The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-02-13
A Knave Of
Conscience
By FRANCIS LYNDE.
CHAPTER XXV.-CoNrNUED.
(Copyrieht 700. By Francis Lynds-)


<ran through the group of determined
ZONES and there were muttered impre.
@cations including Griswold.
Tain't no use, Mr. Griswold," the
spokesman went on. eve ketched
timsin the very act, and he's goin' to
-swiAg If ever last one Of us has to
dance on nothin' to pay for it. It's
him or. u.s.
!; Caught him in the act of what p
demanded Griswold.
3 The spokesman shuffied with his
feet and hung his head. He was the
rmgleader of the malcontents: q bur-
tly nolder but lately come to Wa
haska, and there had been whispers
pointing to a past of his which would
mot bear the light. Griswold remem-
this: that the mans following was a
detail from the more desperate Sec
zion of the strikers.
= The pause was brief, but being sur
charged with possibilities, seemed
long. At length the man threw up
his head.
: "Come hero and I'll show you," he
said.
Griswold followed him a step aside,
20 the Office front and to a breach
in the palings Of the high fence close
at hand. Within the breach, and
heaped against the wall of the frame
office building, was pile of chips and
.shavings, and there was a pungent
Odor of kerosene in the air. The
man pointed in silence.
& "You mean to say that he was 60
ing to burn us out?" asked Griswold.
Then fxin's speak for themselves,
don't they?"
z "But why?" Griswold demanded.
The big man snorted scornfully.
"Tain't no use for you to play in
Iiercent hathaway, Mr.. Griswold.
You know who he is. and what he is,
and what he's here for"
Whereat Griswold lost his patience
and swore angrily. ''Have done with
your mysterious bush-beating and
cay what's in YOU" he raped out.
don't know the man."
50 You don't. eh2 Well, he's cussed
Pinkerton. that's what he. is: and he's
here to make IA case against u.s..
sS'pose the works'takes fire and burns
up, and he goes on the stand to swear
we done it? Only he amt never
goin' to get the chance. He's goin'
60 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 assaulted 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 Louisiana chain-gang, would
go to his account, and all danger
would be over-past for one Kenneth
Griswold.
No one save the victim of such an
0nfall 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 sub
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: stCould
you oblige me with a cigar. Mr.. Girls
Wold?"
Now, however fiercely the devils OF
temptatio had assaulted, Griswold
had beaten them off; that and more;
he had a plan of an attempt at q
rescue half-formed, and this request
of the man about to be hanged
ehimed in with it. He promptly ten
dered the cigar, and the striker who
was pinioning Griffin's right arm me-
chemically 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 suficed. 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 ont
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 q yell
of rage and no two men might with
stand it. Griswold did not try.
Through that hole in the fence!-
I'm 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.
Gr:swold made good use of the mo-
meatary respite.