Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-07-29

- -
Author OF 1.-THE Adventures of II
Jimmy Dale" 1.-THE Miracle
Mani Greater Love Il
Hath No Man. Il
Etc, Etc.
The Hawk drew his mask from his
pocket, slipped 1t over his face,
swung noiselessly over the window
SILL and began to creep across the
room toward the opened door and the
glow of light. And, as the clicking
OF the sounder grew more distinct
and there mingled with 1t now a
murrnur OF voices, the Hawks lips
compressed into q thin, straight line.
II h, were caught II single mad
vertt,nt sound betrayed his presence,
1t needed no effort Of the magma
ton to picture what would follow.
Death, II it were sudden, would be u
very merciful ending--but 1t would
not be death, If the Wire Devils
could prevent 1t, until they had ex-
hausted every means, torture ingen-
ious and devilish, for instance. to ex-
tort from him the whereabouts of the
plumber taken from them and which
they knew to be in his possession.
He knew much now, no knew their
lair at last, and for a moment, as
these thoughts flashed across his
mind, he was prompted to retreat
again while he had the chance. An
inner voice called him a fool to per-
sist; another bade him go ons But
the latter voice was right. He knew
much-but he did not know enough.
II his life was in peril In the one
sense, 1t was equally in peril in the
other. He did not know enough.
Who, for instance, was the master
brain behind the organization
Where and how, for instance, was
the next trap they would set for him
to be laid?
Brief snatches OF conversation now
begun to reach the Hawk, as he drew
nearer to the door:
~. /. Twenty five thousand dollars
| Is. Traders National Bank -. . SUI
perintendent's car :. dummy pack
age counterfeit seals j. that's
all right, but Macvightie says the
Secret Service is sendin ga man by
the name Of Birks out here. 49,"
And then voice at which the
Hawk involuntarily held his breath,
anil to which, at the door now, he
listened In q sort of stunned incred-
Utility, az tho he were indeed the sport
OF his own ears. It was very quiet
jSSsn AvSxS at -
voice whose tones were cultured
toilss--and whose language was the
language Of q pirate of the Spanish
Min.
Time enough to attend to this
Birks personage-what want is the
Hawk" came In limpid tones. And
II I were not tied down here In this
damned and double damned wheel
chair, would have, twisted his
throat for him long ago. furnish
brains-and I am cursed with a mis-
cradle. crawling mob OF gnats upon
whom they are wasted! That's IT.
gnats! Gnats-insects-m oths-any-
thing that, II shown the light, knows
nothing but to SINCE It's own wings!"
Tie voice WAS not raised; it was like
q mothers. like woman's voice,
talking plaintively to spoiled child
-but there was something absolute
~ deadly in its infection.
"The Ladybird!" The Hawks lips
framed the words without sound.
a1d In = sort OF numbed hesitant
way. I'll thought he was dead"
The telegraph sounder kept on
spluttering at intervals, but it war
only stray stuff. routine railroad
business. going over the wires. The
Hawk, fiat on the floor and at one
side Of the jamb now. stared thru
the doorway. It was the doorway
leading to the cellar. The stairs,
ilaaf way down. turned abruptly at
right angles. The Hawk was re-
'varded with a view of the stone
foundation wall of the house, moth
ing more. But for the moment the
Hawk was lost to his immediate sur
roundings. The Hawks criminal. ac-
cuaintanceship was wide. varied and
intimate, and his mind was still not
entirely recovered from the startled
s,mazement which the recognition OF
that voice had brought him. He was
cutie fully conversant with the
I4adybird's record - only he had
thought the Ladybird dead!
The Ladybird was not an ordinary
criminals: instead of having spent
twenty years in Sing Sing, as was
very justly his due the police had
spent those twenty years In trying
10 put him there--and the Ladybird
was still to know the restrictions Of
I. cage! Clever, fearless, cunning.
Napoleonic in the scope and breadth
Of his operations, the biggest scoops
on the blotters OF the New York po-
lice, and, higher up, on the federal
records, were laid to the Ladybirdss
door; but always, somewhere, the
thread Of evidence broke-sometimes
not till the door itself was reached
but always it broke; the thread had
never crossed the threshold. The
man himself was highly educated, q
man now well on toward fifty. In
the underworld there were a thou
sand different stories of his early life
that he had been a professor of
science in great university; that
he came Of a rich family high up In
the social scale; that he had been, in
fact everything that the spice Of
Imagination could supply to enhance
the glamor that surrounded him in
the. sordid empire OF Crimeland,
where so many were his followers
and worshippers. But here, too, the
thread was broken. None knew who
he had been; none knew where he