Led Astray and The Sphinx Part 24

As they were approaching with feverish steps that extreme point, Lucan suddenly stopped.

"Listen!" he said.

The sound of a horse's gallop upon the hard soil could be distinctly heard. They ran.

A sloping bank of moderate elevation divided the wood from the plateau.

This they climbed half way with the help of trailing branches; screened then by the bushes and the foliage, they beheld before them a most impressive spectacle. At a short distance to the left, Julia was coming on at break-neck speed; she was following the oblique line of the woods, apparently shaping her course straight toward the edge of the cliff. They thought at first that her horse had run away, but they saw that she was las.h.i.+ng him with her whip to further accelerate his speed.

She was still some hundred paces from the two men, and she was about pa.s.sing before them. Lucan was preparing to leap to the other side of the bank, when the hand of Monsieur de Moras fell violently upon his arm and held him back--firmly.

They looked at each other. Lucan was amazed at the profound alteration that had suddenly contracted the count's features and sunken his eyes; he read at the same time in his fixed gaze an immense sorrow, but also an immovable resolve. He understood that there was no longer any secret between them. He yielded to that glance, which, so far as he was concerned--he felt sure of that--conveyed nothing but an expression of confidence and friendly supplication. He grasped his friend's hand within his own and remained motionless. The horse shot by within a few steps of them, his flanks white with foam, while Julia, beautiful, graceful, and charming still in that terrible moment, sat lightly upon the saddle.

Within a few feet of the edge of the cliff, the horse, scenting the danger, s.h.i.+ed violently and wheeled around in a semi-circle. She led him back upon the plateau, and, urging him both with whip and voice, she started him again toward the yawning chasm.

Lucan felt Monsieur de Moras' nails cutting into his flesh. At last the horse was conquered; the ground gave way under his hind feet, which only met the vacant s.p.a.ce. He fell backward; his fore legs pawed the air convulsively.

The next moment the plateau was empty. No sound had been heard. In that deep chasm the fall had been noiseless and death instantaneous.

[THE END.]

THE STORY OF A FIGHT FOR A THRONE

D'Artagnan, the King Maker

By ALEXANDRE DUMAS.

Written originally by Dumas as a play, and now for the first time novelized and translated into English.

_The Philadelphia Enquirer says_:

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A HERO OF THE SWORD.

The King's Gallant

By ALEXANDRE DUMAS.

"The King's Gallant" is deserving of recognition, in that it is not only a novelization of the earliest of Dumas' plays, but it marks a distinct triumph in his career.

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STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_

THE STORY OF A HOPELESS LOVE.

Tons of Treasure

By WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP.

_Author of_ "DETMOLD."

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His hero is a manly New Yorker, who is fired with a zeal to "make good" a defalcation accredited to his dead father.

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There are many touching incidents in the book, but none more full of pathos than when the woman who loves bares her soul to the woman who is loved.

STREET AND SMITH, _New York and London_

A BOOK FULL OF 'HUMAN' INTEREST

QUEER PEOPLE

By WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP.