The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-07

was strongly tempted to believe that the coming of Nash was only vivid dream.
 Morning, Anthony"
 "Helle, Sally.'t
 He was back at once turning the bacon, which was done on the first side. Seelng that his back was turned, she dressed quick fy.
 How'd you sleep?"
 "Well'
 "You woke up in the middle of the nighf!"
 "Yes"
 "What wakened you?"
 Nash and kilrain."
 He sighed: Il wish I'd been here
 She answered: 'sTll wash up: we'll eat; and then off on the trail. Eve an idea that the two will be back, and they'll have more men behind them."
 As he finished his coffee he said, staring into corner: "I don't know why l came back to you, Sally"
 "You didn't mean to come back when you started!"
 "Of course not"
 She flushed, and her heart beat loudly to hear his weakness. He was keeping nothing from her; he was thinking aloud; she felt that the bars between them were down again;
 "In the first place 1 went because had to be seen and krown by name in some place far away from you. That was for your sake. In the second place, l had to be alone for the work that lay ahead
 Drew" to the house Of Jerry Wood, told him my name, stayed there. until Conklin and several others arrived hunting for me. and then gave them the slip
 "The next thing is Drew??''
 "Yes''
 There's no changing, you She did not wait for his answer II know that, l won't ask questions. If it has to be done we'll do it quickly; and afterward can find way out for us both"
 They saddled and took the trail which pointed up over the mountains-the same trail which they had ridden in an opposite direction the night before.
 He rode with his head turned, taking his last look at the old house of Drew, with it's blackened, crumbling sides, when the girl cried softly; Whats that? Look!'
 He caught the unnistakable glint of the morning light on steel. and he turned the gray sharply. At the same time rattfing blast of revolver shots cracked above them; the gray reared and pitched back.
 By inches he escaped the fall of the horse, slipping from the saddle in the nick of time. A bullet whipped his hat from his head. Then the hand of the girl clutched his shoulder.
 "Stirrup and saddle, Anthony"
 He seized the pemnlei of her saddle, hooked his foot into the stirrup which she abandoned to him, and she spurred Dack toward the cid house. /.
 A shout followed them, roar that ended in harsh rattle of curses; they heard the spat of bullets several times on the trees past which they whirled. But it was only second before they were once more in the shelter of the house.
 As for escape, there was simply no chance-it was impossible. On three sides the lake effectively blocked their way. On the fourth and narrowest side there was the shoulder of rocks, not only blocking them, but affording a perfect shelter for Nash and his men, for they did not doubt that it was he.
 "They think they've got us," said a fiercely exultant voice beside him, "but we ain't started to make all the trouble we're goin' to make.'
 !, For answer bullet ripped through the right-hand wall and buried itself in . beam on the opposite side of the room.
 Chapter xXlII-A Flag of Truce c FILTERED behind that rocky shoulder "a which commanded the approach to the
 old house, seven men kept up steady, dropping fire on it. McNanara sat propped against rock, a clumsy, dirty bandage around his thigh; Isaacs lay prone, a stained rag twisted tightly around his shoulder; LOvel sat with his legs crossed, staring stu pidly down to the steady drip of blood from his left forearm, but Ufert, Kilrain, Conk- lin and Nash maintained the fight.