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Show lumps of soft yellow gold. Barris dropped this "moonshine gold," as we had come to call it, into the pockets of his shooting-coat, and withdrew to question the prisoner. He came back again in a few minutes and motioned his mounted men to take the "Shiner" in charge. We watched them, rifle on thigh, walking their horses slowly away into the darkness, the "Shiner," tightly bound, shuffling sullenly between be-tween them. "Who is the 'Shiner?' " asked Pier-pont. Pier-pont. slipping the revolver into his pocket again. "A moonshiner, counterfeiter, forger, and highwayman," said Barris, "and I probably a murderer. Drummond will ; be glad to see him. and I think it likely like-ly he will be persuaded to confess to him what he refuses to confess to me." "Wouldn't he talk?" I asked. "Not a syllable. ' Pierpont, there is nothing more for you to do." "For me to do? Are you not coming back with us, Barris?" "No," said Barris. We walked along the dark road in I silence for a while, I wondering what I Barris intended to do, but he said ! nothing more until we reached our own veranda. Here he held out his hand, first to Pierpont, then to me, saying good-by, as though he were going go-ing on a long journey. "How soon will you be back?" I called out to him as he turned away i toward the gate. He came across the ! lawn again and again took our hands with a quiet affection that I had never imagined him capable of. "I am going," he' said, "to put an end to his gold-making to-night. I j know that you fellows never suspected what 1 was about on my little solitary evening strolls after dinner. I will tell you. Already I have unobtrusively unobtrusive-ly killed four of these goldmakers my men put them under ground just below the new wash-out at the four-mile four-mile stone. There are three left alive the 'Shiner' whom we have, another criminal named 'Yellow,' or Yeller,' in the vernacular, and the third " "The third," repeated Pierpont, excitedly. ex-citedly. "The third I have never yet seen. But I know who and what he is I know; and If he is of human flesh and blood, his blood will flow to-night." As he spoke a slight noise across the I turf attracted my attention. A mounted J man was advancing silently in the ! starlight over the spongy meadowland. out into the road. Again I heard it far away in the forest and I followed it, for I knew it was singing of Ysonde. When I came to the path that leaves the main road and enters the Sweet Fern Covert below the spinney. 1 hesitated; hes-itated; but the beauty of the night lured me on and the night-thrushes called me from every thicket. In the starry radiance, shrubs, grasses, field flowers, stood out distinctly, for there was no moon to cast shadows. Meadow and brook, grove and stream, were illuminated il-luminated by the pale glow. Like great lamps lighted the planets hung from the high-domed sky and through their mysterious rays the fixed stars, calm, serene, stared from the heavens like eyes. I waded on waist deep through lields of dewy golden-rod, through late clover and wild oats wastes, through crimson fruited sweetbrier, blueberry and wild plum, until the low whisper of the Wier Brook warned me that the path had ended. But I would not stop, for the night air was heavy with the perfume of water-lilies and far away, across the low wooded cliffs and the wet meadow-land meadow-land beyond, there was a distant gleam of silver, and I heard the murmur of sleepy waterfowl. I would go to the lake. The way was clear except for the dense young growth and" the snares of the moose-bush. The night-thrushes had ceased, but I did not want for the company of living creatures. Slender, quick-darting forms crossed my path at intervals, inter-vals, sleek mink, that fled like shadows shad-ows at my step, wiry weasels and fat musk-rats, hurrying onward to some tryst or killing. I never had seen so many little woodland creatures on the move at night. I began to wonder where they all were going so fast, why they all hurried on in the same direction. Now I passed a hare hopping through the brushwood, now a rabbit scurrying by, flag hoisted. As I entered the beech second-growth two foxes glided by me; a little further on a doe crashed out of the underbrush, and close behind her stole a lynx, eyes shining like coals. He neither paid attention to the doe or to me, but loped away toward the north. The lynx was in flight. "From what?" I asked myself, wondering. won-dering. There was no forest fire, no cyclone, no flood. If Barris had passed that way could he have stirred up this sudden exodus? exo-dus? Impossible; even a regiment in the forest could scarcely have put to rout these frightened creatures. "What on earth," thought I, turning to watch the headlong flight of a fisher-cat, "what on earth has startled the beasts out at this time of night?" I looked up into the sky. The placid glow of the fixed stars comforted me and I stepped on through the narrow spruce belt that leads down to the borders bor-ders of the Lake of the Stars. Wild cranberry and moose-bush entwined en-twined my feet, dewy branches spattered spat-tered me with moisture, and the thick spruce needles scraped my face as I threaded my way over mossy logs and deep spongy tussocks down to the 1 THE MAKER J 0F MOONS j I 1 I By i I ROBERT W. CHAMBERS I Illustrations by J. J. Sheridan x (Copyright, G. P. Putnam's Sons.) SYNOPSIS. The story opens In New York, Roy Car-denhue, Car-denhue, the story-teller, Inspecting a jueer reptile owned by George Godfrey of Tiffany's. Roy and Barris and Pierpont. two friends, depart on a hunting trip to Cardinal Woods, a rather obscure locality. local-ity. Barris revealed the fact that he had Joined the secret service for the purpose of running down a gang of gold makers. Prof. IjiGrange, on discovering the gang's formula, had been mysteriously Killed. Barris received a telegram of instructions. in-structions. He and Pierpont set out to locate the gold making gang. A valet reported re-ported seeing a queer Chinaman In the supposedly untenanted woods. Roy went hunting. He fell asleep in a dell. On awakening he beheld a beautiful girl at a small lake. A. birthmark, resembling a dragon's claw, on Roy's forehead had a mysterious effect upon the girl, who said her name was Ysonde. Suddenly she disappeared. dis-appeared. Fleeing In terror Roy beheld a horrible Chinese visage peering at him from the woods. Barris and Pierpont returned. re-turned. Barris exhibited a reptile, like that owned by Godfrey. A ball of supposed sup-posed gold, he held, suddenly became alive. He told of the Kuen-Yuin. a Chi-. Chi-. t nese nation of sorcerers, numbering 100.- "V- 000.000, and explained that the Moon Maker, Ma-ker, their ruler, whose crescent symbol was a dragon claw, was supposed to have recently returned to earth. Barris Pier- ont and Roy failed to find Ysonde's dell, rater, Roy, hunting, came to the beautiful beauti-ful spot, where he found Ysonde. She told him how her stepfather, evidently a Chinaman, made gold and of his mysterious mysteri-ous actions. Suddenly all turned black and Roy awoke to find himself stunned and bleeding on his own doorstep. Roy recovered quickly. Barris. under a mysterious mys-terious spell, told of his stay among the Chinese sorcerers, his love there and its false ending. CHAPTER VII. Continued. "Yian I have lived there and loved there. When the breath of my body shall cease, when the dragon's claw shall fade from my arm " he tore up his sleeve, and we saw a white crescent shining above his elbow "when the light of ray eyes has faded forever, then, even then I shall not forget the city of Yian. Why, it is my home mine! The river and the thousand thou-sand bridges, the white peak beyond, the sweet-scented gardens, the lilies, the pleasant noise of the summer wind laden with bee music and the music of bells all these are mine. Do you think because the Kuen-Yuin feared level gravel of the lake shore. Although there was no wind the little lit-tle waves were hurrying in from the lake and I heard them splashing among the pebbles. In the pale star glow thousands of water-lilies lifted their half-closed chalices toward the sky. I threw myself full length upon the shore, and chin on hand, looked out across the lake. Splash, splash, came the waves along the shore, higher, nearer, until a film of water; thin and glittering as a knife blade, crept up to my elbows. I could not understand it; the lake was rising, but there had been no rain. All along the shore the water was running up: I heard the waves among the sedge grass; the weeds at my side were awash in the ripples. The lilies rocked on the tiny waves, every wet pod rising on the swells, sinking, rising again until the whole lake was glimmering glim-mering with undulating blossoms. How sweet and deep was the fragrance from the lilies. And now the water was ebbing, slowly, and the waves re ceded, shrinking from the shore rim until the white pebbles appeared again, shining like froth on a brimming brim-ming glass. (TO BE CONTINUED.) "Then Barris' Rifle Spat Fire." When he came nearer Barris struck a match, and we saw that he bore a corpse across his saddle bow. " 'Yaller,' Col. Barris." said the man, touching his slouched hat in salute. This grim introduction to the corpse made me shudder, and, after a moment's mo-ment's examination of the stiff, wide-eyed wide-eyed dead man, I drew back. "Identified," said Barris, "take him to the four-mile post and carry his effects to Washington under seal, mind, Johnstone." Away cantered the rider with his ; ghastly burden, and Barris took our hands once more for the last time. Then he went away, gayly, with a I jest on his lips, and Pierpont and I ! turned back into the house. For an hour we sat moodily smoking in the hall before the fire, saying little until Pierpont burst out with: "I wish Barris had taken one of us with him to-night!" The same thought had been running run-ning in my mind, but I said: "Barris knows what he's about." This observation neither comforted us nor opened the lane to further conversation, con-versation, and after a few minutes Pierpont said good-night and called for Howlett and hot water. When he had been warmly tucked away by Howlett, I turned out all but one lamp, sent the dogs away with David and dismissed ! Howlett for the night. I was not inclined to retire, for I ; knew 1 could not sleep. There was a book lying open on the table beside j the fire and I opened it and read a ! page or two. but my mind was fixed on other things. The window shades were raised and j I looked out at the star-set firmament, j There was no moon that night, but the : sky was dusted all over with spar- kllng stars and a pale radiance, bright-! bright-! er even than moonlight, fell over i meadow and wood. Far away in the ! forest I heard the voice of the wind, a soft warm wind that whispered a name. Ysonde "Listen." sighed the voice of the wind, and "listen" echoed the swaying ; trees with every little leaf a-quiver. I ; listened. Where the long grasses trembled with the cricket's cadence I heard her name. Ysonde: I heard it in the rustling rus-tling woodbine where gray moths hovered; I heard it in the drip, drip of j the dew from the porch. The silent meadow brook whispered her name. 1 the rippling woodland streams re-. re-. peated it. Ysonde. Ysonde. until all : earth and sky were filled with the , soft thrill. Ysonde. Ysonde. Ysonde. A night-thrush sang in a thicket by j the porch and I stole to the veranda to listen. After a while it began ! again, a little further on 1 ventured the dragon's claw on my arm that my work with them is ended? Do you tli ink because Yue-Laou could give. ; that I acknowledge his right to take away? Is he Xangi, in whose shadow the white water-lotus dares not raise its head? No! No!" he cried, vio-! lently, "it was 'not from Yue-Laou, the I scorcerer, the Maker of Moons, that my happiness came! It was real, it was not a shadow to vanish like a tinted bubble! Can a sorcerer create and give a man the woman he loves? Is Yue-Laou as great as Xangi then? Xangi is God. In His own time, in His Joef Infinite goodness and mercy, He will bring me again to the woman I love, j And I know she waits for me at God's feet." In the strained silence that followed I could hear my heart's double beat ; and I saw Pierpont's face blanched and ptiful. Barris shook himself and raised his head. The change in his ruddy face frightened me. "Heed!" he said, with a terrible glance at me; "the print of the dragon's claw is on your forehead and Yue-Laou knows it. If you must love, then love like a man, for you will suffer suf-fer like a soul in hell, in the end. What is her name again?" "Ysonde." I answered, simply. CHAPTER VIII. At nine o'clock that night we caught one of the goldmakers. I do not know how Barris had laid his trap; all I saw of the affair can be told in a minute or two. We were posted on the Cardinal road about a mile below the house. Pierpont and I with drawn revolvers on one side, under a butternut tree. Barris on the other, a Winchester across his knees. 1 had just asked Pierpont the hour, and he was feeling for his watch when far up the road we heard the sound of a galloping horse, nearer, nearer, clattering, thundering past. Then Barris' rifle spat flame and the dark mass, horse and rider, crashed into the dust. Pierpont had the half-stunned half-stunned horseman by the collar in a second the horse was stone dead and, as we lighted a pine knot to examine ex-amine the fellow, Barris' two riders galloped up and drew bridle beside us. "Hin!" said Barris. with a scowl, "it's the 'Shiner.' or I'm a moonshiner." moon-shiner." We crowded curiously around to see the "Shiner." He was red-headed, fat and filthy, and his little red eyes burned in his head like the eyes of an angry pig. Barris went through his pockets methodically while Pierpont held him and I held the torch. The "Shiner" was a gold mine; pockets, shirt, bootlegs, boot-legs, hat. even his dirty fists, clutched tight and bleediuij, were bursting with |