Arizona republican., 1915-11-07

the bill poster and the loss of the horse and wagon.
 game of craps attracted SantIey's at- tenton after he had made a mental calcu- 1ation that after all the horse was a foun- dered old bit of crowbait and the wagon a rickety affair that could be replaced in the billposting department at slight cost
 " A hundred dollars. at the outside, is the loss" thought Santley to himself
 He always had been lucky at dice The cynical Idea occurred to him that he might here in a brief moment recoup this loss. He drew a roll of bills from his pocket, tossed hundred dollar note on the crap table, and growled: Why shoot sfor chicken feed?"
 Ragged, unkempt, without a dollar in his pocket, and realizing Santley would ab- solve himself from any wages that might De due him, owing to the loss of the horse and wagon, the miserable bill poster eyed the hundred dollar bank note hungrily. In- stinctively his hand searched his clothes and iustiLctively and as if drawn by fate the wretched man brought forth the dia- mond from the sky.
 Santley eyed the chain and locket curi- ously. He thought how it would adorn the fair throat of the coquettish La Belle, tho Lady of Lions.
 shoot a hundred bucks against the junk" he growled, and tossed the dice to Williams.
 The necklace with the great diamond clattered to the table. Williams seized the dice with trembling hand and rolled them along tke table top. "Corne severn he gasped, and snapped the thumb and finger of the casting hand
 The dice rolled. paused, spun. rocked. and settled. Two aces were uppermost \ losing first throw,
 Santley chuckled, swept the stakes up in Oay and Ior, had challly faced. trembling wretch who had lost the guerdon that he had reached up from the knees of murder for-the d1- mond from the sky!
 That night it blazed upon the breast of a false woman. That night Splinters the clown, crept in the cage of LanceIot the Hon. and whispered into his ears the secret and the shame-and the lion nodded as though he understood.
 The next day Quabba learned through fellow countryman. the gardener at the Powell mansion, that John Powell had not been taken to sanitarium to convalesce- In fact Quabba learned that, physically. MT. John Powell had so far recovered that at the doctors order he could now be taken out. and in order to divert him his friends were to take him to the circus that after noon
 Esther received the information late and had arrived and entered the arena when the performance was well under way. At the end of the aisle, near where she sat and at the edge of the Hippodrome track. was the private box containing Arthur. Blair, Vivian, Durand, and De VauX. All eyes were turned upon the arena. where Santley was announcing the thrilling and sensational act to follow: La Belle, the Lady of Lions and Lancelot. the superb untamed Nu5ian king of beastsu"
 Esther crept slowly down by the box 10 speak to Arthur when suddenly all in that box rose to their feet with gasp of as- tonishment, for there on the breast of the woman in the lions cage. gleaming and dazzling in shaft of sunlight, blazed the diamond from the sky,
 Then loud cry of horror rose and the vast audience heaved a wave heaves. for the lion had sprung at the woman ere her smirl could change to icok of fear. and had struck her down and with his cruel claws rent her fair bosom and tore away the gleaming jewel there.
 Santley shrieked and sprang forward. and just then the clown. Splnters, standing behind him. drew a pistol from his pierrot garb. and shot him through the back
 The lions paw drew away, bearing the d amond with it to the cage edge. and hand reached for It-and then the crowd surged out in panic. screaming in horBor. and Arthur and Esther were torn from each other by the human wave.
 I1o be continued1