Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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f *t"l * 'TP I the ireyr I A No*elizedyer(uit|Of the Motioi 1 Produced by the I By LOUIS JC I Author *f "Tim Fortune Hunter," " 7 I Hloitratrd with Photograph Copyright, 1014, by CHAPTER XjV. A Doubltf^?cipe. Q % ")n NauHOt Beucb, in the of ! m dsummer night, two nu>n surawtoi onl the Hands, eomo distance back Iron i thy water, and listened to the heavj thftmping of their overtaxed hearts sad panted. V Now and again one would lift hit hdhd and stare out over the bta'-k fact of - the waters at a little line of red dlfch Humes about a mite ofT shore,"all th|it remained to witness to the fad th^t, an hour since, these two had bof-n in command of as trim a small schooner as ever ventured the coast wlBe trip from Portland to New York. As far out again shone the star board light of a becalmed schooner, whose people had been directly resporv mine ior tne disaster which had overtaken the smaller vessel. In the course of time, beginning tc breathe with more ease, one of the twp marooned gentlemen eaidt 7What I can't understand-?anyway i?fe why these damned thu^s out there thought we'd ho asses enough to stay aboard th? Seaventure and get burned opt" The other replied: "Did the^T' _ *L?ooks 'TllhT "\va"yf?doosii't ltT "It th4y didn't, frhy wero we permitted to pwim ashore at our elegant leisure? Th^re wap nothing .to prevent their rowing round to cut us ofT." IMaybe they did, at that, aud missed - tut4 Mr. Law-and-Ordei;!" ? iBut?" fl'e were a wee mite excited you've to admit. It's just possible wo *t hear the noise of their oars. Anil it's black enough for them to hafe overlooked us. A man's head In ithe water isn't really a conspicuous object on a dark night." *^Tell me, Barcus, what's the nearest) symptom of civilization?" '^Chatham Tillage," said Mr, Barcus, "six miles to Che no'th'ards, and cut oft uj ilu miei a mue or so wide at that. jftr. Law groaned soulfully. "Then there's the lighthouse on Mocomoy point," Mr, Darcus pursued, "three mlies to the south." Mr. Law said nothing whatever to this. "Of course," his companion reflected ^ morosely, "this had to happen In midsummer! A month earlier we'd have ?j H SQ H H * i With a Cry: "Rosel" had the life-saving patrol to look to for protection, llut the service is suspended In June and July." a silence commenced eloquently on this assertion, broken only when Mr. Law voiced a thought bred of long and malignant observation of the schooner's green eye: "I'd give a deal to know who's aboard that vessel." "You don't mean you think your regular young woman?T" "It's possible. Judith kidnaped Rone in Portland. That's net so far from Gloucester; a motor car oould ksvf caught that schooner before she sailed to waylay us. this morning. And what better way to take care of an ablf-bodled, full-tempered girl you've kldAapod than to shtp her somewhere by keu, la the earn of trustworthy "^ont ask me?fve done very little | avrs uuojui ul/ for tuppence,^eald Mr! Law, Td risk a fiwlm off to that boat and nee for myself." "for two million dollars?I would not!" Darcus affirmed with great decision. t t u lit ft ^ a A moment or so later the line of little flames wen*J eub altogether tod unexpectedly; Vh<f the o^'hfrr of the late Seaventure fancied fie cqufd hea?, even at that dwtance! tnfi Kins of charred and smoldering timbers sucked under and drowned out. "Exit," he announced plaintively, "exit Seaventurr," with heroic gesture. O* Hearts I i Picture Drama of tbe Same Name | Universal Film Co. I >sipH VANCE he^Prau Bm*U""Ttm Black Bag.*,ale. a from tbe Picture Production Loiris Joseob Vance a ... 4. r. a good little ship!" Alan,Law sat up, abstractedly scrubbing a crust of sand from his checks and ctommentod soulfully: "Oh? ! damn.!" i inai goos double here," his compunlon rejoined. ' "And tho way I, see it, I've sot a right to do all tho cussing at thl3 Juncture of our hero's foolish, but fascinating adventures, i'ui the Injured party?it was my boat, r'and now it's gone. I'm broke for fair. C}ee!" he pursued vindictively. "Oh, let up, can't you!" Mr. Law , exclaimed peevishly. I'm sorrier than ' you are?end after nil, it's my loss; | I've got to buy you another boat. All ; you've lost is your temper." "And my susceptibility to the charms of the woll-known sox,** Mr. Barcus corrected. "Nothing can ever restoro my lost faith in gentle woman's gentleness. When you brought that young woman aboard I thought butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, and for a while I actually contemplated doing heT the kindness of tipping you over into the drink, bo's she could lavish 1 C. ^ * -turn- wuaer nirecuons on a regular guy, ^Qmeone able to appreciate her?meaning me, of course. And first thing I know, she ups and points a gun at my head and tips me overboard, and then, MhakeB a pretty bonfire out of my sailboat. And all the excuse you can produce Is that she's crazy in the j head! Well, who said she wasn't?1 Any woman who would consent to elope with yc.u Is a fit subject for a commission de lunatlco lnquirendo, all right." "If you indicted any such monologue as that on Judith." retorted Mr. I-aw, j "I don't blame her for trying to slay | you, and I'm sorry I Interfered." "There's gratitude for you!" Mr. j Tlarcus remarked bitterly. "I risk my life for you, and you won't even let, me talk about it!" "It Isn't your talking I mind?It's the everlasting noise you make," Mr. Law explained. "Besides?listen!" For a moment the two maintained attentive silence. silken whisper troubled the silence, a little flutter of sound from far across the waters. Gradually It gathsred volume, beoame recognizable as the Hop of oeutlous oars. Tm going away from here," Mr. Barcus announced guardedly, and gathered his legs under him preparatory to rising. "Half a second," Alan Law insisted, I ; rising in turn aud grasping the other ! py tljo arm. "They've got to land? haven't they??and leave the boat while they look for us. Well, then, what's to prevent our hiding in the dunes and??" In tho next breath, "Look out I" he shrieked. With no warning whatover, and wltliln fifty feet of them, a ghastly flare broke out in full blaze on the surfa.ce of the water, revealing the shape of a dory which had drawn in unseen under cover of the profound darkness, and at the same time discovering to its occupants the two startled figures on.tho beach. RefOtte they could etir the weird light glimmered on a polished weapon in the bow of the boat, a spiteful tongue of reddish flame spat out, a bullet sang between Messrs. Law and llarcus, and with a sad thud of disapnaiirtwont burled Itself in the sands of tho Wuve-caten bluff behind them. Like twin ttutoiwitTrtis stirred to ncI HonDy'the report, the two turned and pelted off down the beach, to escape that deadly area of illumination. Other shots eped after them, but none was so well aimed, and presently, finding a breifk In the bluff, they | swung off into the grateful shelter of the night-wrapped dunes. Meantime tho dory had grounded on the beach, and its several occupants? four or five of them, all men, apparently?jumping out, set off in pursuit of the fugitives, following the tracks lp the sand. The blackness of the night, however, conspired with the savage labyrintb of the dunes to save Alan and 1 bis' companion. Within another five minutes?while j Still the pursuit floundered and bias-. phemed at random a round quarter- i mile to the south?Mr. Law and Mr. ( Barcus wers noiselessly squirming oa their bellies. Ilk# two snakes In ths beach-grass, up the back of a ten-foot ] bluff. And preaantly from Its brww they looked down on the spot where , the dory lay, only Its bow out of water. Its stem afloat, undar armed guard. Very slowly and stealthily Alan got < to bis feet and swung back over his i shoulder a heavy club of driftwood. I 4k match spluttered beside the dory i ttd flamed In the still air, relieving 1th its reddish glow a bronzed and < ?? s revu visage. 1 The guard puffed fast and had the < tobacco well aglow when the sky took i ^vantage of his trustfulness and fell upon Mm like an avalanche. 1 Simultaneously Alan and Ttarcua de- ' acended the face of the bluff In two miniature landslides, dug themselves i out, and by the time the dazed and t TlfK LANrASTKR NEW disarmed guard had sufficiently recovered to cry out for help the dory was a hundred yards off the beach and making excellent timo in the direction of that lonely green light. They wrought with the oars like men possessed, yet with a machinelike precision that drove the boat fast and furiously?without attempt to still the splashing of their blades. Concealment of thoir purpose from those who remained aboard the schooner was out of the question. The shouts, the shots, the play of flashlamps along the beach?as though Bedlam had loosed half a dozen lunattn will o' the wisps upon the holy peace of night?must have betrayed tho fact that they had turned the tables long beforo tho dory left tho inBhoro shoals. The commonest precautious, how?ever, made them pause and rest upon their oars while yet a llttlo way from their goal. Only an ominous silence rewarded tho utmost efforts of their straining senses; no sound was nudiblo other than the gentle whine of an unpreased block; nothing was visible beyond the sinister glare of that almost stationary greon lantern. "What think?** Ttarcus inquired In a dubious undertone. "No telling," Alan replied in tho same manner. "All a chance." "You've got that gun handy?"?with reference to tho rlilo of which they had despoiled the victim of the sky's ill-faith. "Here." "Then?let's go to it! Give way!" A dozen lusty strokes brought them alongside the schooner, and as tho dory scraped the wnist of the larger vessel the two young men dropped oars, rose, and seizing the low gunwales, lifted themselves to the deck. Nothing opposed them; the dock was ignorant of other footsteps than their own, the schooner as silent as only a becalmed ship can be. Without further consultation, Alan led quickly aft and down the companion way to the cabin, where a dim light burned?a smoky lamp swinging in gimbals above a cluttered table. Of tho two stateroom doors one disclosed an empty cabin, tho other was locked. Trying the handle roughly, Alan fancied he heard a sound within. Pausing, he called, with a thrill of fearful hope: "Hello, in there!" The respono was cry of incredulous delight: "Alnn!" Hv U'QV C\t 1 1 * -i -?j v.. aiionci /nan uunea nimself bodily against the door. At the ; m5FP^V ' ' ? . 7?*1* ^sy*^- \.^*'' * /. ., ->* -*jpM2'' ~~. ..; **> ^ * ?- ^ >' """ NoW and Again One Wot second Impact of shoulders backed by a hundred and eighty pounds of solid flesh and determination, the lock splintered away from its socket, the door Hew open with a bang?and Alan into the room with a cry: "Rose!" His sweetheart met him half-way, her arms uplifted, her countenance transfigured. And Mr. Barcus turned and slowly ascended the companionway, his nose wrinkled with misgivings. "Blest if I know how he thinks he can tell 'em apart," be remarked "Not that I blame him for taking a chance; it wouldn't pain me any to find out I'd kissed the wrong girl by mistake? not, that Is, unless she didn't care for my technique. "In that caae," he allowed, "I guess the sequel would be apt to prove tolerable agonizing!" Homo ten minute* later a hall from the deck broke the embrace of the lover*: "Below there I 1 say?Law!?wind vcomlng!" "Rlght-o! Half a minute!** But that stipulated delay waa several times multiplied before Alan showed up on deck to find Barcus bending a laborious baok to the capstan. "Lend a hand, can't you?" Barous complained, blowing heavily. "I didn't Interrupt your amoure Just to get an indlence. The sooner we get this inchor in?" Alan checked him with a hand on lis arm. "What's that?" he demanded n a tone tense with apprehension. The mufilod running of a heavy-duty narine motor drifted down on the vlngs of the sluiy^fU wind. S XOVKMHKU 17. I'M 1, "Don't ;.sk ;.ie?I'm nln.Ul to guess!" "Hut thoy couHu'i possibly!" "Since wlien did you sot up \<f bo j u judge ot' possibilities? Nothing prob I able ever happened to you In ail your j yong life?'? far's I can make out. Ab for tne? I know there are at least two ! life-saving stations on Na?iset, both with modern equipment?motor lifeboats and all; and nothing will ever | persuade me that pack of wolves ; would stick at breaking in umi rating one of the same. It's as likely as not?only more so. Our present i business i? to get tho h?1 out of here -?and not advertise our exit, either. Take that port light in and dowse it, v.hile I do tho same by tho starboard. hen duck below, warn your Dulcinea, end put out tho cabin lamp. That way , ?if this blackness and our bull-luck , ( nly holds?we may manage an evasion!" There followed an exceedingly busy ouarter of an hour for two constrained in pitch darkness to grope their way i.bout the decks and familiarize them. "lve? witli the idiosyncrasies of a rt-nn irn " * -* . . ?..?w ...ir.ui.oici. hbvbiuieiess, mo r id of that period found the schooner j 1 ith canvas full and sheets taut, a ood easterly breeze abeam, swiftly weaving a wake southwards?the light on Monnmoy point watching her curij ously from over the starboard beam. "Hear any thing more of that power I boat?" Alan asked, joining Darous by tho wheel, "Nothing?wind too fresh. Make yourself easy on the soft side of a plank here. I'll land you a kick in I the slats when so minded?or when it's your trick at the wheel." With a chuckle, Alan obediently stretched himself out on the deck. "I say?Law!" "Well?" "You seem pretty easy in your mind ' about this young woman below. To I me, she's tho same that tried to send I me to Davy Jones' locker_ How does she explain her presence nboard?" "Much as I surmised." Alan replied. , "I fancy they chloroformed her while I she slept in that hotel In Portland. I Whether or no. Rose woke up in a | closed motor car?bound and gagged. , wi tuuisi:?unci was Drought aboard at 1 Gloucester about midnight." "Simple when you know how," Rnrcus commented. "Of course, 1 always did say that truth was a stranger to llction. Cuddle down, now, and I'll talk you Insensible." His accents already merging in with the swish of the 'longside waves, tlio I bubbling of the wake, and the manytoned composite voice of the ship in being, unconsciousness like a cloud #> - > - ^ ' . \ .v * i '< , *'' * i V h* -t ild Lift His Head. descended upon Alan's overwearied faculties. Me woke mutinously, with a yawn and a shiver in the gray of a tarnished daybreak, to iiud that fox pressed heavily upon the face of the waters, a mist so thick that from tho stern tho waist of the vessel was almost invisible, the bows completely so. Hareus stood over him, at the wheel, | fairly reeling with weariness, his eyes blood-shot, swollen, and half-closed in a face like a mask of fatigue. "Can't keep this up much longer," ho apologized thickly; "stood it about as long as I can. Take your trick and give me rorty winks." Grateful solicitude brought Alan In-' stantly to his side, though he himself was sluggish and stiff and sore In all his limbs. "You're a brick!" he protested. "Why didn't you call me sooner?" "No good; I knew the way?you didn't That is, I did until this accursed fog closed down a couple of I hours ago. Now?God knows whaxw we are?oy my reckoning, somewhere in Nantucket sound, west of Mono-, moy." Grasping a small brass handle | uiaiiu iu uk! wneei doi, ns jeraeo It i sharply three times, and the automation horn blared raucously a threefold re-1 sponse up forward. "Keep that going,* he begged, "three blasts In a row and a minute Interval?and If the devil takes rare of his own we may possibly escape being rufl down." With a fclgh, relinquishing the wheel, he collapsed upon the deck and was almost instantly asleep. The wind had fallen until baroly I enough air stirred to kcop way on tin vessel; she moved in silence, a spec tral slilp upon a spectral sea of Ions oily swells and the complexion of lead liltlier and yon in the obscurity, fog signals of other shipping sounded a I concert of discordance?the inan ' power horn of a catbo&t crying th? ! warning back to the deop-throated whistle of a coastwise steamship and the Impertinent drumming of a motor I boat's exhaust With the mufller cut | out. Thie last boxed the rnmm?? aniuiH. inj now near, now far, though the com plaints of other shipping diminished in volume and died away in the dis 1 tance, Riving place to others still, thf plutter- pi utter of that rriofor was nevei altogether lost; if at times it faded it seemed certain always to return ir even louder volume. Vainly graining his vision against the blank pallor of the encompassing fog, Alan wondered, worried, dreaded! At irregular intervals, starting from preoccupatiou, he would mauipu late the brass pull on the wheel-box ; provoking the horn's stuttering blast* of protest. But the need for unretnit ting vigilance and exercise of the fog signal failed none the less to reconcile Alan to that blatant clamor which st widely and so hideously advertised their whereabouts, i If there were anything still to b? feared from Judith and her crew?if for instance, ae Barcua had suggested th< y had sought out one of the life sa\ ing stations on Nauset beach, ap pi sprinted its power-driven lifeboat ainl renewed the pursuit, if ever thej heard that horn there would beyond question bo the devil to pay! Tho loneliness of his vigil was oven tually relieved by tho appearance or deck of the woman Alan loved. The tableau that greeted her vision ni she emerged from the companionway of tho haggard, unshaven wretch at the wheel and the other who lay at hi? feet, where he had fallen, in a stupoi of fatigue, Instantly wrung from Ros* a little cry of solicitude. And she war quick to do what Utile she could tc alleviate their discomfort. For Barcus sho fetched a pillow and blanket froa the cabin, and this one suffered hei ministrations without once rousing from his slumbers. Then hastening forward, she got the galley tire goln{ and prepared a makeshift breakfasi for her half-famished lover. Warm food and hot coffee?such a? they were?lending a little tone t( Alan's spirits, he was presently able to discuss their situation with some optimism. Yet nothing could glosi the fact that the problem confronting them was one whose solution baffled their utmost ingenuity?one the simple contemplation of which taxed theii courage and intelligence to the ex j treme. I He summed up: "I can't see any | thing for it but father and Judith ar< determined to have my scalp, and I'n hanged if I can see how to protect my self without taking a leaf out of theli books. What I'm most afraid of If that some time 1 may forget It's i woman I'm defending myBelf against When a fellow's fighting for his very life he can't always stop to calculate the weight of hie blows." The young man sighed, shook hie head, laughed, uncertainly, and held her closer to him. "Don't fear; I'll find some way out without injuring either of them. I promise you that!' Ho sealed the pledge upon her lips And in that moment of their obllv ion to the world from some point forward a muffled crash sounded slmul taneously with the dull shock of a collision with a smaller vessel, and s strange voice cried out with an ac cent of high exultation. Before either Alan or the girl could disengage the decke rang loud with a rush of booted feet pounding aft. The figures of the boarding party were already taking shape through the fog as Alan sprang toward the companionway to fetch the rifle. And in this action his feet slipped on planks groasv with moisture deposited by the surcharged atmosphere Hew it down with a stumbling tlnimn. nnil nn in. st;.nt later two men fell bodily upon him?active, strong follows In the dross of fishermen, lie whs suffered to rise only as a prisoner, helpless in the grasp of two pairs of powerful hands. He saw Barcus, rudely roused and still dumb with sleepy confusion, In no better case?jerked to his feet and held captive by two more fishermen. A fifth had tak?n charge of Rose, clamping her wrists in the vise of one big hand. The sixth and sole other member of the boarding party, likewise in the rough-and-ready garb of a flBhermas, was Judith Trine. Down the side a heavy life-boat ground its way astern, the loose end of its painter slipping over the rait even a? Alan caught sight of It. (80 It seemed Barcus had guessed shrewdly!) Observing this, one of the men In charge of Alan made as If to leave him ?.- - >'? - * - ? ...... iu iuti uvucr, nnqressing JUdltb for permission to preyent the loss of the lifeboat. She stopped him with peremptory gesture. "No?let It go. We're better ?* without It. Hold that man fast till I fetch a rope. We'll make sure of them both this time!" Straining forward In the grasp of her guard, Rose Implored her sister: "Judith, In pity's name, think what you are doing!" "Hold your tongue!" Jadtth snapped viciously. "Another whimper out of you, and I'll have you gagged!" The balance of her threat, though accompanied hy the exhibition of an automatic pistol, wns drowned out by tho sudden ro&r of a steamship fog 7 3 ?ienai, so close aboard that it seemed . Klmo t to emanate from the forepart . of the schoonr r herself. As it '.tar answered by shrill and . hoarse cries of terror or of warning v from a dozen throats, Alan found him. s?Tf released, his captors leaping for ? their lives to the taffra.il. I He caught an instantaneous glimpse [ of the knlfe-llke bow of a great steani. er towering above the two-master? ; sweeping toward it at a speed which raised a smart Jet of white under the . cutwater. Someone aboard the schooner, with I tho voice of a stentor, bellowed a ter rilled appeal: "Stop your engines! Shut off your - propeller! Stop your?" Then, like the wrath of (>od. the i steam Jh!p overwhelmed the 'esser I ship; its how seemed to slice Lhrnueh : the schooner a? a lm<fe through j cheese. \nd the two halves were fairly driven under water by the frightful ; force of the blow. Thunders deafening him. Alan was hurled bodily through the air fully j twenty feet. When he came up he struck out at . I random, blindly tormented by the > vision of Hose caught in the suck of > i I | that gigantic wheel, drawn under, crushed and mangled by th - propeller > of the vast bluck hulk whose hank was , j sliding past, like the face of a cliff, , ! ten yards behind his shoulders. - i Aware of several dark objects dot ting the surface within a radius of t several yards, he swam for the nearr | est; the head was a woman's, the face I turned toward him, the face of Rose. : Ho gasped wildly: "Keep cool! Don't . j struggle! Put one h:ind on my shouli, der 'and?" What happened then was never quite i[ clear to him; he only know that he , | was forced to fight for hie very life? II that the woman, as soon as he came > i within reach, flung herself uDon him p like some maddened animal, clutching ) his throat, winding her limbs round i his, dragging him down and down. > Primitive Instinct alone saved him. j He remembered later, most vaguely, i the culmination of that duel beneath p the waters?remembered freeing an f arm, drawing tt back, delivering a j blow from his shoulder, with all his r strength, llnding himself free, etrug* [ gling back to the air. Then a boathook caught the back of 3 his shirt and dragged him for some ) distance, until two strong hands caught ? him beneath the armpits and held his 3 head above the water. 3 He looked up wltleasly fnto the face j of B&rcus, and, still bewildered, strugI gled feebly. i The other's voice brought him back r to his sensee. "Easy, old topi Take . it easy! You're all right now?rest a minute, then help me get you aboard." . He obeyed, controlling his panic as 3 best he might; and presently, with j considerable assistance frcm Rarcus, . contrived to scramble in over the gunr wales of a boat which proved to be , the stolen lifeboat. t Aside from iiarcus and himself it ! held one other person only?the wornr an he loved, crumpled up and uncon, s< lous in the bow. He strove to rise and go to her, to , make sure that still she lived. Barcus II restrained and quieted him. 11 "There! Easy, I say! She's all ,, right minted? that's all! She and I ? tool 1 water in practically the same -i id !r.-'.V threw this blessed boat . aiy a ay within half a dozen strokes. . N< ?rs ah! > at all?in a manner of speaking!" it the steamer? " h fr< t about her? At the pace , . .o- -as Kinking she couldn't have "d within half a mile. We'll be I .i ;.i now?with power to fetch us the others?Judith!" Alan sat "v and leaned over the gunwale, .. oily, leaden expanse spotj en with a few splinters and bits . c. "1 left her out there? I i i i ic?sk I! drown, 1 tell you!" tul I'll tell you something!" said i "You'll 1; > quiet . i or . i <1 it \ ; dome with < an ( ; r. la her drown? u ,< h. 1 ! 1 n't vou Know i <; *t noi. l:'? M-<rcifn 1 , you'. tin rrn :! insa, b ; ! ton for punishment ever!" v n-n'i listening- His fare h:. .- v-i as the waters that i brr.eath his lack luster gaze. ,-?i. was a horror in his heart that imbed even the sense of relief, of liveranee. that penetrated his being 1 " a '.hock of mortal pain. ! -?' !' Judith dead! Hack there, in , f'c teg and tho cold , . . dead by lis hand! (Continued in Next Issue.) NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS. Bids will be received by the Town of Lancaster. S. C., until 3 p. m. December lstt 1914, for two sewerage disposal) plants according to plans and specifications as adopted by said town. \ All bids mus\ be accompaniod by a certified checAfor $200.00 made payable to the ^Chairman of the Roard . \ Plans and speciVcations can he eon at the office ofVhe City Clerk or the Engineers, or c^n bo obtained by writing the Engineers and making a payment of Thr?> Dollars to cover the cost. Tho light la reserved to reject any or Yll bids. LEROY SPRINGS, Chairman. JOHN CRAWFORD, Clerk. H. S. Jaudon Engineering Co. Engineers. Box 582, Savannah, Ga.