Newspapers / The Warren Record (Warrenton, … / Jan. 30, 1917, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of The Warren Record (Warrenton, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
TUESDAY, JANUARY 80, lor FOUETII PAGE I THE WARREN RECORD I C. iH f.ii i ii i t r rr - ri f i AUTHOR. OF "THE OCCASIONAL OFFENDER," "THE WIRE TAPPER'S." "GUN RUNNERS," ETC NOVELIZED FROM THE PAT HE PHOTO PLAY Of THE SAME NAME SYNOPSIS. On "Windward Island Palidori intrigues Mrs. Golden into an appearance of evil which causes Golden to capture and tor ture the Italian by branding his face and crushing his hand. Palidori floods the is land and kidnaps Golden's little daughter - Margery. Twelve years later in New York a Masked One rescues Margery from Le gar and takes her to her father's home, whence she is recaptured. Margery's mother fruitlessly implores Golden to find their daughter. The Laughing Mask again takes Margery away from Legar. Legar sends to Golden a warning and a demand for a portion of the chart of Windward Island. Margery meets her mother. The chart is lost in a fight be tween Manley and one of Legar's hench men, but is recovered by the Laughing Mask. Count Da Espares figures in a dubious attempt to entrap Legar and claims to have killed him. Golden's house is dynamited during a masked ball. Le gar escapes but Da Espares is crushed in the ruins. Margery rescues the Laughing Mask from trie ' police. Manley finds Mar gery not indifferent to, his love. He saves her from Mauki's poisoned arrows. Man ley plans a mock funeral which fails to accomplish the desired purpose, the cap ture of the Iron Claw and his gang. Mar gery is saved from death at the hands of the Iron Claw by the Laughing Mask. An attempt by the Iron Claw to blow up the O'Mara cottage is frustrated in the nick of time. THIRTEENTH EPISODE The Hidden Face. Enoch Golden looked at the heavy shadows about his daughter's eyes. , Then he seated himself heavily in the j arm-chair which she had so abstract edly turned about for him. "Margery," he said with an effort at sternness, "are yorf still worrying about that young Manley?" For a moment or two the girl re mained silent. "I 'can't help it, father," she finally acknowledged. And she further dis comfited her frowning parent by a suspicion of tears in her downcast eyes. "But I don't believe David Manley is any more dead than I am!" the old millionaire finally and stoutly as severated. "Then why has there been no word of him, no trace of him, since the night of that awful explosion?" This question, apparently, was not an easy one to answer. But Enoch Golden was not to be lightly dis suaded from his task of consolation. "I'll tell you what I believe, my girl. I believe everything's all right, no matter what you think. Every- j thing's going to come out all right. ; Before the week is out, if what the po- i lice tell me is true, we're going to j have this man Legar safe behind the j prison bars where he belongs. What's troubling me more than David Manley, j just now, is the problem of this Laughing Mask person. I had nothing less than a deputy commissioner call me up this morning, fcr the authori ties down in Center street are con vinced of the fact this Laughing Mask would be a better haul than even Legar. himself. They claim to have a clear record against him, and in ten minutes I've got to face a delegation from the detective bureau and tell them for the twentieth time just how A. - A V3 & rj-H.:--; r " - ) !... i-v v. , 3 I - u -i. Beside the Door Was the Figure of a Young Woman. much, or rather, how little, I know about that mysterious stranger!" Later in her room Margery Golden, looking up, saw a figure in a yellow mask silently and pensively regarding her. "You are unhappy?" he quietly in quired. "You seem to appear only on those occasions when -I am," she slowly and thoughtfully replied. "You are wondering at this very moment if young Manley will ever come back to you." She colored a little as she stared up into the masked face. "Yes," she finally acknowledged, "that is something I must know." - "Why?" She remained silent. "Is it because you care for him?" "Yes, it is' because I care for him -a great deal," she found the courage to reply. He turned about and tip-toed to the door. There, carefully nursing" the knob in the palm of his hand, he re leased the catch and swung the dooy suddenly inward. And crouched low in the hallway, close beside the door frame, was the figure of a young worn- wearing a housemaid's apron. The startled young woman, on dis covering that she had been detected in the act of listening at a keyhole, sprang to her feet and fled like a shadow down the long hallway. "Why, that was one of our maids!" cried the astonished girl. "And also a secret agent of the Iron Claw's," announced the man in the mask. "But what are you going to do?'' demanded the puzzled girl. "I'm going to show that I'm still your friend, and at the same time prove that?his particular maid is your enemy," called hack the man in the mask". - But that particular maid, realizing apparently that events were shaping themselves into some final issue, lost no time in loitering along the hallway of that shadowy house. She ran straight to the heavy folding doors which shut off the library wherein, she knew, Enoch Golden was already conferring with his circle of officers from the detective bureau. Opening these doors, she confronted those startled officials. "Tf vnn'ro nftfr flint. Ttifln vnn mil the Laughing Mask," she announced in her shrill soprano, "you'll find him here m this house, at tnis very mo- 'ment. "In this house?" echoed the astound ed old millionaire. "You'll find him," shrilled the white faced maid, "in Margery Golden's room. And th sooner you get there the better!" They rose as one man and moved towards the door. But they did not pass through that door. They came to a pause, for the very material reason that a man in a yellow mask, holding a revolver in his hand, confronted them from the liallway. "Just a moment, gentlemen," this masked stranger suavely announced, although the suavity of his voice was somewhat discounted.by the obviously menacing position of his firearm. ' Since denunciations seem to be in or der, will you permit me to point out to you that the young lady who has just addressed you is Betsy LeMarsh, alias Williamsburg Sadie, not only one of the most adroit woman crooks in the city, but also an emissary and agent of Jules Legar himself !" v Having made that . speech, the Laughing Mask promptly swung the heavy folding doors shut. He did so before one of the astonished onlookers could interfere. Then he turned the key in the snaplock, and ran headlong along the quiet hall. He all but col lided with Margery Golden herself. "Here's where I take time by the forelock," he grimly announced, as he darted across the room to a huge old' fashioned grandfather's clock which stood against the farther wall. The astonished girl saw him swing open the door and step inside the clock. Then she turned quickly about, for the men from the central office were al ready in the room. And she had no desire to make their task easier for them. " "That man came into this room!" declared one of the older men, chal lenging the half-smiling girl with an indignant forefinger. "Where is he?" "How should I know?" asked the calm-eyed young woman. "Well, he's here, and we'll get him," declared the man who seemed to be the leader of the others. Then Margery Golden's heart suddenly came up into her mouth, for she could see. that he was hurrying across the room in the direction of the clock. She could see his right hand go into his. pocket and whip out a revolver as his left hand threw open "the ittle black-walnut door along the face of the clock. Then she breathed again, for the clock was empty. But . the man with the revolver had dropped to his knees and was patting interrogatively about the clock base. "I thought so!" he suddenly called out. "There's a spring trap here that opens through the floor. Quick, some of j'ou men, get down to the base ment!" Margery Golden was even able to smile again. "Wilson,", she said, "be so good as to show these gentlemen the way to the basement. And then be so good as to have Miss Betsy LeMarsh come here." But Miss Betsy LeMarsh had com mandeered a hat and coat belonging to her mistress, possessed herself of a jeweled ring or two and a small moroc co case, which she discreetly stowed away as she stole quietly down the servants' stairs, and slipped out through the shrubbery. So preoccupied was she, however, in putting distance between her and the house which she had just left that she failed to observe a figure simultane ously and quite as eagerly emerging from a basement window. Yet as she hurriedly rounded the block, in eager quest of a taxicab, this figure showed an unmistakable interest in her move ments. And when she had finally hailed a taxicab arid climbed into it,' tha stranger in a yellow mask so cau tiously shadowing her made a signal an to the driver of 'ajmyste'nousj limou sine, which seemed "to Ibe .casually en gaged in following' his 6wri' move--ments. r 1 I ' "Follow that taxicab" - he 'com manded' his driver as ne "leaped into the still-moving car. The man in the limousine sat tense and silent, watching the flight for mile after mile. Then, realizing that it was taking them beyond the bounds of the city itself, he drew shut the side-blinds of his car, reached . under the seat and took from its hiding place a japanned tin box, remarkably similar to an actor's make-up box. Balancing this on his knees, he first removed his mask of yeflow cloth, adjusted a small folding mirror to the box lid, and busied himself with the assortment of pigments and cosmet ics of the make-up putty therein con tained. The clear-lined face which first gazed into the folding mirror slowly but unmistakably became con verted into something-repellant to the ye. The next moment the limousine came to a stop at the roadside. f "That taxicab has just turned in at the Bellaire inn," the well-trained driv er called back to his master. "So I notice. And that's the place, , I'll wager, where Legar himself is . trying to keep under cover." "There's the woman herself, run ning up the steps," announced the driver. "So I also observe. And under the circumstances, I think it would be best for you to slip after her, as quiet ly and quickly as you can." "Yes, sir!" "Then come back to the caiand re port to me the number of the room she asks for. Find out the number, whatever happens. For in that room, I imagine, we're going to encounter our old friend of the Iron Claw." The Flash for Help. Jules Legar was in anything but an amiable frame of mind, and when Williamsburg Sadie was quietly ush ered into room 307 of the Bellaire inn, he greeted her with a malignant scowl which she promptly and openly resented. "You don't seem exactly crazy to see me," she announced as she watched Legar lock the door through which she had just entered. His right 4- i "Just a Moment, Gentlemen," This arm, she noticed, was carried in a vol uminous white cotton sling. "Didn't I tell you to keep away from this dump?" he wrathfully reminded her. "Well, I didn't come because I want ed to!" was the other's retort. "What's wrong?" "Everything's wrong! Old Golden had a bunch of flatties in his house, and that Laughing Mask boob squealed on, me to the bunch. So I had to beat it." Legar swung about on her. , "And you beat it straight here, in open daylight,' leaving a paper-chase trail at your heels!" There was rage in his voice. "I tell you I left no trail. I've got my own scalp to take care of. And if I've taken a chance to beat it up here and put you wise, it seems to me there's more tkan this grouch-talk comin' to me!" "Then, for the love of heaven, wom an, don't holler so the whole house will hear you! Speak quietly." A one-sided smile played about the hardened face of that worldly wise young woman. "I guess you're kind o' losin' your nerve," she contemptuously an nounced. "Listen to me, my girl. I've been at this game longer than you have, and I've learned there are times when even walls have ears." The woman laughed. "Then you'd better get earmuffs on that window sill, for I've got a hunch it's" ' - Her voice died away at the same moment that the smile vanished from her face. "Dont turn around," she said in a sudden startled whisper as she looked down at her feetj. "For there's a man's face starin' in at that window now." Legar remained motionless. "What face?" he quietly asked. "Its the man in the Laughing Mask!" was the whispered response. Legar continued to stare at her, still motionless. ' " "That means he came up by the fire ' escape," meditated the fugitive. "And J fast 'iSlil $$4 :' - ft& -?V-; Mt tv". - 11 m? thak Jmeahs J-Red Egan. must n,g,ve tseea . ntm. -; ' " " " ' - . --The ijext moment the man with his larni in 'a sling had thrown the band age aside and was running towacls the window that opened on tha fire escape landing. On that narrow ledge of slice t-metrl, wedged in between the window i:a h and the escape railing, a terrific ccra bat was already taking place. Before Legar could get the window open the' Laughing Mask, by an adroit jiu-jitsu movement of the body, succeeded in pinning the winded Red Egandown on the fire-escape platform. But already a second sentry of Legar's was swarm ing up the narrow metal stairway, and all the attention of the man in the mask had to be directed towards his . new adversary. - . It was while countering the ' on slaught of this second enemy that the Laughing Mask became' conscious of still another point of attack. For as he fought there, on his knees, astride the panting form of Red Egan, an iron claw reached viciously out over the window sill behind him, and fixed it self in his shoulder. Tha next mo ment he was being hauled bodily in through the open window. - Ready hands were there to. take pos session of that battered and breath less captive. "Put him in that chair!" exultantly commanded Legar. '.'Now what'll we do with him?" de manded the panting Red Egan. "Leave him to me," announced Le gar, studying his captive out of nar rowed and sinister eyes. Then the man with the iron claw steppedslow ly and studiously closely to the chair in which the helpless Laughing Mask sat, for the light in the room was none too clear. "So you're the man of mystery, are you! You're the hero who keeps a dead wall between him and the world, eh! Well, my valiant hero, we'll scon put your visor up!" Williamsburg Sadie, with her mouth slightly agape, stood halfway between the chair and the wall, watching the man with the iron claw as he exulted oyer his enemy. She watched Legar's hand as it reached out to the mask of yellow cloth and tore it viciously from the face which it had concealed. Then . a scream, short but high pitched, burst from her startled lips. I Masked Stranger SuaveJy Announced. For what she stared at seemed moe like a charnel-house cadaver than a human face. And Legar drew back at the sight of those loathsome features. IIo backed slowly away, staring at that face, until he came to the electric but ton set in the wall. Me reached out to switch on the electrolier, for the struggle on the fire-escape landing-had left a curtain hanging half over 'the window, and this made the light un certain. But even as Legar lifted hi3 finger to the switch a sudden knock sounded on the door of the room. Both Red Egan and the woman turned mutely to Legar. Aral as they looked, the knock was repeated, loud er than before. "Lock him in that closet," was the Iron Claw's whispered command. "And throttle him at the first sound!" ; Legar, who had already crossed to j- ihe door that opened into the hall, ; waited there until the closet door had , been locked and shut. He found a chambermaid standing there.. "Is there anything the matter, eir?" she asked in genuine alarm. "The matter? What should he the matter?" inquired the sleepy-eyed oc cupant of the room. "I thought I heard a scream, sir," explained the chambermaid, already relieved. "Not in this room, my dear," calmly announced Legar. . "I'm sorry if. I was mistaken," ex plained the maid. It was Red Egan who stepped to Legar's side as the key was once more silently turned in the lock. "Here's a signet ring I took off your man m mere. , wo'.'M mat give you 4 any tip as to who :;' 13 " j Legar stood studying the ring, turn ing it over and over in his hand. "No," he finally announced. "But it'll let me send a tip to our old friend ' Golden. I'll send him that ring to j show 'him' we've got the Laughing: Mask here. With .it; will go a note I giving him his last chance to' hand j over that chart!" . "And who'll carry that note?" asked- Williamsburg Sadie, cuf of the silence of apprehension which fell over $he little group. . "You will," calmly announced Le gar. . . ' . -r . "Not on your life!" was the girl's quavering reply. ' "I'm through vith those people!": "But you're. n.ot through with me yet, my girl- You're going totake this noto to Enoch Golden", and jou're go ing to do it without any risk. I'll call "up Golden myself and tell him he'll get it ' bach, ten to one, if he makes a single move against you. - And besides that, we've got him so beaten at this game that he's going to cry' quit3 the minute he sees we've roped in the last of his gang, the minute I tell him I'll leave the country "on condition he coughs up the paper!" "And's'posin he docs. weaken and hand over that paper? Where do I get off?" "'You come back here with it as fast as .wheels can carry you. And if you move as quick as I want you to move, you'll .just about got back in time to see the" finish of yqur friend in the yellow mask ! s' . But Betsy LeMarsh's -friend in the yellow mask, for all his captivity, was apparently preparing for that' finish in a more active manner than 'was imag ined by his captors.- For, the-moment he was locked in the narrow closet, he had " undertaken a systematic s.earch of its gloomy corners. That search, however, was . rewarded only by the discovery of a group of insulat ed wires running along its cuter wall. Yet. these wires he examined with not a 'Jit tie care. And the examination led him to conclude, both from the nature of the" wires and the heaviness of the insulation about them, that they were an integral portion of the light ing system of the hotel. . That they were not "dead" he promptly discov ered by scraping a'way the insulation tissue and bringing two of the bared wires in contact. This resulted in an immediate hiss and spark of light. And that gave the prisoner an idea. By "breaking" the current, he knew, he could send & message needling through all-'the nervous system of the house. And at some one point, he felt sure, that methodic play of dot and dash in the light bulb would arouse suspicion and cause ' a search to be instigated. " It was, in .fact, in the office of the . hotel itself, where High-Collar Davis, the house detective, leisurely perused an evening paper for certain racing returns close beside a rotund and robinlike room clerk in a red vest, that an electric bulb just above the register began to conduct itself in a manner that was first mysterious and then challenging. . High-Collar Davis, locking languidly up fr.opi his racing charts', watched tir's light for several moments of si lenco. ' "Well, I'll be'blowed!" he finally ejaculated. "What's wrong?" asked the room clerk. . Instead of replying, the house de tective took out paper and pencil, and, carefully watching the winking and blinking -bulb, wrote a number of let ters" down, on his slip of paper. "That's "the first time," he solemnly .announced. "I ever saw an electric Dulb talk Morse!" "Talk Ivlerso?" echoed the other. "Yes, talk Morse, or I never pound ed the brass for two years. And here's what it has said, twice over. Help room three o seven help help ! " The house cletectivo suddenly stoo? upright. "Cay, who is in 307 in this house, airyway?" "That Virginian with his arm in a sling!" "Then it's up to us to find cut what's going on in that room!" The ' Laughing Mask, in the mean time, was no longer giving his atten tion to the wires along the closet wall. But with his pocket knife he had al ready removed the set screw from the door knob of the closet doer. Then, swinging lig:htly up to the shelf that stood some five fest from the floor, ha seated himself there opposite the door, i By grasping the two heavy clothes hocks screwed into this door, and by planting his feet firmly against, the sash 'on either side of it, he felt that he was not altogether at the mercy of his enemies. ! Even as hQ sat thero ho could hear the -key turned -in the lock and then the sound of Legar's quick oath of ex asperation as the door knob fell loose to the floor, in response to his tug at it. At the same time hope rose in the captive's heart,' for he could hear the mufllea sound of a knock on the outer door. And still again the prisoner in the closet' could hear Legar's oath of , exasperation. This was followed by the sudden impact of the heavy wing chair agains"; the panels of the closet' door. That blow, repeated again and yet again, wa3 heavy enough to break through the wocd. . But that dignitary known as High-Collar Davis, being a gentleman not given to inactivity in moments of emergency, and being suf ficiently persuaded of untoward pro ceedings behind the door which re fused to open to his knock, promptly seised a fire ax from its vermilion painted rack in the hall, and seut it crashing through the panels of the door which bore the numerals 307. Legar, seeing the door giving way before this determined onslaught, drew his revolver and emptied it into the half demolished closet door even as ho backed away across the room to the open window. There he followed his already vanishing accomplices out on the fire escape, swarming down the narrow ladder after them as the outer door of the room gave way and a group" of excited hotel attendants, headed by High-Collar Davis, came tumbling into the room. The man who emerged from the - - ; - - closet lingered only long enough to point out to them the fleeing figures al ready at the foot of the fire eseapo" Then he himself darted down through the hotel hallway, took the stairs on the run, circled out through the rotunda,- and. springing through shrub bery and flower beds, leaped into a limousine drawn up at the side of tha read. "Follow that touring car those men have just piled into," he called out to iiis driver. "Follow it until we get into the city. Then swing past it and get to Golden's house before it does, what ever happens!" But that touring car showed itself to be a much speedier vehicle than its un- " i ' ' I I At. : (:: W :t:Vi i?s1 ;V: V!Vi: I ;?3??v ;? -1" .....-.-..-.-.- .-. - 9 1 L A Terrific Combat Was Taking Place. kempt appearance might indicate. And its driver seemed possessed of a sur prisingly intimate knowledge of subur ban side roads, for as the blaclf limousine drew up on it the dust-covered open car suddenly swerved to the left, dipped into a narrow valley, and took the rise to the railway track like a swallow rounding a cliff head. Then the man in the yellow mask stood up in his car, with an involun tary gasp of horror on his lips. For thundering along the curving track as the dusty touring car rose to the crossing came an even swifter-moving through freight, whistling its frantic warning as it came. But that warning was too late. The pilot of the locomotive seemed to root like a boat's snout under the flimsy body of the automobile and then toss it and its human freight high over its shoulder. There was a momentary cascade of bodies and metal through the air, a sudden discontinuance of the whistle blasts, and the grind of steel against steel as the startled engine driver threw on his brakes. "Did they strike?" asked the Laugh ing Mask's chauffeur over his shoulder. "Yes, they struck! But don't turn back. Keep going! For there's an other car from that hotel following us, and we've still got to get to Golden's house first." It was some twelve minutes later that Margery Golden, as she sat dis consolately in the quietness of her room, found herself confronted by an unannounced visitor. "It's you!", she gasped, as she rose to her feet and found the Laughing Mask standing, a little breathless, just inside her door. "I'm sorry to startle you," he ex. plained, "but as usual, they didn't give me any too much time!" "But what has happened?" "The same thing over again. There are five' men downstairs persuading your father the Laughing Mask is a criminal, and those five men are deter mined to make me a prisoner." "But why should they keep saying this?" asked the bewildered girl. "Because they don't understand." "No, they don't understand," she re peated. Then she turned and stared at the masked face. "Nor do I alto gether understand!" "But surely you'd trust me enough to hide me away here until I can es cape from them?" "How can you ask me to trust you when you refuse to trust me?" "But I do trust you. I always have!" "Yet not enough to remove that mask." "And you insist that I unmask?" "No, I do not insist. But if you be lieve in my honesty I also want to be lieve in yours." Again there was a moment of silence. "You are right," said the man in tne mask. Then he crossed the room to the door of the white-tiled bath room, laughing as he went. "But since my hands are clean, I also insist that my face shall be!" . The girl stood puzzled as she heard the sound of a tap being turned and the splash of water. "What are you doing?" she de manded. "Washing my face," answered a somewhat altered voice, "and I'm afraid I'm rather spoiling your towel with my make-up." The next minute the Laughing Mask, denuded of his domino, stepped back into the room. "Will j'ou trust me enough now to help me get away?" he asked. The girl stared round-eyed into the smiling face above her. She started to lift her hand, as though in wonder, to her brow. But the man in the door way imprisoned that hand in his own, and drew her a little closer to him. "Will you trust me now?" he re peated. "Yes," she said, in a voice hushed with wonder, as she felt his arms close about her. "I will always trust you!" (TO BE CONTINUED.)
The Warren Record (Warrenton, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 30, 1917, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75