When She Tried to "Pump a Needleful o' Dope" Into Her Mistress, a Dead Man'i Face Appeared. Tbonce h5 took up bls'flaahllght. and through that Giant's Causeway of bro- presslng close to the coffln'a aide, ken rock, he felt grateful enough, re- stood studying the pallid face that lay memberlng what bad happened, to be surrounded by Its oven more pallid still alive. And sore aa he was In drapery of white satin. body, he waa even more bruised In He stared at that pallid face long spirit at the memory of the fact that and Intently. He stared at It wltb atu- bla enemy. Jules Legar. bad at tbe dlous and narrowing eyes. . Then he last moment escaped from bla clutch. The Lake of Fire. glimpse of a tall figure skulking off Legar, lucky as his escape had been, Into the darkness. knew that bla margin of safety waa "Follow that man wltb your car," atlll too narrow for much Immediate the Laughing Mask suddenly crlod out comfort of either mind or body. So to the chauffeur. J( be crawled away aa best be could, "No car could travel through^Spun- nurslng his strength when he came to try like that!" protestod Train./ \ cover and going on again whta some "Then keep your lights on the main passing light showed that cover to bo road to the west here, eo*^st£nfck none too dense. But he did not give him up if he tried to breakTSNugb up until he had reached higher on that side. IH awing around tiy, the ground. Tbero he waa able to hide foundry yards and head blm off-in the himself In a thicket and rest for an east!" hour or two. And the next moment the man In But to remain In that neighborhood the yellow mask had disappeared In until morning, he knew, would be out the darkntss. Golden and his daugh- of the question. About that whole ter stood staring after him. suspected area, he felt, tbe police Two mlnutos later the blackness , would surely throw a cordon, and tbe that had swallowed him up waa reaourco of disguise waa no longer at stabbed by a series offlameflashes, his disposal. Already from where be I followed by the repeated bark of a . lay. he could aee dozens of moving ! revolver. Prom the gloom still nearer ' lamps of workers about the mauso- the shadowy plies of the Westlngham leum ruins. He could also see the foundry came an answering serins of glow of a powerful pa4r of headlights, shots. apparently on a motor car threading "That meana he's making for the Ita way to the scene of t^e.explosion, foundry, sir!" cried the excited Train And to the north he could even more aa he swung his car about distinctly see pie fiery tongues of the "Then, for God's sake, get ue there, chimney flarea above the Westlngham as quick as yon can." commanded foundry, where hundreds of toQera, Enoch Golden as the car lurched and turning night Into day, worked about pulaed and crawled on between tbe the great blast furnaces and cauldrons broken shrpbbery. In perilous Search of molten metal. tor some open pathway. In a foundry auch aa that, he sud- But both Legar and his pursuer denly remembered, lay hla best were by this time well beyond their chance for eacape. Disheveled as he line of vision. That desperate-minded was, he could paaa unnoticed among master criminal, In fact, realising those sooty workers. And when the that his enemy was pressing close at night ahlft went off, he told himself, his heels, mounted a slag pile, dropped he could slip away In their midst, nn- flat, and emptied his revolver into the noticed and unchallenged. And If the darkness, where the Laughing Mlsk worst dime to the worst he could should have been. ctawl Into hiding somewhere about But the wary pursuer, dropping low the tangle e t machinery under that beside an empty pitch barrel, held hla foundry roof ltaelf. and there lay up Are and waited. The moment he until be knew the cdast waa clear heard the crisp sound of footsteps again, with the chance'' of stealing a along the slag slope he once more poddler's "Jumper" for a disguise and took np the pursuit. a dinner'pail or two full of tood for a That pursuit led through a harrow MOUNT VERNON SIGNAL kegar laughed a* ne outitronted hlsi Alt cms Leg** might have done, and enemies. j might have done wltluut great dim- "Do yon want to take me alive?' < culty, had not a trace of his older ob- "Alive or dead, I'm gilng to takef session of hate Impinged on his clear- you!" ' ' ' ly outlined course of action. "Then take this first," cried Legar. He was once more himself, by this At the same moment that he .spoke 'time, walking with a limp that was the left hand In which be still held scarcely discernible.' But as be stole what seemed to be a black metal; down from tbe higher ground and watch case swung forward. And aaS made his way back towards the West- that object which so closely resembled! Ingham chimney flares he became a black watch hurtled through the air/ one<( more conscious of tbe whiter Legar flung himself flat on his face' glare along the roadside he was so along tbe vault flooring. Then the cautiously skirting. This, he remem- black watch struck. 1 bered, as he stole nearer, came from The next moment the walls of that the headlights of a stalled limousine, ponderous structure of marble am# Then b* made a second and a more sandstone seemingly built to defy tlm«_ startllnj discovery. He knew, even Itself, lifted bodily In the air. like th* before |e caught sight of Train work- hull or a torpedoed dreadnaugbti Ing ov# his helpless car, that It be- Then, following the roar and rumblj longed %o Enoch Golden. But what of that vast detonation, came the mofe actuallit drew him closer to the spot mentary catastrophic silence whictl was a ttmpse of Margery Golden her- so strangely and yet so Inevitably sues self. In J gray fur motor coat, as she ceeds a calamity too gigantic and tot) stepped;from the body of the car and abrupt to be understood. 5 came fjfjl Into the glare of tbe head- That ominous silence, however, last-. »8hts. Vloser beside her stooping Author <4 -THE OCCA- SIONAL OF- FENDER." THE WIRE TAP- PERS." "GUN RUNNERS.-ETC Noodized from THE PATHE PHOTO PLAY O F T H E SAME NAME On Windward Island Palldorl Intrigue? Mm. Golden Into an appearance of evil which cause* Golden lo capture anil tor- ture the Italian by branding his face and f-ru»hlni[ his hand. Fnlldort floods the Is- land and kidnaps Golden's little daughter Margery." Twelve years later In New York a Maakcd One rescues Margery from Le- Bar and takes her lo her father's home, whence she la recaptured, Margery's mother fruitlessly Implores Golden to ttnd their daughter. The Laughing Mask again lakes Margery away froin Legar. Legar sends to Golden a warning and a demand SOT a portion of the chart of Windward Island. Margery meets her mother. The chart Is lost In a flght be- j posed the stalwart body of a certain | One-Lamp Louie, long known among i bis associates as an habitue of the; Owl's Nest and an underground agent. for Jules Legar himself. Now One-Lamp Louis gave no prom- ise of either active or posslve Inter-. ference with these duly appointed mor- , tuary exercises until tbo city Itself had been left well behind. Then, awakening to the fact that they were i traversing a desirably sequestered Btretch -of road, he watched Intently for certain prearranged signals from i rnVn^ 1 bu^ls recovered f y ' " h i . one-armed accomplice. Immediate- Manic. Count Da KBpnrea fleun-i In a : ly after the discovery of those looked- fe?"oVaJ£kl,id ff'GoldS"hoi,« ; for ">e spirited team driven by la dynamited during a masked bail, L*- One-Lamp Ixjule showed unexpected fhe r ^ s ^ M a ^ y f?s P cu".%hVLa«"hing ** unmistakable evidences of restive- Milk from th© police. Maniey find* .Mar- ness. BTfrom Mank?- m Tso^cci^arrowi'* But lherfl WaB * 1,mlt to whal that team of spirited blacks would endure. And they suddenly, to all Intents and purposes, determined to follow their own lino of travel at their own rate of speed, for. as the driver sat on the box apparently Bawlng on the reins, that exasperated team plunged sud- Enoch Golden declared with heat, "and . d Pn i v forward, swerved across the I always will ne opposed to it!" road, and went galloping down a tree- David Man ley, an he 8 < ar, ;d across , 8creoned bypath which was little more than a cart trail winding in and out TENTH EPISODE THE LIVING DEAD I'm opposed to your plan, sir.' the table at the milled old millionaire, tried to control himself 19 patience. "But you acknowledge that you are equally opposed to I.egar's intrusions Into this house, to having his secret agents planted about at your elbows. through slopes of greensward and shrubbery. ilalf a mile deeper in that shrub- bery this runaway team would Burely have reached the spot where a black Golden mausoleum and verify the con- tents of the mysterious casket there deposited, Red Egan had returned with the preposterous story of a white sheet suddenly descending out of the black- ness of the vault and whisking One- Lamp Louie out of reach and also out of sight. And since the once valiant Red Egan Showed so craven a spirit that nothing short of a quart of three- star brandy could tranquillze his shak- en nerves and since One-Lamp ^oule showed no signs of returning from the mysterious realms Into which the afore-mentioned white sheet had whisked him. Legar promptly and wrathfnlly decided to take the matter Into his own hands. He would lay this ghost, he announced, or something would go smash in the process. But he had no Intention of approach- ing that Intimidating mausoleum with- out duo and definite preparation. With him he took a powerful pocket flash- light. a Colt automatic pistol and a couple of extra clips of cartridges, out the Instrument on which he re- posed the moBt confidence was a gun- metal disk little bigger than a pocket aneroid, some three inches in diame- ter and no thicker than a man's hand. This innocent-looking disk, which could be slipped Into a vest pocket as easily as a timepiece, was known to the habitues of the Owl s Nest as the Black Watch. While actually nothing more than a small-sized hand grenade, its claim to distinction lay In the tremendous explosive power which stood com- pressed between Its slender metal walla. Legar was not a coward. Yet as he Btood In the clammy midnight air of the Golden mausoleum and quietly removed the screws that held the top on the black casket beBlde him. he found that combination of silence and gloom and unsavory surroundings a little more of a strain on t}is nerves than he had anticipated. Yet as he lifted back the sable cover of tbe casket he did so with a hand that was still steady. Legar flung himself flat on his face along the vault flooring. Then the' black watch struck. The next moment the walls of thai ponderous structure of marble am sandstone seemingly built to defy tlm^ Itself, lifted bodily In the air, like th* hull of a torpedoed dreadnaught* Then, following the roar and rumblt- of that vast detonation, came the mo£ mentary catastrophic silence wbicll so Btrangely and yet so Inevitably BMC\ ceeds a calamity too gigantic and to<i abrupt to be understood. \ That ominous silence, however, last- ed only for a few seconds. Out of itf arose muffled calls and thin cries for help, followed by answering shouts from many different points In the darkness as rescuing hands set to work on the ruins. And out of those ruins, while this work was going on, emerged two bruised and tattered figures strangely divergent In appearances. The first figure, worming its way out through the Interstices of crumbled rock and cement, as cautiously and as silently as a wounded btacksnake might crawl from a cave, bore an iron claw end of Its right arm and betrayed ah unmistakable desire to creep away In- to the darkness before being observed. Tbo second man. who, on recovering consciousness found himsolf encagod between two falleu pillars of marble lopped by one of the roof slabs, experi- enced no little difficulty in emerging to the open, so closely were these pro^ tecting pillars wedged about blm. But as be worked his bruised body But when 1 work out a plan that offers umousine stood hidden away a reasonable promise of trapping l.e-; ahll ,i ow ot laurol copee. had not stillj gar and his men. you stop th? whole ano ih e r and an equally unheralded fac-1 business by doclarlng It's lacking In , tor entered Into the situation. This i dignity!" factor took the form of a high-power "Dignity Is something which depart- roailsier )n which was sealed a man j ed from this house the day Legar first j woar i ng a yellow mask. His irrup- forced hie way Into It!" was Golden's t j on j n t 0 t j ;at orderly little procession. bitter retort. "Precisely!" cried young Manley. "His whole campaign has been one of intimidation, of threats and Assaults a*d roprisalB. They have bfcen try- ing to fight us with terror. So my contention IP. why not give them a dose of [heir medicine? Why not light them with their own weapons, and in doing BO. perhaps go them one better?" "But I can only repeat my convic- tions that your plan can't succeed!" protested the tremulous-voiced old financier. "Why not leave that to me?" cut in young Mnnley. with Ills first touch of Impatience. "I've left a good many things to you. Davy; but I don't encourage men to plan their own funerals!" know as well as 1 do that these men who work with Legar are an ignorant and illiterate lot. They're not afraid of force. But when you confront them with the supernatural, you get tbfem face to face with something they, can't understand. And what they can't un- derstand they are going to be afraid of!" "And you think you're going to frighten 'em away with a casket!" "I'm going to make them believe that David Manley. having departed this life because of an attack on his per- son by one Maukl. with poisoned ar- rows. is about to be duly Interred In the Golden mausoleum, and—" "But you couldn't even get a wax figure that would fool a five-year-old child! You couldnt—" "I've already got the figure, Inter- rupted Manley. "And It strikes me as being an exceptionally perfect one." "But what's all this funeral business to lead to?" demanded tho old flnan- ' "It leads to the fact that Legar and his men will be duly Informed of my death, tor 1 want all the servants In this house to pass before the casket and see me In It. And Legar's spy will be one of them. 80 Legar, you may be sure, will get the facts as soon as they are known. He will bo tipped off as to the day and hour of the funeral. He will also be told that the cortege, say of three carriages. Is to proceed to the Golden mausoleum, and that Margery Golden Is to go in one of the carriages. And that lon.ely spot will strike him as precisely the right spot for making a coup." o "And. what do we gain by that?" "Well fill our big thirty-thousand dollar mausoleum with thirty big police- men, and round up tbe gang before Legar can even smell a rat." But Enoch Golden remained uncon- vinced. "Well, It may be a brilliant plan, but you can please leave me out of It," he finally announced. "That's Just what I've been asking for," explained Hanley. "All I want Is to be allowed to conduct It In my own way." David Manley, however, did not con- • duct that strange funeral altogether In hla; own way. Carefully as every detail had been planned, there were one or two-minor features wb'ch at the time escaped his attention. The'most inconspicuous and yet the most vital of these was, perhaps, the personality of the driver of the third carriage in that small cortege which wended ita w a r «*> decorously fror Golden home. For under the funereal outfit 6f this placid-eyed driver i* Indeed, proved as abrupt as One-Lamp Louie's eruption from It. And he Bcemed plainly suspicious of both I>ouie'8 motives and movements, for he lost no timo In swinging fronf the highway and plunging recklessly after the runaway carriage. As his car approached the runaway cab that mysterious stranger, known as the Laughing Mask, stepped to tho running-board of his roadster, leaning far out as the two swerving vehicles drew together. One-Lamp Louie, what? ever he may have thought of that ap- proach. had little means of evading To swing off what narrow road re- mained before him seemed frankly, suicidal. To lash his team to greater , effort was already out of the question, j To take his hands from the reins, even, along that uncertain road, was equally foolhardy. So the strange race • went on, the swaying and bounding cab with a white-faced girl tossed' about under itB hood, the leaping and > lurching roadster, every second draw-. ing closer' down on Its quarry yet £very second threatening to turn tur- tle over one of the grassy embank- ments above which it shuddered and It was the Laughing Mask, leaning 1 far out from his running-board, who threw open the cab-door and called I shsrply to the startled girl. "Quick." he commanded. For one moment she hesitated. Then she reached out for the unsteady hand groping for her. The next moment she found herself Bitting back, a little breathless. In tho leather-upholstered seat of 'the road- ster and the man in the Laughing Mask smiling down at her. Tho Black Watch. A number of things had happened and were happening to disconcert, If not to discourage, the redoubtable Le- gar. That astute young adventuress, Betsy Le Marsh, alias Williamsburg Elsie, who. with the aid of divers forged recommendations, had installed herself In the Golden household, re- peatedly and stubbornly reported that David Manley was dead. Williamsburg Elsie also expressed a strong desire to migrate from the house In which she found herself so inquisitive a maid, since that house, she declared, wad too full of "queer thtng.s" for her comfort When, at Legar's suggestion, she had tried to "piimp a needleful o' dope" into her altogether unsuspecting mistress, a dead man's face had sud- denly sppeared between her and the bedroom door. And on two different occasions, after midnight, when she had ventured dovn to the housekeep- er's telephone to send in a secret mes- sage to Legar himself, she had found herself confronted by a ghost in white. Nor was Betsy Le Marsh the only malcontent Even Red Egan himself, one of the best; "cold-steel" men In all the group that clustered about the Owl's Nest had of late shown unmis- takable signs of mental disturbance. A dead man's ghost he declared, had looked in through one ot the head- quarters' windows. Red Egan, it Is true, had promptly emptied his six- shooter at that {Phantasmal intruder, but with nothing more to show for it than a shattered wlndow-sash and six panes of broken glass. When the master-criminal, to put an end to all sUch absurdities, had by t|ie force of ipany dire threats-and oaths compelled both One-Lamp Louie and Red Egan himself to repair to the Iron. It led through an abandoned boiler room, then on through a dimly lighted and low-roofed structure of pulleys and lathes, and from there to the brighter lighted and higher roofed metal room of the foundry Itself. There, beside glowing furnaces half- naked men tolled over incandescent annealing boxes and cauldrons of mol- ten metal. There gigantic track cranes swung bowls of liquid fire from crucibles to mold beds. And therd the harried Legar. be- wildered by the sudden bright light ran like a pelted hound down the sandy paths between forge and coke oven and cauldron crane. There, see- ing his way blocked by a group of round-^yed Lithuanians, he swung, catlike, up Into the Iron network of the cable bridges, tylth his pursuer still close at his Wiels. And there, midway across tbitt smoke-stained roof, that echoed with the tumult of thundorous hammers'and directly erer a king cauldron of ^polten steel, the two men came together. There Legar, with hla metal slaw hooked securely into the iron network above his head, swung about and faced his enemy. And there, on that grimy brl^-e high above the equally grimy workmen who left their forges and lathes and cauldrons to witness the struggle, the two enemies, who had so long and bitterly opposed each other, found themselves face to face for their final struggle. Yet the man in the yellow mask seemed the cooler beaded of the two, for as Legar struck snarling at Ms face he ducked low on his narrow perch and at the same moment whipped his revolver from the side pocket of his coat Yet Legar. with a movement equally prompt klclted viciously at the fingers clustered about the gun-butt before the weapon ltaelf could be brdUght Into use. The next momept that weapon fell with a hiss ?tfet it was not until the girl had j and splash into the lake of molten passed well out of hailing distance 1 metal beneath them. of the headllghted car thdt Legar Then the struggle became one of circled even more hurriedly forward (tendon against tendon, of straining and swung In again to intercept her. , muscle against muscle, of empty- She was trudging, a little breath- handed mortal strnogth pitted against "Are we stalled?" he could hear the girl ask. ^ "We'll be off again in a minute or two. Miss Margery." was Train's pre- occupied reply. "But I can't stand here helpless." protested the girl. "I can't wait I must know what has happened to Da- vid Manley." "Whatever It was, it's over and done by this time." "But he may be dead. He may be lying crushed under those fallen pil- lips. I must go on. Tell father I couldn't wait, that I've gone ahead Xegar, crouching back in the shaw- ofra, heard these hurried words and a4 hurriedly acted on them. Slinking bAck through the bushes, he swung about and followed the girl through the darkness Thence h$ took up his'flashlight, and pressing close to the coffin's side, stood studying the pallfd face that lay surrounded by its even more pallid drapery of white satin. He stared at that pallid face long and Intently. He stared at It with stu- dious and narrowing eyes. , Then he did a strange and an inexplicable thing. Lifting his maimed right arm that ended in its shank ot steel, he brought It down with a crash on the glass cover of the casket Then, as though Infuriated by some unreasoning hatred for the pallid face still staring so Im- passively up at him, he struck again. This timo the blow fell directly on the head between the white satin swath- lngs. But that flailing arm, Instead of striking a human head of flesh and bone, crashed down through a thin shell of fiber, and tinted wax. Legar, focusing his light on that shattered mask, emitted a short bamk of triumph as the meaning of it all came home to him. He leaned for several minutes over the violated cas- ket staring at It with insolent yet ab- stracted eyes, pondering Jjjst vrbfit move could He beyond so intricately en- gineered a subterfuge. And the an- swer to that question came more promptly and more directly than he had anticipated. For as he «tood there, turning a piece of the wax-cov- ered tissue meditatively over in his fingers, the electric bulbs that strung the mausoleum roof broke Into sadden light From different quarters of that shadowy building, at the same Jtime, stepped a group of hidden ofjeers, headed by David Manle^ himself. So quickly and so quietly did that tranafbrmation take •. place, ixjdeed, that the man leaning over the casket had neither time nor chance to cjiange his position. He merely blinked a lit- tle stupidly at the revolver which .glimmered in Mauley's hand. Then, with a gesture that seemed equally stupid, he reached for his watch and held the heavy gun-metal case medi- tatively between his fingers. "8tlck 'em up!" Manley waa at the same time commanding with a curt head movement . towards Legar's hands. "It may have taken some lesBly. up a sandy slope, with her straining eyes still fixed on the mov- j ing lanterns about the ruined mauBO- i Then. Bwinging apparently out of i the empty air about her. a circle of steel, suddenly encompassing her arm. . brought her to an abrupt stop. With one quick movement Legar tore the motor veil from her head, twisted it Into a coll. and flung it j about her neck. And all the while the j Iron Claw, grappling at her arm. held i her as a steel trap might. She was already dizzy with pain when she heard the sharp crack of a revolver shot close over her shoulder. This was followed by a quick shout and a muttered oath. She felt herself forcibly flung from Legar's arms into the arjns of another man panting breathlessly up the sandy slope. She could see this msn, even as he held "her from falling, stop to JeveT his gun at the fleeing figure of Legar. She could see him shoot again, and still again, at the same moment that Train and tbe plunging automobile came throbbing and panting up \o the scene, the electric lamps throwing out their wavering, long columns of white light as they came. Then the stranger, ar- rested by certain gasping and gur- gling sounds from the throat of the half-garroted girl In his arms, stooped down and tore the constricting veil away from the slender, white column of her neck. And Margery, opening her eyes, saw that it was the Laugh- ing Mask bending above her. "It was Legar!" she gasped as Train, followed by her father, came panting up to where they stood. 1 "And there he goes*now!" cried the I Laughing Mask, pointing down the long lane of light columning out from the car's lamps. -Across that narrow river of light they could catch a glimpse of a tall figure skulking off Into the darkness. "Follow that man with your car," the Laughing Mask suddenly criod^ to the chauffeur. "No car could travel throu try like that!" protestod Train. "Then keep your lights on tbo" road to the west here, so ^ s to him up if he tried to break on that side. I'll swing around by. foundry yards and head him off'in the And the next moment the man in the yellow mask had disappeared in the darkness. Golden and his daugh- ter stood staring after him. Two minutes later the blackness that had swallowed him up was stabbed by a series offlameflashes. mortal strength. There, like animals of tho wild, high in some Amazonian eyrie, the two strangely entangled figures fought and struggled and clawed and struck. In the matter of mere physical strength Legar seemed to have the advantage. And what under ordinary circumstances might have proved a disability could now be turned to his advantage. For the Iron claw at the end of hlB right arm. hooked secarely into the network of steel behind him. held him there without effort and without Btrain. His opponent, on the other hand, found It no easy task to make sure of his perch above that ever-lntimldatlng cauldron of molten metal. His arm shook with tbe ten- sion Imposed on his overtaxed mus- cles. His fingers bqcame numb with pain, threatening to lose Xhoir pre- hensile power, and oven as he fovght ho weakened to a realization that must change his hold It was as he m-«v2uvered to bring about this shift position that the ever-watchful I-egar. alert for tbe most trivial adv»t.tage. saw his chance. Swinging " .s body suddenly free frotr its footing on the narrow ledge 01 metal where ho stood, he pendnlumed towards his momentarily unstable op ponent throwing hlB feet forward and upward, as ho did so, with all the force of a football player kicking a double punt Tbe force of this unlooked-for im- pact was too much for the man In the mask. Ho tottered back, caught fran- tically at a soot-covered steel bar be- side blm. dropped the full length of its diagonal course before he could make sure of hlB clutch, and came into vio- lent collision with the heavy iron block of a crane ladle. There, half- stunned by tho blow, he fell sprawling across a polished steel cable which drooped fioorward between tbe block and Its empty metal pot He tried to clutch that cable as he fell, but his speed proved too great and his over- taxed fingers were too weak. As he fell along its polished surface, how- ever, It offered sufficient resistance to carry his limp body beyond the peril of that open lake of molten metal, which, his frantic brain kept telling him, meant death. And as he dropped weakly from the cable loop to a pile of molding sand lying between a cast- ing box and an empty spill trough, a score of watching men gave utterance to a shout of relief and a score of waiting hands were there to help him to his feet So Intent were those astounded iron- workers on watching that perilous fell, however, that they paid scant atten- tion to the second figure climbing spi- derlike higher along the blackened Ironwork of the blackened roof. They caught no glimpse of htm as he scram- bled. sooty and panting, through the ventilating flue that opened on the root itself. Nor did any eye follow him as he crept gorillalike, along the perilous slope of that roof until he came to the end of the building. Along this end he found a lightning rod. run- ning from the peak of Its roof to the ground. He promptly tested the strength of this wire, satisfying him- self carefully, foot by foot by means of one hand and an iron hook which struck and clung to the metal with the vicious tenacity of'an eagle's claw. When he reached the ground, still breathing heavily, he looked cautious ly about Then, making sure he was not observed, he slipped into the shad- ow of a pile of Iron ingots, once mors waited and listened, and then, crouch- ing low, crossed the foundry, yard and climbed the high board fence 00r 1 rounding It And a moment later ths darkness of the night had swallswad him np. (TO BE CONTINUED.)
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When She Tried to "Pump a Needleful o' Dope" Into Her Mistress, a Dead Man'i Face Appeared.
Tbonce h5 took up bls'flaahllght. and through that Giant's Causeway of bro-presslng close to the coffln'a aide, ken rock, he felt grateful enough, re-stood studying the pallid face that lay memberlng what bad happened, to be surrounded by Its oven more pallid still alive. And sore aa he was In drapery of white satin. body, he waa even more bruised In
He stared a t that pallid face long spirit at the memory of the fact that and Intently. He stared a t It wltb atu- bla enemy. Jules Legar. bad a t tbe dlous and narrowing eyes. . Then he last moment escaped from bla clutch.
The Lake of Fire. glimpse of a tall figure skulking off Legar, lucky as his escape had been, Into the darkness.
knew that bla margin of safety waa "Follow that man wltb your car," atlll too narrow for much Immediate the Laughing Mask suddenly crlod out comfort of either mind or body. So to the chauffeur. J( b e crawled away aa best be could, "No car could travel through^Spun-nurslng his strength when he came to try like that !" protestod Train./ \ cover and going on again wh ta some "Then keep your lights on the main passing light showed that cover to bo road to the west here, e o * ^ s t £ n f c k none too dense. But he did not give him up if he tried to breakTSNugb up until he had reached higher on that side. IH awing around tiy, the ground. Tbero he waa able to hide foundry yards and head blm off-in the himself In a thicket and rest for an east!" hour or two. And the next moment the man In
But to remain In that neighborhood the yellow mask had disappeared In until morning, he knew, would be out the darkntss. Golden and his daugh-of the question. About that whole ter stood staring after him. suspected area, he felt, tbe police Two mlnutos later the blackness
, would surely throw a cordon, and tbe that had swallowed him up waa reaourco of disguise waa no longer at stabbed by a series of flame flashes, his disposal. Already from where b e I followed by the repeated bark of a
. lay. he could aee dozens of moving ! revolver. Prom the gloom still nearer ' lamps of workers about the mauso- the shadowy plies of the Westlngham leum ruins. He could also see the foundry came an answering serins of glow of a powerful pa4r of headlights, shots. apparently on a motor car threading "That meana he's making for the Ita way to the scene of t^e.explosion, foundry, s i r !" cried the excited Train And to the north he could even more aa he swung his car about distinctly see pie fiery tongues of the "Then, for God's sake, get ue there, chimney flarea above the Westlngham as quick as yon can." commanded foundry, where hundreds of toQera, Enoch Golden as the car lurched and turning night Into day, worked about pulaed and crawled on between tbe the great blast furnaces and cauldrons broken shrpbbery. In perilous Search of molten metal. tor some open pathway.
In a foundry auch aa that, he sud- But both Legar and his pursuer denly remembered, lay hla best were by this time well beyond their chance for eacape. Disheveled as he l ine of vision. T h a t desperate-minded was, he could paaa unnoticed among master criminal, In fact, realising those sooty workers. And when the that his enemy was pressing close at night ahlft went off, he told himself, his heels, mounted a slag pile, dropped he could slip away In their midst, nn- flat, and emptied his revolver into the noticed and unchallenged. And If the darkness, where the Laughing Mlsk worst dime to the worst h e could should have been. ctawl Into hiding somewhere about But the wary pursuer, dropping low the tangle e t machinery under that beside an empty pitch barrel, held hla foundry roof ltaelf. and there lay up Are and waited. The moment he until b e knew the cdast waa clear heard the crisp sound of footsteps again, with the chance'' of stealing a along the slag slope he once more poddler's "Jumper" for a disguise and took np the pursuit. a dinner'pail or two full of tood for a That pursuit led through a harrow
MOUNT VERNON SIGNAL
kegar laughed a* ne outitronted hlsi Alt cms Leg** might have done, and enemies. j might have done wltluut great dim-
"Do yon want to take me alive?' < culty, had not a trace of his older ob-"Alive or dead, I'm gilng to takef session of hate Impinged on his clear-
you!" ' ' ' ly outlined course of action. "Then take this first," cried Legar. He was once more himself, by this At the same moment that he .spoke 'time, walking with a limp that was
the left hand In which be still held scarcely discernible.' But a s be stole what seemed to be a black metal; down from tbe higher ground and watch case swung forward. And aaS made his way back towards the West-that object which so closely resembled! Ingham chimney flares he became a black watch hurtled through the a i r / one<( more conscious of tbe whiter Legar flung himself flat on his face' glare along the roadside he was so along tbe vault flooring. Then the cautiously skirting. This, h e remem-black watch struck. 1 bered, as he stole nearer, came from
The next moment the walls of that the headlights of a stalled limousine, ponderous structure of marble am# Then b* made a second and a more sandstone seemingly built to defy tlm«_ s t a r t l l n j discovery. He knew, even Itself, lifted bodily In the air. like t h * before | e caught sight of Train work-hull or a torpedoed dreadnaugbti Ing o v # his helpless car, that It be-Then, following the roar and rumbl j longed %o Enoch Golden. But what of that vast detonation, came the mofe actuallit drew him closer to the spot mentary catastrophic silence whictl was a ttmpse of Margery Golden her-so strangely and yet so Inevitably sues self. In J gray fur motor coat, a s she ceeds a calamity too gigantic and tot) stepped;from the body of the car and abrupt to be understood. 5 came fjfjl Into the glare of tbe head-
That ominous silence, however, last-. »8hts. Vloser beside her stooping
Author <4 - T H E O C C A -S I O N A L O F -FENDER." T H E W I R E T A P -P E R S . " " G U N RUNNERS.-ETC
Noodized from T H E P A T H E P H O T O PLAY
O F T H E S A M E N A M E
On Windward Island Palldorl Intrigue? Mm. Golden Into an appearance of evil which cause* Golden lo capture anil tor-ture the Italian by branding his face and f-ru»hlni[ his hand. Fnlldort floods the Is-land and kidnaps Golden's little daughter Margery." Twelve years later In New York a Maakcd One rescues Margery from Le-Bar and takes her lo her father's home, whence she la recaptured, Margery's mother fruitlessly Implores Golden to ttnd their daughter. The Laughing Mask again lakes Margery away froin Legar. Legar sends to Golden a warning and a demand SOT a portion of the chart of Windward Island. Margery meets her mother. The chart Is lost In a flght be-
j posed the stalwart body of a certain | One-Lamp Louie, long known among i bis associates as an habitue of the ; Owl's Nest and an underground agent . for Jules Legar himself.
Now One-Lamp Louis gave no prom-ise of either active or posslve Inter-. ference with these duly appointed mor- , tuary exercises until tbo city Itself had been left well behind. Then, awakening to the fact that they were i traversing a desirably sequestered Btretch -of road, he watched Intently for certain prearranged signals from i
rnVn^1 bu^ls recovered f y ' " h i . one-armed accomplice. Immediate-Manic. Count Da KBpnrea fleun-i In a : ly after the discovery of those looked-fe?"oVaJ£kl,id ff'GoldS"hoi,« ; f o r ">e spirited team driven by la dynamited during a masked bail, L*- One-Lamp Ixjule showed unexpected fher ̂ s ^ M a ^ y f?sPcu".%hVLa«"hing * * unmistakable evidences of restive-Milk from th© police. Maniey find* .Mar- ness. BTfrom Mank?-m Tso^cci^arrowi'* B u t l h e r f l W a B * 1 , m l t t o w h a l t h a t
team of spirited blacks would endure. And they suddenly, to all Intents and purposes, determined to follow their own lino of travel at their own rate of speed, for. as the driver sat on the box apparently Bawlng on the reins, that exasperated team plunged sud-
Enoch Golden declared with heat, "and . d P n i v forward, swerved across the I always will ne opposed to i t !" road, and went galloping down a tree-
David Man ley, an he 8<ar ,;d across , 8 c r e oned bypath which was little more than a cart trail winding in and out
TENTH EPISODE
THE LIVING DEAD I'm opposed to your plan, sir.'
the table at the milled old millionaire, tried to control himself 19 patience.
"But you acknowledge that you are equally opposed to I.egar's intrusions Into this house, to having his secret agents planted about at your elbows.
through slopes of greensward and shrubbery.
ilalf a mile deeper in that shrub-bery this runaway team would Burely have reached the spot where a black
Golden mausoleum and verify the con-tents of the mysterious casket there deposited, Red Egan had returned with the preposterous story of a white sheet suddenly descending out of the black-ness of the vault and whisking One-Lamp Louie out of reach and also out of sight. And since the once valiant Red Egan Showed so craven a spirit that nothing short of a quart of three-star brandy could tranquillze his shak-en nerves and since One-Lamp ^oule showed no signs of returning from the mysterious realms Into which the afore-mentioned white sheet had whisked him. Legar promptly and wrathfnlly decided to take the matter Into his own hands. He would lay this ghost, he announced, or something would go smash in the process.
But he had no Intention of approach-ing that Intimidating mausoleum with-out duo and definite preparation. With him he took a powerful pocket flash-light. a Colt automatic pistol and a couple of extra clips of cartridges, out the Instrument on which he re-posed the moBt confidence was a gun-metal disk little bigger than a pocket aneroid, some three inches in diame-ter and no thicker than a man's hand. This innocent-looking disk, which could be slipped Into a vest pocket as easily as a timepiece, was known to the habitues of the Owl s Nest as the Black Watch.
While actually nothing more than a small-sized hand grenade, its claim to distinction lay In the tremendous explosive power which stood com-pressed between Its slender metal walla.
Legar was not a coward. Yet as he Btood In the clammy midnight air of the Golden mausoleum and quietly removed the screws that held the top on the black casket beBlde him. he found that combination of silence and gloom and unsavory surroundings a little more of a strain on t}is nerves than he had anticipated. Yet as he lifted back the sable cover of tbe casket he did so with a hand that was still steady.
Legar flung himself flat on his face along the vault flooring. Then the ' black watch struck.
The next moment the walls of thai ponderous structure of marble am sandstone seemingly built to defy t lm^ Itself, lifted bodily In the air, like t h * hull of a torpedoed dreadnaught* Then, following the roar and rumblt -of that vast detonation, came the mo£ mentary catastrophic silence wbicll so Btrangely and yet so Inevitably BMC\ ceeds a calamity too gigantic and to<i abrupt to be understood. \
That ominous silence, however, last-ed only for a few seconds. Out of itf arose muffled calls and thin cries for help, followed by answering shouts from many different points In the darkness as rescuing hands set to work on the ruins.
And out of those ruins, while this work was going on, emerged two bruised and tattered figures strangely divergent In appearances. The first figure, worming its way out through the Interstices of crumbled rock and cement, as cautiously and as silently as a wounded btacksnake might crawl from a cave, bore an iron claw end of Its right arm and betrayed ah unmistakable desire to creep away In-to the darkness before being observed.
Tbo second man. who, on recovering consciousness found himsolf encagod between two falleu pillars of marble lopped by one of the roof slabs, experi-enced no little difficulty in emerging to the open, so closely were these pro^ tecting pillars wedged about blm.
But as be worked his bruised body
But when 1 work out a plan that offers umousine stood hidden away a reasonable promise of trapping l.e-; a h l l , i o w o t laurol copee. had not s t i l l j gar and his men. you stop th? whole a n o i h e r and an equally unheralded fac-1 business by doclarlng It's lacking In , t o r entered Into the situation. This i dignity!" factor took the form of a high-power
"Dignity Is something which depart- roailsier ) n which was sealed a man j ed from this house the day Legar first j w o a r i n g a yellow mask. His irrup-forced hie way Into It!" was Golden's t j o n j n t 0 t j ; a t orderly little procession. bitter retort.
"Precisely!" cried young Manley. "His whole campaign has been one of intimidation, of threats and Assaults a*d roprisalB. They have bfcen try-ing to fight us with terror. So my contention IP. why not give them a dose of [heir medicine? Why not light them with their own weapons, and in doing BO. perhaps go them one better?"
"But I can only repeat my convic-tions that your plan can't succeed!" protested the tremulous-voiced old financier.
"Why not leave that to me?" cut in young Mnnley. with Ills first touch of Impatience.
"I've left a good many things to you. Davy; but I don't encourage men to plan their own funerals!"
know as well as 1 do that these men who work with Legar are an ignorant and illiterate lot. They're not afraid of force. But when you confront them with the supernatural, you get tbfem face to face with something they, can't understand. And what they can't un-derstand they are going to be afraid of!"
"And you think you're going to frighten 'em away with a casket!"
"I'm going to make them believe that David Manley. having departed this life because of an attack on his per-son by one Maukl. with poisoned ar-rows. is about to be duly Interred In the Golden mausoleum, and—"
"But you couldn't even get a wax figure that would fool a five-year-old child! You couldnt—"
"I've already got the figure, Inter-rupted Manley. "And It strikes me as being an exceptionally perfect one."
"But what's all this funeral business to lead to?" demanded tho old flnan-
' "It leads to the fact that Legar and his men will be duly Informed of my death, tor 1 want all the servants In this house to pass before the casket and see me In It. And Legar's spy will be one of them. 80 Legar, you may be sure, will get the facts as soon as they are known. He will bo tipped off as to the day and hour of the funeral. He will also be told that the cortege, say of three carriages. Is to proceed to the Golden mausoleum, and that Margery Golden Is to go in one of the carriages. And that lon.ely spot will strike him as precisely the right spot for making a coup." o
"And. what do we gain by that?" "Wel l fill our big thirty-thousand
dollar mausoleum with thirty big police-men, and round up tbe gang before Legar can even smell a rat."
But Enoch Golden remained uncon-vinced.
"Well, It may be a brilliant plan, but you can please leave me out of It," he finally announced.
"That 's Just what I've been asking for," explained Hanley. "All I want Is to be allowed to conduct It In my own way."
David Manley, however, did not con-• duct that strange funeral altogether
In hla; own way. Carefully as every detail had been planned, there were one or two-minor features wb'ch a t the time escaped his attention.
The'most inconspicuous and yet the most vital of these was, perhaps, the personality of the driver of the third carriage in that small cortege which wended ita w a r «*> decorously fror Golden home. For under the funereal outfit 6f this placid-eyed driver i *
Indeed, proved as abrupt as One-Lamp Louie's eruption from It. And he Bcemed plainly suspicious of both I>ouie'8 motives and movements, for he lost no timo In swinging fronf the highway and plunging recklessly after the runaway carriage.
As his car approached the runaway cab that mysterious stranger, known as the Laughing Mask, stepped to tho running-board of his roadster, leaning far out as the two swerving vehicles drew together. One-Lamp Louie, what? ever he may have thought of that ap-proach. had little means of evading
To swing off what narrow road re-mained before him seemed f r ank ly , suicidal. To lash his team to greater , effort was already out of the question, j To take his hands from the reins, even, along that uncertain road, was equally foolhardy. So the strange race • went on, the swaying and bounding cab with a white-faced girl tossed' about under itB hood, the leaping and > lurching roadster, every second draw-. ing closer' down on Its quarry yet £very second threatening to turn tur-t le over one of the grassy embank-ments above which it shuddered and
It was the Laughing Mask, leaning 1 far out from his running-board, who threw open the cab-door and called I shsrply to the startled girl.
"Quick." he commanded. For one moment she hesitated.
Then she reached out for the unsteady hand groping for her.
The next moment she found herself Bitting back, a little breathless. In tho leather-upholstered seat of ' the road-ster and the man in the Laughing Mask smiling down at her.
Tho Black Watch. A number of things had happened
and were happening to disconcert, If not to discourage, the redoubtable Le-gar. That astute young adventuress, Betsy Le Marsh, alias Williamsburg Elsie, who. with the aid of divers forged recommendations, had installed herself In the Golden household, re-peatedly and stubbornly reported that David Manley was dead.
Williamsburg Elsie also expressed a strong desire to migrate from the house In which she found herself so inquisitive a maid, since that house, she declared, wad too full of "queer thtng.s" for her comfort
When, a t Legar's suggestion, she had tried to "piimp a needleful o' dope" into her altogether unsuspecting mistress, a dead man's face had sud-denly sppeared between her and the bedroom door. And on two different occasions, a f ter midnight, when she had ventured dovn to the housekeep-er's telephone to send in a secret mes-sage to Legar himself, she had found herself confronted by a ghost in white.
Nor was Betsy Le Marsh the only malcontent Even Red Egan himself, one of the best; "cold-steel" men In all the group that clustered about the Owl's Nes t had of late shown unmis-takable signs of mental disturbance. A dead man's ghost he declared, had looked in through one ot the head-quarters ' windows. Red Egan, i t Is true, had promptly emptied his six-shooter a t that {Phantasmal intruder, but with nothing more to show for i t than a shattered wlndow-sash and six panes of broken glass.
When the master-criminal, to put an end to all sUch absurdities, had by t|ie force of ipany dire threats-and oaths compelled both One-Lamp Louie and Red Egan himself to repair to the
Iron. It led through an abandoned boiler room, then on through a dimly lighted and low-roofed structure of pulleys and lathes, and from there to the brighter lighted and higher roofed metal room of the foundry Itself. There, beside glowing furnaces half-naked men tolled over incandescent annealing boxes and cauldrons of mol-ten metal. There gigantic track cranes swung bowls of liquid fire from crucibles to mold beds.
And therd the harried Legar. be-wildered by the sudden bright l ight ran like a pelted hound down the sandy paths between forge and coke oven and cauldron crane. There, see-ing his way blocked by a group of round-^yed Lithuanians, he swung, catlike, up Into the Iron network of the cable bridges, tylth his pursuer still close at his Wiels. And there, midway across tbitt smoke-stained roof, that echoed with the tumult of thundorous hammers'and directly e r e r a king cauldron of ^polten steel, the two men came together.
There Legar, with hla metal slaw hooked securely into the iron network above his head, swung about and faced his enemy. And there, on that grimy brl^-e high above the equally grimy workmen who left their forges and lathes and cauldrons to witness the struggle, the two enemies, who had so long and bitterly opposed each other, found themselves face to face for their final struggle.
Yet the man in the yellow mask seemed the cooler beaded of the two, for as Legar struck snarling at Ms face he ducked low on his narrow perch and at the same moment whipped his revolver from the side pocket of his coa t Yet Legar. with a movement equally prompt klclted viciously at the fingers clustered about the gun-butt before the weapon ltaelf could be brdUght Into use. The next momept that weapon fell with a hiss
?tfet i t was not until the girl had j and splash into the lake of molten passed well out of hailing distance 1 metal beneath them. of the headllghted car thdt Legar Then the struggle became one of circled even more hurriedly forward (tendon against tendon, of straining and swung In again to intercept her. , muscle against muscle, of empty-
She was trudging, a little breath- handed mortal strnogth pitted against
"Are we stalled?" he could hear the girl ask. ^
"We'll be off again in a minute or two. Miss Margery." was Train's pre-occupied reply.
"But I can't stand here helpless." protested the girl. "I can't wa i t I must know what has happened to Da-vid Manley."
"Whatever It was, it's over and done by this time."
"But he may be dead. He may be lying crushed under those fallen pil-lips. I must go on. Tell father I couldn't wait, that I've gone ahead
Xegar , crouching back in the shaw-ofra, heard these hurried words and a4 hurriedly acted on them. Slinking bAck through the bushes, he swung about and followed the girl through the darkness
Thence h$ took up his'flashlight, and pressing close to the coffin's side, stood studying the pallfd face that lay surrounded by its even more pallid drapery of white satin.
He stared at that pallid face long and Intently. He stared at It with stu-dious and narrowing eyes. , Then he did a strange and an inexplicable thing.
Lifting his maimed right arm that ended in i ts shank ot steel, he brought It down with a crash on the glass cover of the caske t Then, a s though Infuriated by some unreasoning hatred for the pallid face still staring so Im-passively up at him, he struck again. This timo the blow fell directly on the head between the white satin swath-lngs. But that flailing arm, Instead of striking a human head of flesh and bone, crashed down through a thin shell of fiber, and tinted wax.
Legar, focusing his light on that shattered mask, emitted a short bamk of triumph as the meaning of it all came home to him. He leaned for several minutes over the violated cas-k e t staring at It with insolent y e t ab-stracted eyes, pondering Jjjst vrbfit move could He beyond so intricately en-gineered a subterfuge. And the an-swer to that question came more promptly and more directly than he had anticipated. For as he «tood there, turning a piece of the wax-cov-ered tissue meditatively over in his fingers, the electric bulbs that strung the mausoleum roof broke Into sadden l ight From different quarters of that shadowy building, a t the same Jtime, stepped a group of hidden ofjeers, headed by David Manle^ himself.
So quickly and so quietly did that tranafbrmation take •. place, ixjdeed, that the man leaning over the casket had neither time nor chance to cjiange his position. He merely blinked a lit-t le stupidly a t the revolver which .glimmered in Mauley's hand. Then, with a gesture that seemed equally stupid, he reached for his watch and held the heavy gun-metal case medi-tatively between his fingers.
"8tlck 'em up!" Manley waa a t the same time commanding with a curt head movement . towards Legar's hands. "It may have taken some
lesBly. up a sandy slope, with her straining eyes still fixed on the mov-
j ing lanterns about the ruined mauBO-
i Then. Bwinging apparently out of i the empty air about her. a circle of
steel, suddenly encompassing her arm. . brought her to an abrupt stop.
With one quick movement Legar tore the motor veil from her head, twisted it I n t o a coll. and flung it
j about her neck. And all the while the j Iron Claw, grappling at her arm. held i her as a steel t rap might.
She was already dizzy with pain when she heard the sharp crack of a revolver shot close over her shoulder. This was followed by a quick shout and a muttered oath. She felt herself forcibly flung from Legar's arms into the arjns of another man panting breathlessly up the sandy slope. She could see this msn, even as he held
"her from falling, stop to JeveT his gun at the fleeing figure of Legar. She could see him shoot again, and still again, at the same moment that Train and tbe plunging automobile came throbbing and panting up \o the scene, the electric lamps throwing out their wavering, long columns of white light as they came. Then the stranger, ar-rested by certain gasping and gur-gling sounds from the throat of the half-garroted girl In his arms, stooped down and tore the constricting veil away from the slender, white column of her neck. And Margery, opening her eyes, saw that it was the Laugh-ing Mask bending above her.
"It was Legar!" she gasped as Train, followed by her father, came panting up to where they stood. 1
"And there he goes*now!" cried the I Laughing Mask, pointing down the long lane of light columning out from the car's lamps. -Across that narrow river of light they could catch a glimpse of a tall figure skulking off Into the darkness.
"Follow that man with your car," the Laughing Mask suddenly criod^ to the chauffeur.
"No car could travel throu try like that!" protestod Train.
"Then keep your lights on tbo" road to the west here, so ^ s to him up if he tried to break on that side. I'll swing around by. foundry yards and head him off'in the
And the next moment the man in the yellow mask had disappeared in the darkness. Golden and his daugh-ter stood staring after him.
Two minutes later the blackness that had swallowed him up was stabbed by a series of flame flashes.
mortal strength. There, like animals of tho wild, high in some Amazonian eyrie, the two strangely entangled figures fought and struggled and clawed and struck.
In the matter of mere physical strength Legar seemed to have the advantage. And what under ordinary circumstances might have proved a disability could now be turned to his advantage. For the Iron claw at the end of hlB right arm. hooked secarely into the network of steel behind him. held him there without effort and without Btrain. His opponent, on the other hand, found It no easy task to make sure of his perch above that ever-lntimldatlng cauldron of molten metal. His arm shook with tbe ten-sion Imposed on his overtaxed mus-cles. His fingers bqcame numb with pain, threatening to lose Xhoir pre-hensile power, and oven as he fovght ho weakened to a realization that must change his hold
It was as he m-«v2uvered to bring about this shift position that the ever-watchful I-egar. alert for tbe most trivial adv»t.tage. saw his chance. Swinging " .s body suddenly f ree frotr its footing on the narrow ledge 01 metal where ho stood, he pendnlumed towards his momentarily unstable op ponent throwing hlB feet forward and upward, as ho did so, with all the force of a football player kicking a double punt
Tbe force of this unlooked-for im-pact was too much for the man In the mask. Ho tottered back, caught fran-tically at a soot-covered steel bar be-side blm. dropped the full length of its diagonal course before he could make sure of hlB clutch, and came into vio-lent collision with the heavy iron block of a crane ladle. There, half-stunned by tho blow, he fell sprawling across a polished steel cable which drooped fioorward between tbe block and Its empty metal po t He tried to clutch that cable as he fell, but his speed proved too great and his over-taxed fingers were too weak. As he fell along its polished surface, how-ever, It offered sufficient resistance to carry his limp body beyond the peril of that open lake of molten metal, which, his frantic brain kept telling him, meant death. And as he dropped weakly from the cable loop to a pile of molding sand lying between a cast-ing box and an empty spill trough, a score of watching men gave utterance to a shout of relief and a score of waiting hands were there to help him to his f e e t
So Intent were those astounded iron-workers on watching that perilous fell, however, that they paid scant atten-tion to the second figure climbing spi-derlike higher along the blackened Ironwork of the blackened roof. They caught no glimpse of htm as he scram-bled. sooty and panting, through the ventilating flue that opened on the root itself. Nor did any eye follow him as he c rep t gorillalike, along the perilous slope of that roof until he came to the end of the building. Along this end h e found a lightning rod. run-ning from the peak of Its roof to the ground. He promptly tested the strength of this wire, satisfying him-self carefully, foot by f o o t by means of one hand and an iron hook which struck and clung to the metal with the vicious tenacity o f ' a n eagle's claw.
When h e reached the ground, still breathing heavily, he looked cautious ly about Then, making sure he was not observed, he slipped into the shad-ow of a pile of Iron ingots, once mors waited and listened, and then, crouch-ing low, crossed the foundry, yard and climbed the high board fence 00r 1
rounding I t And a moment later ths darkness of the night had swallswad him np.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
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