Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1917-01-12

body. Peggy O'Mara, seeing that its
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!"s
Twice, three times. they charged the
door before it gave way. But the mo-
ment its 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 headlong
into the open sluiceway he leaped with
shout towards the one-armed man
who stood on its brink. But that one
armed man, with a 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 a 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 whirrine
mangle knives and the slowly ascend
ing gate. Then, with a 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 fight been less hurried
Legar might have observed that the
eyes of the Laughing Mask were open
and the inert body. weak as 1t wal
from the loss of blood from a flesf
wound in the hip was already pain
fully gathering itself together for some
predetermined movement. That move
ment. wavering and unsteady as 4
was, took the crawling man directly Il
the control board of the water mangle
There. by a supreme effort. he RAISED
himself to his feet. CROPPED about will
an unsteady hand. and swung bacl
the lever.
The next moment the roar Of thu
machinery stopped, the threshini
knives stood poised. But It had beel
only in the nick Of time. For Mar
gerry Golden. who had chung to tn
sluicegate until its Withdrawing bar
had compelled her to relax her las
desperate clutch on its bars and drol
back into the black tide carrying he
closer and closer TO those flailinl
blades of death, now caught and clunI
to a graphite-covered driving chain III
tie more than a yard from the fore
most mangle. drum which towere'
above her like an open jaw. And q
she chung there. a renewing wave o
hope swept through her body. for fron
the sluiceway wall above her she coul
, hear a reassuriLg II somewhat M
steady voice calling down to her. An
that voice. she knew. was the voic
of the Laughing Mask!
(TO BE CONTINUED.)