Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-03-23

Gown as you deserve, but know your in
fernal tricks, and mean to hold you where
you belong. / take it twill afford me more
pleasure to see you dance at ropes end
than dirty my hands with your blood, save
you make it urgent. Let me clinch the mat
ter now, and then make you ready to march.
Fellow stairs at this moment is Lounsbury in
the flesh, and with him file of men to take
you of This bit of play was for my own
pleasure, and, having had it,. I'll be your
valet and stay by your heels until you are
safely delivered to Cunningham. Now God
rest your miserable soul! Have you aught
TO say before l give the word to therest:"
To state that | was unaffected by these
words, which were poured forth In a tor
rent as though my tormentor feared inter
ruption, would be false. / saw my plans for
the future, my hope for life itself, swept
away together, and nothing but blank.
broken only by a vision of the gallows,
danced before my eyes
To say that he had the satisfaction of
seeing me visibly quail would be equally
false, for, though my heart beat thickly
enough, l sat unmoved and looked at him
es though in dream. l even essayed to
speak, but words would not come, for my
throat was cliRched by invisible bands.
Are you crushed at last" he exclaimed,
With grim smile, though without shifting
bis eye or aim. ooh, you shorn Samsonl
J
He was still speaking when again the
heavy shake came to the flooring. But
now it did not pass into gentle trernor
and fade away; instead, it grew stronger
and stronger until every rafter took up
the motion and the whole house trembled
az though with an ague. Greater grew the
shaking until the building rocked, the bed
slid away from the wall, the table shifted,
the glass and bottle on it rang togther, and
4 H. IL IL Id H.
water within it splashed from it's top. A
square of plaster from the ceiling fell to
the floor with a crash, filling the room with
dust; but through all Scammell never
WINGED, showing wonderment, nor bore a
less threatening attitude.
In the course of the seconds through
which this endured he held me as he proba-
bly, would have done had the roof fallen
about our ears, SO determined was he to
take me. l knew the nature of the tur-
MOL at once, for when in the Indies with
my father l had experienced it. 1t was
not caused by the earth shaking from the
rolling of heavy thunder, for just then the
voice of the storm confined to the roar
of terrific downpour of rain. It was an
earthquakes rare phenomenon in this lat
itude, and its rarity, its severity, and its re-
suits before my eyes, trihing as were these,
woke me from my trance and again gave
full play to my wits.
Fascinated and partly stunned as I had
been by the fiendish face of my enemy and
the full significance of the evil fortune into
which l had suddenly fallen, like him, I
sat through the commotion. Every unin-
portant detail about him, from the broken
pearl button on his shirt front down to the
grains of powder in the pistol pan and the
fine edge of the flint in the lock, found a
force of attraction to the eye only known
c-n
or deep depression.
But with the dancing of the tableware
quick idea shot through my brain, and
showed ME a last desperate chance to ex-
tricate myself from the coil about me.
Natural phenomenon in the shape of a
breeze had saved me from the knife of the
negro, and now twas earthquake that
might open q way for my deliverance by
splashing water from a pitcher.
Straining my nerves to conceal the new
hope that had sprung to life, began to act.
Never had | felt my muscles knit frmer or
been less in need of stimulant than when,
sinking back as if at last overcome by the
combined shock of his words and the con-
vulsion of nature, which had now passed,
l said slowly and as though dazed:
81 am but prisoner of war, sir. I was
forced for my own safety to come to New
York. l am no-spy-I will go-but-you-
let me drink. I feel lax and-dizzy"
''You have none of the Indian in you,
you pale-livered sneak!" he answered.
Drink, then, and gather your spunk and
legs for action. Beat me with the fiat of
your sword! Fore God! But wait till
can shift my eye from you! Drink, and then
move before we have another quake, and the
walls about us-'twill be your last dram"
With apparent effort I raised myself,
reached for the bottle, and poured out
stiff measure of liquor, which / drank off;
then taking the pitcher, made as though to
fill the glass, but as l tipped it, with sud
den movement whirled full half gallon
of water over the pistol, drenching the
printing and making the weapon useless
With this action / sprang to my feet.
Scammell was quick, but not qnick
enough. The water had but reached the
powder when / heard the snap of the de-
scending hammer, and saw his first mo-
tion to gain his legs; but, following up the
drowning of the fire-pan, lifted the heavy
table and overturned it on him, pushing
him backward, where to the floor went man,
furniture, and crockery with terrific crash.
At that moment there came a vivid fash of
lightning, and hard upon it an appalling
peal of thunder. Though almost blinded
| and deafened by the bolt, l sprang round
| the overturned table, and Selling the first
| thing coming to hand, which proved to be
the water jug still unbroken, I grasped the
| struggling tory by the throat and with all
my force brought down the heavy earthen-
ware on his uncovered head.
| The pitcher few to fragments, leaving
but the handle in my grasp, while Scanned
became limp and collapsed.
| This action took place during the interval
| at which the thunder was the loudest, and
was probably the reason that caused the
noise of the fall of the table to be unnoticed
by those below. But, as though it had been
insufficient, another violent eonvulsion fol-
lowed, which came and went with the
suddenness of the explosion of park OF
artillery.