The Connecticut labor news., 1921-02-25

We must make sure they're there, and there alone"
 Gardiner waited until he saw Rifles fumbling carefully with the blanket that hung in the doorway. Then he darted quickly to the window.
 
 While Allan sat in the little cabin he gradually became oppressed with a sense of great loneliness. From time to time he looked at the face of his | sleeping father, and suddenly the knowledge struck him like a knife that it was the face of an old man. Allan could see plainly the deepening fur rows in his strong, still handsome face. As he looked a vast tenderness min- gled with his loneliness; he would have stopped and careSsed him had he | not feared to disturb his slumbers. He looked upon the sleeping man now, with the wealth of lifetime's labor at his side, and the bond of trust 1 and confidence between them seemed l so tight 1t brought the moisture to his eyes. He thought of the past years of their labor on the farm together hard labor, but always relieved by their comradeship and mutual ambi- | tiOns
 His memory carried him still fur | ther back-back to the days when he was a little child, and in the mirror | of the darkness he could see his own small figure trudging in the track of | the blow and hanging to the rein ends | that dropped from the knot on his ia | ther'S ample back. Back to the old | sod shanty, with its sweet smell of | comfort when the snow beat against the little window and the wind roared i'll the rattling stove pipe, and his mother sat by the fire and piled her flying needles. Old lullabies stole into his brain; a deep peace compassed 1 him, and consciousness faded thinner and thinner into the sea of the inf | mite.
 Allan sat up in a sudden, cold chill | of terror. Had he been asleep? What cold breath of dread had crossed bis | path? He was no coward; the sense | of fear was almost unknown to him, but now it enveloped him, stifled him, | set his teeth chattering and his limbs | quaking. He had heard nothing, seen nothing. The gun was in his hands as 1t had lain when last he remembered it; his father slept by his side, and near the wall lay the precious satchel. And yet he shook in absolute, unreal soning, unfounded terror. His eyes wandered from the lantern to the door to the blanket hanging Imply in the | door; and there they stared and stayed as though held in the spell of a ser | pent. SubcOnsciOusly, certainly with out any direction of will of his own, | he raised the shot gun to his shoulder and kept 1t trained on the sagging blanket. The blanket seemed to | move! It swayed at first as though a | light breeze had touched it and yet not as though breeze had touched it. | The impulse seemed too far up-about | the height of mans shoulder. The blood had gone from Allan's face; he was as one in a trance, Obeying some iron law outside the realm of the will and the reason. He cooked his gun and frightened his finger on the trig- ger, and watched. And then, so plain that it must have been real, he saw stealthy fingers feeling their way about the blanket.
 Then Allan fired.
 In an instant he was wide awake, and wondering terribly what had hap pened. The explosion blew out the lantern, and the building was in utter darkness His father was clambering to his feet with Allan, what is it? What is it, Allan?" The blanket had been torn from it's hangings as by a heavy weight, and something was writhing in it in the doorway. Allan sprang up and would have rushed upon it, but in the darkness he collided with another man. His fingers found his adversary's arm and ran up it to his throat but before they could fasten in a fatal grip there was another flash of light, and hot pang stabbed him in the breast. There was a strange gur- glng in his lungs, choking in his | throat, a spinning dizziness in his head as he staggered over the mass in the doorway and fell into the night
 Gardiner had reached the window just in time to see Allan's gun trained on the doorway. For an instant he stood dumbfounded; there was some thing uncanny in the sight of the young l man sitting there in silent, absolute readiness for the attack. He drew back to warn RileS, but he was toe late. At that moment the gun spoke there was the sound of a heavy body falling, and sti1ed noises bore ample evidence of the accuracy of Allan's aim. But even in that moment of un certainty Gardiner had not lost thought of their purpose, and his quick eye took in the sleeping form of John Harris and the location of the leather bag beside the wall. Without an in Stuint'S hesitation he vHulted through the window and, revolver in hand, be- gan to steal his way softly toward the treasure.
 He had not taken three steps Wher Allan plunged full force into him. He ~tn@4crcd with the shock but recOy cred himself only to find the young farmrr'~ strong fingers cIutchng fnl his threat Il had hepu no part oI tfarG:usr'S plan that thcrc should ht bIood~hcd in the c;,rryiur out of thC 1 rubhery but he w"S q man of quick decision. who accepted conditions ;l> he fuund them. ;. ," X ~,iGM pressure on the trigger. and Allan fell, cough