Show on ca cwi T F 5 T 1 arp DUTTON g cb service SYNOPSIS chapton I 1 out of at uniform at the th on nd of the world Worl dwar war with the rank fe yf f major or pater LQ vol young an amor rn lean 0 of wealth and farn ri rt Is I 1 urged le by y an 1 E ft alish comrade in arms everod to h am to visit the D acham anham honis home I 1 and meet the English mana mans mother and six alx tr ter and incidentally urena Se delcos ael loosS cos lo 10 young uny woman about whom there to Is BD jr r 0 of mystery i IL II muriel uan Ben becharo ha haro Eyers bys alcher be becomes cornes infatuated T with pater but ut ho he la in interested only tin rt I 1 the a dyve rious brena Sel Se looss coas of whom ho go ha has as had only a glimpse i durl ur 0 cruts ill atna td 9 forget her har warn na him I 1 that it a sm T urna crena hould like ilk aim he to Is in danaher of yani vanishing shing like the other CHAPTER III at hla his london hotel peter gets a message from ram urena brana ask aak ino ing him ta meet maet hor bar he does doeg so and the th meeting mooting results respite in the formation or mation of strong bond of friendship CH ARTEIl IV after a baw few d day are companionship the feeling b between broan 1 peter and drens brena opens into 1 love ave 1 lie asks her to marry him and sho she c con on fosses if that at tie to married and that her nd ha hai ve vanished i CHAPTER V arenas life itte story I 1 Is t of the ordinary daughter daught of IL Ws sut r sale reek rather and an irish mother r he her and bouth youth had boon been a strange one I 1 her or fat father or learned but troal cal had been forced to leave his native I 1 vs I 1 land and because of revolutionary affiliations ati afi fil and his death following VIng quickly upon that of oc his wife leavis asavis brena rana p practically r optically oti cally penn ittes at dallas texas she secures work and at her place meets jim henne in lie to file fatte in love with hor her and lit in t loneliness lonell neu sho ahe becomes in a manner attached attao hedl to him jim tells her he ha had a call and la Is johnr going away H he urges her to meet h him rn in in st louis ibrena KOC goes to that city CHAPTER CHAP TEll VI breno returns to dallas daila alone compton nales ilon hen aspili employer middle aged and wealthy hev seeking nowa news of JIT jim who has Par parmalee malea to drons Henne intentions toward her w were ro dishonorable which she had suspected CHAPTER VII r some months later parmalee make srena drone an octor of mar alace admitting that he seeks elb only her and promising her froc free aoma dorn A alter tar reflection she ahe aca accepts e te the awn offer or thy thoy are marr married d at t the g r railroad station immediately following the ceremony Parm parmalee aloo to Is seized with tip patently parent j ly uncontrollable fear in ex 11 he accuses of being in I 1 oma way the cause of hla his feeling CHAPTER VIII on their wedding journey brena shows hows hr bar husband a scrap of magr paper Henn Hennep epin ln had given van her or at to Is a figure gure which parmalie Par maloe alee tells i ihl W to thi the kuk kuh ul can symbol of the I 1 ila he appears perturbed i S CHAPTER IX the Parm aloes settle down in new york ills ilia nervous band and a f roar fear increase but he refus refuges ilog t to 0 eat is toll I 1 airna r na the c cause 6 use of his nesi one na in t the he darkness he A alff a shot a at his ref luction in a plo turo tur drena brena he thought it was a bir clar ahe 4 e realizes realists h he Is the victim of some secret overwhelming fear TER X unab unable a to 0 o purchase a a of brena by fa famous oue artist parmalee a malsie shows shown irritation it amounting almost to c madness she he Is convinced ow that he fears rec recognition netlon sit either or of ter sow er or himself but c can lea learn nothing bothin from him he begins to c drink rt heavily bavly after a visit to his lawyer kantrow Lan trew trow hannalee Pan nalee disappears leaving leavin no word of explanation that was three years before peter and greim meet CHAPTER XI ar brena gives peter pator the paper with the mysterious symbol her protestations and warn I 1 ancs of danger he declares he wilt will wo go to america and solve the mystery XII on tho voyage dewolfe analyse ri Br brezias Brei erias ids tory story without anding any key to its solution aoi but he retains abir faith fa I 1 th in her tir truthfulness CHAPTER XIII at the alee alse home peter finan unions among the missing mans papers s a bill for an old book denorth mant ng e i pl oratIons in the At escalero d dart 9 1 r 1 t 1 f for 0 r which Par parmalee maee had bad paid barches t 1000 0 0 0 astonished Aston lahd at the amount he be searches and finds the book discovering ir that three pages are missing led by br some intuition he seeks arld and finds I 1 another copy of the th book witt with the same pares pages aleal peter has a feeling that somehow U he I 1 Is on the right track r ck lie he roc receives elves a cable from drann urging him to give up the quest and announcing uno noling she la Is on her way to aa america ca CHAPTER XIV acter takes steps I 1 to 0 staure 0 a perfect copy of the muti 1 lad a ts lour books CHAPTER XV obtains Obtaining the pr por toot copy dewolfe finds t the a missing paires tell 11 of a visit centurion centuries ago to a deserted city I 1 in rl the now mexican desert he to Is confident now ho he Is in on ii the e right fight track drone brana arrives at now new yort t and to her co nation finds jorl ster peter iron gone s A c cable a ble from him had monid her XVI drena expresses ab leet fear that peter like the other two men will she learns his destination j kremlin re rAllin wells texas 6 and ad follows him overtaking him on the he eve of setting out on A trip by auto into info the th desert he Is tells telli her only that i in he has a theory and she insists on j accompany accompanying ing him on the journey CHAPTER CHAP th the trip for or atlea through h trackless tr ackles sand and Is uneventful then t they by lat ight the ancient city described 19 4 1 in the old volume iu q arr arriving ivyng there in a heap or of charred bories bones rot poter finds articles which brena brans as ae Hennep lna it Is 19 his hie skeleton 1 I take 1 it down no I 1 did I 1 ran it through my nn fla gers era like a with lite ills gold tind hla his untarnished copper threads if a miser lias hafi thein too why not aruid it were bollig ga where there ire are no no fashions urena I 1 today 1 I ht therell b be e a white moon am M big as an a plate for hours well make ft a hundred miles at least the that runs nina along the bed of prehistoric torrent to the northwest thanks to old fattier carlos carlo the th hardheaded hard bard headed jesuit its on the MAP E absy by to follow vi lieh itic lil arp e crepe of evening hild hwn spread over the bilking baking squids and the stars lind had been set out in their infinite eless pattern in tho the high desert sky the car with opened auf iter her turned lier her nose out of the trull trall that follow followed Nl the line of the railroad and began to kick the sand behind as it if site she wore ere ft a hound it wits was na as it if she were leaving forever the sight eight and memory of mankind tills this country Is without mercy to living things after thirty milles miles of hard pulling through the bare loose surfaced plain tossed gently about as if they were riding in a motorboat motor bont boht over tho the long rollers of tho the son sea they saw before them on the crest of a sand wave a running pack of coyotes who aine up tip suddenly black against tho the moonlight like dog fish lifted into eight bight on oil n i wave but after that all vegetation aind even tho the cacti which stood atko trained scale their flappers hold held out is ile it if ready to begin a dance bo be coin cattle c and tile emptiness was that of the frontier of death itself peter turned to look at brena her face illumined by the moon was lifted a little with falth tho the hair blown back by the hot wind hor her eyes glistened like those of ono one who rides toward battle in a calm spirit she felt perhaps ills gaze and turning smiled sho bile wondered why lie he ind had been unwilling to tell tier lier why they went what he sought bought the facts lie had found will you tell me afterward she asked yes yeb lt if I 1 win he answered 1 I will tell you then detore before that ive no particular right to do it not till im sure tho tiling thing Is too tremendous when the moon had reached the bottom of the bowl of the sky dewolfe looked again nt at his epee speedometer d om did you notice that our searchlight no longer picks up little insects and turns them into flashes of silver he asked yes yea ile he stopped the car to fill 1111 the radiator wo we tire are coming irao into tho the most arid land in the world where no rain falls and there Is no dew it to Is the country of eternal stillness there Is no life I 1 not oven even tile the insects exist here there la Is no motion the there ie la in no sound listen t 1 brenn brena looked about at tile the great flat disk of the desert as she stood with tier her hand on peters shoulder it was like a world of hardened concrete without flexibility without a motion she listened and heard only her heart and the throb of silence that comes only in places of utter stillness im glad im with you peter she bile said there Is a threat here there ile he nodded weve been seventy live five miles to a man on foot boot without water that would be death a horrible death with the sand band dragging nt at the feet just like the flies one sees trying to pull their legs lega along fly paper with mill the heat burning lill all mol mols aturo turo out of the body with tile the silence and the stillness inviting him to madness and his li is aching limbs gradually turning ills his footpath around ani around in smaller circles to a center of death peter hud had driven ills car over the great hot flat disk scarred with irregularity Isi rity but nevertheless like n talking machine record with its tiny impressions the hours houra had called for endurance of smarting eyes that had stared so long for gullies or chasms and of aching arm muscles that had held the twists and tugs of the front wheels ile he allowed the car to come to a stop and shut eliut off the engine both of ua need a rest and water ho he said to brena and you need breakfast she lid did not tall tal to him as aa ho he fixed the car nor when having looked back along the slight cut of the old prehistoric torrent bed now filled almost to its old hanks banks with drifting bands tie ho squatted over a map measuring and consulting a pocket compass ills anxiety was evident they went vent forward again however under tile the full light of day into a trackless waste where there wile was not even a depression to guide them and where brena holding the compass in her hands gave directions to him tie na he be moved the wheel at the end of twenty miles more brena uttered nit an exclamation what Is ii that on the desert she naked asked Ll peter eter looka therel there I 1 to the left A little point of light shone on tile the sand ns as it if a diamond had caught the sunlight and had extracted from it a bit of its ita essence to outshine tile the sun himself peter steering toward it looked down over the hie edge of the car ra CIS one might tock lock over the edge of it bont at some piece of strange flotsam sighted in tills this was strange flo tanin indeed peter having stopped the car again to pick it up showed allowed it to drena it was nn an empty vial of white glass peter sprang out of the car and walking about in widening circles searched tile the ground 1 lie ile appeared excited time and time again lie ho looked at the little glass vial some one has been here said brona brenn im just irish enough to say aay that peter buah Illus li lie he said ive seen more than you have seen been it means everything to us I 1 ile he bent over her as aa it if he were going to take her in lite arms but he tossed his bead at some thought that had restrained him and took the wheel once more at nine welock they caroe came within eight of a great mound on tho the desert it appeared as it it were the fat round badelt of some gigantic creature that had burled itself tor for a sleep of cantu ale in a a sand cullow of vast urea area there it Is I 1 exclaimed dewolfe look brena look to the west flame whore up there Is IB the llano Es be macado the staked plain us s the spanish explorers called it and theren the haze on the horizon the haze base that the jesuit missionaries told I 1 about it cornea comes from the colder air of the Mescal mescalero oro ridgel ridge 1 and it means that we have found codr our way yes yea found our way theres ninety miles callea more where are ara we going to the oldest city dreno brena in america to a 4 city at the baso base of a high cliff built of clay which crumbled cen burtes ago into dust the wall Is left perlin perhaps ps as it was two centuries ago A dry well A carving upon the rock A windless place occupied only by horned toads and perhaps one other misshapen thing at three they had stopped again to eat they were able to see in the west vest tho tops of distant mountains marked by a deeper duller blue than the thin cloudless rotunda of the sky an hour later they came within sight of tile the tableland upon which these mountains were sot like plies piles of food upon a giants doorstep and this step up this mesa with tta its precipitous edge marked tho the end of the desert er t the dins that rise tr if that tableland I 1 are impassable said ter iter with its his eyes alight nad and his bis voice fille filled d with excitement the elty city was built below their protection around a great well and walled in front with thick fortifications we shall aall see them drena brenn I 1 lie he looked at the opening in the high wall as it if it were the maw of destiny opened to belch forth upon them thein a sentence tell me Pete rare there dangers there do you know knobf 1 I only guess ll 11 lie he answered 1 I think there are none I 1 think brena that beyond that there to IP freedom for uslice us life for us ua usa a message ines sage for us 1 I must go with you lie ile nodded at the entrance lie he stopped gazing down at the ground the flim film the blanket of fine dust lie ile uttered A an exclamation what do you see bee peter 1 I see a record in the sand annd what record dr we shall see more lie said grimly gome come toward title this memorial of tragedy of death of decoy decay of the insignificance of time of the inconsequence of on an ago oi of roan man brena and peter like two creatures of a moment of life walked with solemn awed faces look I 1 said peter suddenly have you your our bervol nervo looka lie ile pointed to a pile of charree bones lying g close to tile the well among them was a piece of human skull blackened bl a c k ened as if by fire walt wait peter commanded lie he went forward bent over the ghastly pile kicked the sand that surrounded it and stooping down gathered a number of objects into the cup clip of lite ills hand this was no prehistoric man he said eald solemnly seel the eyelets and the nalla nails of shoos the leather ion long 9 ago vanished vanis shed here tire ore two mother of pearl buttons a pocket knife coins the snap on a wallet tills this man twit lost his life alrena many years ngo ago sho she tried to speak wetting her ber dry lips with the tip of her tongue there are things of gold too said sad peter kerp your nerve dear look at this I 1 ile he held liend out in hla his trembling fingers a signet ring with an 11 deeply engraved upon it thail exclaimed brena with horror it wils was fisl jim this Is him yes brenn moved toward the pile of bones linof consumed by fire then she stopped and looked away he was killed she said ile he was shot allot or stabbed no replied peter grimly |