The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1917-04-05

htulo Will hC ohyoB III
swered Sebastian.
For the first time Blanca sensed
some purpose In Louie's folly. She
was a woman of determination. She
glanced at the little crook and made
a swift decision. She turned to one
of her attendants.
Louie, glancing at her, saw a slight
movement of her lips and fingers
Criminal as he was, and versed In the
ways of crime, he knew what that sign
meant. 1t was the death sign. BIZ
anca was taking no chances on the
threshold of her marriage.
Louie, staring at the man, saw him
nod in answer to Bianca's signal. BIZ
anca turned to Louie once more.
"Did you mean what you said?' she
demanded, "about sending Senior Ma
varre to Jail if he marries me?"
"Yes," snapped Louie.
The two men came forward and took
Louie by the arms. He went with
them quietly into the next room. One
of them released his prisoner to open
the secret panel. Instantly Louie
struck the other in the face, telling
him to the ground. Free for the mo-
ment, Louie drew a revolver and
fired at the second man point blank.
The party in the inner room rushed
in to see one of the two men strug-
Cling to his feet and the second with
ing in his own blood. Louie had es-
capped through the open panel.
He found himself in Bianca's bOu-
dolr. He dashed for the door. But
Sebastian was quicker. Before he
could turn the handle he was upon him.
Louie was not brave man, but had
seen the sign, and fear rendered him
desperate. He dashed his fists into
Sebastain's face, knocking him to the
floor. He bounded toward the win
dow and flung it open. AS Sebastian
regained his feet the party, entering,
saw Louie spring to the window sill.
Blanca, standing at the doorway,
placed her fingers upon a little knob,
apparently an electric bell. Instantly
huge shutter of steel snapped down
into place before the window, blocking
Louie's escape. Another inch or two,
and Louie would have been decapi-
tated.
"Get him now!" commanded Blanca
in crisp tones of command.
Louie leaped for the nearest man
and, with a strength which he had not
known he possessed, swung him be-
fore him as Il shield against the half
circle of revolvers covering him. He
edged toward the door again, the man
struggling helplessly in Louie's grip.
They fell to the floor together, claw
ing at each other like wild beasts.
None of the others dared to shoot, so
violent were their movements.
Blanca calmly watched the perform
ance. The men were working their
way toward the center of the floor,
where was the trap door which had
shot Ravengar into the cellar below.
Blanca pressed another button, and
the door disclosed a yawning cavity in
the middle of the floor.
The watchers held their breath as
| the two men, still engaged In their
furious struggle, neared the cavity,
Louie was nearer, and it seemed in
credible that he could escape. But
he, maddened by the double fear
that held him, seemed to have a hun
dred eyes and senses. With an adroit
leap he bounded from the very edge
of the cavity and pushed his companion
down.
He rose with one eye blackened
bleeding and disheveled. He was COW
cred by a circle Of revolvers. Escape
now seemed impossible. All waited
for Bianca's signal to fire.
And the little crook, fairly cornered
stood defiant in the middle of the room
beside the open door, which would al
any instant become the roof of his bur-
ial vault. There was only one chance
in a million of Louie's escape.
But the one chance arrived. For, as
Louie stood there, his eyes shifting
from face to face, he became aware
of an extraordinary phenomenon which
nobody else perceived. A hand, and
nothing but a hand, marble-white, man
size, was approaching the switch which
| controlled the electric lights in the
room. And Louie, watching it out OF
the corner of his eye, was coolly cal
culating whether it would snap the but
ton before Blanca dropped her hand.
He saw Blanca straighten herself
The hand wavered. An then, before II
fell, the lights went out with a click
that sounded like a pistol shot.
The pistol shots themselves followed
the sudden plunging of the room into
darkness. Louie heard them cracl
around him, heard the hiss of the bull
lets, and then he made with almost
noiseless, catlike steps for the secret
panel.
A moment later Blanca had found
the switch, and the lights went OF
again. Louie was not in the room.
"To the panelI" she shouted furi
ously.
Louie, gaining the adjacent house
had slipped behind the curtains tina
hung beside the doorway. Crouchinl
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