The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-16

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man with whom I had to deal I FASTENED
to retrieve my error by drawing my pistol.
Mac instantly threw himself at me and
made a grab for the weapon. 1t was
Smith g. wesson. with spring over the
top Of the cylinder. which held the barrei
In place. After short scuffle he succeeded
In getting his thumb under the spring.
which, of course, unlocked the barrel and
broke it down, allowing all the cartridges
to fall out.
A LITTLE DEPRESSION.
'.You will pardon me little DEPRESSION
at this point" said Captain Halls. for
want TO give you an interesting bit OF
information. Macs action in getting his
thumb under the spring, thus rendering
the revolver useless, was an old trick
of criminals. and. matter of fact, that
very thing caused the makers of revolvers
to alter the method of construction. doing
away with that style of spring.
"But to resume my story" continued the
detective, ST drew back and struck Mac
as L could. right under the chin. We were
very close together, but the blow was hard
enough TO have sent him sprawling on his
back had ii not been for fence stake
which happened to be standing convenient
ly in his rear to catch and hold him in
partly upright position. Before could re-
peat the blow he drew himself together
and save me terrific kick in the abdo-
men, which landed me on my back in the
ditch close by. With a catlike spring Mac
was across the path and into the woods,
fleeing for life. The kick he had dealt me
caused most excruciating agony, almost
knocking the breath from my body, but
could not afford to let the fellow escape
like this, so I started in hot pursuit.
soon found that l could run faster than
Mac, and the distance between us was
rapidly decreasing, when he suddenly
stopped short and turned about facing
me. Before I could check my speed, we
were together once more The fight was
fast and furious for some time. Now he
was on top and j beneath and again our
positions were reversed. Finally we were
compelled to desist from sheer exhaustion
aud crawled to opposite ends of log.
where we lay painting like winded horses
and glazing at each other. You had bet-
ter go with me, Mac 1 said. Not
much he replied. and there's no one man
jumped to his feet, thrust his hand in his
pocket, and l saw he was endeavoring to
draw weapon of some kind I made "a
quick lunge for him and discovered that
he had a long-bladed knife, which he was
making desperate efforts to open.
grasped the weapon with one hand and
seized his throat with the other. Then L
succeeded in getting a firm enough hold
on the knife to draw the blade through the
fellows fingers, cutting them slightly. 1
at once cast the weapon as far from me as
1 could. AS i did so l observed that in
our struggles we had approached the steep
overhanging bank of a stream, which I
took to be the same that had noticed run
ming past the little village of Poseyville
The ground upon which we were fighting
sloped towards the water, and in our mad
| struggles we had naturally worked in that
| direction. We were now at it again, and
| In trying TO steady myself and save my
| self from falling over the bank my right
| foot broke through into a groundhog' S
den near the edge of the bank Mac
| threw himself upon me and 1 was unable
| to extricate myself. My knee had been
| shattered some time before in a similar en-
counter with a criminal. and it began to
cause me intense suffering.
IN A BAD PREDICAMENT.
"As an old saying puts it, was in chan
cery.' Mac was lying on top of me and l
had closed my eyes in sheer helplessness
and despair when all at once L felt his body
| slipping slowly off of me- 1 was on the
alert instantly and soon discovered that he
was reaching out to get hold of something,
1 n, f1I~~~
away He succeeded in his attempt and /
| knew then that all the chances We're
| against me and made a frantic effort To
release myself. Throwing myself as far as
| possible toward the edge of the bank,
| felt 1t all at once give way beneath me.
| We were falling into the water below. Mac
being on top had an easy roll down the
bank. but my foot was caught in the roots
| which held the dirt together and this made
my descent somewhat slower L feared
that might be suspended by the heel and
become suffocated, but this fear lasted only
an instant, when the roots broke and al
lowed me TO plunge headforemost into the
| stream. The water was deep and 1 soon
felt my head and shoulders touch the bot.
tom. / had taken the precaution to close
| my mouth previously inhaling a deer
| breath, and was thus enabled TO rise
| quickly to the surface little the worse fol
| wear. / was good swimmer and at once
| struck out for the trunk of a large tree
which had fallen into the stream on the
| opposite side. Hearing loud splashing be.
hind me 1 glanced around and saw Mac
headed in the same direction, but making
slower progress on account of his great
weight and another reason which 1 dis
covered later. Reaching the tree, I clam
bered into it's branches and waited fol
Mac to arrive. When he reached a point
almost directly under the tree l observed
that he was practically tired out and, il
addition, was covered with blood This
found was caused by the knife blade closins
down upon his fingers and severing tn,
ends of two of them in his tumble dowr
the embankment The fingers that wer.
not cut off were cut clear to the bone anS
the fellow was experiencing a little pain OF
his own account. / held down my hant
to assist him in getting to position on tn,
tree trunk and he accepted my prefer O
help with alacrity and proper humility
Taking out my handkerchief, 1 bound u,
his injured hand as we'll as possible and II
a short time he accompanied me withou