Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-02-17

any chance to jerk aside while l am
engaged, might miss you when pull
the trigger, and get into trouble with
the railway company for damaging the
paddings of the carriage. Sit still
now, while I shift the popgun.'
SO saying, he slowly lowered the re-
volver till it was between my eyes.
Then he brought it down the bridge
OF my nose until it was over my mouth,
and l could smell burnt powder, and
thence he let it travel down my chin
and my neck till it was pressing
against my breast-bone.
Just an inch or two to the left
he said, suiting the action to the word,
and we shall be all right. There!
now we're snug and comfortable. If
you'll kindly open out that paper and
hold it so that l can read it, I'll be
obliged to YOU
did as he told me, but with unwill-
ing fingers, for knew that the sight
OF it would, as I have already said,
bring matters to crisis.
Nor was I mistaken, for the start
which he gave when he set eyes on it
was so great that I felt the revolver
leap against my chest, and was minded
to cry out to him to have a care lest
he slipped the trigger
my God'' he said, this is worse
than l looked for. Either that man
Number Seven has played us false or
else you killed him before you got
possession of this
AS he spoke he bent forward slight
ly to assure himself that the document
was not a forgery, and thus gave me
what l knew was my only chance. His
fine words about wishing to spare my
life I took no account of, knowing
very we'll that had he not wished tt
discover who I was and how I came
by the knowledge I possessed, he
would have shot me at sight. If by
promising me my life he could induce
me to tell him whether what I knew
was known to others, he would then
be aware with whom he had to deal;
but if he were in too great a haste
to make what he called dead meat
of me, he would have no other oppor-
tunity of obtaining the information he
desired.
But that he would spare me one
minute longer than suited his purpose
l did not for moment suppose, and
I had all along decided that l must
wait for my opportunity, and when it
came, take it. That opportunity had,
I felt, now come, so when he bent
forward to look more closely at the
document, I let go of the thing and
struck with all my strength at the
hand that held the revolver hoping to
cash the weapon aside. Had things
been as he thought they were, that
moment would have been my last, for
he had, no doubt, expected some such
onslaught, and had made of his arm
a very bar of iron, so that my blow
scarce budged the revolver an inch.
At the same moment he pulled the
trigger, and, knowing what was COM
ing, shut my eyes and waited to
feel my life rush out of the hole made
by the bullet.
But, to his and my establishment,
the revolver gave tongue to no more
deadly sound than a click, and, look
ing down, saw, to my aJlazement and
JOY, that it was my own unloaded re-
volver he was holding.
I had, no doubt, STRIP fsed him by
awakening Will. he was bending over
me, and, catching sight of my revolver
III my pocket, and having no weapon
of his own, he had in all probability
snatched at it, and had presented it
at my forehead, with what result the
reader knows. T~r....- = .-,.
Again he pulled the trigger, and yet
again. Each time the weapon derided
him With harmless click a. i It