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PCLK COUNTY NEWS-GAZETTE. BENTON. TENNESSEE. 28 MDY(Q WRMO . author or "mz smoiiifcXiMom mtRCxcnc. ILLUSTRATIONS hYTAAHS COpVfiKHT BY TXf BOBflJ -FKKiH CO. SYNOPSIS. fom I esse Klise. daughter of the sovern--r of the Mount, has chance encounter wttli n anant boy. Tlie "Mount," a small ro U-lourni Island, stood in vast bay on he northwestern coast of France, and .'lining tlie time of Louis XVI. a) a gov ernment stronghold. Develops tlist the IH-Hsant boy was the son of S.'lijneur le niir:i nobleman. Vouni? Di'Saurm- deter-inlnt-K to secure an education and become a jrontleman : see tU -governor's dautsh ler depart for Paris. Lady Klise rrturns after seven years' schooling, and enter taitia many nobles. Her Ladyship dances with Htrane fisherman, and a call to rms made in an effort to capture a invHterioiiR I -e Seigneur Noir. He escapes. Lndy Ellse is rnuxht In the "Grand" tide. The Itlark Seigneur rescues and takes her to his retreat. Elise discovers that lier savior was the boy with the fish. Sanchez, the Seigneur's servant, is ar rested and brought before the governor. Lady Elise has Sanchez set free. Seig neur and a priest at the "Cockles." S.m chcx tells Desaurac that I.adv Ellse be trayed him. but Is not believed. The Hclgneur plans to release prisoners at the Mount. Ladv Elise pleads with her fath er to spare the lives of condemned pris oners. Pisguised as a peasant Lady Ellse mingles with the people and hears some startling facts. A mysterious Mountebank starts a riot. He is arrested and locked up after making close obser vations of the citadel, and is afterwards summoned before the governor's daugh ter. The governor enters tlie room during tlie Interview with the Mountebank. As a miserable buffoon, the Mountebank Is re leased by order of the governor. De saiirac overpowers guard and dons sn' dler's uniform. The Seiirneur successfully passes guards and finds the "Great Wheel." Jacques, the jailer, forced to tread the wheel and bring up enemies of the governor. CHAPTER XXII (Continued). More stealthily now he began to study his companion in, the wheel, while a question, suddenly occurring, reiterated itself in his brain. This man who was he? And what did he know of the mountebank; or his, Jac ques', dealings with the clown? That his captor was no soldier of the rock, or belonged there, the hunchback felt by this time assured, and a growing suspicion of the other's identity brought home with new force to the dwarf the thankless part chance, per haps, had assigned to him in that night's work. And at the full realiza tion of the consequences, should his surmise prove correct what must ul timately happen to himself in that event, when unwilling co-operation at the wheel should become known al most had he again reached the des perate point of calling out; but at that moment a turn in the wheel brought to the level of the aperture, the car. In it, or clinging thereto, were a number of figures who, as soon as the rope stopped, sprang noiseless ly to the platform. "Seigneur, we hardly dared hope " "We obeyed orders, but " Gazing through the spokes of the wheel, and listening to their whispered (Iijiiiii i r ii i 'iiiitti mi mi i i i II i li "" p ii i it ijSi i - r -tfcMini "n mill i-m i Miii in mttmum ammmiyiiiMJi S "Seigneur, We Hardly Dared Hop exclamations, uny lingering doubt as to who his captor was could no longer be entertained by the hunchback. These new comers took no pains to conceal It; even when the dwarf's presence became known to them and unceremoniously wa8 ho dragged forth they displayed a contemptuous dis regard of him as a factor to interfere, not calculated jo dull the edge of his apprehension! Too late now might he regret that pusillanimity that bad W V i l' i caused him to draw back from an Im- mortal role; already was the car again descending! It came up loaded ; went down once more, reappeared. On the little plat form now were more than a dozen men assembled, but to Jacques this force looked multiplied. Amid the confusion of his thoughts, vaguely could he hear orders given; caught something about the need for quiet, haste, overpowering the guard; then saw the door open, and the men, like shadows, go out; leaving him alone. No; with two black figures; ominous; armed. He could see the glitter of their weapons, and ventured to move his thick tongue, when, fiercely si lenced, he crouched down; waited, with hands clenched, an interminable period; until faintly from afar sound ed the note of a night-bird. Roughly jerked to his feet, between them he walked to the door; heard it close; stepped out into the night. Many times had he made his way be tween wheel-room and guard-house, but now the route seemed strange, and, locking around near the struc tures at the entrance to his dungeons Jacques shook his head as, if to rid his brain of some fantasy. But the scene did not change; the guard-house remained familiar; unlike, with un known faces peering from it, and an Imperious voice issuing commands to him, once unquestioned commander here! And comprehending what was being said, he struck his breast violently; with curses would have answered that the keys were his own; the dungeons, too, and what they held, and that he would never lead them there; never open these doors! But this grim, sav age, determined band beat down his arms, and his courage; and, with the shadow of the grave again before him, the dwarf walked on; past the stable into the guard-house, where fa miliar forms once had been seated, and into the passage leading to the dungeons beyond. CHAPTER XXIII. At the Vtrge of the Aperture. The footfall of the Black Seigneur, near the guard-house of the dungeons, was measured, yet noiseless, as he stepped on the soft earth, alongside the stone walk, now toward the pass age in the direction of the wheel-room then back into the little square. That his thoughts, however, moved not in accord with that deliberate stride, the brows impatiently knit, and the quick glances he continued to cast over his shoulder, bore testimony. Stopping at length near the Tour Bernard, he looked fixedly down at the town, wrapped In a stillness that should have reassured him. Never theless he appeared not satisfied; and had stepped out Into the court again, when some sound he heard, or fancied, sent him quickly to an embrasure in the wall. From this opening for merly for cannon In defense of the feulls, and the poulaln, or planking for the hoisting of goods he leaned far out. his glance ins'lnctlve'y turning toward the barracks, son; tii'anc to the r'.gM and far below. As he stood ttua. 'hat which had first attracted hU afeuMon the sound of a voice giving orders wu repeated; at the same tiui-J trtere had been only dark ness now s'.'.une many windows, while tt the lt'ft, near the entrance he tad parsed after leaving the stable, lights bean to dance like fireflies. At thtse signs of activity and the sounds breaking the general quietude, an exclamation fell from his lips; then, pausing only a moment to listen and observe, he sprang toward the guard house. Crossing the threshold, de fined by a faint glimmer from a dis tant corner, he made his way past sev eral motionless forms. Into a low pass age beyond. Here he called out Impa tiently; but from those depths, lead ing down Into the dungeons where his comrades had gone, no answer was re turned. His voice, hollow, mocking, seemed stifled in a tomb; more loud ly he shouted; walked farther in. when an indistinct response was followed by a pin-point of light, and, ere long, by the bearer of a little lamp, Sanchez. "The others?" At the head of a dark stairway Into which he would in advertently have plunged, had he gone farther, the Black Seigneur confronted the man, as he approached. "They will soon be here," said the old servant, springing up the stps and walking after his master, who had al ready turned back toward the guard room. "Jacques curse him!" put ting out his light in obedience to a gesture from the other "fumbled with the keys; pretended he couldn't find the right ones! So it took long er to open the doors." "The prisoners?" "I left our men working at the last dungeon to come on ahead to lit you know you might soon expect them." "Soon," ironically, "may be too late." "You mean ?" "The huo and cry is out! I have long been expecting it; I do not un derstand why it didn't come before; unless a mountebank, locked up, was considered safe enough for the night" "Then some one knew ?" "Some one?" A bitter laugh was quickly suppressed on the young man's lips. "Hark! Listen!" "Sounds below! the soldiers!" ex claimed Sanchez, and started toward the window to look out, only to fall quickly back. "What is it?" With his hand on the other's shoulder, the Black Seigneur whispered the question. "A face! At the window!" "So soon? The hounds are quicker than I thought! Or," drawing his sword, "It may be only one or two In advance. In that case " But no enemy, single or plural, met their view, either in front, or at the side of the guard-house; only the darkness,, void, empty, and the bare rampart wall winding around the head of the Mount like a monster guardian dragon, asleep at his post - "Here is no one!" "No one! Yet am I sure I saw " "A shadow!" answered the other "And we have nothing worse to fight!" "Some one was there. Seigneur," stubbornly, "and fled!" "Eh bien! He's gone!" "He? It looked like a " "Back with you, quick! Is this a time for talk? Call those who can come if they would save their necks!" "Here they are now," exclaimed the servant, and, as he spoke, the first of their men, blowing out the light he carried, ran quickly across the guard chamber and into the open air. Oth ers hastily followed, until the gather ing, swelled by those brought with them from the dungeons, stood ex pectantly before the little stone struc ture. . "All the prisoners are here?" "All!" "To the wheel-house, then!" But Sts they hastened across the square and into the narrow way, the Black Seigneur again spoke to the man just ahead: "The hunchback?" "We left him below, locked up In the Devil's Cage!" "The Devil's Cage! Quelle bonne plaisanterie! Although," looking back, "it may cost us dear!" And Indeed, behind the sound of pur suit came nearer; the clatter of sol diers' feet grew louder, until, reaching the little square and the guard-house, all tumult suddenly ceased. A mo mentary silence, strange, ominous, was broken by a din of voices, as the flaring here and there of torches threw erotesoue reflections high against the grim background of black. masonry. To those now within the wheel-room, the cause of that abrupt clamor was not difficult to divine; his Excellency's soldiers had found the sentinels over- Dowered In the guard-house! Would the former stop to Investigate; search first those subterranean passages? Al ready had the prisoners, the weaker of the Black Seigneur's men, filled the car. or hunn clinging to the rope above; already was the wheel turning almost before the key had turned In the lock at the entrance. "Seigneur!" "Sanchez?" "When we left the wheel-room, we closed the door." "When we got back, It" A footfall without Interrupted, fol lowed by' the Bound of a hand at the door, and other .steps drawing near. "Jacques!" An expectant voice spoke; waited; called louder. Then those outside listened; some one ex claimed, and hurried footsteps retrcnt ed toward the guard house. As they died away, In the wheel room the car came up fdr the second time empty, and inquiringly the men there looked from one to the other; but, even In that moment of danaer. not on? of t!im mov!. o: ri i l nisi of impaiiD -e. Svaie must 41; c'h ?rs Tizr.a.a. act stoical')- they awaited I iiw word cf te:r leader. ! ' Inivta wi'h ail of j i! I'll let yu J out the lint-." taking a turn with the I rop. aroun i a s'acchion rar the I ai:, "ami then come down myself." The command was ur.iper'fd ; for the first rime those 'hat had never questioned r hoU loader's authority, hesitated, and trio.-e snarply as the urdor repeated; w hereupon they obeyed; a!I save on. ' Til !t it 0:1 myself," said San chez. "Ot in!" "No!" was the obdurate reply, when the Black Seigneur made a sign; hands reached up. seized Sanchez, and a moment later the car started down. The line strained; as it played out. now running free about the stanchion, then stopping with jerks, the man In the wheel-house almost looked to see It part. The hempen strand, however, proved sound; held Its human freight; but another danger pressed near. Scarcely had the car begun its down ward journey than an attack, indica tions of whose approach had not been wanting, manifested itself without. Be neath a sudden, savage assault, the door shook; yet engrossed at the line, every muscle strained, the man at the stanchion heeded not. Swiftly, me chanically he worked, apparently as unconscious of the clamorous soldiers without as of a silent presence within -some one that had been concealed in the littlo store-room adjoining, open ing into the wheel-house, and now peered out; but at once drew back, as, with a crash, the door fell in. At first, in the comparative dark ness, with only the sky at the aperture staring them in the face, the in-rushing black figures paused, uncertain: lights soon were pushed forward, how ever, and then could they see the great wheel going round, unwinding the rope; the man at the stanchion. "The prisoners! He's letting them down." "Cut the line!" Some one with a knife rushed for- The Blade of the Black ward, severed the strand; but at that moment the car touched the bottom. Then did the solitary man at the rope for the first time awaken to his own situation; with a backward sweep of the arm he struck so fiercely the fore most of those to rush at him that the fallow fell, h'ittine hard the stone floor. Those nearest stumbled, and drawing his sword, with a thrust of point or blow of hilt, the BJaqk Seigneur, for a moment wunstooa uie urst cumuaeu on-cqmlngj then extricated himself and leaped lo the narrow space behind the wheel. Here was he protected be hind by the wall; at one end, by the masonry jutting out, while, at the oth er, only one or two could attack at the same time. But in front, through the spokes of the broad wheel, they might well hope to reach him. At once the soldiers sprang for ward, when, seizing the wheel, the man behind, with a savage jerk, set It in motion. The swords thrust at him were turned aside, one or two of his assailants were caught in the ponder ous mechanism, and, before those at tacking him had recovered from their surprise, the blade of the Black Seig neur shot in and out; Jo the right, to the left. Those ahead fell back upon their comrades; two, however, were unable to withdraw, and sank to the ground before the wheel. A third. with his hand to his throat and mail ing strange sounds, staggered back to the wall. Momentarily disconcerted, the oth ers hesitated.' "In the fiend's name, fear ye one man?" shouted an authori tative voice. "A devil!" mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm .-lis. - n "' 111 iim 11 mum'"" " 1 '"""j f7n7p " ' 1 11 ni " J "TiJ the Black Seigneur! I had a good sunt of him." -rwr beat" "Mil nursh-niuck n4 i"tre came ia nuMkin; tones from behind the heel. "The mountebank!" "Sacre tonncrre! But mountebank, or outlaw, you shall pay! This way!" And at the unprotected side of the wheel the commandant sought to bring the issue to a conclusion. One blade the Black Seigneur Btruck down, while bis own weapon retorted with more effect, though as It did so. an other soldier made a lunge, and his sword entered the shouliler of the man behind the wheel. A shout of triumph that fell from the lips of the Gov ernor's trooper was, however, abrupt ly checked; lurching forward with the stroke, ere he could recover, some thing heavy a brass hilt beat like a hammer on his head and he dropped to his knees. The others pressed closer; but with the detperatlon of a man resolved to sell his life dearly, the Black Seigneur fought on; regard less of cut and thrust, was holding the narrow entrance, when from the rear, somewhere, came the report of a fire arm. "Back! Stand back!" Those nearest the wheel, not un willing, perhaps, to desist, drew away; other detonations followed and smoke filled the place, obscuring the gaze. In the yellow fog they waited; until first It was swept aside close to the opposite wall by a draft of air from the aperture of the adjoining store room, and the commandant, in an ef fort to gee, moved Impatiently for ward. Ere, however, he could reach the wheel, near the threshold of the store-room, he felt his arm suddenly seized. "Look, listen!" (TO BE CONTINUED.) For Tired Nerves. When everything in life goes wrong, when the tempter within you begins to stir and growl, go to some good masseuse and you will soon find that Seigneur Shot In and Out. your rage Is calmed and your poise restored. "But," exclaims the woman of small income, "this is rather expen sive advice for most women, and only those fortunate enough to possess money can indulge in it." v But in this she Is wrong. It is pre cisely the woman of small Income, whose life is swamped in a thousand Irritating details, who must scrimp and save to make both ends meet, whose temper Is always on edge be cause Of the constant demands made upon her, whose heart Is frequently sore because her purse falls so far short of her desires, that need3 the economy ' of an hour's rest In the hands of good masseuse and the com plete relaxation that her treatment brings. She Wanted to Know. An Inexperienced colored girl had Just been installed as housemaid. Hay ing eyed a patent bottle with much curiosity for some time she asked her mistress: "And what sort o thing is dat. ma'am?" "That," replied madam, "is a bottle that will keep things hot or cold." "Land sakes, honey!" exclaimed the astonished darky, "how is It gwlne to know whether you want It to keep things hot or cold?" Ladles' Home Journal. An Inch of Air. A cubic inch of air arising from the flames of a Bunsen burner has been found to contain no fewer than four hundred and eighty-nine million dust particles. Harper's Weekly. CITY OFJIOBB Ons of the Three Free Burgs of Germany. Its People Spend Their Leisure Hours on Water Front St. Pauli, th . Sailors' Paradise, One of the Town's Noted Resorts. Hamburg. It was nine o'clock ani still daylight In Hamburg. We sat in a pavilion cafe overlooking the Bln-nen-Alster. The lake was full of boats; sail boats, rowboats and ca noes. Every now and then a Ilttla bteamboat whizzed in from the Aus sen Alster. its funnels being lowered and raised with a snap as it passed under the low bridge. A few bicycle launches were still scooting over the water, ridiculous things with the rider high in the air, pedaling wheels that seemed to run right over the water. The swans were still hanging around the edge of the water trying to coax the loiterers to throw them a crumb or two. One large one was away out in the middle of the lake vigorously following a launch that had the sign. "Liebnitz Cakes" tacked on its side. We wondered if the swan could read. I do not believe Americans love waterfronts as much as Europeans do, for we only use our river bank8 for mills and dumps, while in Europe they make theirs the most beautiful part of their cities, and there they spend their leisure hours and center all their love. At ten o'clock it was not yet dark, so we took a trip to St. Pauli, the sailors' resort in Hamburg. Several big liners had docked that day and sailors simply flooded and owned the place. Everything was going at a great pace, especially the sailors' pay. There were moving-picture shows, merry-go-rounds, side shows and cafes all a perfect blaze of light. Many fakirs were stationed along the side walk shouting in their loudest and most convincing German about the excellence of their wares. The life of a sailor is a hard one, and the German sailors of the Hamburg-American line only lives through his many weeks of hardship on the sea for the eight glorious days he is going to spend at St. Pauli, which ha3 been called the "Sailors' Para dise." Overlooking' St. Pauli and the har bor stands a colossal statue of Bis mark. It is like the great man, silent, gigantic and immovable the greatest man that Germany has pro duced in a century. The statue be longs to the art of new Germany, and yet it Is strangely like the old Roland at Bremen built centuries ago. It ' only goes to show how everything t travels In a circle, even art, and that the post impressionists may still be making .Botticelli Madonnas and Fra Angelico angels. 1 The new Rathaus stands in front of the Exchange, and it Is a very Im posing and handsome building. One reason it looks so well 1b it has a large open square in front of It, and directly opposite is a semi-circle stone terrace, with, benches along the sides, that Is forever filled with weary Ham burgers. But it is to the peasant woman of these countries that America means the most, for they must do the hard est and roughest labor from morn ing until night. In Vienna we saw them laying bricks and plastering houses; In Prague, we saw them mix ing mortar and acting as hod-carriers ;i in Munich, they are the switch-turner and the street cleaners; everywhere in the country they till the ground and plow like a man. Is it a wonder that America seems like heaven to them, where they get wholesome food, a nice clean bed and gooa wages. Hamburg Is one of the three free cities .In Germany, the other two are Lubeck and Bremen. Prisoner Is Released. Philadelphia, Pa. A prisoner held here on a charge of horse stealing was released when chief of police of Newark, Ohio, refused to pay the charges on tho telegram notifying him of the arrest. Loses $200 Diamond Ring. Sayvllle, N. Y. J. C. Rose threw a match with which ho had lighted a cigar into the bay here and with It went a $200 diamond setting from his ring. 111 tfi mill nn mi , rl 3il Jlbiy II I t i