Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1904-08-11


/ Both men, stimulated to the finger
/ tips by draft of imperious passion,
/ fairly plunged to the inevitable con
| fict. All. if Alice could have seen her
/ beautiful weapons cross, if she could
I have heard the fine, farreaching clink,
/ clink. clink, while sparks leaped forth
! dazzling even in the moonlight; If she
+ could have noted the admirable-nay.
the amazing-play as the men. regain
/ ing coolness to some extent. gathered
/ their forces and fell cautiously to the
/ deadly work, it would have been
/ enough to change the com simmer of
/ her face to a flash of warm delight.
For she would have understood every
feint, lunge, parry, and seen at a glance
/ how Father Beret set the pace and led
! the race at the beginning. She would
/ have understood, for Father Beret had
I taught her. all she knew about the art
] of fencing.
Hamilton quickly felt, and with n
sense of its strangeness, the priest 5
hasterly command of his weapon. The
surprise called up all his caution and
4 cleverness. Before he could adjust
himself to such an unexpected con-
! dition he came near being spitted cut
right by a pretty pass under his guard.
The narrow escape, while it put him on
his best mettle, sent q wave of super
sti;ion through his brain. He recalled
what Barlow had joculaIly said about
the doings of the devil-priest or priest
devil at Roussillon place on that night
when the patrol guard attempted to
take Gaspard Roussillon Was this
indeed Father Beret, that gentle old
man. now before him, or was 1t an
avenging demon from the shades?
The thought fitted electrically across
his mind, while he deftly parried,
feinted, luhged, giving his dark antag-
+ 5nist all he could do to meet the play.
/ Priest or devil he thought-he cared
1 not which-he would reach his vitals
/ presently. Yet there fingered with him
! 4 haunting half fear or tenuous awe,
rhich may have aided, rather than
! hindered, his excellent swordsman-
| Ihin.
Talderfoet it was slushy with mud,
water and ice, the consistency varying
| from somewhat solid crust to pud-
! dies that half inundated Hamilton 8
boots and quite overdowed Father
| Beret's moccasins-an execrable field
| for the little matter in hand. They
gradually shifted position. Now 1t
was the governor then the priest, who
had advantage as to the light. For
| some time Father Beret seemed quite
| the shiftier and surer fighter, but twas
his age telling on himD he lost per-
ceptibly in suppleness. Still Hamil-
ton failed to touch him. There was a
| battling something in the old mans
escape now and again from what ought
| to have been an inevitable stroke.
| Was it luck? 1t seemed to Hamilton
more than that-a sort of uncanny eva
sion. Or was it supreme mastery, the
| last and subtlest reach of the fencers
| craft?
! Youth forced age slowly backward
| in the struggle, which at times took
| on spurts so furious that the slender
| blades, becoming mere glints of acicu-
| lar steel, split the moonlight back and
| forth, up and down, so that their meet
| ings, following one another in a well
nigh continuous stroke, sent jarring
| noise through the air. Father Beret
lost inch by inch, until the fighting was
| almost over the body of Alice, and now
| for the first time Hamilton became
| aware of that motionless something
| with the white, luminous face in pro-
| file against the ground; but he did not
| let even that unsettle his fencing gaze,
| which followed the sunken and dusky
eyes of his adversary. A perspiration
| suddenly flooded his body, however,
and began to drip across his face. His
arm was firing. A doubt crept like a
chill into his heart. Then the priest
| appeared to add a cubit to his stature
| and waver strangely in the soft light.
Behind him, low against the sky, a
wide winged owl shot noiselessly
across just above the prairie.
The soul of a true priest is double;
4 it is the soul of a saint and the soul of
worldly man. What is most beauti-
full in this duality is the supreme cour-
age with which the sanity spirit at
tacks the worldly and SO often hero
icalIy masters it. In the beginning of
the fight Father Beret let passion Of
the earthly body take him by storm.
1t was well for Governor Henry Ham
ilton that the priest was SO wrought
upon as to unsettle his nerves; other
| wise there would have been an evil
heart impaled midway of Father Be
rets rapier. A little later the sanity
spirit began to assert itself, feebly in
deed, but surely. Then it was that
Father Beret seemed to be losing agil-
| ity for awhile as he backstepped away
from Hamilton's increasing energy of
assault. In his heart the priest was
saying: Il will not murder him.
must not do that. He deserves death
but vengeance is not mine. l will dis
arm him." Step by step he retreated
playing erratically to make an opening
for trick he meant to use.
1t was singularly loose play, a sort
Of wavering, shifty, incomprehensible
show of carelessness that caused Ham
ilton TO entertain a doubt, which was
really fear, as to what was going to
happen, for, Notwithstanding all this
neglect of due precaution on the
| DEleSl part, W lOuCH lllH sctIutu III
possible, miraculously so, and every
plan of attack dissolved into futility
in the most maddening way.
Priest, devil or ghostw ragged Ham
ilton, with n froth gathering around
his mouth. 'I'll kill you, orr
He made lunge when his adversary
left an opening which appeared abso
lutely beyond defense. 1t was a quick
dexterous, vicious thrust. The blade
leaped toward Father Beret's hear
with twinkle like lightning.
At that moment, although warily
alert and hopeful that his opportunity
was at hand, Father Beret came neal
losing his life, for as he sidesteppeC
and easily parried Hamilton's thrust
which he had invited, thinking to en-
tangle his blade and disarm him, ht
caught his foot in Alice's skirt anC
stumbled nearly falling across her
1t would have been easy for Hamilton
to run him through had he instantly
followed up the advantage, but tn,
moonlight on Alice's face struck his
eyes, and by that indirect ray of visior
which is often strangely effective ht
recognized her lying there. 1t was {
disconcerting thing for him, but HI
rallied instantly and sprang aside, tax
ing a new position just in time to face