The Trey CP Hearts
A NcW Vtuon t fk- Modo. Piet D. of tke Sum
By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE
4a4W mf'TU Fm Hv.Tlm Bm. " TU Bk ft."
I
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CHAPTER V.
j The Hunted Man.
That day was hot and windiest wlfn
Vn unclouded iky day of brass and
! Long before any tound audible to
fenman ears disturbed tbe noonday
ftush, a bobcat tunning on a log In a
felade to which no trail led, pricked
vsrs, rota, glanced oyer thoulder with
k marl and of a sudden was no more
there.
Perhaps two minutes later a succea
lon of remote crashing began to bo
Hieard, a cumulative volume of sounds
tnade by some heavy body forcing by
onaln strength through the underbrush,
pnd ceased only when a man broke
Into the clearing, pulled up, stood for
tin Instant swaying, then reeled to a
Iseat on the log, pillowing bis head on
(arms folded across hit knees and shud
dering uncontrollably In all his limbs,
i He was a young man who ha I been
and would again be very personable.
Just now he wore the look of on
founded by furies. His face was crim
son with congested blood and streaked
with sweat and grime; bluish veins
throbbed In high relief upon his tem
ples; his lips were cracked and swol
len, his eyes haggard, hit bands torn
lend bleeding. His thirt and trousert
;and "cruisers" were wreckt, the latter
jscorched, charred, and broken In a
'dozen places. Woods equipment he
4P1.1. . .til :
1 m&iriiixy
It Was a Rose. j
ti cone beyond a hunting knife belt
ed at the email of his back. All else
bad been either consumed In the (or-1
eft fire or stolen by his Indian guide .
'who had subsequently died while at
tempting to murder his employer.
' Since that event, the man had sur(
Icceded In losing himself completely.;
jit seeking shelter from the thunder-j
norm, lie naa iosi toucn wun nis amy
known and none too clearly located
landmarks. Then, after a night passed
without a fire In the lee of a ragged
'bluff, he had waked to discover the
,sun rising In the west and the rest of
the universe sympathetically upside-j
'town; and aimlessly ever since he had
stumbled and blundered In the maze,
icf those grimly reticent fastnesses, for t
I the last few hours haunted by a fearj
Icf falling reason possessed by a no-
;tlon that he was dogged by furtive
enemies and within the last hour the
puppet of blind, witless panic.
But even as be Btrove to calm him-,
self and rest, the feeling that some
thing was peering at him from behind
a mask or undergrowta grew intoler
ably acute.
At length he Jumped up, glared wild
ly at the spot where that something'
no longer was, flung himself fran
tically through the brush in pursuit of ,
It, and found nothing. I
I With a great effort he pulled him
self together, clamped his teeth upon
' the promise not again to give way to
J hallucinations, and turned back to the
Clearing. j
There, upon the log on which be
bad rested, he found but refused to
(believe he saw a playing card, a
tjey of hearts, face up In the sun
lare. 1 With a gesture of horror, Alan Law .
4 fled the place. j
j While the sounds of his flight were'
'till loud, la grinning half bneed guide '
tole like a shadow to the log,, laughed J
derisively after the fugitive, picked up
and pocketed the card, and set out
In tireless, cat-footed pursuit
An hour later, topping a ridge of,
rising ground, Alan caught from the!
hollow on Us farther side the music ot
clashing waters. Tortured by thirst,
he began at once to descend la reck
; less baste.
' What was a first a gentle siat cov
ered with weist-deep brash and car
Jpeted with leaf-mold,' grew, swiftly
i more deollvKooe. amosy hillside, as
steep as a roof,, bare of underbrush,
,and sparely sown with small cedars
through whose ranks cool blue water
twinkled far tekiw.
I The shelving moss-beds afforded
1 treacherous tooting; Alan was glad
now and then of the support of a ce
dar, but these grew ever smaller, and
more widely seated and, were not al
wave; .miFatii Ms hsgL Hs.
LoelsJoaeph Vase
came abruptly and at headlong pace
within sight of the eaves of a cliff
and precisely then the hillside seemed
to slip from under him.
His heels flourished in the air, his
back thumped a bed of pebbles thinly
overgrown with moss. Tbe stones
gave, the moss-skin broke, he began to
slide grasped at random a youngish
cedar which stayed him Imperceptibly,
coming away with all its puny roots
caught at another, co more substan
tialand amid a shower of loose stone
shot ort over the edge and down a
drop of more than thirty feet
Hs was instantaneously aware ol
the sun. a molten ball wheeling mad
ly in the cup of the turquoise sky.
Then dark waters closed over him.
He came up struggling and gasping,
and struck out tor something dark
that rode the waters near at band
something vaguely resembling a
canoe.
But his strength was largely spent
his breath had been driven out Of him
by the force of the fall, and he had
swallowed much water while the field
of his consciousness v. as stricken with
confusion.
Within a stroke of an outstretched
paddle, he flung up a hand and went
down again.
Instantly one occupant of the
canoe, a young and very beautiful wo
man In a man's hunting clothes, spoke
a sharp word of command and, as
her guide steadied the vessel with bis
paddle, rose In her place so surely
that Bhc scarcely disturbed the nice
balance of the little craft, and curved
her lithe body over the bow, head
foremost into the pool.
Mr. Law had, in point of fact en
dured mora than he knew; more than
even a weathered woodsman could
have borne without suffering. Forty
eight hours of such heavy woods
walking as ho had put In to escape
the forest firo, voulJ have served to
prostrate ali::ost any man: add to this
(Ignoring a dczon other mental, nerv
ous and physical strains) mroly tuo
fact that he had beeu half-drowned.
He t'xptrW nctd a little f- vi r, a little
delirium, thuu biauk slumbers ot ex-
l.uUblioU.
Ho uwoUo i;i ilark cf niht, wholly
unaware tliat thirty-six hours had
passed sinco his fall. This last, how
evtr, and t vents that had gono before,
Lo recalled vith tolerable cleanups
allowing for the sluggishness of a
drowsy nilnd. Other memories, more
vague, of gentle ministering hands, of
a face by turns an angel's, a flower's,
a fiend's, and a dear woman's, trou
bled him even less materially. He
was already sane enough to allow he
had probably been a bit out of hit
head, and since It seemed he bad been
saved and cared for, he found no rea
son to quarrel with present circum
stances. Still, ho would have been grateful
for some explanation of certain phe
nomena which still haunted him euch
aa a faint elusive scent of roses with
a vague but Importunate sense ot a
woman's presence in that darkened
room things manifestly absurd . . .
With some difficulty, from a dry
throat, he spoke, or rather whis
pered: "Water!"
In response he heard someone move
over a creaking floor. A sulphur
match spluttered Infamously. A can
dle caught fire, silhouetting Illusion,
ot course! the figure ot a woman In
hunting shirt and skirt. Water
splashed noisily. Alan became awar.
of someone who Btood at his side, ona
hand offering a glass to his lips, the
other gently raising his bead that he
might drink with ease.
Draining the glass, ho breathed his
thanks and sank back, retaining bit
grasp on the wrist of that unreal
hand. It suffered blm without re
sistance. The hallucination even
went so far as to say, In a woman's
soft accents:
"You are better, Alan!"
He sighed Incredulously: "Rose!"
The voice responded "Yes!" Then
the perfume of roses grew still more
strong, seeming to fan his cheek like
a woman's warm breath. And a mir
acle came to pass; for Mr. Law, who
realized poignantly that all this was
sheer, downright nonsense, distinct
ly felt Ilps'llke velvet caress his fore
head. He closed his eyes, tightened his
grasp on that hand of phantasy, and
muttered rather Inarticulately.
The voice asked "What la it
dparr
'He responded: "Delirium . . .
But I like it . . . Let me raVel"
Then again he slept
CHAPTER VU
Disclosures.
la a tittle corner office, soberjy fur
nished, on the topmost floor of one of
lower Manhattan's loftiest office-towers,
a Utile mouse-brown man sat over
a big mahogany desk; a littje man of
big affairs, sole steward of one ot
i . 1 , . 1 j 1. 1 a , ..
America uwh luriutuauiv lunuuea.
Precisely at eleven minutes past
coon (or at the identical instant chos
en by Alan Law to catapult over tho
edge of a cliff In northern Maine) the
muted signal of, the little man's desk
telephone clicked and.' eagerly lifting
receiver to car, he sodded with a smile
and said In accents ot some relief:
"Ask her to come In at once, please."
Jumping up. he placed a chair in in
timate juxtaposition with his own;
and the door opened, and a young
woman entered.
The mouse-brown man bowed. "Miss
Rose Trine?" he murmured with a
great deal ot deference.
The young woman returned his bow
with a show of perplexity: "Mr. Dig
hyr "You are kind to come in response
to my ah unconventional Invita
tion," said the little man. "Won't
you ah sit down?"
She said. "Thank you." gravely, and
took the chair he indicated. And Mr.
Dlgby. with an admiration he made no
effort to conceal, examined the fair
face turned so candidly to him.
"It is Quite comprehensible," he said
diffidently "if you will permit me to
say so now that one sees you. Miss
Trine, it is quite comprehensible why
my employer ah feels toward you as
he does."
Tbe girl flushed. "Mr. Law haa told
you?"
"I have th honor to be his nearest
friend, this side the water, aa well
as his man of business."
He paused with an embarrassed ges
ture. "So I have ventured to request
this ah surreptitious appointment In
order to ah take the further liber
ty of asking whether you have recent
ly sent Alan a message?"
Her look of surprise was answer
enough, but she confirmed it with vig
orous denial: "I have not communi
cated with Mr. Law In more than a
year!"
"Precisely as I thought" Mr. Dlgby
nodded. "None the less, Mr. Law not
long since received what purported to
be a mesfngo from you; In fact a
rose." And as Miss Trine sat for
ward with a start of dismay, he aded:
"I have the information over Mr. Law's
signature a letter received ten days
ago from Quebec."
"Alan In America!" the girl cried
In undisguised distress.
"He came In response to ah the
message of the rose."
"But I did not send it!"
"I felt sure of that, because," said
Mr. Digby, watching her narrowly
"because of something that accompa
nied the rose, a symbol of another sig
nificance altogether a playing card, a
trey of hearts."
Her eyes were blank. lie pursued
with openly sincere reluctance: "I
must tell you, I Fee-, that a trey of
hearts invariably forrsignaled an at
tempt by your father on tho life of
Alan's father."
With a stricken cry the girl crouched
back In the elrir and covered hor fi'.co
with 1:l r Laud.
"That Is why I pent for you." Vr.
IViby l ursu-'d hastily, ns if In hopo
of getting quickly over a most unhap
py business. "Alan's letter, written
and posted on tho steamer, reached me
within twenty-four hours of his arrival
In Quebec, and detailed bis scheme to
enter the I'nited States secretly as
he puts It, 'by tho back door,' by way
of northern Maine and promised ad
vice by telegraph as soon as he
reached Moosehead Lake. Ho should
have wired me ere this, I am told by
those who know the country he was to
cross. Frankly, I am anxious about
the boy!"
"And I!" the girl exclaimed pitifully.
"To think that ho should be brought
Into such peril through me!"
"You can tell me nothing?"
"Nothing as yet. I did not dream
of this much less that the message
of tbe rose was known to any but Alan
and myself. I cannot understand!"
"Then I may tell you this much
more, that your father maintains a
very efficient corps of secret agents."
"You think he spied upon me?" the
girl flamed with Indignation.
"I know ho did." Mr. Dlgby per
mitted himself a quiet smile. "It bas
seemed rrtf business, In the service of
my employer, to employ agents of my
own. There Is no doubt that your
father sent you to Europe, for the sole
purpose of having you meet Alan."
"Oh!" she protested. "Hut what
earthly motive ?"
"That Alan might be won back to
America through you and so "
There was no need to finish out bis
sentence. The girl was silent, pale
end staring with wide eyes, visibly
mustering her wits to cope with this
emergency.
"I may depend on you," Mr. Dlgby
suggested, "to advise me If you find
out anything?"
"For even more." The girl rose and
extended a hand whose grasp was firm
(Continued on page eight.)
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