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Show m BULL-DOG RDRUMMOND B iHnBk. e Adventures of A ssssssOa sssKS; Demobilized Officer HpJ PgkWho Found Peace Dull KNfeiSW CYRIL WC-NEILE fCk WrtHm "SAPPER" A IPL3E7 ytyk Illaiitattom by V M- 5inWIN MYERS -cJatsmiB "- Copyright by Geo H Do ran Co "The Intimidated rabbit, Henry, anr, the kindly kciiIIciiimii joii put to tfuurd Miss lieiitnn," he remurkeil as the door eloied. "So now wo may regard ourselves as heliu; alone. Just you BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBSBlBBBVSf Ay lVsCMJ But Still There Was No Mercy on the Soldier's Face, and Ke Felt Himself Being Forced Farther and Farther Over the Liquid. and I. And one of us, I.akliiKton you devil In human form Is Kolni; Into In-to that hath." "Hut the bath means death," shrieked IakiiiRton "death In ai(ony." 'That will he unfortunate for the one who Koex lu," said Druiumond, taking a step toward him. "You would murder me?" half sobbed the terrltled man. "No, Laklncton; I'm not eoIiir to murder you." A gleam of hope carao Into the other's eyes. "Hut I'm going to fight you In order to decide which of us two censes to ndorn the earth; that Ik, If your diagnosis of the con-tent con-tent of tin' bath Is correct. What little gleam of pity I might have pos. Messed for you bus been completely extinguished ex-tinguished by your present exhibition of nauseating cowardice. Fight, you worm, tight ; or I'll throw joii In!" Ami l.akhigton fought. The sudden complete turning of the tables had for the moment destroyed Ids nere; now, nt Drummund's words, he recovered himself, There was no mercy on tho soldier's face, and lu his Inmost heart Luklngton knew that the end had come. For strong ami wiry though he was, ho was no match for tho other. Relentlessly he felt himself being forced toward the deadly liquid he had prepared for Druiumond, and as the Irony of the thing struck hlra, the sweat broke out on his forehead and he cursed uloud. At lust he backed Into In-to tho edge of the bath and bis struggles strug-gles redoubled. Hut still there was no mercy on the soldier's face, and he felt himself being forced farther and farther over the liquid until ho wus only held from falling Into It by Drum-moiid'x Drum-moiid'x grip on hW throat. Then, Just before the grip relaxed and hu went under, tho soldier spoke once : "Henry haklngton." he said, "the retribution Is Just." Diummond sprang hack, and the liquid closed over the wretched man's heud. Hut only for a second. With a dreadful cry Luklngton leaped out, and men Driimmond fell a momentary qualm of pity. I'or tho criminal's clothes were already burnt through to I he skin, und his face or1 what was left of It was a shining copper color. Mnd with agony, be dashed to the door, and Hung It open. The four men outside, out-side, aghast at the specluclo, recoiled und let him through. And the kindly mercy which Luklngton bad neer shown to any one In ids life was gUeu n liliu at the lust. ISIImlly lie groped his way up the stairs, ami as Druuimond got to the lllH,r II ml came. Some one must hate put lu gear the machinery which worked on the llftb step, or perhaps It was automatic. For suddenly n heavy steel weight revolving on an arm whirled nut from the wall and struck Luklngton behind the neck. Without n Found he ft. forward, and the weight, unchecked, clanged suddenly home. Ami thus did the Invention of which lie was proudest break the Inventor's In-ventor's own neck. Truly, the- retribu. tlon wms Just. . . . 'That only leaves 1'etenion," remarked re-marked the American, coming Into the hall nt thnt moment, and lighting a clgnr. 'That only Imvim I'elvaoa," agreed Druinmond. "And the girl," he added as an afterthought. CHAPTER XII. In Which the Lilt Round Takea Plaoa. ONE. j It was during the next hour or two ' that the full value of Mr. Jerome K. (ireeu as an acquisition to the party became apparent. Certain other preparations prep-arations In honor of Peterson's arrival were duly carried out, aud then arose the question of the safe In which the all-Important ledger was kept. "There It Is," said Drummond, point-lug point-lug to a heavy steel door flush with the wall, on the opposite side of the room to the big one containing IaktngtonV Ill-gotten treasure. "And It doesn't seem to me that you're going to oihmi that one by pressing auy buttons In the wall." 'Then, Captain," drawled tho American, Amer-ican, "I guess we'll open It otherwise. It's sure plumb easy. I've been getting get-ting guy with some ot the household effects, und this bar of soap sort of caught my eye." From his pocket he produced some ordinary yellow snap, and the others glanced at him curiously. "I'll Just gle ou a little demonstration," demonstra-tion," lie continued, "of how our swell cracksmen over the water ojien safes when the owners have been so tactless as to remove the kejs." Dexterously he proceeded to seal Up every crack In the safe door with the soap, leaving a small gap at the top unsealed. Then round that gap he built what was to nil Intents and purposes pur-poses a soap dam, "If any of ytni bos," be remarked to the Intent group around him, "think of taking this up as ji means of livelihood, liveli-hood, be careful of this stuff." From another pocket he produced an India rubber bottle. "Don't drop It on the tloor unless oii want to be measured for your eollln. There'll Just be a boot aud some bits to bury." The group faded awn', und tho American laughed. "Might I ask what It Is?" murmured Hugh politely from the neighborhood of the door. "Sure thing. Captain," returned the iletectlM', can-fully pouring some of the liquid Into the soap dam. "Thnt Is what I told you I'd got .ellgnltn; or, as the hoy call It, the oil. It runs right round the cwieks of the door Inside In-side the soap." He added a little more, and carefully replaced the stopper, "Now, a detonator ami a lilt of fuse, und I guess we'll lenw the room." "It reminds one of tho'-e dreadful barbarians, the sappers, trjlng to blowup blow-up things," remarked Toby, stepping with soiuii agility Into the garden; and a moment ot two Inter the American Joined them. "It may be necessary to do It again," he announced, aud as he spoke Unsound Un-sound of a dull explosion came from Insldu tho house. "On the other hand," ho continued, jjolug back Into Urn room 'in ii i etlv pulling the wife door open. t n n mil There's your book. Cap-a Cap-a i He ilmly relit Ids clgnr. as If safe-op"i safe-op"i .114 as the most normal under-i' under-i' ., nn. I Driimmtun! lifted out the h leii.;er and placed It on the table ta-ble "Jo out In relays, bojs," he said to the group of men by the door, "and i.'et your brenkfasts. I'm going to he husj fur a bit." He sat down at the table and began to turn the pages. The American was amusing himself with the faked Chinese Chi-nese cabinet ; Toby and i'eter sprawled hi two chairs, unashamedly snoring. And after a while the detective put down the cabinet aud, coming oer, sal at Druiniuond's side. Kvery p.ige contained an entry sometimes half a dor.en of the same t)pe, and as the Immensity of the project dawned on the two men their faces grew serious. "I told joii he was a big man, Cn-taln," Cn-taln," remarked the American, leaning back In his chair ami looking nt the open book through hnlf-clnscd e)cs. "One can only 1iok to Hcimm thut we're In time," returned Hugh. "D n It, man," he exploded, "surely the police po-lice must know of this!" The American closed his eyes still more. "Your ICngtlsh police know most things," he drawled, "but ou've sort of got some peculiar Inws In your country. With us. If we don't like a man something happens. He kind o' censes to sit up ami take nourishment. Hut oter here, the more scurrilous be Is, the more he talks bloodshed and riot, the more constable does he get to guurd him from catching cold. The soldier frowned. "Iook at this entry here," he grunted. "Thst blighter Is a member of parliament. parlia-ment. What's he getting four payments of a thousand pounds forf "Why, surely to buy some nice warm underclothei, with," grinned the detective. detec-tive. Then he leaned forward and glanced at the name. "Rut Isn't be some pot In one of your big trad unlonsT' "Heaven knows," grunted High. "I only suw the blighter once, and then his shirt was dirty." He turned asjsr a few more pages thoughtfully. "Why, If these are the sums of money Peterson Peter-son has blown, tho man must have I spent a fortune. Two thousand pounds I to Ivolsky. lncldentully, that's the bloke who had words with the whatnot on the stairs." In silence they continued their study of the hook. The whole of Kngland and Scotland had been split Mp Into it,-'' .T2ZsbbE3HMP?89 IJjjMfffl Wy.irj JisTasfc "What's He Getting Four Payments of a Thousand Pounds For?" districts, regulated by population rather than area, and each district appeared ap-peared to be lu charge of one director, ,A vnrjlng number of sub-districts In every main division had each their sub-director sub-director and staff, and at some of tho names' Drummond rubbed his eyes lu amazement. Hrletly, the duties of every man were outlined; the locality lu which tils work lay, bin exact responsibilities, responsi-bilities, so thut overlapping was reduced re-duced to u minimum. In each case the staff wus small, the work largely that of organization. Hut In each district there appeared ten or n dozen names of men who were euphemistically described de-scribed as lecturers; while at the end , I of the book there appeared nearly tlfty numcs-,botli of men nntl womenwho wen proudly denoted as llrst-claxs lecturers. lec-turers. And If Drummond hnd rubbed his eyes nt some of the names on the , organizing staff, the tint-class general lecturers deprived him of speech. j "Why," he spluttered after n mo- metit. " lot of these people's names' are absolutely houewotd words lu the country. They may be swine they probably are. Thank Oodl l'vo very rarely met any; but they ain't criminals." crimi-nals." "No more Is Peterson," grinned the American; "at least not on that hook. Seo here, Captain, It's pretty clear what's happening. In any country today to-day you've got nil sorts and conditions of people with more wind than brain. They Just can't slop talking, and us yet It's not n criminal offense. Some of 'em helleye what they say, like Spin-dio-shitnks upstairs; some of 'em don't. And If they don't, It makes 'em worse; they stnrt writing us well. You've got clever men Intellectual men look at some of those guys lu the tlrst-class general hcturers ami they're the wont of Hie lot. Then you've got another an-other class the men with the business brain, who think they're getting the sticky end of It, and usu the talkers to pull the chestnuts out of the tiro for them. Ami the chestnuts, who are the poor blamed decent worklngmeii, are promptly dropped lu the ashpit to keep Vm quiet. They all want something for nothing, and 1 guesa It can't b done. They all think they're fooling one another, an-other, and w hut's really going nt the moment Is that Peterson Is fooling Hie whole bunch, tie wants all the strings la his bauds, and It looks to me as If he'd got 'em there. He's got tho money and we know where he got It from; he's got the organization all either red-hot revolutionaries, or Intellectual windstorms, or calculating knave. He's amalgamated 'em, Captain; and the whole blamed lot, whatever they may think, are really working for him." (Continue Next Weak) |