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Show PATRIA CHANNING MRS. VERNON CASTLE . . c. j c i , donald parr milton sills A I I ctss. A oforv ana scenario oy BARON HUROKI WARNER OLAN'D JSS lA V i k V 1 Sll 11 lA FANNY ADAIR DOROTHY GREEN UJJ A II lM f A LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE Ana a cast of exceptional merit. TTTl tr ll I j f IS Jt 8 Jli, Jbs A i k , JL JL JV, Produced for the Read This Story Now Then See "" "ia c--a va ta E-a international film service, ino. Under tho direction of Wharton, Inc. It All in Motion Pictures. A ROMANCE OF PREPAREDNESS CopArnsrore"En rS,tf ?erseCryXny' INTRODUCTION. Patria, last of "The Fighting Channlngs," en route to Newport, her summer home, Is thrown to drown from a Sound steamer by agents of Baron Hurokl, chief of the Japanese secret service, who, conspiring to embroil the United States and Mexico, Mexi-co, desires control of the extensive -Channlngs munitions plants, owned by Patria. Her physical counterpart, j Elaine, a notorious dancer in Hu- rokl's pay, substitutes for Patria. EPISODE FIVE. THE ISLAND THAT "WAS. Limbo. IN the breathless hush of that bright midsummer dawn the island rested amid still waters like a great yellow topaz on a field of glowing sapphire. No land was visible fn any quarter. quar-ter. Yet the mainland was not remote. Barely an island, little more than an overgrown sandbar, a desolate patch of salt -bitten eartli producing no vegetation vegeta-tion more valuable than coarse beach grass, it was. charted and known to longshore long-shore seafarers as Ltmbo island. But few, if any, of these had ever taken occasion occa-sion to visit it; they knew it by tradition for what it was, so passed It by. Only of late years had it grown accustomed to shelter mankind, a little colony of Japanese fishermen having chosen it for their base. But all their huts were clustered clus-tered sociably in a hollow of the dunes and worked no change in the profile of the island. The dingy sails of their fishing fish-ing boats drifted inconspicuously over the shoals that compassed Limbo. Their scanty catches found a market in either Newport or New Bedford. The native fishermen of the mainland suffered their competition tolerably; among tuiuh they were- commonly termed "them foolish Japs." Coastwise shipping ignored the island altogether. The lumber schooners and the coal barges plodding sullenly in tow of sturdy tugs kept to the channel that hugged the land far in the north, while the few vessels that sought to enter Narraeansett bay from the Atlantic I made a wide detour to the westward to I avoid Limbo shoals. So the Japanese were left, to their own devices, with which circumstance they seemed eminently content. con-tent. As the sun rose, so did these simple folk; by twos and threes they emerged from their rude dwellings and went about 1 their business. Some embarked in bat- ! tered craft to draw the nets and cast the j seines with which they wrested from the j sea an apparently precarious livelihood. J Others swarmed upon a little sloop that had come in overnight to a crude dock that jutted out into the least exposed harbor of the island, and began industriously indus-triously to empty its hold of a cargo of many heavy packing cases. These worked under the supervision of one who wore the habit of authority, together with the wreck of what had once been a khaki uniform. A solitary inhabitant of the island seemed to have no set task, and this one was not a Japanese. The sun was high before he discovered himself to its rays, lounging sullenly out of a dwelling slightly more pretentious than its neighbors; a youngish man, well made, with a dark, keen countenance of Latin cast; his clothing of the simplest, a tattered shirt, trousers worn and patched, an old belt with a rusty buckle nothing more, not even shoes. The gaze with which he reviewed the too familiar aspect of sea and sky was eloquent of embittered ennui. His mouth twitched; his eyes flared wildly; he damned the day with a gesture of passionate pas-sionate discontent; shrugged, Jerked a coarse cotton bag of tobacco and a packet pack-et of brown papers from a hip pocket, deftly with one hand fashioned a cigarette, cig-arette, lighted it, inhaled exhaustively, and slouched off, his bare feet following follow-ing indifferently a beaten pathway out of the dunes. Near the dock he paused a little. lacklustre lack-lustre gaze regarding the activities of his Japanese associates aboard the sioop. Then turning his back to these he drifted drift-ed from their ken along the wave-packed sands. A few hundred yards farther on, and he checked sharply, with a low-pitched low-pitched cry of amaze. A curve of the, Island had brought him within view of the body of a woman that lav huddled on , the beach, half in. half out of the water. For some seconds he stood rooted fn onii.dfuu,,,!, men ran ewjiuy 10 ner siue and dropped to his knees. The woman's face was hidden, but be- fore he turned it to the light he knew by 1 the gent!e movement of her shoulders that i she lived. A canvas-covered life ring lay near by, stenciled with the name of a Fall River line steamship. Seeing this, the man hesitated a moment, rapidly constructing con-structing the outline of what might have been a tragedy: this woman had either fallen or been thrown from the boat, had drifted In the buoy for many hours ere the coastwise currents had washed her up on I-imbo shoals. Had come to herself her-self long enough to stagger to the shore and discard the life ring before falling in a faint of fatigue. No wonder; she was very young and slightly made hardly a woman, a " mere slip of a girl a nd by the delicate loveliness love-liness of her features a girl reared tenderly, ten-derly, accustomed to jealously sheltered ways of life. Such exposure as phe had endured might well have proved her death; yet she had survived it sirangelv; some secret spring of rfircly stubborn vitality vi-tality sustaining her throughout an experience ex-perience that mi cut have wrecked beyond repair a stronger, coarser creature. Staring down into that exqulBlte face, a lot.U of mingled covemnsness and craft kindled in the eyes of the man. Rising abruptly, he raked his surroundings with furtive and suspicious ghm-es. At length, satisfied that none watched him, he stoored. gathered that frail young form, Iti his arms, wnd darted swiftly away, not as lie had come, but Inland through the : dune?. Two short minutes sufficed f'-r his journey; he came into the hallow of the huts sreaithilv. panning to make sure It was untenanted before hurrying into his dwelling. But lur-k whs not with him; without his knowledge, he was observed: the door had rot closed upon him wr.d his salva when a lit tie Japnnee slipped j quietly from an adjoining hut and trotted briskly toward the harhor. The girl opened dyzed, uncomprehending uncomprehend-ing eves upon a scene so strange to them that, for a moment, sre w.-is half inclined to he'ieve tht she had died of drowning and passed in spirit to some weird hnif-world. hnif-world. She lny on a rough canvns cot in a room who e darkness was barely tempered tem-pered by light from a window half r.b-sf-ured bv a - !iri sliutter of wood. Over her a strange, dark, semi -sava g f;i was bout a mask that might w-;i have been a dom- n's-its lips framing words in an outlandisn tongue. Her brows and Hps were moist with something which the owner of the face was rubbing on them something which he eased into the cup of his palm from a bottle. A reek of brandy burned in her mouth and throat. She coughed a little. As if that sound had been a signal a door was thrown roughly open, letting In a flood of sunlight. Through It entered en-tered a Japanese In ragged uniform. Iti two strides he gained the middle of the mom. The other turned sharply to meet him. There was a brief pause. Even tn her confusion and physical distress the girl was sensitive to an atmosphere surcharged sur-charged with hostility. The voice of the Japanese broke the tension edged with remonstrance: "Senor J uarez! T B.m informed " The other interrupted brusquely: "That I have found a halt-drowned woman Americano on the beach and brought her here, it's true." "You rbould not have done this!" "It seems I did!" With a sudden movement the Japanese produced a pistol. "I regret the necessity," neces-sity," he said, "but Karon Hurokt's orders or-ders are to kill immediately any stranger who sets foot uiion rhp inland '" "Wait!" The fingers of Senor Juarea closed quickly on tho wrist of the Jnpa-v. Jnpa-v. nese and turned his pistol to the celling. t Simultaneously the Mexican lifted, with his othtr hand, a small can of bright tin that had stood upon a nearhv table. "One moment, Captain Hakusek'i! This can ' contains niiro-glvcerine. In the storeroom back there" a jerk of Juarez's head in-dicated in-dicated a door in the back of the building "ovei- one hundred tons of high ex-plosive ex-plosive are stored. The woman Is mine'" J "Baron Hurokl" "To hoi! with Baron Hurokl! I deal p with you not him and I warn yon, I ; shall keep tho woman or blow this island 3 off the map!" T h G Japanese hesitated an Instant, con-i con-i ceded defeat wfth a shrug. 5 "Have jour way," ho said mildly and turnt-d to go. - Fut the crasp on his wrist was unre-laxpd. unre-laxpd. 'Walt another moment. Captain 1 Hakusckl. I want that pistol." r It was surrendered without a suspicion ; of contest. "Now so- and dn't bother us again ' - Captain Ifakuseki executed a right-1 right-1 abont-fa.-e and marohoj out of the hut .enor Juarr-z secured the door behind him . then turned to see the girl struggling to t a sitting position on the cot. He hastened to assist her. u i "You are weak, senorlta you must not-. not-. exert yo-, -jf. rejtr.it me He wound his arm around her waist i tenderly ...listing hor to a chair by the ta:ue. As she sank into this, he hint over and brought his Urs close to hAV ; bhe snrank away with a little crv Ah. no! Bo not afraid of me, se'nori- Remember, I saved vour life U hat is a kiss in payment for that" The pis'ol he had taken from the T ; nese rested on the table. Cnance guided ; tne fingers of the girl to it grin in ; ?ilrQT,'" of despair prompted her to lift I its muzzle to tho tin of nltro-givcerine ' Keep a way from me." she ordered in a-nts whoso feebleness could not dii With a frrified fjn. Nation tn Mev,.,n 'S(-;iont.1 T bpi; of vou " this hm.si or I pull ,he tr .ruarez threw himsrlf mnfllv af tho a (Continued on rollowln. Page.) ' PATRIA 1 (Continued From Preceding Page.) ha.ck from a knife-bayonet on a rifle presented pre-sented by a stocky, deadly-looking little Japanese. "Captain Hakuseki's orders: you remain a prisoner till vou give up the woman!" Bet ween the " devil and the deep sea, the Mexican threw himself on the mercy of the girl. "Senorita In the name of pity !" She nodded curtly. "Come in shut that door lock it. Now tell me where 1 am!" "Senorita, you have been washed ashore on Limbo island." "Where is that?" "Southeast of Newport about thirty miles." "And why are such great quantities of high explosives stored on Umbo island?" "Senorita I conceal nothing from you I am your slave " "Answer my question!" The muzzle of tiie pistol remained In close juxtaposition to the tin of nitroglycerine. nitro-glycerine. The Mexican shivered with terror. "Because," he x stammered "because Japan used this island as a secret depot for munitions " "To be used in the event of war with the United States?" "SI, senorita yes." "I understand. Now fetch me food. " Ctangeling. About -mid-morning a young man, becomingly be-comingly attired in riding clothes, surrendered sur-rendered his horse to the care of a groom and ascended the steps to the veranda of the Channing cottage on the Cliff Walk. Tn the doorway a footman waited to greet him with the manner of one welcoming wel-coming an Intimate of the household. "Good morning. Captain Parr. It's a pleasure to see you again, sir." "Thank you, Gregory. Is Mrs. Wrenn at home? "I believe so. sir." "And Miss Channing?" "Miss Patria arrived by boat early this morning, sir." "Please say to her T am waiting for the ride she promised me. " "And tell Mrs. Wrenn T would be glad to pay my respects, if she Is visible at such an earlv hour." "Verv good, sir." The "footman stepped back into the house and disappeared. Captain Parr remained re-mained on the veranda, seeming idly to admire the view, in reality oblivions of it. preoccupied with private considerations considera-tions of not unpleasant complexion. As a matter of fact, he rather fancied himself him-self just then; he had done something tolerably spectacular; he could imagine Patria's astonishment when she learned he was punctual to their appointment, who had ben left behind in New York ; the nisht before: and he was mentally , relishing" the wondering admiration with which she ought by rieht to receive his , account of how he had journeyed to New- port so expeditiously. I Sounds of stifled lamentation disturbed ; his mood. He frowned, cocked an atten- , rive ear. located the noise as emanatinsr : from the hallway of the cottage, and went indoors to see what the t rouble was. He discovered a pleasant-faced lady's maid of mature years, forehead bowed 1 aealnst the newel-rest at the font of the1 staircase, weepimr loudly and copiousiv. j "Why, Anne! What's the matter?" 1 The woman showed a blowsy, tear-stained, tear-stained, writhen countenance. "Oh. Captain Parr, my heart's broken! T don't know what to do at all. It's dis-charced dis-charced T am. sir!" "What!" Parr could hardly believe his ears. "Miss Patria is after discharging" me without no'ice, sir and all these years I've served her. and never a cross word !" "But why? What did you d?" "It's my clumsiness, sir. I happened tn drop her hand mirror, and it broke, it did. And then it was like herself went mad. She flew into a rage. sir. and st a mpe l her foot at me. a nil called me a clumsy fool, and said it meant seven ( vears' bad luck, and wouldn't listen to ine at alt at all, and told me to pack my trunk and go, that myself was fired, and " "Did she sav 'fired,' Anne?" "She did that. Captain Parr M "It doesn't sound like Patria ! "It doesn't, sir. For the matter of I that, she ain't seemed like herself since j that dreadful affair on the boat last night." I "What dreadful affair?" ! ! "You haven't heard about it, sir? A , i poor invalid lady in the stateroom next: Miss Patria's went out of her head, and jumped overboard and was drowned, sir. The nurse with her made a terrible fuss said the invalid lady had been threatening threat-ening to commit suicide, and she'd only just closed her eyes for a wink when the lady slipped out of the stateroom and did it, sir. It was awful, it was so, and Miss Patria hysterical about it, what with their staterooms being so close together and the excitement and all !" "Still I don't see " Captain Parr interrupted himself and Anne hastily disappeared as Mrs. Gilbert Gil-bert Wrenn, Patria's chaperon, entered from the breakfast room, with her son Rodney. At sight of Parr they broke into those wondering exclamations he had anticipated. "Why, Donald!" "Don! For the love of Mike! How did you get here? Patria said " j "I flew,'1 Captain Parr explained modestly. mod-estly. "I should say you did fly! What did you do? Hire a special train?" "I flew-," Parr reiterated. "I planed from Governor's island this morning." "Donald! Not really?" "Really, Mrs. Wrenn." "It's just what Don would do. mother. He makes me tired never misses a chance to show off in some such gaudy way !" "Oh. come now. Rodney " "Beg pardon. Captain Parr " Donald looked around to find the foot-rna foot-rna n waiting for his attention. "Yes, Gregory?' The man hesitated, with what seemed singular reluctance to deliver his mes- : sage. ! "Beg pardon, sir. I'm sorry. Miss Channing directs me to say she is nut at home to Captain Parr." j Had the servant delibern teiy slapped j his face, Donald could have been no more thunderstruck. He stared -incredulously for the moment unable to grasp the meaning mean-ing of the words. Mrs. Wrenn betrayed no less perplexity. "Gregory ! what did you say?" .Miss .ratria lnsiruciea me li &ay, asts. Wrenn, she is not at home to Captain Pa rr." "Bnt there must be some mistake you must have misunderstood her, Gregory Greg-ory !" "I thought so myself, ma'am, if I may sav so, and took the liberty of asking Miss Patria to repeat her message. She did so, using these identical words, ma'am." Parr found his tongue. "Thank you, Gregory. That's all." Tiie footman withdrew, - murmuring svmpathetieallv. "But Donald," Mrs. Wrenn insisted. "I'm sure he must have misunderstood. I'll run up at once and see Patria myself." my-self." "Please, no, Mrs. Wrenn. Gregory's an intelligent fellow. Patria is doubtless out of temper with me for failing to catch the boat yesterday, it wasn't my fault, but I understand she had an unpleasant experience ex-perience last night and she's probably upset. up-set. I'll go now really. I must and perhaps per-haps she will change her mind about me before we meet acain." In point of fact, Parr hardly knew what i he was savins or what he heard. Overruling Over-ruling the objections of Rodney and his mother, he strode from the house, threw himself on the back of the horse, and rode away In a state of daze, one moment 'tormented with -burning humiliation, the next blazing with resentment, and all the while bewildered beyond coherent thought. That Patria. sweetest and tenderest of women, should treat him so, without shadow of provocation, passed his comprehension. com-prehension. Why, it was out of reason! Their understanding un-derstanding was so complete, their engagement en-gagement only awaiting Patria's permis sion to be publicly announce.!. And ".Miss Channing directs me to say that she is not at home to Captain Parr." It needed a long, hard ride to weary Parr's emo: ions to semi-numbness. He brought back a horse sadly fagged and lathered. There was no note of explanation or apology waiting, for him at his lodgings. Nobody had caUed him on the telephone. Gradually conviction forced itself home that, impossible as it might seem, Patria had really meant it. Whatever Ins offense, of-fense, she had used It as an excuse to jilt him in the most heartless fashion. Now Donald Parr was never one to wear his heart on his sleeve. STiatever his sufferings, the world should never suspect them if he could help it. Toward mid-afternoon he changed to white flannels, flan-nels, stiffened his upper lip, and sought the Casino, outwardly a man with mind serene and carefree temper. Finding nobody of his circle of acquaintances ac-quaintances at the Casino the hour was late for lunch, early for afternoon tea he fortified himself with a cocktail, and sought surcease of brooding in that morning's morn-ing's Boston Examiner. Tt seemed at first a needlessly cruel freak of chance that the very first news item to meet his eye should be so strong a reminder of Ids unh'appiness. 'TAIJj RIVER, June 27. While the Fall River line steamship Commonwealth was off Point Judith last night Mrs. John FerdlnaJid of Chicago, an invalid suffering suffer-ing from melancholia, eluded her nurse and committed suicide by jumping, over-boa over-boa rd. "CHICAGO, June 27. The City Directory Direc-tory does not contain the name of Mrs. John Ferdinand." Slowly Donald lowered the newspaper, a thoughtful fuirow creasing his brows. Anne's words of that morning came back to him like an echo pregnant with significance: signifi-cance: "Miss Patria ain't seemed like herself j since that dreadful affair on the" boat last ; night!" What if Horror gripped Don- ' aid's heart like an icy hand. What if the Patria of last night were not the Patria of today? That a woman existed so like Patria il i face and form that none could distin-' guish one from the other, was a fact too well known to Captain Parr. What if his detention in New York tht previous evening, on that trumped-uj charge of assault and battery, had bee merely a ruse to prevent his reaching tht boat and possibly hindering a plot tu eliminate Patria Channing by drowning and substitute for her this dancing womau who so closely resembled her and wlu might well be in the pay of Huroki? In such a case the Impostor's first move wou'd be to dismiss her body servant serv-ant and flenv herself to all whn bar! in timately known the real Patria. Pondering deeply, Donald rose to leave the Casino and on the way out came -unexpectedly upon a group of four, seated over cocktails round a little table. He tiled to Ignore them, but this was not permitted. A voice that, if not the voice of Patria Channing, was at least a very creditable Imitation of It, hailed him. "Don Donald Parr! Do come here!" WUh the speaker at her table was Fanny Adair, Baron Huroki and Juan de Lima. Suspicion rife in his mind, Parr bowed over the hand offered him by the woman i who might or might not be Patria Channing. Chan-ning. To each of the others in turn he nodufd gravely. "Awfully jolly to meet you here Don. I do so want you to be the first to know: I have promised to marry Senor de Lima." To the Mexican, alert to rise with a brilliant smirk of self-satisfaction and a proffered hand, Donaid bowed profoundly. profound-ly. His own hands remained clasped behind be-hind his back. "I am happy to be able to congratulate congratu-late Senor de Lima," he said quietly; and turning, left the Casino. One more move that would be only 1 natural In an impostor What, when first it had presented itself it-self to his intelligence, ten minutes ago, had seemed the wildest of improbable suspicions, in his understanding, now assumed as-sumed the substance of established fact. He was firmly persuaded that the girl to whom he had just been talking was not the true Patria Channing. But how to prove that? How to avenge that crime which had made possible the substitution of this impostor? Farr set his wits to cope with that prohlem. Pending their solution, he applied ap-plied himself to the task of keeping Baron Bar-on Huroki under close but unostenta- tious surveillance. Throughout the remainder re-mainder of the day that Japanese made no move unknown to Donald Parr." ! I-3te in the afternoon Huroki was sur- reptltiously waylaid by a low-caste Japanese, Japa-nese, from whom he received a message which seemed to cause the baron considerable consid-erable perturbation. The messenger was duly Identified as one of the colon v of fishermen' on Limbo; he returned to a little sloop, which had just come in from the island and made fast to the dock on the business waterfront of the community. communi-ty. Baron Hurokl'himself returned to his hotel and remained there, closeted with Juan de Lima, till nightfall. L'nder cover of darkness he sallied forth, closely dogged by Donald Parr, made a circuitous circuit-ous way to the waterfront and boarded the sloop, which immediately cast off and set sail for the harbor mouth. j Now what pressing business dragged i Huroki away to Limbo island by night? Parr made it his own business to find ! out. If there were something on Limbo that interested Baron Huroki so profoundly, pro-foundly, it was sure to prove no whit less interesting to the United States secret se-cret service. Within fifteen minutes of the time when the sloop had sailed, Donald launched his seaplane and rose to an altitude al-titude whence he could espy the island, a formless blur of darkness on the face of waters silvered by moonlight. Toward it the aircraft sped in flight as truewell nigh as swift as that of an arrow. The Human Bomrj. Half buried in the side of the largest dune on Limbo island, the dwelling which Senor Juarez had shared with his Japanese associate. Captain HakuselS, was a shack of a single room, with one window and two doors. Of these last one, like the window, opened upon the hollow in which the other huts of the station were gathered together; the remaining re-maining door led, by way of a short, timbered tim-bered tunnel, to a huge vault hollowed out in the heart of the dune, wherein a very considerable store of arms, ammunl-I ammunl-I tlon, mines and high explosives was shel-j shel-j tered. On the farther side of the dune i here a concave bluff, wave-eaten the 1 vault had two great doors behind which a biplane stood lightly poised, ready for instant use in emergencj-; the doors once open it would require very" little time to wheel the biplane out upon a wide and almost level stretch of hard-packed beach and start the engine. By this means alone Patria Channing hoped, with the aid of the Mexican, to contrive an escape from the refuge which had proved so quickly the cell of two con- For the shack was in a state of siege. Since the dispute between Jueraz and Hakuseki the hollow had been picketed with armed Japanese. As yet these had made no offensive move, but the understanding under-standing was implicit that neither prisoner pris-oner might set foot outside the shack save at penalty of death. Patria. condemned con-demned by Baron 'Huroki's ukase that no stranger might visit the island and live to tpll of it, Juarez's death sentence signed by his own act of mutiny. Thus the interests of the two were one, in bonds of common peril. So long as this was so, Patria believed she might trust! Juarez to do his utmost to further their escape. He boasted knowledge of aviation; avia-tion; she had none; she was obliged to trust in him, the air lanes being the sole feasible way of flight. Juarez had schemed a scheme to hoodwink hood-wink the enemy which Patria had indorsed. in-dorsed. She waited now, alone in the shack, for the Mexican's return from making all things ready at the far side of the vault. There was no light other than a feeble glimmer of moonshine filtering In through cracks around window and door. The girl sat in a corner, the tin of nitro-glycerine on the table before her. automatic pistol in hand, her pose one of tense vigilance, her glances shifting rapidly from outer door to window, to the tunnel mouth exposed ex-posed by its open door. She heard never a sound other than the remote rumor of the sea, a sibilant . lisping of wavelets mumbling the beaches. Noiselessly, in his bare feet, Juarez returned, re-turned, preceded by the flicker of an electric elec-tric torch, bringing with him a modern magazine ritie, newly filched from the stores in the vault. "Are you ready?" he whispered. Patria rose with a nod of assent and picked up the tin of explosive in a cautious cau-tious hand. "Follow the aisle between the packing i cases," he instructed, with a gesture to- ward the tunnel. "It leads to the hangar" i doors. If the guards on the beach iuu off to see what's the matter when I begin shooting, unbar the doors but don't open them till I join you." ; She nodded again, and entered the tun nel as Juarez tiptoed to the window anJ ; stealthily unbarred it. Picking her way cautiously, she arrived i beneath the wings of the biplane before I the silence of the island night was shat- tered by a rippling fusillade, j An eye to the crack between the great j doors, she saw two armed Japanese who j had been patrolling the beach turn and, after momentary hesitation, run off in ! the direction of the disturbance. Working swiftly, she had lifted down the last heavy bar of wood that held the i doors together before Juarez appeared at her side. "Good:" he breathed, eye to the crack. "I got one of them. The others are preparing pre-paring to storm the shack. We've got perhaps two minutes. " Putting his shoulder against one of the doors, he swung it widely out. Patria had the other open almost as quickly. She stepped Into open night with a little shiver of excitement and fright, and waited wait-ed to one side while Juarez wheeled tha biplane out as easily as though it had been a perambulator. He turned and beckoned. A vicious tongue of flame licked out of beach grass that crowned a near-by dune. Simulta-. neously a rifle spoke. Juarez threw hiA hands high, spun in his tracks, and dropped. There came a second shot. A little Wa spurt of sand flew up at Patria's feet. Heedless In her terror, she dropped the tin of nitro-glyeerine and sped swifif up the beach without t bought or anTi other than to find shelter from those bullets which persistently hounded her footsteps, singing past her or sullenly burying themselves in the sands. Of a sudden she saw Hakuseki running to meet her, the brilliant moonlight glinted glint-ed on a weapon in his hand, with a sob of despair. Palria turned blindly at right angles and ran without really appreciating ap-preciating whither she ran out upon the harbor dork. Behind her the automatic of the Japanese Jap-anese rattled shrewish! y and was unex-pectedlv unex-pectedlv a nswered from on shore. At tiie end of the dock the gird paused and elaneed back. Hakuseki had given up the pursuit was, indeed, running swiftly for shelter in the dunes: but the rifles "of his followers were speaking animatedly. ani-matedly. A great flnofl of hope surged in her bosom as she looked offshore and dis-i dis-i covered an aeroplane sett! ing down like an immense waterfowl upon the surface of the harbor, not twenty yards distant. If doubt existed in her mind as to the identity of its pilot, were he friend or enemv," it was soon erased by his hail. "Patria! Quick swim off to me!" The pilot's r.istol rattled again. Donald's voice! Patria was no more afraid; and water was as her native element. ele-ment. Without hesitation she dived and struck off toward the plane. Idttle more than a minute later Parr was helping her to climb up on one of the pontoons, then to a seat beside his own, while bullets continued to sing over the waters and tore through the covering cover-ing of the planes. She was no more -tha.n settled m ber place when Parr began to manipulate the controls and the seaplane skimmed the surface of the harbor In a long, graceful grace-ful curve, then he can to rise. Hack on the Island, standing beside the biplane. Captain Hakuseki witnessed the successful evasion in a rage that ruffled even his racial rdacidiry. In his understanding under-standing the affair was intolerable; although al-though he perished endeavoring to prevent pre-vent it, this escape must not be permitted. per-mitted. ' Summoning .assistants, he turned toward the biplane and paused as his foot struck what one swift down glance identified $t as the tin of nitro-glycerine. Inspired Y, this accident, he picked up the tin, crammed It into a side pocket of his khaki coat, and clambered to the pilots sat Provided he might maneuver his airraft above the other, he would need only to dron this deadly bomb; and there would be nothing left of the fugitives. His aides started the motor. With a roar the propellers began to revolve. Hakuseki rasped the controls. The machine ma-chine shot" off down the beach and took the air at the water's edge. The seaplane, seeking a high level, Was rising in a wide spiral. As yet It was not high' and the Japanese plane was the better at climbing. Within a space of time incredibly brief the two wore hovering hover-ing on an approximate level, high above the island. One shot might serve his end. The temntation was too s-trong to be resisted. Hakuseki drew his pistol and opened fire. ' In Parr's machine Patria Channing took the weann proffered by her rescuer and, leaving him free to attend to his duties as pilot, threw herself back at length upon the plane and returned the fire of the Japanese. Hakuseki was conscious of something like the impact of a fist between his eyes. Blindness followed, with agonizing pain. He crumpled in his seat, lurching forward against the controls. His last conscious thought was one of terror; the biplane was falling; the tin of explosive remained in' his pocket; when he came to earth he would be utterly annihilated. Unconsciousness Un-consciousness mercifully ensued. Nose down, the biplane dived like a plummet; but the body of Hakuseki, thrown from its place, distanced the machine. ma-chine. The summit of the great dune that housed the store of explosives received: the full impact of its fall. An instantaneous instanta-neous exulosion signalled the extermination extermina-tion of Hakuseki. Barely a breath later the dune opened up like the crater of a volcano, belching smoke and flame to the skies. Detonation followed detonation more swiftly than reeling senses could reckon. The little island, rocked dis-f n-tegniting. n-tegniting. The sea rose shouting and whelmed it. Clouds of steam obscured theW debacle. When the sloop in which Baron Huroki had emba rked a rrived on the scene a r( ghastl v welter of wreckage churning in ithe wash was all that was left of Limbo. (To be continued.) |