The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-11-25
A WRESTLING.

| light
/ Mike, with his 6 feet of manhood, was
well in request at the country gatherings,
but OF late, said the folk, the man had
turned queer. In that melancholy, stately
country by che sea misunderstanding OF
the quiet, meiancholic kinds thing
very common A year ago a wrestling
match between him and Jack Tierney
had gathered two counties TO see II. No
man could say which was the champion.
! Now one was the victor, again the other.
| They kept steady pace in their victories.
Jack, zoo, was the captain of the kilsal-
lagh team of hurlcrs, Mike Of the Clone
gala. That would be a great day for the
men and women of his following when
either champion should decisively lead.
The country people scarcely guessed at
the time their two champions became en-
emies. Indeed il was a secret locked in
their own breasts, scarcely acknowledged
| even when in lis most hidden moments
| each man looked at the desires Of his
heart II only showed itself in a new fierce
ness and determination IN their encoun-
tiers. Each had sworn to himself 10 con-
quer the other. The soreness between
: them came about when, by some sad mis-
chance, they fell in love with the same
girl. Worse luck, she wanted neither OF
! them, for she was vowed to the convent
/ In the long run one or the other might
! have tempted her TO an earthly bridal, but
| she made no choice between them, and
each mans chance seemed equal when she
slipped from them both into kilbrico
churchyard. When she lay there, neither
man could say she had distinguished him
| by special kindness from the other, and
their rivalry waIed more furious with the
woman in her grave.
But six months later, and their battles
still undecided, Jack Tierney fell sick and
followed Ellen TO Kilbride. Then Mike
Sheehan was without an equal for many
miles. But little comfort IL was To him,
with the girl of his heart dead and the
I one man he had desired TO overthrow dead
and unconquered. He secluded himself
| from the sports and pastimes and lived
lonely in his cabin among the gulls, eat
/ ing out his unsatisfied heart. None other
would satisfy him to wrestle with but his
! dead rival, and indeed he, in common
with the country people, thought that no
other might be found fiji for him 10 meet.
| Kilbride churchyard is high on the main
land and lies dark within its four stone
walls. The road to It is by tunnel Of
trees that make shade velvety black even
4
YER The churchyard is very old and has
no monuments of Importance, only green
! headstones bent sideways and sunk to
their neck and shoulders in the earth. A
! postern gate, with a flight of stone steps,
opens from Kilbride lane. Here every
/ night you may see the ghost of Tobin, the
murderer, climbing those steps with rig
! id burden hanging from his shoulder.
Ruf AZ Mike Shreh3p ascpndpd the stem,
out of the midnight dark he felt no fear.
/ He changed the gate of the sacred quiet
| place in a way that set the silence echoing.
! Some mad passion was on Mike Sheehan
surely, or he would not so have desecrated
the quiet resting place of the dead. There,
I by the ruined gable of the old abbey, was
fresh mound unusually great in size.
Mike Sheehan paused by it.
jack he cried in thunderous voice
hoarse with its passion, come, let Us once
for all see which is the better man. Come
and fight me, Jack, and ii you throw me
1 let Ellen I've yours now and forever"
The blood was in his eyes and the sea
mist curling III from sea His challenge
spoken, he swayed dizzily a moment.
Then his eyes saw. The place seemed full
of the sea mist silvered through with the
moon. AS he looked To right and left sub
stantial things had vanished, but he saw
on either hand long rows of shadowy faces
watching him.
Many of them he knew. They were the
boys and girls, the men and women of his
own village who had died in many years.
Others were strange, but he guessed them
ghosts from Kilsallagh, beyond Roscar-
berry, the village where Jack used To live.
He looked eagerly among the folk he re-
membered for Ellen's face. There was one
who might be she, the ghost of woman
yelled in her shadowy hair, whose eyes he
could not see. And then Jack was upon
him.
That was great wrestling in Kilbride
churchyard. The dead man wound about
the living with his clay cold limbs, caught
him in icy grips that froze the terrified
blood from his heart and breathed upon
him soundlcssly chill breath Of the grave
that seemed TO wither him, yet Mike
fought furiously. as one who fights not
only TO satisfy a hate, but as one who
fights TO win a bride. He had a dim knowl-
edge OF the fight he was making, dim
premonitiOn that the dead man was more
than his match. The ghostly spectators
pressed forward more eagerly; their shad-
owy faces peered; their shadowy forms
swayed in the mist. The ghost had Mike
Sheehan in death grip. His arms were
imprisoned, his breath failed, his flesh
crept, and his hair stood up. He felt him
self dying OF the horror Of this unnatural
combat, when there was a whisper at his
ear. Dimly he seemed 10 hear Ellen's
voice. dimly turning his failing eyes, be
seemed To recognize her eyes under the
veil of ashen fair hair. Draw him TO the
left on the grass" said the voice, ''and
trip him. His old love and his old ieal-
ousy seemed 10 surge up in Mike Sheehan.
With tremendous effort he throw Of
those paralyzing arms. Forgetting his
horror. he furiously embraced the dead,
drew him 20 the left on the grass, slippery
a. glass after the summer heats, for sec
oEd or two sWayed with him 70 and fro;
then the two went down together with a
great violence, but Nike Shcchan was up
permost MS knee on the dead mans
breast
When he came 20 himself in the moon
light, all was calm and peaceful. Il was
close upon dawn. and the moon was very
low. He looked about him az the quiet
ness- Another man might have thought
he had hut dreamed II, not 50 Mike Shce-
han. He remembered with fierce Joy
how he had flung the ghost and how Ellen
had been on his side You " mine nov,
A>thoreen. he said in a passionate apo
trophe u her and tbs could find Il In
my heart 20 pity him thats lying there
and ha- lost y5U- lie was the fair fighter
ever and always. and Low he'll acknowi-
srlCts Il.c for 4 . better man And then