Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1917-Feb 1918)

CAPTAIN SUNLIGHTS LAST RAID 79 his life. But he was an automobile driver of international reputation. He was not afraid of anything* on earth. He had all his nerve with him all the time, and his courage was unquestioned. No man could face swift death at the wheel of a madly driven racing-car, as he had done many times, and be a craven. Also, he was not minded to give up the girl without a battle, the battle, of course, being a mental and spiritual one, which he would be quite willing to translate into a physical one should the necessity arise. Like all men of his profession, he was prompt, bold and decided. He had an agency at the next large town, some seventy-five miles west. A day or so before he had sent there several cars, among them a high-powered, four-seated racer for some sporting rancher. Instead of getting off at the next little way-station and waiting for a belated train to take him back to his unwilling lady-love, he remained on the express until he reached the city. Then he took the car and drove back at full speed over the rough prairie road. He was going to interview his sweetheart and see whether her extraordinary statement were so or not, and, if so, why. He also counted, fearlessly enough, on a few words with the man on horseback. Thus Captain Sunlight, having killed the men who were left at the ranchhouse and set it on fire, was riding recklessly helter-skelter down the steep, narrow, unused trail toward the town. From the north Twitchell was headed eastward, driving the big racing-car like a demon, with the same object. Conway was galloping away at a moderate pace to intercept Sunlight. The object of all this maneuvering was enjoying the most delightful of meditations in her room, preparatory to a little walk to a spring in the trees some distance from the settlement, a little later in the afternoon. How pleasantly the romantic adventure of the morning had terminated ! How it would thrill her classmates at Ogontz when they heard of it ! The man she had thought was Captain Sunlight was the man who had rescued her in the first instance and had saved her life in the second. Of course, she had not recognized him, for the first time she had seen him he had been bearded and dusty, not to say grim v. and she had been so overwrought that she would not have recognized her own mother in that fainting spell. She had heard all about Jack Conway, but found that half had not been told her. She had dreamed her girlish dreams, too. She had some thoughts to spare for poor George Twitchell as well. She certainly had treated him badly. She wished that she had not been quite so abrupt — that she had enjoyed more time to explain. If it were possible to love one man and at the same time feel tenderly toward another, she was in that very condition. There was alarm in her mind, in view of the fact that Captain Sunlight was abroad again. Of course, her brother was away, and she was in the village, where nothing could possibly happen to her; but suppose he and Conway met again ! As a matter of fact, they did meet — to Conway's disaster. Riding around a clump of trees and undergrowth, that latter gentleman suddenly found himself looking into the muzzles of several Winchesters and revolvers. One of them was Captain Sunlight's, who, from his point of vantage on the trail, had observed this solitary horseman and had galloped ahead with his attentive villains and arranged this little ambush in the copse. "It is a great pleasure," said he as Conway threw up his hands in obedience to a summons which it would have been instant death even to hesitate about obeying, "to meet with my courteous companion of the other trail of a few hours back, seiior." "I cant say that it's as much pleasure to me as it seems to be to you," said Conway coolly, altho he realized that never in his life had he been in so dangerous a position and probably never would he be in any other to compare to it. Indeed, his tenure of life would undoubtedly be of the shortest. "The situation of this morning is reversed," he went on, after a little interval. "Quite so!" returned Captain Sunlight. "This morning, for reasons of your own, you gave me free passage. This afternoon, for reasons of my own " he stopped. "You give me free passage !" said