Gunnison news-champion., 1915-05-21

the unfinished taildiHg. rose and sto'e
after him Nish footsteps a. noiseless
as a cas- and a face that had the sas
agery Of a tigers when u vas tran.
silently Fevealed IN a shaft Of moon
hight
At length Alan gained the sridiron
of girdafs oH q plane with the hshtel
windsW across the way. aud creT
aioHg one of these. gingerly ON hi
hands and knees. until he came to IT.
end and might II he cared to. loo
down a hundred feet 10 the sidewalks
That view. however. Gid not tempt
he kept his ewes level. and was re
warded with a bare glimpse Of a pre-
tily-papered wall framed ia the lace g.
half-drawn curtains.
And Of suddCn-whether through
fortuity. or Instinct or the psyche
logical attraction of his steadfass con
CONFERENCE.-The tenant OF the room
came TO the window and stood there
for little, looking pensively out. alto
eether unconscious of the watcher IN
his aerial coign.
Again a horrible uncertainty har-
or Judith2 That she was one OF these
he could plainly see But which, Dared
he assume bis hopes fulfilled?
With difficulty be detached his
hungry vision from her. and drawing
from his pocket small notebook, tore
out a blank page, placed this fat on
the girder. found a pencil. and with
the assistance OF a ray or two OF
moonlight serawled a message of o.
most stenographic brevity
When he looked up from this task.
she had vanished
took his watch-a cheap affair he had
picked up when reclothing himself In
the garments of civilized society, at
Providence, that morning-opened the
back of the case. and closed it upon
the folded message
Then drawing back his arm, he
breathed a silent prayer to the god of
all true lovers, and cast it from him
that it almost unseated him at the end
OF the swing. But nothing less would
have served to bridge that yawning
chasm.
And the watch few straight and
true, squarely through the lighted win
dow and to the further wall.
At that very instant of his exultation
over an obstacle overcome. he heard a
sound behind him of heavy breathing.
Tho assassin had come that close
upoa his prey when Alan turned and
Uncovered his peril
The same moonbeam which had
aided Alan in the composition OF his
message struck across the others face
and showed it like q hideous Chinese
mask Of deadly hatred, with its eye
balls glaring and its lips drawn back
from the naked blade gripped between
its teeth stiletto nothing short of q
foot In length.
With . sharp, startled movement.
Alan swung himself bodily about. SO
that, seated again astride the girder,
he faced the assassin who sat up,
straddling the girder. his feet hooked
beneath 1t a stiletto poised in his
right hand to strike
But even now Alan was in little or
no better case than before. If he faced
the thug he faced him with no arms
other than his bare hands. He had not
even a pen-knife in his pockets.
With a low cry of des peration Alan
snatohed of his hat, a soft and shane
less felt affair, and flung it squarely in
the fellows face.
Before he could recover-before
that is. it dropped away and cleared
Lis vision. Alan had bent forward ana
grasped the wrist of the hand that
held the knife
He snatched simultaneously at tbe
other aand, but it eluded him.
Alan had this advantage, as LONG a.
the knife might not strike-that his
right arm was free. while the assassin
had only his left With this he stro,-a
persistently TO reach his knife-bsrd
ana possess himself of the weapou
AS rersisteptly Alan foiled his purposs
by dragging the knife-hand toward him
and swinging it far out to one side At
the same time he struck Repeatedly
with his elenched right fist at the nth
er's face. His blows did little dam.
age beyond disconcerting the Other
but this proved a very consider. be
'aetor IN the dueL In the epu. rDsv
-erVed together with that steady. ra.
sistless downward and outward drag.
10 break the grip of the mans locked
legs.
Abruptly he pitched forward on his
lace along the girder. kicking wildly.
graspinz al the air. The stuetto fell
from an instinctively relaxed erasp.
and disappeared And before Alan
could release his hold. or ease the
stra upon the right arm Of the as
s-szIn. this last had slipped bodily
I'm the girder and hung helpless IN
ace, dangling at the end of AIan's
-Eith no more than the grin Of