Bisbee daily review., 1916-11-12
TWELFTH EPISODE i
The Haunted Canvas.

I very happy girl. So happy, in fact was the freckled-nosed Peggy that there were times when the sheer nov city of her good fortune somewhat frightened her For the tide had turned. The O'Mara family, as Peggy put it, was at last in clover. That mys- terious tighter of wrongs known as the Laughing Mask had interested himself in getting honest work for Dan O'Mara And that gracious-eyed lady known as Margery Golden, once she had realized the true position Of the family, had become equally inter ested in doing what she could for the spindle-legged Peggy.
 It is true, none the less, that this last-mentioned young lady's benefac- tress had been momentarily nonplused by Peggy's choice of vocation, when this choice was placed before her.
 'What would you like to do most?" Margery had asked at the end of her second trip to the O'Mara cottage with a bundle of clothes for the all but breathless Peggy.
 "Be a artists model!" promptly an- nounced the rapt-eyed factory girl.
 "But why model?" asked the amazed Miss Golden.
 "To doll up in glad rags and get meself painted," explained the dream CT of the dye vats. And odd as that choice seemed to her, Margery Golden did not depart from her promise. She sought out her artist friend, Frank Ainick. and inveigled him to experi- ment with a new and somewhat un- tried model.
 Frank Aimick, however, soon found the ardent-eyed young Peggy more of a help to him than he had anticipated Some of her unctuous yet uncouth at titudinizing, in fact, brought smile to the face of the busy artist.
 But that smile was never broader than when he noticed her standing wide-eyed before the large canvas above the fireplace at the end of his studio. For this painting, which bore the title of 'dThe Vigilante," was re- markable piece of work, in more ways than one. It showed the life-siZe fig ure of a frontiersman staring out into the room, with a leveled carbine at his buckskinned shoulder. But the ar resting feature of the painting lay in the fact that both the eyes of the figure and the barrel of the leyeled rife seemed always to be directed at the spectator, no matter what position the spectator might take.
 That guy gives me the willies. Peggy protested as she made her way back to the model throne.
 Why" asked the smiling man al the easel.
 "He keeps such bead on you. nc matter where you get in this room! was the girls reply.
 But destiny, in the form of one Jules Legar. had secretly ordained that Peggy's happiness should not be last ing one. For Peggy O'Mara was nc longer a trivial factor in the activities of the Iron Claw. This slip of a girl had brought defeat to his plans when success seemed we'll within his hand And for these humiliaticns Legar de cided that the girl should pay, and pa, 10 the full
 The modest home of the OMaras however, had no inkling of this deci sion until Dan O'Mara himself, wan dering about his combined kitchen and living room in search of his pipe, wa' somewhat startled to see a square oi paper pinned to the faded door panel Peggy herself. joining her father, was equally mystified by this slip of paper for it's surface showed nothing but 2 round blot or two of black ink on 2 square of white. Neither Dan O'Mara nor his daughter had any reason tC know the meaning of the spottet warning, any more than they kneV that one Mauki, the staalthy 'missarl of the Iron Claw, stood hiodeb behind Che walls of one of the three cottage: commanding a clear view of th' O'Mara home.
 They had no way of knowing tha this same Mauki lurked there behind shattered window. patiently watching hour after. hour. the house across thu Tvay. Close beside him as he watched