Evening star., 1901-06-01
up to it's first right-angled turn around the

| drawing rooms
The little interval of waiting was more
trying than the fiercest battle. Raglan
| glanced out at the flying landmarks. Five
minutes more of the furious speeding and
| the wreckers must either do or die, since
| the train was rapidly nearing the hilltop
crisis. There was no more hammering at
the jammed coupling pin in front. but from
the rear came succession of jarring
blows, telling of the efforts of the armed
treasure guard to break out of the ex-
press car.
AS before, Helen Langham was the only
one of the trembling quartet who dared to
look on, and she could not help contrast
ing the two young men, comparing them
and thinking that they might well change
places in militant world. The blood
trickled from the bullet score in Raglan's
temple, binding him as it ran into his eye;
and when she saw this Helen sprang up.
snatched the handkerchief from the pocket
of the cast-off coat and bound 1t quickly
and deftly about the wound At the knot
ting of the handkerchief he caught her
hand and pressed it to his lips
1t was at the kissing instant that the
president gave the word:
"On guard Here they comei
The speed was Slackening. and In a swift
| glance aside at the mirror Raglan saw the
narrow passage filling with men at its far
ther end. Sweeping the way before them
with scattering voley. they crashed
through the light swing door, and the bat
tie was on.
For the one woman who was still looking
on, the scene was not less inspiring than 1t
was terrifying. AS in a series of flash
light pictures. she saw Raglan spit the
leader In mid career Smite down the sec
ond with a blow from the pommel of the
sword, and fling himself upon the others
with roar like that of angry lion.
Berserk-mad he was, indeed, and had need
to be, since the lieutenant had vanished af-
ter finging the empty pistol into the thick
of the fray, and the white-haired president,
with his dubbed table leg. was covering
the women.
In and out the bright steel flashed, and
the man who welded it seemed immortal.
Ever and anon pistol cracked, or
dubbed gun was swung above him. or
fierce hands clutched at him; but in that
cramped shambles the man who had once
been the best swordsman at West Point
still lived, and lived to slay.
Helen shuddered and shut her eyes. and
then looked again as one fascinated. Never
before had she realized what terrible
weapon the sword is in the hands of a man
who knows how to use it. Back and forth
and from side to side he darted, catlike
Tor all his fourteen stone, and the sword
hit deep and true at every swift inspiring
ing TIL the narrow veStibule was choked
with the bodies of the slain.
None the less, the end disastrous came,
as it must in any battle against odds so
overwhelming. In the thick of the melee
one of the desperadoes. slipping under the
sWordsman's arm, gained a pace or two to
the rear and raised his rifle. At the trigger
pulling crisis the train stopped with a
shock; the robbers rife beloved; and the
compartment filled suddenly with a rush
OF the armed treasure guard from the rear
f1eien tansham saw it all as one Of the
tashllght pictures; saw the squirt of red
fame from the rifles mouth, and saw her
hero fall, first to his knees and then upon
ms face And after that she saw nothing
but the brOnzed face in her lap-his face
with the brown eyes closed and the big
jaw set death sets it.
When Angus Raglan came back to a con-
sclous seeing of things visible he had
IA hn do
the way to burial. But his surroundings
presently resolved themselves into the in
terror of the presidents state room in the
Esmeralda," and it was the slow speed-
ing of the car that had answered to the
rumbling of hearse wheels. Some one
stirred at the bedside, and a tremulous
voice said: Don't speak if it hurts Won
but are you in much pain?'
Raglan's answer was no answer
There is q pin sticking me in my shouI-
der. but if you hold my hand just little
it" he said. And then: What happened2"
You were shot just as the train stopped
and the guard rushed it. We ran back to
Fort Larimore, and the post surgeon dress
ed your wounds
And the wreckers?"
Only two of them escaped alive-the two
on the engine He felt her shudder
through the medium of the clasped hands.
but it was only of recollection
Where are now" he asked
ION the way to Denver, trying to get Won
home to Uncle Parkman's, where we can
nurse you alive again. Do you think YOU
can stand it?''
1T will depend upon you,' he declared
shamelessly. "As long as you sit there
and hold my hand | can stand anything
But you mustn't let it go for a minute"
The rumbling silence of the slow-speed-
| ing train filled the next five minutes. and
| then she broke it to say, "Oh. it was fine -
He smiled feebly. quite like De Mar
| sac or Captain Percy wasn't it? But not
| at all what you would expect from man
| who threw up his commission to dodge a
| fight with"
A soft palm was laid upon his lips, and
| for the second time that day she said,
Hush.' But this time she added You
| are my hero-my real, live hero-and you
| have been ever since that terrible day of
| the storm last summer when you saved
| the old fisherman at the Point. Now will
| you stop talking and go to sleep?''
''On one condition" he whispered to the
muzZling palm on his lips.
| She rose and bent over him. and he saw
| deep into the sate-blue eyes and drank his
| fill at the love wells in them. Then she
| bent still lower and kissed him. is that
| the condition.
! He smiled and shut his eyes Its a
| part of it, but you will have to do it often
If you want to keep me alive between this
and Denver"
| And she did keep him alive
No Exception.
Er,r th.,( hi Tr;h,