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"Beatrice!" he shouted "Where are you? Beatrice!"

To the doorway in the cliff he ran, shaken and tre

The stone had been pushed away; it lay inside the cave O at hiht

On hands and knees he fell, and hastily crawled through As he went, he flashed his lamp here, there, everywhere

"Beatrice! Beatrice!"

No answer

In the far corner still flickered so-fire But there, too, ashes and half-burned sticks lay scattered all about

To the bed he ran It was empty and cold

"Beatrice! Oh,aze

He sprang, seized the object, and for a , while all about hi down

The object in his hand was the girl's gun One cartridge, and only one, had been exploded

The barrel had been twisted al clutch of a hand inhuhastly power

On the stock, distinctly nicked into the hard rubber as Stern held the flash-laroan, Allan started backward The revolver fell with a clatter to the cave floor

His foot slid in soasped

Half-crazed, he reeled toward the door

The flash-la the wall

With a chattering cry he recoiled

There, roughly yet unmistakably imprinted on the white lie, a horrible, a brutally distorted hand