Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-09-11

| well as MS leg.
He had sprung to his feet when first
bitten, and sat on top of tho stone
while he applied the ammonia. Now
he nearly fell off it, and at length was
obliged to rest his head against it to
support the pain and giddiness. He
believed himself to be dying.
For as long as an hour he remained
in semi-comatose condition; but at
last he revived little, although his
right leg, when he tried to move it,
felt inert and heavy. His head had
now cleared, and he opened his eyes
and looked around.
Almost the first circumstance that
he noted, consciously, was low,
scraping noise, accompanied by q
slight motion in the sparse brush
twenty OF thirty yards down the slope,
in the direction from which he had
himself come up the hill.
Raising himself little, he saw that
a man, black fellow, undoubtedly a
dervish, was crawling slowly up the
hill. This was quite enough to
stimulate Radmore's reviving energies.
He made strong effort to rise, and
succeeded in drawing himself partly
up by his left leg and leaning his back
against the stone.
The black fellow, too, partially
raised himself, and Radmore now saw
that it was the identical body ne had
seen lying between two stones little
lower down the slope as he came up.
He had thought it corpse then, but
now it appeared to be coming on! The
queer lines of "Fuzzy-Wuzzy' re-
Cured to Radmore's mind:
'E's all 'ot sand and ginger when alive
An 'e's generally shamming when 'e's
dead
"And, by Jove, he means me, tool"
thought the young journalist; for he
could now see that the crawling
dervish had his eyes fixed on him,
and that his distorted features wore
malignant grin.
The Arab was dragging himself
painfully forward, rising on one ell
bow and then pushing with his left
foot. Although grieyously wounded,
fanatical hatred had nerved him to
crawl after the Inglizi who had passed
nm, anu lIO W MIL nllll.
Radmore perceived that the black
chap was holding some sort of weapon
in ono hand, and made a hasty effort
to Craw his own revolver; but as yet
his right arm was powerless. He
took the pistol in his left hand, and
made shift to cock it.
The dervish heard this, or marked
the movement. He stopped, and
with eyes like those of some fell rep.
tiles, watched the Englishman for
some moments. Radmore tried to
think of certain Arabic words and
phrases that he had learned, but his
memory failed to recall them. He
raised his hand deprecatingly.
"Quit thatl Begone!" he said, in
English. "Leave me alone, and 1
will you"
The Baggara showed his white
teeth. Very likely he mistook this
attempt at Precipitation for defiance.
Suddenly screaming forth curse, he
got up on one knee, and with his left
hand on the ground, hobbled strangely
forward, clutching his weapon in the
other hand
OF his purpose Radmore now had
no doubt. He was coming on fast,
too, for man in such plight. The
necessity of self-preservation nerved
the journalist to shoot.
He then put his thumb right across
his krees, and utilized it as rest for
the revolver in his left hand; and as
the black fellow came up, he con-
triyed to lodge two shots in his al.
ready shattered body, which had the
effect of expediting the departure Of
his resolute spirit to the Moslem
Paradise.
The weapon with which he had
made this last dying effort against the
Englishman proved to be an old sabre
bayonet of the kind captured by the
deryishes from Hicks Pasha fifteen
years ago.
Either the excitement from this
rencontre or the ammonia so far neu-
tralized the venom of the scorpion
bite that Radmore was soon able to
regain his legs and make his way
back to the English camp at Ell
Gemuaia,-Youth's Companion.