The weekly examiner., 1901-06-15


 practice could do.
 Ross Duncan lay like a dead man
 He was of powerful build and looked | very stern and hard even as he lay
 there helpless. There was a terrible gash over one of his eyes. He was
 covered with blood and dust, bruised
 from head to foot, with clothes torr
 and disfgured, but he had not lost con
 sciousness, and, with the iron will
 which had always characterized him
 he managed to let the doctor know his
 wishes
 "All right, all right, MT. Duncan,' '
 said the doctor in reply to whisper
 from the wounded man. "I won't give
 you any, anoesthetic if you don't want
 it. I shall have to sew up this little
 place over your eye, though. Has that
 tortoise got around with that case
 yet? he asked Stuart, who had left Louise a minute to come over to the bed.
 "He hasn't had time yet, doctor"
 "Why didn't he take my horse?" growled the doctor. "How is Louise?" Better. But what a terrible fall fla ther must have hadv'
 Stuart felt for his fathers hand, and Ross Duncan's fingers closed over those of his son. Stuart kneeled by the bed and kissed his fathers cheek as he used to do when boy. The older man was evidently moved by the caress. A tear rolled over his face.
 Come now" broke in the doctor. ap- parently gruffer than ever. "One would | think you two hadn't seen each other for year tt least! We must get him ready for the operation. Stuart you promised to help me. Give me your at tention now"
 The doctor soon had his patient as comfortable as the nature of the inju- ries would allow. The case arrived, the gash was sewed up quickly, and at the end of the hour Ross Duncan was resting under the influence of a draft, while the doctor, Stuart and Louise were in another room talking over the accident.
 The sister of Stuart Duncan was very pretty, very proud and very selfish. She was years younger than her broth CT. She had been two years to a finish ing school in New York, but had not finished any particular branch of study. She could play the piano a little and the harp a little and do other things, except housework, a little. She lay on the lounge now, with Stuart near by stroking her head. and told the story of the accident:
 Father and started to drive down to the station this morning to meet you, Stuart. When we reached the 1aadfnO nm to tho Fo,.ro r,,iuo we were early for the train, and father drove up to the engine house on some business. When we got up there, the miners were gathering to march down to the square. It was the first news of the strike we had had. Father was very much excited and talked to the men to persuade them to go back to work. Some of them talked back in the most insulting way; said they were free men and did not have to work for a corporation and all that. You know how they talk, Stuart. Nothing makes father so angry, and I don't blame him. I think the men are simply horrid to make all this trouble just now as I was getting ready to go east for that yachting cruise with the Vasplaines, and this strike will probably stop their going.
 '"Then father jumped out of the car- riage and was going to give one of the men who insulted him a good thrash ing, and serve him right, when the rest came around and made him get into the carriage again. l never saw fla ther so angry, and 1 was scared almost to death, the men were so rough. We
 
 that steep turn by that old Beury shaft we came upon a crowd of miners marching into town from the lower range. They were carrying a large white banner with some horrid pie ture on it. The horses were frightened and turned and ran right toward the old shaft. 1 don't know what hap pened then, only we were thrown out, and it is a miracle that I was not kill ca. Jem, the coachman, was driving, and he fell on pile of shaft ore. He ran up to the house and got the other horses and brought father and me home. I fainted away several times, and when 1 saw father laid on the bed with that awful gash on his head I thought he was killed. If he dies, the miners will be to blame. If 1t hadn't been for their going out on this strike, this horrible accident would not have happened. It's all as horrid as it can be!'
 At this point Louise burst into a great fit of hysterical crying.
 Dear, you must have been hurt by l the fan!'' cried Stuart as he soothed | and comforted her.
 "No, no! I was not even bruised"' replied Louise. She stopped crying and | sat up on the lounge and began to ar range her hair. pr. Saxon walked toward the other | end Of the room with a peculiar look on l his face. Then he wheeled around and 1 said with his characteristic bluntness: