The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-03-14
TWQ RESCUES
BY EVAN MACPHERSON.
81 tsHl Hold on there, partner!'

L j USH! Hold on there, partner!"
IS Jack Norton, with hands buried
in the pockets of a heavy winter over
coat, came striding over the hardened
snow, down the slope of dark and
deserted side street that led to the
East river. He had just caught sight
of another man passing through the
yellow patch of light that marked
squalid rumshop in a basement, and
some instinct prompted him to hail
as partner" this man whom he then
saw for the first time.
The strange man checked an impulse
to look back, but only went on all the
more doggedly. Norton also quick
ened his pace. After few more
strides he could see, in the faint light.
which the snow reflected from the last
lonesome gas lamp on the block, that
there was no need of swiftness to catch
up with this man; the street ended
right there in a sort of platform with
an iron railing at its edge, and imme-
diately below this railing was the East
river, where cakes of ice swirled out of
the darkness into stray beams of light,
and Oninto darkness again. The stran-
ger-a strongly built man in thick
ajacket-stood there, grasping the
head of an iron rail in either hand,
staring out beyond.
"It's no good, old mar" said Nor
ton, crunching over the fresh snow on
the platform to reach the stranger,
''no good. l thought of doing it my
self. Ifyou'll hold on minute I'll tell
you why"
The man in the peaiacket turned and
glared at this intruder with the tall
hat and-the air of another class.
''Who in thunder are you?" And then,
as if new thought had suddenly oc-
Cured to him, he leaned forward and
peered into Norton's face.
That's all right" said Norton,
standing up to the scrutiny as if he had
quite expected il. I'm not off my head
net altogether. only want to
Keep YOU from a mistake nearly
made myself. A few minutes ago I
started to come down here and-well,
disappear in that darkness out there.
See those chunks of ice racing each
other? IF You and I jumped this rail-
ing now, we'd be racing like that next
moment, and with no more idea of
where we were racing to, It's all
like that, the other world is. Chap
named Hamlet settled it all long ago"
'WelL say, if you amt crazy you've
got more gall than anybody's got a
right to and keep their senses. What
you got to do with my affairs?"
Norton laughed aloud. "Your af-
fairs! DON'T you see were in the same
boat, you and I? You just listen to
me"
"No, won't just listen to you" the
other man growled. "And if you know
what's good for you, you'li get away
ont of here"
This threat to aman who had all but
resolved on suicide struck Norton so
suddenly and sharply as comical that
he broke into a roar of laughter, awak-
ening the echoes of the winter night
His mirth instantly reused the resent
ment of the man in the peGiacket, who,
backing away from the railing, struck
violently at him right and left.
DA llAsLiAANt anu AAll6 AdulA 4NOAAol
Islands. He was the taller
man of the two, active and more skill
full in seIf-defense than the other; but
long winter overcoat is an awkward
garment for boxing in, and the gloves
proper for a gentleman's afternoon
calls are not at all the prize-ring type.
Handicapped like this, he was less diff
ficult for the smaller man, whose
furious drives and swings fell short
Of his face, but reached his chest and
ribs.
The two clinched and stamped up
and down in the dry snow, their steps
SO mufled as to be soundless, ever in
the stiffness of that deserted nook
They fell, graphing fiercely, and the
street lamp blinked down at them
like a solitary and impartial witness
for both sides, while river steamer
went putting and groaning past, as il