OCR Text |
Show Bunx anut today. Fit bad ,wn fit to mold th life f nARRf HOC. VON jato tragic moM. Trld for th tnurdr of his rouels. TOM LANUDOM, an activated Because of fvo.akl tMtlmonr of AO NIC A J IE R DON. Bo vat on' fathar dta without regaining faith la Til n. ' He leava Barry timber holding In Taser-oacla Taser-oacla only on conditio Chat a high output out-put ba maintained. Myatarloua acint tiSMhe mill hav prevented pre-vented thla and Hauaton. arriving front floatsn. find that ha hu btryd sy hla mill apHtttndnt. rW THATER. Houston discharge Th afar af-ar Vlrat tba mill la bumtd duwn and than Movatoa ta deprived, by forxd I, wf th rights to hi timber lan da. m iih tha aid of BATISTE klCNAt'O. an eccentric French-"anadlea, French-"anadlea, wnuaa life has bean seddenad by th dobl t raced y af hi aon a death In Franc and the unaolred merdar uf hla wlf. Heuotoa continues tha fight. Iurln bl Mir In Tarnacl. Houston Stta ba attracted by MKDA1NB ROBINKTTB, owner of nalffh-borlr.g nalffh-borlr.g timber land Ha talis bar that Thar"" statement that b u accuad of tnurder ta try. CO OH WITH TUB STORY. A slight gssp traveled over th lips of Medalne. atlll by th window. without seeing you. but It n t n helped. Hav. an offer of a I""1" Ht. Lou's that 1 can't very well refuse. Will writ you from thcT. Batuto Uprod tho im on th hoh: br;k HK. th. gr h. krd qultly. . they wnt He th. crttit. Batlt wn nt rortn Into th nlht. 1-t.r -m. f"'5 on tho door. It waa Co''- '''"."J a moment later by a rlnnln. twlnk- Hon: r.ooa:- ho lHim-t. oJ alert, mon ami: Tha poncll and ,hH.PP"mped .n.o a chair and dived Into a pocket of her rod htrt. to brlnj forth a ma of .rrlbbled tara at them, .trlvlna: aiudlouily t. miki out the wrltlna Ket Is tho ropy of ths bid- The copy? Tho hldT' , From tho Blsrkburn mill. la no on aroun'. Ba teeee. ho f throuHh a window. M'su Houston, ha too will bid. But ho will make It l0But what with. Ba'tlsteT W hav.n t mill to saw tho stuff. In tho first plaoe. This thins; we. ro sottln CP now couldn't even besin to turn naiisie, ms reatures via ana iinea. reached out Willi one blr hand and patted the man on the shoulder. Then fur a long time there was silence. Kt Is the .jJJ' . . fc m.j,! Ingly to him. "aa I live, that's all 1 know. I never aaw Kangdcn after he took that mallet from me. Only one shred of evidence waa presented in my behalf. It was by a woman who had worked for about six montha for my father Miss Jlerdon. Hhe testified to navlne; passed In a taxlcab Juat at th end of our quarrel, and that Langdon had the mallet.' "Miss Jiardon is the same on who Is out here?" "Yes." . "She teatlflet. In your behalf?" "Yea. And Mlaa HoMnette. If you'll only talk to her If you'll only ask her about It, she'll tell you the story exactly ex-actly as I've told It. Hhe trusted me: ah was th only brlsTM spot In all th blackness. I may not be able to convince con-vince you but ahe could. Miss Robl-nette. Robl-nette. Jf you'll only " ."Would you smarantee the truth of anything ahe should tell me V "Absolutely." "I'm I'm firry." Bhe turned strain to th window. Houston went forward. for-ward. "Horry? Why? There's nothlni " "Mlaa .Herd on haa told me." came In a strained voire, "that she did pasa as you were at rugs;! I nr. That ahe aaw the blow struck and that It was you who truck It." "Mfoa Kohlnette'" "That further, you confessed to her and told her w hy you hud k'lled !ng- out the ties alone." "Ah. our But the man who Is drowsing", drows-ing", he will, what-you-say. rab at a havatack." . . . . And together they Battled to tha mak-naTof M thtr ran Inin million, on overture for a contract for which thev had neither mill, nor tti. ber. nor flume, nor resources to con- plele' rHtrTRR YTf. Time dracred after thst. One tha bid waa on ita way to h)(ao, titer waa nothing to do but wait. December came, t February an then . , "Ket la come! Ft la come!" Batiste, Ba-tiste, waving hie arms wildly. l spit of the etuffineae of His heavy mackinaw. "Ket is come! I have open eet I can not wait! Ket say we shall have th contract! Ah, oul! out' oul! oul!" "Eet say five thousand dollars roan, and the rest In a bond" came enthusiast enthu-siast Icallv. from Ha t late. "Ba tees, h have the friend In Denver who will M make the bond " . i . "Hut how about the machinery; wen need a hundred-thousand-dollar plant fcefore were throuajh. Ha'tlate." "Ah!" The old Krench-Can-idlan a Jaw dropped. "Ba teese hav not think r that." . "Tomorrow morning; we take th train to lenvr. and from ther 1 11 cn to Boston. I'll rata th money some way" They went on to Denver, thr to) seek out the few friends Ita'tlste possessed, pos-sessed, to argue one of them Into loan of ten thousand dollars on ths land. don because he had discovered aome-thlnr aome-thlnr In your own father's life that would serve at blackmail. That she loved you. And that because she loved you, sh went on the stand and perjured per-jured herself to save you from a conviction con-viction of murder when she knew In her heart that you wer guilty:" (1IAPTEII XI. Tt waa a blow greater, far greater than ons that could have been struck In mere physical contact. Houston reeled with the effect of it: he rasped, he struggled aimlessly. futllly. for worda to answer It. Vasruely, d'xxlly, Houston started to the door, only to be pulled back in tha gig-antic grip of Ba'tfste Henaud. "No! No' You ahall not ro! You tell Medalne that la a lie!" "It la," Houston heard Ms votes as though comlnr from far away, "but I don't know how to answer It. Where Is Mlaa Jlerdonr "Misa Jlerdon," Medaln Robtnette anawered with an effort. Mwnt back to camp Inst night." They drove on in silence. Ten mlnutea later, Houston laped from the burry and knocked at the door of the cottage. "I want to see Mis Jlerdon." he told the cook who had opened the door. The rook bustled beck Into the house, to return with a sealed envelop addressed ad-dressed to Houston. "Hat awfully to run away Ilka this The r-eok knotted back tmte the he-e return with a armled envelope a dreewed te H earn ten. and trust worthy qualities which formed the total of Ba'tlste's resources, to gain from the other the necessary bond to cover the contract a contract which Barry Houston knew only too well might never be fulfilled. r.n.a fhtfage-A ssti1 thai I e-h ii ll 1 1 lea of Ironing out the final details of the contract. Then dealer In millions and 4 he possessor of nothing, Houston went onward toward Boston. He wandered the aisle of the sleeper, entered the smoking compsrtment and slumped into a seat In a far corner, smoking In a detached manner, often pulling on his cigar long after lengthy minutes of reflection had allowed Ita ashes to cool. About htm the usual -conversation raged. With sudden Interest, Houston Hous-ton forgot his own problems to listen. lis-ten. "Speaking ef gruesome thlns. tha talker had said, "reminds me. I'm a doctor, former Interne In Bellstrand hospital in New York. "They've a big room on the fifth, floor where aomebody la alwaya dissecting. dis-secting. t)n tiunday night I happened hap-pened to. look In and saw a man In then-, murdering another on with a wooden mallet." "Murdering him?" Th doctor laughed. "Well, I should hav said, acting out a murder. You can't very well murder a dead man. The fellow he was killing already was a corpse. "You mean" "Just what m aaylng. Pretty bis; doctors. I learned, all from Boston, They had taken a cadaver from tha refrigerator and stood It in a certain poeition. The the one man had struck It on the head with the mallet with all v the force he could summon. Of course It knocked the corpse down I'mtelllnr you. It wss gruesome, even to an Interne! In-terne! The last I saw of them, tho S doctors were working with their mlcro- riiurniiy ((, aeo won OII0CX the blow had produced " "Whst was th Idea? "Never found out. You see, opposite sides In a trial are always carrying nut experiments snd trying to keep the other fellow from knowing what going on.' "You you don't know who tha men were?" Houston, forcing himself to casusl, hsd ssked the question. The young doctor shook his head. "No except that thev war from Boston. I suppos th other rn was a dtntrlct sttorney." "You never learned with what murder mur-der case It was connected?" "No." "Pardon m. for asking. I t coma from Boston snd wss trying to recall such a caae. You don't rem.mher what time uf the year It wss, so how loss: sgor- "Tes. I do. It was In the summer, along shout two or two sad a hair years ego.- BHousioa slumped hack Int. his cor- But one. In his berth, ths picture continued to riae before him: of a man "killing another with a mallet Had It been .rthlnon the ie-termlned. ie-termlned. over-sea lous district attorney, attor-ney, who had struggled to send him to th penlientisrv for life? Yei-If Yei-If that had bean Worthlngtoa. If those Birn1" b ,ound vWnce against Whr had this damning evidence not beea used aralnat him? (Coatinuad Monday.) . |