Picture Show (Nov 1919-Apr 1920)

1G The Picture Show, November 81/,, 1919. "A MARKED MAN." (Continued from page 14.) Harry emerged from the water, caught his boric, ami rode on to t lie cave. In the meantime Sheriff Lindsey was impatiently awaiting the return of Sleeping Jim. He felt pretty certain now that the man he had allowed to leave Longhorn was Cheyenne Harry, and that, coupled with the fact that he knew Kent had been a road agent, made him regret that he had not detained both men when he had the chalice. When the half-breed returned with the news that the man lie had been trailing was Cheyenne Harry, hut that lie had lost him, Lindsey began to act. Hastily swearing iu a posse, he started ou the trail of the stage coach. Justice. PERCH F.D on the summit of Gnnsight Pa?', looking like two birds of prey, were Lien Kent and Cheyenne Harry. They were watching the rocky trail over which the coach must come. " Here she is ! " cried Harry, as his keen eye caught eight of a cloud of dust. " We'll let them get through the pass and catch them in the ford of the fiver. If they try to bolt, they won't be able to get away so last there." Putting on their masks, the. two road agents galloped down the hill and caught up the stage a3 it entered the river. The passengers offered no resistance, but the driver seemed determined to show fight. Kent, who had been drinking earlier in the day, was in an ugly mood, and without a word of warning he shot the driver dead. The cold-blooded crime filled Harry with horror. .Snatching the revolver from his companion's hand, lie shouted : " There's no excuse for killing a man like that ! " In the excitement which followed the shooting, Harry had not heard the sound of horses' hoofs, and before he realised what had happened, the slier iff and his posse had surrounded them. The still smoking revolver which he had snatched away from Kent was in Harr.v 's hand, and this pointed to Harry as the murderer. He might have protested his Innocence, but he wulil only do that by accusing Kent, and bitterly as t» despised the man, he could not bring himself to five him away. There was no chance oi breaking through the posse, and with true Western philosophy Harry surrendered. Kent was too scared to think of putting up a fight. Western justice is swift. As neither Kent nor Harry would say who tired the fatal shot, the hastij.V summoned court found them both guilty, and they were sentenced to be hanged on the following day. Cheyenne Harry heard the sentence without a tremor, but Kent began to scream for mercy, and Harry despised still more the man who had callously taken another man's life, yet whimpered like a beaten hound when his own end had come. All that night Kent never closed his eyes. With auivenni hps tnd shaking limbs hi sat through th long night, seeing only one tiling — a rope with a i oose, and his neck inside the noose. Cheyenne Harry, after pacing his cell for some Time jell asleep. His dreams were bittersweet, lfe jaw his old mother reading his letters with pride shining in her eyes, and a tear of regret fell on the pillow of the sleeping outlaw. And then lie dreamed of June. And so morning came to the two doomed men. Part of Harry's dream enme true. June came lo pec him, and her sweet smile nearly broke down the iron resolution of the outlaw which had stood proof against the fear of death. " I don't care what they say ! 1 know you did not do it!" whispered the girl. And Cheyenne Harry's eyes told her that which loyalty to his partner prevented him saying. The parting with June shook Harry like nothing else could have done, but he stiffened his lip and showed June a man— a man repentant, but not afraid pf death. As soon as she had s£>ne, Harry's one wish was that they would get it over . Quickly. He listened reverently to the chaplain's words, and then he asked him to spend what time there was left with Kent. " May your words of hope for forgiveness strengthen him to meet his end," he sai I. Ben Kent was a pitiful sight when they brought htm from his cell to walk to the callows, His legs icfused to carry him. and but for the help ol Harry lie would have fallen to the ground. Two grim nooses were ready fixed* and the sheriff's assistants quickly adjusted them. Lindsey was just going to .step oil the platform and give the signal, when a messenger arrived with a letter. " It's for I Tim : " he gasped, pointing to Harry. " I?ut I brought it to you ! " Lindsey opened the letter. It was from Harry's mother, and read : " 1 am w riting because of your long silence. 1 am coming to Longhorn on .Saturday." The sherill passed the litter to the chaplain, and tears came into the clergyman's eyes as he read it. " You must li t this poor old mother sec her boy alive, Lindsey," he said. The sherill shook hishead. •"Sentiment doesn't count at hanging"." he replied ■trimly. " 'I ''e "a-vs '"' m,lst hang, and i mint see the law carried out." " Hut 1 appeal to you on a higher law," cried the chaplain. " The law of humanity." in (he end the man ol Clod conquered the man ol law, and the sheiill consented postpone (he hanging for a fortnight so (hat Harry could see llis mother. The chaplain and (Jrant Webster stood bond that as soon as Harry had seen his mother off at the end of her visit, he would return to the condemned cell. It was a scene that could not have happened anywhere but in the wilds, where the sacred alfeelion for the mother who bore them never dies iu the heart of the most reckless and worst of men. Having given his word, Sheriff Lindsey made up llis mind to do the thing thoroughly. The men who had Captured Harry were enrolled as a guard of honour, and when Harry's mother, a dear, grey-haired old lady with the kindest of eyes, stepped off the train, there was such a demonstration of welcome that she thoroughly believed that her son was ouc of the most respected men in the township. Grant Webster had done his share. To keep up the fiction of Harry bavins a wife arid a prosperous lanrh, he lent Harry his place, and June pretended to be the little wif« Harry had written about. And for a fortnight everything at Webster's ranch was just as Harry's mother had imagined it would be when she had read her son's letters. The sheriff was not at all sorry that he had consented to the chaplain's request. He had never been quite certain iu his mind that Harry had fired the fatal shot, but in face of the fact that Harry hadikept silent, he had no. alternative lo the course he had pursued. »c One night Lindsey peeped through the window of the ranch, and when he saw Harry and his mother sitting by the lire, tears came into his eyes. " if that man could only prove he didn't do the shooting." he muttered, " darned if I wouldn't let him scoot so far as the robbery is concqrnedi! " A Mother's Good-bye. THE fortnight was over. Harry's mother had cone back happy in the thought that her son was all she had believed him to be. As she had stepped into the train, she had turned to the sheriff and said, " And that great man is my little boy." The simple words, and the glow of a mother's pride in the dear old eye had shaken every man present, but. they had kept up the play; And now Harry was back in the coudemned cell, but the dawn was breaking for him. Even as he paced up and down. Sheriff l.ind^e.y was talking to a woman who had come post haste to Longhorn. She had been a passenger in the stags coach, and the only one who had seen the shooting, " That man Kent did it ! " she said. " I was too fi ightened at the time to think clearly, and it was only when I heard that you were going to hang the two that I realised 1 was the only one who could save the life of an innocent man." It was with a feeling of profound thankfulness that! the sheriff heard the news, and he lost no time in telling it to Harry. " And now I've got the proof to. clear you-from the shooting," he said. " I'll forget all about the robberv. Get on your horse and scoot ! I'm betting that we, have heard the last of Cheyenne Harr.\ the outlaw, and I expect you to win my bet." The letters that Harry now write? to his mother about his little wife June, and the prosperous ranch are true, and there is no more respected citizen in Longhorn to-day than the man who was once sentenced to death as Cheyenne Harry the outlaw. (Adapted from incidents in the CAl'MOST photo-play, "A MARKED MA A," featuring II AIWA' CAREY, f s Cfteynni Harry.) The new Metro ''exterior " stages. Notice the white awnings that serve for a roof. These are each a yard wide, and are strung on wires so that any portion of the stage may be shaded at wiil. The huge new " interior " stages under construction at Los Angeles. This building is 140 feet wide and 150 feet long. A cinema setting that has not been torn down is seen in the picture.