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Show By ELLERY 23. CLARK WVU Scrrlc Cntiyrlirht 19; by Bobbi-Merrtl Co. CHAPTER VII Continued 12 Here, then, was my opportunity, but, whether It be to my credit or my fhnme, I confess that I luive never been, by Instinct, what Is culled n lighting uian. Often enough, tiod knows, I bare fought, and fought to kill, but never .save where there seemed to be no other choice. And so now, with i,iy enemy helpless, my arm was powerless pow-erless to strike; U was too much like murder; and as I saw him staring up Bt roe with a half dazed glance, I took I sudden resolution. "Johnson," 1 cried, "I don't want to kill you. Say that yon cheated; promise you won't osain; nod leave town tomorrow. If you'll do this, your life's your own." I shall never forget the look that came over his face at my words; the look of a man reprieved In the very shadow of death. On the Instant, Pi "George," I Said Weakly, "I've Had Enough. Get Me Home." he seemed to f.'mninn all his remaining remain-ing energy, and whispered, so faintly that I could scarcely hear him, "1 r pen;ise." At once I struggled to my feet, and taking care to possess myself of his weapon, I shouted, with what little Btrength was left to me, to Cenrge and Renfrew to come ashore. I started, 1 remember, to walk toward the boats, and the next that I recall with asy distinctness was 'iat George's arm was around me, and that his voice was asking me how badly I was hurt. I answered, stupidly enough, that I was not hurt in the least, to which he rejoined re-joined impatiently: "Look at your sleeve!" And when I did so I saw there a spreading stain of glistening red. "George," I said weakly, "I've had enough. Get me home." CHAPTER VIII I Meet Jack Shively. George's first act, after getting me to bed, was to find a physician. He bathed and bandaged my wound, and. to my relief, assured me that it was not serious. When morning came, I was not only ready, but eager, to leave the Port behind be-hind me. I breakfasted, though without with-out appetite; then made my way to George's room and tried to persuade lam to keep me company. But in vain. The pleasures of the palace still beguiled him. And so I bade him good-by, engaged a light vehicle, and was soon on my way toward McAllister's McAllis-ter's plantation. An hour's leisurely Jog trot brought us to the estate. No signs of life were visible; evidently it was the hour for luncheon and temporary relaxation from toil. Near at hand stood a large white house, without doubt the dwelling dwell-ing of Shively. Dismissing my driver, I made my way, through the scorching heat, to the house, to find, on Inquiry, that Shively had just finished his luncheon. He came forth to meet me, a tall, sallow, sal-low, unsmiling man. with a bald head, a booked nose, and in Ills pale eyes an expression of perpetual distrust, which Increased, I thought, rather than diminished, when I showed him my "edvtnials and told him that my name as Robert McAllister. Altogether, he ws a man for whom I experienced, at ""ce, a hearty antipathy, and more "d more I felt that Captain Barclay had told me, In every particular, noth-l"g noth-l"g but the truth. Shively was clearly in an ugly mood. " greeted me with scant civility; "'en, apparently dismissing me. for the Moment, from hi.i mind, he summoned from an adjoining room one of his subordinates mimed Evans, a callow, ""prepossessing youth for whom I conceived no greater liking than L had for Shiv.dy. "Look here. Evans," he "sarlni. "that watch w as stolon, and U:u sneaking, light-lingered Sally took u'"' watch ; now you get her here and u.,.kn lrr suv. ' ;; man aie-Avereil. mildly enough. s ''-v ! i : -1 already been questioned. ' (! all know!vu;,e of the whereabouts of the watch. At which Shively broke forth Into a torrent of vain and blasphemous cursing, and wound up by exclaiming: "Trice her up, the black liar. Trice her up till she says she took It. And If she won't own up, set her on the picket. I'll show these black trash who's master here." I listened, with a sensation of helplessness, help-lessness, to this callous command. At once Evans took himself off, while Shively sat In silence, yet with what svemed to me an expression of sensuous sensu-ous anticipation upon his face, until presently Evans reappeared, followed by a comely colored girl, whose quivering quiv-ering lip and tear-stained cheeks bore witness to the treatment she had undergone. un-dergone. Shively began upon her venomously. "So you took the watch, did you?" The girl fell upon her knees before him, with hands clasped In entreaty. "So help me," she cried piteously, "I never see watch. I say I take It 'cause I no hear pain. God's truth, I no take It." "You lie, d n you," roared Shively. "but It won't go down with me." And to Evans he commanded, "Trice her up again ; we'll see who's master here." At this the poor girl completely lost control of herself, for, as I could plainly plain-ly see, she would say anything rather than endure a second tricing up. "No, no," she cried. "I lie, I take watch. No trice up again." "I thought so," said Shively grimly. Then added threateningly, "Where have you hidden It? No lying, now. Where is it. you black thief?" It was pitiful to perceive the girl's simple mind thrown Into confusion. Since, as anyone could see, she had never stolen the Watch, naturally she could not confess where she had hidden hid-den It. But Shively, like a god upon his throne, was after her again. "Where? Where? Can't you understand under-stand English? Where is it, I say." Whereupon the girl, clearly snatching snatch-ing at the first thought that came into her head, answered wildly, "I throw watch In river." Shively exploded In another torrent of rage. Of course I do not suppose that he was stupid enough to believe for an instant that "the girl was guilty; all be wished was an excuse for punishing pun-ishing her. With a cruel smile curling the coiners of his mouth he said something to Evans which I could not catch; but the woman heard and her frantic pleas for mercy told me that she must be facing some further ordeal or-deal more terrible than anything she had yet undergone. But Shively bade Iter be silent in a tone so menacing that her cries subsided into frightened sobs that fairly wrung my heart. Anil when the assistant led her away she followed submissively, as if realizing the futility of resistance. At once, though knowing that my efforts would be vain, I attempted to intercede in the girl's behalf, but the look that Shively gave me and the contemptuous con-temptuous manner In which he heard me made it evident that our dislike was thoroughly mutual. Moreover, l knew, only too well, that these men were within their legal rights, and that Shively's action would doubtless have been approved by half the overseers on the Island. Therefore, sorry as 1 ' felt for the poor girl, I subsided, ony Inquiring how soon he could provide me with a boat to take me to the island. To which, doubtless scenting a chance to make me suffer as well as the girl, he replied that lie first wished me to see her punished, so that 1 might assure my uncle that discipline on the plantation was being maintained. main-tained. Then, reaching for his hat, he hade me follow him. I answered, curtly enough, that I would stay where I was; whereupon, with a scowl and a shrug of his shoulders, shoul-ders, he departed, leaving me upon the veranda, gazing forth, sick at heart, into the blazing sunshine of the tropic afternoon. Presently, after the lapse of what might have been ten minutes, 1 was startled by the heartrending shrieks of a woman In mortal agony. It was enough; spurred to instant action, I had traversed, in a twinkling, the space between the house and the spot, in the woods, whence the cries had come. There, in a little clearing. I beheld poor Sail bound hand and foot to a cottonwool, her face pressed close to the trunli of the tree, her brown back bared tu the impact of the lash, while Evans and two other assistants as-sistants stood by, and Shively, whip in hand, was measuring his distance for another blow. A second more, and I would have been on him; was, indeed. in-deed. In the very act of leaping for his arm, when suddenly, and without warning, a gigantic negro burst from the shelter of the woods and burled himself full upon Shively. I saw a knife Hash, and hoped, for one exultant ex-ultant moment, that it would' find a resting place iu the overseer's heart. Hut luck was against the avenger; Shively managed to parry the thrust, he two men, grappling, rolled over and over on the ground, and then the fortune of war was decisively altered as three assistants rushed to the rescue res-cue of their chief. Yet even then the j ne-ro, whose strength must have been enormous, succeeded in wrenching him-I him-I self free, and with oue Unl stab which J slashed. Shively's arm, ne hounded o:T like a deer in the direction it the river. "Catch him!" roared Shively, and with the blood running from his bared arm, he dashed after the fugitive, with the others at his heels. Making the most of my opportunity, I cut the thongs which bound the woman to the tree, laid her unconscious form on the ground, and then, knowing that I would do more harm than good by trying to help her further. I hastened after these chivalrous rulers of the plantation. I found them grouped on the margin mar-gin of the river, pistols in hand. The negro must have been a remarkable swimmer, for I could see no sign of him, but Shively explained savagely, "We saw him dive in. He's swimming swim-ming under water, but he's no fish, lie's got to come up." The words had hardly left his lips when at -some distance from the shore the negro's head appeared above the surface. Almost Instantly three pistol shots rang out, but the aim of the marksmen was hurried, their hands unsteady from running, and though the three bullets splashed close to the swimmer's head, no one of them took effect, and lie disappeared again like a shadow. Shively alone had held his fire, and running out on a projecting point to lose no fool of his distance, he cried exultantly, "He can't stay under so long this time; watch me settle him when he comes up 1" The seconds passed. Then, suddenly, sud-denly, still farther out In the stream, and as though the protracted effort of staying so long submerged had sapped his energies, the head and shoulders of the fugitive burst from the water, presenting a mark too good to miss. I saw Shively's right arm extended, and prayed to myself that the bullet might go astray. Then came the sharp crack of the pistol, but this time there was no splash to mark a miss. I saw the negro's head snap back sharply, and his arms clutch convulsively con-vulsively at the air. Then, as if retaining re-taining his faculties to the end, his blurred eyes sought the shore, he shouted some words I could not catch, and then his muscles relaxed and his lifeless body floated quietly away toward the sea. Shively, with perfect calmness, turned to his subordinates. "What did lie say, Evans?" he queried. "You know their lingo better than I do. He wasn't exactly wishing me luck, was he?" lie spoke in grim pleasantry, but there was nothing of pleasantry in the bookkeeper's reply. "He was an obi man, their chief magician, and the husband of the woman you flogged. He curses you and yours through life and death. And he will come back from the grave, he says, to haunt you." Shively grinned. "We'll see about that," he answvred lightly enough. "I've never been bothered with ghosts yet." Then added, "Get back now, boys, and keep those swine well under. At any sign of an excuse, bear down on 'em ; sweat 'em till they drop. If that man was an obi man, as you say, there may be some grumbling. But by G d, we'll show 'em who runs this plantation." I sickened at hira ; my one desire was to get away as soon as possible, and as civilly as I could I asked him when he could ferry me over to the island. He answered, with what I imagined to be irony, that he would be delighted to row me across at once, and led the way to a landing stage where a number of boats were made fast. "Can you pull an oar?" he asked with a disparaging glance, as if lie felt that such a faint-hearted youth could do little In the way of manly exercise. "I can," I responded with equal brevity, and he accordingly selected a light skiff and seated himself on the after rowing seat. I should, as a matter mat-ter of fact, have enjoyed pulling strcke myself, tor I think 1 might t.av been able to set a pace that would have made him gasp before we reached the Island; but as It was there was nothing f,,r me to do but slip into the forward seat jnd adjust myself to his leisurely stroke, which sent us skimming, skim-ming, ar a good rate, across the placid water of the lagoon. j CHAPTER IX j C2lm and Storm. i From a Jetty on the easterly side oi ! the Island, where a dozen boats lay i mooreiT. a wizened, untidy-looking man peered down at us. I knew, of course, that this must be McAllister, even be- fore Shively greeted him by name; yet as I stepped ashore and shook bin hand, It was hard to realize that this j little man, with bowed shoulders and sidelong glance, bad ever been a gen- j tleman of fortune and a ranger of the j sea. There are those, however, who ' rule by craft alone, leaving the actual ! fighting to their followers, and such a I leader. I reasoned, McAllister must have been. He now inquired anxiously anxious-ly as to the disturbance on the shore, nnd Shively seemed to take malicious delight In recounting the incident and In repenting with emphasis the curses which the obi man had called down on his slayer and on all connected with him. McAllister was clearly both annoyed an-noyed nnd alarmed. "Man, man. I'm always telling ye." he complained, "that you're too forth-putting by far. Peace and quietness that's the bonny way to live." At these words Shively. who did not appear to be at all In awe of his chief, threw back his ugly head and laughed long and heartily, thinking, I dare say, of the old days on the Caribbean, nnd of the lonely Islet In the Antilles where they had shot down their allies from behind. 'Teace and quietness" surely came oddly from the mouth ol Andrew McAllister. As the overseer pulled leisurely away for the shore. McAllister conducted con-ducted me toward the house. To my surprise, he scarcely noticed me at all, apparently much disturbed by Shively's Shive-ly's news. Thus I had an excellent opportunity, with an oc casional side-wise side-wise glance, to examine him mor-f closely. A little unkempt man, with straggling sandy hair and mustache, curiously bent In the shoulders and with eyes for the most part looking at the ground and seldom raised to your face. And at once I decided that Captain Barclay again had spoken truth, and that here was a man with an evil conscience who was living in a state of perpetual dread. As we neared the house, I examined It with Interest. Evidently it had been built with an eye to defense, for the whole lower story was of stone, with narrow loop-holes in place of windows. win-dows. Presently, as we drew nearer, Shively, Whip In Hand, Was Measuring Measur-ing His Distance for Another Blow. I could perceive three or four swarthy-looking swarthy-looking men lounging under a tree, and noticed at once that they did not at all resemble ordinary slaves, but were much fiercer in appearance and far more self-reliant in their benring. Again I recalled the captain's description descrip-tion of the Island and Its occupants, and correctly enough surmised that these men were a portion of McAllister's McAllis-ter's bodyguard, specially hired to protect pro-tect his wizened carcass from harm. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |