The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-10-02
A knave Of Conscience
BY FRANCIS LYNDE.
Copyright, 1900, by Francis Lynde.)

| Ao' OAAy TIC Jill u never
goln' to get the chance. He's goin'
to quit right here and now. You go
away, Mr.. Griswold. There amt no
call for you to be a Witness"
| Who shall say what fierce and re-
lentless temptation assailed this man
who saw his single pursuer thus in
the tolls? He had but to turn his
back and shrug, and say it was no
concern of his, and this man Griffin,
the only man of all men in the world
who might send him to wear out his
life in a Louisiana chain-gang, would
60 to his account, and all danger
would be over-past for one Kenneth
Griswold.
No one save the victim of such an
onfall of devils battling for his soul
may know what Griswold endured in
that brief moment of hesitation. If
Griffin himself suspected, he made no
sign; indeed, he had looked on all
through the colloquy as if the SUBJ
ject matter of it concerned him not
at all. But now he spoke; three
words to his accuser, and a dozen to
the man whom the devils were as
saulting.
you're a liar" he said, coolly, to
the one; and to the other: could
you oblige me with cigar, Mr.. Girls
wold?"
Now, however fercely the devils of
temptation had assaulted, Griswold
had beaten them off; that and more;
he had plan of an attempt at a
rescue half-formed, and this request
of the man about to be hanged
chimed in with it. He promptly ten
dered the cigar, and the striker who
was pinioning Grifin's right arm me-
chanically loosed his hold that the
prisoner might take it.
1t was the moment for the at
tempt, if any there were to be, and
there could be no more collision be-
tween rescuer and captive than might
be compressed into single swift eye
glance. But that sufhced. Griffin
reached for the cigar, but did not
take it. Instead, he converted the
movement into singing side blow
which felled the man at his left. and
at the same instant sprang back out
of the circle with Griswold to hold
the Infatuated ones at bay while he
did it.
Any diversion Griswold could make
was necessarily of the briefest. For
some swift-passing second or so he
delayed the rush by sheer moral
bravado. The storm broke in a yell
OF rage and no two men might with
stand it. Griswold did not try.
Through that hole in the fence!-
in with you'll" he said, over his shout
der to the detective; and the thing
was done so deity that the yelling
mob was for the moment nonplussed.
Griswold made good use of the mo-
mentary respite.
Follow mel" he commanded: and
a minute later they had opened the
darkened office by the back door.
When the door was shut and locked
again, Griffin looked about him in the
semi-gloom.
cts out of the frying pan into the
fire, isn't it?' he said. They'll storm
this place in about a minute-and
take it,"
The augmenting yells in the street
told that the mob was increasing it's
numbers rapidly, and that the melee
on the sidewalk would presently de-
velop into riot. Griswold stepped
to the telephone, but the call bells
were dumb.
'"They've cut the wires,'' he said,
coolly. "That means a fight Are
you armed?"
The detective laughed. ''I'm like
the Texas cowboy who was caught in
swimming; my gun is safe enough at
the hotel"
Griswold took down a Winchester
repeating rifle from it's brackets on
the wall.
perhaps it is just as we'll. If you
should show yourself, they would go
mad again, and, anyway, in a tangle
of this kind one man is sometimes bet
ter than two. Get down behind the
desk and keep out of sight,
what for? Hadn't we better try
back-alley bolt for it?''
mo. They have the place sur
rounded by this time. Do as I tell
you"
Griswold peeped cautiously behind
the window shade on the street side.
''They are going to rush the place
and smash the window or the door,
or both. shall save them the trou-
bic, if you will be good enough to do
as tell YOU"
The detective stepped behind the
high desk and Griswold unlocked and
| opened the front door, f1inging it
wide. When the thing was done, the
foremost rank of the rioters found
itself looking straight into the sight,
less eye of the leveled Winchester.
What the man with the gun had to
say was said in the moment of sur
prised silence which ensued, and he
said it quietly, as one who has
weighed and measured all the pos
sible consequences.
"You needn't trouble to break in,