ton anticipated the
movement. His right hand moved like a streak of light. It went down,
then up again with the same motion. The air rocked with a crashing
report, mingled with Ruth's scream of terror. And Hamlin's gun loosened
in his hand, his knees doubled and he tumbled headlong, to fall face
down at the feet of the dark-faced man who stood, sneering, some
blue-white smoke curling upward in mocking laziness from the muzzle of
his pistol.

Ruth had moved with the report of the pistol; she was at Hamlin's side
when he fell, grasping one of his arms; and she went down with him, to
one knee, dazed from the suddenness of the thing; palzied with horror,
the room reeling around her.

How long she knelt at her father's side she did not know. It seemed only
a second or two to her when she raised her head and looked around with
dumb, agonized grief at the faces that seemed to fill the place. Then
she heard Warden's voice; he spoke to the dark-faced man who had killed
her father, and his voice was vibrant with a mocking, Satanic
satisfaction.

"You've wanted her, Slade--take her!"

The dark-faced man grinned at her, bestially. She leaped to her feet at
the expression of his eyes, and started to run toward the door. But
terror shackled her feet; it seemed that some power was dragging at her,
holding her back from the door. She had not taken more than half a
dozen steps when Slade was upon her.

His strength seemed to be prodigious, for despite her desperate
resistance he lifted her from the floor, crushed her to him and started
for the stairs. She screamed, begging the men in the room to help her.
But through the haze she saw grinning faces turned to hers; heard loud
laughter and coarse oaths. And then came oblivion.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE GOVERNOR'S GUNS

From his desk in the big, quiet room in the capitol building Lawler
could look out upon a wide sweep of orderly landscape. There were
trees--now stripped of their foliage--in serried array around the
spacious grounds that surrounded the building; bushes arranged in
attractive clusters; a low stone fence with massive posts that rose in
simple dignity above white cement walks that curved gracefully toward
the streets.

For nearly two months the huge building--representing the seat of
government of a mighty state--had been Lawler's throne. And he had ruled
with a democratic spirit and with a simple directness, that had
indicated earnestness and strength. There