The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-24

headed directly for the lone bowlder
standing on the ridge-top some
twenty yards above her. She COW
cred the intervening distance with a
freRzied burst of speed and threw
herself, painting convulsively, at the
base OF that massive gray rock.
Then her bruised fingers came in
contact with slight projection, on
which she saw painted the faint out
line of a red star. She instantly
pressed with all her strength against
this projection and, with a sharp
click of released bolts, a slab of wood
SO closely resembling the rock as to
defy detection, suddenly dropped in
it's grooved guides, leaving a narrow
aperture in the face of the bowlder.
Even as Legar, his cruel lace
aflame with evil passion, rushed upon
the defenseless girl, she slipped
through that strange opening, and
as she stumbled onto a rude wooden
platform some ingenious mechanism
sent the heavy panel shooting into
place behind her.
beneath the platform on which she
was standing the gloom was broken
by pickering tallow dips fixed against
the wall, and Margory saw, as she ex-
pected, the labyrinthian galleries of
the long deserted coal mine. Then as
she discovered a ladder which led
down into the wavering shadows the
heavy barrier suddenly dropped and
silhouetted against the outer light
she saw the leering face Of Jules
Legar.
AS he came twisting through that
narrow passage the harried girl
sprang for the ladder and cropping her
way downward found herself in a
sloping tunnel from which opened a
series of exhausted coal pockets, fash
toned by the picks of the miners into
gloomy, rough hewn chambers. Sew
eral of these sombrous grottos were
dimly lighted as though still in use
for some mysterious purpose.
Margory could now hear rough
voices and the shutting of feet on the
platform above her head. After q
moments hesitation she darted into
one of the shadowy chambers, hoping
to find some place of concealment in
its dark recesses. But she was sud-
denly threatened by new and unex-
pected dangers, for in the center of
that vault-like room her hurrying
feet suddenly slipped from under her,
and with a. startled cutlery she
plunged through hidden trap door,
which sprang back into place when
relieved of her weight.
When the badly shaken girl sat up
on the uneven stone flooring where
she had landed with considerable
force, she realized she had fallen into
another of those specially lighted
chambers on a lower level of the
abandoned mine. But there was this
difference-the murky cave in which
she now found herself had no outlet
of any nature save the trap door
through which she had stumbled, and
as she faced the solid and unbroken
walls of her gloomy prison for the
first time an overwhelming sense OF
despair possessed her.
Against one side Of that tomblike
chamber the miners had left an as
cending series of rocky lodges upon
which they must have stood to reach
the higher coal deposits, but this
rough stairway offered no hope of
escape to the apprehensive girl. She
shuddered at the thought of Legar
finding her in this pit of darkness, for
she realized she would be completely
at his mercy.
Then, with a faint flash of light.
the trap door swung open, and she
heard a startled oath, followed by
the thud of heavy body as it struck
the rocky flooring. A long silence
followed and the alarmed girl real
lied that her unseen enemy must be
living unconscious where he had
fallen. For the time at least she
need not fear him, but there still re-