The Spectator., 1916-02-29
age with whom no could hold TO es.,

l verse.
 But even as he stood before the hve 1 of this old rufflan Count Frederick'0 ! eye caught sight of something which : caseed bis heart sc leap. :; It was little object. an unimportant ! item which might have escaped any other eye than his. Yet his gaze was | drawn to 1t irresistibly. It was a bit of cloth, a torn trifie of soiled and sea-encrusted checkered cloth, a portion of woman's garb. Count Frederick recognized it at once | as a part of the dress skirt in which | he had last seen Kitty Gray garbed. | There was no mistaking it. He knew | it as well as the pattern of his own | apparel.
 She had been here! The mysterious white woman was Kitty Gray!
 Now indeed Count Frederick of Gretzhoffen became the man of action. Away now with doubt and despair and welcome again the fierce resolve | of brave man determined to live and conquer, determined once more to achieve the dearest purpose of his life!
 1 He caught from the post of the door which had torn off this fragment of cloth, and held it before the gaze of the chiefibefore the eyes of all his men. They knew what he meant when he demanded to see the wearer of this | bit of cloth They dreaded the sight | of his anger, fell back before the men, ace of the little steel tube, unfamiliar as it was to them. They knew that this man would kill unless he found that which he sought-the captive but now rescued from the doom of fire.
 Frederick's own men fell in behind him, and right lusty contest directly arose between these two factions or tribes, whichever they may have been. AS for Frederick himself, he had not time for matters of this sort. He hur- ried to hut after hut, tore aside roof after roof, wall after wall, hunting for the woman whom above all things he most desired to see. He did not find her. His questions brought no re- | sponse.
 Drawn by a horrible suspicion of the meaning of this fire built at the brink of the pit, he hurried thither to join the group of lingerers there, and now by mere chance found continuation and found hope as well.
 He saw the print of small boot heel in the sand, other footmarks just beyond-it was q trail Yes, yes, she had been there. But the footprints ceased The trail ended as though the maker of it had flown up into the air. Beyond the imprint of large and mis- shapen feet still led.
 Count Frederick now turned savage ly upon these gibbering creatures about him, and the meaning of his demand was perfectly apparent to | them Threatening to throw them into the fire which they had prepared for another. he got from them shrieks of protest, much shaking of the head in denial, and much pointing on toward the forest which lay ahead. Some came to him and showed him the two lines of footprints, the one line continuing on. and pointed to the forest. although themselves not ven- turing to follow.
 With a new terror in his heart, yet feeling a conviction that Kitty Gray still lived, he did not pause to wreak a present vengeance upon these crea- lures. but hurried on along the broken trail
 The doglike craft of one or two of his own band of savages aided him. | cIo o1- whero the trail ran. Now and again Count Frederick could see on the earth the imprint of the woman's feet where for a time she had rested or Teen put down. At length, at the brink of the abyss before which Kitty Gray so recently had stood, he saw the dou- ble imprint again-where both captive and captor had stood and looked down.
 Tho trail led on, and down, whither nCne could guess. Frederick of Gretz- hoffen did not stop to guess, but plunged forward impulsively. Who ever or whatever might be this crea- ture which had carried her off, here at least was his lair.
 The dusty floors of the cavern, lit by the flare of such torches as they found ready for such work, still re- tained the record. Captor and captive had walked here. Deeper and deeper into the caverns under the hill they , followed the trail, until at length the , distracted eyes of Count Frederick
 saw on ahead something to give him pause.
 He saw Kitty Gray standing. alive. 7 apparently unhurt, in vast apart f ment of these subterranean vaults! Be- r yond, the floor seemed to break off-
 to what depth he could not guess. No P egress at either extremity of the sub , terranean chamber could be seen from I where he stood The trail led thither.
 to where she stood-to where at her
 side stood also a strange misshapen | A ylat hoA hnnn 0