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Show - '-tw -- - aumi . ': L. n 2ND INSTALLMENT jfck' iv otcii arrangement e this paper a photo-dram u a ccresvonoina tc the installments of ' The Stf.-istrr Key. ' ifgft mav ncru fr 5rn AT the .cading moving picture theaters. ijvf 'By Arrangement made with the Universal Film SMfg. Vhh Cb & nor ony possible to read "The SMastcr Key'' Wei fiC? Tveek. but also afterwards to sec moving pictures ' illustrating ou- story fu "I (Copyright, 19 If by John Fleming Wilson.) ICh' SYNOPSIS Two prosp.'Clore. .Jaitifm GftllOD and llnrrv Iqj-I Wilkerson, nre pnrtners Gallon makes R rich Ilin ami draws ,,. n temporary plan of the location of t hf vein of gold. Wilkerson Wilker-son tries to steal the b.' pUni Gallon rrsisto sud they quar- le rel. In the flRlil Gallon thinks hC h!?H klllnj hll pnrtnor an.) leaves him lying In the camp. Gallon arrives In n small western town, where he t i ie the sheriff that ho RUi his c ;rtncr were attak.l by outlaws nnrl that his partner was Air killed. The sheriff, his posse ami Gullnn en in ilir. s,,no of I t flph' hut lhry '' ' no1 finl WIIkraon, The sheriff think- v ,nv ia,!on has tricked him places htm under arrest Meantime Mean-time WUkerson has recovered ami departed. That night JP Gallon makes bis eaoape and inter arrives In Bah Francis fcjr Here he tak' ship. The captain of this vessel is a collector v of curios. Gallon's mind Is uneas and he has visions of Bt Wilkerson rrturnlnc for the plans. In the captain's cabin US ' 1 'host where he keeps his curios Gnllon opens this and pl finds a Japanese idol, with oik eye Re removes the eye and fi hides the plans in the Idol. A fire breaks out In the ship re causing: a fight amon tne sailors to gr-i into the boats OU Gnllon r. turns to the deck to secure the chest and Is lefi r'n p board The ship sinks but Gallon saves himself Hfcvlnc J nothing on which to write takes n key nn.l an old nail f" nn'J ,n lnc key scratches the probable location in latitude OU nd longitude nf the ship when It sank. He Is picked up by rp f Pas,ln steamer and 18 years later endeavors to find the , location of the gold strike, but does not succeed E" tn CHAPTER IV. Id I? Many a man writes down on paper the things he Kj cannot articulate. iv. Thomas Gallon dreaming of two women, taciturn ro and silent as he was, wrote down the thoughts id Which he could not express in speech. His diary. tt? Vfl thumbed, held the history of many a lonely . night; but of all these nights there was one that stood out In his mind- ' K was the darkness enclosing a woman on a bed. jj, He still heard her whispered cry: "You speak of God, Tom but I have no religion but motherhood." tt Before his closed eyes came the vision of a lamp p lit then almost an apparition the face of his be- daughter. One life had fled, possibly appalled by jfy the horrors of a world that recks not of our poor ff humanity. Yet there was in the dead woman's F arms a child grotesquely asleep, as if unawakened K to the sorrows this mother had known. Lj "Ruth!" he cried. There was no answer from Lf the sti'l woman in the darkness but thus he had L :hristened his only child. l It seemed to him as if that echo still reverberat- le ed from the moonwashed hills which marked the tn site of "The Master Key." y "I am getting old," he thought, as he turned the p pages of the diary, a6 if unconsciously counting the years since a woman had leaned over his shoulder. "Ruth," he murmured again. H The problem before him was no longer dim and vague, as it had been in the days of his prime 5 but absolutely distinct and clear what was to be- I come of Ruth when he died? He reviewed in his mind all the men and women he had known It was a strange procession. They marched before his sharpened vision: old partners, fresh young eirls, mature women, men with checkbooks check-books in their hands, men dying of thirst on the desert and Wilkerson He sternly put out of his mind the thought of his former partner the mar, was he df-ad0 If he had not died that night in the gulch if he were still alive, knowing the secret of "The Master Key." who would save Ruth from his vengeance' Then there rose before his mind the straight, strong, almost austere figure of his mining engl- neer, John Dorr. Youthful, of course, but he had proved himself whollv competent in almost every task that had been given him. The old man thought more deeply; he recalled his own former years He, himself, had broken aS-, down the iron harriers of a cold world for the sake of a woman whose image Ruth was. He had seen In John Dorr's eyes the growing llame of love, j Long experience had taught the old man that there I is no passion so dependable in this world as loe junu dui i luitu uii..!! ii neeiieu uu iiiuiieLary bond to assure his fidelity to her interests; and with the sudden, swift, alert step of a man who had made hi final deci6iou, he went out on the porch and called "John, John!" The Meaning of the Pennant. Within the interior of the little house down the hill, the engineer of Thomas Gallon's mine had ' abandoned his blue prints to study the letters on j a little pennant, which represented his first victory a touchdown on the football field within the last i ten seconds of play. He knew- better than anyone. that his mission to Valle Vista was futile. Using i every resource at his command he could find no paying ore, and et there was the pennant the emblem of victory bard fought and hard won Should he give up now ? He heard a clear, stern I call from up the hill "John' John!" "I'D win out yet, for Ruth's sake," he said, as he answered that imperious cry. Other ears heard that call, and as John hastened down the hill he saw Ruth's figure by the side of the bungalow, and as if by the opening of a shutter shut-ter he once more saw the lights of Broadway, and a table spread with linen; two people sitting there: his evil geniuses. Other Lights. Tn this complex and highly oraanized civilization Of ours, no man can be assured that at any moment i some other man, possibly thousands of miles dis- i tant, is not planning an act whose portent would I never occur to him. I At a table in a New York restaurant, a man and woman were sitting with the words "Gallon," ; "Dorr" and "Wilkerson" on their lips. "Harry Wilkerson has found Tom Gallon," she i said quietly. "I wonder what will happen"?' ' Her companion laughed. ' Gallon? 1 had a col- I lege mate named 'Dorr' who is working for a man named 'Gallon' somewhere out in the mines." , The woman's dark eyes lit up and she seemed ' more strikingly handsome as she allowed her sud- t! den passion to flood her Bomber face with color. "There is money in that mine, George Crane!" she said. "But this man Dorr what sort of a chap is he? You miniiiK stockbrokers usually have In ' formation as to all these engineers " !. The slender man with the shrewd face, seated opposite her, dropped his eyes "To tell you the truth, Mr6 Darnell, I never liked John Dorr." 4 "Neither does Harry," she put in quickly I The stockbroker looked at his plate a moment. and then pulled out his memorandum book. "Lis ten, Jean"' he said, in a tone she recognized as utterly businesslike, "shall I buy 'Master Key' stock0" "There is a girl back there " she went on tensely. Crane looked up swiftly; he caught a lint of the jealousy in the woman's eyes; for his own purposes she was most useful, so he snapped the rubber band around his memorandum hook, put it back in his pocket, and said with finality. "Jean, I'll buy "Master Key' shares at any price!" "Still Waters." Answering the cry which had como to him from Thomas Gallon's bungalow, and realizing that in it was a tone he had never heard before. John Dorr strode down the hill. As ho crossed the gulch he Ba?" the door of the bungalow open and Ruth appeared. ap-peared. "I thought I heard your father call," he said awkwardly. . "Ho was calling you." she answered quietly, "but he went over toward the dump. I think he wants you there." Ruth laid her little hand on John Dorr'? brawny arm, "John," she said, the swift color rising in her cheeks, "I don't want to say anything to make trouble, but father is worried. He trusts you; but, you know, we haven't recovered the lost vein." John looked her straight in the eve "Leave It to me!" Her appealing hands crept up his arms, and for one moment she allowed him to read her soul. She made a potent plea, directed by the instinct of a woman who is loved. "John, look after him! He is doing it for me." Dorr hesitated a moment. It was the first thing Ruth had ever asked him. He felt that he ought to respond to this appeal in some most convincing way, but he could formulate, no phrase that would express at onco his determination to do everything in his power to help her father, and his gratitude that she had taken him into her confidence; so he merely smiled, waved his hand, and went down the hill toward the dump, beneath the head end of the spraddling trestle. She called him back "I forgot it was lunch-time," lunch-time," she said shyly. "I must get down to vour father," he said. "Then I'll bring you both down your lunches to the mino," she said. "We can have a little picnic all by ourselves!" "The Lip of the Bowl of Life." As he went up toward the end of the trestle Dorr observed that the engineer running the donkey don-key engine seemed hardly to know his business 'My dear fellow," he said quietly, "you're allowing allow-ing too much slack on your cable It is dangerous! Those ore cars are coming down that trestle too fast if their brakes give way it means disaster!" "What's the trouble?"' said Gallon, coming up with a piece of ore in his hand. "I was just telling Bill Tubb9 thai if he did not keep up the slack on his cable on those cars he would whip them over the end of the trestle." said John. He turned toward the old man and said in a different voice, "You called me: what is it that you want''" "Look at this, John!" said the older man, handing hand-ing out the piece of ore. "Dirt, not gold-bearing quartz. I want to talk to you; I've got something to say to you. ' Involuntarily John looked down the street: ho saw Ruth coming, swinging the lunch basket in her hand He remembered her shy appeal, that Iip would do the best he could for "The Master Key." "I think we had better go into the mine; we can talk there," he said They are setting off a blast," Gallon remarked. Disaster. Dorr looked up at the car roaring past them overhead and said suddenly, "Before anything else you ought to fix that trestle Some day a car will go over on the dump." Gallon looked up and then glanced at Dorr. "I puess you're right, John: I've thought of that myself my-self Things have kind of gone at loose ends, now I'll see to it myself with our help. Besides I have something to say to you." "There comes Ruth with a basket of lunch1' said Dorr "Oh, yes, when I am away from the house she often picnics with mo here In the mine. Say, I'm going up on the trestle; have another talk with Stubbs. He is all right, but he has got careless; tell him to keep up the Black of his cable. I tell you, John, I have wanted to talk to you for a long timo; but flint I'm going to look after that cable, because I can see you are right, and we might have a bad accident " As the old man atarted into the mine putting one foot after the other, with that carelessness characteristic charac-teristic of men becoming decrepit, a man ran out of the mouth of the mine waving bin arms. Almost InKtautly following him came a puff of gray-blue smoke, which soared upward and spread out as if it were the blossom of a cloud warmed into full bloom by the hot sunlight pouring down into the valley. Ruth let fall the lunch basket and stared upward at that dark, murky hole in the hill. Was Johu there? Was her father there? She knew that that bulky cloud blooming into the heavens meant death beneath the ground. Unwittingly she cried, "John!" Then she remembered her filial duty and her next word, whispered toward that billowing, billow-ing, eddying mass of vapor was "Father'" The Runaway Car. Ruth hastened her pace toward the entrance of the mine. The shale gave way under her little feet, but she struggled upward until she reached the trestle Having lived all her life In a mining camp there was no terror for her in anything but falling rock. That effusion of smoke floating over the hillside seemed to speak of disaster She knew the peril of a premature explosion and she also knew every working of "The Master Key." And again she wondered whether it was John Dorr or her father or both who were stifling for air within that dark tunnel. She did not see John Dorr talking to the engineer engi-neer below her, nor did she see the miner who had just left the mine and was scrambling down the ladder. Her thought was that during this noon hour, when both shifts were off duty, her father had gone In and accidentally set off a blast. What blasting was done in 'The Master Key" usually took placo during the nooning, but owing to carelessness it was sometimes the case that all the blasts were not set off She had seen men belched out of that dark hole before furious gusts of gas And yet, why was the ore car Inside? That, too. spelled disaster She dropped the lunch basket and pulled out the pocket electric lisht which she always carried. It burned only a tiny hole In the billowing smoke. She rushed blindly in. ti n -ting to her long familiarity familiar-ity with the tunnel to find her father Thus it was that father and daughter passed each other in the darkness. "Father'" she cried, peering into the darkness beyond. "John"' She stepped on into the shadow and called again. Her foot slipped on the rough floor of the tunnel and as she tried to save herself her lamp fell. A moment later .she saw a trickle of fire running along toward Hie heading. It was a fuse leading to a blast that had not yet been shot. With all light gone except that blue flicker, penned in as ;be was by the ore car standing there with set brakes, what hope had she? She climbed into the ore car and tried to unset the brakes. It was her only hope. Then she realized real-ized that the cable was still attached She climbed down by the light of the now flaming fuse and unhooked un-hooked the heavy shackle. A moment later she was again in the car with her little hands firmly on the lever. With strength bred of desperation she managed to release it. The heavy car slowly creaked away down the dark tunnel; then it came over Ruth that she was not strong enough to stop its momentum on the long trestle that led to the dump; she was fleeing death by fire and gas and rock only to be hurled headlong over the lofty end of the track She crouched in the rnr. Just as It emerged from the tunnel's mouth it was as if a huge hand thrust the car forward the boom of tho explosion deaf- ened her She stood up now In the wildly speeding speed-ing car and cried: "John! John!" The Rescue. After talking to the engineer John Dorr had missed Gallon and saw him at the anchorage of the ore cable car up the hill across the gulch from the trestle He mado his way up there and the two men stood talking for a moment. "John," said Gallon, "I am getting old. Years ago there were two partners of ub prospected this country and we found free milling gold. I say 'we John, but there was a little girl I kept tho location loca-tion of that mine to myself. There was trouble, John. He suspected me " He turned his dimming eyes on the stalwart young man in entreaty, "I guess you know why I tried to keep those plans to myself?" Who is the man9" demanded the engineer, patting pat-ting the great iron ore carrier with his hand as a man pacifies a restless animal. At that moment there came a faint cry from a miner on the trestle "What does he want?" demanded Gallon peevishly John Dorr's eyes saw the miners in the camp, wives and all streaming out and staring upward. They had got the meaning of that cry' He thought to himself: "Where is Ruth0" It came over him that she was bringing luncheon to her father and himself in the mine. He stared up at that dark hole in the hillside and saw an eddy of smoke. Instantly he knew that she must be somewhere within that dark depth With all the force of his lungs he bawled down to the engineer, who was staring stupidly upward, swung himself into the bucket; pulled his signal whistle out of his pocket and blew it furiously. The engineer seemed to listen for a moment, then kicked off his brake and blew his answering whistle A second later the bucket was swinging down the lofty cable across the gulch. It was not clear In John s mind how he could rescue Ruth. The quickest way to get tc the trestle tres-tle was by the bucket; then he would have those long, long stretches of ties to traverse and when he reached that smoke-filled tunnel, could ho get through'' He must. Ho steadied himself and thought, his eyes fixed on the hole in the hillside. The bucket was still surging one hundred feet a way from his goal w hen he saw the ore car emerge and In It the slender form of Ruth. No ono realized better than he that her strength was not equal to setting those brakes and that she had escaped one death only to meet another Ills trained eye caught sight of one chance. He yelled down to the engineer: "Quick' Quick' Tubbs!" The engineer's blank face upturned toward him seemed that of a man dazed by eminent disaster, but John Dorr's imperious will reached across and down that space. The engineer pulled his throttle wide open and as he did so John Dorr swung himself him-self over the edge of the bucket, and. hanging down by his knees right over the trestle, waited for the oncoming car "Ruth!" he cried, "Ruth! come to me!" He saw her turn toward him, balance herself in the swaying ore car and lift up her arms He stretched his own down and as the mass of steel and ore dashed under him, caught her up He did not hear the crash that followed. All he saw was the upturned face of the girl he loved, swinging one hundred feet above death In his strong arms, safe. The Letter. About three thousand miles away a dark and splendid woman was looking critically at her maid. "Elolse'" she was saying. 'I don't like- to be waked this early in the morning. I have told you often enough about this What do you mean by disturbing disturb-ing mo for a mere letter?"' "You told me, madame, always to call you when there was a letter In this handwriting." Mrs. Darnell sat up alertly and quickly perused the slow, even script written on the old-fashioned blue-lined paper of a country hotel-"Dear hotel-"Dear Cousin Jean: "Since you last heard from me I have found Gallon. Gal-lon. I am leaving today for Silent creek His "Master Key' mine is only ten miles from laere. Wonjt he be surprised to see me? I will let you know later how our scheme comes out ' . ., . r .- "Good-by for now. Keep mum! IbbbbbbbI "AS 188888881 "HARRY. 1,H Fear of One Man. IsbbbbbbI When Gallon thought he had killed Wilkerson he I became infected with the ineradicable disease of I In his conversation with John Dorr he had gis jj first expression to his feelings. The youn mlnlnffl engineer, on account of his youth, did not fullM understand that men do not speak of such thlngW until age loosener of tongues as well as of thMj chords of life suddenly oppresses them; makeMj them feel helpless; brings them to a realization oM: what the ultimate fact of death means. He ha J barely caught the appeal in the old man's vole when he had comprehended Ruth's peril. The old man, with shaking limbs, had watchetH the rescue When ho saw that his daughter vaX safe he also perceived the solution of his problemH Here was a quick mind needed to protect Rnth'iH property. Somewhere in that hill was the richeiB of California gold. Once more he said to hlmaelfH 'M "John Dorr can find 'The Master Key.' " Feeling himself too weak to meet the girl wf l H was now clinging limply to her rescuer and aliej discerning in his own slowing pulse that hie time I was short, he went down the hill, crossed the gulch I without a word to the wondering miners and ea I tered the bungalow ! A moment later John Dorr entered with Ruth bis arms. The old man merely looked up: "At'l ways look after her, John," he said slowly, "and lf m Wilkerson comes back " Dorr looked at the old man with pity in hl eyes. "She isn't hurt," he said, gently putting ha down on the couch Then he straightened ull jl "I'll always look after her," he promised. iBsl Gallon stared over at the white face of M ( daughter as she lay unconscious on the co'fl '(Bbbb! "Humph " thus expressing to himself his o'fl 'tH comprehension of the fact that there was comM such a period in his own life. He went out wflB j out a look backward. When he returned the rofl , was empty. He fingered the books on the taB 1 and fell into a state of profound thought. He I not hear the door open behind him. Ruth, freshly clad and wholly recovered f I her experience, wondered at her father's attil I She stepped softly toward him. He did not 1 fl She went nearer She laid her soft hands oi SPV shoulder and then, as if the fingers of life-long ietr were touching the very nerves of his being, Thomu I Gallon slowly twisted his head by a supreme ecort I of will to see the sight which of all things In the I world he did not want to see, the face of hU I enemy. j By the magic of the strange phantasmagoria" j which represents our mental processes if we loos at them carefully, he did see the face of Harry I Wilkerson. Vfl "A-a-a-h " he breathed. His eyes closed, conv 1 pelled to by his troubled conscience; but he J recalled by a loved and familiar voice; it "aT Ruth bending over him saying: "Father! Fathf" fl what is the matter?" The old man suddenly looked up, still fearfujij that he was to see that feared and hated fa ejflM "Ruth!" he said, and it struck him that on her f was a look almost of terror. lfl "Why, nothing was the matter, child; I was onTflB thinking." But there was something in his tone that madt 1 rvui'i draw i1 jt h m nei luuuLcuufl Mie uau uw h learned to discern the difference between the v- j rlous rude passions that govern this world. She H was still afraid. She crept out the door. H Gallon l"i his head fall on the table upon his H empty arms. As Ruth closed the door softly hehind her, she fl saw a light burning in John Dorr's cabin and there B flooded over her a sense of relief that there was H someone to whom she could go. i sBBBBBsl Once at the door she knocked hard, because it I seemed to her that she had been pursued up thejj hill by some strange and miserable demon. JLbbbbbbbI "John! John!" she cried. 'IH The moment he appeared it came over her ialH she had done an unconventional thing; yet thertWJ was that demon of fear creeping up the hill aiterM her and she turned her eyes to the kind, bravB face of the engineer and held out her slender arm;H and whispered: "John, I don't understand; som thing has happened; I am Beared." i bbbbbbI John Dorr looked down at her fair face for 1 1 moment and shut his eyelids. Was it true, thailflVH she had finally come to him? He, too, felt the pIll sage of dread. Way down the hill, across the gulcj-M drenched in moonlight and shadows, it seemed W him that he saw one of those grotesque and inp-vl sible figures, mirages of the desert night ThejB he took Ruth into his strong arms. 'issssH And the man whoso arms held nothing, wMpljl hands were clenched In an agony of cuiminatf J rflH fear, saw through the window a figure of a manf 1 horseback on the crest of the hilL Resurrection. ImbbbbI A tall, dark, stem man, who did not tip the lft H ter, got off the Overland express at Silent Val J The little hamlet lay there like a mirage of so jfl man's dream. There was but ono familiar buildi in tho place aud Harry Wilkerson gazed at it i n smiled. H "Well " he said audibly, "this looks like od!J times' Now to find Gallon'" It seems that in that clear dusk which marks the border line between life and death, wo see things more clearly than at any other time; and Harry Wilkerson, as he looked over the familiar valley, remembered that long night when almost mortally wounded by Thomas Gallon's bullet he I had crept to safety Every peak, gully and gulch was as plain to him as it was on that night He had heard a great deal about Gallon's medio- I ere success and he did not fully understand why I it was that "The Master Key" mine did not pay better. Was it possible that his former partner had not been able to find that rich vein of gold after all? He smiled again. He would And it 1 Then there was that girl whose vivacitssgjlfl beauty ho had heard so much about HHB Some instinct told him that Gallon must be everH thinking of him and with the dramatic Impulse of a man who has long nursed the' hope of bitter vengeance, he planned his reappearance. He would find bis old partner alone and there and then theyH w ould once more have it out This was the reason H that he bad not taken the motor stage, but had I come on horseback, silently watching for his op-l portunity. His keen eyes scanned the scene be-l low him and easily picked out the bungalow. (To bo continued.) " T M ' &mjwiBklJl IbbbbM |