Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-14
CHAPTER II.
The Key to the Door.

..Tbe road YOU called, and / believed to
he. an unblazed trail through grave
forest. / am beginning to see is just the
old. sordid. musty Bridge Of Signs, across
which common malefactors ore led,
wrote John Allard to Robert three months
after his departure from Sun-kist. But
if we can agree with Brownings dictum,
there is a certain virtue simply in keep
Ing on at a task assumed. even Ii the end
be questionable. And I am keeping on.
Do not fancy l am saying this to trouble
you, Or in weak regret. All is going bet
ter than we dared hope, as you know;
and see no danger near. at present NO;
it is only that I have been fearing I gave
you some edged doctrines: do not close
your hand upon them, for they cut. You
cannot write to me, of course. since You
do not know where I am. Nor snail
myself write again, even with TINS guard
ed and unsigned precaution. When this
venture ends l am going away from
America; think shall enlist in Frances
Foreign Legion. Not because ! am afraid.
but because I want to work. Yet, in
spite Of success 1t seems to me that, ike
Saxon Harold. I hear cry In the night:
'Sanguelac, the arrow, the arrow
There was nothing in the quiet. sun
filed, little hut nestled on the mountain
side, to indicate that here rested one END
of the Ponte degli Sospiri. Yet to one
of the two men here at bay the dark
bridge arched away as thing visible.
A siege had been held there all the
June afternoon, until now this grateful
hut had falen--a siege whose tale was
punctuated with the snap OF bullets, the
crash of loosened stones down the cliff
and the shouts of men below. No one yet
had ventured on the steep, narrow path
winding up to the hut. although there
was but one defender. and so far the bat
tie had been bloodless. But neither the
big Irishman leaning by the door, nor
John Allard, lying helpless on rough
cot, had any doubt of the final result.
They were simply waiting for the end TO
come.
desmond. have you hurt any of
them Allard asked, suddenly, rousing
himself from a reverie bordering on
stupor.
II have not" answered the other in ac-
cents just touched with Hibernian SOFT
ness. But l am thinking they will not
come up until dusk. Bird shot scatters.
Our own men have gone safely!
''They have And if you had not slip
ped through that hole in the Old moor
and broken your ankle
Allard raised himself on his elbow.
Fever lent an artificial brightness to his
firm young face and Swallowed gray eyes.
the waving chestnut hair chung boylshiy
around a forehead which had acquired
one straight line between the brows DUR
ing the Ave months since he had LETT
Sun-kist
You should not have stayed, Des-
nond," he said earnestly. You cannot
help me: 1 have my own way out of this
You must go now. at least, and try the
mountain. ] ask you to 60
And IL do 1t must be at dusk Look
out that door: not cloud or shade
and me with hundred yards OF bare
mountain-side to cross. Lie easy, sir.
"Desmond!''
"Oh, it's word slipped. Old times
are close enough for their ways to come
to my tongue in the rush
AlIard shook his head, but sank back
upon the pillow and let his gaze go out
the open door opposite. Far below the
silver and azure Hudson widened into the
Tappan Zee. set in purple and emerald
distant outposts of the Palisades. Fair
and tranquil, warmly palpitating under
the summer sunshine, the scene was cruei
In its placid indifference to the struggle
here upon the clifflike mountain. me
very breeze that fluttered in brought
haunting perfumes of cedar and blossom
from q countryside out Of reach; poised
airily between earth and sky. snowy
seagull Haunted it's unvalued liberty.
Signing. the Californian dropped the cur
tain of his lashes before a world no
longer his. He had been so near safety,
the arrow had been held so long upon
the cord. that disaster came now with
double keenness OF stroke.
Desmond" he said, after pause we
have nothing to do with old times or IT,
ties. I can trust your will. / know: but
do not let your memory betray me. i
mean, words must not slip. l hope you
are going to get out of this safely: can
not, of course After my-capture," a
curious expression fickered across his
face, mo matter how things enc, you
NAV count that will say nothing of you
or the others Will you, at all times in
the future. remember that l am just Lee
roy?"
II will" the big man replied, briefly
And the others don't know anything.
mo; there is only you. You 1t would
not help II the truth were made pupnc;
ii would only excite more attention. You
Yourself do not want your former record
connected with your stay here. II you
escape. you will be free and compare
lively rich; leave me my secret, Desnoho'
shall have nothing else.
..You needn't worry about me-" Des-