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Show iBflilflV. September 21, 1922 TUB T.F.HT RTT1 The Mardi Gras My ster y flf CHAPTER IX Continued. HHfft can't be possible!" he mattered, Km ding farther over. "Such a tiling IXpcn too rarely" Blls henrt pounded violently; ex-ciuent ex-ciuent sent the blood rushing to his fotn In blinding swirls. He wns Epped by the gold fever that comes Hhon a man when he makes the as-Kbundlng as-Kbundlng discovery of untold wealth KrlnR at his feet, passed over and disregarded dis-regarded by other and lens-discerning Kien for days nnd years I flf It was oil, no question nbout It. An extremely slight quantity, true; bo slight a quantity that tlicro was no film on tho water, no discernible taste to the water. Grnmont brought It to lils mouth nnd rose, shaking his head. Where did It como from? It had no connection with the gas bubbles nt least, It did not come from tho dome of water nnd gas. How long he stood there staring Qramont did not know. ills brain was nflre with the possibilities. possibil-ities. At length he stirred into action end started up the bayou bank, from time to time halting to search tho waiter wa-iter below him, to rnnke sure that he could still discern the faint Irides- cence. He followed It rod by rod, and found that It rapidly increased in I strength. It roust come from some very tiny surface seepage close nt hand, m that was lost In the bayou almost ns I rapidly as I) came from the earth- depths. Only accidentally would "a I man see It not unless he were search-I search-I lng the water close to the bank, and I evrn then only by the grace of chance. I Suddenly Qramont saw that he hnd I lost the sign. He halted. No, not lost, either I Just ahead of I him was ajiatch of reeds, nnd n re- cession of the shore. He- advanced I again. Inside the reeds he found the I oily smear; still 'so faint thnrhc could I only detect it at certain angles. Glnnc-I Glnnc-I lng up, be could see a fence nt a little I distance, evidently the boundary fence I of the Ledanols land ; the bushes and I trees thinned out here, nnd on nhead I was cleared ground. He saw, through I the hushes, glimpses of buildings. I Violent disappointment seized him. I Was he to lose this discovery, after I all? Was he to find that the seepage I came from ground belonging to some I one elso? No he stepped hack hastily, I barely In tlmo to avoid stumbling Into K, a tiny trickle of water, a rlwilct that ran down Into the bnyou. n tributary Mfto Inslgnlflcant that It was Invisible ten feet distant I And on the surface a faint Iridescence. I Excitement rising nnew within him, I Gramont turned nnd followed this rlv-I rlv-I ulet, his eyes aflame with eagerness. It led him for twenty feet, nnd censed I abruptly. In a bubbling spring that welled from n patch of low tree-In- closed land. Gramont felt his feet sinking In grass, nnd snw that there was a dip In the ground hereabouts, n I swampy little section nil to Itself. He I picked a dry spot and lay down on his 3 face, searching the water with his I eyes. L Moment after moment he Iny there, '.Patching. Presently he found the Fsllght trickle of oil again a trickle so faint and slim that even here, on the I surface of the tiny rivulet. It could be I discerned only with great dlfllculty. A I very thin seepage, concluded Grail Gra-il mont; a thin oil, of course. So faint B a little thing, to menn so much I It came trom the Ledanols land, no doubt of It. What did that matter, B though? Ills eyes widened with flam-H flam-H lng thoughts as he gazed down at the H slender thread of water. No matter Jnt all where this came from the main point was proven by It I There Hwns oil here for the finding, oil down Hi In the thousands of feet below, oil so thick and abundant that It forced It-ffeclf It-ffeclf up through tho earth fissures to BEflnd nn outlet I HE "Instead of going down five or six thousand feet," he thought, exultant-BJly, exultant-BJly, "we may have to go down only as nnany hundred. Hut first we roust get nn option of a lease on all tho land Hfroundnhout all we can secure I There Will be a tremendous boom the mln Bute this news breaks. If we get those flfyptlons, we can sell them over again Rtt a million per cent profit, on even IC we don't strike oil In paying qunntl-ttics, qunntl-ttics, we'll regain the cost of our drill-tlNgl drill-tlNgl And to think of the years this JBniiiB been here, waiting for some lie " BBBpBuuueniy no stancu violently. An HffSmpt crashing of feet among the Bfjwshes, an outbreak of voices, had KfJMHindcd not far nwny Just the other Hfwde of the boundnry fence. Ho was MtHdcened from his dreams, and started HKjw rise. Then he relaxed his muscles fljMd lay quiet, astonishment seizing BjMn; for he heard his own name men-flftkmed men-flftkmed In a voice thut was strange to Klin. mB CHAPTER X. jSEj'ho olco was strange to Gramont Ssy he had a vogue recollection of " 4h"ilnB at somo time heard it before. yWgiras a Juunty nnd impudent voice, iirvSry self-assured yet It bore n SjRtBrtled nnJ unensy note nB though MiB, speaker hnd Just come unawnrc Fiupoa the man whom he addressed. gWHpwdy, sheriff l" It said. "Didn't mPaeof you ' there what you doln' so Sjtffar.awny from Houma, eh?" l" ., ?fWhy, I'o been looking over the Wi, place around here," responded nn-jfo'thpr nn-jfo'thpr voice, which was drj and grim. K&IrJaiow you, Ben Chachcrre, and I MtfcliikJ'" tnlct you along with me. Just SfraBfrom Kow Orleans, did you?" '$5?tl Tnke mo7" 'n,c volco ' ChckThv shrlUed up suddenly In M$ By H. BEDFORD-JONES " Copyright fcr DouMdr, PM C J , 3 t alarm. "Look here, sheriff. It wasn't ' me done It I It was Gramont" , There came silence. Not a sound broko the stillness of the late afternoon. after-noon. Gramont, listening, Iny bewildered j nnd breathless. Hen Chncherre come here? Grnmont knew nothing of any tlo between Jnchln Fell and Cha-cherrej Cha-cherrej he could only lie In the grass and wonder at tho mnn's presence. . What "plate" was It that the sheriff of Houma had been looking over? And what wns It that he, Gramont. wns supposed to have done? Confused nnd wondering, Gramont waited. And. as he waited, ho caught a soft sound from the mnrshy ground beside him a faint "plop" ns ' though some object hnd fallen close by on the wet grass. At the moment ho paid no heed in this sound, for again the unennny kence hnd fujlen. Listening, Grnmont fancied that he caught slow, stealthy footsteps omld the undergrowth, but derided the funcy as sheer Imagination. His brain wns busy with this new problem. Houmn, he knew, wns the sent of tho parish or county. This Ben Chncherre appeared to have suddenly nnd unexpectedly unex-pectedly encountered the sheriff, to his obvious alarm, and the sheriff hnd for some reason decided to arrest htm ; so much was clear. Chncherre had nothing to do with thn "place" did that mean the ndjn-cent ndjn-cent property, or the Ledanols farm? In his puzzled bewilderment ocr this Imbroglio Gramont for the moment quite forgot the trickle of oil at his feet. Ilut now the deep silence became unnatural nnd sinister. What had happened? Surely, Ben Chncherre had not been arrested nnd taken away in such silence I Why hnd tho voices so abruptly ceased? Vaguely uneasy, Btnrtled by the prolongation of that Intense stillness, Grnmont rose to his feet nnd peered among the trees. The two speakers seemed to have departed; he could descry nobody In sight A step to one side gave Grnmont Grn-mont a view of the Innd adjoining the Ledanols place. Tills was cleared of all brush, and under some 'Immense oaks to the far left he had a glimpse of n large summer cottage, boarded An Abrupt Crashing of Feet Among the Bushes, an Outbreak of Voices, Had Sounded Not Far Away. up and apparently deserted. Nearer nt hand, however, he snw other buildings, build-ings, nnd these drew his attention. He heard the throbbing pound of n motor ut work, nnd ns there was no power i lino nlong here, the plncc evidently hnd Its own electrical plant. He I scrutinized tho scene before him np-) np-) pralslngty. There were two large buildings here. One seemed to be n large barn, 1 closed, the other wub a long, low 1 Btlcd which was too largo to be n ' gnrage. The door of this was open, nnd before the opening Gramont saw ' three men standing In tulle; he recog- nlzcd none of them. Two of tho talkers talk-ers were clad In grensy overalls, nnd t no iniru ngure snoweu iiic iiubii or a collar. The sheriff, Hen Chncherre. and somo other man, thought Grnmont. Grn-mont. He would not have known Chncherre Chn-cherre had lie encountered him' face to face. To him, the man was u name only. The mention of his own name by Chncherre Impelled him to go forwnrd und demand some explanation. Then It occurred to him that perhaps he had made a mistake; It would have been very easy, for he was not certain that Chncherre had referred to him. There could ho other Gramonts, or other men whose name would hnve much the sume sound In n Creole mouth. "I'd better nttend to my own business," busi-ness," thought Gramont, and turned away. Ho noticed that the motor had ceased Its work. "Wonder what rich chap can be down hero at hlu summer cottngc this time of year? May he only n caretaker, though. I'd better give nil my attention to this oil, and let other things ulono." He retraced his steps to the bayou bank nnd turned back toward the house. As he did so, Hammond m-peared m-peared coming toward him, knife In hand. "I'm going to cut me a pole and land -"Ztf9MmmWmWBMtUMmmmMmmmmUMmVMMl - a couple o' fish for supper," announced an-nounced the chauffeur, grinning. "Got thlnga cleaned up fine, cap'nl Tos won't know the old shack." "Good enough," said Gramont "Here, step over this way I I want to show you something." He led Hnmmond to the rivulet and. pointed out the thin film of oil on tjta surface. "There's our golden fortune, sergeant ser-geant I Oil actually "coming out of the ground I It doesn't happen very often, but It does happen and this Is one of the times. I'll not bother to look around any fnrther." "Glory bo!" said Hammond, staring nt th& rivulet. "Want to hit back for yvn?" 'No; we couldn't get back until some time tonight, and the roads aren't very good for night worlc Tin going to get some leases around here perhaps 1 can do It right awny, and we'lt start back In the morning. Go ahead and get your fish." Itcgalrilhg the house, he saw vtlmt Hammond had Indeed cleaned up la great stjle, nnd hnd the main room looking elenn as a pin, with a fire popping pop-ping on the hearth. He did not ,pauso here, hilt went to the car, got In, and started It. He drove back to the roaa" nnd followed this toward town for a I few rods, turning In at a large and very decent-looking farmhouse that he had observed while passing t OB the way out u He found the owner, an Intelligent-appearing Intelligent-appearing Creole, driving In some cows for milking, and was a llttls startled to realize that the afternoon was so late. When he nddreased the fnnncr in French, he received a cordial cor-dial reply, and discovered that this man owned the land across the road from the Ledanols place that his farm, In fact, covered .several hundred acres. , ' "Who owns the land next to the Ledanols place?" Inquired Grnmont "I sold that off my land a couple of years ago," replied the other. "A' rasa from New Orleans wanted It for a summer place a business man there, Isidore Gumberts." Humberts "Memphis Izzy" Gumberts Gum-berts I The name flashed to Gra-mont'8 Gra-mont'8 mind, nnd brought the recollec-, tlon of a conversation with Hammond. Why, Gumberts was the famous crook of whom Hnmmond had sjioken. "I bow the sheriff a whlto ago, heading head-ing up the road." observed tho Creole. "Did you meet hlra?" Gramont shook his head. "No, but I saw several men nt the Gumberts place. Perhaps ho wns thcro " "Not there, I guess," nnd the farmer farm-er laughed. "Those fellows hnvo rented rent-ed the place from Gumberts, I hear; they're" Inventors, nnd quiet enough men. You're a stranger here?" Grnmont Introduced himself as a friend of Miss Ledanols, nnd stated frankly that he wns looking for oil and hoped to drill on her land. "I'd Uko a, tense option from you," he went on. "I don't want to-fcuy your lund nt all ; what I want Is a-rlght to drill for oil on It, In case any shows up on Miss Ledanols' land. It's all a gamble, you know. I'll give you a hundred dollars for the lenso, and the usual eighth Interest In any oil that's found. I've no lenso blanks with me, but If you'll give mo the option, a signed memorandum will be entirely sufficient." The farmer regarded oil as n Joke, nnd said so. Tho hundred dollars, however, nnd the prospective eighth Interest, were sufficient to Induce him to part with the option without any i delay. He was only too glad to get the thing done with at once, and to pocket Oramont'a monoy. Gramont drove awuy, nnd was Just coming to the Ledanols drive when he suddenly threw on the brakes and halted the car, listening. From somewhere some-where ahead of him the Gumberts place, he thought Instantly echoed a shot, and several faint shouts. Then silence ngnln. Grnmont paused, Indecisive. The sheriff was making an nrrcst, he thought. A hundred possibilities flitted flit-ted through his brain, suggested by the sinister combination of Memphis Izzy, known even to Hammond as a prlnco nmong crooks, with this secluded se-cluded plnco leused by "Inventors." Bootlegging? Counterfeiting? As he paused, thus, he suddenly started; he was certain that he had caught the tones of Hammond, as though In a sudden uplifted- onth of anger. Grnmont threw In his clutch und sent the car Jumping forwnrd he remembered that he had left Hammond Ham-mond beside the rivulet, close to the Gumberts property. What had happened? hap-pened? He en me, nftcr a moment of Impatience, Impa-tience, to an open gate whose drive led to the Gumberts place. Before him. us he turned In, unfolded a startling scene. Three men, the same three whom he had seen from the bushes, were standing In front of the low shed; two of them held rifles, the third, one of tho "inventors" In over-nils, over-nils, wns winding a bandage about u bleeding hand. The two rifles were loosely leveled nt Hammond, wh stood In the center of the group wltl lils arms In the air. (TO HE CONTINUED.) |