The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-09-04
BY
ARTHUR
STRINGER

There was a shout. hair OF horror
and half of rage, as Legar went down
in heap, his wooden arm-end thump-
ing on the rough flooring like NAL
let as he fell. And at the same mo-
ment that the brawny-armed amazon
boldly struck Manley's right arm up
towards the ceiling. that startled band
Of Legar's followers uaited In a rush
for the assailant OF their leader and
chief.
In the first two minutes Of that al
together hopeless struggle Marley had
lost both his gun and his coat. In the
next minute he had lost his breath.
In the next his liberty itself was gone,
for those worthless lost no time in tying
and trusting him up as neatly as
a French chef trusses a capon. As
he was rudely backed away to where
Margery Golden, equally corded and
tied, already stood, he heard one Of
the men behind him speak
Did he croak the chief"
Nav, he's still breathin'!"
Then we gotta get him outa here.
Pip, you call taxi. We gotta
get him back to his own 'Malina', or
therell be hell to pay!"
How about this gun boob and the
rib?"
Gag 'em and throw 'em into that
bathroom there! And if youse turn
on the gas by accident, / guess it's 60
in to save US all lot O. troubled"
The Creeping Message.
David Manley, for all the predica.
ment confronting him, tried to school
himself to calmness.
Close beside him, bound and gagged
like himself. he could feel the inert
body of Margery Golden.
But what most disturbed him was
the gas jet that stood out from the
green-papered wall high above his
head. That had been the finishing
touch at the hands of his enemies.
He looked carefully about the room,
point by point. It was nothing but
commonplace bathroom, with a door
on one side and small window high
up in the wall on the opposite side.
He found nothing, in that methodic
inventory Of his surroundings, to re-
vive the slowly dying embers of hope.
He could neither move nor call out.
But there was still wy of sending
a message out to the world
He worked and fioundered about I'M
til he was in q sitting position. Then
he worked his way closer to the
enamel bathtub, leaning, painting and
helpless over its edge, for moment
or two, as drunken man leans over
cell cot. Then energy again revived
in him. He slowly and painfully edged
further and further over into the bath
tub, like cut worm rounding leaf
edge until with his forehead he was
able to push and bunt the loose drain
plug into it's socket Then, once more
from the bathtub, he d.
rected his attention to the nearer Of
the two taps that stood at its head.
He had the use of neither hand nor
foot, to turn that tap. But by the
pressure of his owr skull against the
furnished brass tap handle he was
finally able TO throw the faucet open.
Then he sank YEARLY back to the
floor, for his head was swimming dig
lilly and bands of steel seemed COLI
stricting his chest.
He lay there watching as the water
from the overflowing tub trickled to
the floor, pooled in the worn undula-
tons Of the boards, and crawled on
again, in search of some avenue of es-
cape. And he watched it as it moved,
FIR on its sinuous back, he remem-
bered, it carried his message of deliv-
his hope of life. Finding an
unused ventilator flue, the water foun-
tanned joyously down on the head of a
artist hard at work on
canvas
That artist, after speechlessly con-
templating the deluge, ran shouting to
the hallway, where he was joined by |
his model and by fellow artists from
neighboring studios.
When they found their investiga-
tions barred by locked door, they |
broke it in. While they were shifting !
about the outer room,
however, their efforts to reach the |
source OF that deluge were being an
ticipated by a more stealthy figure,
which, clambering monkeylike up the
narrow iron fire escape, climbed still |
higher to the small window and |
promptly broke it in.
Ito Be Continued
hJtADIlJM WANT Ans pAv