The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-10-02

my knees, but the roof struck my head.
I stretched my arms out, and touched
the wall on either side of me.
/ must have been stunned by the
conclusion of the landslide. By a
miracle had not been struck
Help mel Help mel"
tried to find the voice. / crawled
three feet toward it, and the wall
stopped me. But the voice was there.
1t came from under the wall. I felt
about me in the darkness, and my
hand touched something damp.
whipped it back in horror. It was the
face of a man.
There was only the face. Where the
body and limbs ought to have been was
only rock The face was on my side
Of wall of rock, pinning down the
body that lay outstretched beyond.
recognized the voice now. 1t was
that of Philippe Lacroix
'Ah. mon Dieui Help me. Help
met"
He continued to repeat the words in
every conceivable tone, and his suffer
ing was pitiable. felt one hand come
through the tiny opening in the wall
and grasp at me.
''Who is.it?'' he mumbled as that
you. Hewlett? For Gods sake, kill
met"
I crouched beside him. but / did not
know what to say or do. 1 could only
wait there, that he might not die alone
'Give me knifeI' he mumbled
again; clutching at me. ca knife,
Hewlett! Don't leave me to die ike
this! Bring Pere Antoine and my
mother 1 want to tell her-to tell
her"
He muttered in his delirium until
his voice died away I thought that he
would never speak again. But present
~ he seemed TO revive again to the
consciousness of his surroundings.
"Are you with me, Hewlett?" he
whispered.
I placed my hand in his, and he
clutched at it with feverish force.
you will have the gold, Hewlett"
he muttered, apparently ignorant that
I, too, was a prisoner and in hardly
better plight. "I tried to kill you, Hew-
lett. Are you going to leave me TO die
alone in the dark now?"
NO" 1 answered. at doesn't mat
ter, Lacroix'' And. really, it did not
matter.
ST wanted to Kill YOU" his voice
rambled on. 'Lacroix is dead.
watched him die. I thought n-yOu
died. too, no one but 1 would know the
secret of the gold. 1 tried to murder
you. I blew up the tunnel!"
He paused, and I heard him gasp
RoI-o n
coat sleeve again and hoped them
selves round mine like claws of steel.
81 had knife-Once," he resumed,
relapsing into his delirium "but left
it behind me and the police got 1t.
Isn't it odd, Leroux," he rambled on,
"that one always leaves something be-
hind when one has killed man? But
the newspapers made no mention about
the knife. You didn't know he was
dead, did you, LerOUx, for all your
cleverness, until that fool Hewlett left
that paper upon the table? You knew
enough to send me to jail, but you
didn't know that it was I who killed
him. Help mel" He screamed hor-
ribIy. HE is here, looking at mer'
There is nobody here, Philippe"
I said, trying to sOothe his agony Of
soul. What a poor and stained soul
it was, travelling into the next world
alone ''There is nobody but me- Phil
ippe!"
''You lie :" he raved. Louis is herei
He has come for mel He deserved to
die. He tricked me after we had found
the gold. He tricked me twice. He
told Leroux, thinking that he would |
win his gratitude and get free from
the mans power And the second time |
he told Carson. Then there were three |
Of us in the secret"
''What did you do?' / asked, though |
1t was like conducting a poSt-mortem |
upon a murderer's corpse.
CTO BE CONTINUED.)