Cleveland County herald., 1920-12-09

had a very plausible surmise as to th' story of the other, the one with the knife thrust through it at the three gabled cabin. But this one-this last one?
 The man wanted to hide that bit of cloth right there. But why? The Pearl hunter raked his brain for the answer. Why2 He must have been ignorant that the other was hidden behind the chink, or why should he have taken such pains to hide this one2 He was probably ignorant of the fact that he had dropped the other one in the cab in that night; possibly did not know where he had lost it. It was even con ceivable that the loss of it may have Occasoned him no small anxiety If he did not know that he had dropped the other mask in the cabin, he prob ably was unaware that the Pearlhunt- CT knew him. The young man sat still long time over that thought.
 That he could with such apparent readiness supply himself with another mask after the first was lost suggested nearby rendezvous, undoubtedly somewhere in the Flatwoods-a ren- dezvous. or a confederate. But that was unlike himt-to have a confed- crate. He was kDown to work alone And his horse-he would not likely al low himself to get far from it. He wouldn't dare ride it into the village Rocket. the famous thoroughbred of the Red Mask. was well known. And horse can not be easily disguised.
 But always, no matter where his thought strayed like a man lost in the woods and travelling in circle. he invariably came back to the startnG point-the question: Why did he hide the mask in the cabin? One thing was certain. He didn't hide it without a purpose.
 He seemed to feel some intangible indefinable force for evil forming about him-lille spider webs across the face; delicately effective; hideously ef ficient A kind of dread crept out of the silence and the solitude and gripped his spirit. Danger; death the Red Mask juggled with them as a king juggles empires. Why didn't he draw there in the saloon; why didn't he draw at the fence? There was death in his eyes.
 The scene in the cabin that first evening crossed his mind, when by chance he had learned the secret Of the mans identity; secret shared by no enc else in the Flatwoods; a secret he dared not reveal for want of proof. He had often thought of it. Tonight freshened it in his mind com pellingly; the strange actions of his mother; her fiaring scorn; how she mad sprung from her chair and bea, the intruder off with the imperious dig. nifty of her eyes. Her story, the one all too brief word that had reached him out of the sealed past, came to him again. Long and long he sat with his head bowed over the table. Dawn at the east window surprised him. He stepped to the cabin door The square of moonlight upon the floor was pale and sickly. Great shafts Of bronze thrust up out of the east ana dimmed the stars. A mist lay along the river like cloud that had fallen from the sky and loved the warm earth so well that it refused to return.
 He stood in the door and watched the world wake up--his world; the only world he knew. A half sleepy twitter here and there among the trees; crOak down by the waters edge; squawk over in the bayou; and on the higher ground a trill now and then of distilled witchery-he knew ther all. every voice. A crow wal lowed along in the purple light and rasped the silence with his raucouS call. He was answered by another from somewhere across in the bot toms The woods lifted it's thousand voices multitude shouting as at the comisg of hero. And the hero was at hand. The gates of dawn opened and he drove in. Bronze turned to gold; the hills away in the south barred their heads; soft breeze crooned along over the trees and blew out the morning star.
 In the early light the Pearlhunter searched the ground about the door step for any tracks that might have been left by the night prowler. In the hard and moldy open ground he found the marks of boot. The hee' had only touched the ground once or twice. He was struck by its small size II was said by some that t'2 Red Mask had been a gentleman and an artist before he took to the road The Pearlhunter could well believe it, for certainly no other boot Tn the Flat woods could leave print so small.
 The heel had been somewhat worn, so that the nails protruded slightly. They had left T very distinct row of prints around the edge of the mark. The track was made by the right boot. He hunted one of the left No nails showed. From the circumstances he concluded that the outer heel-cap of the right boot had come off. allowing the nails to pr0trude.