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Show By WYNDHAM MARTYN Copyright by Bars & Hopklnj WNU Service There Is the open window, madam. Jump if you will. The marble terrace twenty meters below will make a tender ten-der deathbed. She believed implicitly that she was trapped. Redlich was of the sort who have brought the terrorizing of women wom-en to a fine point. He rose and urged her to the window. She could barely see a white light waving gently at what she supposed was the bottom of the garden. "It is the masthead light of my vesse.l" he said. "She Is called Ln Belle Alliance, and I have wondered why she had that name. Now'l know, madam. You and 1 shall be 'la belle alliance.' On board are n half-dozen men who do as 1 command. Presently Pres-ently I shall take you to them and say : 'Here is the woman I love.' Tomorrow To-morrow I will come back for the Jewels Jew-els they pay me to guard." "Do you suppose you can carry me there and not be seen?" "I know it Did ". not tell you I had grown careful. You knew me In the old days, madam, when I was no as Three people used the rooms of the floor above that on which Trent's suite was'situated. He knew that Immediately Im-mediately above him was the room of Mademoiselle Dupln. It was conceivable conceiv-able that she smoked. But these coarse cigarettes In such unbelievable quantity were, he felt certain, consumed con-sumed by some one else. Circumstances Circum-stances pointed to Yeatman. And what could Yeatman be doing there? Very quietly, Trent crept to the lit-, tie balcony and listened Intently. He could barely hear some one talking rapidly In French. It was not the! beautiful French of Madame de Beau-lieu. Beau-lieu. The speaker was fluent enough., but larked that delicate rhythm of the language as spoken by an educated woman. When Trent had first examined his suite he had noticed that at this southeastern south-eastern corner of the building a steel rod, a third of an Inch ln thickness, part of a device for protection from lightning, light-ning, ran down to the earth. This rod of steel passed the edge of his balcony some two feet distant On Its way to the cornice above, it passed Mademoiselle Mademoi-selle Dupin's window at an equal distance. dis-tance. A man with a clear head and a sense of balance might make an ascent as-cent or descent without much danger. Straining his ears, Trent was sure he heard, Inter, the higher-pitched voice of the woman for whose safety he was exercised. It was when It was raised in undisguised fear that he acted. Climbing back Into his room, he drew on a pair of heavy gloves. Then he started the ascent of the rod. It was not easy to draw his face level with the window ledge. Fortunately he kept himself ln perfect per-fect physical condition. As he pulled himself breast high to the sill the sweet and cloying odor of chloroform met him. Mademoiselle Dupln was lying on the floor unconscious. Over her, Yeatman Yeat-man was stooping, tying her, hand, and foot, with ropes adjusted with the sailor's dexterity. There was evidence evi-dence of a struggle. Chairs was overturned over-turned and a vase of cut flowers was broken. The horrified sight kept Trent Immobile Im-mobile for the moment. While he watched, Yeatman picked np the unconscious un-conscious girl, opened the door and switched off the lights. Anthony Trent 'climbed Into the room as quickly as he could and opened the door. In the corridor outside was in darkness. In the distance his sharp ears heard, distinct in the stillness still-ness of the silent house, the cautious tread of the burdened man half muffled muf-fled by the rugs. Yeatman, as he opened an unlatched door, had no idea the silent Trent was within a few yards of him. He kept! to a little path which ran by the! brick wall. A quarter-mile distant; was the beach where his boat lay. By a code of flashlight signals ho could summon help and be on board La Belle Alliance within a few minutes. He would, of course, come back to the house and see that the room just left in such confusion was put In order. or-der. He had no desire for local police po-lice interest. Half-way between house and ocean was a fresh-water bathing pool with garden marbles set about it. On one of these Pierre Redlich placed the still unconscious girl. He was alarmed at her continued stupor. The thought that she might be dead chilled him. He leaned down to hear the heart beat. And, as he stooped, he was conscious of a tremendous blow behind be-hind his ear. The swift appreciation of the pain was succeeded Instantly by unconsciousness. Pler:e Redlich dropped as one dead. He was profoundly unconscious as Trent untied the girl and used the same ropes and gag for her assailant. He did not feel himself lifted by Trent and carried to the brick wall and dropped on the other side of it. Here, concealed in a part of n neighbor's neigh-bor's garden devoted to the raising of vegetables, his dreamless sleep continued. con-tinued. Mademoiselle was awakened from the anesthetic by the dashing of cold water on her face. Out of the mists of memory she thought she heard Trent's voice. Then the fear of Redlich Red-lich returned and she began to struggle. strug-gle. "It's all right, you poor child." Trent said tenderly. "I'm here and he has gone." He assisted her to a seat nearer the house where their voices could not carry to Itedlicli's vegetable bed. Site was still unstrung and nervous. (TO BE CONTINUED.) v i ' STORY FROM THE START Anthony Trent, once master criminal, now reformed, returns to New York after four years' absence. He learns his friend, Capt. Frank Sutton, is In Sing SinR. Trent Is surprised to find his New York apartment occupied occu-pied by a stranger, Campbell Sutton, Sut-ton, who represents himself as the brother of Frank Sutton. Trent Is asked by Campbell to force a confession from Payson i Grant, whom he accuses of having hav-ing crookedly obtained all of Frank Sutton's property and then married the latter's wife. Trent starts on a campaign to accomplish accom-plish the downfall of Grant. He learns that Captain Sutton has escaped from Sing Sing and later, to his surprise, finds that Campbell Camp-bell Is really Frank Sutton. Trent takes his place ln ..ociety as the opening gun of his cam-palgn cam-palgn against Granti He becomes be-comes a house guest of the Grants. Trent discovers ln Mademoiselle Ma-demoiselle Dupln, Natica's French Instructor, a friend of the old criminal days. She is now going, straight. Trent Is suspicious of a man known as Yeatman, ostensibly osten-sibly in the Grant household as a detective. Anthony realizes "Yeatman is a crook, who Is planning plan-ning to rob the Grants and their guests. I CHAPTER VI Continued I 13 f She looked at him with a calmness Una lacls of interest that she knew must surprise him. Lie was the kind to frighten women with physical violence, vio-lence, and had been used to inspiring Ife'ar. "If you need money, .1 have none. If you need help, I shall not give It." "i7ou aristocrats have spirit," he admitted. "Listen. I am of les ouvriers. I was a fisherman at Heyst before I followed a woman to Brux-elles Brux-elles and strangled her because she laughed at me. You would not think to look at me 1 am so strong. Well, lllademoiselle Dupin, I am not going !to strangle you yet." Another scarlet-tipped cigarette Jvas tossed from the window. There ivas no evidence of haste about him. , lie showed that he could afford to take his time. "You say you will not help me. Tery good. I do not need your help. 1 have already arranged, everything, l'ou have no money? What do I care? I am a man who likes the aristocrats." aristo-crats." "Pierre Kedlich," she said slowly, "you are talking folly. You have no jhold over me at all. I shall not help jj'ou and I shall not hinder you so dong as you remain a detective. ' If you steal, you place me in peril, and :I dare not risk that. Let us call It a ,truce. You have no power over me. Make no mistake about that" tie picked up the orange packet. "Here are twenty cigarettes left. I shall sit here and smoke them. When 1 have finished, you -will come with me." ( She did not understand what he meant. But she was oppressed with the certainty that he would not threaten idly. "Are you, then, so anxious to go back to France and finish your term? They do not pamper prisoners there as they do here." . "That I know," he retorted, "1 have tried tllem botn- Xv, madam, 1 am not anxious to go back. And I shall not. I used to wonder why others ' succeeded always and I was so poor and obscure." Redlich touched his forehead. "It Is here that success Is manufactured. Education, madam, knowledge. We Flemands learn languages lan-guages easily. I have studied. 1 speak five as well as you do. Particularly Par-ticularly well do I speak Spanish. It Is to a land where they speak Spanish we are going." "We?" she queried. '.Tlerre Redlich, Red-lich, you have become Insane." "No, madam. I mu neither Insane nor Inflamed with drink. What 1 say, I mean. I have had you in my heart since I first saw you. I recognized you here before you saw me In Mrs. Grant's room. You were sitting by the sea reading, with no thought of danger. V was only when I came Into Mrs. Grant's room that my pride was i gratified. I saw that you had forgot ten me. Thnt pleased me. I saw you were frightened, and thnt pleased me even more." She glanced at the alarm clock. It was midnight. "I tin tired," she said. "If you do not go I shall summon help. On one side the housekeeper sleeps, nnd on the other the butler. I have only to shout loudly nnd they will come." Again there was that baffling, confident confi-dent smile. "Madam does not believe me when I say 1 have gained much wisdom since last I saw her. I will prove It. Miss Hrewen Is not there. When she went to her room tonight she found a rat there. It terrified her, and she leeps in another par' of the house. How do I know? Because I killed It for her. 1 also placed it In her room. As for the butler, he knows now that I am here as a detective. I have commanded com-manded hira to sleep near his footmen so thnt he may observe their movements. move-ments. I have told him I suspect them." She was convinced that he was speaking the truth. "This leaves none but you and me on this corridor. The quarters of the servants cannot be entered from It. You did not observe In your terror that I locisrd the door as I passed In. Anthony Trent Climbed Into the Room as Quickly as He Could. better than a savage. Then, I should have beaten you senseless and carried you off. Now, 1 shall not hurt you." He moved forward, twisted her arms behind her and pressed over her mouth and nose a chloroform-saturated towel. She fought for a long time, but the buzzing in her ears grew louder, loud-er, and presently her muscles relaxed and consciousness left her. Anthony Trent had been glad to get to his room early. By eleven all of the guests had retired. Always a lover of the sea, Trent pulled the wicker chaise longue to the window and lighted a cigar. He had turned out the lights the better to enjoy the night, the stars and the flickering lights of passing vessels. Suddenly there floated onto the balcony bal-cony the glowing end cf a cigarette thrown from some other open window such as this. Five minutes later another an-other fluttered by to the terrace below. be-low. After similar intervals the stub on the balcony was joined by another. By twelve o'clock Trent had counted a dozen descend ; somewhere above him a man was smoking cigarettes at the steady rate of twelve an hour. . . . With the last crimson end, came a sudden gust of wind and blew It into the room clear over Trent's head. He rose from his seat to extinguish It ere a hole was burned in the carpet. car-pet. It was the end of a braud of cigarette used almost solely by the French. One day he had smelled the undisgulsable odor and found oldGlm-bert oldGlm-bert pulling at one; Gimbert said .Mr. Yeatman had offered it It was unlikely un-likely that anyone else would have such a supply or consume them so resolutely. Yeatman occupied a small room at the head of the first flight of steps leading from the main hall: Under no conceivable circumstance could a cigarette thrown from the small window win-dow of this room drift down to Trent's balcony. Gravity forbade, for one thing. |