The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-08-22
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tinguishing mark.
He stumbled hurriedly from the
room and down the stairs, returning
to the study where Syphers body
lay; tortured by mounting fears, he
stood and looked blankly about him,
at loss where next to turn, If almost
preternaturally alive to every sound
or sight that might afford him clue.
He fought against suspicion
that crawled like viper in his brain.
Had he, after all, been deceived in
Sypher's niece, Miss Pynsent? Had
that innocent charm Of hers been
thing assumed. cloak for criminal du-
plicity? Had she in reality been Des
Trebes' accomplice? Had those clear
and limpid eyes of youth, all through
that voyage been looking forward to
such a scene, to such tragic ending
as this? Could she have afforded the
Frenchman the aid he needed to con-
summate his chosen crime?
For he was now ready to believe Des
Trebes the prime mover in this terri
BILE affair; he no longer entertained
shred of doubt that his enemy had
travelled with him from Calcutta un-
der the disguise of de Hyeres." And
he believed the man had planned this
thing far ahead; else would he have
surely taken some overt step to pre-
vent O'Rourke from delivering the
ruby to Sypher. He OWNED acutely
that, despairing of any further at
tempt to win the jewel from him, Des
Trebes had turned his wits to the task
of stealing it from Sypher; somebody
naturally much less to be feared than
the adventurer.
But on the other hand. if the girl
had not been Des Trebes' assistant
what had become of her? And what
of her guest-the lady one of whose
initials was B?
1t was not inconsistent with Des
Trebes' whole-hearted villainy that he
should employ a gang of thugs suffi-
GENTLY large to overpower and make
away with bodily and in a body Miss
Pynsent, her guest and the servants.
|. "Great God!" cried O'Rourke.
eff 1t be in truth my wife,"
Without presage thin but impera-
silence of the house of death. O'Rourke
jumped as If shot. Somewhere in one
of the other rooms telephone bell
was ringing. 1t ceased, leaving a
strident Stiffness; but before he could
move to find the instrument and an
| rvvor tho cnl1 +horo roco a cocopd timo
that moaning sob which first he had
attributed to- an impossible source,
then, in the turmoil of his thoughts,
had forgotten.
He waited, listening intently. The
telephone called again and again sub
groan, more faint than before, but suf-
ficiently loud to suggest it's source.
He moved warily toward the windows
and out upon the veranda-hounded
by the telephone. But that would
have to wait; here was more ur-
gent matter to his hand. Between the
long, insistent rings the moaning was
again audible; and this time he To-
Gated 1t accurately. 1t came from the
lawn, near the edge of the veranda.
He stepped off carefully, but almost
stumbled over the body of man who
| lay there, huddled and moaning.
"And another!" whispered the adj
venturer, awed. Faith, this Pool OF
| Flame y"
| He was at once completely Mortified
and utterly dumbfounded. Nothing he
had come upon within the bungalow
seemed to indicate that there had been
| anything in the nature OF struggle
prior to the assassination of Sypher.
| He had up to this moment considered
it nothing but ld-blooded and cow
ardly murder; the man had apparent
ly been struck down from behind in to-
tai ignorance of his danger. O'Rourke
had deduced that Sypher had risen
from the desk to put the jewel in his
safe; and that while he was so en-
gagged the assassin, till then skulking
outside the long windows and waiting
for moment when his victims back
should be turned, had entered and
struck. But now could he recon
Gle that hypothesis with this man who
lay weltering and at the point of death
at the veranda edge?
Indeed, he could not do So But
this victim, at least, was not yet dead:
If he had strength to moan, he might
yet be revived at least temporarily
Without delay, then, the Irishmar
grasped the man beneath the armpits
and, lifting him bodily to the veranda
dragged him into the library. Not I'm
til he placed him in the middle of the
floor. beneath the blare of the lamp
light, did O'Rourke have an oppor
tunity to observe his features. Blu
now as he dropped to his knees beside
the body, his wondering cry testified
, to immediate recognition.
The latest name to be inscribed OF
the long and blood-stained death-rol
: of the Pool of Flame was that of Pau
Maurice, Vicomte DIES Trebes; or,
there were life enough left in tn