Picture-Play Weekly (Apr-Oct 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY ham and Alvarez sat drinking together in the room from which Beatrice and her father had been led away as prisoners from their audience with the darkskinned president of the republic. ■■\\'hat do you intend to do with the wealthy old gringo?" Alvarez inquired '■ of his mentor. '■^lake him cough up?" replied Graham, helping himself to another drink. "If he wants to get back to the States, jl let him write out a check for fifty thou' sand dollars and hand it over to us. And we'll give him only a week to do ,' it in, too. If he refuses to pay the ran\ som, we'll send him out to a blank wall \ with a firing squad, and write to his i friends afterward that he died down 'i here of fever, or something.'' With a laugh, the villain clapped his vassal on the back, and rose. J "But the girl — ah, that's another story!" turning toward the door of the room in which he had ordered her locked. "I'm going in to have a little chat w ith her now !" But he was interrupted in his unsteady progress toward the door by the ^ breathless appearance of Heinz. "Quick !" the traitor cried out to Alvarez. "Garcia and General Laguerre are on their way to attack the city ! " Bracing himself with one hand on the back of a chair, Graham barked a series of orders to Alvarez. With Heinz, the {latter hurried out to put them into acI tion — they were to marshal the army i before the front gates of the city to Irepel the assault there, which would 4 frustrate its unexpected effect, thanks to Heinz's despicable betrayal. Then, sweeping the empty audience chamber with a satisfied glance, Graham turned, laughing cruelly to himself, to unlock the door behind which Beatrice was a prisoner. With her father a captive elsewhere -1 the palazzo, he thought he had her alone, at his merc}'. But he did not know that Hardgrave, :)verpowering his guard when the later entered his cell with a jug of water ,»nd a loaf, had escaped. Seizing the .norse that a soldier had left outside the oalazzo, the railroad president had galoped off on the road that Royal, at the lead of half the attacking force, was aking to reach the rear gates of the ity. When they met, Royal drew his grandather's sw-ord from its scabbard, after i Hardgrave had told him that Beatrice was still a prisoner in the palazzo, and stood up in his stirrups. "Come on, men !'' he shouted to the troops behind him. "We're going in through those city gates, if all of the fiends of hell try to stop us '" And so they did. The force imder Royal was still less than half the number of Alvarez's soldiers. Those odds, however, were set at naught by the fury w"ith w"hich he led charge after charge against the opposition, until, at last, it gave waj-, and he and his company surged in. Sending the others on to make a rear attack upon the troops of Alvarez, who were fighting at the front gates to keep Laguerre and his men out, and so put But the villain, Graham, did not know that Hardgrave was even then escaping from the palazzo in Tegucigalpa, the capital city of the South .American republic of Anduras, the usurper's forces entirely to rout — which was afterward done — Royal sprang up the palazzo steps. Graham held Beatrice, despite her struggles, in his arms. "A kiss for a blow 1" the drunken ruffian was laughingly exclaiming. "You struck me once, months ago, and I swore then I'd kiss you for it. Xow each time you strike me with your pretty fists you're adding another kiss to the debt you owe me. and that I'm going to make you — pay," he darted his lips toward her face, but she evaded them. '■Paj-, }'es. you will !" as she still struggled in his clasp. "Pay !" Roj'al, bursting into the room with his red sword in his hand, made his presence known bv a srrowl of furv. "Oh, Ro\al, Ro\ al — save me !'' the girl cried to him. Releasing her, Graham had whirled to face him. "Ah, the cadet, eh?" he sneered in recognition of him from the girl's mention of his name, which he had previously heard her make. "Well, little tin soldier, if it's fight you're looking for — you'll get it !" As he spoke, he brought his hand from behind him. In it was a revolver, and with the gesture which revealed the weapon, he fired. The bullet missed Royal, but the shot had served to disconcert him for an instant. And in that fraction of a moment, Graham was upon him, grappling his arms before he could swing aloft his sword. Royal dropped the saber, and with one hand caught the man's throat, while with the other he strove to wrest the pistol from him. Body pressed to body, they wrestled in tense' silence, broken only by their fierce breathing. "Damn you I" panted the adventurer, breaking away. He ran back, leveling the revolver at Ro3-al, and pulled the trigger three times in succession. Its hammer clicked harmlessh— the gun was empty. \\'ith a muttered imprecation for his forgetfulness in not having looked to see if it was loaded before he put it in his pocket, Graham hurled the thing at Royal's head. Flinging up his hands. Royal caught it. And. as the man rushed in upon him again, grasping the weapon by the muzzle, he brought the butt down with all his force on his head. Without a sound. Graham dropped to the floor like a felled o.x. His worthless career was ended. "!My darling!" Royal sprang forward and caught the girl in his arms. She lifted her face to his. "Oh, Royal!'' She was crying. "Put your arms around me — I want to feel that I'm safe, safe — and kiss me, dear!" Royal Macklin hesitated. Then, as he heard the shouts of the troops of Garcia and the soldier of fortune. General Laguerre, ringing out in the street below them in token that the citj was taken, and by his efforts, a triumphant smile lighted his face. "I believe." he said, as he brought his lips down toward hers, "that I've won the right now!''