Newspapers / The Times-News (Hendersonville, N.C.) / Nov. 13, 1914, edition 1 / Page 2
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llf -,v; js; -:';-'...''Vr - -"J" " Vi- ! 51 V .?..& ; .i :!' : -i' t ': ' - S-A: J. '- - v - Jk I ' mm i :V-:';i?. T. f.- - '.V- -rt - t-,-' ..av.r,;;a: h j.f M t - TH TREY O' HEARTS, by Louis JoepH Vance. (Copyright; 19 14,'.by Louh Jo.eph ,V, CHAPTER XXII. ' Th Houm Divided. Alone Id that strange place of al ienee and anadowa that den of the deril'a liYery, crimson and black chained to the lnralld chair wherein, day in, day out, for years on end, he had suffered the Promethean torments of the life that would not die out of his wretched, wrecked carcass, though without ceasing sharp-beaked envy. hatred, malice and all uncharitable ness pecked insatiably at his vitals: Seneca Trine sat waiting, with the im passivity of a ; iven figure waiting on the . imminent hour of ultimate avengement for the wrong that hai made him what he was. "Another hour! ... In sixty minutes more they will be hero, Judith and Alarrophat and Rose poor fool! and him! ... In sixty minutes j more they will put him down before j me, bound mid h-.:. loss, if not dead; A slight pause prefaced words that were a whimpered prayer: "Cod send that he be not dead! Have I lingered Tpon this one he loosed the '.lght alngs of his wrath without ruth. Rose suffered him in silence. Hl most galling recrimination educed no retort from this one. . In a lull in Trine's tirade, Judith chose to interject: "Don't bo so hard on the Silly fool: she's notrennnnsihla? she's sick with love for that good-looking simpleton!" "And you!" Rose turned on her passionately "what about you? If I love Alan Law, at least I love him openly. I am not ashamed to own it and I don't pursue him, as you do, pre tending I mean to sacrifice him to a wicked family feud, and then ftnara him every time I meet him, to lead mm to believe I haven't the heart to injure him as you do, hoping so to j work upon his sympathies and earn ; a kindly word and a pat on the head from his hand!" j Fiercely she leveled a denunciatory I arm at her sister. "There!" she cried to her father "if you need to know there stands the daughter who Sas I betrayed your faith as I have not, who have never even pretended to i approve your villainy!" i "I think," Trine announced in a ! voice of ice "I have learned now 1 what 1 needed to know." His f.ngers sought the row of but tons; and when a servant responded, : he inquired: "Mr. Marrophat has returned?" 1 "He is in the waiting room, sir." "Conduct .Miss Judith to him and tell him I hold him personally respon sible for her safe-keeping. He will understand." And for a long time thereafter the ! father, alone with the daughter who had been estranged from him since I birth by every instinct of her nature, ; essayed iu vain to break down her mutinous silence. At last Trine summoned two of his crea.-.ires and had her led weeping from the rooms to be held prisoner in her bedchamber on the topmost floor Of the house. ance). Continued frcm "bit" week. Watch for next week'. in,tallxne there for the sailing of the next trans atlantic steamer. Oh. surely yoa can't deny me this one wish of my fond old heart, my boy!" , With a gestureof unfeigned affec tion Alan dropped a hand on Digby's shoulder. what seemed an uncommonly stubborn reluctance, and got hit way, tie could not know that another skulked behind a barrier of lime bar rels ana overneard all that passed and, wnen Alan had ducked smartly Into the nnflnlnhtul hnlMlnr There's nothing on earth I would ! after him with footsteps as noiseless not do for you." he said: "you've.' been j as a cat's and. a face that had the sav- - -a a motnar tb me ever einde agery of a tiger's when It was tran siently revealed In a shaft of moon light At length Alan gained the gridiron of girders on a plane with the lighted window across the way. and crcDt can rememDer. even If we were sepa rated, most of the time, by three thou sand miles o,f salt water. But this thing I can t do it,"ven for you. I can't do it even for myself. Rosa Trine is here in New York, In the hands and at the mercy of her father 1Bl. alla y0U may judge w.hat end End ra,ght Jf he c noli1 a. . V . I . - 1U ob wnen you learn down a hundred feit tn :i, ' . mui. t!ie nas acr.o for me. I won't so and I csn't go until I find her and tako her wUh me. And that is final." "Then," Dihy struck In, grasping vildly at a straw of hope, "I have your v. crd you'll go. providing I G:uJ and rs fctoro Roee to you?" "You lone." Digby l-romls ve ny word to that, unoi-es- honabiy. UriaK Rose to me. and 1 11 ! l-laclly shake the I .it of .New Yo. iv j from mylioes, ana never return i:U 1 Trine is 'put away comfortably in hi?, grave." It sh-.sll b "It man!" "Yen believe that?" "In f .elve hours Rose ; !-,sll be ro- ' stored lo'ycu." ' '. "V.'i'l yo-.i rrake a book en it? I'll bet you something happens mid hope i - ... ic uuigoui. u ycu Deue e you can cany out your promise, wire the White S;ar line to reserve tl.e best available suite on the Oceanic, sailing tomorrow morning at ten ami make arrangements for a mar ria;:j bs.'ore the boai sails." i ii go you, U:;.;by agreed: "and if 1 I fail, I f:)n'eit the cost of the reser-1 ration. Hut about this marriage " hesitate'!. , "You'll ha.-o to hr.ve a license in this state and can't get one except along one of these, gingerly on his hands and knees, until ho caTe to its lork nio s:ir.val.;s. That view, howert-r, Sid not t:in-t; he kept his eyes level; and was re warded with a bare glimpse of a pre-tlly-papered wall, framed in the lace of half-drawn curtains. And of sitdden whether thro'.:rh fortuity, or instinct, cr hs nsveho- losical httraction of hij steadfast ccn-ccntration-the tenant rf the room van:o to the. window ami s.oed there for a little, Icokins pensively out. alto gether unconscious of tha wctclicr in his aerial coign. Agnin a horribla uncr . tainly liar-i ass.-d him. -SVas the woman Rose I Jud'th? That she was of U-.ege , '.-.i cotiUi plainly see. Rut which? Dared he assume his hopes fuelled? ! iunigry vision from In r. a::d d.-awiii." i'rom his pocket a small notebook, tore out a blank page, placed this flat on the girder, found a pencil, and with the assistance of a ray or two of moonlight scrawled a message of al most stenographic brevity. AVhen he looked up from this task, fhe had vanished. Sitting up, astride the girder, he tock his watch a cheap affair he had picked up 'w hen reclothing himself in the garments of civilized society, at Providence, that morning opened the c:or In the duel In the end, they terved together with that eteady, re- wuess aownwasd and outward drag. to break the grip of the man's locked legs. Abruptly he pitched forward on his face along the girder, kicking wildly, grasping at the air. The stiletto fell from an instinctively relaxed grasp, and disappeared. And before Alan could release his hold, or ease the strain upon the right arm of the as sassin, this last had slipped bodily from the girder and hung helpless in space, dangling at the end of Alan's arm with no mire than the grip of live flusers betweenihira and death. The. shock of that unDresaitfid turn brought 'Alan forward and flak on his etcmach. And the strain nn hie lf arm wa3 terrific. He doubted If he could maintain it. for another minute N'or was thero any reason why he should retain it. The end he had de signed for his victim was merely bi3 just desert And jet Alan could net let him en Thus the battle began anew but -The one who gets the trey ot hearts will drain that glass Is , It a bar- gain 7" "Never! Oh, now I know that youl auogetner mad!" remaps. Are you ready r Audi juoutii made as if to deal: "No never! I tell you I refuse! Rose chattered, terrified. i "You dare not refuse." "Why?" ; "Because of this." ' " Whipping a small revolver from anJ otner pocket of her dresslna-eown. JnJ dith placed It on the table, ready toj ner nana. -"You will shoot me if 2 do not con sent?" "Not you but him. If vou refnsa little sistep, I will shoot Alan Law dead when, he comes to keep his ap pointment with you." "Ah!" Rote cried in mingled fright and amazement. "How did you And out?" "Never mind. Is it a bargain, now. aoout me trey of hearts? Remember: T Hhnll Voiti w.ir -k . ill - . now it was a battle with a man half-1 tol" " ' hrawei.an'!i8lrUgfli,!gJ8.n,adly that! WUh a 6hudder Rose bowed her hi well-nigh frustrated the efforts of i head. "is rescuer. In the upshot the assassin lay like a limp rag across the girder, head and snnis dangling on one side, legs and fee t on tlje othor. tpent with his ter rific exertions and physically sick with terror. And in this st;;to Alan left him: he aad dene enough; let the man shift :or himself from this time on. same Rose Turned on Her Passionately. here in anguish all these weary years for the fulfillment of my revenge only to be cheated at the end by Death? Ood grant that Alan Law may be laid down still living here at my feet! . . . Then ..." A bitter smile twisted his tortured foatures: "Then shall my will be done to Mm! And then, when 1 have seen him die ; his father died then Ah, God! Mien at last I, too may die! There was a long silence, then a groan of exasperated protest: "Why do they not come? Why does Judith delay, when she knows how I suffer? Why have I been put off from day to day with her telegrams that begged for more time and promised every thingbut told nothing! until yester day. . . Where are those mes sages she tsenr mo yesterday?" His one sound hand groped out like a claw and sought a iiiufs of papers on the desk beside him, sorting out from among them two yellow forms. Painfully he blinked over these and slowly his pain-be lit lips conned their wording; '".Man and Rose safe with me will bring both home tomorrow night with out fail.' " he read the first aloud; and then the second: " Have motorcar waiting for me tomorrow morning : from three o'clock till called lor Sew ' Hertford waterfront Judith. ' "Xo!" he affirmed with the fervor; of one persuaded by his own desires: ' "I must not doubt the girl! She has j promised, she has performed: So still was he, indeed that he seemed to sleep, but so deceptive was mat (semblance that he was alert for ! telegraph Barcus lW '"i souna. liie girl entered soft ly, as if fearful of disturbing his slum bers; but she f; ;nd him with bead erect and eyei; a-blaze. "Judith!" he'crk.d, his great voice vibrating like a brazen bell. "At last! Where is he? You hav; brought bim? Where is he?" With no more answer than a sieh. the girl drooped her head, and let her i romelhing fluttered from the mck of hands hang limply with palms ci- envelopes which Digby had disturbed ell to the floor between the two CHAPTER XXIII. A Sporting Offer. Some two hours later, that eveuuig, .Mr. Aa very much j alive and, in spite of a enmnlete nen- ' outfit of ready-made clothing, looking much more like himself than he had in a fortnight, issued forth from the (Jrand Central station, hailed a taxi cab, and had himself conveved to the Hotel .Monolith. " Hut If he looked his proper self once more, it speedily was demonstrated j that his wish was otherwise: for after ; learning from the room-clerk of the ! Monolith that, a suite was being held in the name of Arthur Lawrence, that ; was., the name Mr. Law inscribed on the register. On the other hand, it was his true , name that he gave to the person whom ; he called upon the telephone inimedi , ately after being shown to his rooms. I Rut then he was speaking to his old ! mend and man of business, Mr. Digby. Within another ten minutes this last was in conference with his employer: "I think you must be out of your head," he insisted nervously, onte their first greetings were over. "You might just as sensibly throw yourself from the top of the Metropolitan tower ' as come to New York while Trine lives and knows you're this side the water." "Nonsense!" Alan laughed. "Remem ber this is New York not the back woods of Maine!" Alan paused and smote his palm with a remorseful tint. "By the Eter nal. I'm forgetting Barcus ! "Barcus?" v na; v.nese Dout I chartered in I Porl land sheer luck on my part: he's ! one of the salt of the arth. First, ! romethii,g must be done for the boy.' ' You've got influence of some sort in ! New Reilford, surely?" ! Tf i . - I i'igo renected: "Some. There's George Blaine, justice of the peace" "The very man. Telegraph him In Barcus' interests imniediatoiv inj as well send him a hundred for expenses, and tell him to join me here in New York as quick os he can!" "Your friend's address?" Digby In quired, mildly ironic as he sat down r.t the desk and fumbled with the sup ply of stationery. "New Bedford jail, of course!" Alan chuckled but cut his laugh in two as . $rrr -e & k ! ' mi Ti ni w i CHAPTER XXV. Changeling. i In the vague, chill grav of that Hull I and desolate dawn. Judith stirred ab ruptly on the couch of a sleepless night, and with the rapidity of one who has arrived at a settled purpose after a long period of doubt and per plexity, rose and bathed and dressed herself in negligee. In the adjoining room she could hear email, stealthy noises the sounds made by her sister moving about and , preparing against the unguessable mo- j ment when her rescue would hp nr.! templed, according to the information ' Deal." she muttered fearfully, "and may God jude between us!" Ono by one she stripped the cards from the top of the deck, dealing first to Kose, thai; to herself. One by one they fluttered to the l able on either side the elnr.n and fell face uppermost. The trey of hearts fell to Judith. There was an instant of silent dread, ended by Rose, as Judith's hand moved steadily toward the glass. "Judith!" she implored. "Don't I beg of you I didn't mean it I take back my consent" "Too late!" said Judith, lifting the glass and eyeing its contents with a strange smile. "Judith! you cannot mean to drink it?" "Can't I, though?" the other laughed mirthlessly. "Just watch me!" With a strangled cry Rose covered her face with her haads to shut out the sight, stood momentarily swaying, and dropped to the floor in a complete faint. Delaying only to recognize this phe nomena with a pltyinr smile for the conveyed iu that midnleht niessan T . . . - 1 . . J iui i nance nau conspired with her! weakness of spirit that caused it Ju insomnia to station Judith in the re-l Pith's glance darted through the win cess of her darkened window, idly dow and saw that wftich caused her to viewing the gaunt framework of the tay her hand an instant lonirer. unfinished building from an angle which, when Alan edged out along the girder, showed him plainly In silhou ette against the sky. In Judith's eyes his identity was un mistakable. She had hardly needed the night-glasses which presently she brought to bear upon him at the mo ment when he was laboriously inditing his message while grim death stalked him from behind. 1 She had seen him throw the watch On the topmost tier of girders of the building opposite, Alan Law stood amid a little knot of amused and ani mated laborers, one foot In the great sieei noon or the hoisting tackle, both hands clasping the chain that linked it to the gigantic block. And ae Judith stared, he smiled at sometnmg said by one of those about him, looked back, and waved a hand to some person Invisible. Immediately the arm began to lift, and had heard the double thump of its the tack,e to rowe giowly through the Alan's Appearance at the Hotel Monolith. by applying in person with your bride- to-oe. There won't be time" "Then we'll marry in Jersey!" Alan insisted. "Dig up some clergyman over there, if you don't know one yourself" "Oh, I'm well acquainted with the very man!" CHAPTER XXIV. poaed. After an instant of incredulous dis appointment the man shot a single, frigid question at her: "You have failed?" "I have failed." she confessed "Why?" She shrugged slightly. "Who knows why one fails? I did my best: h was too much for me, outwitted me at every turn. Time and again I thought ' I had him, but always he escaped, either by bis own wit and courage or with another's aid. Only yesterday night they were all three in the hol low of my bands but now I bring you only Rose." She faltered, awed by the glare of his infuriated eyes. "Let me explain," she begged. j He snapped her short: "You cannot explain. The thing is Impossible, that you should have failed. There Is some thing beneath this, something yoa will not teU me." She endeavored to speak, but he en forced silence with a sonorous "No!" His hand sought the row of buttons on tho desk and pressed one long. ' Almost instantly a servant glided noiselessly Into the room. "HfZ da-utter f ' Rose hare her brought here to me at oncet" In another, moment the replica of his daughter Judith was ushered Into his presenos. - end men. I Face up, it grinned sardonic mock ; ery of Alan's confidence: It was a trev ! of hearts. With an ashen face and a trembling hand. Digby stooped to pick the damned thing up; but Alan was be forehand with him. and got his fingers first upon the card. "Now will you believe?" Digby de luauded huskily. "In what? A simple coincidence?" Alan flouted. "Not I! Who knows I'm in New York-or that the Arthur Law rence for whom your agent engaged these rooms was Alan Law. No, my friend: it's a bit too thick for me. Take my word for it, this Is nothing more nor less than a souvenir of a poker-. party neia Dy yesterday's tenant of this SUite." . ' - 'I;,,- "Perhaps perhaps!" Digby assent ed, stroking tremulous lips. "But I'm afraid for you, my boy. Who knows that Trine's spies were not watching my man when he made this reserva tion? Who knows .but that 'Arthur Lawrence' was too this a disguise for Alan Lawt I tell you, I'm frightened to the marrow of my old bones I Do! me this favor at least,! my boy: sow that you're- been warned, whether by' accident of design we wont argW that do leave town go Incognito to soma quiet place near by and wait ( The Time o' Night. Not ill-pleaeed to be left to hl3 own devices (whose proposed character Digby would never have approved had he so much as suspected them) Alan none the less deferred action until after midnight. And espionage was all he feared save and except always, of course, fail ure to find his Rose. It was about one in the morning when he arrived inconspicuously (but not so much so as to seem deserving of police surveillance) In the neigh borhood otthe Riverside drive home of his mortal enemy, a grim white house that towered, stark and tall, upon a corner. His preliminary recounolsance pro vided little more than comfortless ex ercise. Huge, still, its wall bathed in the milk and ink of moonlight and shadow, all Its windows dark but one and that one, In the topmost tier, Bhowed only a feeble glimmer, so slight that Alan almost overlooked It But once discovered, it focueed upon Itself his thoughts with a power little less than hypnotic. ' He believed with small doubt that Kose was a piisoner within those walls; that Judith must have ' con veyed her there with all speed. . And, this belqg the presumptive case, that small, high window of the light might well be hers. Directly across the street from the Trine residence, on the opposite cor ner, a colossal apartment structure stood half-finished, stonework to' its second story, gaunt Iron skeleton rear ing above. ;...,.:: To his infinite disgust. Alan found the guardian very wide awake, rery much on tho job: no chance here to steal unseen into the building. This in Itself might have been deemed a suspicious circumstance: not for nothing does an honest night watchman so deny the laws of nature and the tenets of his craft But Alan merely praised the man while cursing the very fact of his existence: and. ae- "tin,, with wsrzStt back of the. case, and closed it imnn the folded message. Then drawing back his arm. he breathed a silent prayer to the god of all true lovers, and cast it from him with all his might with such force that it almost unseated him at the end of the swing. But nothing less would have served to bridge that yawning chasm. And the watch flew straight and true, squarely through the lighted win dow and to the further wall. . At that very Instant of his exultation over an obstacle overcome, he heard a sound behind him of heavy breathing. The assassin had come that close upon his prey when Alan turned and discovered his peril. The same moonbeam which had aided Alan In the composition of his message struck across the others face and showed it like a hideous Chinese mask of deadly hatred, with its eye balls glaring and its lips drawn back irom me naued blade gripped between its teeth a stiletto nothing short of a foot in length. With a sharp, startled movement. Alan swung himself bodily about, so that, seated again astride the girder, he faced the assassin, who sat up' straddling the girder, his feet hooked beneath it a stiletto poised in his right hand to strike. But even now Alan was In little or no better case than before. If he faced the thug, he faced him with nn .rn other than his bare hands. He had not even a pen-ansre in his pockets. With a low cry of desperation Ai.n snatched off his hat. a soft and shape less felt affair, and flung it squarely in Before he could recover before that is. It dropped away and cleared his vision, Alan had bent forward and grasped the wrtet of the hand that held the knife. ; " :-; He snatched simultaneously at the other hand, but it eluded him. ".Alan, had this advantage, as long as the knife might not strlker-that his right arm was free, while the assassin had only his left With this he strove pcnusienuy h reacn nls knife-hand and fosses himself of the weapon.' As persistently Alan foiled his purpose! by dragging the knife-hand toward him and swinging It far out to one side. At1 the same time he struck repeatedly with his clenched right flat at the bth.! ert face. His blows did little dam- bb oeyona Disconcerting the other; nnpscf ,witn tne wall and floor of i Rose's bedchamber. j And she had witnessed with wildly beating heart that duel in the air able to surmise its outcome only from , the fact that the victor spared the life ! of the vanquished. The clock was strikinr si.i kIi left her room: across the street work ingmen were streaming into the build-' ing to begin the labors of the day. Brushing unceremoniously past the j drowsy and indifferent guard In the I corridor outside the door to Rose's! room, Judith turned the. key that re-' mained in the lock on the outside, re-1 moved it, entered, and locked the door ! behind her. 1 Without any surprise she found her sister already dressed to the point of , donning her outer garments. , Rendered half-frantic by this unex pected interruption, threatening as itl did the perilous scheme thr inn hart ! rlS ntonil t i l i . ..I kivi, noun reeiea ner sister with a countenance at mice aghast and wrathful. "What do you want?" she demanded tensely. "To come to an understanding with you," Judith told her coolly. "There is no understanding nosBibln between us: you know that as well as 1-" i blocks. Very entlv he Was Rwimv nn - " a , ana ouiwara. .... j With a cry Judith flung the poison heedlessly from her, leaped across the room, and snatched up the street gar ments Rose had dropped at her sisters entrance. In another moment she was strug gling madly into them. Before the shadow of Alan, clinging to the hook and chain, fell athwart the "Yet one there must be." "I insist that you leave this room at once!" "Insist by all means and be damned! I may leave this room and I may not, dear little sister. But one of us ill never leave it alive." With a start of terror. Rose shrank back from this strange, wild thing that wore the very shape and sem- piance or herself. . "What do you mean? You cannot mean to murder me in cold blood. Judith?" "Not I!" Judith laughed harshly. "But, since it has pleased Destiny to aecree mat we must both love one man let Destiny decide between us and bear the blame of murder!" "Judith!" .. ,-'!..', v "One moment!" Crossinc to m sid. table, Judith took up a glass from a iray mat neia a silver water-pitcher, and returned , with it to the table that occupied tne middle of the floor. At the same time she opened a band till then rase ciencned and disclosed a. small blue bottle with a ret label shrieking "Strychnine," 'she. explained com posedly, "in solution.",, And emptied the bottle Into jthe glass. A measure of courage returned to Rose. -Do you expect to be able to make me drink thatf' she demanded contemptuously. "Not I but Destiny, If It willif See here." Prom a pocket of her dreaafn. gown Judith produced a sealed deck of playing cards. . "Let these declare the will of Destiny toward us. I will break the seal, shuffle the cards, and Ami aha explained, suiting action to word. v'l I II 1 'I 111 "Not I 'but Destiny, If It Willi" j window, she was dressed and clam j bered out upon the silL j "Sweetheart! My bravest little I woman!" The hook hung steadily yrithin six inches-or the window-ledge. Alan ex tended his arm. "Nothing to fear, except lest I hold you too tight, dear one!" Without a word Judith set her foot beside his in the hook, surrendered to his embrace, and closed her eyes. Immediately they were swung away from the window, over toward the op- posue siaewaiK, and gently lowered to the street, vi; . v ';-r. "Maybe this isn't a good seheme!" Alan exulted in the innocence ot his heart ."BuJ I think It is. , And those working-men think it a great lark I told them the simple truth, you see: that we were eloping!" j By way of answer Judith breathed only a word of tenderness. And that instant the hook paused and Alan stepped off upon the side walk. . . , . 4 "Safe and sound and not a soul over there the wiser as yet!" he de clared with a derisive nod toward the home of Trine, "Come along, Here's a limousine waiting. In twenty min utes well be at the ferry, in forty over ln Jersey, wlthin, an hour married, within tour hours safe at sea!" ; t t -
The Times-News (Hendersonville, N.C.)
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Nov. 13, 1914, edition 1
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