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The Trey O' Hearts A Novelized Version of the Motion Picture Drama of the Same Name Produced by the Universal Film Co. By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE d.M of rT. Fomeu. aHim" & .. Ba ""A. 1T . B.r,"-.# s lnetraed with Phspgr. from th. Pictre reibctlm CorrhgbsL Md. bt Loese Jkoanh Vaneo SYNOPSIS. The ? of Hearts is th, "death -ign" rno pliye.i by PSenw"a Trine In the privat. wa .,f veng.-ar,.' whit'h. through th. ilguntre o' k. I . ter Judith. L, h .:rs ags ns A n I . t of th- mn.. nw e. 1, wSh ,,.r ! . .ntl) r,' , .t h+,e fr th, a.ct ci, n: L: h r.ner".' 'I'rti:e a t.";: .5s ,rip I Alan I "','s . irn, :. s 1, I ly ItJs ' . ',, t n" 1 n . . , . .l i, :th 0, ,u , tr :..I' , t1:. .1;,l '. ,. ,; '::t :n,"tl, r ,]r,do atl The Man in the Shadow. "'. hu ed " ,u ', ftr. . If :lo, I op Jin f' ., fro rthe li of. C lif The . d doily hl thnug btoh 1(1 baen Ihop .Ij , Sld' , 's , ,tucr' I " "in its Ih i b lo 'ettnt ly het o'iut ioing trunk of : tre, o'er w,.h it ra it',d, d ouble u p' lap. horr l . - The Ma n in the Shadow.t hat scttling gradually as the slope be Tdoua hndful of pebblesf , gained tin fottom of the Icanyon.f t lif Thn S Its mufifed impact on the groun round his feetng throuse d the an lwh .1""rte nt ihe tt,, oltts l,]iis g trunok 0o, had compassed the bandit's death fror th ne l, unconscioude that haas settling gradually as the scopete be bottom of the nstant of firing.n. He stepped back, andnd snatched ui Not before the glact onsses the groadjuste tround his vision did he find time to rewh had compassed the bandit's death frorr the pose he had unconsciously as uumed on the instant of firing. ie stepped back, and snatched n_, Not before the glasses were adjuster; to his vision did he find time to re spond absently to the alarmed and in sistent inquiries of his two compan ions, a man of his own age and a girl of some years less, who had beet --akened from their sleep by the re port of the rifle. Now the latter plucked his sleeve, iomentarily deflecting the glasses from the object which they were fol, lowing so sedulously as it moved Along the heights; a wildly running horse with a woman bound helpless Upon its back, both sharply in .1' houette against the burning blue. "Alan!" the girl demanded, "what is it? Why did you fire? Why won't you answer me? What is it?" 'Judith," Alan replied tersely, again picking up with the glasses the run away horse that fled so madly along the perilous and narrow track of the hill trail. The name was echoed from two throats as Alan swung sharply and thrust the glasses into the hands of the girl. "Judith," he affirmed with a look of poignant solicitude. "She's roped to the back of that crazy broncho--help less! See for yourself; one false step -suppose a stone turns beneath it hoof-she'll be killed!" While the girl focused her glasses upon that speck that flew against the sky Alan turned to the two horses Moistened His Parched Lipe and Threoat. hobbled near by and seizing a saddle threw it over the back of one. At this the other man turned to bhie aside and dropping a detaining hand upon his arm asked: " What are you goig to do?" Alan shook the hand off and went on with his self-ppointed task. "Go after her, Tom, of course," he replied. "What else? That animal is rasty, I tell you-o" "Uven so," Tom Barens argued, "you can't climb that hillside on horseback nd if you could, you'd be too late to aetch up, much less prevent an a "I noaw It, Bat infloe It doesn't fail... kneow what' beyond these hilb-4ssa8s! And the girl is helples, I tdl tya boud bad and mst. TlWak at he, belig easr ed that sen.ma.ed dorkl. .Wba I* i*. ? U eppm yes do %C uc,-. try to stick a knife into you-like al not. What's she been chasing you for all over this land of the brave and homno of the free, but to take your foo: life? And now you want to sacritlcc yourself to her, out of sheer, down right foolishness in the head! I sup pose you'll like me to call it chivalry: I'll tell you what I call it-lunacy!" 'Don't he an ass!" Alan responded temperately, gathering the reins to. gether and instinctively lifting a fool to the stirrup. "Who warned us yes" t4 rt;y in time to I'rVvecr t our heing cr:i-iid by that rock? Judith! Why oa ste s' ;arated from Marrophal andl tin. other's--alone up there when that If a.t 'enraked up behind her--t) I sai hin,--i saw it all-and grabbed her andl Iped her to that brc'tco-il it w ani't ictause she had broken with thimt for o(od and all and started tc fight on our side?" "You're ravilng," Itareus commented in a l opeless tone. lie looked to the girl. "Itose--Miss Trin-e-rea-oni with this ma:dman--" Dropping the glasses, the girl came swiftly and confidently to her lover's side, lifting her lips to his. "G(;o, sweetheart!" she told hint "Save her if you can!" "IDid you dream for an instant Hlose would see her owtn sister carried to her death if anything could be done to avert it-no matter what we may have suffered at .ludith's hands?" With an indignant grunt. but con siderate none the less, Mr. lIarcus caught up the glasses and turned his back . "Go on!" he grumbled, pretending to ignore the hand Alan offered him from the saddle. "I've got no patience with you . . . But go!" he insisted, of a sudden seizing the hand and pressing it fervently. "And God go with you, my friend!" Then hoofbeats drumming on the hard-packed earth of the canyon trail struck a hundred echoes from its rugged, rocky walls. Mr. Barcus showed Rose Trine a face almost ludicrous with its an guished smile that was intended to seem reassuring. "Let's look sharp and follow him as quick as may be," he urged. "Light ning will never strike us so long as we stick to Mr. Iaw of the charmed life-but I don't mind telling you, once out of his company, rm just naturally afraid of the dark!" CHAPTER XLI. The Trail of Flying Hoof-Prints. In the still air of that young day the chill of night lingered stubbornly and would until the shadow of the eastern rampart had crept slowly down the canyon's western wall, tele scoped upon itself and vanished, let ting in the sun to make the place a pit of torment and of burning. Refreshed from rest and exhilarated by this grateful coolness, his horse responded willingly to the first light touch of Alan's spur. In a twinkling the overnight camp dropped from view behind the rounded shoulder of a hill side, mesquite-cloaked. Then from its first spirited flight the horse settled down to steady go ing, lengthened its stride, and ran for leagues with the long, apparently ef fortless and tireless lope of the plains bred broncho, ventre-a-terre. Alan's departure from camp had an ticipated by a round quarter-hour the appearance on the upper trail of friends of the slain bandit, to the number of four or five, who had both discovered and recovered his body, called his death murder and pledged themselves to its avengement-laying responsibility for the putative crime at the door of the man and woman to be seen In the canyon, immediately below the scene of Hopi Jim's fall. Between the moment when discor ery of the men on the ridge trail in terrupted their simple and hurried breakfast and that which found Rose and Barcus mounted on the back of their own horse and making the best of their way down the canyon in pur suit of Alan, but little time had elapsed. And even with its double burden, their horse made better time upon the broad lower level than those who followed the ridge trail. By mid-morn ing, when they approached the foot hills that ran down to the desert, the pursuit was more than a mile in the rear and shut off to boot by a mono lithic hill, while Alan was many a weary mile in advance. He sat upon his horse, Just then, at standstill upon the summit of a round ed knoll, the Painted hills lifting up behind him, the desert before unfold ing like a map-bat like a map all blurred. Was Judith out there, somewhere, lost, defeaselkss, forkra, impotent to lift a hand to shield her face from the blast of that savage seant No rest for Alsa till he knew . . Dsaoding the knoll he reined his lagging mount back into the trail fol towtng its windidg course throush the oothills and rmnd the base of that mmoulithl mountain toward the June tion with the ridge trail, miles away. Is appraoe ed the hor of moon be ore he gaied the polat wherem the two trails jo(,:ed and struck out across tht dt.,rt. AId hetre he discovered whatt he- ,hou'ht indi~sutablo indica ti h . thlir the fright of J.dith'. horse h.d per-.it d. Abandohnii:g i :n:ediately all notion of returni:,g through the hills by the ridnn-trail. ho ti:, r d and swung away at the best pact ne c :: I spur from his broncho, delivering Ihun-elf into the litiless embrace of that implaca ble wilderness of sun and sand. At long intervals he would check the broncho and, reeling in his saddle, endeavor to sweep the desert with his binoculars. And toward the middle of the after noon he fancied that something re warded one such effort; something for an instant swam athwart the field of the glasses: something that seemed to move like a weary horse with a human figure bound to its back. lut now the phenomena were di cerniblo which, had he been more des ert wise, would have made him pause and think before he ventured farther from those hills, already beyond reach as they were. Ills first appreciate: warning came , hIen the surfacfe of the desert seemned to lift anld ihake like the top of a canvas tee't in a gale. At the, same .~~~-; .V~. ,.. * . ·m c :':$~~~~. ..~ul~cT·b * : ·i~ "roaMu T·-eao it h Mda Time a mighty gust of wind swept athwart the waste, hot as a furnace blast. In a trice dust enveloped man and horse, a stifling cloud of super heated particles that stung the flesh like a myriad needles. And then dark ness fell, the twilight of hades, a cop percolored pall. Nothing remained visible beyond arm's length. Blinded, half suffocated, unspeak ably dismayed and bewildered, the broncho swung round, back to the blast, and refused to bMldge another inch. Himself more than half-dazed, but still hounded by his nightmare vision of Judith, Alan dismounted to escape being torn bodily from the saddle by that hellish sand-blast, and seizing the bridle sought to draw the horse on with him. He wasted his strength in that en deavor: the animal balked, planted its hoofs deep in the sand, stiffened its legs and resisted with the stub bornness of a rock; then, of a sudden, jerked his head smartly, snapped the bridle from his grasp and flung away, scudding before the storm. Pursuit was out of the question: indeed, the bridle was barely torn from his hand before Alan lost sight of the broncho. For a moment he stood rooted in consternation as in a bog-with an arm upthrown across his face. Then the thought of Judith re curred ... Head bended and shoulders rounded, he began to forge a way into the teeth of the sandstorm. How long he fought on, pitting his strength against the elements, cannot be reckoned. In the end he stumbled blindly down a slight decline and was abruptly conscious that he had in some way found shelter from the full force of the wind. He staggered on another yard or two, breathing more freely, and blun dered into a rough-ribbed wall of rock -some sporadic outcrop, he under stood, whose bulk stood between him and the storm. He thought to rest for a time, until the storm had spent its greatest strength; but as he laid his shoulder gratefully against the rock and scrubbed the dust from his smarting eyes he saw what he at first conceived to be a hallucination: Judith Trine standing within a yar". 'f him, alive, strong, free. He stared incredulously, saw her recognize him, open her mouth to utter a wondering cry that was inaudi ble, and come quickly nearer. "Alan! You came for me! You fol lowed me, through all this!" He threw off her hand with a bitter laugh-that was like the croaking of a raven as it issued from his bone-dry throat-and in momentary possession of hysteric madness, reeled away from the woman and the shelter of the rock and delivered himself anew to the mercy of the dust-storm. CHAPTER XLII. Open Mutiny. Though she had been schooled to hold the very name of Law in loathing va speakable and tq tlink of Alan as a mortal enemy and as one whose deatt alone could properly requite the crue injury that .had been done her fat.'er; and though the man himself hac laughed to scorn her first involuntar\ confession of that love for him whicl now consumed her being with its in satiable fires, she swallowed bei chagrin and followed him with the solicitude of one whose love can recog nize no wrong in Its object. Througt all the remainder of that day of terrol she was never far from his side. With the meekness of the strong she made herself his shadow. Ant she was now the stronger, for she hai had more than an hour's rest bestde the waterhole, which he had misse, on the way of that rocky windbreak Sooner or later his strength must faL him and he would need her; till ther she was content to bide her hour. It befell presently in startling fash ion; she was not a yard behind hin when he vanished abruptly. But the next moment Judith hersell was trembling on the crumbling brinl of an arroyo of depth and width in determinable in the obscurity of the duststorm. Down this, evidently Alan had fallen in his dizzy blindn·es Sho found him insensible, lying witt an arm bent under him in a pose frightfully suggestive of dislocation. Yet when she turned him on his back and released the arm, he made no sign to indicate that the movement had caused him the slightest pain. There was a slight cut upon his brow, a bruise about his left temple. She tore linen from her bosom, be neath her coarse flannel shirt, and with sparing aid from the canteen, washed the cut clean and bandaged It. Then, seeing that the storm held with fury unabated, she rose, recon noitered and returned to exert all her strength and drag the unconscious man across the dry bed of that ancient water-course and under the lee of its farther bank. There, sitting, she pillowed his head upon her lap, and bending over him made her body an additional shel ter to him from the swirling clouds of dust. And for hours on end Judith nursed him there, scarce daring to move save to minister to his needs, bathing his fevered brow and moistening his parched lips and throat. In the course of the first hour she was once startled by the spectral vip ion through the driving sheets of dust of a horse that plodded up the arroyo, bearing two riders on its back. Weary with the weight of its double burden, it went slowly and passed so near to Judith that she was able to recognize the features of her sister and Tom Barcus. Be sure she made never a sign to catch their attention. Within the next succeeding hour the coppery light lost something of its hot brillance, took on a darker shade, and then one darker still. Twi light stole athwart the desert, turning its heat to .chill, its light to violet. Growing more intense, the cold eventually roused the sleeping man. And hardly had his eyes unclosed and looked up into the eyes of Judith bending over him than he started up and out of her embrace, got unstead ily upon his feet and after a moment of pause, watching her rise in turn, strode away-or, rather, staggered with the gesture of exorcism. Uncomplaining, hugging her new born humility to her with the ecstasy of the anchorite his horse-hair shirt, Judith followed him patiently, at a little distance. Not far from where he had rested there was a break in the overhanging wall of the arroyo. Through this he scrambled painfully, reaching the level of the desert only after cruel effort, the unheeded woman at his heels. A brief pause there afforded both time to regain their breath and survey the desert for signs of assistance: it offered none, other than what they might accomplish through their own exertions. For leagues in any quarter it stretched without a break other than the black cleft of the arroyo, gleeamig a bleached and deathly white in the moonshine-like the face of a froese world. With tacit consent both turned that way, Alan leading, Judith his pertina clous shadow, with never a word or sign between them to prove that either was aware of the other's eompany. Phut this was a state of aaftirs that could not long endure. Judi:t had the price to pay for her oei trials. if fering and privation: the strain began to tell sorely upon her. Shi r.led slightly as she walked. weaving a winding tra!l across and across the straighter line of footprints that marked Alan's course through the or dered pattern of the powdered sage brush. And of a sudden she collapsed. Instinct alone made Alan glance over-shoulder: for she had made no sound whatever. He turned and came directly back to her, knelt beside her, lifted her head, pillowed it gently on his arm and plied her in turn with the dregs of the canteen. With a sigh, a stifled moan and a little shiver, she revived. He helped her gently to regain her feet, passed an arm round her. In this fashion they struggled on i:n strange, dumb companionship of no.- ery and wonder. Thus an hour passed; and for all their desperate struggles neither could s.t that the light on the mounta!nside was a yard the nearer. lBehind thenI other lights appeared, two staring yeihow eyes that peered up over the horizon, seemned to pause a tlIh n In s.arclh of rthi two. thn!l leapedi out diree.t! toward the(m. Of this they n r. altogether ignor ant: and a hen a (!.ep. drotning s;);l:l distl,'bed the dcse.rt silence,. k, the purring of solme igiantic cat, both as (ribhd it to the drumming of their laboring ptulses. The two lights were not a w:ile be hind then: when, silently, wit hut a sign to narn the girl. Alan rtleasgd her, took a step apart and dropped as if shot. Instantly she was kneeling by his side. But in the act of bending over him she drew back and remained for several moments motionless, staring at those twin glaring eyes, sweeping down upon them with all the speed attainable by a six-cylinder touring car negotiating a trackless desert. When Judith did move it was not to comfort Alan. On the contrary, 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 wv'nt next to the holster on Alan's hip. From this she extracted his Colt's .43, treat ing it as she had the other. Then she crouched low above the man she loved, as if thinking perhaps to escape notice from the occupants of the motorcar. If that were her thought, it was bred of an idle hope. Alan had chosen to fall in the middle of a wide space so arid that not even sagebrush had ven tured to take root there. When the glare of the headlights fell upon them it was inevitable that discovery should follow. The motor car stopped within twenty feet. Three men jumped out and ran toward the pair, leaving two in the car-the chauffeur and one who occupied a corner of the rear seat: an aged man with the face of a damned soul, doomed for a little time to live upon this earth in the certain knowl edge of his damnation. As this happened. Judith Trine leaped to her feet and stood over the body of Alan, a revolver poised in either hand. "Halt!" she ordered imperatively. "Hands up!" The three who had alighted obeyed without a moment's hesitation; her father's creatures, they knew the daughter's temper far too well to dream of opposing her will. In the six hands that were sil houetted, against the headlights' radi ance, three revolvers glimmered; but at her command all three dropped harmlessly to the earth. Then, sharply, "Stand back two paces!" she required. They humored her unanimously. Darting forward, she picked up and pocketed the three weapons, then with one of her own singled out the men she named. "Now, Marrophat-and you, Hicks- pick Mr. Law up and carry him into the car. And treat him gently, mind! If one of you lifts a finger to harm him, that one shall answer to me." Still none ventured to dispute her. The two men designated, without a sign of disinclination, stepped forward. One lifted Alan Law by the shoulders; the other took the legs. Between them they bore him with every care toward the motor car. But now a second will manifested itself. The man in the rear seat lifted up a weirdly sonorous voice: "Stop!" he cried. "Stop this non sense! Drop that man! Judith, I command you-" "Be silent!" the girl cut in sharply. "I command here-if it's necessary to tell you." There was a pause of astonishment. Then the old man broke out m exasu peration that threatened to wax into fury: "Judith! What do you mean by this? Has it indeed come to this that my own daughter defies me to my face?" "Apparently!" she salot back, with a short laugh. "Judge for yourself!" "Have you forgotten your vow to me?" "No. But I take it back and cancel it: that is my privilege, I believe~. . . Silence!" she stormed as he strove to gainsay her. "Silence-do you hear?-or it will be the worse for you!" As well command the sea to still its voice: her father raged like a mad. main that he was, for the time being divested of his,habitual mask o frigid heartlesasness. And seeing that there was no other' way of quietins him, the girl turned to the third man. "Now Jimmy!" she said crisply. Into that cr-n d be quick about It -·nd sag html" and `!, t r "ti . ; , .C ;t : *•, f'c ',. : 'h . ; ": Strai !t ..!.' ! > . , p ' ; .ti - :.l:d. those hills t it r. :uAl lcin't ,Ielay unless you arc. anxious for tri,utle. Off you go:" The car began to move. She swept the three thmen in the desert a rmocking bow, jumped Into the body of the car and slammtd the door. They mad:e no effort to plead their canes and secure passage even as far as the edge of the destert; d,,ubtlss they knew too well the futility if that., she thought, as she settl. b;ack in a seat, chuckl!ng with Ite mleniry of those three masks of di.n:ay u:tl: iti gated. It was not until vfly, r ' I , r. v ni!t shit straigh'-md tup rol : i .k '.,in" ct,:.furt:,I,' :..t a ' i h a. had madei tho Il soii 'ii i" t ab.,! ly her nill. The n she h,:rl i r" -,. h. .I t,oet'th r in t l .. . quickly an:. t c,.',"! b......: r y, - .:,i . a dlitartt tl rttr Of 11.' 1 . :" , tw'(o r ale]('S aft;, y t- it t ' at ; rumlte of :tllo,,ing hto,, Th,, night gla:5:., it t it ,0 ,.,,r " t,. d hrr i;ash.1 s at a ia.l ly of . r,,1 .. t. iell'i-setit,- six r r cl - '.2' i - nmakin.g ;.t t iop speed to rd tl:, -;,t wher, .arroplt:at. Ii e ks, an'i .h waitd be-side a bacion a 1:2cii I'i" had built and lighted. Itt ait doze.i si.ntenee i.s xti. l:,P dt with til chauffeur advi:sed i, th.tt these wvere hors,ien fromi h. tOi l . of Mi-sa who had chargied, thnivIv.s with the duty of avenging the dilath of Hopi Jim Slade. A sardonic chuckle from within Trine's gag goaded the girl into a sul len fury. Exacting his utmost speed from the chauffeur, under penalty of her dis pleasure, sho i et herself to revive Alan. With the aid of such stores of food and drink as the car carried, this was quickly enough accomplished. Strangling with an overdose of brandy too little diluted with water, Alan sat up, grasped the conditions In a flash, and gained further informa tion as he devoured sandwiches and emptied a canteen. The mountain pass was now, he judged, a mile distant. The light on the hillside, according to the chauf feur, was that of a prospector who had camped there temporarily. There was nothing, then, to be feared from that quarter, but solely from the rear -where the horsemen, having picked up Marrophat and his companions, had instituted hot pursuit, and were now strung out In a long, straggling line, three horses carrying double the farthermost-perhaps a mile and a half away-one with a single rider the nearest, well within three-quar ters of a mile. Nobly mounted, this last came on like the wind, gaining on the motor car with every stride; for his horse was trained to such going, whereas the car at best could only labor heav ily in dust and sand. None the less, it had won .o a point within a quarter of a mile from the pass before the horseman got within what he esteemed the proper range, an opened fine. He fired thrice. His first shot winged wide, his second by ill-chance ripped through a rear tire of the car, thus placing upon it an additional handi cap, while his third sought the zenith as his hands flew up and he dropped from the saddle, drilled through the body by Alan's only shot. SA long-range pistol duel was in progress before the car had covered half the remaining distance to the pass. tBy the time it entered theis last, which proved to be a narrow ravine with towering side of crumbly earth and shale and broken rock, the pur suit was not a hundred yards behind, while the firing was well-nigh contin uous. Two hundred feet above the trail two men were working with desperate haste at some mysterious business though none noticed them. Only the chauffeur was aware of a woman running down the hillside at an angle, to intercept the car several, hundred yards from the mouth of the pas. As it drew near the spot where she paused, waving both hands frantically, the head of the pursuing party swept into the mouth of the ravine. At the same time the chauffeur no ticed that the two men on the hillside were following the woman pellmell throwing themselves down the slopm with gigantic leaps and bounds. And then a great explosion rent the peacetful hush of night-that till then had been proftaned by the pattering cracks of the revolver fusillade. As the roar of dynamite subsided the entire side of the hill shifted and slid ponderously down, choking the ravine with debris to the depth of some thirty or forty feet, burying the leaders of the pursuit beyond rescue. Only a instant later the motor car Jolted to a halt and Alan pulled him self together to find that Rose and Bareus were standing beside the door and jabberitg joyful greetings, mixed with more or less Incoherent explana tions 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 recogniinag Alan in the ear by the aid of spy glasses, had with the prospector's aid hit upon this scheme of shooting a landslide la between the pursuit aa its devoted quarry. (To3 ascoWXUZD