Evening star., 1921-10-09

ther report. The cylinder was empty:
| Where's your cartrtdges? he cried
| wildly. You got more; gimme that
belt!"
She felt his touch upon her. His
crazy fingers tried to unbutton the
he could secure neither while she
fought him. He pinioned her at
length with his knee. His fingers
secured q fistful Of the cylinders FROM
her girdle. and he opened the cham
Der OF the revolver.
| She tried to struggle loose, but the
lunatic held her mercilessly. He con-
tinued the mechanical loading OF the
revolver.
The semi-darkness of the hut, the
outline Of the moon afar through the
| uncurtained window-these swan be-
fore her. Suddenly her eyes
riveted on that curtainless window
and she uttered terrifying cry.
Ruggam turned.
Outlined in the window aperture
against the low-hung moon. Martin
Wiley. the murdered deputy, was
staring into the cabin!
| From the fugitive's throat came
| gurgle. Some of the cartridges he
held spilled to the flooring. Above
her his figure became rigid. There
was no mistaking the identity of the
apparition. They saw his dark POM
padour and the outline Of his skull.
l
slightly, as it had done in life.
The cry in the convicts throat
broke forth into words.
| Mart Wiley" he cried, Mart Wi
ley! Mart-Wiley!"
Clear. sharp. distinct was the shape
OF that never-to- e-forgotten pom
padour against the disk of the win
| ter moon. His features could not be
discerned. for the source of light was
behind him. but the silhouette was
| sufficient. It was Martin Wiley: he
was alive. His head and his wire
like hair were moving-rising, fall
ing.
Ruggam. his eyes riveted upon the
phantom, recoiled mechanically to the
western wall. He finished loading the
| revolver by the sense of touch. Then:
Squirt after squirt Of FIRE lanced the
window. While the air of the hut
reeked with the acrid smoke. the echo
of the volley sounded through the
silent forest-world miles away:
But the silhouette in the window
| remained.
Once or twice it moved slightly as
though in surprise: that was all. The
pompadour rose in bellicose retalia-
! tion as always when Wiley was
| angered (or excited But to bullets
dered deputy's ghost. arisen in these
| slaughter, was impervious.
Rpggam saw; he a1iis shrisked; ed. He He
empty shells. He fumbled in more
cartridges. locked the barrel and fired
| again and again. until once more it
| was empty.
Still the apparition remained.
The man in his dementia hurled the
caromed off. hitting the stove. Then
Hap Ruggam collapsed upon the floor.
1.-THE woman sprang up. She found
L the rope thongs which had bound
her pack to her shoulders. With
steel-taut nerves. she tied his hands;
she tied his ankles; she connected the
two bindings tightly behind him. Her
task accomplished. she thought to
glance up at the window.
Wiley's ghost had disappeared.
Sheriff Crumpett and his party
broke into the Lyons clearing within
! to five successive shots few mo-
ments apart, the signal agreed upon.
The mystery to them, however, was
that those five shots had been fired by
some one not of their party.
The sheriff and his men found tho
| Mcbride woman, her clothing hale
torn from her body, her features pow
der-marked and blood-stained; game
to the last, woman-fashion weeping
only now that all was over They
found, too. the man they had combed
the country to fnd-struggling fruit
lessly in his bonds. her prisoner.
On the snow outside under the win
dow they came upon black porcu-
pine about the size of mans head
| which, scenting food within the cabin,
had climbed to the sill, and after the
habit Of these little animals, had re-
quired fifteen bullets pumped into it's
carcass before it would release its
hold.
Even in death it's Quills were raised
in uncanny duplication of Mart
Wiley's pompadour.
Copyright, 1917 ,