The Lancaster news. (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, October 30, 1914, Page 8, Image 8
I The Trey
I A NoTelii*d Version of the Motion
I Produced by the >
I By LOUIS JO
I Aathf W~Ttm F.riun.
I Diutntd with Pbetogrsyhi
OovTrtght, IMi by
CHAPTER I.
I nc mgiuyc OT WO KOSe.
Lapped deep In the leather-bound
luxury of an ample lounge-chair,
walled apart from the world by the
venerable solitude of the library of
London's most exclusive club, Mr.
Alan Law sprawled (largely on the
-nape of his neck) and, squinting discontentedly
down his nose, admitted
that he was exhaustively bored.
Now the chair filled so gracelessly
stood by an open window, some twenty
feet below which lay a sizable
walled garden, an old English garden
in full flower. And through the win- j
dow, now and then, a half-hearted
breeze wafted gusts of warm air, I
sauve and enervating with the heavy
fragrance of English roses.
Mr. Law drank deep of it, and in
spite of his spiritual unrest, sighed
flll 4 f*K t? on/1 riknl /?? ??"
iiquuj auu ouui 11 to ojCO.
An unspoken word troubled the ,
depth of his consciousness, so that
old memories stirred and struggled to
Its surface. The word was "Rose,"
?nd for the time seemed to be the
name neither of a woman nor of a
flower, but oddly of both, as though
the two things were oue. His mental
islou, bridging the gap of a year, conjured
up the vision of a lithe, sweet j
silhouette In white, with red roses ,
At her belt, posed on a terrace of the
Riviera against the burning Mediterranean
blue.
Mr. Law was dully conscious that
he ought to be sorry about something.
But he was really very drowsy indeed;
and so, drinking deep of wine-scent
of roses, he fell gently asleep.
The clock was striking four when
he awoke; and before closing his ;
eyes he had noticed that its hands <
Indicated ten minutes to four. So he '
could not have slept very long.
For some few seconds Alan did not I
move, but rested as he was, incredu- j
lously regarding a rose which had ma- |
terialized mysteriously upon the little
table at his elbow. He was quite sure
It had not been there when he closed |
hiB eyes, and almost as sure that it
was not real.
And in that instant of awakening i
the magic fragrance of the rose-garden
seemed to be even more strong and
cloying sweet than ever.
Then he put out a gingerly hand ,
on/1 Aluonvoro/1 f hot if n-o o j I
MUV1 u>uvv? u* vu vnuv ?v ?ao icai uryumi
all question. A warm red rose, freshplucked,
drops of water trembling and
sparkling like tiny diamonds on the
elvet of its fleshy petals. And when
impulsively he took it by the stein, he j
discovered a most indisputable thorn
?which did service for the traditional
pinch.
Convinced that he wasn't dreaming,
Alan transferred the rose to his sound
hand, and meditatively sucked his
With Red Roses at Her Beftthumb
Then he jumped up from the
4hair and glared suspiciously round
the room. It wub true that a practical
joke in that solemn atmosphere
ware a thing unthinkable; still, there
was the rose.
There was no one but himself In
the library.
Perplexed to exasperation, Alan fled
the club, only pausing on the way out
to annex the envelope he found addressed
to him in the letter^radk.
It was a blank white envelope of
good quality, the address typewritten,
the stamp English, and bore a Ixm
aon poBimarK nair megiDie.
Ian tore the envelope open In ab- |
sent-mtnded fashion?and started as
If stanf. The enclosure was a aim- j
pie playing card?a trey of hearts!
As for Alan Law, he wandered
homeward in a state of stupefaction, j
He could read quite well the message
of the rose. He would not soon forget
that year-old parting with bis
Rose of the Riviera: "You say you j
love me but may not marry me?and
^ . we must part. Then promise this,
that If ever you change your mind,
jfcwTou'll send for me." And her promjakJl"1
w111 8?nd you a rose."
Jr .'/> But the year had lapsed with aevar
Jv. :Lt
O' Hearts I
Picture Drente of the Same Name I
Universal Film Co. R
SEPH VANCE
U Br*M Bowl.""Tim Black Bearda
i from tl* Picture Prefectioa
Louis
Joseph Vt&M
! a sign from her, so that he had grown
| accustomed to the unflattering belief
I that she had forgotten him.
! And now the sign had come?but
i what the deuce did the trey of heartB
; mean?
When morning came, London had
lost Alan Law. No man of his acquaintance?nor
any woman?had received
the least' warning of his disappearance.
He was simply and sufj
llciently removed from English ken.
CHAPTER II.
The Sign of the Three.
Out-of-doors, high brazen noon, a
day In spring, the clamorous life of
New York running as fluent as quicksilver
through Its brilliant streets.
Within doors, neither sound nor sunbeam
disturbed a perennial quiet that
was yet not peace.
The room was like a wide, deep
well of night, the haunt of teeming
shadows and sinister silences.
Little, Indeed, was visible beyond '
the lonely shape that brooded over j
ft, the figure of an old man motionless
in a great, leather-bound chair.
His hair was as white as his heart
was black. The rack of his bones,
clothed in n ihlrlf hlorlr Hrnatjl r, rr
_ ??.-ft
gown with walst-oord of crimson silk,
from the thighs down wns covered by
a black woollen rug. He stared unbllnkingly
at nothing: a man seven- j
eighths dead, completely paralyzed ,
but for his head and his left arm.
Presently a faint clicking signal disturbed
the stillness. Seneca Trine put
forth his left hand and touched one
of a row of crimson buttons embedded
in the desk. Something else clicked
?this time a latch. There was the
faintest possible noise of a closing
door, and a smallish man stole noiselessly
into the light, paused beside the
desk and waited respectfully for leave
to speak.
"Well?"
"A telegram, sir?from England."
"Give it me!"
The old man seized the i,heet of yellow
paper, scanned It hungrily, and
crushed it in hlj tremulous claw with
a gesture of uncontrollable emotion.
"Send my daughter Judith here!"
Two minutes later a young woman
in street dress was admitted to the
chamber of shadows.
"You sent for me, father?"
"Sit down."
She found and placed a chair at the
desk, and obediently settled herself
in it
"Judith?tell me?what day is this?"
"My birthdav. I am twentv-one."
"And your sister's birthday: Rose,
too, is twenty-one."
"Yes."
"You could have forgotten that," the
old man pursued almost mockingly.
"Do you really dislike your twin-sister
so intensely*"
The girl's voice trembled. "You
know," she said, "we have nothing in
common?beyond parentage and this
abominable resemblance. Our natures
differ as light from darkness."
"And which would you say was?
light?"
"Hardly my own: I'm no hypocrite.
Rose is everything that they tell me
my mother was, while I"?the girl
smiled strangely?"I think?I am more
your daughter than my mother's."
A nod of the white head confirmed
the suggestion. "It is true. I have
watched you closely, Judith, perhaps
more closely than even you knew.
Refore I was brought to this"?the
wasted hand made a significant gesture?"I
was a man of strong passions.
Your mother never loved, but
rather feared me. And Rose is the
mirror of her mother's nature, gentle,
unselfish, sympathetic. Rut yon, Judith,
you are like a second self to
me."
An accent of profound satisfaction
informed his voice. The girl waited
In a silence that was tensely expectant.
"Then, if on this your birthday I,
were to ask a service of you that
might injuriously affect the happiness
of your sister??"
The girl laughed briefly: "Only
ask it!"
"And how far would you go to do
my will?"
"Where would you stop In the eerv- 1
ioe of one you loved F'
Seneca Trine nodded gravely. And
after a brief pause, "Irose is in love,"
he announced.
"Oh, I know?I know!" the father
affirmed with a faint ring of satisfaction.
"I am old, a cripple, prisoner of
this living tomb: but all things I '
should know?somehow?I corns to ,
know in course of time!"
"It\i true?that Englishman she
scraped an acquaintance with on the
Riviera last year?what's his nams??
Law, Alan Law."
'Tn tho mo In *' fV a ?- - ?
u iuo iKiinr corrected
mildly, "you are right. Only, he's not
English. His father was Wellington '
Law, of Law & Son."
She knew better than to Interrupt,
but her seeming patience was belled
by tbe whitening knuckles of a hand '
that lay within the little pool of blood-, (
red light i
And presently the deep voice rolled
on: "Law and I were once friends; l
?
THE LANCASTER NEWS
'Men?It came to pass that we loved
wip woman, your mother. I won her
??U but her heart: too late she realized
it >vas Law she loved. He never
'crga ?o me, nor 1 him. Though he
married another woman, still he held
I'rnill PIP tho lnva n# m?.
? ??w ?v*w vt Uij mic. 1 VUUIU
not sleep for hating him?and he was
no better off. Each sought the other's
ruin; It came to be an open duel between
us. In Wall street. One of us
had to fall?and I held the stronger
hand. The night before the day that
was to have seen ray triumph, I
walked in Central park, as was my
habit to tire my body so that my brain
might sleep. Crossing the East drive
I was struck by a motor-car runningat
high speed without lights. 1 was
picked up insensible?and lived only
to be what I am today. Law triumphed
in the street while I lay helpless;
only a living remnant of my
fortune remained to me. Then his
wHH
Tm ' B
"Well, there Is the history. Now the
rose has been sent; I,aw is already
homeward bound; my agents are
watching his every step. The rest Is
in your hands."
The girl bent forward, breathing
heavily, eyes aflame in a face that had
assumed a waxen pallor.
"What is It you want of mef
"Hring Alan I-aw to me. Dead or
alive, bring him to me. Thit alive. If
you can compass it; I wish to aee him
die. Then I, too. may die content."
The hand of hot-blooded youth stola
forth and grasped the icy hand of
lieniUMilMUe, |
"I will bring him," Judith swore?
'dead or alive, you shall have him
here."
CHAPTER III.
The Trail of Treachery.
But young Mr. I-aw wan sole agent
it his own evantahment; Juet as he
was nobody's fool, least of all his own. j
The hidden meaning of the trey of
learts perplexed him with such distrust
that before leaving London, he
lispatched a code cablegram to his
;onfldentlal agent in New York.
What do you know about the trey of
Marts? Answer Immediately,
magi . SR.-1 -*w*-?. .
?5B*5^H8^SEi?
We Both Loved One Woman.
chauffeur, discharged, came to me and
sold me the truth; it was Law's car
with Law at the wheel that had Btruck
me down?a deliberate attempt at assassination.
I sent Law word that I
meant to have a life for a life. For
what was I better than dead? I promised
him that, should he escape, I
would have the life of his son. He
knew I meant It, nnd sent his wife
and son abroad. Then he died suddenly,
of some common ailment?they
said; hut I knew better. He died of
fear of me."
Trine smiled a cruel smile: "1 had
made his life a reign of terror. Ever
so often I would send Law, one way
or another?mysteriously always?a
trey of hearts; it was my death-sign
for him; as you know, our name,
Trine, signifies a group of three. And
every time he received a trey of
hearts, within twenty-four hours an
attempt of some sort would be made
upon his life. The strain broke down
his nerve. . . .
"Then I turned my attention to the
son, but the distance was too great,
the difficulties insuperable. The Law
millions mocked all my efforts; their
alliance with the Rothschilds placed
mother and son under the protection
of every secret police in Europe. But
they dared not come home. At length
I realized I could win only by playing
a waiting game. I needed three
things: more money; to bring Alan
Law back to America; and one agent
I could trust, one incorruptible agent, j
I ceased to persocute mother and son,
lulled them into a sense of false security,
and by careful speculations 1
repaired my fortunes. In Rose I had
the lure to draw the boy back to j
America; in you, the one person I
could trust.
"1 sent Rose abroad and arranged
that she should meet Law. They fell i
in love at sight. Then I wrote informing
her that the tnan she had ehosen '
was the son of him whs had murdered
all of me but my brain. It fell out as
I foresaw. You can imagine the scene
of passionate renunciation?pledges
of undying constancy?the arrange- j
ment of a secret coda whereby, when
she needed him, she would send him '
a single rose?the birth of a great ro-1
mance!"
The old man laughed sardonically.!
S, OCTOBER 30,1914.
The answer foresia'i.ed his arrival
In Liverpool:
Trlne's death rlgn for your father. For i
God's Bake, look to yo irself and keep
away from Amertoa.
But AJan had more than onoe vis;
ited America incognito and unknown
to Seneca Trine via a secret route of
, his own selection.
| Eight days oat of London, a second- '
| class passenger newly landed from
| one of the C.-P. steamships, he walked
j the streets of Quebec?and dropped
i out of sight between dark and dawn,
! to turn up presently in the distant
| C nadian hamlet of Bate St. Paul, ap|
parently a very tenderfooted American
woods-traveler chaperoned by a taci- !
turn Indian guide picked up heaveni
knows-where.
Crossing the St. Lawrence by night,
: the two struck off quietly into the
{ hinterland of the Notre Dame range.
| then crossed the Maine border.
On the second noon thereafter, j
trail-worn and weary, as lean as their j
! depleted packs, the two paused on a
ridge-pole of the wilderness up back
| of the Allagash country, and made ,
! their midday meal In a silence which,
; if normal In the Indian, was one of
i deep misgivings on Alan's part.
Continually his gnze questioned the
. northern skies that lowered portentously,
foul with smoke?a countryI
wide conflagration that threatened all
1 northern Maine, bone-dry with
drought.
Only the south offered a fair prospect.
And the fires were making
southward far faster than man might
hope to travel through that grim and
stubborn land.
Even as he stared, Alan saw fresh
columns of dun-colored smoke spring
: up In the northwest.
Anxiously he consulted the Impassive
mask of the Indian, from whom
his questions gained Alan little comj
fort. Jacob recommended forced
1 marches to Spirit lake, where canoes
might be found to aid their flight;
and withdrew Into sullen reserve.
They traveled far and fast by dim
forest trails before sundown, then
again paused for food and rest. And i
as Jacob sat. deftly about preparing
the meal, Alan stumbled off to whip
the little trail-side stream for trout.
Perhaps a hundred yards upstream, |
the bnck-lash of a careless cast by his
weary hand hooked the stale of Malno. i
Too tired even to remember the ap- ,
propriate words, Alau scrambled
ashore, forced through the thick undergrowth
that masked the trail,
found hiB fly, set the state of Maine
free?and swinging on his heel
; brought up, nose to a sapling, trans.fixed
by a rectangle of white pasteboard
fixed to Its trunk, a trey of
hearts, of which each pip had been
neatly punctured by a 22-caliber bullet.
He carried It hack to camp, meaning
to consult the guide, but on second
thought, held his tongue. It was
not llkoly that the Indian had overlooked
an object so conspicuous on
the trail.
do Aian wauea ror mm to spenk?
and meantime determined to watch
Jacob more narrowly, though no other
I suspicious circumstance had marked
tl>e several daya of their association.
The first half of the night was, as
! the day. devoted to relentless progi
r< ss southward; thirty minutes of
| steady jogging, five minutes for rest?
. ud repent.
No more question as to the need fc
j ucli urgtnt haste; overhead the north
.v. id muttered without ceasing. Thin
" Is ot smoke drifted through the forI
est., hugging the ground, like some'
\. etrd ncrid tnist; and ever the curi
lined heavens glared, livid with rej
iioctcd fires.
T-y m'dnight Alan had come to the
bounds of endurance; llesh, bone and
inew could no longer stand the strain,
j Though .'acob declared that Spirit
lake was now only six hours distant,
as far as concerned Alan he might 1
! ave said COO. His blanket once unrolled.
Alan dropped upon it like one
drugged.
The sun was high when he awakened
and sat up, rubbing heavy eyes,
retching aching limbs, wondering
what had come over the Indian to let
him sleep so late.
Of a sudden he w as assailed by sickening
fears that needed only the briefest
Investigation to confirm. Jacob
bad absconded with every valuable
item of t-heir equipment
Nor was his motive far to seek, j
Overnight the Are had made tremendous
gains. And ever and anon
the wind would bring down the roar
of the holocaust, dulled by distance
hut not unlike the growling of wild j
animals feeding on their kill.
Alan delayed long enough only to
swallow a few mouthfuls of raw food, :
gulped water from a spring, and set
out at a dog-trot on the trail to Spirit
Ii?ke.
For hours he blundered blindly on,
holding to the trail mainly by Instinct
At length, pnnting, gasping, halfblinded.
h^ staggered Into a little natural
clearing and olungad
headlong, so bewildered that he could
not have n.\id whether he was tripped
or thrown; for even as he stumbled a
heavy body landed on bis baek and
criiHhed him savagely to earth.
In leas than a minute he waa overcome;
his wrists hitched together, his
ankles bound with heavy cord.
When his vision cleared he found
Jacob within a yard, regarding him
with a face as Immobile as though it
had been cast in the bronze it resembled.
Beyond, to one side, a woman in
a man's hunting costume stood eyeing
the captive as narrowly as the Indian.
but unlike him with a countenance
that seemed aglow with a fierce
i exultancy over his downfall.
But for that look, he could have believed
hers the face that had brought
mm ?
him overseas to this mortal pass. Fear
tore (or feature, even to the hue of
her tumbled hair, 8he counterfeited
the woman he loved; only those eyes,
aflame with their look of Inhuman
ruthlessness, denied that the two were
one.
He sought vainly to speak. The
breath rustled in his parched throat
like wind whispering among dead
leaves.
i nruatiDg the Indian roughly aside,
the woman knelt In his place by
Alan's head.
"No," she said, and smiltng cruelly,
shook her head?"nc. I am not your
Rose. But I am her sister, Judith, her
twin, horn In the same hour, daughter
of?can you guess whose daughter?
But see this!" She flashed a card
from within her hunting shirt and held
it before his eyes, ""you know it. eh?
The trey of hearts?the symbol of
Trine?Trine, your father's enemy,
and yours, and?Rose's father and
mine! So, now, perhaps you know!" I
A gust of wind like a furnace blast ;
swept the glade. The woman sprang
up. glanced over-shouider into the forest,
and signed to the Indian.
"In ten minutes." she said, "these
woods will be your funeral pyre "
She stepped back. Jacob advanced,
picked Alan up, shouldered his body, (
and strode back into the forest. Ten
feet in from the clearing he dropped
the helpless man supine upon a bed of
dry logs and branches.
Then, with a single movement, he
disappeared.
CHAPTER IV.
Many Water*.
Overhead, through a rift in the
foliage, a sky was visible whose ebon
darkness called to mind a thundercloud.
The heat waa nearly intolerable;
the voice of the lire waa very loud.
A heavy, broken crashing near by
made Alan turn his head, and he saw
a brown bear break cover and plunge
on into the farther thickets?forerunner
of a mad rout of terrified forest
folk, deer, porcupines, a fox or two, a !
wildcat, rabbits, squirrels, partridge*'
?a dozen more. . . .
Two minutes had passed of the ten.
Something was digging uncomfortably j
into Alan's right hip?the automatic
liffltnl It* V* lo V*lwv ? * ?*-, L 1
f.wkwi inn Ui)i ux wnicn I
Jacob hnd neglected to relievo him. i
Then a sharp, spiteful crackling
brought him suddenly to a sitting position.
to find that the Indian had
thoughtfully touched a match to the
pyre before departing. At Alan's feet
the twigs were blazing merrily.
It would have been eaay enough,
acting on instinct, to Bnatch his limbs
away, but he did not move more than
to strain his feet as far as their bonds
permitted. Conscious of scorching
heat even through his hunting boots,
he suffered that torture until a tongue '
of flame licked up. wrapped Itself |
round the thick hempen cord and ate
It through.
Immediately Alan kicked his feet,
free, lifted to a kneeling position, and1
crawled from tha pyre.
As for his hnnds?Alan's hunting-:
knife was still In its sheath belted i
to the small of his back. Tearing at
the belt with his hampered fingers, ho!
contrived to shift it round until the
sheath knife stuck at the belt-loop
over his left hip. Withdrawing and
conveying the blade to his mouth, he
r ;
Sawed the Cords Against the RazorSharp
Blade.
(ripped it firmly between hie teeth,
and sawed the cords round his wrists
against the rasor sharp blade.
Before Alan could turn and run he |
haw a vanguard of flames bridge 60 |
yarda At a bound And start a dead
pine biasing Mho a torch.
And then he wna pelting like a mad- j
man across the smoked-Ailed clearing.
And In lees than two minutes broke
from the forest to the pebbly share of
a wide-bosomed lake, and within a
few hundred feet of a substantial
dam, through whose spillway a hoary
volume of water cascaded with a roar
rivaling that of the forest-fire Itaelf.
Two quick glances showed Alan two
things: that his only way of escape
was via the dam; that there was a
solitary canoe at mid-lake, bearing
swiftly to the farther suoro Judith
... . Jfrbve % - ? _r- ?
Trine and the Indian?the latter wielding
the paddle.
In the act of turning toward the
dam he saw Jacob drop the paddle.
The next InBtant a bullet from a Winchester
.30 kicked up a spurt of peb
bles only a few feet in advance of
Alan.
He quickened his pace, but the next
bullet fell c'oser, while the third ao- i
tually bit the earth beneath his running
feet as he gained the dam.
Exasperated, he pulled up, whipped
out his pistol and fired without aim.
At the same time, he noted that the
distance between dam and canoe had
. * < > . > 'vl&'H&ti
. '< * t:*
.
. . > . '>. :^:'x ' '
A Tremendous Weight Tore at His
Arms.
lessened perceptibly, thanks to the
strong current sucking through the
spillway.
His Bhot flew wide, but almost instinctively
his finger closed again
upon the trigger, and he saw the paddle
snap in twain, its blado falling
overboard. And then the Indian fired
again, his bullet droning past Alan's
ear.
/?? aw urea in response Jaeon started,
dropped hlj rifle and crumpled up
in the bow of the canoe.
Simultaneously earth and heavens
rocked with a terrific clap of thunder.
,
He turned again and ran swiftly
along the dam, toward two heavy tlm- ^
hers that bridged the torrent of the
spillway.
Then a glance aside brought him up
with a thrill of horror; the suck ot
the overflow had drawn the canoe
within a hundred yards of the spillway.
The dead Indian in Its bow, the
living woman helpless In its stern.
It swept swlftlyionward to destruction.
His next few actions were wholly
unpremeditated. He was conscious
only of her white, staring face, her
strange likeness to the woman that he
loved.
He ran out upon the bridge, threw
himself down upon the Innermost timber.
turned, and let hlj body fall backward,
arms extended at length, and
swung, braced by his feet beneath
the outer timber.
With a swiftness that passed conscious
thought, he was aware of the
canoe hurtling onward with the speed
of wind. Its sharp prow apparently
aimed directly for his head. Then
hands closed round his wrists like
clamps; a tremendous weight tore at
his arms, and with an effort of inconceivable
difficulty he hegnn to lift,
to drag the woman up out of the foaming
Jaws of death.
Somehow that impossible feat was
achieved; somehow the woman gained
a hold upon his body, shifted It to his
belt, contrived Inexplicably to clamber
over blm to the timbers; and somehow
he in turn pulled himself up to
safety, and sick with reaction sprawled
prone, lengthwise upon that foot-wide
bridge above the ?<-r?nmir,c ?
I-Ater he became aware that the
woman had crawled to safety on the
farther shore, and pulling himself together,
imitated her example. Solid
earth underfoot, he rose and stood
swaying, beset by a g jat weakness.
Through the gathering darkness?a
ghastly twilight In which the flaming
forests on the other shoge burned with
an unearthly glare?he discovered the
wan, wrfthen face of Judith Trine
close to his and he heard her voice, a
acrearu barely audible above the com- k
mingled voices of the conflagration '
and the cascades:
"You fool! Why did you save me?
I tell you, I have aworn your death!"
The utter grotesqueness of it all
broke upon his Intelligence like the
revelation of some enormous fundamental
absurdity In Nature. He
laughed a little hysterically.
Darkness followed. A flash of lightning
seemed to flame between them
like a fiery sword. To its crashing
thunder, he lapsed Into unconsciousness.
When be roused, It was with a shiver
and a shudder. Rain was falling
In torrents from a sky the hue of
slate. Across the lake dense volumes
of steam enveloped the dree that
fainted beneath the deluge. A great
ni88in* noise filled the world, muting
even the roar of the spillway.
He was alone.
Rut In hie hand, tattered and braised ddj
by the downpour, he found?e rose. t ^ 3*
(Continued In Next Issue.) ^