St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-04-20
CHAPTER XXX. -coNr1auEn
rcoPxRrGHr. isAl

She heSitated a moment-then She
said:
Send cipher dispatch at once to
G. G. at st. Louis, to NJ. NJ. at Chicago
and G. G. at Davenport. Four thou
sand guns at Leavenworth left unpro-
tected by withdrawal of troops;
Kansas City on the first at nine o'clock
a. M; impress G. @. with swiftness;
twelve hundred men here now; can
hold everything; get answer from G. g.
at once; watch Memphis papers for
movements of gunboat."
Here the young woman made another
pause. In his impatience, Ca1icot got
up irnpulsively and strode about the
little room. He was shut mp helplessly
in a living tomb and events, in what
now seemed like another world, were
hurrying on to some kind of disaster.
He calmed himself by powerful men
tai effort. WELL he said, what do
you see now7s ssss#.. "a n
They are close together ut the in
strument. They are sending dis
patch"
After some delay, there was evidently
an answer received from Hendricks,
for the girl began again, slowly
reading from the written page what
appeared to be instructions. Very lit
tie OF Ii was ineligible To Calicot, but
blind as it was he tried to impress it
upon his memory for after reflection
He heard her saying: "Nill take gum
boat and seize arms; council here on
the 18th; make all instructions con-
form to that date.n
Day after day, as the girl revealedin
broken sentences the communications
that were made from the cave to the
cottage, the bulk of the information
began to arrange itself In his amind
around certain well-defned points.
The conspiracy, he now aw,extended
over the whole. United States! It had
taken In men in official positions. Its
agents were In the government employ,
in the railway service and in, the tel
egraph offices. It must have vast forces
all ready to mass and the brain of the
movement was hidden away safely un-
derground. AS the magnitude and
method of the plan were slowly com
pretended, he asked himself: What is
the government doing2 Can 1t be pos
sible that the world has not yet dis
covered the two exits to this strong
hold?-and then he tried to forecast
the result when the exits were discoy-
cred. Hendricks cannot be dis1odged,
he said, even by engineers, who would
have to tunnel a mountain. He can
only be sealed up and starved to'death,
and In any such attempt what unknown
exits may he not have. He recalled
the mysterious magazine in the south
western wall OF the rotunda with It's
wooden doors and it's sign of danger.
Vas this magazine? Might not that
impression have been created to keep
secret an unknown exit until an emer-
gency. occurred? He had heard La
port speak of the magazine. He would
talk to the old man about it. >.
His imagination pictured a long
chasm leading to some unsupported
region of country with it's exit hidden
IN the mountains. He foresaw in
his fancy q besieging army epcamping
over mine or fallen upon by sudden
force that sprang up as Il by magic in
It's rear-and then disappeared, and he
began to ask himself If this conspiracy
had not gathered into It's ranks most
of the malign forces Of civilization
which under the names of nihilism and
anarchy seek mainly to destroy.
Intolerab1e as these reflections were
to man compelled to see the progress
Of all this diabolism and prevented
from raising a awarning cry or lifting
a finger, there were other consfdera-
tions that were even more poignant.
Here was an innocent and intelligent
girl who, with her father, would be I'M
volyed in the Inevitable catastrophe
or thrown into the hands of Fennings
and Calicot had grown to have pro-
found sympathy for her. Lieut.. Stock
ing, as he well knew, had with his irn-
pnlsive temperament developed still
stronger interest in her. and Stocking
by his very nature could not be de-
pended On TO assist him.
In turning over these perplexities In
his mind he was aware Of an undis-
turbed conviction hiding away In his
nature, that the nornal Intelligence
and moral force ought in some way to-
Be able TO circumvent all this mischief.
But how? sssss
Some kind OF a vague scheme of es-
cape for Stocking and Miss Laport.
through what he conceived to be the
secret exit OF the magazine, shaped IT.
self In his mind, and then he got hold
Of Laport one day after conferring.
with the old mans daughter. The
three were eating their breakfast to-