Arizona republican., 1914-07-17

aAaoe. one waited quietly while the trio approached uer, feeling that in some way th. problem that had been harassing her WAS to he answered without further worry on her part
 She smiled at the chiefs efforts to make her understand what he desired of her, smiled and shook her head as the withered old woman made an equally unsuccessful attempt. But the little girl took the situation in hand
 mere Is bond of understanding between patient and nurse, between the i'll and the strono Mno nave watched the approach of death to- gether even though its attack be directed at only one of them which thereafter gives them mi Fersal language. Without much difficulty Incille made out from the child that the old woman came rom chief greater than her father who lived in village not far distant; that the won der of her curative ability had reached his cara and he earnestly prayed the white woman be loaned his own wife for a nurse. that she might be cured of an illness which seemed certain to be fatal. N
 Lucille saw from the gum expression on the old chiefs face that though ii might brn, nm into trouble with his neighbor: chief he was more than loath to part with her She also saw that the child, with the remembrance of her own illness fresh upon her, had allow ed her heart to go out 10 the wife in such sympathy that she had persuaded her father to permit the loaning
 Her heart gave great throb of delight at this unexpected answer to her prayer She had known there would be trouble getting away just as she had determined that she must leave There was no possible chance of regaining civil ization from here There might be no chance in another place but there was hope and, while it was meagre sustenance anything was better than the strain of knowing impossibility Anv. thing appealed to her so long it embraced a change, for change spelt renewed hope Then too, Hugo Loubeque would be temporarily at least thrown off the trail
 In an hour she had mounted the chiefs own horse, her very soul rejoicing at the familiar feel of an easy canter. Beside her rode the old woman, mumhling continually to herself as though she were keeping track of the devious turns in the wilderness of vegetation through which their way led.
 Now and then there would be long stretches where Lucille could let her animal out and she took advantage of them all laughing exultantly at the jingle of the breeze against her check Every stride a step further away from the place where she had thought herself prisoner; every stride was stride nearer hope: and hope meant civilization and civilization meant delivery of the papers to those who would see that they cleared the name of her sweetheart
 Her sweetheart! Her sweetheart!
 The soft pad of the horses hoofs seemed to turn into refrain of never varying sweetness Q refrain that embraced the two words Hupo Loubeque doubtless back in the iungles planning, plotting his next move while his quarry was riding far, far away from him.
 She could not even feel the menace of his presence now. The easy motion of the beast lulled every other sense to sleep save one of dreamy contentment. Her predicament, alone upon this savage land. did not occur to her Be fore she had been terrified to think of it but now she accepted it as an inevitable thing using all her mental energy figuring escape on that which lay in the future and casting the past be. hind her
 Once she conscious of a vague feeling of mistrust as she looked back at the squat tieure Of the old woman, amhng along stolidy aS some heather idol, only her rat-ike eyes omit ting flashes of fire from between the layers of wrinkled, brown, dropping lids. She cast it away from her as merely natural feeling. coming so closely as this sense of freedom did upon the de- pressing environment she leaving behind
 Faster, faster she urged her horse as she saw clear stretch of trail opening before her. She was going away-away-was getting clear of the village where she might have been held forever. She still carried the precious papers about her neck despite every effort the interna- tional spy had made to steal them. She had foiled him. had taken them from him and had managed to hold them against all odds. And now she was clear of all this
 She was ct ar of all danger from him. Far behind her, h. crafty, interruptions brain was mapping out -resh plans of action against vic- tim who wa not where he could locate her. And the pad of the horses hoofs beat out gentle rhythm r at blended into her joyous mood so wendert fly she could scarcely contain herself.
 Faf er, faster she urged tho horse. her hand contin ally reaching up and feeling the precious burden about her neck. while her laughter rang out against the jungle that hedged the trail in with an eerie, alien freshness that seemed to make it more silky than Then she looked DacR TOT her escort looked back, still laughing. when the ground seemed to grow soft. to slip up from under her mounts hoofs, and send her hurting down down-down-sh knew not where nor why-down into blackness at which her hands cutched vainly, clutching nothing from the dark-down into a blackness that seemed stifing her, until it reached up and mercifullY compassed her consciousness.
 CHAPTER XVII
 Loubeque OrerlooKs One Detdis
 HUGO LOUBEQUE curtly dismissed the with.
 cred crone who handed him the sack con. taining the documents Lucille had worn about her neck. In his eyes glowed no light of triumph. First they had lighted with a strange relief. But now they seemed fastened upon a memory, filled with vague regret, he visuaized the girl lying helpless at the bottom of the pit he had caused his native to dig across the trail she must pass in answering the fictitious messages he had arranged for the old woman to carry
 Suddenly he sprang to his feet, once moro the man of action. Pity this girl, daughter of the woman he loved, he might, but she was not the sort to lie supine while he made away with the papers for which she had gone through so much already. Suddenly he tore open the bag, dumping the contents out before him and run- ming through them nervously. When he looked up the light of disappointment, almost fear was upon his face.
 The amulet. the sacred amulet which had served her 30 we'll, would continue to serve her. so we'll as long as she continued in this land. was still in her possession He had failed to tell the crone to steal that also. And the old woman had reported that she was merely stunned. The
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