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Show I )&) Albert VnTeikwm) O AUTHOR OF THE 'THE FIGHTER' "CALEB CONOVER " "SYRIA FROM THE SADDLE," ETC NOVELIZED FROM THE PATHE PHOTO PLAY OF THE SAME NAME BY WILL M. RrTCHEY. 1 (gcrmsyr. uia.rruarfATMXTimwu ( f SYNOPSIS. B "'F10 Jlmy Borden, who derives his R ttuoted name from a icd birthmark on tho M Back of hlB right hand, is released from' B prison after serving his third term. Ono gg Qiember of every generation of tho Bor-U Bor-U flon family has been branded with tho Rod B Circle birthmark and that member has p llways been a criminal. Jim and his Uki tt-ayward aon Ted are the only known llv-m. llv-m. Ins of tho Borden kin. Max Lamar, ade-K ade-K iS5.t,v,0, t.6 ?,et?lled to keep an cyo on H "Circle Jim." June Travl8 and her moth-Bc moth-Bc fcr meet Borden as he is released. "Circle B liml &nd. Ted are billed. "Tho last of tho mm Borden3,' says Lamar. But tho next day BV ho saes tho Red Circle on the back of a K woman a hand outsldo a curtained auto-1 auto-1 mobile. Juno Travis, marked with the K Red Circle, robs Grant, a loan shark. H Brant omploys Lamar. Mary, June's mm ?rs,e' d,scovcra Juno's theft and the Red mm Cir.c on,.her hand, and tells her she is "Circle Jim s daughter, though Mrs. B Xravl6 does not know. Mary dresses as mtm tho veiled woman and Is pursued by La-B La-B tnar. She escapes, leaving her coat ns a W clue in his hands. June, disguised as a K boy, recovers tho coat from police head-Mi head-Mi Quarters. I FIFTH INSTALLMENT W WEAPONS OF WAR Wm "I believe ,the Red Circle never Wat Bhows on your hand except when B3 you're planning some wicked mis-Hi mis-Hi chief!" croaked old Mary, as she Um pausea at tne door or June s bedroom, HI early next morning, her arms piled k high frith clothes. B$ "Yes," said June, drearily, with a B guilty glance at her handbook, "I've B thought so, too." B "It was there last evening. It isn't there this morning," went on the old Bp woman, depositing the clothes on a BY chair and beginning to arrange them, BT one by one, In a wardrobe trunk. ( "What were you up to, dearie? Tell K Mary." Jra "Nothing at all," declared June, her Bj eyes fixed anxiously on the tmnk ml Mary was packing. "Please don't let's ftj talk about It It makes me so mlser- Bj able. I've packed part of the trunk," B Bhe added . "Don't disarrange that K part of it, Mary." B Before breakfast, June had gone to B Mrs. Travis; and, on plea of feeling B "run down," had persuaded her to B close the town house that very morn- B Ing and to go for the season to their B summer cottage at Surfton. Hj o o o o B Max Lamar had been closeted for an B hour with Chief of Police Allen. They H had twisted tho new development of H tho "Red Circle" mystery inside and K out; Btudylng it-vainly from every lm- H aginable angle. IJ First of all, they had ascertained n what they had already been sure of that no tailor in city or state was B named Attman; and that neither city nor state contained any master tailor 1 who was a mute. Also, a vigilant search of every tailor shop, by a doz- i en detectives, had failed to identify any I employer or employee with tho dumb youth of the preceding night. "Have you tried your pretty little portrait gallery?" asked Lamar. JJ "No. We'll run over it. if you like. itf I'd spot that lad's face anywhere." f With the help of his secretary and of Policeman Meeks the only men i I "Suppose I Drop Around to Seo Smiling Smil-ing Sam7" Who had had a good look at the dumb tailor tho chiof began a hasty search of the collection. "Here's old 'Circle Jim,'" said the chief once, as ho glanced over a hand-ful hand-ful of photos. A few minutes lator he paused at another likeness. "Remember this chap?" he asked iLamar, handing him an oblong of cardboard. Lamar took the photograph and, nan Aloud, read the words scrawled on . '"8am Eagan alios 'Smiling Sam' Wei burglar Close associate for ycaro of 'Circle Jim' Borden Claim to have reformed. Has small cobbler shop at 1019 Bright way. Height 6 feet Inches. Weight 240 pounds. Identify. Ing marks " "Smiling Sam Eagan I" broke off Lamar, La-mar, "I'm not likely to forget him. We got him when we got 'Circle Jim'. But he was too Bllck for us to give him all he doserved. He was turned looBe about a year ago, wasn't he? That was the first time I ever heard of Miss June Travis tho young lady we met in tho park, you know, when we were looking for the Veiled Woman. Wom-an. I heard at the prison how she met Smiling Sam when he got out, and how Bhe was fooled by his maudlin pledge of reform. He'd learned cobbling cob-bling during his terjn. And she spent good money to set him up in a shoemaker shoe-maker shop of his own." "She's the salt of the earth, that girl," commented the chief. "Suppose I drop around to see Smiling Smil-ing Sam," said Lamar. "Sam Eagan?" returned the chief, looking once moro through a handful hand-ful of photos. "Here you are: Cobbler Cob-bler shop at 1019 Bright way. I've had him watched onco or twice. But there's nothing on him." Sam Eagan's shop faced on a corner, cor-ner, and behind it was a disreputable looking back yard separated by a .rickety gate and a tumbledown board fence from the alley at tho rear. The corner was uninviting, even for corner loafers. Yet ono such loafer, Infested it at all hours of the day. This consistent idler was a thickset youth, clad in shabby gray. His name was Tom Dunn. His mission in life seemed to be to lean half-asleep agalnBt the lintel of Sam Eagan's doorway, door-way, puffing cigarettes. It was an uninspiring life that Mr. Thomas Dunn led. Long since, the neighbors had ceased to interest themselves them-selves In him. Had the neighbors looked closer, they might perhaps have noted that his half-shut eyes were as bright as a rat's, and that those same apparently drowsy eyes were forever shifting their gaze up and down the street. Also, that Mr. Dunn at intervals would step back Into Smiling Sam's shop. Tom Dunn, this morning, lounged as usual, in front of SmIMng Sam's- shop; smoking an ill-made cigarette; and loafing away the early hours when most of the world waB at work. Inside the dingy little shop, Sam himself was up to his eyes in toll. Tho shop's dirty walls re-echoed to the quick taps of his hammer, as he drove tiny bright nails Into tough sole leather. As Eagan, cross-legged on his low bench, sat hammering gayly away, Tom Dunn ducked his unshaven visage into tho room. "Jake's comln'," announced Dunn; and returned to the front steps onco more. Smiling Sam looked up with a friendly nod, a moment later, as a cadaverous man of middle age shambled sham-bled into the shop. The newcomer bore under his arm a crude little news paper parcel, rie nanaea it to oam, without a word. Eagan unrolled the newspaper wrappings. wrap-pings. Gut fell a dusty shoe, whose sole was all but gone and whoso heel was "run" at the left side Smiling Sam picked up a cobbler's knife and proceeded to piy off the battered shoe's still more battered heel, Jake standing In nervous expectancy behind be-hind him and looking avidly over tho cobbler's fat shoulder. Presently, the heel came away from the shoe. It was hollow, and it was wadded with tissue paper. Sam carefully care-fully undid the tissue folds. Out of them dropped a round brooch, set with alternate pearls and diamonds of a fair size. "How much?" demanded Jake. "Twenty," was Sam's terse verdict. "Twenty," snorted the Indignant Jake. "Twonty what? Twenty nothin'! Twenty dollars for that bit of Easy Street Pavement? Why, the gold set-tin' set-tin' Is worth more 'n that, you measly old gouger?" "Twenty!" snapped Eagan, "Take It or leave It." "I'll leave it, then," stormed Jake. "I'm not going to be robbed. Gtve It back to me." "Sure," smiled Eagan, blandly, returning re-turning tho brooch to him; and at tho same time absentmindedly pulling from his trousers pocket a roll of bills which ho fingered carelessly. To Jake the slgfet of money was a bone to a starving dog. Ho wavered. Then s "Oh, take it, you swine!" ho growled, tOBSing tho brooch down upon Eagan's leather-aproned lap. "Take it. T hope it lands you in the pen!" Sam peelod two greasy ten-dollar bills from the roll, handed thorn to Jake and put tho rest of the money back in his pocket. He picked up the brooch. As ho did so, Tom Dunn alipped hurriedly into the shop. "Max Lamar fly cop " ho reported, report-ed, "Comln' down the block; lookin' at the numbers on the houses." "Gee!" babbled Jake, "He'll spot me, dead sure! He's " "Out the back way," ordered Sam, The lookout caught tho shaking Jako by tho arm and hustled him toward the back of tho shop; to a place whero the blank surfaco of the wall was broken by several shelves on which Btood a Bparse array of shoo boxes. Dunn thrust his hand in among these boxes. Instantly, a section of the wall shelves and all opened outward, out-ward, revealing a passageway behind. Through this opening, Dunn shoved the panic-stricken Jake; closing the thlok secret door behind them. Jake and his conductor found themselves them-selves in a dim-lit Inner room, unfurnished unfur-nished save for a big and dog-eared calendar that hung on one wall, and a broken packing box below it. Dunn pushed violently at a slab in tho chipped plaster of tho adjacent wall. The plaster gave back at his push. A doorway, perhaps three feet high and twenty inches or less in width, took the place of the seemingly solid plastering. Through this hole, closing it behind them, the two wriggled; out into the yard beyond; and thence, through the rickety gato to the alleyway. alley-way. Meantime, left alono in his shop, Smiling Sam Eagan saw a long shadow shad-ow fall athwart the street threshold and hesitate there for an inBtant. No time was to be lost. Sam slipped the brooch back Into the hollow of the shoe-heel; and, with two deft blows of the hammer, nailed tho heel Into place on Its shoe. He was driving the second nail, when Max Lamar sauntered into the shop. Max glanced down approvingly at tho busy old fellow tacking a worn heel on to a worthless shoe. "Well, well, Mr. Lamar!" he cried jovially, holding out an enormous hand. "This is an honor I wasn't a-looklng for. Sit down. You'll find that bench clean, I think. I try to "Lot me take that bum old shoo you're playing with, Mr. Lamar. It'll got you all dirty." -3SJ Thinking Sam was trying to change the subject, in order to avoid talking of the Red Circle, Lamar paid no heed to hlB request; but kept on swinging tho shoo idly to and fro, as he aBked: "That Red Circle, now you remember remem-ber what Jim Borden used to say about it." "That It cropped out onco in every generation of his family," supplemented supplement-ed Eagan, "and that the person who had It was always a criminal." , "I have roason to believe It wan gOBpel truth, Eagan," Baid Lamar. "The Red Circle on tho back of tho hand has always been tho sign-manual of a crook, in the Borden family. And" "Not alwayB," corrected Sam. "There was that son of his young Ted Borden for Instance. He was a cheap crook, right down to the ground, that youngster was. But there wasn't any Red Circle on his hand. That shoe, now" he continued anxiously; but Max Interrupted. "That brings mo to the point. You say Ted Borden had no Red Circle on his hand. And Ted died when his father died. But how about Jim Borden's Bor-den's other children?" " 'Circle' Jim's other children?" cried Sam, In a wonder that wasNpalpably genuine. "His othor children? "Why, man alive, Jim Borden never had another an-other child but Ted." "I'll tell you why I ask," Bald Lamar, Impressively, leaning forward and emphasizing em-phasizing his words by tapping the shoo against his knee "Because I happen hap-pen to know that no loss than two people peo-ple in this very city today havo tho Red Circle on the backs of their right hands." Ho broke off and looked down with sudden curiosity at tho shoo he was SwlSwPi ? link -4 x The Cobbler Picked Up a Short-Handled Hammer. keep things as tidy as I can. This is like old times, seeing you again." "Thanks," said Lamar, seating himself him-self on tho shiny bench and taking out his cigarette case, "it's good to boo you so nicely fixed here, Sam. And It's good to see you aren't scared at sight of" "That's right, sir," chimed In Eagan, with a big laugh, of genuine amuBe-ment. amuBe-ment. "Why, I can remember tho day when I'd a run a-screochin' up a troo If you came In sight. Lord, but It's worth while not to bo scared stiff every timo a detective happens 'round!" Abruptly Max came to the object of his visit. "Eagan," ho said, "I've called around hero this morning to seo if I can get some information from you. I want to talk with you about 'Circle Jfm' Borden." "Old 'Circlo Jim!'" exclaimed Sam. "Why, Jim's dead. Too dead to skin." "You and ho were pretty close friends, weren't you?" "Mo and Jim? Yes. Good frlonds for more years than you'd know how to remembor," replied Sam. Max caught sight of tho Bhabby and dusty shoe lying on tho bench bosldo him tho shoe at whoso heel the cobbler cob-bler had been tinkering when hlB -visitor entered. Lamar picked up the shoo, absent-mindedly and, taking hold of the tip of its lacos, began to swing it carelessly to and fro, as If It had been an uncouth pondulum. Sam watched him in furtivo anxiety. Max wont on: "What I want to ask you about is tho queer Red Circle on tho back of Jim Borden's hand. You remember It, of course?" "Suro I remember it, sir. Who wouldn't?" answered Sam, adding: holding As he had been abstractedly shaking It to and fro he had all at onco noticed that a faint rattling sound came from somewhere within the shoo. "There's something loose In the heel of this shoe," he said, "something that rattles like a loose bit of metal." Sam did not answer. Surreptitiously Surreptitious-ly the cobbler had reached behind him and had picked up tho heavy, obort-handled obort-handled hammor with which ho had been working. "Ycb," went on Lamar, "thero's something rattles In this heel. ' Just as if thero was a compartment insido, with something lying looco In It." Ho picked up an awl from the bench and inserted it between heel-tap and "upper." Eagan drew a long breath and half-lifted the hammer, "Good morning, Sam," came a clear young volco from tho doorway. "I'm going out of town for tho summer. I stopped in on my way to tho station to see how you are getting on and to toll you Oh, how aro you, Mr. Lamar? It's so dark in hore, after the sunshine, I didn't seo you." Tho spell was broken. Tho tension was relaxed. Lamar, at sight of Juno Travis, let tho shoe tumble to tho floor, forgotten, as ho sprang up to greot her. Sam laid down tho hammer with a grunt of reaction. As Lamur strode forward to moot June the cobbler thrust tho shoo into the breast of his own shirt and substituted for It another an-other one from a nearby pile on floor. "How aro things going, Sam?" asked June, cheerily, turning from Max as tho cobbler reached her side. "Is the rhoumatla:n any bettor? And do poo-plo poo-plo pay their bills any more promptly?" prompt-ly?" "The rhoumatlsm Is pretty bad, misa,H said (Sam, with a fine ahow of courage, "but I can stand It. Tho doctor doc-tor did It a lot df good last month; but ho won't give me any moro treatment, treat-ment, he says, till I pay the twenty-five twenty-five dollars I owe him on his last bill. So I eueBB I'll havo to grin and boar k awhile longer" "You poor old thing," Bald June, in quick sympathy. "Indeed you shall not 'grin and boar it' another day. Here," taking three bills from her handbag, "pay that cranky boar of a doctor this very morning and have him give you treatment Tell him to send hlB next bill to me. I must go now. My mother and Mary tiro waiting for me in the car, outsldo there. Good-by, Sam; good-by, Mr. Lamar." But Max would not "bo dlBmlBBed in this faBhlon. He InBlBtod on going to the car with her, and, on the way, he managed to angle successfully for an invitation to call on her at the Surfton cottage. After which he Btared at the automobile auto-mobile until It bore her out of sight Then he wandered on down the street, planning busily not for tho solving of tho Red Circle mystery, but to discover dis-cover some way of arranging his work so as to leave him an entlro afternoon after-noon and evening free for a run to Surfton-by-the-Sea. Sam Eagan and the mysteriously rattling shoe were quite wiped from his mind. Sam, meantime, his professionally genial smile glued to his red face, was looking down at the twenty-five dollars dol-lars Juno had so generously forced upon him. But, though his eyes were fixed on the money In his hand, his mind was not Twenty-five dollars, just at present, seemed to Smiling Sam a pitifully small sum. For he had sudden visions or an muniteiy larger amount, visions so bright aB to take away, for the moment, mo-ment, oven tho memory of his narrow escape from exposure in the matter of the hollow-heeled shoo. A mighty Inspiration In-spiration was gripping Sam Eagan; an inspiration born of his talk with Lamar After a moment of thought he nodded nod-ded his head, stuck tho money Into his pocket and locked the door of his shop. Then ho went to the secret door among tho shoo-shelveB and opened It Passing Pass-ing into the hidden room ho crossed to where the dog-oarod old calendar hung on the wall. Lifting this calendar, he disclosed a cupboard behind It Reaching into this, he pulled forth a telephone, took the receiver from. the hook and called for a number. "Miss La Salle's apartment?" he asked presently; then: "That you, Alma? Sam Come around here In a rush. There's something big. Hurry up." Eagan returned to the shop, put on his coat and wont out Into the neighborhood neigh-borhood to do a lltle shopping. Back homo he came, and through to the hidden room; there depositing his purchases in the telephone cupboard behind the calendar. He had barely regained the front shop when a woman entered. Alma La Salle was perhaps twenty-flvo, twenty-flvo, perhaps a little older. She was of medium height; wiry, dark and Inclining In-clining to sallownoss. She was an Invaluable source of revenue to Sam. And, apart from her uncanny deftness at robbery, he knew ho could always count on her wit and daring to carry out any campaign he might dovlse. "Hello, kid," waB his greeting, this morning. "You didn't waste any time. That's right You got a train to catch and some fancy' packing to do, first" "Train to catch?" she repeated eag erly. "To Surfton-by-the-Sea. There's a big ball at the Surfton hotel tonight. Our man thero tipped me to it You're going to 'operate' at the ball." "But" "It's a new anglo we're going to work from, on this," he pursued. "There ought to bo a pot of cash in it Ever hear of the Rod Circle?" "Of course," she mado answor. "Who hasn't?" "Give me your hand," ho ordered. "Tho right one." Wonderlngly, Alma obeyed. Moistening Mois-tening the brush and rubbing It on the red-paint cake, Sam proceeded to trace on the back of the woman's hand an irregular Red Circle. "Watch that closely," he warned. "That's Just the shape of the ono Borden Bor-den had. Do you think you could paint that ou your own hand?" "Why, yos; but " Ho dipped tho sponge in the liquid from the phial and passed It over the circle. Tho paint quickly vanished. "Thero you aro!" said ho. "Go to tho ball. Pinch everything you got half a chance at Then sneak Into some quiet cornor to paint that circle on your hand Manage to lot tho house detective or some of tho guests get a glimpse of it. Then rub It off. When tho yell goes up that a lot of boobs havo been robbed tho Red Circle will bo suro to got tho blame for it" Thero was but one theme of Import among tho summer idlors at Surfton-by-tho-Sea. Juno had not been at the cottage an hour before sho had heard the wholo story from Mary, who had It from a neighbor. It seemed that Todd Drew, the dissolute dis-solute young son of Amos Drew, the great inventor, had just arrived at tho Surfton hotel. Ho had brought thither, so said report, a small flat metal case that was more deadly than fifty bat-torlos bat-torlos of siege guns. For this caBe contained tho plans for a war-engine, Infinitely Ingenious and moro murderous than any hithorto devised. de-vised. It was a veritable monster of destruction, this ongino. By its use whole Rraieacotdfl-bs?flefitroyed to single minute. Amos Drew had. Invented the thing. Having done so 3ie had been so appalled ap-palled by its posskbllitioa''for annihilation annihila-tion that "ho had never put it -upon the market but had stowed the plans away among his private papoca. But now Amos Drew war dead, and his only holr, Todd Drew, was busy wasting tho paternal fortune. Thus it was, seaside (gossip ran, that he had brought toSurfton tho terrible war-engine plans; andho was to meet here one Count Freel, the agent for a foreign government, to negotiate with him for their sale. With a shuddtor June dismissed the story from her 'mind. To ocoupy her thoughts, Bhe resolved to take tho trun- 1 BESjjB' wmmsSSSSmmj She Resolved to Toss tho-SBundle Into tho Sea. j die of masculine cloth lryg at once to the nearest deserted pier and tosB it Into the sea. Half way to tho? pier she passed a ramshackle boathauBe, whose weather-warped boards wero bulged and splayed, In several places, until they looked like the slats in ,f root of a henhouse. hen-house. As June Bped past the boat-house boat-house she chanced to notice a large smooth stone Just theithlng to weight the bundle she carried! She picked It up, opened the bundle at one end, dropped in the stone and fastened the package's string once more. At the same moment, from the shack just behind be-hind her, she heard a man'a voice saying say-ing Impatiently: "I'm no blooming diplomat, count Come down to cases. What will you pay?" June dropped the bundle sh3 held. She stood transfixed, there, on the rocky beach, in front of the shack. Understanding came to her with a rush. So the story was true! June the Red Circle blazing and pulsing on her white hand had crept nearer and nearer to the shack. She peeped in, cautiously, through oiie of the wide cracks In the boards. A crate had been turned upside down to serve as a table, and it stood close to the aperture In the boards. At the opposite ondB of this improvised impro-vised table, on a couple of boat trestles, tres-tles, sat two men. On the crate-table, just In front of Drew, rested an oblong metal dispatch box, perhaps ten Inches long, four Inches wide and two Inches high. June drew back from the shack and glanced 'guiltily around. No one was In sight. Near by lay a fragment of wreckage, a thick board about five feet long. She carried It to the shack's only door, braced one end of the board against a bowlder In front of the door and then put tho other end Just beneath be-neath tho jutting cross-panel half way up the door. "Yos, sir!" Todd Drew was vociferating. vocifer-ating. "It's worth an easy two million dollars to your government or to any other warring country to get these plans. They're " He broke off with a yell. For as ho looked down at the metal box that had lain In front of him on the table It was no longer there. He waB Just in time to see a woman's small hand drawing the dispatch box cautiously out through a crack In the wall boards. Drew mado a clutch at the vanishing hand and seized it by the wrist "I've got her, count!" he cried "Say, she struggles like a wlldvwt Run outside and grab her." The count leaped for tho door. At the same Instant June's othor hand appeared ap-peared through tho adjoining crack. Its fingers grasped a long pin she had hastily snatched from her sailor hat Into Todd's detaining fist she drove tho pin, right mercilessly. With a howl of pain Drew relaxed his grip on her wrFst. Her hands vanished van-ished the dispatch box and the hatpin hat-pin along with them just as the count bellowed: , , "I cannot get this miserable door open! It Is jammed!" June waited to hear no moro. She toro open the end of the bundle, thrust the motal box into It, closed it again and, snatching it up, raced madly for tho pier. Nor did sho pause until she had hurled the bulky parcel far out into the sea. Meantime, in the shack, pandemonium pande-monium had broken loosf- Both men threw their bodies frantically against tho unyielding door. Ab tho door at last fell Todd and tho count rushed forth, panting, disheveled, in pursuit of the thief. "It was a woman!" pMffed Drew as ho broko Into a run. "Our only cluo la that I saw tho sleeve of a sailor suit and and there was a fiery Red Circle Cir-cle on the back of her hand!" (END OF FIFTH INTALLMENT.) |