Mountain advocate., 1916-04-28

floor. twin crumpled wads OF blood.
stained chamois skin.
He had now little choice he must
either fee Paris and rely on his wits
TO save him, or else seek De Morbihan
and trust to his protection, to his in.
fuence in high quarters.
But to give himself into the hands,
TO become an associate of one who
could be party to so cowardly crime
as this-Lanyard told himself he
would sooner pay the gullotine the
penalty.
Consulting his watch, he found the
hour to be no later than half past four.
so swiftly-truly treading upon one
anothers heels-events had moved
since the adventure of the somnambu
list.
This left at his disposition a fair
two hours more Of darkness-Novem-
Der nights are long and black In
Paris; it would hardly be even mod
erately light before seven o'clock. But
that was a respite none too long for
Lanyard's necessty-he must think
swiftly in contemplation of instant &C.
ton we're he to extrcate himself with.
out the Packs knowledge and consent.
Granted then. that he must fly this
stricken field of Paris. But how? De
Morbihan had promised that Popinot's
creatures would guard every outlet;
and Lanyard didn't doubt him. An at.
tempt to escape the city by any nor
NAL channel would be to invite one Of
two things--denunciatio to the police
on the charge of murder or one OF
those fatally expeditions forms Of as.
sassination of which the Apaches are
past masters.
He must and would find another
way; but his decision was frightfully
hampered by lack OF ready money, the
few odd francs in his pocket were no
store for the war chest demanded by
this emergency.
True, he had the Omber jewels; but
they we're not negotiable-not, at
least, in Paris.
And the Huysman plansf
He rondered briefly the possibilities
OF the IIuysman plans.
In his fretting, pacing softly TO and
fro, at each turn he passed his dress
ing table, and, CHANGING once to OBJ
serve himself in the mirror, he
stopped short thunderstruck by some
thing he thought to detect in that
counterfeit presentment of his coun-
tenance, heavy with fatigue as it was,
and haggard with contemplation Of
this appalling contretemps.
And instantly he was back beside
the American, studying narrowly the
contours of thai iivid mask Here,
then, was that resemblance that had
bafed him; and now that he saw it
he could not deny that it was unfiat-
teringly close-feature for feature the
face of the murderer reproduced his
face; coarsened, perhaps, but recog
riZab'y : replica of tE2t Michael Ian
yard who confronted him every morn
only difference residing in the scrubby
black mustache that Swallowed the
Americans upper lip.
After all nothing wonderful in this;
Lanyard's type was not uncommon;
he would never have thought himself
distinguished figure.
Before rising he turned out the
pockets of this casual double, But
this proited him little-quite evident
ly the assassin had dressed for action
xtFttI I, Nrrl,t 90 do n
in event of accident Lanyard collect
ed only a cheap American watch in a
'rolled-gold" case, of a sort manufac.
tured by wholesale, a common key
that might fit any hotel door, a broken
paper of Reggie cigarettes, an auto
matte pistol, few francs in silver
nothing whatever that would serve as
a mark of identification; for, though
the gray lounge suit was tailor made,
the tailor's labels had been ripped out
of its pockets. while the mans linen
and underwear alike lacked even a
laundrys hieroglyphic.
With this harvest of nothing for his
pains Lanyard turned again to the
washstand and his shaving kit mixed
a stiff lather, stropped another razor
to the finest edge he could manage,
fetched a pair of keen scissors from
his dressing case, and went back TO
the murderer.
He worked rapidly, at high pitch
of excitement-as much through sheer
desperation as through any appeal in
herent in his scheme, either to his
common sense or to his romantic bent.
In two minutes he had stripped the
mustache clean away from that stu
pid, faccld mask.
Unquestionably the resemblance was
now most striking; the American
would readily pass for Michael Lam
yard.
This much accomplished, he pursued
his preparations in feverish haste. In
spite OF this, he overlooked no detail.
In less than twenty minutes he had
exchanged clothing with the American
down to shirts. collars and neckties
had packed in his own pockets the
several articles taken from the other,