Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-10-28
lcontlnued from Prerlous Issue.l


Tney darted out once more into ti.e
corridor. There was 10 door. no open-
ing: but this mattered not 70 Neal
He stepped to the far end of the hall
and seized a fire ak, which hung
there in rack Then he darted bach
and with ringing strokes BEGAN his as
sault upon the wall Suddenly from
within he heard o womans shrek.
"Neai. cried Annette voice within,
and it was the voice or q girl beside
herself with agony and dear. meal.
it is annette. Come, fof God sake,
come
Neal delivered one more crashing
/ blow. then he Hlodcned TO lis fellows
Come. boy ne said, there no
a second 30 lose. This thing has 90,
to go"
The corridor was fairly broad. The
/ little squad oi sailors withdrew and
huGdled against the opposite WI
Then as one man this human batter
ing ram lunged and lUrched across th.
hall and propelled itself against taa
already splintered partition.
With a crash the secret door went
down, and with a bound Neal was in
the room. Annette. her dress torn,
her hair disheYeled, struggled with
the brute in one corner OF the room.
| Ponto had released her. With a bound
| he crossed the room and jerked aside
the fireplace, disclosing a secret exit.
He crawled through the aperture and
disappeared.
Hernandez, stupeded with astonish-
ment yet had an expression OF tri-
umph and g.oe upon his face lie was
| thrusting a yellow parchment into his
! pocket. Annette with a final struggle
slipped from the brutes grasp and
darted toward Hernandez, callins 20
Neal
Neal Neal" she cried, hes got
my fathers map"
With one spring Neal was upon Her.
nandez. lie snatched back the haud
with which Hernandez was pushing
the map into his Pocket The map
| came out torn and crumplod. Al.
nette. beside herself, snatched al it
with both hands. Neal grabbed al II
and also got a hold. Hernandez still
| held 1t in his iron clutch
All this took place in an instant. In
another instant the three had fallen
back, each in a separate direction. The
| map had parted and each Clutched a
| piece of It.
| Hernandez, with an oath, turned
and dived into the secret passageway.
Five minutes later the fastest boat
| along the shore--the boat which Inez
| Castro called her own--was chug
chugging out TO sea with three fg-
ures huddled in her bottom--the brute
and Ponto and their chief, Hernandez.
They had wriggled somehow through
the surrounding circle, had zig-zaggei
in and out of shotsZhad made good
their escape.
When the chase was over Neal re
turned and half apologized to Inez.
Sorry. Miss Courtier, he said. but
they've made away with your fast mo
| torboat. We couldn't get TO ours ia
time. We landed half a mile or so
| just up the shore. How do you feel?
Better" exclaimed Inez. IT'S the
| SAClleuSuts tue uOlSSf luS piSloi EholS
they have made me well again.
Neal thrust his hand into his pocket
and pulled forth a crumpled piece OF
| parchment.
What did you get, Annette?" he in
quired
Annette thrust her hand into her
dress and pulled forth her own tat
tered portion Inez. watching bent
her head to listen. Neal and Annette
spread their two pieces of the map out
upon the little stand. Between them
they had the bulk of the lower portion
Of the map. It was blank surface
save for three things--a little tail OF
the island sticking down and the words
longitude" and latitude" and moth
ing else. Annette laughed In glee.
We've got everything we want
she said to Neal. What is here is
important What the man with the
sabor cut upon his face has got is oi
no use to him or us. We beat hin
to it, Neal. we beat him to it"
| Over on the bed mez, in her crouch
ing attitude. still listened, wonderiG
A ssrr ass.a aFfsFN NHr~s ~