The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-03-27
CHAPTER V.
Continued

Continued
Just now, however, Mynbeer Joe IS
made the witness Of singular scene.
Two foreigners are at it, hammer and
tongS.
How it came about it would be i'm
possible to state: each one believes the
other guilty and that the apology
ought to come from that side.
A comparison between the two
causes the traveller to smile. In point
of size they are surely antipodes, one
so large and massive, the other di-
minutive.
The -aller man has voice like tor
nado bowling in the mountains, laying
trees PROSTATE and sWirling up the
valleys. Now and then it is punctured
with the sharp, file-rasping exclama'
tions that burst from his antagonist,
penetrating and shrill as the highest
notes of the violin. They growl and
gable together, each endeavoring to
lay the blall, of the collision upon the
other. When two men possessed of
fiery tempers get into a heated argu-
ment The result is seldom in doubt.
Sooner or later they come to blows,
and this period depends pretty much
upon the state to which their feelings
have carried them.
This promises to be the case in the
present instance. The little man is
game despite the enormous difference
in their size. He dances before his
heavy antagonist, holding up his small
fists in q way that proclaims him the
posSessor of some scientific knoWl-
edge in the line of selfdefenSe. Should
the giant, however, bring one OF his
sIedge-hammer blows to bear upon
him these frail barriers must be
brushed aside as though mere cob
webs.
Although the big man is angry 1t
can be seen that he is amused at the
same time. Unless the fury OF the
other passes all bonds and he commits
an assault the tall man will hardly
proceed to extreme measures. Just
now he is endeavoring to alarm his an
tasonist by an exhibition of lung pow
er-by bawling at him with all the
tremendous force of cattle drover
on the war path. His bull-like voice
and the queer eXclamations lie uses
would be extremely amusing to Myn-
heer Joe upon another occasion. Just
now something CT an important nature
has come into his understanding
that causes him to take new interest
in this strange game that is being
played before him.
This smaller man answers in all par
ticulars the mental photograph he
has drawn of Demosthenes Tanner,
the father of the fair Molly. He IS
small, slightly bald. nearly fifty, full
of life and ginger, and ready to stand
up for his dignity.
So Mynheer Joe decides on the spur
of the moment that he has run across
the man who has chartered the dana
beah Alice-he owes him a debt OF
gratitude on account Of the rescue
from the waters of the Nile-perhaps
the time has come when he can repay
that with interest.
Thus he finds mere to engage his at
tention in the complication before him
than others who have been gathered
by the hot dispute.
In Justice to Mynhcer Joe let it be
said that his sense of fairness and the
eternal fitness of things had much to
do with his actions. He was never
the man to sit calmly by and see big
dog set upon q small one. More than
once in his past career he has been
known to take the part of the weak
and oppressed, even to his discomfort.
There is some spirit left of the age of
chivalry-it did not die out with the
last of the helmeted, mail-clad Knights.
Thus it will be seen that other mo-
tives influence Mynheer Joe besides
the one important fact that this is, as
he supposes, Molly's father who
stands q fair. show of being pulver-
lied.
He means to take a hand in the
game if it shows signs of reaching q
point where blows must be exchanged
Gordon's messenger is full of fight
he always was, and the fact that this
may be considered street brawl does
not once enter into his calculations.
1t is the smaller man who ruSheS
things and brings matters to a focus.
"You shall apologize or fight, sir!
Do you think am to be insulted with
impunity? You are big coward! l
will show you how we do these things
where l came from? Defend your
self" he shrieks.
The big man is thus forced to an is
sue He gives a roar as the other
kicks at his shns, and looks as If
about to hurl his avoirdupois upon his
diminutive antagonist, when hand
clutches his shoulder and Mynheer
ice steps between them, brushing
back the little bantam cock and facing
the Brahma.
IF you must fight, take a man o.
your size. Take me, for instance.
Now come on" he says quietly.
r11 .IrrLD VT