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Show IZzfastfiz Story cf Certain Persons ) A WkoVrzrc cfjt zv.d CpmiercJ . . ... NHs-k" Vfie Isi ?f Tie tf r r o9V "-N- -x- s-i-T5 Ps-lier Mannar fjr en3 "-. , rr' -- ifrfi tfjtjfcway As ha Spares V. ffy UjrwaJ'd,"s:..c ; c ' 19 But she was keen enough to see. that the first recognition .would be inevitable; in-evitable; she even admitted the fact that Armstrong would probably precipitate pre-cipitate it himself. Well, no human soul, not even their writer, knew that she "had destroyed them, she had determined de-termined to do so at the first convenient conveni-ent opportunity. Before that, however, she intended to show them not to New-bold New-bold but to Armstrong, to disclose his perfidy, to convict him of the falsehood false-hood he had told her and .to Justify herself even in his eyes for the action she had taken. Mingled with all these quick reflections reflec-tions was a deadly fear. She was quick to perceive the hatred Armstrong Arm-strong bore on the one hand because of the old love affair, the long cherished cher-ished grudge breaking into sudden life; on the other she realized that her own failure to come to Armstrong's Arm-strong's hands and her love for New-bold, New-bold, which she neither could nor had any desire to conceal, and the cumulation cumula-tion of these passionate antagonisms not in deed. Nothing could wrest that secret from her. She had been infected in-fected by Newbold's quixotic ideas, the contagion of his perversion of common com-mon sense had fastened itself upon her. She would not have been human either if she had not experienced a thrill of pride and joy at the possibility possibil-ity that in some way, of which she yet swore she would not be the instrument blind or otherwise, the facts might be disclosed which would enable Newbold to claim her openly and honorably, without with-out hesitation before or remorse after, aft-er, as his wife. This fascinating flash of expectant, hopeful feeling she thought unworthy of her and strove to fight it down, but with manifest impossibility. im-possibility. It has taken timeto set these things down; to speak or to write is a slow process, and the ratio between outward expressions and inward is as great as that between light and sound. Questions Ques-tions and answers between these three followed as swiftly as thrust and parry between accomplished swordsmen, and "I did not think after that kiss in the road that you would go back on me this way, Enid," he said quickly. "The kiss in the road," cried New-bold New-bold staring again at the woman. "You coward," repeated she, with one swift envenomed glance at the other man, and then she turned to her lover. She laid her hand upon hjs arm, she lifted her face up to him. "As God is my judge," she cried, her voice rising with the tragic intensity of the moment and thrilling with indignant in-dignant protest, "he took it from me like the thief and the coward he was and he tells it now like the liar he is. We were riding side by side, I was utterly unsuspicious, I thought him a gentleman, he caught me and kissed me before I knew it. I drove him from me. That's all." "1 believe you," said Newbold gently, gent-ly, and then for the first time, he addressed, ad-dressed, himself to Armstrong. "You , came doubtless to rescue, Miss Mait-land, Mait-land, and in so far your purpose was admirable and you deserve thanks and respect, but no further. This is my cabin, your words and your conduct render you unwelcome here. Mi?s Maitland is under my protection; if you will come outside I will be glad to talk with you further." "Under your protection?" sneered "Armstrong beside himself. "After a month with you alone I take it she needs no further protection." Newbold did not leap upon the man for that mordant insult to the woman; his approach was slow, relentless, terrible. ter-rible. Eighl or ten feet separated them. Armstrong met him half way, his impetuosity was greater, he sprang forward, turned about, faced the full light from the narrow window. . "Well," he cried, "have you got anything any-thing to say or do about it?" But Newbold had stopped, appalled. He stood staring as if petrified; recognition, recog-nition, recollection rushed over him. Now and at last he knew the man. The face that confronted him was the same face that had stared out at him from the locket he had taken from the bruised breast of his dead wife, which "You both misjudge me," was the answer. an-swer. "I shall take no advantage of this man. I would disdain to do so if it were necessary, but before the last resort I must have speech with him, and this is the only way in which I can keep him quiet for a moment, if as I suspect, his hate measures with mine." "You have the advantage," protested protest-ed Armstrong. "Say your say and get it over with. I've waited all these years for a chance to kill you and my patience is exhausted." Still keeping the other covered, New-bold New-bold stepped over to the table pulled out the drawer and drew from it the locket. Enid remembered she had hastily has-tily thrust it there when he bad handed hand-ed it to her, and there it had lain unnoted un-noted and forgotten. It was quite evident evi-dent to her what was toward now. Newhold had recognized the other man, explanations were inevitable. With his left hand Newbold sought the catch of the locket and pressed the spring. In two steps he faced Armstrong with the open locket thrust toward him." "Your picture?" he asked. "Mine! " "Do you know th locket?" "I gave it to a woman named Louise Rosser five or six years ago." "My wife." "Yes, she was crazy In love with me, but" With diabolic malice Armstrong left the sentence uncompleted. The inference infer-ence he meant should be drawn from his reticence was obvious. "I took it from her dead body," gritted grit-ted out Newbold. "She was beside herself with love for me; an old affair, you know," said Armstrong more explicitly, thinking to use a spear with a double barb to pierce the woman's and the man's heart alike. That he defamed the dead was of no moment then. "She wanted to leave you," he ran on glibly. "She wanted me to take her back and " "Untrue," burst forth from Enid Maitland's lips. "A slanderous, dastardly, das-tardly, cowardly untruth." crashing about the little room. No' two men on earth could have been better bet-ter matched, yet Newbold had a slight advantage in height and strength, asv he had also the advantage in Simula life and splendid condition. Arm--strong's hate and fierce temper counterbalanced coun-terbalanced these at first, and tvitti arms locked and legs twined, wilt", teeth clenched and eyes blinded and! pulses throbbing and hearts beating, they strove together. The girl shrank back against the wall and stared frightened. She feared! for her lover, she feared for herself. Strange primitive feelings throbbed la her "veins. It was an old situation, when two male' animals fought for supremacy su-premacy and the ownership of a female, fe-male, whose destiny was entirely removed re-moved from her own hands. Armstrong had shown himself in his true colors at last. She would have nothing to hope from him if he was the victor; and she even wondered inr terror what might happen to her if the? man she loved triumphed after the-passions the-passions aroused in such a battle? She-grew She-grew sick and giddy, her bosom rosa and fell, her breath came fast as sho followed the panting, struggling, clinging cling-ing grinding, figures about the room. At first there had been no advantage to either, but now after five minutes -or was it hours? of fierce fighting,-the fighting,-the strength and superior condition of her lover began to tell. He was forcing forc-ing the other backward. Slowly, inctt' by inch, foot by foot, step by step, he mastered him. The two interwin-ing interwin-ing figures were broadside to her now,, she could see their faces inflamed by the lust of the battle, engorged, blood red with hate and fury, but there -was a look of exultation on one and thai shadow of approaching disaster on that-other. that-other. But the consciousness that he" was being mastered ever so little only increased Armstrong's determination! and he fought back with the frenzy, the strength of a maddened gorilla, and again for a space the issue was iw-doubt. iw-doubt. But not ror lonS- The table, a heavy cumbersome; four-legged affair, solid almost as a rock, stood in the way. Newbold at last backed Armstrong up against it and by superhuman effort bent flini' " over it, held him with one arm and! using the table as a support, wrenched his left hand free, and sunk his lingers lin-gers around the other's throat. It was all up with Armstrong. It was only a question of time now. "Now," Newbold guttered out hoarsely, "you slandered the dead woman wo-man I married, and' you insulted the living one I love. Take back what, you said before you die." "I forgive him," cried Enid Mainland. Main-land. "Oh, for God's sake don't kill 1 him before my eyes." Armstrong was past speech. Tho-inveteracy Tho-inveteracy of his hatred could be seer..' even in his fast glazing eyes, the iciTE-mitableness- of his purpose yet spoke' In the negative shake of his head.. Ha could die, but he would die in his hat-' and in his purpose. Enid ran to the two, she grappled1' Newbold's arm with both her own and strove with all her might to tear it ' l away from the other's throat. . He ! lover paid no more attention to I than if a summer breeze had toMlied.'' him. Armstrong grew .black in the-' ! face, his limbs relaxed, another second '' or two it would have been over with.--' him. I Once more the door was throwo ' j open; through it two snow-covered met ' 1 entered. One swift glance told theirs ' ; all. One cf them at least had expeet.-i expeet.-i ed On the one side Kirkby, on the' othur Maitland. tore Newbold away from hfs prey just in time to saver Armstrong's life. Indeed the latter was so far gone that, he fell from the table to the floor unconscious, choking,, almost dying. It was Enid Maitlaitc-''. who received his head in her arras helped bring him back to life Tailfo' the panting Newbold stood staring: dully at the woman he loved and t li a- ' man he hated on the floor at his feci -(TO BE CONTINUED.) mill iii V8lL flRv4 SYNOPSIS. Enid Maitland, a frank, free and un-epolled un-epolled yuunK I'halladelphla Birl, is taken to the Colorado mountains by her inu:le. Robert Maitland. James Armstrons. Maitland's protege, falls In love with her. His persistent wooing thrills the girl, but she hesitates, and Armstrong goes east on business without a definite answer. Enid hears the story of a mining enf!j; neer, Newbold. whose wife fell off a ciirt and was so seriously hurt that he was compelled to shoot her to prevent her ue-Ing ue-Ing eaten by wolves while he went im help. Kirkby, the old guide who te la i trie story, gives Enid a package of ll-Iltl? which he says were found on the ueau woman's body. She reads the letteTS at Klrkby's request keeps them iue bathing In mountain stream Enid is ui tacked by a bear, which is mysteriousiJ shot. A storm adds to the girl s rrr' A sudden deluge transforms brook mjo raging torrent, which sweeps Enid niiu gorge, where she Is rescued by a mountain moun-tain hermit after a thrilling expert"-nee. Campers In great confusion upon disco'i-lng disco'i-lng Enid's absence when the storm breaks. Maitland and Old Kirkby go in search of the girl. Enid discovers tnai her ankle is sprained and that she is unable un-able to walk. Her mysterious rescuei carries her to his camp. Enid goes iu sleep in the strange man's bunk. M'"",, cooks breakfast for Enid, af ter w men '- they go on tour of Inspection. The ner mlt tells Enid of his unsuccessful attempt to find the Maitland campers. He admits j that he is also from Philadelphia. J ne , hermit falls in love with Enid. The man comes to a realization of his lore for nc-r. but naturallv in that strange solitude tne relations of the girl and her rescuer oe- j come unnatural and strained. The stranger strang-er tells of a wife he had who is deau, j and s.ivs he has sworn to ever cherish her memory bv living in solitude. He and Enid, however, confess their love tor each other. She learns that he is the man who killed his wife in the mountain. Enid discovers the writer of the letters to Newbold's wife to have been James Armstrong. Newbold decides to start to the set I lenient for help. The man is racked by the belief that he is unfaithful to his wife's memory, and Enid is tempted tempt-ed to tell him of the letters in her possession. pos-session. Armstrong, accompanied by Kirkbv and Robert Maitland. find a note that Newbold had left in the deserted cabin, and know that the girl is In his keeping. Fate brings all the actors together. to-gether. Newhold returns from hunting game and sees a man near the hut. H Is James Armstrong, who i has at last located lo-cated the missing girl, and he enters the cabin. Armstrong pleads his love for Enid, but she reminds him of his affection affec-tion for Newbold's wife. He grows in-suiting in-suiting and Enid orders him from her presence. Newbold returns opportunely. CHAPTER XXII. (Continued.) Armstrong confronted Newbold therefore, lustful of battles; he yearned yearn-ed to leap upon him, his fingers itched to grasp him, then trembled slightly as he rubbed them nervously against his thumbs; his face protruded a little, his eyes narrowed. "My name is Armstrong," he said, determined to precipitate the issue without further delay and flinging the words at the other in a tone of hectoring hec-toring defiance which, however strange to say, did not seem to effect Newbold in any perceptible degree. The name was an illumination to him, though not at all in the way the speaker had fancied; the recollection of it was the one fact concerning her that rankled in the solitary's mind. He had often wanted to ask Enid Maitland Mait-land what she had meant by that chance allusion to Armstrong which she had made in the beginning of their acquaintance, but he had refrained. At first he had no right to question her; there could be no natural end to their affections; and latterly when their hearts had been disclosed to each other in the wild, tempestuous, passionate pas-sionate scenes of the last two or three days, he had had things of greater moment mo-ment to" engage his attention, subjects of more importance to discuss with her. He had for the time being forgotten Armstrong and he had not tefore known what jealousy was until he had entered that room. To have seen her with any man would have given him acute pain, perhaps just because he had been so long withdrawn from human hu-man society, but to see her with this man who flashed instantly into his recollection upon the utterance of his name was an added exasperation. Newbold turned to the woman to whom indeed he had addressed his question in the first place, and there was something in his movement which bespoke a galling almost contemptuous obliviousness to the presence of the other man which was indeed hard for him to bear. Hate begets hate. He was quite conscious of Armstrong's antagonism, which was entirely undisguised and open and- which was growing greater with evory passing moment. The score against Newbold was running up In the mind of his visitor. "Ah," coolly said the owner of the cabin to the first of his two guests, "I do remember you did mention that name the first day you spent here. Is he a a friend of yours?" "Not now," answered Enid Maitland. She too was In a strange state of perturba'l-'n on account of the dilemma dilem-ma in vl.ich she found herself involved. in-volved. She was determined not to betray the unconscious confidence of the dead. She hoped fervently that Newbold would not recognize Armstrong Arm-strong as the man of the locket, but if he did she was resolute that he should tot also be recognized as the man of ':he letters, at least not by her act. Newbold waa Ignorant of the existence ex-istence of those letters and she did not Intend that he should be enlightened enlight-ened uv far as she could prevent it- i "Your Picture?" He Asked. would only make him the more desperate. des-perate. Whether Newbold found out Armstrong's Arm-strong's connection with his past love, there was sufficient provocation in the present to evoke all the oppugnation and resentment of his nature. Enid felt as she might if the puncheons of the floor had been sticks of dynamite with active detonations in every heel that pressed them ; as if the slightest movement on the part of any one would bring about an explosion. The tensity of the situation was bewildering be-wildering to her. It had come upon her with such startling force; the unexpected un-expected arrival of Armstrong, of all the men on earth the one who ought not to be there, and then the equally startling arrival of Newbold, of whom perhaps the same might have been said. If Newbold- had only gone on, if he had not come back, if she had been rescued by her uncle or old Kirkby Kirk-by But "ifs" were idle, she had to face the present situation to which she was utterly unequal. She had entirely repudiated Armstrong, Arm-strong, that was one sure point; she knew how guilty he had been toward : Newbold's wile, that was another; she realized how he had deceived her, that was the third. These eliminated the man from her affections but It is one thing to thrust a man out of your heart and another to thrust him out of your life; be was still there. And by no means the sport of blind fate Armstrong intended to have something to say aB to the course of events, to use his own powers to determine the issue. Of but one thing beside her hatred for Armstrong was Enid Maitland absolutely ab-solutely certain; she would never disclose dis-close to the man she loved the fact that the woman, the memory of whose supposed passion he cherished, had beos unfaithful to him In heart if i yet between each demand and reply they had time to entertain these swift thoughts as the drowning compass life experiences in seconds! "I may not be her friend," said Armstrong Arm-strong steadily, "but she left me it: these mountains a month ago with more than a half way promise to marry mar-ry me, and I have sought her through the snows to claim the fulfillment." "You never told me that," exclaimed Newbold sternly and again addressing the woman rather than the man. "There was nothing to tell," she answered an-swered quickly. "I was a young girl, heart free; I liked this man. perhaps because he was so different from those to whom I had been accustomed, and when he pressed his suit upon me, I told him the truth. I did not love him, I did not know whether I might grow to care for him or not; if I did, I should marry him and if I did not no power on earth could make me. And now I hate him!" She flung the words at him savagely. Armstrong was beside himself with fury at her words, and Newbold's cool indifference to him personally was unendurable. un-endurable. In battle such as he waged he had the mistaken idea that anything any-thing was fair. He could not really tell whether it was love of woman or hate of man that was most dominant; he saw at once the state of affairs between be-tween the two. He could hurt the man and the woman with one statement; state-ment; what might be Its ulterior effect he did not stop to consider, perhaps if he had he would not then have cared greatly. He realized anyway that since Newbold's arrival his chance with Enid was gone; perhaps whether wheth-er Newbold were allye or dead it was gone forever; although Armstrong did not think that, he was not capable of thinking very Tar into the future In his then condition, the present bulked too large for that J sank His Fingers Around the Other's Threat. had been a mystery to him for all these years. "Well," tauntingly asked Armstrong again, "what are you waiting for, are you afraid?" From Newbold's belt depended a holster and a heavy revolver. As Armstrong Arm-strong made to attack him he flashed it out with astonishing quickness and presented it. The newcomer was unarmed un-armed his Winchester leaned against the wall by his fur coat and he had no pistol. "If you move a step forward or backward," back-ward," said Newbold with deadly calm, "I will '-.111 you without mercy." "So you'd take advantage of a weaponless weap-onless man, would you?" sneered Armstrong. Arm-strong. "Oh, for God's sake," cried the woman, wo-man, "don't kill him." Hut l lie man paid no attwuion to her in their excitement ; perhaps they did not even hear her. Newbold thrust his pistol violently forward. "Would you murder mo as you murdered mur-dered the woman?" gibed Armstrong in bitter taunt. Then Enid Maitland found it in her heart to urge Newbold tb kill him where he stood, but she had no time if she could have carried out her design, de-sign, for Newbold fiung the weapon from him and the next moment the two men leaped upon each other, straining, struggling, daring, battling like savage beasts, each seeking to clasp his fingers around the throat of the other and then twist and crush until un-til life was gone. Saying nothing, fighting in a grim silence that was terrible, they reeled |