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Show o C .i IijrauUcsal MaELfc Gcsepssj j BEGIN HERE TODAY The brilliant member of tho English Secret Service and the courageous res-icuer res-icuer of IMME DE SEVENIE and her guests from robbery' by Paris Apaches had preferred to bo known as ANDRE DUCHBMIN. It was under this name that he had mot. In battle with highwaymen, tho beautiful American widow. EVE DE MONTALA 18. Then. In tho chateau do Montaluls, where Duche-mln Duche-mln was a dinner guest there came that strange motoring party seeking seek-ing refuge from the storm, the American, Am-erican, WHITAKER MONK; his secretary, PHINUIT; tho latter's brother, JULES, and the COUNT AND COUNTESS DE LORG- GO OX WITH THE STORY CHAPTER VII Duchemln took back with him to Nunt that night, food in plenty for thought, together with a notion that ho had better resign himself to 6top Indefinitely at the Grand Hotel de I'Uhivers and . . . see what he should see. That fatality on which he had so bitterly reflected. Impossible and M . more so the longer he ponder. . l It to credit to mere coincidence the Inuendoes uttered at the chateau by Mr. Monk and hla part No, there had been malice In that Duchemln was satisfied, if not some darker purpose, which perplexed th most path n't .si rutlny. Now malice without incentive. Is unthinkable But Duchemln searched his memory In ain for anything he could have said or done to mek ;'n body desire to discredit him In the slgnt of the ladles of the chateau de Edontalais. Still the attempt so to do had been unmistakable; th.- Lone wolf had bo. n lugged Into the conversation literally by his legendary' ears. Surely, ono would think, that noc-turned noc-turned prowler of pre-war Parts had been so long dead und buried even the moot ghoulish gossip should respect his poor remains and not disinter them merely to demonstrate that the past can never wholly die' Had he then,, some enemy of old hidden under one of those sleek surfaces? sur-faces? An excellent visual memory reviewed review-ed sucm sifully the physical characteristics character-istics of Messk-urs Monk, Phlnult and de LOTgnes, i'.nd their chauffeur Jules, with the upshot that Duchemln could have sworn that he had never before known any of these. And Madame IB Comtesse In re-"I"'. re-"I"'. t of that one memory again drew a blank, but remained unsutlsfled When one thought oi her some remote, re-mote, faint chord of reminiscence thrilled and hummed, but never recognizably. Setting aside then the theory of positive pos-itive personal animus, what other reason rea-son could there be for the effort to fasten upon Duchemln suspicion of Identity with the late Lone Wolf A slnl r i ..nM.leratlon. if any, and one, Duchemln suspected not unconnected uncon-nected with th much-talked about Jewels of Madame d- Montalals. And, then, partly to kill time, he resumed re-sumed his character as tho pedestrian tourist. He took the road In the heart of a day even more oppivssl than its yesterday. In the valley of the Dour-ble Dour-ble the air waa stagnant, lifeless. After Af-ter eight miles of it Duchemln was guilty of two mistakes of desperation. despera-tion. in the first Instance he paused in im. Roque-Sainte-Marguerite, and. tormented tor-mented by thirst, refreshed himself at the uubergo where the barouche and guide had been hired to convoy tho party from Montalals on to Montpel-ller. Montpel-ller. The landlord remembered Duchemln Duch-emln and made b-llee he didn't serving ser-ving the wayfarer with a surly grace. Duchemln drank, sitting on a bench outside the door of the auberge. Ho could hear the voice of tho landlord Inside, grumbling, and growling to what purport, he couldn't determine. Before Duchemln was finished, he found himself tho cynosure of more than a few faco9 of natives of La Roque. One gathered that the dead guide had enjoyed a fair amount of local popularity While Duchemln drank, a lout of a lad shambled out of tho auberge caught and saddled n dreary animal, mount' d and rode .ff In the direction of Nant. Then Duchemln committed his second sec-ond orroi of Judgment, which consisted consist-ed LitMaMng t.. find better and cool- r alv em the heights at rose the river. AcooqA mly h. . ross. d the Dourblo. reaches! tho top In a bath of sweat, and Bgt down to cool and breathe himself him-self The view was splendid, almost worth tho climb. Duchemln could see for miles up and down the valley. Across the wuy Duchemln identified tho figure of the landlord, standing In tho door of the auberge with arms thrust out on a level with his . yes. th pose of a man using a field gins Having rested, he picked himself up, found his road, a mere trail of wagon tracks, und mindful of the cooling cool-ing drinks to be had in the Cafe de I'l'nlvers. put his best foot foremost. After a time, Bomethlnc. call It, ln-slnct, ln-slnct, impelled him to look back the way he had come Half a mile distant. dis-tant. h saw the figure of a jK.'a.sant. following tho same road- Duchemln stopped and waited for the other to come up. But when ho stopped the man stopped, sat him down upon a , rock, filled a pipe and conspicuously I rested. Duchemln gave an Imptatlent ges-ture ges-ture and moved on After another ! mile, he glanced overshoulder again. Tho same peasant occupied the same iil-itl .. illc.:,n..i f rrtm l.lm In dusk of the evening ho stumbled 'down Into thu valley again and struck the river road about midway between the Chateau de Montalals und Nant. At this Junction several dwellings clustered. clus-tered. Duohemln noticed a few shadowy shad-owy shapes loitering about, but was too far gone in fatigue and thirst to pay thm any heed. Ho had no thought but to stop at tho first houso and bog a cup of water. As he liftod a hand to knock on the door, he was attacked With no more warning than a cry. tho signal for tho onslaught and tho sudden scuffling noise of several pairs of feet, ho wheeled, found himself al-ready al-ready closely presaod by a number of men, and struck out at random. His stick landed on somebody's head with B resounding thump followed by a yell of pain. Then throo men were grappling grap-pling with him, two moro seeking to aid them, and another lay in the roaof way clutching a fractured skull and spitting oalha and groans. His slick was seised and wrenched away, he was overwhelmed by numbers. num-bers. The knot of struggling figures toppled and went to the dust. Duche- i mln undornoath. so weighed down thai he could not for the moment, move a hand toward his pistol. Half-stlfled by the reek of unwaah- A voice cried: "Quickly, Monsieur, qi!k lily : ' growled In voices hoarse with effort and excitement: ' The knife" . . . ' Hold him!" . . . ' Stand clear and let me " . . ' The knife!" Struggling madly, he worked a leg free and itieked with an his might On of his assailants how led aloud and foil back to nurse a broken shin. Two Others, scrambled out of the way, leaving leav-ing one to pin him down with knees upon his chest another to wield tho knife Staring eyes caught a warning cleam on descending stool. Duchemtn squirmed frantically to one side, and felt ..ld metal kiss the skin over his ribs as the blade penetrated his cloth-Ing cloth-Ing ClOSe under the armpit. Before the man with the knife could Strike again, Duchemln rouged to a mightier i ffort. threw off the ruffian on his chest, got on his knees, and, raining blows right and left as the thers closed In again somehow managed man-aged to scramble tj till feet. Fist-work told For an Instant he stood quite free. the. center of a clr-"i clr-"i incertaln assassins whose cow-ardlcs cow-ardlcs gave him time to whip out his pistol. But before he could level It a. man was on his back, his wrist was Belted and the weapon twisted from his grasp. A cry of triumph was eehoed by ex-. ex-. i mil ill. .n- .r alarm as, disarmed, Du-chemln Du-chemln was again left freo, the thuga Btandlng back to let tne pistol do its . work, in that Instant a broad sword Ol llRht swung round a nearby corner cor-ner and sioot" the group, the twin, trlarlng eves of s motor car flooded imiii oiue wnue rauiance mat caDieau of one man at bay In the mlddlo of the road In a ring of merciless enemies ene-mies Duehemln's cry for help was uttered only an Instant before his pistol ex-ploded ex-ploded In alien hands. The headlights show, d him distinctly the fact of the man who fired, the same face of fat features black with soot that be had seen by moonlight at Montpclller-de-Vleux. rff But the bullet went wild, and the automobile did not stop but drove directly di-rectly at the proup so swiftly that tha flash of the shot wab still vivid In Du-chemin'e Du-chemin'e isl.jn when the car swept between him and those others, Bcat- terinn them liki chiefcene. Simultaneously ths brakes were set, th dark bulk began to slide with lock-ed lock-ed whet Is to i stop, and a voice cried; Quickly. monsieur, quickly!" the voice of Eve de Montalals! In two bounds Duchemln overtook tlo . ar and before it had come to a standstill, leap.-d upon the running-board running-board and grasped the side. Ho had one glimpse of the set, white face of Ee. as sho bent forward, manipulating manipulat-ing tho gear-shift Then the pistol spat aifuln, its bulbt struck him a blow of sickening agony In the side. A ware that ho was dangerously woundod. ho put all that he had left of his strength and will Into one final T .-rfort. throwing his body across the door. As he fell, sprawdlng Into tho tonneau, consciousness departed like a light withdrawn (Continued lu Our Next Issue) |