People's voice., 1899-09-28
d Question
Of COURAGE
BY FRANCIS LYNDE,
Copyright, 1885, by J. LippincOtt Go.
BY FRANCIS LYNDE,
Copyright, 1895, by J. B. LippincOtt Go.

TIC HlouhIluS CWo nlle spoSe you go
down T ludlos fer spell yure friend"
Where did this come from?" he
asked.
That's what's a-puzzlin' US. Hester
found it wrapped round piece of flint
rock lyin' on the floor of her room this
afternoon, and she reckoned some.
bcdy'd th'own it in at the window"
81 think know who wrote It," said
Ringbrand, rehectively, recalling the
words of the conspirators. "0ne of
them asked: How about the grip
and the other replied: Needn't mind
about her; she'll look out for herself
and then he added: 4 shouldn't wonder
if Jed would be glad enough to take
care of her if she'd allow it. Jed is the
one who will hold the horses, l believe"
Blame his cussed impudence!" ex.
claimed the colonel, blazing up wrath
fully. what right has he got to be
thinllin' about my Hester?"
'Not the least bit in the world,
colonel, replied Ludlow, good-natured-
ly; "but don't let us forget that he had
enough humanity in him to send this
note; he knew quite well that he did it
at the risk of his neck, and it's the first
decent thing ever knew one of them to
do"
kingbrand looked at his watch. 81
think we'd better be taking our places,
gentlemen" he said. They set no time,
hut we had best be ready for them"
Henry extinguished the light, and the
four men filed noiselessly out of the
house to their several stations. The
colonel and Henry, armed with repeat
ing rifles and provided with buckets
Of water for use in case the fire spread
too rapidly, concealed themselves in
the shrubbery to the right and left of
the small clump OF laurel-bushes; Lud.
low went down the avenue and
crouched in the black shadow of low
branched pine; and Ringbrand, armed
only with the revolver which had been
his companion in the cavern, took his
stand against the trunk of great oak,
whose spreading limbs overshadowed
the ambush selected by the mountain
GERS.
Up to the moment when the compile
ton of the arrangements for the cap
ture of the conspirators had begun to
cancel the factor of excitement, Ring
brand had not reflected upon the pc
culiarly trying nature of the test he
had proposed for himself. When the
plan had suggested itself, he had well
coined 1t gladly, hurrying forward to
its elimination with the eager impa-
tience Of one who imagines he sees the
turnlng-point Of his life in the perspec-
tive and runs impetuously to double it,
After he had taken his position under
the oak, however, the suspense, and the
darkness and silence Of the night, be-
gan to dampen the fire OF enthusiasm;
the food-tide of excitement turned and
ebbed slowly away; and the heroic re-
quirements Of the part he had volun-
teered to take in the approaching
drama stood out in vivid and disconcert-
ing relief. Common sense awoke and
demanded reason for the hazardous
plan, pointing the finger of ridicule at
the melodramatic stage setting, and
suggesting that nothing had been omit
ted save calcium light to be flashed
upon the scene at the critical moment.
He saw the absurdity of it all, and how
much more sensible it would have been
to take Ludlow's suggestion, surround
Ing the house with a posse of armed
men whose numbers would have made
resistance on the part of the mountain
eers useless and hence improbable.
And what was there to be urged
against such a safe and practical plan
of procedure? Nothing, or less than
nothing; merely the demonstration of
I'M abstruse metaphysical problem
within himself; the application of a
heroic test which had no place outside
the realm of fiction. And with this
thought it occurred to him tcat he had
unconsciously planned the whole thing
upon the lines that would have made
it most effective in a story! And then
the suggestion of the calcium light ard
The alarmed young woman looking
down npon the theatrical tableau from
heT window came again, making him
sick with disgust.
Looking at it from any point Of view,
the romantic project, which was more
than likely to cost him his life in the ex-
ecuting, was merely fantastic idea Of
proving himself in some way a knight
without fear-a modern type of gor-
tesque medieval parsonage who went
about Staying impossible dragons ard
disembowelling III. biological giants.
1t was OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Gus! and from this point in the argu-
ment the descent to the Avernus of ter
ror was easy. AT the end of n half-hour
bo - ,. ..~rN- '-o~v .ira' chill
he. 2 a return of the well-knowu
syU. $; in FIVE minutes more the
paroXy IA Vas upon him, and he WIS
struggling fDl 'sly in the grasp OF his
familiar demo-, pla.d. deaf and he;u-
less, with every tiber Of his being strain
ing itself for fight in an impulse so real
that ne turned and grasped at the rough
bark of the tree to keep himself from
being carried bodily away by the whirl-
wind of terror.
The attack did not last long, and
about the time the blood becan tn t;ncla