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Show A T&IJS, THE FATX-ZoODi Ml lit COPYiKjrtT BY THE BOoBS-ME.SJLL COfLNY CHAPTER IX Continued. 13 Jumping lightly from rook id rurk In tin' shallow wiili'i' of the pool, ihe bandit approached the e:itara-t, the thinl l':i p landing him upon the (hit top of n rok utmost wi;hin tho vrry wash of the rolling water. 1 'n llsi 1 Hll instant to ill II his lint tight and turn up tin.' collar of his coat, he sprang straight into the thin blade of the falls. His leap must have oar-rii'il oar-rii'il him completely through to thf other side. It was tln first the I'onrl-huiiter I'onrl-huiiter knew, or even suspoeted. that there was atl open space beyond. So completely did the falling water hide everything hack of It that pf"hahly the man who had Just leaped and (lie man who watched him were the (Oily two who knew there was anything any-thing hack of it. Tho IVarlhunP'r stretched himself flat mnlor cover of a clump of sprouts .'rowing iihinit an old white oak stump, and kepi Ids eyes fixed on the waterfall. Time lines slowly to one who watches and wails. It was prohahly not more than ten minutes, though it seemed far longer, when, without so much as a diverted fleck of spray in warning, the waterfall flung forth up on the llat-topped rock a lithe and active ac-tive future Hint sprung lightly to shore over the two intervening stones. Pausing on the brink of the pool barely long enough to shake his coat by the lapels nnd to knoel; his hat against his hand, he immediately set out ;ilong the bluffs toward the village, vil-lage, as unconcerned ns if he had not just pulled off about the most sensational sensa-tional stunt ever seen by a Flutwoods-mnn. Flutwoods-mnn. The Pearlhunter slipped out of the cover and softly followed; trailed him up the bluffs, through the corner of the woods and out to the river road where it angles north through the cut in the cliffs; listened at the fence, near where the path crossed it, till the receding re-ceding steps were well on their way to the village. I CHAPTER X. The Candle in the Cranny. All the way back to Fallen Rock the Pearlhunter pondered the scene he bad gazed on through the chink in the cabin wall: the man's transfigured face; his actions with the picture that above nil the picture. It puzzled him. angered Ii i in. That such a man shoiftl have her picture; his mother's with the darkly beautiful face and wonderful wonder-ful eyes warm against his breast! It was- another reason why be should hunt him down. The I'earlhunter was as brave as the woods make them but it is no discredit dis-credit to his manhood to say that his blood ran a little faster as be stepped down off the rock into the water and waded through the falls. Fvory inch of the way had to be felt out with his fingers before his feet could be trusted to follow. The roar of the fulls had dt'.lled a little when suddenly a sound came out of ttie dark just ahead a sound like a garment rubbing against some rough surface. The Pearlhunter stepped to one side of the passage and flattened himself against the wall. Out of the dead silence the sound came again. A grin loosened his face. The very sound he had half expected a horse contentedly munching his hay. The I'earlhunter came out from against the wall nnd inched his way deeper into the blackness of the passage. pass-age. It abruptly widened until he wa? no longer able to reach from one wall to the other wijh his outsi retched arms. Though denied the use of his eyes, he knew thai the passage broadly broad-ly expanded just there and became a cave. He .tood in tiie very entrance of it. The next step there was no help for it light! Desperate and dangerous danger-ous the first spark, and the cave might spring to life. Still, it was better bet-ter than to stumble over a sleeping man; or walk into a knife. With his revolver balanced, his face to the open cave, he reached bis left hand along the wall to the farthest stretch of his arm. bringing his body as fat as pc-s: hie from the light, and with his. fingers fin-gers fumbled out a spot suitably smooth and dry for there must be no failure. The match scraped. A tiny flume leaped away from the rock. It lighted up the place surprisingly. The cave was not large hardly twice the size of an ordinary room. The first swift glance showed him that except for the horse it was empty. The stub of a candle caught bis eye, stuck by its own tallow to an outstanding out-standing stool of shale just beyond the mouth of the passage. He crossed the pass-age and held the match to the wick. In the better light be studied the place more closely. The cave could not have been far below the ground, tor an oak root had i found its way through Hie wall. It was to this II. at the horse was lied. For a moment lie was strongly tempted to sttty where he was liil his prey reiurind the following night and I Inn rid the Flat woods of him. and trust what evidence he already had to prove his case. Hut a heller plan had been forming ever since lie came into the cave, and there was much yet to be done; though the cave would have made a good hiding hid-ing place during the coming day always al-ways provided the bandidt did not chance to return before his time Selecting a spot that he judged to be about right for the take-off. lie leaped at the falls, and, half to his surprise, landed on the (hit rock outside. It was like breaking through the crust of creation into a new world. .Marveling .Mar-veling at the small amount of water that had clung to hiiu. he sprung over the two intervening rocks to the shore. He hurried around to the front of the cabin, raised the latch, entered and closed the door. Snatching up some cold biscuits and strips of fried bacon, he hurriedly made six sandwiches sand-wiches and stuffed them into his pockets. pock-ets. Itesting at the spring long enough to eat two of his sandwiches, iie Pill! W Mil , i mm He Leaped at the Falls . . . and Landed on the Flat P.ock. drained a gourd of water, crossed the branch below the falls nnd hurried away up the bluffs into the deep woods. A mile and more north of the waterfall. wa-terfall. Wolf Tain bends west to double dou-ble and twist and loop through a tangle tan-gle of hills and gulches known as Fox Den, the wildest and most inaccessible inaccessi-ble district of the Flatwoods. The I'earlhunter had heard of the place. He resolved to take his chances there. The spot was no great distance ahove the three-gabled cabin. Away up the bare front of a clifT his eye lighted on the mouth of whs' appeared ap-peared to be a cleft in the rock. Wolf Iviin washed against a narrow lerrge at the very foot of tins' cliff. He Nprcnd himself flat against the face- 'jf the rock and strained from crevice to crevice. crev-ice. It was a prodigious task, but all tasks have an end either at the bottom bot-tom or at the top. The Penrlhunter's , task finally ended at the top. It had to. The strata gaped apart half the height of a man. leaving a wide-open scar in the face the cliff. It was perhaps per-haps ten feet deep, and seemed to be closed at the back by' the dipping together to-gether of the two strata. Rolling back as far within the opening open-ing as the converging strata would comfortably allow, fie dropped his battered bat-tered head upon his arm to sleep the I rest of the night away. The I'earihunter waked with the woods. His limbs and breast and shoulders were so sore that he was half glad for the snug place to lie in like a fox i his burrow, while the hounds beat up the woods at fault. I.ack of water was the greatest drawback. Thirst was already beginning begin-ning to annoy him. He took out his sandwiches and ate two more of them, saving the other two until later In the day. The salty bacon made the water wa-ter more tempting still. He drew bad. a little space from the brink of the ledge out of sight of It. The sound of It still tempted him. Voices reached him suddenly, breai. ing upon the slUence from around i: sharp turn of the gorge down stream. He drew his fac back from the brink of the ledge and lay listening. It was far too risky to look. His ears made out three of them three tongues, all going at top speed, a sure sign that eyes and ears were not as busy as they might have been. Opposite the cliff where the fugitive lay, the steps stopped. "What's that hole up there?" It was a gruff and heavy voice that asked, thick still w ith the Hare of temper tem-per that had not yet cooled. "Wolf den. niore'n likely," answered one of the others. "If we w us up th' blulT eros there furninst the hole, we could see in," suggested a voice. The other voices grunted; and the I i'earlhunter heard them hopping back across the stream, heard them clawing their way through the tangled underbrush under-brush up the opposite bluff. The scar in which he lay dipped slightly toward to-ward the rear. He rolled hack as far as possible, so as to have Ihe protection protec-tion afforded by the slightly higher edge; stretched himself on his right side; and waited for them to come into view. Fortunately the sun hit their side of the gorge, and the I'earlhunter could see them well, while, being on the shady side, and back in the darkness dark-ness of tin1 scar, they could not see him at all. The three of them drew together in consultation. The Pearl-hunter Pearl-hunter could not make out their words, but the manner in which they handled their rifles, which they had managed to drag up with them, indicated only too plainly the general drift of wdiat was being said. With a final nod all around, they faced the pocket, and one of them raised Ids ritle. The bullet struck the roof of the scar just in front of him, showering him with dust and bits of shale. The second fired. The bullet passed close to bis feet and lost itself it-self far back in the crevice where the two strata of shale converged. It was now the third one's turn. There came the hot spit of smoke; the vicious slap of the report. But even before he saw the one, or heard the other, he felt something like a red coal sting his side just under the armpit. His side' A thonsnnrt flomno Vi.irl got at it. Something warm and sticky ran down under his tattered shirt and made it mussy. The flames readied his face and twisted it. The air seemed to forsake the pocket. He crnwle; to the front of the scar. He couldn't take his eyes away from the water glancing along at the foot of the cliff. The flames had scorched him dry. If he could only have one sup of the water to moisten his lips so that the breath could get through. He crawled a little nearer the opening; open-ing; held his face out over the ledge. The ledge seemed to be rocking up nnd down ; the trees were dipping and going around in a queer whirl that made him dizzy. He had never known trees to act like that. The tops of tl'.e gorge were bending together. The gorge came together slowly shut out the air shut out the sky. CHAPTER XI. Only the Hunted Know. For a long time the Pearlhunter lay wondering why the gorge didn't fall in. While he lay and wondered, another an-other strange thing happened the Yry strangest of all. The top of the gorge began to open opened and let in two little patches of sky. He kept his eyes on them two little spots of blue set between clouds of pink and gold. The gorge top opened wider. He came back to the two patches of sky; smiled oddly they had transfigured ; had become the eyes of the Wild Rose. The shooting had brought her. Her r.rm was tinder his head, and she was saying something. A tinge of crimson deepened the pink in her cheeks when his eyes came open. What if he had heard! Rut she met hisNeyes with frank directness. He lay looking up at her a long time; trying to comprehend compre-hend it all; the wonder of it! that she was there! She heiped him edge a little nearer ihe brink of the ledge, raised him. and he drank out of her cupped palm. Whether it was the cup he drank fui, or the thirst that parched him. took no thought, but it was the (veetest drink Unit ever passed his ps. She eased him back upon the ?dge, her arm still under ids head. A frar.d of her hair fell upon his face, ihe tried to shake it off. He put up his hand and covered it. Her eyes dropped to his wounded side. "I didn't know he was the Ited .Mask." she said, as if in pursuance of his first remark, "till those men came this morning." Her nex words' were low and thoughtful. thought-ful. "I've wondered if it could have been he that hurt Daddy?" "It was him." The girl's breath quickened, lie saw her fingers clench. Hut there was much to do. Her eyes turned again to his blood-stained garments, gar-ments, and she set about uncovering the wounded side. There was little enough to remove a shred or two of tattered shirt; a laying back of the lorn blouse. Afier the first start at sight of the wound she became curiously curi-ously thoughtful. The color mounted to her face; he tried to meet her eyes, hut they turned away. "Can you spare me for a minute?" For answer lie lifted his head. She took away her arm, eased him back upon the rock, and he heard her light step as she sprang around an angle ..f the cliff. She was gone barely more than the minute asked for. When she returned -he was carrying In her hands a number num-ber of strips bandages of white cloth. Where she got them well, .hat's her secret. The bullet had cut a deep, ragged gash just below the armpit. It lnul grazed a rib, but seemingly had not broken it. Witli that encouraging fact established, and the sting of the wound much allayed, the mind of tne man began reaching forward to the night; tl;e all-important night when a certain suave individual in a frock coat would come to feed a certain horse. He said no word of this to the girl already binding the bandages around the clean-washed wound. She would have scouted the bare suggestion sugges-tion of the things lie was planning to do the moment the dark was sullicieut-iy sullicieut-iy dense to hide him. She drew what was left of his tattered tat-tered shirt and blouse over the bandage ban-dage at. last, laid his wounded arm across his breast and slung it there by a snip of cloth passed up around his neck, and helped him to his feet. It shamed him that be was absolutely abso-lutely compelled to cling fast to her, to lean heavy upon her, or go back to the rock. His face was far too white to show the niprtificni ion he felt, hut she saw it in his eyes. Lifting Ills well arm and laying it across her shoulders, she caught her left arm about his blouse waist and steadied him. The Wild Rose seemed to have taken tak-en toll of every bit of sunshine that ever struck the Flatwoods. That was the distinguishing feature of her personality. per-sonality. That and her good, sound sense. Her face was beaming full of both right now the sunshine and the sense. She was smiling up tit him, he knew. He was staring away above her head hut he knew. The smile gradually grad-ually drew his eyes down out of the trees. He could no more help it than he could help leaning upon her. She laughed a heartening little laugli like the happy water curling against the ledge. He laughed back. He couldn't help it. The restraint was broken ; the smart gone. He glanced down at the ledge before leaving to see that no tell-tale blood spots or bits of cloth were left. A needless precaution her woodcraft was as fine as his own. How she managed to lead him, half carry him, out of the rocky and brok en guienes ot r ox uen uno uouu uie rough banks of Wolf Run to the cabin of the three gables she never knew. Neither did he. It always remained a matter of wonder to him. Who does know the source of power that mysterious mys-terious augmentation of strength that comes to a woman in a crisis? She led him into the house and to the sofa in the main room ; the queer little leather-covered bed that had stirred his curiosity the afternoon of his first visit two days before. The old man was Diot in the room. She must have caught his eyes searching search-ing for him. "Daddy?" she answered to the eyes. "He often spends hours away; There'll be little pass in the woods today that he won't see, though nobody will see him. Poor Daddy !" "We'll send for that surgeon tomorrow," tomor-row," he said. She was back in a moment, carrying a pan of water, fresh bandages, and a formidable-looking brown bottle camphor, cam-phor, the universal first aid in the Flatwoods. The Wood-soaked bandages ban-dages were deftly removed and the wound re-washed. She picked up the brown bottle. "I am sorry to hurt you." she said. "But it will keep the fever down." "You're the doctor," was his slow answer. She uncorked the bottle and applied some of its contents to the wound with a bit of cotton. Hurt! It hurt so that he laughed. "Anything to get ready for tonight," he grinned, under the bite of the powerful pow-erful antiseptic. "Tonight !" stie repeated blankly. "Why, you mustn't think " "I must, though. Big things depend on tonight." She saw a sternness gather in bis eyes. "He'll think I've left the Flatwoods," he muttered on, more to himself than- to her. "It's what he's been waiting for. His game! tonight 1 and !" The girl sa v. the fingers of bis right hand clench against ids palm doubt-loss doubt-loss quite unconsciously while the knotted ridges of his greai toreari.: hunched and swelled; but the tu'.i meaning of tne muttered words happily hap-pily missed her (TO BK CONTINUED.) |
