Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-02-10


 struggle, leaned wearily, with pale, drawn face, against the wall; the floor seemed slipping from under him; he felt sensation Of swiftly passing into nothingness. He was sleepy, that was all; but a sleepiness to fight against. He must still fight.
 You are badly hurt" It was the girls voice. He was almost surprised that he recognized it, everything was so confused. ~..
 He answered heavily. "Yes, I'm I'm--I want-to lie down."
 Here, lean on my shoulder" It was Mikes voice this time. This is bad business" the trainer was saying; ''we must get him out of this; he's nearly knocked out. Are ye all right, Miss?" turning to Allis.
 The wounded man turned guiltily: he had forgotten the girl. Yes, sure- ly she had been in that hell of noises with him, fighting too.
 "rm just frightened, that's all," an- swered Allis. MT. Mortimer saved me-. .e
 Had he?' he wondered. How had he come in there, anyway" His mind I side was so sore.
 "Your arms broke,' said Mike,> pass ing to Mortimer's right side Come, lean on me, sir. Can you walk? I'll put ye in the buggy and drive ye to the 1 house."
 At the first step Mortimer staggered and swayed like 8 drunken man. In his side were many sharp things pull ing him down like grappling irons; on 1 his head was great weight that crush ed his feet into the hard blanks; his knees gave way under this load, and he would have fallen, but for Mikes l strong arm.
 "I'm-afraid;" then he set his teeth hard, his voice had sought to end the sentence in a groan of anguish; the thing that was tearing at his side had whistled in his lungs. ! Allis stepped forward swiftly, and passing her arm about his waist, help ed Mike lead him to the door. Twice she put her left hand up and brushed tears from her eyes; the struggle had unnerved her. Very helplessly against l her swayed the man she had laughed at half an hour before. And he had been crushed saving her! But that was not why the tears came--not at all. She was unstrung. x...,..
 And he's got grit,'' she kept mutt tering to herself; "he has never even groaned."
 Together they succeeded in getting him into the buggy; then, gently, Mike drove to the house. @ . | e5a rs1> arm was the doctors inventory of the damage inflicted by Diablo's kick, when he came out again with Porter, in an hour. <,
 'I'm afraid one of the splintered ribs is tickling his lung," he added. "but the fellow has got such good l nerve that I hardly discovered this un- pleasant fact. He'll be all right, how 1 ever: he's young, and healthy as a peach. Good nursing is the idea, and he'll get that here. of course. He does mt want much medicine; that we keep l for our enemies-ha! hal" and he laughed cheerily. as if it were all a joke on the battered man.
 ''Thim docthors is cold-blooded div 1 ils," was Mikes comment. "Ye'd a throwing dice, an it was a horse on the other gintleman. Bot t'umbs! 1t was, too. Still, If old saw-bones had been in the box wonder with Diablo. he weYMldnt have felt sS fqpny Ws a,ont Mixer" asked Porter. @
 Behaved well. is 1t? He was like a live devil. Punched thim two stall lions until they took water and backed out. My word! whin first see him come to the stable wit Miss Allis, thinks I, here's one of thim city chumps; he made me tired. An whin he talked about Lauzanne's knees, m'aning his hooks, had to hide me head in grain bag. But if ye'd seen him handle that fork, bastin' the black, ye'd thought 1t was single sticks he was at, wit a thousand dollars for knock ut.''
 Mortimer's gallant act had reused the Irishman's admiration. He would have done as much himself, but that would have been expected of a horseman, constantly encountering danger; that an office man, to be pitted in his ignor- ance, should have fearlessly entered the stall with the fighting stallions was quite different matter. Il hVen All1S, with ner more n1gnly Oe- veloped sense of character analyzation, felt something of this same influence. She had needed some such manifesto ton of Mortimer's integral force, and this had come with romantic intensity in the tragic box-stall scene. This drama of the stable had aroused no polished rhetoric; Mortimers declama,- tion had been unconventional in the extreme. Back, you devils!" he had rendered with explosive ferceness, ob- livious of everything but that he must save the girl. The words still rang in the ears of Allis, and also the echo of her own cry when in peril, "Morti- mer!" There must have been a fore shadowing in her soul of the mans reliability, though she knew it not.
 Even without the doctors orders, it was patent that Mortimer must remain at Ringwood for few days.
 It was as if Philip Crane, playing IL III l. g- I~A--