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Show COPYRIGHT BY" THE BOBBS-MERRJLL COttSANY o o THE RED MASK. Synopsis. Never having known his fiuher, and -liviiig Willi li is mother 0:1 a hnus.'bn:!! un the Wabash Wa-bash river, Pe.irlhunler the only name he hud learns from her a part of the story of her sad life. The recital is interruptoil by a fearful lit of euu.u'iiihf; ami he hurries hur-ries a.hoi'c to seek a root that affords af-fords relief. He mens a youns fiirl w iiom he mentally ehristens the YViU Hose. She eludes him before be-fore lie can make Iter acquaintance. acquaint-ance. A vacant cabin 011 the shore has attracted the attention of the ailing: woman, and they move into it. Their first meal is interrupted by the Man-in-the-l''ancy-Vesl. l.'earlhunter strikes hint. Gunplaj threatens. The mother dramatically dramati-cally drives the intruder away. She says he is the "Other Man," whom she has not seen for 2i years. They find a red mask dropped by the Other Man. That night Pearlhunter finds the Blue Moon, a great freshwater pearl. His mother dies without revealing his father's name. Pearlhunter and the Other Man meet in the village: a pistol fight is narrowly averted. Pearlhunter believes him to be the lied Mask criminal. Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter rescues Wild Rose from the Other Man and meets Wild Man, her father. O o , CHAPTER IV Continued. 6 "I don't know that if? splendid," he said. "I'm going to buy some books; and then " He hesitated. The girl dropped her eyes and stood toying with the bonnet string nrnnnd her arm She did not mention that the storekeeper had told her the tragedy of the grave at Fallen Rock ; of the mother who had died the very evening of success; whose eyes had not been permitted to rest on the faultless sheen of the jewel for which she, too, had searched a lifetime. life-time. "And then " she repeated, when it seemed he was not going on. A tiny breeze fell into the woods through the gap cut by the road, and stirred the leaves. There is death as well as life In the woods. Penth always; al-ways; even in June. The breeze found a dead leaf among the living ones and shook it loose. It threatened threat-ened to light on the girl's bright hair, but fluttered down past l:er face and fell at her feet. The breeze; the falling leaf the woods, her woods, had whispered ; and she heard. "Daddy !" she cried suddenly. "I've "" "left biiutoo-long." Her voice had grown serious. She h"ld out Iter hand for' the basket. The Pearlhunter passed It over and she turned away. It was an awkward parting and the Pearlhunter felt it, but lie was a man of slow speech. His words had to be chipped by hand out of the rough, one at a time, as men of old fashior.'-d their arrowheads. "Wild Hose!" She turned. The name had brought the dimples back. "Hay I walk along with you?" The words were past recall before he knew it. "The woods are as much yours as mine." was her smiling answer. He never could remember just how the baslet managed to get from henna he-nna to his as he walk"d a way with her. the sole recolle'-fon that stood out in his memory being the fact that the path seemed to (lv up and hit his ' feet before he quite had time to set them down. CHAPTER V. Cabin of the Three Gables. For some distance back from the river the Karthmaker scrambled the l'latwonds. Scrambled that's exactly exact-ly what s'-ems to have happened to a PI rip aliuig the north bunk. A t iare of gtiicli and cliff, of gully and blulT; nil bearded (hie!; with trees and dense underbrush; all alive with the teasing mystery of growing things. The path the girl traveled wound Itself, or ralher unwound itsoT, right Ihrough the heart of the hills, deep into the mysle'.-y of the thick woods, until it turned sharply and led up the east hank of V.'e.'f run, the little fit ream in which the I'eaillnmter had cashed the eleenmpano riots. A pliort distance above the pool, so rear that I he I'eiirlhtinter wondered he had not seen it before, 11 three-gabled, three-gabled, on"-slory log cabin snugged back against the bluffs just where they left the bank of the stream and curved to the east, A slop farther, a small plot of creek bottom hail been cleared and fenced what the I'latwoods called a "garden natch." Pack of the garden, gar-den, a stable hugged tin? blulT, but It whs half hidden by rank weeds. The cabin was built of hewn logs, notched prt'.stieally at the corners. The root projected well beyond the uIIk ; Utv chimneys were of red brick ; the doors and windows of a finish rather more pretentious than was common in the woods. There were three wings, extending at right angles an-gles from it common center, making four rooms. In all, three along the front, with another, probably the kitchen, extending back from the central cen-tral room. Where the path left the stream to turn toward the door the girl paused and held out her hand for the basket. Slowly the Pearlhunter passed it over. It was an awkward moment. His eyes traveled past her to the tiny garden. He noticed that the fence around it was sagged and broken. The garden, however, appeared to be clean and well-kept. Aside from th's and the flowers the place showed a very sad lack of care. The underbrush along the bluffs trembled slightly, but enough to attract at-tract tlie woodsman's eyes. Noiselessly Noiseless-ly the swaying bushes parted as noiseless as the unfolding of a flower and in the narrow opening, framed by its border of quaking leaves, there grew a face sad and vacant, with pitiful eyes; unmistakably, though he had never seen it before, the gaunt, gray face of the Wild Man. The Pearlhunter glanced quickly at the girl, to find her eyes still fixed on her basket, and when he looked again at the bushes, the face was gone. As his gaze searched the underbrush, under-brush, a glimpse of a gray shadow flitted along under the cliff and disappeared dis-appeared behind the cabin. He couldn t leave her now and yet, by what excuse could he stay? "You have a pretty place here," hp said, prohably becau.se he couldn't think of anything else to say. "A pretty place all so natural; the woods are hardly disturbed a bit but aren't you afraid?" "I haven't been till today." She raised her eyes to his face. The storekeeper's store-keeper's story came to her mind; the grave at Fallen Rocks; the lonely cabin to which he would have to return. re-turn. And he had just rendered her a service the age-old service of man to woman. "Won't you come up to the house?" The Pearlhunter little knew how that simple Invitation honored him. No other man had ever received It. "I'd like to." He said It so seriously that the girl laughed. Carrying the light basket between them they walked up what might be called, for want of better word to name it. the front yard. There was not the least necessity that two hands should be laid to that one light basket. It just happened, as do so many other pleasant things in this delightfully un-orderly un-orderly world.' At the door she stopped and faced him. A deep seriousness had filled up the dimples. "Mr. Pearlhunter " The slow eves of the man found her face, ami she paused. "You told me In leave off the Miss. I'm askin' you to leave off the Mr." The dimples came back, but only for a moment. " Pearlhunter." The name came strange to her. "You will be Hie first man, except my fafher and the doctor doc-tor that has crossed his door slop in seven years." Her' voice fell very low. "You must not be surprised at what you see." From bohm the closed door of the cabin came a groan not of physical pain, but one that seemed to niutier up out of a w.'nekod soul. The girl dropped her sloe of the basket handle. "Daddy!" she cried; and dashed the door open. The Pearlhunter was a hard man to jar out of his habitual calm, but the sight that met him as he followed her across the door-slop struck him rigiil and staring. A huge iron gray shell of a man rose slowly In the shadow the late afternoon af-ternoon cast over the room. The lighl that fell In at the open door brought out the pathetic, nervous quiver of his face; (he solemn vacancy of his pitiful eyes. It was the Wild Man. The girl ran to him and put her arms about his shoulders. He seemed not lo feel her touch. Slowly ami noiselessly he approached the Pearlhunter. Pearl-hunter. A ieaf couldn't have drifted across the lloor more silently, or more ln olunlnrlly. Some extraneous force seemed to drive him. The girl clung to him and tried to coax him, even drug him, back into his chair, lie seemed to bo ultorly unaware of her weight. There was a knife In his hand. His hollow eyes never left the Pearlhunter's fare. Willi all tin; girl's assurance that he was harmless, that Ihere was no danger, It took all (he Pearlhtinlcr's resolution to abide the coming of that gaunt apparition. HIh breath came fast. He set the. basket down ua the floor, dropped his hat beside It, and kept his eye on the knife. A pale fire burned nway back in the Wild Man's vacant eyes, and his beard writhed with the quiver of his features. He even raised his hands and ran them over the Pearlhunter's face, as a blind man might In searching search-ing for some recognizable feature. Apparently he did not find it. The pale fires died out of his' eyes; his face quivered ; his breast seemed to collapse; the tense silence shivered with a groan. The inrush of strength that had seemed to dower his rvast frame with irresistible force fell from him as a mantle. He tottered as the girl led him, like a tired child, hack to his chair. Her father! The daughter of the Wild Man! He stepped aside out of the open door and let the sun in. It streaked across the floor and caught her where she stooped over the old man's chair. She seemed for the moment to have forgotten his presence. He glanced around the cabin. It was really four cabins four rooms under one roof. The door by which they had entered faced south. He stood in the center room, or center cabin. A curtained opening led to another room on the west; a similar opening, with the curtain cur-tain looped hack and tied with a bit of ribbon, disclosed a room on the east. A closed door gave entrance to the third room, probably the kitchen, kitch-en, jogged a little to allow for a window win-dow near the northwest corner of the center room. His gaze traveled to the fire place. A revolver a very dependable looking look-ing six-gun lay upon the mantel. Above it, arranged across a draped American flag, hung a silk sash, a tasseled cord, a pair of silver spurs, and a sword. Looped in the sword hilt were two strands of ribbon, one purple, the other gold. There came a dim remembrance that he had once heard somewhere these were the colors col-ors of a famous regiment that greatly great-ly distinguished Itself in the Indian wa rs. The half minute or more he had spent looking over the room had given giv-en him time to recover his calm, and now his glance came back to the ruin in the chair. The Wild Man was whetting his knife against his palm, mumbling and muttering. He seemed to gloat over the glitter of it and the girl within easy reach of his hand. The Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter stiffened ; gathered himself to 3 His Hollow Eyes Never Left the Pearlhunter's Pearl-hunter's Face. spring. She happened to look tip. eautdit his eye. and shook her head. Seemingly unconscious of tiny danger, she came to the door, picked up her basket and his hat and put them on the table beside Ihe vase of wild roses. "You're not afraid?" asked the Pearlhunter. Pearl-hunter. "He wouldn't harm a fly." - "Put Ihe knife?" "He plays with It by the hour. That knife." as If weighing the thought It raised. "lie keeps it wilh him night and day. I fear dentil will sometime come of that knife!" llis eyes urged her to go 0:1. "Seven years he's been as you see 1 1 1 1 1 - l"p lo that, lime he was the most wonderful father a girl ever hail. He wasn't gray until then, and he didn't wear a beard. Those who knew him Ihen wouldn't know him now. It was seven years nt:o this .lune the twentieth. twen-tieth. I remember It because It was my birthday I was twelve. That eve-nlhg eve-nlhg I heard a groan at the kitchen door. I ran out, and Ihere was Daddy, Dad-dy, holding to tlie door post lo keep from falling, his hands covered wbii blond, and blood all over Ills face and hair. I helped him In, washed otT Ihe blond and iliscnvei imI it came from a wound In his head. I bound It up the best I could and ran to tin- village for Ihe doctor. "When he rnme. he said Paddy had been shot. There was a long scar like a groove that the doctor said was made by the bullet. It had caused concussion of the brain. Since that he has been like this. Tlie Unlfe he must have taken from Ihe person that shot him, for be had none of his own. It was clutched tight In Tils hand when I found him Ihe knife, anil Ibis" She beckoned him across I lit? room to the book case. It was Ihe first carpet car-pet the Pearl Hunter had ever walked over. He set Ids feet down like a man crossing thin Ice. She fumbled out from behind ft row of books a small packet, with the caution cau-tion : "You mustn't let Daddy see It. He will go wild if you do. I used to keep It stuck behind the picture, but It worked out into sight one day, and he drove the knife through it before I could get It away from him. If he ever finds the man It belongs to he'll serve him the same way, I'm afraid. Sometimes I think that's why he haunts the woods to see if he can find him. There, you can see where the knife went through." She had been unwrapping a fold of paper as she talked. The sight of its contents surprised a low exclamation from the Pearlhunter. It was a red mask. The Pearlhunter fingered the bit of stiff cloth lying across the girl's palm with such quick eagerness that her eyes sought his face curiously. The red mask! The slit of the knife near an eye hole no man In the Flatwoods better able to read the story it told ; none better able to piece together the fragments of that seven-year-old tragedy. trag-edy. f'p through the eye holes there seemed to glow a pair of eyes blue, like blue ice; eyes that glow black when roused. He knew what they looked like when the blue turned to black. Suddenly, without warning, a deep groan set tlie silence ashiver. The girl crammed the packet back behind the books; the Pearlhunter whirled. The Wild Man had risen from his chair and stood peering toward him wilh wide, weird eyes. With a step that was ghostly noiseless he crossed the floor. Quite close he came, his dulled senses seeming to need the stimulus of close contact. His bony hands and long arms were quivering; his hollow face twitching pitifully. "He's never like this," the -girl whispered. The young man glanced at her and stood still. The thin hands fluttered over his face and head. Even their lightest touch was heavy with a strength that must have been prodigious prodig-ious as if the fires of his malady kindled kin-dled a force in him more than human. Some impulse of compassion must have reached the heart of the Pearlhunter, Pearl-hunter, for he stretched his long arm forth and laid It about the old man's shoulders. Instantly he felt the weight of the gray giant upon him. It might have been the one thing the stricken man craved in his dumb way the touch of bis kind ; the prop of a man's arm. . The situation embarrassed the Pearlhunter. Pearl-hunter. It was like winning the confidence con-fidence of a little child, and then not knowing what to do with It Tlie girl was quick to see his embarrassment, embar-rassment, and. much as a mother might coax a child away from some one she imagined it was annoying, she led the old man back to his chair; then, leaving him, she hurried across the room to the book case. "I never saw him so restless before," she said, as site passed by. "He seems to like you, though," she continued while finding the book she wanted. "Strange, too, for he's cross usually, even to the doctor. Won't you excuse me till I quiet him?" Before he could reply she had found the book and hurried back to the chair. Opening It, she laid it upon the old man's knees. He bent his head and felt over the open page with his hand, but the weird eyes could no longer resolve re-solve the frozen magic of the words. He fidgeted In his chair and the book slid to the floor. The picture was too distressing, and the Petirlhunler turned his face away. From where he stood he had tin almost unobstructed view Into the easl room, the girl's room, and before he realized it bis eyes had stniyed past the curlains. Amazement held them there a moment in spite of him. The room, in striking contrast to what he bad .-ecu of the rest of the house, was aliuiwt bare of furniture a enr-potless enr-potless lloor; the rudest of beds; a broken chair, and little else. He heard her walking across the floor and turned away half guiltily. Sin had iter hand upon the curtained cut ranee of the w est room, ami he noticed no-ticed Ihat it was carpeted, and was otherwise furnished quite in keeping with the room In which lie stood, certainly cer-tainly In very decided contrast to the room upon tin; east. Put he had no time to reflect on all those things, for the girl reappeared In a moment carrying a cello, which she placed between the old man's knees. She put the how In his right hand and lifted bis left to the strings, lie laid his cheek down upon the in-sirument; in-sirument; grew quiet. The faltering bow tried to wake the strings, hut In vain. The old man's body seemed to shrink together. His chin dropped down upon his breast. Put the next Instant he sat upright and rigid; his wide eyes, groping around, found the Pearlhunter, and he started to rise grappled up. strained up, as If by a power outside himself. Another man without a name r ., en.) ntj conti.ni' 1:1.1.) |