The Sentinel=record., 1914-11-08

 lance. Neither could be trusted. in deed, to work alone to the desired con- summation; for Trine had secret req son 10 fear lest Marrophat might, given opportunity, cOnniye at Alans escape in order that he might marry Rose and so throw Judith back into his. Marrophat's, arms.
 Poor, deluded fooll
 Such was the private comment of Marrophats master.
 For all that, it was the man and not his daughter, whom Trine designated to lead the expedition, cunningly counting on Judith's chagrin to work upon her passions and excite her to one last, mad, blind attempt that should prove successful
 Smiling his secret smile Trine an nounced his decision at the last mo- ment, while Hopi Jim waited with his horses and an assistant-one Texas for whose utter innocence of scruples MT. Slade unhesitatingly vouched.
 Sullenly submissive, at least in out ward seeming, Judith bowed to this de cision, marched out of the car, and suffered Marrophat to help her mount her horse
 Now, deliberately, as the little cayal- cade rode through the moonlit desert night, the girl maneuvered her horse to the side of Hopi Jim, and then dropped back, permitting Marrophat to lead the way with Texas
 As deliberately she set herself to work upon the bandits susceptibility to her charms.
 Within an hour she had him ready to do anything to win her smile.
 In that first rush of golden day a. thwart the land, the party came quietly into the town of Mesa, riding slowly in order that the noise of their approach might not warn the fugitiyes, who Hopi asserted confidently would still be sound asleep in the accommoda- tiOns offered by the towns one hotel.
 It was to be termed a town only in courtesy, this Mesa a struggling street of shacks, ramshackle relics of what had once been promising com munity, the halfway station between the railroad and the mining camps secreted in the fastnesses of the Paint ed hills-campe now abandoned, their very names almost faded out of the memory of mankind.
 Midway in this string of edifces the hotel stood-a rough, unpainted, wood en edifce. mainly veranda and bar room as to it's lower floor.
 Jealously Judith watched the win dows of the second floor: and she alone of the four detected the face that showed for one brief instant well back fin the shadows beyond one of the bed room windows-a face that glimmered momentarlly with the pallor of a ghosts against the background of that obscurity, and then was gone.
 Her eyes alone. indeed, could have recognized the features of Alan Law in that fugitive glimpse.
 Two sentences exchanged between Hopi Jim and a blear-eyed fellow whom he reused from sodden slumbers behind the bar sealed their confidence with conviction: the three fugitives were in fact guests of the house, Oc- cupying two of the three rooms that composed it's upper story.
 In the rush that followed up the narrow stairway, Judith led with such spirit that not even Marrophat sus- pected her revolver was poised solely with intent to shoot from his hand his own revolver the instant he leyeled it at a human target
 Closed and locked doors confronted them, and their summons educed no response; while the first door, when broken in by a whole-souled kick, dis covered nothing more satisfactory than an empty room, it's bed bearing the imprint of a woman's body but that woman gone.
 From the one window, looking down the side of the house Texas announced that the woman had not escaped by jumping out.
 So it seemed that the three must have had warning of their arrival after all; and presumably were now herded together in the adjoining room, which looked out over the veranda roof waiting in fear and trembling for the assault that must soon come and in fact immediately did. But it met with more stubborn re- sistance than had been anticipated, The door had been barricaded from within - re-enforced by furniture placed against it. Four minutes and the united efforts of four men dncud- ing the bleary loafer of the barroom) were required to ovacome it's inert re- sistance But even when it was down, the room was found to be as empty as the first.
 Only the fingers of two hands grip | ping the edge of the veranda roof showed the way the fugitives had flown; and these vanished instantly as 1 the room was invaded
 Followed swift rush of hoofs down the dusty street, and a chorus of blas- l phemy in the hotel hallway: for Jul | dith had headed the concerted rush for the staircase and contrived to 1 block it for a full half minute by pre- !