Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1917-02-23


HE will not" avowed the Laughing
Mask, with decision. He'll have
more than help before this night is
over, and better Job and clear con-
science before another one comesi
But tell me first where you left this
girl you brought out from the city,
Inside the door o. the sluiceroom
there
Good Cod" gasped the man IN the
mask. Then he caught the spindle
legged Peggy O'Mara by the hand and
started for the shadowy pile of the fac
tory on the run. Quick" he said as
he ran, show me the door,"
The half-breathless girl pointed 1t
out to him. But as ne ran up to it he
found it locked. He stopped and fran
tically caught up piece of timber al
most as long and heavy as his own
body. Peggy O'Mara, seeing that it's
weight seemed more than he could
manage, promptly ran to his assist
ance.
Now, come together" he said. ''for
we've got to knock that door in"
Twice. three times, they charged the
door before it gave way. But the mo-
ment it's panels crashed in the Laugh
ing Mask leaped through the opening.
AS he did so he caught sight of the
two struggling figures on the brink
of the blackened runway. AS he saw
the figure of the woman flung neadlong
| into the open sluiceway he leaped with
shout towards the one-armed man
who stood on it's brink. But that one
armed man, with lightninglike move
ment, whipped a revolver from his
pocket, swung round on the intruder,
and fred.
The Laughing Mask wheeled half
way about, staggered a step or two.
and then fell forward on his face.
The wide-eyed Peggy O'Mara. fol-
lowing at his heels, saw both that fall
and the fact that the Iron Claw had al
ready leaped towards the control
board Of the water mangle. Peggy
screamed aloud, shrilly and belligerent-
ly, as she leaped for the man already
before the control board. She caught
at him, clawing at his appraised arm,
fought him with every jot of her thin
blooded girlish body.
But she was no match for that de-
termined and malignant opponent The
most she could do was to distract and
harry him for precious moment or
two. Then, realizing she was factor
to be eliminated without scruple. he
caught her bodily up from the floor,
raised her above his head. and with a
sickening thud, sent her body against
the solid masonry Of the factory wall.
She lay there stunned, without NOV
ing, moaning brokenly with pain, as
Legar darted back to the control lever
of the mangle drums and shifted that
lever to the spot marked start" The
next moment he had thrown over the
switch of the sluicegate control.
, He ventured one triumphant glance
} in the direction of the whirring
/ mangle knives and the slowly ascend
/ ing gate. Then, with grimace of sat
/ isfaction, he leaped over the inert
, body Of the Laughing Mask, ran to the
/ door, and disappeared in the darkness.
. Had that flight been less hurried
l Legar might have observed that the
t eyes of the Laughing Mask were open,
3 and the inert body, weak as it was
: from the loss of blood from a flesh
= wound in the hip, was already pain
z fully gathering itself together for some
predetermined movement That move
/. ment, wavering and unsteady as it
|. was, took the crawling man directly to
g the control board of the water mangle.
r There, by supreme effort. he raised
4 himsei to his feet, CROPPED about with
v an unsteady hand, and swung back
n the lever.
k The next moment tae roar of the
f machinery stopped, the tE-esbiRs
/. knives stood poised. But it had been
s only in the nick Of time. For Mar
a gerry Golden, who had chung to the
d sluicegate until its withdrawing bars
D. had compelled her to relaA he last
% desperate clutch on its bars and drop
D back into the black It'd" carrying her
% closer and closer to those failing
70 blades of death, now caught and chung
to a graphite-covered driving chain lit
If tie more than a yard from the fore
!" most nangle drum which lowered
above her like an open Jaw. And as
a she chung there, renewing wave OF
IS hope swept through her body, for from
s. the sluiceway wall above her she coulS
s. hear a reIssuring If somewhat e.
steady voice calling down to her. An<
le that voice, she knew, was the Voic<
le OF the Laughing Mask!
(TO BE CONTINUED