The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1915-12-24
CHAPTER XVI,
PERIL.

Peril.
Annette woke, choking. Smoke
poured into her room. She realized at
once that the house was burning. She
heard the nearby cracking of flames
she saw the nearby glare of flame.
Without the village fire gong changed
she heard the shouts of volunteers
coming down the road.
She ran to Mrs. Hardin's room. The
door was locked; smoke was creeping
from underneath the door. Mother
Mother Hardin" cried Annette. There
was no response. In frenzy Annette
rushed back to her room, seized
chair and returned to the locked door.
With a sudden twist of her 1.-THE body
she raised the chair above her shoul-
ders and brought it crashing against
the door. A volume of smoke poured
out. Regardless of it, Annette rushed
in, dragged Meals mother-uncon-
scious as she was-from the bed, out
of the room and down the stairs.
Joey" gasped Annette, "Joey
Welcher-he's in there We must save
him, too"
"No," interposed distant neighbor,
''he's not in there. I saw him in the
village, running for help"
During the confusion, three shadowy
figures, returning as from chase,
crept through the smoke and crouched
beneath bushes in the rear of the
house, unnoticed and unseen.
0r0 ~f
"Ponto,' cried Hernandez in a low
voice, what of the packet ?-what of
Lost Isle?-the fool Welcher! By this
time we might have had it,"
Annette, seated on the ground, with
Mrs. Hardin's head in her lap, watched
the scene as in a dream, Her glance
roved from the flames to the crowd of
jostling people-and from them back to
the flames again. Then suddenly her
heart rose to her throat. Peering at
her from the middle of a dense mass
of shrubbery, there was face-a face
with staring eyes, matted hair, and un-
kempt beard.
She had seen that face beforehand
on that very road-it had once strick-
en- terror to her heart. This time how
ever, it had a far stranger effect upon
her. No sooner had she caught sight
of this uncanny cOuntenance, than, un-
accountably she remembered some
thing-the yellow packet.
my fathers fortune-my fathers
whereabouts she cried She sur
rendered her charge to a neighborly
woman close at hand and struggled
to her feet. She reached her room in
comparative safety, save for the chok-
seized a water pitcher and drenched
herself from head to foot-then with
dripping hair and clothes she felt for
and found her hiding place. She
groped for the packet A tongue of
flame swept the window. She shut
it, and the glass cracked and fell
tinkling to the ground below. Then
she groped again.
1--WE got it-got it," she cried In
exultation, and thrust the yellow pack
ct safely in her breast. There was a
sudden crash. She flung open her
through with flame as its top moor
ings had fallen in. The hallway was
alive with flame. She sprang to her
window-no thoroughfare-the whole
side wall-the side of her room-was
now ablaze. Obeying some instinct
Annette threw herself face downward
on the floor. The air there was singu-
larly sweet and cool.
"Somebody will come" she told her
self, somebody will come" ,-- ~.
Without the word passed that An
nette had rushed into, the house-was
inside now. A huge figure leaped
into the crowd, parting 1t =, right
and left and bounded into the door
way Of the house. SWhimpering with
fear.s the Brute ran hither,a thither,
through the living room, and entered
the hall-tinding the staircase mass
Of ruin, He Eleaped and clutchede the
landing up above, Some instinct led
him to, Annette's room: He saw and
found -clutched her unconscious
form in his huge arms and leaped with
her to the floor beneath and, unseen,
laid her unconscious form down
at the feet of Mrs, Hardin. Then
black, burned, and ,unrecognizable. he
sped away into the night.
Hernandez gritted his teeth. II
thought had that brute trained he
exclaimed wrathfully, as he realized
that Annette and her treasure had es-
capped him, "and I thought he was
afraid of fire. In both was mistaken
We must take it out of his hide, Pom.
to-next time he must make no mis-
take" ,-.--.. .-..s -.s -
CTO BE CONTINUEDl