The Nevada County picayune., 1909-05-27

er grimmer than ever. Where the upper stories were pierced with semi circular arches, the star-sown sky shone through with an extraordinary effect of depth and mystery. All the lighter features of the architecture, carving on pediment or lintel or archi- volt, delicate iron tracery of rejas. re- lief of creature and colonnade-all these the dusk blurred if it did not obliterate. the great dark bulk of the house with it's massive buttresses. it's pyramidal copings and recedng upper stories. was the more boldly sil- hOuetted on the violet sky; yet be- cause of the very flatness of the pie ture. the very lack of shadow and pro iection. it seemed unsubstantial. hard ymore of reality than the giant shadow it cast upon the hillside. Electric lights wavered and bristled dazzling beams on either side of the street; not a gleam. red, white or yellow, leaked through the shuttered windows of the house. In it's blackness, it's si- lence, it's determined isolation it re- newed, but with a greater force, the first sinister thrill which the sight of it had given the man who came to rifle it of it's secrets.
 "Lonesome-looking old shanty, isn't it?" said tse Harvard boy; seems al most indecorous to speak out loud. Here where We cache the car and make a gentle detour by aid of the h ,tI1hl hl1satsX tn hn tn e north side of the patio. See?'
 He directed the colonels course through an almost imperceptible open ing in the hedge along sharp turns and Oblique and narrow ways into small vacant space where the vines covered an adobe hut. Jumping out, Tracy un- locked the door of this tiny building so that the colonel could run the car inside: and after Winter had emerged again, he re-locked the door As there was no window, the purpose of the hut was effectually concealed.
 Very neat" the colonel approved; whereat Tracy flashed his smile at him in the moonlight and owned with ingenious pride that he himself was the contriver of this retieent garage.
 From this point he took the lead Neither spoke. They toiled up the hill in this part of the grounds less of the nature of a hill than of an arroyo or ravine through which rocks had thrust their rugged sides and over which spiked semi-tropical cacti had sprawled, and purple and white flow cred vines had made their own un tended tangle. Before they reached the level the colonel was breathing hard, every breath a stab. Tracy. a famous track man who had won his H in wonderful cross-country run, felt no distress-until he heard his companion gasp.
 love. But that hills fierce," he breathed, explosively. Do you mind resting a minute?"
 Hardly, the colonel was just able to hold his voice steady-'I have a Filipino bullet in my leg somewhere which the X.ray has never been able to account for; and I'm not exactly mountain goat"
 Why, of course. I'm a brute not to let you run up the drive in the ma chine Not rat watching us tonight, either; but I wanted you to see the place; and you seem so fit"
 You oughtn't to give away your secrets to me, an outsider"
 You're no outsider; consider you the treasurer of the band, laughed Tracy They had somehow come to an uneXpressed but perfectly under stood footing of sympathy. The colo nel even let the younger man help him up the last stiff chamber of the path. He forgot his first chill, as of witness approaching tragedy, there was a smile on his lips when the two of them Iassed into the patio. It fingered there as he stood in the fiower-scented gloom Ii was there as Tracy stum- bled to half-remembered push-button, wondering aloud what had become of Cary and Kito that they shouldn't have answered his whistle 1t was there, still. when Tracy slipped, and grum- bled What sticky stuff has Kito spilled on this floor and instantly flooded the court with light. Then he saw the black slimy pool and the long slide of Tracy's nailed sole in 1t; ana just to one side, almost pressing against his own foot, he saw man in a gray suit huddled into the shape cf a crooked U. with his arms limp at lis side and his head of iron-gray fallen back askew. The light shone on the broad dome of the fore head. He had been stabbed between the shoulders, in the back; and one side of the gray coat was ugly to see.
 Good God," whispered Tracy, rowing white Its Keatcham, they've killed him, Oh, why didn't come back before,'
 CHAPTER XIII.