Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-05-02
By
WilliamMacHarg
Edwin Balner


me, If we catch them?" she cried
Harriet" he repeated her name
again.
"Philipw
She felt him shrink and change as
she called the name. 1t had been clear
to her, of course, that, since she had
known him, the name he had been
using was not his own. Often she had
wondered what his name was; now
she had to know. "What should l call
your? she demanded of him.
MY name" he said, "is Hugh"
"Hugh!" she called it.
eyes"
Hugh" She waited for the rest !;
but he told no more "Hugh!" she
whispered to herself again his name
now. "Hugh!''
Her eyes, which had watched the
road for the guiding of the car, had
followed his gesture from time to time
pointing out the tracks made by the
machine they were pursuing. These
tracks still ran on ahead; as she
gazed down the road, a red glow be-
yond the bare trees was lighting the
sky. A glance at Hugh told that he
also had seen it.
"a f1re?" she referred to him.
Looks like it."
They said no more as thev rushed
on; but the red glow was spreading,
and yellow flames soon were in sight
shooting higher and higher: these
were clouded off for an instant only
to appear flaring higher again, and
the breeze brought the smell of sea-
soned wood burning
its right across the road!" Hugh
announced as they neared it.
"It's the bridge over the next ra-
vine," Harriet said. Her foot already
was bearing upon the brake, and the
power was shut off the car coasted
on slowly. For both could see now
that the wooden span was blazing
from end to end; 1t was old wood
swift to burn and going like finder.
There was no possible chance for the
car to cross it. The girl brought the
machine to a stop fifty feet from the
edge of the ravine; the fire was so
hot that the gasoline tank would not
be safe nearer. She gazed down at
the tire-marks on the road.
"They crossed with their machine"
she said to Hugh.
"And fired the bridge behind. They
must have poured gasoline over it
and lighted 1t at both ends"
She sat with one hand still strain
Ing at the driving wheel, the other
playing with the gear lever.
There's no other way across that
ravine, l suppose" Hugh questioned
her.
"The other roads back more than
mile, and two miles about" She
threw in the reverse and started to
turn. Hugh shook his head. "That's
no use"
mo" she agreed, and stopped the
car again. Hugh stepped down on
the ground.
The double glare from the head
lights Of a motor shone through the
tree-trunks as the car topped and
came swiftly down a rise three quar-
last turn back on the road; another
pair of binding lights followed There
was no doubt that this must be the
pursuit from Santoine's house. Eaton
stood beside Harriet, who had stayed
in the driving-seat Of the car.
"I'm going just beside the road
here" he said to her, quietly. "Tm
armed, of course. If those are your
people, you'd better go back with
them. I'm sure they are; but I'll wait
and see"
She caught his hand. "No; nor she
cried. "You must get as far away
as you can before they come! I'm
going back to meet and hold them"
She threw the car into the reverse,
backed and turned it and brought it
again onto the road. He came beside
her again, putting out his hand; she
seized 1t. Her hands for an instant
chung to 1t, his to hers.
You must go-quickl' she urged !;
''but how am to know what becomes
of you-where you are? Shall 1 hear
from you-shall / ever see you"
mo news will be good news" he
said, until"
Until what?"
"Until-" And again that unknown
something which thousand times
it seemed to her-had checked his
word and action toward her made him
pause; but nothing could completely
bar them from one another now. 'Un-
til they catch and destroy me, Or
until come to you as-as you have
never known me yeti"
An instant more she chung to him.
The double headlights flared into
sight again upon the road, much
nearer now and coming fast. She re
leased him; he plunged into the
bushes beside the road, and the damp,
bare twigs dashed against one another
at his passage; then she shot her car
forward But she had made only a
few hundred yards when the first of
the two cars met her. 1t turned to