Part 16 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIII

For a space of perhaps twenty seconds after John Aldous announced hin of life on the part of either Quade or Culver Rann The latter sat stunned Not the er broke the stonelike immobility of his attitude His eyes were like two dark coals gazing steadily as a serpent's over Quade's hunched shoulders and bowed head Quade see to Rann One hand was still poised a foot above the table It was he who broke the tense and lifeless tableau

Slowly, almost as slowly as Aldous had opened the door, Quade turned his head, and stared into the coldly s face of thepistol in his hand A curious look overcaether of terror--but of shock He knew Aldous had heard He accepted in an instant, and perceptibly, the significance of the pistol in his hand But Culver Rann sat like a rock

His face expressed nothing Not for the sht be throbbing within hi nerve

”Good evening, gentlemen!” he repeated

Then Rann leaned slowly forward over the table One hand rose to his ht hand The other was invisible Quade pulled hiether and stepped to the end of the table, his two e, faced Rann's glittering eyes and covered him with his automatic Culver Rann twisted the end of his moustache, and smiled back

”Well?” he said ”Is it checkmate?”

”It is,” replied Aldous ”I've prouess that minute is about up”

The last as scarcely out of his mouth when the room was in darkness--a darkness so complete and sudden that for an instant his hand faltered, and in that instant he heard the overturning of a chair and the falling of a body Twice his auto-flash of fire where Culver Rann had sat; twice it spat threadlike ribbons of flah the blackness where Quade had stood He knehat had happened, and also what to expect if he lost out now The curiously shaped iron lamp had concealed an electric bulb, and Rann had turned off the switch-key under the table

He had no further tiloom and fell with terrific force on his outstretched pistol arainst the wall Unar back toward the open door--full into the arms of Quade!

Aldous knew that it was Quade and not Culver Rann, and he struck out with all the force he could gather in a short-arain and again he struck, and Quade's grip loosened

In another ht him from behind Never had Aldous felt the clutch of hands like those of the woers of steel were burying the hiht, and with a tremendous effort freed himself

Both Quade and Culver Rann now stood between hi breath Rann, as before, was silent as death

Then he heard the door close A key clicked in the lock He was trapped

”Turn on the light, Billy,” he heard Rann say in a quiet, unexcited voice

”We've got this house-breaker cornered, and he's lost his gun Turn on the light--and I'll make one shot do the business!”

Aldous heard Quadetoward the table

Somewhere in the room was another switch connected with the iron lamp, and Aldous felt a curious chill shoot up his spine Without seeing through that pitch darkness of the roo with his back against the locked door, a revolver in his hand And he knew that Quade, feeling his way along the wall, held a revolver in his hand

Men like these two did not go unarht was turned on they would do their work As he stood, silent as Culver Rann, he realized the tables were turned In thatassurance of possessing Joanne he had revealed himself like a fool, and noas about to reap the ind of his folly Deliberately he had given himself up to his enemies They, too, would be fools if they allowed him to escape alive

He heard Quade stop His thick hand was fu for the switch He almost fancied he could see Rann's revolver levelled at hi moment his mind worked with the swiftness of a powder flash One of his hands touched the edge of the desk-table, and he knew that he was standing directly opposite the curtained , perhaps six feet froh thethe curtain would save hi cut to pieces

No sooner had the idea of escape coht filled the roolass He heard a cry--a single shot--as he struck the ground He gathered himself up and ran swiftly Fifty yards away he stopped, and looked back Quade and Rann were in theThen they disappeared, and a loom

For a second time Aldous hurried in the direction of MacDonald's calass had cut hi over his face; both hands ith it, The arm on which he had received the blow froave hihtly sprained an ankle in his leap through the , so that he limped a little But his mind was clear--so clear that in the face of his physical disco once or twice as hethe trail

Aldous was not of an ordinary type To a curious and superlative degree he could appreciate a defeat as well as a triumph His adventures had been a part of a life in which he had not always expected to win, and in to-night's game he admitted that he had been hopelessly and ridiculously beaten Tragedy, to hiht he had set out to kill, and, instead of killing, he had run like a jack-rabbit for cover Also, in that saiven them the surprise of their lives by his catapultic disappearance through theThere was so that, to hiood comedy-drama

Nor was Aldous blind to the fact that he had made an utter fool of hiht prove extremely serious Had he listened to the conspirators without betraying hie over the their conversation would have made it comparatively easy for MacDonald and hih the half-breed DeBar As the situation stood now, he figured that Quade and Culver Rann held the advantage Whatever they had planned to do they would put into quick execution They would not lose a minute