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About Tillamook headlight. (Tillamook, Or.) 1888-1934 | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1915)
TIi est tre » * dressed men and women, the guc-'.S pistol In the hand of Seneca Trine, ' through her lover’s proteHtatlons; invited to the wedding of Rose Trine discharging the weapon even as it Where've ye been? Where are Marro- Like a thief she stole across the Judith lost in profoundest melancholy; struck him dead. CHAPTER Lf. and Alan Law. creaking floor to Alan's side, hesitated, phat and Jimmy?" Trine nursing his rage, working him- As he fell the bolt swerved and Within another ten minutes the Digging the nails of her fingers pain I bant her head to his and touched ner self up into a silent fury whose couse man Judith loved with all her body struck two others down—Alan I.aw The New Judith. fully into her palms, she breathed lips to his cheek—a caress so light From sleep as from drugged stupor that he slept on In iguorance of it. deep, lighting down hysteria, reassert quences were to be more tar-reaching and soul would be the husband of her and the woman who had just bees than even he dreamed in his "ildest made his wife. Judith Trine awakened, struggling sister. Then, as she lifted her head and ing her self-coatr&.‘ It. so short a space back to consciousness like some ex stood erect, bosom convulsed with of time that her father failed to ap- moments. She had told herself she was re Its first development, for all that, signed; but she was not, and she CHAPTER LI’/, bausted diver from the black depths silent sobs, she looked squarely into predate that there was anything un "as desperate enough. to the star smitten burfacc of a night would never be. Her heart was break common in the mind of tbe girl. the face of Hose. Tho aged monomaniac occupied the , Wife. bound pool. “Where?” he demanded angrily as right-hand corner of the rear seat. ing in her bosom as she sat there, Again three . vys elapsed; and Jo And for a little she lay unstirrlng. I watching, waiting, listening to the she approached the car, "where, CHAPTER Lll. Thus bis one able hand was next to her half-numb wits fumbling with want to know, are Marrophat and Jim Judith, in close juxtaposition to the ever heavier detonations of the ap dith, returning from the double ftp their business of renewing acquaint- proaching thunderstorm and to the neral of her father and sister, duffed my? Haven't you teen or heard any The Old Advm. ance with the world, jubilant pealing of a great organ down her mourning for a'gown less somber thing of them? They left me at six revolver in the holster on her hip. A long minut • < .ap- • d before cither Without the least warning his left below. and more suited to the atmosphere of At first she could by no means rec- o'clock this morning, to go after—” hand closed upon the weapon, with a sickroom, then relieved the nurse ognize her surroundings, This rude woman moved or spoke. The had told herself that, though "Dead!" tho girl interrupted, sen Transfixed beside Alan's chair, drew it and leveled It at the back of resigned, she could not bear to wit in charge of Alan. chamber of rough plank walls and tentious, eyeing him strangely. primitive furnishings; this wide, hard steadying herself with a hand upon It:; He remained as he had been ever ness the ceremony. Now as the mo "I don't believe it!” the old man Alan's head. Judith stared at the figure in As lie pulled the trigger Judith flung ment drew near when the marriage since the falling of the thunderbolt— couch she shared with her still slum- back, the doorway. In a temper at once dis screamed, aghast. “I won’t believe it. boring sister, Rose; the view revealed You’re lying to me, you jade! You’re herself bodily upon the arm. would be a thing finished, fixed, in absolute coma. so, the bullet found a goal. irretrievable, she found herself un by an open window at the bedside; comfited and defiant. With this she lying—” Even But he lived, and—or the physicians a fair perspective of tree-clad mouti- : uttered a phase of Incredulity, was lied—must soon regain consciousness. “I am not,” she broke in coldly. “I though in another than the intended able to endure the strain alone. scarce able to persuade hersr If that tains through which a wide bosomed The muscular forearm of the Kneeling beside his bedside Judith Slowly, against her will, she rose this was truly Rose who confronted am telling you the plain truth . . . ■ victim, canyon rolled down to an emerald chauffeur received it. 'prayed long and earnestly. Th< y followed us all morning in that and stole across the floor to her fa plain, conveyed nothing to her intel her- ’—Rose whose swe t and the gent'.o With a shriek of pain the man re- ther's chair. When she arose it was to answer butt red racer, firing nt us all the while. cvcr served as nature had bis. ligence. His breathing was slow and regu a tap upon the door. She admitted of Judith's contempt aaid ruthless Fiually they caught up with us here, leased the wheel and grasped A formless sense of some epochal ridicule. about noon—came up this road shoot arm. lar; beyond doubt he slept; unques Tom Barcus and suffered him to lead Before Alan could move to prevent tionably there was no reason why she her into the recess of the window, change In the habits and mental proc a vene»'- ing over the windshield. It was our Here wan the disaster the car, running without should not leave him for ten minutes; where they conversed In guarded esses of a young lifetime, added to ance, when Ilves or theirs. We turned the hydrau- icd ani her confusion. | lie stream on them and washed the car a guiding hand, caromed off a low even though he waked it could not tones in spite of the fact that the Judith shrank! Who was she herself, this strange It was an lf the women had ex- I over the cliff. If you dou't believe embankment to the left and shot full harm him to await her return at the subject of their communications could creature who rested here so calmly changed natures while they slept. not possibly have heard them. • | me, get somebody to show you their tilt into a shallow ditch on the right, end of that scant period. shelling its passengers like peas from by the side of Rose? If she were ‘T’ve come to tell you something," Tho countenance that Rosa allowed 1 faces." Like a guilty thing, on feet as noise Judith Trine, how camo she to bo her r-lster was a thundercloud rent She indicated with a gesture two a broken pod. Barcus announced with characteristic less a3 any sneak thief ’ s, she crept Alan catapulted a good twenty feet there? Irreconcilable opposites In by tho lurid lightning of her angry forms that lay at a little distance from the room, closed the door si awkwardness, “1’ve known it for every phase of character, the sisters ! eyes. Her pose was tense and alert, back from the roadside, motionless through the air and alighted with lently, ran down the hall and de three days—ever since the wedding, had sedulously avoided association like the pose of en animal set to ' beneath a sheet of canvas—the bodies such force that he lay stunned for scended by a back way, a little-used in fact—and kept it to myself, not with each other ever since childhood : ' spring. In h r hind hung a revolver, < l Trine's creatures, recovered by the several moments. knowing whether I ought to tell you they had not shared the shelter of ! tho name (Judith a hand sought tho mining gang and brought up for a When he came to. he found Barcus staircase, to the lower hall, approach yet or not.” ing the scene of the marriage. I four walls overnight since time bo holster nt h«r hip and found it empty) • Christian burial. helping him to his feet; a heavy sev He paused, eyeing her uncertainly, Constructed in imitation of an old yond th« boards of Judith's memory. I that her slUer had worn and for 1’ut Trine required no more conflrm- en-passenger touring car halted in the Spanish mission chapel, it contained unhappily. What, then, hail so changed them both gotten to remove v. lien she dropp» 1, : at ion of Judith’s word. The light roadway indicated the manner in which “I am prepared,” Judith assured thut they should be found in such half dead with fatigue, upon the bed. . flickered and died in his evil old eyes; I his friend had arrived on the scene one of the finest organs in the world; him calmly. at this close range its deep-throated close company? And slowly, toward the end of that his stricken countenance assumed a of the accident. "You’re nothing of the sort,’’ he What, indeed, had become of the long, mute minute, the girl's grasp hue of pallor even more Intense than When damages were assessed it tones vied with the warnings of the countered. argumentative. “You wild thing, Judith Trine of yesterday? tightened upon the grip of tho weapon was noimal with it; a broken curse was found that none of the party had storm. Judith, lurking in a passage way whose open door revealed the couldn’t be. It's the most amazing Surely she had little enough in com and its tnuzzle lifted suffered seriously but the chauffeur Issued from his trembling, thin, old altar steps and chancel, was shaken thing imaginable. . . . See here . .." mon with this Judith of today, in Remarking this, a flash of her one lips; and his chin sagged to his chest, and Seneca Trine himself. The former to the very marrow of her being by "Well?” whose heart was no more room for time temper quickened Judith. Of a heavy-weighted with despair that fol had only his wound to show however, “You understand, don’t you, envy, hatred, malice or any uncbarlt- sudden, with a start, she crossed the lowed realization of the fact that he while Trine lay still and senseless at the majestic reverberations of the Alan must never know that Rose ableness, so full was it of love which, floor in a single, noiseless stride, und no longer owned even one friend or a very considerable distance from the music. killed by that lightning stroke?” contact Since they had regained though It was focused upon the person threw herself before her sister. creature upon whose conscienceless wrecked automobile. “What do you mean?” of one man, none tho less embraced Nothing but a barely perceptible with civilization in a section of the "Well?” she demanded hotly. "What loyalty he might dipend. “I mean,” the man floundered country where the Law estate had all the world—even her sister and are you waiting for? Nobody’s stop respiration and intermittently flutter The last bitter drop that brimmed erably, “you see, he loved her so—I vast holdings of land, the chapel was successful rival in that one man's af- ping you; why don't you shoot?” them that the his cup of misery was added when ing pulse persuaded fectlons. The upward movenr nt of the hand Alan Law himself appeared, leaving flame of life was not extinct in that thronged with men and women who thought—I’m sure it would be best— This change had I not come upon her was checked: the "'area hung level the miners’ cabin In company with poor, old, pain-racked body. had known Alan’s father and wished if you can bring yourself to it—to let him go on believing it wasn’t Rose without warning, She had been al- to Judith's breast—as level and un his betrothed—Rose now soothed and to honor his son. . . . most insensibly a' ware of its advent equivocal as the gl-inre that prob' d comforted, smiling through the traces Above stairs, in the room Judith who was killed, but Judith. And that's CHAPTER LI 11. through the gradual softening of that her eyes and the tone of Rose's voice of her recent tears as she clung to had quitted, Seneca Trine opened skating so close to the truth that it old Judith's hard and vengeful naturo as she demanded: both eyes wide and laughed a silent makes no difference: the Judith Alan The Last Trump.. her lover, nestling in the hollow of in the course of tho last few days. laugh of savage triumph when the knew and the Judith I knew in tbe third "What were you doing there?” Toward the evening of the his arm. But now that tho revolution was ac beginning is gone as completely as “If you must know from me what To Alan, on the other hand, this day following the motor spill, Judith door closed behind his daughter. complished, she hardly knew herself— you already know on the evidence of rencontre seemed to afford nothing sat In the deeply recessed window of At last he was left to his own de though she and not Rose had been she hardly knew the world. Indeed, your eyes—I was bidding good by to a bedchamber on the second floor of vices—and at a time the most fitting killed.” ro dlff rentlv did she regard It—not. tho man 1 love—kissing hint without but the pleasantest surprise imagin a hotel situated in the heart of Cali imaginable for what he had in mind. After a long pause, the girl asked without 8<>m< tiling of the wide-eyed hfs knowledge or consent before leav able. With a grin, Seneca Trine raised him quietly: “I understand. But is fornia's orange-growing lands. "Well! ” he cried, releasing Rose wonderment of a child to find all ing him to you for good and all!" Behind her Seneca Trine sat, ap both arms and stretched them wide it possible you don’t understand that and running down to the car. "Here's things so new and strange and b'-auti- if I were to consent to this proposi "What do you mean?" parently asleep, in a wheeled invalid apart. luck! And at the very moment when fut Then, grasping the arms of his tion, lend myself to a deception which "That I'm going a. ay- that I can't I was calling my lucky star hard chair. A nd stand ibis ideation nuv longer. Marro- names! How can I ever reward your There was no occupant of the room. chair, he lifted himself from it and I must maintain through all my life Now phat und 'Im my :»-• <! ;•■!, my father's thoughtfulness, Mr. Trine? It beats Though he had lain nearly two stood trembling upon his own feet for to come—Alan would consider me his qulto complete, no link lackrng in It i helj lers—..,-d I mean to see that he days in coma, her father’s subsequent the first time in almost twenty years. wife?” continuity Sh>- recall’d clearly every remains so. Nothing, then, stand i in me how you do keep trjick of me this Grasping the back of the wheeled “Well, but—you see—you are his Incident that hail marked tho slow tho way of ycur mnrrjl.ig Alan bitt chair, he used it as a crutch to guide wife. . . . Oh. don't think I’m off my growth of this great love rhe had for me. And such b ing ill'1 case and his feeble and uncertain movements. bat. I’m telling you the plain, (invar Alan Law, from (bill first day, not yet because he's ns dear to me as he is But these became momentarily nished truth. You are Alan's wife. a month old, "lieu he had i neaped the, to you I’m going to take myself off stronger and more confident. . . . No, listen to me. You remem llery deathtrap she had set for him and keep out of the way.” This, then, was the secret he had ber that day in New York when you and repaid her only by rl: king his life "For fear lest lie find out that you hugged to his embittered bosom, a substituted for Rose, when Alan tried iinew to save her from destruction, love him?" secret unsuspected even by the at to elope with her, and you went with down to this very morning when tho Judith's lip curled "Do you think tending surgeon; that through the him to Jersey City, and stood up to ba stream from u hydraulic nozzle hud him so with as he doe. n t know that motor accident three days ago he had married by a preacher-guy named swept over the blink of a three hun already?" regained the use of limbs that had Wright—and Marrophat broke in just dred foot precipice a crimson racing "And so you leave him to me out of been stricken motionless—strangely at the critical moment and busted up automobile containing two desperate your charity! Is that it?" enough, by a motor car—nearly two the party?” men bent upon compassing the death "Any way you like. But if it's so decades since. “Well?” she demanded breathlessly. of her beloved intolerable to you to think that I date Slowly but surely moving to the Barcus produced a folded yellow pH i By that act of sheer self-defense love him and confess It to you—lf bureau In the room, he opened one per from his coat pocket and pre!: the world was richer for the loss of you begrudge me the humiliation of of its drawers and took out some fcred it. two black-hearted blackguards, and btooping to kiss a man who doesn't thing he had, without her knowledge, Alan law might now be considered want my kisses—if you are so afraid "Read that. It was handed to W seen Judith put away there while she as best man, just before the cere sale from further persecution—since of losing him whilo I live and love thought he slept. there now remained not one soul loyal him very "ell, then!" mony. Seeing it was addressed » Then, with this hidden in the Alan and knowing he was in no (ran enough to Seneca Trine to prosecute With a passionate gesture Judith pocket of his dressing gowm he of mind to be bothered by telegram ■ his private war of vengeance against toro open tho bosom of her waist, steered a straight if very deliberate I slipped it into my pocket and forgot H Alaa. And though that aged mono offering her llesh to the tnuzzle of the course to the door, let himself out, all about it temporarily. When IB maniac llud means whereby he might revolver. and like a materialized specter of the came to find it, I took the liberty of ■ purchase other scoundrels and cor A cry broke from the lips of Rose man he once had been, navigated the reading it. But read it for yourself* ■ rupt them to his hideous purposes, that wuh like the cry of a forlorn child Lightning Kills Trine and Strikes Down Alan and Rocs. corridor to the head of the broad Judith was determined that ho should punished with cruelty that passes Its The typewritten lines of the lot! ■ never again have any opportunity so understanding She fell back against ■ progress toward recovery of his nor central staircase and step by step, message blurred and ran together 11H to do. Though Alan, she knew, would tho wall. Tho revolver swept up "ay—happening along like this every mal state had been rapid. Now, ac- clinging with both Bands, negotiated most indecipherably in Judith's vision ■ never lift his hand to hinder her through the air—but Its marl: was time I need a car the worst way in cording to a council of surgeons and the descent. The lobby of the hotel was deserted. None the less, she contrived to gras; H father's freedom of action, she. Judith, her own head rather than Judith's the world!” ' Drive on!” Trine screamed to the physicians who had been summoned As the ceremony approached its end the substance of its meaning. meant to take such steps as his perse bosom. “WHY DIDN'T YOU WIRE chauffedr. “Drive on, do you hear?” to deliberate on his case, he was In every guest and servant in tbe house cution calk'd for. If there were any a fair way to round out the average But before her finger found strength SOONER, ” it ran: “MARRIAGE «■ But Judith had stepped up on tho was crowding the doorway to the Justice in the land If there "fre any to pull the trigger the n n nt tho i span of a sound man's lifetime. He ROSE IMPOSSIBLE. REV. runuing board and wa alienists capable of dirt rimlnallng be table, startled from his sleep by tho I had apparently suffered nothing in chapel. None opposed the progress tween Trine's appan nt unity and his sound of angry vol< - .. l< ; i d from driver coldly, with one hand Higniti- ( consequence of his accident more of this ghastly vision in dressing WRIGHT INFORMED ME YOUB JUDITH LAS?1 deep ri oted mania then surely not his chair with a viol -neo that sent it cantly resting on the butt of the serious than prolonged unconscious- gown and slippered feet, chuckling MARRIAGE TO many days more should pass into his clattering to tho floor, and barb d him weapon at her side. The car remained nets. For the last twenty-four hours insanely to himself as he tottered WEEK HAD GONE TOO FAR MARROPHAT INTERRUPTED. 'I tory without "Itne-.lng Ills consign self headlong across the room. Im at a standstill. I he had been in full possession of his through the empty halls and corri YOUR WI# ment to an institution for the crimi prisoning tho wrist of his betrothed Sulphurous profanity followed, a faculties and (for some reason Impos dors, finding an almost supernatural DITH LEGALLY WOULD HAVE ADVISED W? nal insane. strength to sustain him till he found pungent stream of vituperation that sible to Jud’th to fathom) uncom w'.th one hand w hllu the other w re ted She, Judith, would too to that, and the weapon away und pa..-<d it to was checked only by Judith's inter monly cheerful. himself face to face with his chosen SOONER HAD YOU LET ME Kh'O’ WHERE TO ADDRESS YOU. H0F1 enemy and victim. tb< n , . . ruption; “ We've had to gag you once Judith I 1 From this circumstance she drew TO HEAVEN THIS GETS TO W Tho woman rfghed once more, before, you know. If you want another The first that blocked his way into “Rose!" ho cried thickly, “wh it does a certain sense of mystified anxiety. the chapel, a bellboy of the hotel, BEFORE TOO LATE.” Then Roro and Alan would inairy this mean? Are yen triad? Jud th ” taste of thut—keep on!” Tw'-e in the course of the morning and live happily ever uftor. The message was signed with ® “But where's Barcus?” Judith de the had caught his eye following her looked round at the first touch of the Dragging the be cm of her waist But what of Judith? claw-like hand upon his shoulder and name of Alan's confidential * manded w hen, after helping Rose into together. Judith th: t tho weapon I with a gleam of sardonic exultancy, She made a small gesture of resig the car and running off to thank their as though he nursed some secret of shrank back with a cry of terror—a business In New York. into Its holster and turned away. nation to her destiny. W hat became cry that was echoed from half a When Judith looked up she ** “Bo kind to her, Alan." she «aid In hosts, Alan returned alone to the car. extraordinary potentialities. of her no longer mattered, so thut “Goodness only kno.vs,” the young dozen throats within another Instant. alone in the room, but for the it'-' an uncertain voice: "She didn't under And yet (she argued) It was quite Alan were made happy in such hap- As lf from the path of some grisly patient on his couch. . stand ami -and 1 goaded her beyond man answered cheerfully. “He would impossible that he should have some plneas ns he coveted. insist on rambling off down the can visitant from the world beyond the Slowly, almost fearfully, she cr’q endurance. I'm afraid Forgive me — And now the thought stirred her yon in search of an alleged town fresh scheme brewing for the assassin grave, the throng pressed back and to his bedside and stood looking f°q ation of Alan. Not a soul had had any sharply that whnt was to be doue but bo kind to her always!" Somehow, blindly, rhe stumbled out where we could hire a motor car— sort of communication witn him since cleared a way for Seneca Trine, fa into the face of her husband. must be done quickly, If at all. ther of the bride. somewhere down there. I tried to And while she looked Alan's And tho almost level rays of the of tho cabin into the open, possessed make him understand that we had his recovery but the attending sur And as the way opened and he fluttered, his respiration quicken^ *1 by a thought whose temptation was declining sun. striking In through the geon, a man of unimpeachable char plenty of time, but ho was mulish as looked up toward the altar and saw faint color crept Into his pallid rh*»l open window, counseled haste If Judith stronger than her powers of resist he generally is when he gets a foolish acter, a meek mannered trained nurse, and his eyes opened wide "‘I were to accomplish her Intention of ance. What Rose bad failed to ac notion into his head. So I daresay and herself, Judith. Under such cir Alan standing hand in hand with — ! Rose while the minister invoked a looker! into hers. complish might now serve to resolve leaving this place and finding her we'll meet him on his way back—or cumstances he simply could not have blessing upon the union that had been His lips moved and breathed >*-'| Judith a problem. . . None, she told father again before nigtittall. else asleep somewhere by the road set a new conspiracy afoot but that instant cemented, added of recognition: With the utmost care she rose from herself bitierly, would seek to hinder side!” And yet . . . she was oppressed strength, the strength of the insane, “Judith!” the bed, crept to the door of the room her But she meant so to arrange the Taking the seat next to the chauf by a great uneasiness. was given to Seneca Trine. With a low cry of tenderness-^* (now recognised as the quarters of the matter that none should see or sus feur, he gave tbe word to drive on; Perhaps (she reasoned) the weath When Alan, annoyed by the dis girl sank to her knees and enciff* foreman of the hydraulic mining out pect and bo moved to interfere. _ Round the shoulder of the moun and they slipped away from the loca er was "responsible for this feeling, in turbance in the body of the chapel, his head with her arms. fit I and out Into the room adjoining tion of the mining camp, saluted by some measure at least. The day had looked round, it was to see the aged "Judith,” she whispered, hiding - And there, pulling the door to gently tain on the read along tbe edge of ti e cheers from tho miners. been unconscionably hot, a day with maniac standing within a dozen feet face in his bosom, “Judith I* behind her. she paused and for many cliff, she was auro of freedom from Tho road dipped sharply down the out a breath of air. Now. as it drew of him; and as he looked and cried more . . minutes stood In tensest rung contem observation A pause; and then the feeble«»» And yet. such is tho Inconsistency mountainside to the bed of the canyon. toward its close, its heat seemed to be out in wonder. Trine whipped a re plation of the man she loved—Alan Law, asleep in a chair beside a table, of the human animal, the Instinct for The car moved smoothly and swiftly, come more and more oppressive even volver from the pocket of his dressing "Thea, If I was mistaken. “ -J his head pillowed on his folded arms self preservation was stronger than coasting: only now and then was it as Its light was darkened by a por gown and swung it steadily to bear aren't Judith, you must be Ro» This was lea vs taking between them her purpose: when a touring car swung necessary to call upon the engine for tentous phenomenon—a vast pall of upon Alan's head. wife!” — and he would never know. round the mountain and shot toward power with which to negotiate an up inky cloud shouldering up over the At that instant the storm broke Sb© said steadily: ‘1 am your Far better so: Judith felt she could her. she checked herself hastily and grade or some uncommonly long mountains to the music of distant rum with infernal fury upon the land. Kis hands fumbled with her blings. | A crash of thunder so heavy and not trust herself to say farewell to jumped aside In ample time to escape stretch of level road closed upon her cheeks, lift*« J him without breaking down and con- being run down. Nor was this all; a considerable de prolonged that it seemed to rock the head until her eyes must lo°* I Half an hour passed without a word 1 he next instant the machine was spoken by any member of the party. gree of restlessness was surely par very building upon .its foundations, his. »hat 1 to vverwh» lurching to a halt and tho sonorous Each was deep in his or her own es- j donable in one who. from her window, accompanied the shattering of a huge And for many minutes he beW»j irced herself to face the accents of Seneca Trine were saluting pecial preoccupation: Alan turning ! watched a carriage drive populous stained-glass window. so. looking deep into the soul’1 O' er plans for au early wadding; Rose 1 with vehicles (for »he most part mo- I A bolt of bluish flame of dazzling woman. A u..ug.ug boui gayly brilliance slashed through the window Then quietly he said: “I kno» •' 1 And amnio fhfl _ . . THE END. . ■