Williams news., 1917-03-22

.</ Though He Saw No Smoke, He Did
 Not Look in Vain.
 smoke of the shot. But though he saw ao smoke, he did not look in vain. Above a powder, high up in a cleft, ae perceived devilish painted face, surmounted by war bonnet. He glanced sideways up the ridge slope 1t Vandervyn. The young man had halted his pony on the ridge crest and vas staring back down at Hardy.
 Hardy waved to him imperatively.
 "Go on!" he shouted. Guard Miss Dupont. May be/more of them. Send he police around to f1ank-''
 Vandervyn's pinto leaped out of sight. A shot graZed the mares with ITS. In flash he flung up his rifle md fired at the down-peering devilish :ace. It vanished as he pressed the trigger.
 Swift as a puma, he sprang around the mares head and dashed up the slope, keeping a large powder in line, between himself and his enemy. A DUi- cl Cullt tON oNRE sUc DC fer and passed under his upr0
 arm. A few seconds more and, saft
 behind the huge stone, he slowly edged
 his hat above the top. The ancient
 ruse drew shot. Instantly he scram
 bled obliQuely upward towards another powder. It was desperate move. 4 bullet grazed his thigh as he flung himself behind the bushes beside the second powder. Hardy waited.
 The twilight was fast fading. StiE Hardy waited, his gaze scanning the cleft and the rocks on either side. It was time for the police to come creep ling around on the flank of the assas. sin. A little more and the dusk would render close shooting difficult. Yei the precious moments slipped by, and. no sign of the police.
 Over on the far side of the clefi there was faint glint of metal in the deepening shadow. Without a mo- ment's hesitation Hardy aimed and fired. The mOuntainside rang with shrill yell. The bullet had found it's mark. Hardy leaped to his feet and dashed up the mountain-side, keeping behind shelter where it was available, but in places boldly rushing up over open spaces.
 There, on the spot where he had seen the glint, he found trace of blood. The wounded man had crept away up the cleft. For several yards Hardy followed the trail by the splash es of crimson on the leaves and rocks. Then the traces ceased. But over in one of the many clefts on the far side of the gap he thought he saw some thing move among the powders. He sprinted down the slope and across the gap, his face flushed with exertion, but his eyes still cold and hard. : Among the heaps of broken rocks in the bottom of the gap Hardy lost sight of the cleft for which he was heading. When he started to return along what he supposed to be the passage by which he had entered, he soon found himself in a cul-de-sac. Dusk was now deepening into night. He came out and into a steep ascent between was not the way by which he had en- tered, put ne kept to It, edSer tO eS- cape out of the maze.
 Night had fallen when at last he reached the top of the cleft and clam bered up on a ridge crest. But the sky was clear, and the starlight enabled him to see the outlines of the noun; tains that cut the skyline. A star lower down than any of the others caught his eye. He peered at it fixedly. The little twinkling point of light was not 6 star-it was fire, two or three miles away across the intervening val ley. Hardy took his bearings by the stars and started down the mountain side directly toward the fire.
 Once clear of the rocks of the shat tered mountain top, he found the going easy. Almost from the first he had lost sight of the fire and at no time did he see any trace of the trail to the mine. Off to the left he heard the diminutive roar of a noun tain Till dashing down ravine to join the. main stream in the valley.
 Continued Next Week.