c THE

TEETH OF THE TIGER BT

MAURICE LEBLANC !

~ ; A ; t \ , ' i V ' * " " * " • '

TRAffSI^ATKD BT ALEXANDER TEIXKIRA DE MATTOS

'•Lmtion to him. j II,.. iv.treared. • • '* '

Ami suddenly, after :i glance .it his enemy. in- spun round, drew iiiitiself up on his nlack legs with aii ••J'fort, and smarted running to­ward the weli.

lie was twnty p;if.*es i'rom it. He covered on<- half thr^u quart­ers of the distant**?. Already the

^CHAPTttf{ "jPVVCN'Ty—Ooutinucd.) a;| 46 "Why„ my dear sir, what a "The whole scaffolding of

State we're getting ourselves in-jr0(;ks has eonie down 011 top of *ol Of course, I understand thati},er! Vou (,;U1 picture it, eh? tfiy sudden return seems an un-|^lat a s*Kht! Come, quick, it's usual au<l even an kiconvcwkmt 'y°ur turn to kick the bucket, proceeding, but still it does not!WouIfl -vou like a length of rope? •dk> to be so uncontrollably irn-|^a» ^Ia* ha ! It s enough to make pressed. Men have seen much|0U(! with laughing. Didn't I Wore extraordinary things than K*y that,you'd meet at the gates ,ihat, such an Joshua staying the of h^li? t^uicK. your sweetheart's

j other a little lower down, hol­lowed out sideways in the wall and leading to one of the rooms to tile k(?'*p.

"At Tanearville this second 'tponing is nowadays closed with a grating. Here it was walled up with a iiiye** of small stones and plaster. And it was just the

I recollection of Tancarville that mouth opened before him. He'made irw stay, all the more as put out his arms, with the move- there was no hurry, since you had ment of a man about to drive, and , had the kindness to inform mc

staying _ . . tun, and more sensational dis-,asters, irneli as the Lisbon earth­quake of 1755. * ness' „.w. — can't keep a lady

'The wise man"t-edufeoi events )vaitin£> you nkow. Hurry up, to their proper proportions and ul)ln• orenc<-' is dead! ' judges them, not by their action *lpou his <w» destiny, but by the ment> as though the mere word way in which they influence the yf death appeared to him delic-

n/M. A1 1 1 *r lAiin fortunes of the world fess that your little

Now con- 10US

mishap is — ^ v w l u i D i i a p i a u i n i t o ( ~ — L J

purely , individual and does not c*e- He simply nodded his head jiu£? himself to his work, he ex--affect the equilibrium of the solar system. You know what Marcus Aurelius says, on page 84, of €3mrpt»n tier's edition " K

The cripple had plucked tip - courage to raise his head; and the real state of things now became so obviously apparent that he

v eould no longer get away from the _ undeniable fact: Arsene

Hj«P|n was not dead! Arsene Lupin whom lie had hurled into the bowels of the earth and

...•rushed with a hammer; Arsene Lupin was not dead!

How to explain to astounding * mystery the eripplo did not even stop to wonder. One thing alone mattered; Arsene Lupin

not dead. Arsene Lupin spoke as a living man

•does. Arsene Lupin was not dead. He breathed, he smiled, he talked, lie lived! . A n d i t w a a to certainly life that

Moundrel saw before him that, obeying a sudden impulse of ™ nature and of his hatred for •Bio, he flattered himself to his ..full length, reached his revolver, ••teed :t, and fired. _ He fired; but it was too lmte. V®** Luis had eaused the weapon

3S> swerve with a Irfck of his boot. Another kick sent it flying out of &e cripple's hand.

The villain ground his teeth t*ith ftiry and at onee began hur-

• iidly to fumble in his pock&ts. 'fls this what you're looking

for, air?" asked Don Luis, hold-1m? , UP, * hypodermic syringe filled with a yellow fluid. "Ex-fuse me, hut Iwas afraid lest you shQuld pnek yourself by mistake.

1 That would have been a fatal pnek, would it not f And I should ®®vor have forgiton myself." \ The cripple was disarmed. He {iesitated for a moment, surprised that the enemy did not attack him more violently, and sought to

.profit by the delay; His small, blinking eyes wandered around win, looking for something to «w. Birt an idea . seemed to atrike him and to restore tm con­fidence little by little; and, ID a 2°m ffd

tr*fU?r unexpected fit of

donght, he indulged to ose of his loudest chuckles:

-M •b®ttt Kof«nc«?" *• «fi«ited. "Don't forget lior-*nce! For I ve got you there!

* ——"•*" ^- • «v*%uvv* WO JVUJ Florence Ydeath means ypat own

you, wp

y o u "Where's vour

You

know. Hurry up, old French polite-

He said this with real enjoy-

Don Luis had not moved a mus-

shot forward. His rush was stopped. He

rolled over on the ground, drag­ged back violently, with his arms fixed so rirmly to his body that he was unable to stir.

It was Don Luis, who had never wholly lost sight of him, who had made a slip kint to his rope and who had lassoed the cripple at the moment when ho was going to fling himself down the abyss. The cripple struggled for a few moments. But the slip knot bit into his flesh. He ceased moving. Everything was over.

Then Don Luis Perenna, hold­ing the other end of the lasso, came up to him and bound him hand and foot with what re­mained of the rope. The opera­tion was carefully performed. Don Luis repeated'* it time after time, using the coils of rope which the cripple had brought to the well and. gagging him with a handkerchief. And, while apply-

V and said: "What a pity !''. The cripple seemed petrified.

All his joyous contortions, all his t r i u m p h a l p a n t o m i n e , s t o p p e d short. He blurted out:

'®li!hV What did you say?" "I say," declared Don Luis,

preserving him calm and courte­ous demeanor and refraining from echoing the cripple's famili­arity, "I say, my dear sir, that you have done very wrong. I never m3t a finer natur nor one more worthy of esteem than that of Mile. Levasseur. The incom­parable beauty of fier face and figure, her youth, her charm, all these deserved a better treatment. It would indeed be a matter for regret if such a masterpiece of womanhood tyad ceased to be."

The cripple remained astound­ed. Don Luis's serene manner dismayed him. He said, in a blank voice:

"I tell you, she has ceased to be. Haven't you seen the grottof Florence no longer exists!''

"I refuse to believe it," said Don Luis quietly. "If that'were so, everything would look differ­ent. The sky would be clouded; the birds would not be singing; and nature would wear her mourning garb. But the birds are singing, the sky is blue, every­thing is as it should be: the honest man is alive; and the rascal is crawling at his feet. Hqw could Florence be dead?"

A long silence followed upon these words. Tin "two enemies, at three paces distance, looked in­to each other's eyes: Don Luis still as cool as ever, the cripple a prey to the maddest anguish. The monster understood. Obscure as the truth was, it shone , forth before hire, with* all thl light of a blinding certainty: Florence also was alive ! ' Humanly and physi­cally speaking, the thing was not

S)88ible ; but the resurrection of on Luis was likewise an impos­

sibility; and ye? Don Luis was alive, with not a scratch on his face, with not a speck of dust on his clothes

plained, with affected politeness: "You see, sir, people always

come to grief through excessive selfconfidence. They never imag­ine that their adversaries can have resources which they them­selves do not possess. For instance when you got me to fall into your trap, how could you have sup­posed, my dear sir, that a man like myself, a man like Arsene Lupin, hanging on the brim of a well, with his arms resting on the brim and his feet against the in­ner wall, would allow himself to drop down it like the first silly fool that comes along?

"Look here: you were fifteen or twenty yards away; and do you think that I had not the strength to leap out nor the cour­age to face the bullets of your revolver, when it was a question of saving Florence Levasseur's life and my own? Why, my poor sir, the tinest effort would have been enough, believe me!

'' My reason for not making the effort was that I had some­thing better to do, something in­finitely better. I will tell you why, that is, if you care to know. Do you?

"Well, then, at the very first moment, my knees and feet, prop­ped against the inner wall, had smashed in a thick layer of plaster which closed up an old ex­cavation in the well; and this I at once perceived. It was a stroke of luck, wasn't it? And it changed the whole situation. My plan was settled at once. While I went on acting my little part of the gentleman about to tumble down an abyss, putting on the most scared face, the most staring eyes, the most hideous grin, I enlarged that excavation, taking care to throw the chunks qf plaster in front of me in such a way that their fall made no noise. When the moment came, at the very second when my swooning features vanished be­fore your eyes, I simply jumped into my retreat, thanks to a rath­er plucky little wriggle of the loins..

"I wa8 saved, because the re-The monster felt himself lost, treat was dug out on the side

The man -who held hinj in the hoi-1 where you were moving and be­low of his implacable hand was cause, being dark itself, it cast no one of those men whose power'light. All that I now had to do knows no bounds. He was i was to wait.

men who escape; "•! listened quietly to • your , . r~ /vw iuvkvi a wsivwa -uv . a

«an miss you with my revolver one of those P™"**.' l t fro™ the jaws of death and who J threatening speeches. I let" the in any case* vou're iust the thine

y<«r right in theliesrt TmWt h™™ ?e£th!things you flun? d®wn the well for the little display of indoor -live without Ror«S' JEt IS™ whom^they have taken go past me. And, when I thought gymnastics which I have in mind

*i°r«"*, can youf sknrge. y0U had gone back to Florence, for, you. You'll see: it's an idea

that Florence would not join me in the next world until four o'clock. I therefore inspected my refuge and soon realized that, as L had already felt by intuition, it was the foundation of a 1 uild-iiig which had the gai'den laid out on its ruins.

"Well, I went on, groping my v/ay arid following the direction which, above ground*, would have taken me to the grotto. My pre­sentiments were not deceived. A gleam of daylight made its way at the top of a staircase of which I had struck the bottom step. I went up it and heard the sound of your voice."

Don Luis turned the cripple over and over and was pretty rough about it. Then he resumed:

"I wish to impress upon you, my dear sir, that the upshot would have been exactly similar if I had attacked you directly and from the start in the open air. But, having said this, I confess that chance favored me to some purpose. It has often failed me, in the course of our struggle, but this time I had no cause to com­plain.

"I felt myself in such luck that I never doubted for a second that, having found the entrance to the subterranean passage, I should also find th^ way cut. As a mat­ter of fact, I had only to pull gently at the slight obstacle of a few stacked bricks which hid the opening in order to make my exit amid the remains of the castle keep. { h

"Guided by the sound of your voice, I slipped trough the stones and thus reached the back of the grotto in which Florence lay. Amusing, wasn't it?

"You can imagine what fun it was to hear you make your little speeches: 'Answer me, yes or no Florence. A movement of your head will decide your fate. If it's yes, I shall release you. If it's no, you shall die. Answer me, Florence! A sign of your head: is the answer yes or no?' And the end, above all, was delic­ious, when you scrambled to the top of the grotto and started roaring from up there: 'It's you who have asked to die, Flor­ence. You asked for it and you've got it!'

"Just think what a joke it was: at that moment there was no one in the grotto! Not a soul! With one effort, I had drawn Florence toward me and put her under shelter. And all that you were able to crush with your avalanche of rocks, .was one or two spiders, perhaps, dnd a few flies dozing in the flagstones. \ i

"The trick was done and the farce was nearly finished. Act lirst : Arsene Lupin saved. Act second: Florence Levasseur saved. Act third and last: the monster vanquished .... ab­solutely and with a vengeance!"

Don Luis stood up and con­templated his work with a sat­isfied eye.

"You look like a sausage, my son!" he cried, yielding at last to his sarcastic nature and his1 habit of treating his enemies familiarly. "A regular sausage! A bit on the thin side, perhaps: a saveloy for poor people! But there, you don't much care what you look like, I suppose? Besides, you're rather like that at all times; and, in any case; you're just the thing

j <

[yawning hole and next took hold! j of the rope which he had just ; | fastened. Then, litttle by little,?: • inch by inch, cautiously, so that's jit should not knock against the jsitles of the well, the bundle was 'let- down at arm's length. J When it reached a deptli of-twelve yards or so, the gun stop-, ped its further descent and there it remained, slung in •'.•he dark ;

;and in the exact center of the narrow cireumferer.ce.

Don Luis set light to a num­ber of pieces of paper, which? went whirling down, shedding

| their gleams xipon the walls. jThen, unable to resist the craving for a last speech, he leaned over as the scoundrel had done, and

j grinned.: "I selected the place with care,

so that you shouldn't catch cold. I'm bound to look after you, you

'see. 1 promised Florence that I I wouldn't kill you; and I prom-iised the French government to I hand you over alive as soon as !possible. Only, as I didn't know iwhat to do with you until to­morrow morning, I've hung you

I up in the air. j '-It's a pretty trick, isn't it? And you ought to appreciate it.

jfor it's so like your own way of j doing things. Just think: the j gun is resting on its two ends, with hardly an inch to spare. So, if you start wriggling, or moving,! or even breathing too hard, either the barrel or the butt end'll give way; and down you go! As for me, I've nothing to do with it!

(Continued Next Week.) t

YANKS ARE WINNING f . FRENCH TOTS' HEARTS

With the American Army in Prance, (by mail).—At least one generation of French men and women will idolize Americans.

American soldiers havo won their way into the hearts of children of France everywhere in the army zone.

The American loves children, as can be seen in any village where United States troops are stationed. One never passes through villages without seeing

j soldiers on repose playing with French youngsters. The children crowd around the first Yankee they see, to "rough-# house" and play ball. I

These are two forms of sport the French youngsters had not known. French grownups do not like exercise that musses them up, and hence. . rough-housing" with the "kids" was® unknown until the Americans arrived.# French kiddies take to it like ducks to water, and an American is a popular article because he will let youngsters 1 clamber all over him, and play. #

The Yankees .like it, too, for it seems : a bit like home. They have taken it jV as a duty to teach French youngsters to play ball, and in every village in$i the evening one sees dozens of games of catch going on, usually a Yankee ' playing with French boys and girls.

Incidentally, while the Yankee* are /, Americanizing the coming generation , of France, they are winning the hearts ' of mothers in France, who can hardly understand how and why the Ameri­cans will bother themselves to notice little folk. It is a Yankee character­istic which wins France.

k The monster retreated, drag-seiitenec, ft! If Florence ging himself slowly backward on la dead, »you 11 put the rope round us knees along the little brick your owu neek, won't won't path. VAT1 «rnn,V: VOUl * ' tV-

» > > j-

, He retreated. He- passed by the ireuce wets to due, confused heap of stones that cov-

•Mirivs Ker J" • ered the plaee where the grotto Ofiod <ko aeoun* had been, and did not turn, his

— —. —Dtnowed burst' of I eyes in that direction, as if he ahotjit on Iris I were definitely convinced that

| AHA* quit«, q«xte (Florence had come forth safe'atd

I was preparing to leave my ref uge, to return to the light of day, and to fall upon you from be­hind, when- "

Don Luis turned the cripple

NR«r i wn i lopia; jail •

sound from the appalling sepul-

_ retreated. Don Luia who

i, was ousy unwitting •£ soil no

of rope whieh he had picked up, and sesasd to pay no further at-

of my own, a really original idea. Don't be impatient: we shan't be long." i

He took one of the guns which the cripple had brought to the well and tied to the middle of the gun the end of a twelve or fif­teen (yards' length of rope, fast-

over, as though he were a parcel which he was tying up with string, arid continued: w — _-

Have you ever been to Tan- ening the otjber end to the cords carville, the old feudal castle in ! with which the cripple was bound Normandy, on the banks of the ! just behind his back. He next

Haven't you?^ Well, you took his captive round the body ~ and held him over the well:

"Shut your eyes, if

t

must know that, outside tho rains of the keep, there is an old well which, like many other wells x>f the period, possesses the peculiar­ity of having two openings, one .at the top, facing the sky, and the

„ _ you feel at all giddy. And don't be fright­ened. I'll... be, very careful. Reafcf" ?

He put iflte $£nple down, the

LITERATURE CENSORED. From the Christian Science Monitor. Winnipeg, Han. — The Manitoban .

government has information that the followers of Pastor Russell, of Brook­lyn, N. Y., are carrying on pro-Ger-man propaganda through hand to hand distribution of pamphlets, since f the mail and other avenues of pub-licity have been closed to them. Prose­cution of all those aiding in the dis- ; tribution of the propaganda of the International Bible Students is plan- :

ned and warning has been issued to those who may innocently come into possession of the printed matter is- f j sued by the RusselliteB. The press censor callsvattention to the fact that the penalty for having publicity mat­ter of this sort in one's possession is a sentence of Ave years' imprisonment or a fine of $5,000, or both fine and imprisonment. This penalty applies! to anyone detected in reading, circu- • lating or in any way giving counten-ance to the prohibited matter.

"The British government has not' power to order any man in Canada into ? uniform, and yet, if the United States' were in the war on the same popula­tion basis as Canada," says a Cana­dian officer, "it would have 8,000,000 men at the front, and would have suf­fered more than 1,000,000 casualties. If • you were in to the same extent as Eng- • land, you would have 12,000,000 men: under arms, and would have had 3,- . 000,000 casualties; or, In the same pro­portion as Scotland, you would hava 10,000,000 in your army, with propor­tionate losses; and finally, if engaged in war as France is, your army would number 15,000.000, and casualties up­ward of 6,000;000." k ?v

A French aviator reports that many * insects follow ascending balloons. Flies go as high as 2,970 feet, where they die. Grasshoppers cling to the baskets < and fall alt in rarefied air, while swal­lows follow to catch the foolish insects as they fall. _ k-i ,.

Dr. Abraham Jacobi, 89 years old '• Jumped from the second story of his'1

burning home recently; he was not in­jured, but there was no time to save the manuscript of his biography, so much anticipated by the medical world U

* . -• — A Welch coal miner, Godfrey Jones, I

Who enlisted as a -private In 1914, has shown such ability and courage that' he now is a brigadier general. The Welsh coal miner outranks the. "heir , to the" British throne.

Stockholm reports that Paul Ander­son. of the American T. M. C. A. ia WW by the bolsherlsts in^Moicow.'