Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-06-21
The
By BURTON E. STEVENSON
CHAPTER ONE (continued.)

Bah! They are not Americans
Germans, perhaps, or Austrians
but Americans, no! Those men,
Gabrielle, have something to con
ceal!" and Brisson, frowning
darkly, went back into the house.
Meanwhile the two pedestrians
made their way rapidly along the
dark and silent street without ex-
changing a word. There was in
their faces a strange excitement,
and they stared straight ahead, as
though they dared not meet each
others eyes. At the end of a few
moments, they came out upon the
quays. Here the darkness Of the
narrow street gave place to the
gray Of the approaching dawn,
and n of them took his watch
from his pocket and looked at it.
"Nine minutes!" he said in gut
tura1 English, and in a voice
strangely thick, as with some deep
and barely ~repressed emotion.
The other nodded, and with,
common accord they turned to the
right toward the great basin,
where three or four men-of-war
lay at anchor. The light increased
from minute to minute, the horri-
zon turned from gray to pearly
white, and over the hills to the
east a golden halo marked the
spot where the sun would rise.
They stopped to look at it, and
then, stepping back into the recess
of a doorway, directed their gaze
toward a great battleship, an
chored perhaps 800 yards away.
AS the minutes passed, they
seemed scarcely to breathe, and
their lips we're twitching with
nervous excitement.
Suddenly over the trees shot a
long ray of yellow light, gliding
the house tops, gliding the mast
heads of the vessels in the harhor;
and then, as though in answer to
a signal, came a muffled roar from
the anchored ~battleship. There
was an instanst' S silence, then the
shru voices Of sentries sounding
the sassm, the whirring of a gong
4 Il =
A second roar drowned all less
er sounds, and tbeS the high, thin
notes Of a bugln echoed across
the water. The deck of the ship
was alive with men; from her
open ports wisps Of angry smoke
swirled upward into the morning
air
Above the babble Of excited
voices, rose a shout of command,
the bugle shrilled "Sauve qui
peut! Sauve qui peut! Sauve qui
peut!" and the crew began leap
ing over the side; and then,
straight in front of where stood
the breathless watchers, a mighty
column of black smoke leaped
high into the air, mushroomed and
drifted slowly away before the
breeze. At the same instant came
a frightful, rending crash, which
seemed to shake the earth, and a
foam capped wave swept across
the harbor and dashed angrily
against the quay. For one tense
instant, all nature held her breath,
and then came the splash and clat-
ter of debris falling into the water
and on the rocks, the rattle Of
broken glass from the houses
along the quay; and finally, quiy-
ering through the air, rose the
shrill, inhuman cry of men in NOR
tai anguish.
The smoke, drifting lazily away,
disclosed a mass of twisted wreck
age, where, a moment before, La
Liberte, the pride of the French
navy, had swung at anchor.
Zach Colt! Els list doch wahr!''
breathed one of the men, and
stared rigid, fascinated; but the
other laid a trembling hand upon
his arm.
eve must hasten!" he whis-
pered. We must not stay herel''
"True!' agreed the other, and
with q last glance at the wreck,
strobe away along the quay.
Already the city was awake;
already frightened faces were
peering from shattered windows,
half clothed men were bursting in
to the streets, and voices shrill
with fear were demanding to
know what had occurred. But our
travellers needed them not. At
the first corner they separated,
and one Of them made bis way
rapidlyu up into the town, while the
other fastened along q dark and
narrow lane parallel with the
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