The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1912-1984, 1916-04-14
THE IRON CLAW
Continued from Tuesday,
The Shell Of Deceit.

MdTScTy 0Olu0u, al LuluSS COuSlQ-
cred, was once more in very excellent
spirits. There were even moments
when young David Marley considered
those spirits as both deplorably and
disturbingly excellent.
For the girls happiness, he felt as
sured, was due to the presence Of young
Count Luigi da Espares.
He had come, as more than one i'm
poverished young nobleman had come
to America, to dispose of those can
vases and curios which, If they had
not once graced his own ancestral
halls, had at least been conscientiously
made, on the far side of the Atlantic,
after models bearing every earmark of
the authentic. And one of the treasures
which he had succeeded in disposing of
to Enoch Golden was a full suit of
medieval Japanese armor, complete
even to the long-bladed Kagisaki dag
ger and grotesQuely fashioned metal
face mask.
That leering metal face David Man.
ley had hated from the first moment
he saw it in position at the far side of
the somber Golden library. The ugli-
ness of that metal monstrosity, in fact.
seemed accumulated by the soft-toned
canvas painting which stood immedi-
ately behind it.
"Just what do you see to like about
that thing?" he somewhat brusquely
inquired. The girls face grew seri-
Gus.
That leering metal face makes me
think Of the Laughing Mask, and now
I'm almost certain l know who this
Laughing Mask is"
"Who?"
Count Luigi da Espares himself"
II don't believe it,"
Eyes, but listen: Quite by accident
together, yellow domino dropped
from his pocket. He was confused and
seemed unwilling to make any real ex-
plantations about it."
Even a count could afford to invest
in a ten-cent domino" was Manley's
retort.
Isn't it beautiful" she asked as she
swung the armor about. You see it
is quite open in the back. The count
says they were made that way because
they were worn only by heroes. And
a hero must always be brave enough to
stand facing his enemies!"
well, swing it round then, for. I'm
it's enemy all right! l hate the
thing!"
Three hours later he was peremp-
torily summoned to the billiard room,
where he found Enoch Golden in slip
pers and dressing gown feverishly
pacing the floor. Manley stared in
terrogatively down at the paper which
the older man held in slightly tremu-
lous fingers.
TITS another of Legar's Spotted
Warningsl" explained Golden, in a
voice heavy with apprehension.
Did you speak to Da Espares about
this?" Manley asked.
mo. Da Espares went to bed an
hour ago."
"And Margery?"
"Margery is with her mother
Are you slreT'
''They were there thirty minutes
ago.
But are you sure?"
Yes; I saw them"
Then the first thing to do is to
make sure that she is still SAFE"
; Yet hurried as Manley's flight was
fhrnnuh hot lot hn time
to circle about to his own room and
there thrust an automatic pistol into
his pocket. Then he called Celestine,
who was promptly sent to investigate
Margery's boudoir. She returned with
the disquieting report that the girl
was not there.
Manley, with a sinking of the heart,
continued his search through the low
er regions of the house. And he did
not breathe freely until, quietly open
ing the side door into the library, he
caught sight of Margery herself, in
ACKNOWLEDGED Jacobean chair, bent
low over a book which lay open on
her lap.
She sat clearly outlined in the
bright fulcrum falling over her care
lessly-posed body, leaving her in a
luminous shower from the single wall
light, which she had left turned on
Immediately above her. This silvery
shaft of light brought out the beauty
Of her heavily-massed hair; it brought
out the tender lines of the white
throat and neck, the wistful girlish-
ness of the slender figure. Then Man
ley for the first time noticed that she
was sitting directly in front of the
suit of Japanese armor. He could see
the polished metal of that armor flash
venomously in the strong sidelight.
AS he stood there, clinging to the
portiere and continuing to stare at
those two ACKNOWLEDGEMENT figures,
he found something almost hypnotic
in the virulent brightness of the pol
ished metal. Then gasp of incred-
ulity burst from his lips. For as he
stared at the metaled hand holding
the long-bladed dagger, he saw, or
thought he saw, that hand slowly