Louis Joseph Vance

“ Taking the seat next the chauffeur, Alan gave the word to drive on, and the car slipped away from the mining-camp, saluted by cheers from the miners.
Half an hour passed without a word being spoken by any member of the party. Each was deep in his or her own especial preoccupation, Alan turning over plans for an early wedding, Rose hugging the contentment regained through her lover's protestations, Judith lost in profoundest melancholy, Trine nursing his rage, working himself up into a silent fury whose consequences were to be more far-reaching than he dreamed. ”

“ In flooding sunlight the woodlands basked and steamed, and a great stillness brooded over all the wilderness. Long before any sound audible to human ears disturbed the noonday hush, a bobcat sunning on a log in a glade to which no trail led, pricked ears, rose, glanced over-shoulder with a snarl, and—of a sudden—was no more there.
Perhaps two minutes later a succession of remote crashings began to be heard, the sound made by some heavy body forcing a way through the underbrush. Soon a man broke into the clearing and reeled to a seat on the log, shuddering uncontrollably in all his limbs. ”

“ None but men fatigued beyond the power of coherent reasoning would have built hopes upon so preposterous a suggestion. But Rose and Barcus had known little rest since the previous dawn, while Alan, though he had slept a few hours on the desert, had endured even heavier drains upon his vitality than either of the others. None but men in such plight could have overlooked the obvious way of making themselves secure by cutting down that sword-wide bridge so short a way behind them. ”

“ The Message of the Rose LAPPED deep in the leather-bound luxury of an ample lounge-chair, walled apart from the world by the portentous silences and venerable solitude of the library of London's most exclusive club, Mr. Alan Law sprawled (largely on the nape of his neck) , and, squinting discontentedly down his nose, plotted in furtherance of his own selfish ends.
He was exhaustively bored.
He had every legitimate reason to be bored. He had squeezed the orange of amusement dry and had nothing else to do but be bored. And this was England, this was June, this was his twenty-seventh summer ”

“ Only the coldest comfort was to be extracted from the reflection that, even with the aid of that fog- signal, hunting a lost schooner in those mist-masked waters was a task like that traditional one of the needle and the haystack. Alan's life of late seemed simply one endless tissue of wild improbabilities. So long as his luck held, the least likely thing was always to be considered the one thing most certain to come to pass. ”

“ When Judith did move, it was not to comfort Alan. Her first act was to draw from her pocket a heavy, blunt-nosed revolver, break it at the breech, and blow its barrel clear of dust. Her hand went next to the holster on Alan's hip. From this she extracted his Colt's .45, treating it as she had the other. Then she crouched low above the man she loved, as if thinking to escape notice from the occupants of the motor-car. ”

“ A surmise slowly settled into conviction that the woman Judith Trine, sister to the Rose he loved so well, was as mad as that monomaniac, her father, who sat helpless in his cell of silence and shadows in New York, impatient for the word that his vengeance had been consummated by the daughter whom he had inspired to execute it. ...
In the dusk of evening the train lumbered into Portland station; and, heart in mouth, Alan helped Rose through the crowd and into a taxicab.
"Best hotel in town," he demanded. "And be quick—for a double tip." ”

“ I was struck by a motor-car, picked up insensible—and lived only to be what I am. Law triumphed in the Street while I lay helpless; only a remnant of my fortune remained to me. Then his chauffeur, discharged, came to me and sold me the truth; it was Law's car with Law at the wheel that had struck me down—a deliberate attempt at assassination. I sent Law word that I meant to have a life for a life. For what was I better than dead? I promised him that, should he escape, I would have the life of his son. He knew I meant it, and sent his wife and son abroad. ”

“ Alan drowsed, soothed by the slap of waves against the side and the dull sing-song of the engine. When he roused himself, for no particular reason, it was to regard with admiration the spectacle of Barcus, tirelessly vigilant and efficient, at the wheel.
"My friend," he observed, languidly, "as our acquaintance ripens I am more and more impressed with the belief that neither of us was born to die a natural death, whether abed or at the hands of those who dislike us; but rather to be hanged as common pirates."
"You have the courage of ignorance," Barcus replied coolly. ”

“ That her love was hopeless, Judith knew but too well. Even though Alan might not be altogether indifferent to her, his loyalty to Rose was unshakable. And not for worlds would Rose's rival have had it otherwise. She could not have loved him as she did had he not been so immovably true. As it was, since she could not hope her love might ever be returned, she was content to love and to promise herself that, if opportunity offered, she would not prove unready to sacrifice herself to her love. ”

“ He looked up the rapids in time to view the last swift quarter of the canoe's descent, Judith in the bow, motionless, a rifle across her knees, in the stern an Indian guide kneeling and fighting the waters with scarcely perceptible effort in contrast with Alan's supreme struggles. Like a living thing the canoe seemed to gather itself together, it hurtled the eddy in a bound, took the still water with a mighty splash, and shot downstream at diminished speed. ”

“ The Masked Voice THE leaden fog wrapped the world in an embrace as inexorable as the coils of some great, gray, slimy serpent. Through its sluggish folds the life-boat crept at snail's pace. In the bow, Rose rested in exhaustion, her eyes closed, her head pillowed on a life preserver, her sodden garments modelled closely to the slender body that ever and again was shaken by a long, shuddering respiration. ”

“ Swept with the stream Alan contrived to retain his hold round the waist of Rose. Barcus shot past him unseen in the darkness. It was not until Alan had contrived to stay himself and his almost witless burden beneath the mouth of the shaft that he discovered Barcus alive, if almost unrecognizable in his mask of mould and soot, battling back toward the shaft against the knee-deep tide. ”

“ Concealment of their purpose from those aboard the schooner was out of the question. The racket and the play of flash-lamps along the beach must have betrayed the fact that they had turned the tables long before the dory left the inshore shoals.
Caution, however, made them rest on their oars while yet a little way from their goal. No sound was audible other than the whine of an ungreased block; nothing was visible beyond the glare of the green lantern.
"What think?" Barcus whispered.
"No telling," Alan replied. "All a chance." ”

“ Only an instant later the motor-car jolted to a bait, and Rose and Barcus were standing beside the door, jabbering joyful greetings mixed with incoherent explanations of the manner in which they had come to seek shelter for the night in the prospector's shack, and, roused by the noise of firing and recognizing Alan in the car by the aid of night glasses, had with the prospector's aid hit upon this scheme of shooting a landslide in between the pursuit and its devoted quarry. ”

“ Juggernaut ALAN came to himself supported by Barcus, his senses still reeling from the concussion of that thunderbolt which he had so unwittingly loosed—the cloud of sulphurous smoke not yet dissipated by the wind. Judith lay at his feet, stunned; and round about other figures, of men insensible, if not, for all he could say, dead. ”

“ Yet it happened so, in the upshot, the assassin lay like a limp rag across the girder, head and arms hanging on one side, legs and feet on the other, spent with his terrific exertions and physically sick with terror.
In this state Alan left him; he had done enough; let the man shift for himself from this time on. Cautiously crawling over the other's body, he edged along to the head of the ladder. When he looked back from safety, the cut-throat lay as Alan had left him, kicking convulsively. ”

“ The two men designated lifted Alan Law and bore him with every care toward the motor-car.
Then the man in the rear seat lifted up a weirdly sonorous voice:
"Stop!" he cried. "Drop that man! Judith, I command you——"
"Be silent!" the girl cut in sharply. "I command here—if it's necessary to tell you."
Then the old man broke out in exasperation that waxed into fury. As well command the sea to still its voice: her father raged like the madman that he was, for the time being divested of his habitual mask of frigid heartlessness. The desperate girl turned to the third man. ”

“ All at once the surface of the desert seemed to lift and shake like the top of a canvas bent in a gale. The dust enveloped man and horse. And then darkness fell, a copper-coloured pall. Nothing remained visible beyond arm's length.
The broncho swung round, back to the blast, and refused to budge another inch.
Alan dismounted and, seizing the bridle, sought to draw the horse on with him. He wasted his strength; the animal balked, stiffened its legs, and resisted with the stubbornness of a rock ”

“ Only when he saw her tearing at the painter, striving to cast it off and with it the dory it dragged a hundred feet astern, and another glance discovered the head of Mr. Barcus rising over the stern of the tender as he strove to lift himself out of the water, did Alan appreciate what had happened.
It was with the feeling that all the world had gone mad, that he seized the girl and tore her away from the rail before she could unknot the painter.
"Rose!" he cried. "What's the matter with you? Don't you see what you're doing?" ”

“ In a lull in Trine's tirade, Judith chose to interject:
"Don't be so hard on the silly fool, she's not responsible, she's sick with love for that good-looking simpleton!"
"And you!" Rose turned on her passionately. "What about you? If I love Alan Law, at least I love him openly. I'm not ashamed to own it—and I don't pursue him, as you do, pretending I mean to sacrifice him to a wicked family feud, and then spare him, as you do, hoping so to work upon his sympathies. There," she cried to her father, "there stands the daughter who has betrayed your faith." ”

“ Before she could turn she was caught and wrapped in the arms of Hopi Jim. His face of bronze bent over her, smiling in the triumph of his cunning; his breath fanned her cheek, hot with his desire; his lips threatened hers imminently. ...
Only for an instant she remained motionless in the man's embrace. Then, without warning, she was like a steel spring that he sought to supple to his will. She fought like a wildcat, kicking, biting, tearing, scratching, sobbing, panting, despairing—and fought but the more fiercely as despair grew more dark in her consciousness. ”

“ He was clothed in a black dressing-gown, and from the thighs down was covered by a woollen rug. He stared unblinking at the crimson blotter: a man seven eighths dead, completely paralyzed but for his head and his left arm.
A figure of savage patience he sat waiting—for years on end, for so long that those who knew him had well-nigh forgotten that Seneca Trine once had been as vital a creature as ever lived.
Presently a faint clicking disturbed the stillness. Seneca Trine had put forth his left hand and touched a button embedded in the desk. ”

“ When Alan returned from dinner and the theatre, it was to find a solitary rose reposing with blushing effrontery upon his pillow. The inevitable Trey of Hearts, it appeared, had crawled in between the covers.
That made three of each.
Mr. Law sat down and thought. Then he summoned his valet—and discharged him.
"The Lord," he said, "may love a liar. But I'm human. Here's a month's wages. Clear out of this in three minutes. ..."
When morning came, London had lost Alan Law. No man—nor any woman—had received warning of his disappearance. ”

“ It was nearly knee-deep before Barcus was halted, forced to sit down, and swiftly made fast in that position, submerged to his chest. This accomplished, the men turned attention to Rose, lashing her in similar wise at Barcus's side.
Then quietly those well-trained servants turned their backs and marched off.
Judith, watching them, laughed her short, mirthless laugh.
"The tide will be high," she said, "precisely at sunset. You may time your lives by that. When the sun dips into the sea, then will your lives go down with it." ”

“ The word was "Rose," and for the time seemed to be the name neither of a woman nor a flower, but oddly of both, as though the two things were one.
He wondered idly why this was so until his mental vision, bridging the gap of a year, conjured up the picture of a lithe, sweet silhouette in white, with red roses at her belt, posed on a terrace of the Riviera against the burning Mediterranean blue.
Mr. Law was dully conscious that he ought to be sorry about something. But he was really very drowsy indeed. And so he fell quietly asleep. ”

“ And as the way opened and he looked toward the altar and saw Alan standing hand in hand with Rose while the minister invoked a blessing upon the union that had been but that instant consummated, added strength, the strength of the insane, was given to Seneca Trine.
When Alan, annoyed by the disturbance in the body of the chapel, looked round, it was to see the aged maniac standing within a dozen feet of him; and as he cried out in wonder, Trine whipped a revolver from the pocket of his dressing-gown and swung it steadily to bear upon Alan's head. ”

“ Within another ten minutes the man Judith loved with all her body and soul would be the husband of her sister. She had told herself she was resigned, but she was not, and she would never be. Her heart was breaking in her bosom as she sat there, listening to the ever-heavier detonations of the approaching thunderstorm and to the jubilant pealing of a great organ down below. ”

“ Debacle SCREAMING to make himself heard above the roar of the deluge, Barcus yelled in Alan's, ear: "That devil! He's found the reservoir—opened the sluice-gates—turned it into that shaft! We're done for!"
Alan had no argument with which to gainsay him. Silently getting on his feet he groped for Rose and drew her away with him, up the incline that led back to the bulkhead.
The hour that followed lived ever in his memory as an hour in hell. To die there, in the darkness, like so many noxious animals trapped in a well. ... ”