The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-15

thing. We do not find that there were any
important omissions. The oatlike tread,
the heavy breathing. the collisions with the
furniture nothing essential was left out.
with catlike tread they began to move
around tho room on the velvet carpet.
They made the circuit twice, and found
they were following each other. They
both stopped. apparently at the same mo-
ment, wheeled. and again made the round
In circle without meeting, now and then
stumbling against a piece Of furniture"
We can hear the fire roaring in terrible
excitement behind the blower. Unaffected
by this the awful game proceeds "ior-
don suddenly stopped held his breath and
waited for his enemy to overtake him He
could hear Overman's heavy breathing at
each mufI'ed step. When he approached
so close he could feel the movement Of his
body in the air, he suddenly sprang on him,
plunging the dagger in his body and bore
him To the floor, knocking the blower from
the CRATE in the struggle"
We do not believe that the literature OF
ducls affords a more effective use OF the
blower. Now again the velvet carpet.
"Over and over on the velvet carpet, dimly
lighted now from the glowing Goals, they
rolled, growing srarling, cursing in low.
half-articulate gasps, thrusting the steel
into flesh and bone. nerve and vein and
artery. Gordon suddenly plunged his dag
ger with crash in Overmans shoulder,
snatched ut it, and broke it smooth at the
hilt. Throwing his opponent to one side by
n quick movement, he sprang to his feet,
and. as Overman rose, fastened his enormous
hairy left hand on his thr oat and closed it
with the clutch of a bear. His enemy
writhed and plunged the steel twice to the
hilt In Gordon's breast before his big right
hand found the knife and wrenched it from
his grasp"
Here we must pavse to recall the letter OF
Miss Fanny Squeers describing Nicholas
Nickleby's assault upon her mother, the
lady who administered the birthstone and
molasses to the young inhabitants OF Dothe-
boys Hall twill be remembered that Miss
Fanny in that letter declared that Nicholas
had driven Mrs. Squeerss BACKBONE sew
eral inches into her head and that the fam
lily had the doctors certificate that If it had
gone few inches further it would have
penetrated her skull Mrs. Squeers, who
survived, was a hardy woman, but she was
no more remarkable than Gordon Our
hero went on with his stated work in no
wise deferred by the circumstance that a
ten-inoh dagger had been twice plum ged to
the hilt in his massive breast. We read
"Then slowly, inch by inch, he bent the
bankers body over his knee, driving his
great fingers into his throat, until the spinal
column snapped with a dull crack" The
illustration shows us the duel at this con-
summate point. The ten-inch dagger lies
on the velvet carpet. The blower appears
In the foreground.
Thus did our pastor break his enemy's
back as he had promised, Inch by inch"
II was in Kate Ransom's house, as we have
said. that the dreadful incident took place;
not in the Players Club, which ia also In
Gramercy Park, Of course, but at another
number.
When the young minister had finished
of his victim he strangled Kate for few
minutes with her own hair-not fatally
and then walked away with his ten-inch
stab-wounds in a roaring snowstorm to
his first wife's residence on Morningsde
Heights, five miles away, where he asked
to be forgiven. The first Mrs. Gordon
received him with thankfulness and Joy,
nursed him angelically and tried to keep
him from the police; but he was appre-
hended and tried and convicted and SEN
fenced. and was in the death chair at Sing
Sing, with a wet sponge upon his shaven
head and the executioner standing with
his hand upon the electric switch waiting
for the handkerchief to drop when the
Governor dashed in from Albany on a spe-
cial locomotive and handed him pardon.
This, by the way, is a favorite use of the
Governor in fiction, From number of
novels that we bear joyously in memory
we have a vision Of him forever storming
down from the capital on this humane
business of saving selected and valuable
felons from the Sing Sing lightning.
busy man in the field of mercy, according
to the novelists, and we wonder how he
has time for anything else.
The last chapter Of Mr.. Dixon's great
story ia entitled -The Kiss OF the Bride"
As soon as the Governor had recovered
Gordon from the Sing Sing chair Of doom
he had him married over again to his first
wife In the first part of the novel Ruth
Gordon is jealous and rather wearing, but
In the last part she is lovely soul. Said
the Governor to Gordon, speaking of Ruth,
az the pair stood up before him: an the
presence of love 80 pure, so divine "a that
which hallows your life, / uncover my head
I am on holy ground-I am in the presence
Of the living God" Said Ruth softly to tho
Governor, after the ceremony had been
performed at is your right to kiss the
bride, and l wish it" Says the story: He
stopped and reverently touched her fore
head In the mansion on the hill
Mt Albany the Governor sat that night in
his magnificent room alone until the dawn
OF day, holding in his hand an old battered
tintype picture Of laughing girl standing
beside poor young lawyer"
Twas n picture Of himself and Ruth, He
had remained bachelor for her sake. Poor
Governor Wonderful storyI We're it not
our habit to put a restraint upon our en-
thusiasms we should call it q sockdoagcr
Cheerful Americans.
Lots of CHEEKY, good-natured yarns in
Mr.. Charles Battell Loomis's Cheerful
Americans" Henry Holt & co... A par
ticularly cheerful American is Mr.. Jack
Tolmach whom we meet in the first story,
which is called "A Man of Putty" He
described himself AS "a wager from the
word go" and though We do not pretend to
know what that means, we are quite sure