The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1916-06-09

| HOlucu uOuut. rOT uIlueT the IuueTed
outfit of this placid-eyed driver re
posed the stalwart body of a certain
One-Lamp Louie, long known among
his associates as an habitue of the
Owls Nest and an underground agent
for Jules Legar himself.
Now One-Lamp Louis gave no prom.
Use of either active or passive inter
ference with these duly appointed NOR
tuary exercises until the city itself
had been left well behind. Then,
awakening to the fact that they were
traversing a desirably sequestered
stretch of road. he watched intently
for certain prearranged signals from
his one-armed accomplice. Immediate
ly after the discovery Of those looked
for signs the spirited team driven by
One-Lamp Louie showed unexpected
yet unmistakable evidences of FESTIVE
ness. The girl in that carriage of
mourning. Of course. had small chance
to discover that these movements were
being circuitously created and sus-
tanned by One-Lamp Louis himself
through artful manipulation of both
bit and whip.
But there was limit to what that
team of spirited blacks would endure.
And they suddenly, to all intents and
purposes, determined to follow their
own line of travel at their own rate
of speed, for, as the driver sat on the
box apparently saving on the reins,
that exasperated team plunged sud-
denly forward swerveG across the
road, and went galloping down tree
screened bypath which was little more
than a cart trail winding in and out
| through slopes of greensward and
shrubbery.
Half a mile deeper in that shrub
berry this runaway team would surely
have reached the spot where black
limousine stood hidden away in the
shadow of laurel-copse, had not still
another and an equally unheralded fac
tor entered into the situation. This
factor took the forL of a high-power
roadster in which was seated a man
wearing a yellow mask. His irrup-
ton into that orderly little procession,
indeed, proved as abrupt as One-Lamp
Louie's eruption from it. And he
seemed plainly suspicious of both
Louie's motives and movements, for
he lost no time in swinging from the
highway and plunging recklessly after
the runaway carriage
AS his car approached the runaway
cab that mysterious stranger. known
as the Laughing Mask, stepped to the
running board of his roadster, leaning
far out as the two swerving vehicles
drew together. One-Lamp Louie, what
ever he may have thought of that ap-
proach, had little means of evading
it. To swing of what narrow road re-
manned before him seemed frankly
suicidal. To lash his team to greater
effort was already out of the question.
To take his hands from the reins,
even, along that uncertain road, was
equally foolhardy. So the strange race
went on, the swaying and bounding
cab with a white-faced girl tossed
about under it's hood, the leaping and
lurching roadster. every second draw
| ing closer down on it's quarry yet
every second threatening to turn tur-
tie over one of the grassy embank-
| ments above which it shuddered and
| slowed.
1t was the Laughing Mask, leaning
far out from his :unning-board, who
threw open the cab-door and called
sharply to the startled girl
Quick" he commanded.
For one moment she hesitated.
Then she reached out for the unsteady
hand cropping for her. She caught
at the muscular young arm supporting
her as she half climbed and half tum-
bled out to the cab-step. Then, re-
linquishing her grasp on the hand rail,
she surrendered to the clutch of this
arm as it encircled her and swung her
bodily from her feet.
The next moment she found herself
sitting back, little breathless, in the
leather-upholstere seat of the road
ster and the man in the Laughing
Mask smiling down at her with his
enigmatic smile.
! 1T was risky, know" he explained
But not half as bad as meeting Jules
Legar on the other side of that laurel
grove!"
The Black Watch.
number of things had happened
and were happening to discomfort, il
not to discourage, the redoubtable Le-
gar. That astute young adventures,
Betsy LIE Marsh, alias Williamsburg
Elsie, who. with the aid of divers
forged recommendations, had installed
herself in the Golden household, re-
peatedly and stubbornly reported that
David Manley was dead.
Williamsburg Elsie also expressed
a strong desire to migrate from the
house in which she found herself so
J inquisitive a maid, since that house
she declared, was too full of queer
things for her comfort. They were
she frankly acknowledged, getting her
goat"
When, at Legar's suggestion, she
had tried to pump a needleful o
! dope" into her altogether unsuspectine
J mistress, dead mans face had sud
/ denly appeared between her and the
bedroom door. And on two different
occasions, after midnight, when she
r had ventured down to the housekeep
er's telephone to send in a secret mes
? sage to Legar himself. she had found
herself confronted by ghost in white
, Nor was Betsy LIE Marsh the only
malcontent. Even Red Egan himself
: one of the best "cold-steeP men il
r all the group that clustered about the
? Owls Nest, had Of late shown unmis
Q taxable signs of mental disturbance
4 | A daad mans ghost h daclarod haf