Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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?kel( 9 O&J'Rands j AUTHOR OF "BEYOND THE FRC "MY LADY OF * NOVELIZED FROM THE FHOTOI BY GEORGE B. SE1T cotyuomt, i?i? SYNOPSIS. Adventurous Jerry Carson embark# In march of hidden treasure with the promise of I.eontine Walcott to be his tvife on his return. Her father favors Sebustiun Navarre. Jerry's ship is burned; he is reported lost. Sebastian presses his attentions. Jerry suddenly turns up to confront charges of the Navarros against him. In a struggle for a forged paper Diego Navarre is killed and Jerry is convicted of tlie murder. He escape*, and finds the tieasuro and a wonderful chemical pellet. I.eontlne is forced to marry 8ebastian. On the honeymoon, he attacks her in a rage. Suddenly he is confronted by a weird apparition, l^eontlne meets One Lamp Louie. Ravengar saves her from fire. Sebastiun, driven lo desperation, threatens lier again but tlie Shadow intervenes. She bears it speak of Jerry. FOURTH EPISODE I / The Earthquake. Since the luminous hands nnd eyes had appeared in the corner of Leontine's room for the second time, Sebastian had ceased to persecute her. Ostensibly they lived umlcubly together, yet Sebastian's heart was forever filled with gnawing jealousy of the dead Jerry, who still, as he well knew, possessed the soul of the woman who was his wife in name alone. He had expected that the deadlock of this difficult situation would be broken long before. But the phenomenon of the burning eves, which Sebastian attributed to the supernatural, bad shocked and stunned him. Then be had been terrified by the sudden apearance of One Lamp Louie, alias Louis Lamb, his confederate in crime. Another thing that had frightened U ! ... it. - * nun whs me appearance or rue mysterious stranger, Rnvengar. Sebastian -** " rnj j J<J?> . ?' -r ~ - v. 'oBbu <?88W?I The Newspaper Announced That Louis Lamb Had Suddenly Become a Millionaire. felt instinctively that Ravengar's entrance into his life boded evil for him. Finally, there was Louie's strange disappearance. Selmsilun knew that the fellow had not perished in the lire. It was nearly four months after Louie's disappearance when Sebastian, passing behind his wife's chair as Leontine sat reading the newspaper, found himself staring into a photographic reproduction of Louie's face. Underneath the photograph was a title referring to Louis Lamb, the hermit of White's Village, Western Canada, who had been made a millionaire in a day by the discovery of ?oiu on a claim which he hud staked out on a mountain side. The article wont on to say that a recent earthquake had disrupted a considerable part of the mountainside, tincovering a rich alluvial deposit, drained, doubtless, from a mother lode of incalculable richness somewhere in the heart of the mountain. Sebastian stared at the photograph in silence. Loontine looked up nt her husband, instinctively drawing away from him. Sebastian noted the movement. "We're going west tomorrow," he said curtly. "West? Where?" asked Loontine. "White's Village. The place you're rending about. Did you ever see that man before?" "Yes. lie looks like that queer friend of yours whom we saw In tin1 cabaret on the night of the lire, bul I have forgotten his name." "Well, thut's he, and I staked him to Ids claim," answered Sebastian. lie left her abruptly, and. returning to his own room, began to pa.ee to and fro restlessly, planning for the future, lie would end Louie's reputation. U< would terrify the little man, if not Intc fchni'ing his wealth, at any rate into a promise never to see him again. With the feur of Luiub gone, he eoult] kgSkadow lUfarrisK. - ffl )NTIER," "MAID OF THE FOREST," i rHE NORTH," ETC 1AY SERIAL Of THE SAME NAT* Z. RELEASED IY RATHE , IY ftAMMU FAMtlM concentrate his mind upon the Winning of Leontlne's love. And suddenly he stiffened where he stood, and his eyes fixed themselves upon a corner of the room. There was the strange apparition which had haunted him, no hallucination now, he could swear. He had never exi>evted to see it again. It burned itself upon his eyeballs, that vision of the flaming eyes and the two dead-white hands beneath them. One of the hands raised itself and traced the letters of a word upon the air in luminous letters that flickered, wavered and disappeared. "Confess!" was written there. With a groan Sebastian dropped into a chair and put his hands across his f ace. | When at last he looked up, the vision had vanished. ******* There were quite a few things that Mr. Louis Lamb knew. lie knew his name, and also his nickname, "One Lamp Louie," which had followed him to White's Village, Western Canada, in 1 the way that nicknames do. lie knew that he was prospecting for gold, and that he was one of an assorted mining population drawn to that place by the uncovering of gold deposits following upon tin earthquake, lie knew that he had nronerlv ximI.-oiI hut *?li?i?i? m>.i that he lived in a little shack near by, remote from the village. lie knew that a scar ran along the top of his head, and he surmised that he must have got it in some accident or brawl. Hut beyond these eleiuenj tary facts his mind was extremely hazy ! about his past. ' The simple cause of Ins forgetfulness was not absence of mind, in "its ordinary aspect, but the fact that he had been struck across the head by it falling beam in the cabaret lire. I IIow Mr. Lamb had made his way to Western Canada and engaged in the prospecting profession, how he had managed to build up some sort of co- , lierent personality out of the remnants that were left uninjured is a matter ! for neurologists to explain. Sullice it tluit at a certain moment he found himself staring with unusual interest into the debris of a pan of e^irth and pebbles, which he had washed with I water from a mountain stream, j In the bottom of this. to nliwo i\f ! >? few canary-colored Hakes that he had . expected to Had, were three mights i he size of lima beans, lying in a little mound of gold dust. Louis Lamb emptied them into the little bag of dust which lie wore about his body. Then he scooped up another panful of debris and started to wasli I it too. Hut no washing was needed. ! \uggets of several shapes and sizes were lying in it. And nuggets of va- i rious shapes and sizes lay in the gravel \ at his feet. There was no possibility of mistaking what had happened. The recent seismic disturbances had uncovered an : alluvial deposit washed down through 1 the course of ages by the streams from i the great lode somewhere in the inoun- i lain side. Louie had staked off this angle of the river bed, just where the torrent, sweeping past, had deposited its j wealth, the heavier gold, leaving the pebbles to strew themselves anywhere ulong the river's further course. After the first shock of the discovery had passed, he looked cautiously i about him. Nobody was near. Nobody ! wanted to spy upon his claim, which was supposed to be worthless. lie worked with intense secrecy for , weeks, always increasing his store of gold, which he concealed in a hole dug J in the ground beneath the plunk floor j of his cabin. Then, somehow, the so-' crot beeame common property. It vas impossible for Louie to ke??p j it in such a place as White's Village. Huskies, other strikes bad been mfidtr. j The whole side of the disrupted mountain teemed with gold. "lied" Finn was interested in the i hermit's mysterious journeys to and 1 fro between his hut and his claim. ' "lied" 11 * 111 "f (ill" I liu nnicf/itw" I ey in White's Village. lie had gone to investigate, and. after satisfying him-j self that the bees were gathering in a store for him, he summoned two or three of bis colleagues at present hiding In various remote villages from the! inquixiliveness of the Northwest mounted police. When tlfey arrived, "Red" pointed out Louie's shack and Indicated that there was probably a fortune inside It. The hoard had increased to n veritable fortune when one evening Louie decided to go downtown. He had his i provisions to purchase; but the In; st 1 net which had sent hiin there took him to the railroad depot instead of to the store. On the platform, waiting for the train to come in, stood a tall, ; well-dressed, athletic man, with grayI Ish hair and a strange look of mystery . i upon his face. j "Well, Mr. Lamb, this Is a pleasure," II said Ravengar. i Louie looked at him. "I don't know you; I newer saw you before," he I growled suspiciously, his mind revert THE HORRY tfi&l n^r to his store. "No?" laughed Ravengar. "Perhaps we may get better acquainted with each other later." Louie snarled at lilm and slouched away, lie wus turning back into the village when the train was heard, and the same Instinct that had taken him to the platform now caused him to wait for the passengers. Sebastian and Leontlne, descending from their carriage, were amazed to see llnvengar waiting for them. L<m*iitlne looked on him with fear; Sebastian with frantic terror. "Welcome to White's Village," sahl ltavengar, raising his hat. "What are you doing here?" demanded Sebastian uneasily. "Seeking my fortune?the same as yourself, my dear Navarre," ltavengar answered. Before Sebastian could think of a reply his eyes lit on Louis Lamb, who, standing behind a post, watched the party with a dour grimace. He staggered uu Instant; then, associating the presence of the two men with some conspiracy, he blazed into anger, lie strode toward Louie. "How do you do!" he said curtly, offering him his hand. Louie's eyes blazed. "I don't know you, 1 tell you," he shouted. "I never saw you in my'life before-?none of ...... ?? uu. As Sebastian stood staring .at ldm helplessly, One Lamp Louie slouched ioff In the direction of;his shuck; and. realizing that he. had loft it.for nearly an hour he broke into a terrified amble. Sebastian, looking back* saw ltnvengar helping Leontiue into tile^carriage. * * * * * ?.i * Once within his shack, Louie rushed to the place where he hid his gold and pulled up the board, lie breathed a sigh of relief. It was untouched. Hut the memory of the two strangers who had greeted him terrified him. lie stared out of his little window. The sweat dripped from his face. In his arms he hugged the loaded shotgun. and ho fancied that he saw an enemy beneath each bush, and in every quivering shadow, \ K r* wl fL ? 41 L ! ~ /lO UC t ltl>.M'Vl tlltt IMMlf illi* Mlit I j? ears seemed to tell him that somebody was near. lie almost thought he heard a sound within the shack. Lie clutched his shotgun tighter and peered about him. Hut nobody wus there. Then suddenly, out of the shadows of the far corner of the room, two luminous eyes and two dead-white hands seemed to materialize themselves. Louie's eyes widened, lie stared at the liery eyes which fixed themselves on his. The eyes burned themselves into his brain. Louie began to stiffen like a cataleptic. And in his half-dead brain the following words were registered: "Write out the statement you have to make concerning your forgery, on behalf of Sebastian Navarre, which sent Jerry Carson to the penitentiary Tor a murder which he never committed." Louie's hand went out automatically toward a pencil and a pad of paper upon the pine table in the shack. Louie had not placed them there. They were there now, and it did not surprise him. because* he was living upon a plane where nothing is surprising. "I wish to confess my part in the forgery which ruined Jerry Carson," wrote Louie's hand, in obedience lo his docile, subconscious mind. Louis himself sat rigidly at the table, motionless and stiff, except for the pliant right forearm and lingers. Or perhaps it was the real Louie who wrote, and only the shell, with its history of crime and weakness, that sat stiff in the chair. The door of t lie shack opened. Sebastian appeared. Hut Lottie sat stiff and motionless, and his lingers slowly formed the words with the pencil. Sebastian, driven to desperation by ltavengar's appearance and Louies strange behavior, had resolved to have it out with his partner that night. Peering over Louie's shoulder, to his horror Sebastian saw the complete confession of the crime. "So that's your game, is it?" he demanded through his teeth. "I guessed something was wrong. You pitiful fool, why didn't you oorne to me? Who's hacking you? Don't you know that if that gets out it will mean punishment to you as well as to me?" Louie stared into the man's fa.ee wonderingJy. He had gone to sleep, as he thought, and now had awakened in 'I iic Flaming Eyes and the Tv I ID, CONWJlY, 8. 0. | liil? clutches of this stranger. "Who are you?" he snarled, dodging ! out i\I Sebastian's grasp. "What do | you My gold, that's what you want!" Willi a spring he had reached 'the loaded shotgun, and he clasped It in his arms as a child clutches a doll. Sebastian leaped forward and tried to snatch the gun out of his hands. Whom are you confessing to?* he shouted. "What do you want to confess for? Aren't you in this game us deep as I am?" lie grasped the barrel with both hands, but little Louie seemed possessed by a demon. The fear of losing his hoard gave liim preternatural strength. "Get out or I'll shoot!" he screamed, wresting the gun from Sebastian. "I'll have that fake confession of yours first," Sebastian shouted. He darted to the table. The pad was there, and the pencil, but the confession was gone. Sebastian, forgetful j of his danger in the terror that came over him, went down on hands and knees and begun hunting upon tlie floor. "Get out!" screamed Louie, hammering bim with the butt of his weapon. "Give up that confession!" screamed Sebastian, attempting to close with hiui again. For answer Louie stepped back and aimed the gun at the intruder's head. ; Sebastian dodged, sought the shuck | door, opened it, and ran outside. Louie was mad. That was the only j possible explanation. ******* By the time Sebastian had reached the hotel he was outwardly calm again. Bussing beneath the window of the room in which Lenntiue sat, he saw j that Ilavengur was still there. The two were seated together in l'ront of a ' table, on which a lamp was burning. L"poii the table was an envelope. As he halted iinoertainlv henontli " ] the window, lie saw Leontino look at the table. Her glance fell upon the i envelope. Half in wonder, she turned jit over. Nothing was written on it, ' and the Hup was unsettled. 1 She offered it to Ihivengar, who I shook his head. It was not his. "1 wonder whether it is meant for me." Sebastian heard Leontino say. Site drew a folded sheet of paper front within. Sebastian, creeping close ; ; beneath the window, could see that it was a closely written page. Loontine slightly raised the shade of the lamp to-read it. The light fell full on the page. "I wMi to confess my part in the conspiracy which ruined Jerry Carson," Sebastian read. For the moment his knees shook uni dor him. So the plan had advanced i thus far already! A copy had already i been made and left with Loontine! lie clung to the window sill and trembled like a man in an ague. Everything seemed lost. Then came the reaction of fury. He ran into the hotel, dashed open the door of the room, and | entered. "Give me that paper!" he shouted to J Leontino. Loontine, startled by his sudden an i pearunce. hesitated. Thou she put the hand which held the paper behind her. "It is not yours, Sebastian," she answered. Sebastian sprang itt her and caught at her arm, but Leontine was loo quiek i for hint. Site held the paper out to liavengnr. "Keep this for me," she said. Iiavengar took lb'- pap r. ;;u< 1 Sebastian, gnawing his lip. looked front one i to the other alternately. "(Jive me that pai?er," lie demanded J of Iiavengar. "I received it from Mrs. Navarre. I shall return it to her when she ro; quests it from me," said Iiavengar calmly. He moved toward the door, bowed to Leontine, and went along the passage in the direction of his room. Se. hastlan (lung himself out of the room dim .-mhiul' aauig me passage. : A party of men in shirt sleeves wore : gambling in one of the rooms. They were drinking, and their voices roso angrily as they quarreled and slammed down the cards. Sebastian strode past them. In the next room he saw Iljivongar, standing, the paper in his hand, lie entered without knocking. "(Jive me that paper, damn yon!" he shouted. Kavengar only looked at him fixedly. Sebastian hesitated. He could not de ^pB^ P /jo-'^^^?^ &m IB GKJsSJ0jwcfi^HH|B|^P'^^^Dj^^^^^^P^|^^^^^B yo Dead White Hands Beneath. K3B^BSSSSjSjSErj|^5K!3E9^^M I HW,\>.' flN^HMnWlry^fiiMfllvBH^*^!,i,i,.,.*.'*.,**X'vl't^'.>;? .. . . . **^'^W?v^yw> "Get Out or IMI Sh CTde what to ?lo. "You see, Mr. Rnvonsnr, that Is an Important business paper," ho contln tied, lit a quieter voice. "It is the confession of a former partner of mine who cheated*ine out of some property. I have promised not to prosecute him provided he returns the money. It Is worth ten thousand dollars to me, and since It has come Into your hands I am willing to pay you that much for It." "Yen \iust apply to Mrs. Navarre," answered Kavengar. Sebastian hesitated an Instant. Then he sprang at him like a tiger and locked his arms about him, the hands reaching toward the throat. The suddenness of his leap surprised Kavengar, who reeled and went staggering back againsr the table. In the Hash of an interval before they closed Kavengar freed Ills right j hand and sent the list crashing Into j Sebastian's face. As Sebastian re- j leased him and staggered back Itav- ! engar followed with a second blow from his left, which caught the Argentine beneath the chin. Sebastian dropped with a moan and crumpled hp on the floor. As Kavengar stood over him a pic- j tare fell from the wall beside him. A moment later the water bottle upon the table went crashing down in splin- j tors of broken glass. Kavengar looked about him in wonder. Shrieks and cries resounded through the hotel. Through the darkness out- ! side a sudden stiuntil of light shot up.! ******* The volcanic eruption had blown the top off the mountain, had rent the | ground into deep lissureg from which ! the subterranean fumes, ascending, j sent up a cloud of inky smoke that, added to the darkness of a moonless night, made the panic univiM'sul. Leontine was standing in her room when the catastrophe occurred. Suddenly she was tiling off her feet by the force of the earthquake. Stunned, she mercifully escaped knowledge of Its tirst horrors. When she recovered she found herself unhurt, but pinned between two scantlings that had fallen one on either side of her. , Cries and grouns came to her ears from all sides. Then through the darkness she heard I a man's voice calling. "Loontino!, Leontlne!" he was saying. And u thrill of joy leaped into her heart and set It to beating fast. It was Ituvengar. She answered faintly, and presently, guided by her voice, he found her. "You are not hurt?" he inquired anxiously. She could not see his face, even though ho stood beside her. "No," she replied. "And you?" "I think not," he answered, placing one arm around her to support her. "You had better let me carry you," he continued. "You will fall over the beams. I know the way out?at least, ,1 found the way in. There has been an earthquake." He raised her into his arms, and she lay there, one arm about his neck, her hair drifting across his fhce. Carefully lie picked his wnv toward the tloor. Then he set her down. "I am going Imck for your husband," he-said. "Stay there till 1 return." Rconline looked about her. Several people lay hulf-buried in the debris of the hotel. A voice was culling pitifully from what had been the dining room. A man came stealthily across the fallen beams, guided by the sound of tlie voice. It was "Red" Finn, who had been gambling with ids companions in the] next room to Ravengar's. lie had heard the sounds of the quarrel, and Sebastian's offer of ten thousand dollars for a certain paper. Then, as the fight began, he bad peered cautiously into the room and had seen Ravengar slip the paper into his pocket. Now he was nrowlinir a morn? the rn ins of the lioto), having almost miraculously escaped Injury in the catastrophe. At length his watch was rewarded. He saw llnvengar come staggering along the ruined wall, bearing Sebastian in Ids arms. He carried him to the porch and set him down beside Leonttne. Sebastian groaned and opened his eyes. lie tried to rise, Ituvengar bent over him. "lied" Finn crept cautiously nearef. Then something happened which coni - VsMBS Bffi^ffMMMpfnjyi 111 MHwttSWRS^j^&^i^J^SBSfeijMWlfcBBilfiKflB oot You I"'He Screamed. vlnced him thnt 1hl? was his lucky di^P. The paper which lie contemplated snatching from Uavengar's pocket dropped out as he bent over Sebastian. In an Instant "lied" had leaped upon it ami possessed himself of It and taken lllght. Only T.?ooj)tJj)e saw the aethm. She placed her hand on Uuveugur's una. "The paper!" she cried. Rnvongar start<m1 au<l felt in his pocket. It was not there. "lie has stolen it!" cried Leontino frantically, pointing to the disappearing figure of the fugitive. Instantly Ravongar understood. He left Sebastian lying on the ruined porch and raced after the fleeing crook. It was much lighter. The rising moon illuminated the land. Havengar saw his quarry distinctly, racing along the wagon road that led toward the mining ground. Havengar felt that he was gaining. In front of them the railroad line ran at a right angle to the wagon road, .lust where they intersected was the brawling mountain stream, which now raged, a torrent, under the high bridge that lay before them. Beneath the bridge the railroad ran along the embankment cut beside the river. It was a leap of forty feet to the raging torrent below. "Ued," looking back, saw that his pursuer, was close upon him. He thrust the paper Into his pocket and turned at bay. The two men closed. Ravongar sent the crook reeling. "Red" dodged and recovered himself. lie sprang at Itavengur like a panther. A chance blow caught Havengar under the ear. Ravengar stumbled and fell. Before he had recovered his footing "Red," spurred to frenzy, had sprtiDg to the parapet of the bridge and leaped into the stream. As ho struck the Icy water he was all but unconscious. Tie felt it close over his head. The shock revived him. He flung his hands upward, choking, until he reached the surface. The bridge already lay in the distance behind him. The force of the current was carrying him swiftly away. He could not battle with it. Ho was drifting helplessly In the boiling eddies. Suddenly lie fi It the ground beneath ll I v: I'onl In a moment he wns scrambling up the hank ami he ilnng himself. ??xhnlisted and shaking with cold, among the rushes. Presently, feeling the return of circulation, he got up and thrust his dripping, palsied hand into his pocket. He drew out the envelope and, opening it, took the paper from it. In the rays of the moon he read: "I wish to confess my part in the conspiracy which ruined Jerry Carson . . ." He read it to the end, as best he could. A spasm of disgust crossed his face. He crumpled it and made to throw It. away. 0n second thought, however, he changes] his mind and thrust it into his pocket. Then he started doggedly along the road. When "Ited" lonnwl llnvntwrcii* #<>1 - VH(,U1 ?? lowed him without hesitation. Ho swam with all his strength, reached the hank, and pulled himself ashore. Then he looked up and down along the river. "Red'* had disappeared. He wns, as a matter of fact, hidden by a little rise of ground, too slight to , be perceptible from where Ravengar stood. Ravengar strode furiously up and down the bank. The fellow must have perished instantly in the water, he concluded. Feeling that his search was hopeless, he crossed the bridge and returned to the village. By this time the stunning effects of the earthquake had begun to subside. The inhabitants were running hither and thither, helping the injured. As Ravengar reached the hotel he saw thnfr n??iirlv ?li 1 * - v uiu miniivn miu nirniujr boon rescued. Leon tine still stood on the broken porcli, %vhcre he had 10ft h*r. i "He leaped Into the stream," he said. "I plunged after hfm, but the current had already swept him under. I a in afraid there is no chance of recovering your paper, unless the body Is cast shore." "It doesn't mutter," answered Leoa