The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-07-13
A NOVEL A WEEK.
Next Week
THE LITTLE GRAY SHOE"
BY Percy j. Brebner.

some miracle, and was sweeping
on to us.
l pointed toward the dredge.
THE dynamite" muttered.
You see, mademoiselle?"
Il see. The fire Is to 1.-THE
moorings are burning. 1t will
drift out and down toward those
men on the dredge-"
mot IL Williams can reach 1t
first"
She glanced at the launch not a
half-mile distant.
HE will never reach it. mes
sieur. Nor will 1t reach the
dredge." She had grounded the
pirogue on the canal side across
from the fire and was out among
the great clods.
| staggered out and to her side
The sweep OF the hot wind was
intolerable; the first draw of il
down my lungs made me reel. !
saw Laure muffle her mouth and
nose In the hollow of her elbow.
But she stumbled on down the
embankment, dragging the rifle
after her.
"Laure!" shouted, "come
back-what are you DOING"
She was measuring the distance
intently to the square-ended scow
under whose corrugated roof was
stored the dynamite. | stared al
her and then the launch that was
speeding on to pass us. Sudden
ly she turned to me and cried
out:
I'm which end of the hold is
the black POWDER"
1T was forward in canisters oil
tin, | think. The dynamite is
boxed"
And before the words left me
she had fired the automatic rifle
deliberately into the scow side
And again the girl fired-again
and again. l could not hear the
reports In the road of the fire
across from us. 1t was soaring
my face, and my clothes were
blazing. Laure fired again at the
dynamite scow. l heard her NUT.
ter despairingly. She could not
locate the black powder cans with
her steel-jacket bullets-and each
instant Virgil's launch was sweep.
Ing on to pass us, to plunge or
into the fiery pass to rescue his
imprisoned men. She saw the
launch now almost abreast of us
And they saw us; I caught Clell's
blackened face aghast, staring al
the sight of us on the levee line
And while | was motioning to
him, to Virgil who was crouched
over his steering wheel, the earth
went out from, under my feet, the
sky collapsed. ...= *
| came to my senses slowly
knowing only that | was trying to
lift my face out Of the black mud
and that Laurie was pounding al
my back crying for me to rise up
For a moment I could not get the
stuff from my eyes; then l saw
a dark world about us, shot will
falling sparks, and beyond this ar
outer space Of fire. Men were
stumbling up the wrecked levee
knew now that Clell was try
ing to help me to my feet; that
Big Jim had lifted Laure, who
had now fallen insensible.
Virgil stood on the highes
point of his wrecked embankment
staring down the canal. Present
ly, among the dense burst o.
smoke from the black plain l saw
an outline of his dredge. That
was what he was looking for, ap
parently.
BLEW that fire out for a hun
bred yards beyond it," he muir
INJURED. Eyes, sch! The only spo
in ten square miles that didn'
60" Then he looked at the fal
woods of the black island. zane
you came through there, Docto
Dick-with herr"
l tried to speak but the breatl
was blown from me. The Texal
lifted her and strobe down to tn,
canal bank. Slowly he trickled ,
bit of warm water on her brow
then wiped it away with hi
sleeve.
I'm a son-of-a-gun," he muir
INJURED again gently, "she did tn,
l.