdly, 1 you're right."
like >n mad thing Hrele-s’v punmed
what perils ttay had escaped.
3»
jerked Alan's legs from under him.
would never have inn his cycle at bo
Their
banter
r.as
not
without
a
bv a cloud of tawny dust like a gold- foolhardy a
His feet and legs kicked the empty the rumble of a motor car sounded b*
pace without good rea- ! subtle object, namely, to reassure the
en ghost.
son: and under the circumstances good girl who followed,
air beyond the lip of the ledge, he yond the shoulder of the hill.
supported by her
A motor car. b i-ml nil '-tiertlnn, reason
Startled by this alarm once mors
lay face downward, clutching desper
and one <*f uncomm -n read devoir.-1 ng pm suit was synonymous solely with lover's arm.
ately the knob of rock, praying that it into full command of his flagging fac
In
the
course
of
the last 21 hours
quality: It might or might not ecn
might not come away in his grasp, ulties, Alan rose and stumbled out
He was therefore on the alert, quick Rose's Jealousy of her sister's
new-
tain Marrophat and Jimmy, one- '•morn
that his grasp might hold, that Barcus into the roadway, taking cognizance
to see th*' racing automobile when it found friendliness wilh Alan
In pursuit
Whether or not bitter
had might arrive in time to save them of such facilities for defense as the
■ < line hurtling round the bend, ami in become acutely evident,
The least
expKlenco hail I tin since * ' teat et*.
both. The rope was cutting into his camp afforded and issuing Instructions
i the very nick of time grasped Judith's courtesy which circumstances
now
Alan In the gentle art of tak'tig no
!
arm
and
swung
h*
r
bodily
with
him
waist
like a dull knife. The drag of with a voice vibrant with fear, not
and again demanded that he show
chanxes.
back out of harm's way, amid the Judith or s*« m a boor, was enough Judith's body was frightful. He could for his own safety, but for the safety
Though it was his life that they
I trees that bordered the inside of the to cloud the countenance of Alan's feel her swinging like a pendulufti at of those whom he loved.
»ought so pertinaciously, no l it -r than road.
the end of its 30 feet, and could
It Was a Trey of Heart«.
Not far from the point where the
betiothed.
yesterday (ami then by no means for
Of necessity his motorcycle suffered,
Imagine
but too vividly what would road swung from the cliff to thread
Nor. Indeed, was Rose altogether
of the roadway, he went his way In the the first time). they had proved thirt ' Abandoned in
the middle of the road, destitute of plausible excuse for this happen if the rope should prove the camp the hydraulic nozzle was in
end with curiosity unaated: Rite had If Rose were with Alan they woultf It was struck
faulty. . . .
i by the buffers of the feeling
action. Its terrific force of water melt
It was undeniable that be
Include
her
ruthlessly
In
whatsoever
reserved that card for a higher pur-
motor car and I flung aside as it It had
The fall of 20 feet to the shale ing the mountainside away ton by tom
tween
Alan
and
Judith
a
bond
of
sym
pose
scheme they might contemplate for
been nothing more
t
ponderable than a pathy had grown out.of the trials and roof was nothing.
What would fol
Toward this Barcus ran at top speed,
Undisturbed, It lay where It had his personal extermination
I Truss of straw- landing half way down hardships they had of late suffered low would, however, spell death. The gaining the man in charge of the noz
Nor would Tom Barcus bo < xempt.
fallen, face upward, not a dozen feet
embankment, a hopeless tangle
of in common
______
It was undeniable—but impact of her body would set the zle Just as the car swung round th»
from 'he front door of the Mountain If they were caught In company
.
shattered
tubing
and
twisted
wire
even In his most private thoughts shale in motion, like an avalanche— bend.
house, until another day dawned on though Judith might b«. In view of
At first blush the circumstance Alan denied It fiercely.
Judith on and beyond the eaves was only empti
Marrophnt s Infatuation for the girl
Mesquite.
Pausing only long enough to mak»
These two were far ahead, out of ' i»*me*l surprising that th" car did the other hand, not only acknowledged ness and the bowlder-strewn bed of certain that there could be no ml*'
Then. In the clear Ugh: of that dawn,
not
stop
But
then
Barcus
reminded
take—and having this certainty mad*
four more strangers straggled Into sight. Indeed: and must somehow |**> hStiself that Marrophat and Jimmy It freely to herself, but secretly de the chasm, a hundred feet below!
The sweat poured from his face like doubly sure by Jimmy's action ia r>
rived a strangely sweet and poignant
town- two weary and haggard men, overtaken and warned no easy mat
two footsore and bedraggled women' ter. since the machine which b re ' *<mld not possibly hive witnessed tho P ' asure from the knowledge that she rain. His eyes started In their sock ing from his seat and firing over the
a* Cident Iniohmg Alan and Rose, who, loved so madly and hopelessly.
ets, the blood drummed in his ears windshield pointblank at Alan as thia
One of these last was dressed 111 a them was. If anything, faster than
together with the wreck of their ma
Alan's.
Just
as
the
racing
autom
bile
That her love was hopeless she with a roar resembling distant thun- last stood waiting in the roadway-
suit of man's clothing, much the worse
• hike. retrained well cloaked by the knew but too well. Even though Alan der. His fingers grew numb, his throat
wtns faster than either
for wear
Barcus and the miner swung the nor
Alan kept his gaze st* < (fast to th i nn-lrrbmsh <•* th" bottom of the can might not be altogether indifferent to dry. . . .
At sight of thq Mountain house the
zle round until it bore directly on th»
i
.»on
In
all
j
Tobablllty.
then,
the
as
her. after all that had passed between
He felt that he could not hold on car.
party betrayed slight symptoms of a read before them, daring not once to
sassins had as Aum*-d that Alan haj them bls loyalty to Rose was un another instant when, abruptly, that
more cheerful spirit rejoicing |n its look up and round or back
The power of its stream was such
Ro sinuous and m* ird*"ng «aa p, hurrl*d on. and «¡nee their own first shakable And not for worlds would torture was no more. The rope had
promise of food and drinks and beds
that the car was checked Instantly in
busln
.
*
was
co*
X
•
med
exclusively
Roses rival have had it otherwise
been relieved of its burden. He heard Its tracks; and before the water could
withal wherein to sleep, the four course indeed that Alan seldom coul.J
see a hundred yards of It ahead hut with them, they I Ad done likewise, She could not have loved him as she a scream from below echoed by one
quickened their steps.
have been shut off or the stream di
But of a sudden one of the ¿women must pelt on In pan. flight hot Ini reasoning that the* x uid return and did bad he not been to immovably from above, then the thump of Judith's verted, the machine was driven back
deal
with
his
unforti
>at«
friend
at
for
th»'
best
-
that
Judith
— she who wore the garments of her
true
As It was, since she could not body falling cn the shale, then the
• nd Rarrut |
their convenience after* overhauling l>' ; - h* r love might be returned, she slithering rumble of the landslide to the very lip of the cliff and ov«r
sex paused, uttered a low cry. would soon show up in fr.
that
it completely, taking with it tbo*
a thrill with terror, and clutchctng tho ■omrtbflh'i might happen to hinder tho their quarry. whose life1 they
a* ’'tit.nt to love .nd to promise gathering momentum. .
twain upon whose efforts all the hop**
arm of the man nearest her, pointed pursuit - nrrrr knowing ■ bother ths «•veted
h-r.'lf that if opportunity ever of-
Barcu«, at length arrived
Seneca Trine of late had been ce»
As for R* so and Alan — b* Wen alone f' r. J .<„■ » u!.j not
unre>dy tQ him to a place of securit
.down to the card that stared up from litter lout or tafnM
I °d. t
• '
•
kn»w
what
had
happen?.I
to
them
Bo
♦
And
thua
h*
jdust at her feet
•acrifice ivcrseli for her love.
•nd faint and sick with b;
Tnji»ath
that
was
merciful,
in th**
of ¡¡Mil*. *
Bvuu the awe.nag boauu. u • » qq *. • B*r*us set huns-if to find utit »hat
A !
tlm., »fa. caught herself prone and shuddering.
aneous, awaited them **
•vv.r
i'rovM
K mw ■ithucL^taoi« I ,1-** *-* H at .ucb
>0(44
Only th« assur^aca o»
À