Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-06-02

usine Squarely In the Middle.
Helen and Seagrue. In the garden,
Ward and Adams, watching intently.
saw his s~ilhouetted figure on the low
cred curtain.
And Storms trifling act of hospital
ity was to prove his salvation and
S~eagrue's undoing. Having seen that
the punch bowl was nearly empty he
excused himself and stepped into the
next to ummon a maid to refill
1t. The door of this break
fast room-opening on the garden
stood, for the evening, ajar. The
maid, reaching up on the %sideboard for
a napkin, when Storm spoke to her,
let 1t fall from her hand as she turned.
The white square Of linen, partly un-
folded, f1uttered to the ground.
Where she stood, the maid could
not be seen from Wards hiding place
in the garden. Only the figure Of
Storm beside her was visible and the
highwayman mistook his figure for
Seagrue's. When the napkin fluttered
to the floor, Ward, mistaking it for the
handkerchief, watched intently the
two silhouetted figures in the con-
servatory.
Seagrue, at Helen's side, rose to
his feet. Two shots rang through the
night air. Seagrue, stricken, clutched
his heart. With a CHASTITY expression
he looked at Helen. And as she
screamed, he clutched at his heart
again and fell headlong to the floor.
Helen's frantic cries brought a
crowd to the conservatory doors.
Storm, nearest at hand, held back the
others and entered the room first. He
turned, lifted Seagrue from the floor
and asked for a doctor. Helen, half
hysterical, told where the shots had
come and Storm, followed by her, ran
out into the garden.
The murderers had made good their
escape. Hurrying to where their ma
chine was hidden, they jumped into it.
and started at breakneck speed for
Oceanside. It was Spikes keen ear
that detected the faint Lum of their
motor. They're making thei~ getaway
in a car" he cried. IF we are to get
them. we've got to work quick"
Communicating the first car parked
in the driveway and accompanied by
Helen and Storm, Spike drove rapidly
down the highway after the fleeing
taxicab. No lights were visible on it,
but some moonlight made it possible
to follow the murderers accurately.
Below the bridge at Signal, the high
way, turning sharply, crossed the rail.
road. It is a bell crossing and the sig
nails were ringing for the Oceanside
express when Ward and Adams, look
ing behind at the headlights Of Spikes
car, saw they were holly pursued.
They opened fire with their revolvers
on the pursuing car, but Helen, Storm
and Spike, keeping under cove as
best they could. did not slacken speed.
The criminals hui pressed, saw there
was a chance to put the railroad
crossing between them and their pur.
suers. The express YVES close upon
them, but desperate men cannot be-
choosers. Ward took a chance. Crowd
ing his machine to the limit, he tried
for the crossing ahead of the train.
The engineer seeing a collision un-
%avoidable, checked his train heavily.
1t was too late. The engine was al
most on the taxicab and the next in
slant the pilot, striking it squarely in
the middle, threw the heavy limousine
fifty feet in the air. When Helen,
Storm and Spike reached the spot, the
engineer was backing down to inves-
tigate the catastrophe.
Lanterns and searchlights were
brought into play where the moon left
the landscape in shadow. Adams
body was found in a borrow pit. The
shock had killed him. Ward, flung
against a tree, lay at the foot of it,
mutilated beyond recognition.
In Helen's conservatory, a doctor
bent over Seagrue, but the wretched
victim of his own criminal intent lay
quite dead.
The sun rose happily after the
events of that tragic night. 1t rose
nowhere on two people more CRATE
full for their escape from assassina-
ton than Helen and Storm. Within
the following week the guests of that
night, had they been gifted with vi
sion, might have seen Spike seated,
book in hand, in the garden, reading
an account Of a marriage ceremony.
In 1t, surrounded by her friends and
given away by her foster uncle, Amos
Rh%inelander, Helen had become the
wife of George Storm.
(THE END1