Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1905-08-18

or who has reappeared for the occasion;
'These beggars want to board u.s.
said he. Forward, forward, for the
honor of the flag! To port, there, hre!
To starboard, there, fire! All together
firet'
And it was with no property daggers
he was armed, nor dummy pistols loaded
with inotfensiye powder. No! revolver
in each hand, he was bounding along, mr.
! ing right and left, and everywhere.
Pan Chao also exposed himself brave
| ly, smile on his lips, calamity leading
on the other Chinese passengers. Popot
and the railway men did their duty
bravely. Sir Francis Trevelyan, OF
! Trevellyan Hall, took matters very
coOlly, but Ephrinell abandoned himself
to true Yankee fury, being no less irrl-
tated at the interruption to his marriage
than as to the danger run by his forty
two packages of artificial teeth.
Faruskiar, my hero-I cannot call him
anything else-displays extraordinary in
| trepidity, bearing himself the boldest in
the struggle, and when he had exhausted
his revolver, using his kandijar like a
man who had often faced death and new
er feared it.
Already there were a few wounded on
both sides, perhaps a few dead among
the passengers, who lay on the line.
have had my shoulder grazed by bullet,
simple scratch l have hardly noticed.
The Rev. Nathaniel Morse does not think
that his sacred character compels him to
| 10 tho q
works, one would not imagine that it
was the first time he has handled fire.
arms. Caterna has his hat shot through,
He utters something about thunder and
port hole, and then, taking a most de-
liberate aim, shoots stone dead the ruf1an
who has taken such a liberty with his
best headgear.
For ten minutes or so the battle con-
tinues with most alarming alterations.
The number of wounded on both sides in
creases, and the issue is still doubtful.
Faruskiar and Changer and the MOngols
have been driven back toward the pre-
cious van, which the Chinese guard have
not left for an instant. But two or
three of them have been MORALLY wound
ed, and their officer has just been killed
by bullet in the head. And my hero
does all that the most ardent courage
can do for the defense of the treasure
of the Son of Heaven.
| l am getting uneasy at the prolonga-
tion of the combat. 1t will continue
| evidently as long as the chief of the
banda tall man with a black beard
urges on his aecomplices to the attack
on the train. Up till nowshe has escaped
unhurt, and, in spite of all we can do, he
is gaining ground. Shall we be obliged
to take refuge in the vans, as behind
the walls of a fortress, to intrench our
selves, to fight until the last has sue
cumbed? And that will not be long, if
we cannot stop the retrOgrade movement
which is beginning on our side.
! To the reports of the guns there are
now added the cries of the women, who
in their terror are running about the
gangways, although Miss Bluett and
Madame Caterna are trying to keep them
inside the cars. A few bullets have gone
through the panels, and l am wondering
If any of them have hit Kinko.
| Major Noltitz comes near me and says,
''This is not going WE'LL"
mo, it is not going WELL" reply, 'and
am afraid the ammunition will give
out. We must settle their commander
| in-chief. Come, majOr-"
But what we are about to do was
done by another at that very instant.
This other was FGruskiar. Bursting
through the ranks of the assailants, he
cleared them off the line, in spite of the
blows they aimed Mt him. He is in
front of the bandit chief, he raises his
arms, he stabs him full in the chest.
instantly the thieves beat a retreat,
without even carrying off their dead and
wounded. Some run across the plain,
some disappear in the thickets. Why
pursue them now that the battle has
ended in our favor? And l must say
that without the admirable valor of
| Faruskiar l do not expect any of us
would have lived to tell the story.
But the chief of the bandits is not
dead, although the blood flows abundant
| ly from his chest He has fallen with
one knee on the ground, one hand up
with the other he is supporting himself
Faruskiar stands over him, towering
above him. Suddenly he rises in last
effort, his arm threatens his adversary,
he looks at him. A last thrust of the
kandijar is driven into his heart. Faru-
skiar returns, and in Russian, with per-
| feet calmness, remarks:
''Ki-Tsang is dead! So perish all who
bear weapons against the Son of Heav-
emp
| CrO be continued.'
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