The Prescott daily news., 1915-03-16


 | drew the same conclusion-that the | house had been furnished for this spe ! cial occasion. storm set himself work. | ing .as best he could at the stout frupeS which bound the girl. Once she was l free she could easily iberate him. 1t seemed weary hours to them before the cords fell from Iudora's hands She then hunted about for a knife and found one with au edge like a razor
 Are you satisGcdf" John asked ironically.
 As to what?"
 That my death and perhaps yours is wanted"
 "Mine:'
 Surely And I'm going to tell you what's been in my mind for weeks. I'll stake my oath that that precious uncle of yours is back of all this" My uncle. John. that is utterly i'm. possible am his flesh and blood
 'l tell you he has committed a crime of some sort and wants us out of the way before we discover it." And what crime could he possibly have committed that he should want us both out of the wayY' l. I'd give a year of my life to tind out" bitterly Come. there's no use loiterlng around here The sooner we get back 10 town the better. And when We get to town we'll go right i'll to Uncle HaSSam Ais study and ask Il few questions"
 John. that would be utter madness" "Well. something definite may result from it If you will not go with ue I'll talk to him alone
 And come to blows. IS you did the ather time. and give him a good legal excuse to harm you"
 i've made np my mnd." doggedly Then l don't suppose II would do | any good to argue with you."
 Indeed. Storm did waste his tune on Uncle HaSsam as he now called the mystic. He saw that individual at the head of the stairs and rushed up When he arrived at the landin" Has sam Ali had disappeared as effec; nally as if he had vanished through the wall. which. in fact. though John wa> not aware of it, was exactly what Ha> Ali had done. John went downstairs again. swearing under his breath. He was terribly angry, and when he final. ly departed he left his sweetheart in tears
 There was good vein of stubborn ness i'll storms makeup. On the way nome he determined to have a reckon ing with those hoary old scamps who were working in Hassam Alfs inter- est. At least they could satisfy his physical needs. that of pumping their heads together. They were the manip- ulators of some devil machine which
 had caused these mysterious fires, al
 ways in t5e vicinity of Zudora In the morning Zudora telcphoned to learn that John had gone out of town. lnstinctively she knew just
 where he had gone. poor. foolish lover. and so she set out after him. distract. ed It was quite reasonable that the
 twins would be expecting John and
 would be prepared for his reception.
 She therefore made the village about
 an hour later than John and hired the only taxicab she could find John found a very queerly made ap, paratus back of the house on knoll He had read about something of the
 sort perpetual ray gathered from light aud capable Of sending forth d terrific heat, something like crystal focused under clear sunlight He
 could sense q mild warmth as he near
 ed it-a mild warmth because the re
 Electors had been nomentarily defiecI ed. not focused He knew nothing about the house beng mined and ready for his advent He drew his re
 volver and began pcppering the m ternai machine. He could at least put 1t out of business temporarily Vaguely he heard the rumble of a mo tor and turned to see Zudora step out
 of taXicab. He waved his hand, and
 she came running up the hill. On the way up she saw something that re
 sembled burning fuse on the ground
 Then the horror of the trap dawned
 upon her. They were to be lured into
 the house and blown mp | Gasping ~he stammered forth her ! discovery She caught him by the hand and dragged him down the hill
 at run None too soon The earth