The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-05-03

w thoughts were very far away from
him. There was an ominous pur-
usefulness about the great international spy that
seemed to his follower thing loaned from some
thing tremendously evil.
But Loubeques thoughts were upon the girl,
Lucille, who had thwarted him so many times
he only just beginning to realize that Destiny
was working in her behalf, protecting her from
him, urging her to the desperate chances she
had already taken, giving her courage and conf
6ence to 60 even further than she had already.
Was it possible that he could fail, could be
beaten by this pretty slip of girl, no more than
out of her teens; he, who, judging nations to be
no stronger than the weakest individual, had
brought about the wreck of nations he who had
worked through the civilized and uncvilized world
10 prepare himself for his great act of vengeance
and always worked successfully, should finally deal
the eliminating blow against his enemy only to
ind this fragile Lucille more than counteracting
his sturdiest efforts?
&c Swiftly he reviewed the succession of events
which had followed the placing of the papers and
urders of her father in his hands by the thev-
ing butler-accomplice. Aboard the Empress he
had been justified in thinking himself clear of
any possibility of failure when Lucille appeared
TO confront him, conquering the distance between
the liner and the shore by the aeroplane which
was being used at the post for army maneuyers.
His destruction of the wireless outfit had re-
acted against himself, hurting its flaming finger
against him and rendering him helpless. And in
this state, out of this helpessness, had grown a
situation which made it possible for the girl, Luz
ellie, to nurse him and eventually discover the
Liner took fire and recourse had to the life
boats, only his marvellous nerve and purposeful-
ness had made it possible for him to find place
beside the girl and, with his hands practically
upon the papers once more, Nature had stepped
in and crushed the boat against the burning
vessel bearing her from out his reach. An atom
upon that world of endless water, what superior
being had decreed that she be saved from death;
what power had guided friendly native feet to-
ward her and saved her from the cruel, black
Jungle? Was it not strength greater than his
own that looked over her He shook his Shout
ders irritaby, ashamed for the weakness that had
made him admit of such question rising in his
brain.
Though Destiny, Fate Circumstance-can it
what he would-appeared upon her side. it could
not always be wskeful in her behalf. But he-he
Hugo Loubeque, had been wakeful thirty-nine
years, his eye never off the man he hated and the
revenge he sought Though Nature conspired in
her behalf, he, by his own indomtable will, had
fought down the ocean, had discovered the girl
and was close to the papers he only had but
to reach out his hands to gain them.
But how-how was the question that per-
picked and annoyed him? Times, in bordering it.
he would grow enraged that he thought of TAX
ing them from her by sheer force. But always
there her face, the face of her mother whom
he had loved, still loved in memory to rise up
and deter him. No, she must be trcked into dis
closure of the precious documents herself.
That she carried them upon her person he
knew. The scheme he had worked out through
the evil-eyed native he had picked up in the
Jungle and frightened into superstitious awe and
Implicit obedience had shown him that much.
The big snake working his sinister length through
the thatched roof of her hut had frightened her
away a sufficiently long time for him TO make
such q search permitted of no hiding place
for them. The papers were upon her person. the
papers and the diary of his life which he desired
, no less And there was small time to spare.
Yes he must swiftly. He must strike
now while she was taking stock of her desperate
situation while she nourished the belief that his
two preceding failures would be followed by
tull, a respite. The papers were upon her per-
son-that much he knew His whole nature
volted at the idea of searching her for them.
She, herself, must be forced to give them up
and the only possible way of doing this, he knew,
was to brighten her by some such immediate peril
as would dwarf them before the instructive
thought of self-preservation.
Long he pondered the situation, his great
body bulking in its shadow across the hut, his
face stern, imperturbable, betraying none of the
emotions dominating his very heart and soul, his
eyes great pools of inly blackness, staring always
before him, unwinking and fathomless before the
concentration he had placed upon himself.
His native had brought him word of the way
Lucille had saved the Chiefs daughter from death
and in consequence been presented with the
sacred amulet of the country. He realized that
the ignorant savages regarded her as something
In the nature of deity. Had it not been for that
the papers would now be his. This was another
thing he must take into consideration while weav-
ing his plot. They would permit no harm to be-
tall her so long she remained with them.
Night had long since fallen when he stirred
tsDm his motionless position, before the 'sombre
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