The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-03-17

put up fer the night. kindly directed
them ON to Mesa. down In the Painted
hilIe yonder.'
CHAPTER xxxvll.

hills yonder.'
CHAPTER xxxvll.
Firepiay.
Contented with the promise Of .
thousand dollars advance on his con-
tract, providing he returned with
horses within q stipulated time, Mr..
Hopi James Slade drifted quietly away
into the desert night.
Well content, persuaded that the
morrow's sun would never set upon
world tenanted by one Alan Law. that
monomaniac, Seneca Urine. forgot his
recent i'll temper and set himself diplo-
matically to adjust the differences b.
tween his daughter. Judith, and his
first lieutenant. Marrophat.
It was no facile task: Marrophat
could not be trusted to work with
single mind because of his infatuation
for Judith; Judith could no more be
trusted faithfully to serve out her VOW
alive or dead, because-O cruel irony
Of Fate!-she herself had fallen in
love with that same man whose death
she had pledged herself to compass.
Only when. as now, half mad with
jealousy, determined to see Alan dead
rather than yield him to the woman
he loved, her sister, might Judith be
counted upon to serve her father in
his lust for vengeance a. he would be
served-and even 80 not without Mar
rophat at her elbow to egg her on
through her resentment of his surveil-
lance. Neither could be trusted. in
deed, to work alone to the desired con-
summation; for Urine had secret rea-
son to fear lest Marrophat might.
given opportunity. connive at Alan's
escape in order that he might marry
Rose and SO throw Judith back into
his, Marrophat's, arms.
Poor. deluded fool!
Such was the private comment Of
) Marrophat's master.
For all that, it was the man and not
his daughter, whom Urine designated
to lead the expedition, cunningly
/ counting on Judith's chagrin to work
upon her passions and excite her to
one last, mad, blind attempt that
should prove successful.
Smiling his secret smile, Urine an
nounced his decision at the last mo-
ment, while Hopi Jim waited with his
horses and an assistant-one Texas
for whose utter innocence of scruples
Mr.. Slade unhesitatingly vouched.
Sullenly submissive. at least in out
ward seeming, Judith bowed to this de-
cision, marched out of the car, and
suffered Marrophat to help her mount
her horse.
Now, deliberately, as the little caval.
cade rode through the moonlit desert
night, the girl Unanswered her horse
to the side Of Hopi Jim, and then
dropped back. permitting Marrophat
to lead the way with Texas.
As deliberately she set herself to
work upon the bandits susceptibility
to her charms.
Within an hour she had him ready
to do anything to win her smile.
In that first rush Of golden day a
thwart the land, the party came quietly
into the town Of Mesa, riding slowly in
order that the noise Of their approach
might not warn the fugitives, who
Hopi asserted confidently would still
be sound asleep in the accommoda
: tions offered by the towns one hotel.
II was to be termed q town only In
=. courtesy, this Mesa: q struggling
street of shacks, ramshackle relics o.
what had once been q promising com
munity, the halfway station between
the railroad and the mining camps
secreted in the Businesses of the Paint
ed hiiis-camps now abandoned, theil
very names almost faded out Of tn,
memory Of mankind.
!. Midway In this string Of edifices tn,
hotel stood-a rough. implanted. wood
en- ediflce, mainly veranda and bar
room as to its lower floor.
!, jealousy Judith watched the win
! dows of the second floor: and sh,
alone of the four detected the face tina
3 showed for one brief instant well bacl
in the shadows beyond one Of the bed
Y room windows-a face that glimmere,
l momentarily with the pallor Of
o ghosts against the background Of tina
9 obscurity, and then was gone.
i Her eyes alone. indeed, could hav
recognized the features Of Alan La,
" In that fugitive glimpse.
= Two sentences exchanged betwee
. Hopi Jim and blear-eyed fellow
whom he reused from sodden slumber
d behind the bar sealed their confidenc
n with conviction: the three fugitive
e were in fact guests Of the house. o.
q cupying two of the three rooms this
composed it's upper story.
In the rush that followed up tn
3 narrow stairway, Judith led with sue
spirit that not even Marrophat SUI
L. pected her revolver was poised solel
NJ with intent to shoot from his hand HI
own revolver the instant he levele
it at a human target.
"A Closed and locked doors confronte
n them; and their summons educed n
=. response; while the first door, whe
hroken in nv n whOle-souled kick di