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PAGE SIX PUBLIC LEDGER WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1914 TheTrev Op Hearts A Novelized Version of the Motion Picture Drama of the Same Name Produced by the Universal Film Co. By LOUIS JOSEPH Aalhmr mfTU Fmrium Hut." "Tht Ohutrsted with Pkotojraph from t "W VANCE 0 I j Brma BouL""TI Black gga II I J tke Pfctars rWactiea U I OopTriffbt, 1914, by in the aspectbifhattntiitten waste-- uicatueu eariaLtAMjitiu m almost or derly arrangfpient! $y sagebrush and gnarled cacti$At the distance of half a mile all bl&$ded iiiito one vast plain of glaring gray tkat stretched over the round of the -world Jto a broken wall of purple hills that reeled drunk enly in the haze-veiled southwest. Was Judith out there, somewhere, lost, defenseless, forlorn, impotent to lift a hand to shield her face from the blast of that savage sun? Staring beneath a shading hand, he discerned nothing that moved upon the surface of the desert but its myriad heat-devils jigging monoto nously their infernal danse macabre. Or -as seemed more probable was she back there among the Painted hills, lying still and lifeless, crushed beneath the weight of that fallen horse? No rest for Alan till he knew . . . Descending the Vnoll he reined bis lagging mount back into the trail, lol lowing its winding course through the foothills and round the base of that monolithic mountain toward the junc tion with the ridge trail, miles away. It approached the hour of noon be fore he gained the point where the two trails joined and struck out across the desert. And here he discovered what he thought indisputable indica tion that the fright of Judith's horse had persisted. Abandoning Immediately all notion of returning through the hills by the ridge-trail, he turned and swung away at the best pace he could spur from his broncho, delivering himself into the pitiless embrace of that implaca ble wilderness of sun and sand. At long intervals he would check the broncho and, reeling in his saddle, endeavor to sweep the desert with his binoculars. And toward the middle of the after noon he fancied that something re warded one such effort; something for an instant swam athwart the field of the glasses: something that seemed to move like a weary horse with a human figure bound to its back. But now the phenomena were dis cernible which, had he been more des ert wise, would have made him pause and think before he ventured farther from those hills, already beyond reach as they were. His first appreciated warning came v. hen the surface of the desert seemed Louis Joseph Vance .reead bonded and shoulders rounded, he began to forge a way into the teeth of the sandstorm. How long he fought on, pitting his strength against the elements, cannot be reckoned. In the end he stumbled blindly down a slight decline and was abruptly conscious that he had In some way found shelter from the full force of the wind. He staggered on another yard or two, breathing more freely, and blun dered into a rough-ribbed wall of rock some sporadic outcrop, he under stood, whooe bulk stood between him and the storm. He thought to rest for a time, until the storm had spent its greatest strength; but as he laid his shoulder gratefully against the rock and scrubbed the dust from his smarting eyes he saw what he at first conceived to be a hallucination: Judith Trine standing within a yar;" rX him, alive, strong, free. He stared incredulously, saw her recognize him, open her mouth to utter a wondering cry that was inaudi ble, and come quickly nearer. - "Alan! You came for me! You fol lowed me, through all this!" He threw off her hand with a bitter laugh that was like the croaking of a raven as it issued from his bone dry throat and in momentary possession of hysteric madness, reeled away from the woman and the shelter of the rock and delivered himself anew to the mercy of the dust-storm. CHAPTER XLII. Open Mutiny. Though she had been schooled to held the very name of Law in loathing un speakable and to think of Alan as a rr.ortal enemy and as one whose death alone could properly requite the cruel injury that had been done her father; and though the man himself had !?.ughed to scorn her first involuntary confession of that love for him which now consumed her being with its in satiable fires, she swallowed her ! chagrin and followed him with the solicitude of one whose love can recog nize no wrong in its object. Through all the remainder of that day of terror she was never far from his side. With the meekness of the strong, 1 she made herself his shadow. And he was now the stronger, for. she hzA "Rose Miss Trine Reason With the Madman "'.ft and shake like the top of a c nvas tent in a gale. At the same tvaa a mighty gust of wind swept jrnwait the waste, hot as a furnace b'art. In a trice dust enveloped man Did horse, a stifling cloud of super hinted particles that stung the flesh li'. o a myriad needles. And then dark ness fell, the twilight of hades, a cop-per-cclored pall. Nothing remained v'dbie beyond arm's length. Blinded, half suffocated, unspeak ably dismayed and bewildered, the fc-oncho swung round, back to the fast, and refused to budge another Jnen. Himself more than half-dazed, but t '.ill hounded by his nightmare vision of Judith, Alan dismounted to escape being torn bodily from the saddle by tiiat hellish sand-blast, and seizing the bridle sought to draw the horse -'fan with him. He wasted his strength in that en deavor: the animal balked, planted its hoofs deep in the sand, stiffened ? its legs and resisted with the Btub 'bornness cf a rock; then, of a sudden, jerked his head smartly, snapped the bridle from his grasp and flung away, ecudding before the storm. Pursuit was out of the question: Indeed, the bridle was barely, torn from his hand before Alan lest eight of' the broncho. For r recinent lie stood rooted in c a: L; a. bo with an t.i.. ;,t.rcv.a his fi.ee. tad more"tha"h afi hour's rest Beside the waterhole, which he had missed cn the way of that rocky windbreak. Sooner or later his strength must fail him and he would heed her; till then she was content to bide her hour. It befell presently in startling fash ion; she was not a yard behind him when he vanished abruptly. - But the next moment Judith herself was trembling on the crumbling brink cf an arroyo of depth and width in determinable in the obscurity of the euststcrm. Down this, evidently, Alan had fallen in his dizzy blindness. She iound him insensible, lying with an arm bent under him in a pose frightfully suggestive of dislocation. Vet when she turned him on his back and released the arm, he made no sign to indicate that the movement had caused him the slightest pain. There was a slight cut upon his brow, a bruise about his left temple. She tore linen from her bosom, be neath her coarse flannel shirt,-and with sparing aid from the canteen, washed the cut clean and bandaged it. Then seeing that the storm held with fury unabated, she rose, recon noitered and returned to exert all her strength and drag the unconscious man across the dry bed pf that ancient water-course and under the lee of its farther bank. There, sitting, she pillowed his head upon her lap, and bending over him made herbodyi&n additional sjiel-1 ter to him from the swirling" clouds of dust. And for hours on end Judith nursed him there, scarce daring to move save to minister to his needs, bathing his fevered brow and moistening his parched lips and throat. In the course of the first hour she was "once startled by the spectral vis ion through the driving sheets of dust of a horse that plodded up the arroyo, bearing two riders on its back. Weary with the weight of its double burden, it went slowly and passed so near to Judith that she was able to recognize the features of her sister and Tom Barcus. Be sure she made never a sign to catch their attention. Within the next succeeding hour the coppery light lost something of its hot brillance, took on a darker shade, and then one darker still. Twi light stole athwart the desert, turning its heat to chill, its light to violet. . Growing more intense, the cold eventually roused the sleeping man. And hardly had his eyes unclosed and looked up into the eyes of Judith binding over him than he started up and out of her embrace, got unstead ily upon his feet and after a moment of pause, watching her rise ta turn, strode away or, rather, staggered with the gesture of exorcism. Uncomplaining, hugging her new born humility to her with the ecstasy of the anchorite his horse-hair shirt, Judith followed hinV-patiently, at a little distance. - Not far from where he had rested there was a ireak in the overhanging wall of the arroyo. Through this he scrambled painfully, reaching the level of the desert only after cruel effort, the unheeded woman at his heels. A brief pause there afforded both time to regain their breath and survey the desert for signs of assistance: it offered none, other than what they might accomplish through their own exertions. For leagues in any quarter it stretched without a break other than the black cleft of the arroyo, gleaming a bleached and deathly white in the moonshine like the face of a frozen world. With tacit consent both turned that way, Alan leading, Judith his pertina cious shadow, with never a word or sign between them to prove that either was aware of the other's company: But this was a state of affairs that cculd not loug endure. Judith had the price to pay for her own trials, suf fering and privation: the strain began to tell sorely upc"n her. She reeled slightly as she walked, weaving a winding trail across and across the straighter line of footprints that marked Alan's course through the or dered pattern of the powdered sage brush. And of a sudden she collapsed. Instinct alone made Alan glance over-shoulder: for she had made no sound whatever. " .. . V. He turned and came directly, back to her, knelt beside her, lifted her head, pillowed it gently on his arm and plied her in turn with the dregs of the canteen. v With a sigh, a stifled moan and a little shiver, she revived. He helped her gently to regain her feet, passed an arm round her. In this fashion they struggled on in strange, dumb companionship of mis ery and wonder. Thus an hour passed; and for all their desperate struggles neither could see that the light on the mountainside was a yard the nearer. Benma tnem omer ngnts appeared, two staring yellow eyes that peered up over the horizon, seemed to pause a time in search of the two, then leaped out directly toward them. Of this they were altogether ignor ant; and when a deep, droning sound disturbed the desert silence, like the purring of some gigantic cat, both as cribed It to the drumming of their laboring pulses. The two lights were not a mile be hind them when, silently, without a sign to warn the girl, Alan released her, took a step apart and dropped as if shot. Instantly she was kneeling by his side. But in the act of bending over him she drew back and remained for several moments motionless, staring at those twin glaring eyes, sweeping down upon them with all the speed attainable by a six-cylinder touring car negotiating a trackless desert. When Judith did move it was not to comfort Alan. On the contrary, her first act was to draw from her pocket a heavy, blunt-nosed revolver, .break It at the breech and blow its barrel clear of dust. Her hand went next to the holster on Alan's hip. From this she extracted his Colt's .45, treat ing it as she had the other. Then she crouched low above the man she loved, as if thinking perhaps to escape notice from the occupants of the motorcar. If that were her thought, it was bred of an- idle hope, Alan had chosen to fall in the middle of a wide space so arid that not even sagebrush had ven tured to take root there. When the glare of the headlights fell upon them It was inevitable that discovery should follow. The motor car stopped within twenty feet. Three men jumped out and ran toward the pair, leaving two In the car the chauffeur and one who occupied a corner of the rear seat: an aged man with the face of a damned soul, doomed for a little time to live upon this earth in the certain knowl edge of his damnation. As this happened, Judith Trine leaped to her feet and stood over the body of Alan, a revolver poised in either hand. - - "Halt!" she ordered imperatively. "Hands up!" Tho three who had alighted obeyed Without a moment's hesitation; her father's creatures, they knew the" daughter's temper far too well to dreanucf opposing her will. in the -six haH(lsthaT were sil houetted against the headlights' radi ance, three revolvers glimmered ; but at her command all three dropped harmlessly to the earth. Then, sharply, "Stand back two paces!" she required. They humored her unanimously. Darting forward, she picked up and pocketed the three weapons, then with one of her own singled out the men she named. -. "Now, Marrophat and you, Hicks pick Mr. Law up and carry him into the car. And treat him gently, mind! If cne of you lifts a finger to harm him, that one shall answer to me." Still none ventured to dispute her. The two men designated, without a sign of disinclination, stepped forward. One lifted Alan Law by the shoulders; the other took the legs. Between them they bore him with every care toward the motor car. But now a second will manifested itself. The man In the rear seat lifted up a weirdly sonorous voice: "Stop!" he cried. "Stop this non sense! Drop that man! Judith, I command you " "Be silent!" the girl cut in sharply. "I command here if it's necessary to tell you." There was a pause of astonishment. Then the old man broke out in exas peration that threatened to wax into fury: "Judith! What do you mean by this? Has it indeed come to this that my own daughter defies me to my face?" "Apparently!" she shot back, with a short laugh. "Judge for yourself!" "Have you forgotten your vow to me "No. But I take it back and cancel It: that is my privilege, I believe. . . . Silence!" she stormed as he strove to gainsay her. "Silence do you hear? or it will be the worse for yotr!" As well command the sea to still its voice: her father raged like a mad man that he was, for the time being divested of his habitual mask of frigid heartlessness. .And seeing that there was no other way of quieting him, the girl turned to the third man. "Now Jimmy!" she. said crisply. "Into that car and be quick about it and gag him!" "If you do," her father foamed, "101 have your life " A flourish of her weapons gained Instant obedience. She stepped up on the running board and shot a quick, searching glance at the face of the chauffeur. "Straight ahead, my man!" she said. "Make for the nearest pass through those hills yonder, and don't delay unless you are anxious for trouble. Off you go!" The car began to move. She swept the three men in the desert a mocking bow, jumped into the body of the car and slammed the door. They made no effort to plead their cause and secure passage even as far as the edge of the desert; doubtless they knew too well the futility of . that, she thought, as she settled back in a seat, chuckling with the memory of those three masks of dismay unmiti gated. It was not until five minutes later, when she straightened up from making Alan comfortable that she realized what had made' them so content to abide by her will. Then she heard their voices lifted together in a long, shrill howl that was guicKiy answered by fainter yells from a distant quarter of the desert, then fcy pistols popping and flashing some two miles away, then by a growing rumble of galloping hoofsj. The night glasses in the car afforded her flashes of a body of several horse men some six or seven, she judged making at top speed toward the spot where Marrophat, Hicks and Jimmy waited beside a beacon which they had built and lighted. Half a dozen sentences exchanged with the chauffeur advised her that these were horsemen from the town of Mesa who had charged themselves with the duty of avenging the death of Hop! Jim Slade. - A sardonic chuckle from within Trine's gag goaded the girl into a sul len fury. Exacting his utmost speed from the chauffeur, under penalty of her dis pleasure, she set herself to revive Alan. With the aid of such stores of food and drink as the car carried, this was quickly enough accomplished. Strangling with an overdose of brandy too little diluted with water, Alan sat up,- grasped the conditions in a flash, and gained further informa tion as he devoured sandwiches and emptied a canteen. The mountain pass was now, he judged, a mile distant. The light on the hillside, -according to the chauf feur, was that of a prospector who had camped there temporarily. There was nothing, then, to be feared from that quarter, but solely from the rear -where the horsemen, having picked up Marrophat and his companions, had instituted hot pursuit, and were now strung out in a long, straggling line, three horses carrying double the farthermost perhaps a mile and a half away one with a single rider the nearest, . well within three-quarters of a mile. Nobly mounted, this last came on like the wind, gaining on the motor car with every stride; for his horse was trained to such going, whereas the car at best could only labor heav ily in dust and sand. - None the less, it had won to a point within a quarter of a mile from the pass before the horseman got within what he esteemed the. proper range, and opened fire. He fired thrice. His first shot winged wide, his second by ill-chance ripped through a rear tire of Ihe car. thus placing upon It ah additional handi-j cap, while his third sought the zenith I as hia hands flew up and he dropped from, the saddle, drilled through the body by Alan's only shot. A long-range pistol duel was in progress before the car had covered half the remaining distance to the ; pass. By the time it entered this last, which proved to be a narrow ravine with towering side of crumbly earth and shale and broken rock, the pur suit was not a hundred yards behind, .while the firing was well-nigh contin- uous. i Two hundred feet above the trail two men were working with desperate haste at some mysterious business ' though none noticed them. . j Only the chauffeur was aware of a woman running down the hillside at an angle, to intercept the car several . itself. . He' pointed"" out Fn tufa the Sev eral component parts: the motor car derelict in the hollow of those awful and silent hills for all the world like a mouse petrified with fright at finding itself in the midst of a herd ' of ele phants; in the car, that aged monoma niac, Mr. Seneca Trine, author of all their woes and misadventures, gnash ing his teeth in impotent rage to find himself In close juxtaposition to and helpless to injure the man for whose life he lusted with an insatiate pas sion; the latter standing outside the car, in polite conversation with Mr. Trine's mutinous Judith talking to her in the friendliest fashion imag inable," precisely as if she had not r i 1- i -frt' Straight Ahead, My Manl" She SaldJ wo doubt Which Came First In His I Pctsfsm hundred yards from the mouth of the pass. fallen little short of compassing his As it drew near the spot where she death, not once, but hlf a dozen paused, waving both hands frantically, times; Judith herself poised on the the head of the pursuing party swept running-board and smiling down at into the mouth of the ravine. her victim with a warmth patently At the same time the chauffeur no- even more than the warmth of f riend- ticed "that the two men on the hillside ship; and at some little distance, Rose, were following the woman pellmell, Mr. Law's fiancee and Judith's sister, throwing themselves down the-slope eating her heart out with jealousy of with gigantic leaps and bounds, this new-sprung intimacy between her And then a great explosion rent the sister and her lover J peaceful hush of night that till then "Bad business, my friend!" Barcus had been profaned by the pattering mentally apostrophized the unwitting cracks of the revolver fusillade. Alan Law. As the roar of dynamite subsided He interrupted himself to nnrl know. the entire side of the bill shifted and slid ponderously down, choking the ravine with debris to the depth of some thirty or forty feet, burying the leaders of the pursuit beyond hope of rescue. ingly and with profound conviction: "I knew it. Now it begins again!" For Rose had abruptly taken a hand in the affair, a gesture of exasperation prefacing her call: "Alan!" Tn Vier Mr. T.aw tnrnpH Instantlv Only a, Instant later the motor car with such alacrity that none who watched might doubt which of the two women came first in his esteem. Nor was this wasted upon the under- jolted to a halt and Alan pulled him self together to find that Rose and Barcus were standing beside the door and jabbering joyful greetings, mixed with more or less incoherent explana tions of the manner in which they had COme to seek shelter for the night in the prospector's shack and, roused by the noise of firing and recognizing Alan in the car by the aid of spy- elasses, had with the prospector's aid hit upon this scheme of shooting a -andslide in between the pv suit and Is devoted quarry. CHAPTER XLIII. Camp-for-the-Night. "Well, gents ! " the driver observed cheerfully, withdrawing head and feanCs from long and intimate com munion with the stubborn ffMiuia h- neatji the bgcf . ''! peckon you-al! may's well make up yore minds tp christen this hyeh salubrious Camp-for-the-Night. You won't be goin' no fartheh not. just 't present. Pulling this old wagon through them desert sands back yondeh has just naturally broke' the heart of that en gine!" "W'hat, precisely, is the trouble?" Alan Law inquired, rousing from anx ious preoccupation. "Plumb bust' all to hell," the chauf feur explained tersely. standing of Judith. Eyeing her nar rowly though furtively, Mr. Barcus saw her handsome face darken omin ously.. And her father was as quick to recognize these portents of trouble and to seek to advantage himself of them. His head craned out horribly on hi? ' neck fs he i?r,-, sibilant whisper for her ears, and his face in the moonlight seemed to glow with the reflection of that inferno which smoldered in his evil bosom. . . . But one was silenced, the other quenched, all in a twinkling. His daughter turned on him in a flash of imperial rage. Barcus caught snatches of the wonr an's tirade. "Be silent!" he heard her say. "Be silent, do you hear? Don't ever speak to me again unless you want me to re place that gag. . I say, don't speak to me! ... I am finished with you once and for all time; never again shall you pervert my nature to your damnable purposes never again shall word or wish of yours drive me to lift my hand against a man who has never done you the least harm, though Tom Barcus commented. Law nodded a head too weary to respond to the other's humor. His worried eyes reviewed the scene of the breakdown. . "What's to be done?" Mr. Law won dered aloud. "Take it calm," the affable chauffeur advised. "Frettih'. won't get you-all nothin'. If it was me, I'd call it a day, make a fire, get them cushions out of the cyah, and get some rest. You can't do nothin' till I get back, anyway, and that won't be much be fore sunup." slaughter In any court on grounds of sell-defense! . . . Understand me!" she raged. "I'm through. Henceforth I go my way, and you yours . . ." Her voice broke. She clenched her hands into two tight fists with the effort at self-control, and lifted a writhen face to the moonlight. "God help us both!" she cried. CHAPTER XLIV. As In a Glass, Darkly. Thoughtfully Mr. Barcu3 returned his attention to the lovers. If the evidence of his senses did not Where are you going?" Barcus de- mIslead him he was witnessing their first difference of opinion. It was not an argument acute enough to deserve the name of quarrel; but undoubtedly manded. "Walkin', friend; just walkin' 1 "What for?" "To fetch help-leastways, onless the two were at odd3 UDOn somG yo've got some kick comin' and 'ud tion Rose insistent. Alan reluctant. ruther stop hyeh permanent" Th3 !ast trave way In the end. He turned off and busied himself shrugged, returned to the car. with preparations gainst his journey. T'm going back up the trail." ha "It's simply things like this make announced, and hesitated oddly. o- holioWo this isn't after all. noth- tt'u. v. .i u..t. x iuc uccu ul ouijjc nine es me belieive this isn't, after all, noth ing more nor less than a long-drawn-out nightmare," Barcu3 observed pen sively. But Mr. Law was no more attend ing: he had turned away and was just then standing by the running-board of jith?" Barcus interpolated the motor car . and civiny explaining Judith nodded darkly. to miss juoitn irine tne purpose oi So rm going to see if I can't buv ine cnauneur s expeauion. burros from the prospector back there Discovery of this circumstance Rose says he has some doesn't know ercise, no dcubt," Barcus. suggested. Rose thinks it's dangerous to stop here," Alan began to explain, ignoring the interruption. Miss Rose is right eh, Miss Ju- worked a deep wrinkle between the brows as well as Into the humor of Mr. Barcus. Here, he promised himself, was a situation. Jo titillate the Comic Muse how many " "Three will be enough," Judith inter posed. "I mean, don't get one for me. I'm stopping: here." I TO CONTINUED)
Oxford Public Ledger (Oxford, N.C.)
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Dec. 16, 1914, edition 1
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