Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-01-17
The Knife Thr0Wer
tOriginal.]

lollShloiJ
When a mining fever struck a new
| region in the west l thought | would
go out and take Il hand. One night
soon after my arrival l went to Il show
that had come to the place where l had
located. 1t was given in a big tent and
consisted Of acrobatic. sleight of hand
and other such performances. There
were two brothers, knife throwers, who
showed great skill, Ben and Harry
Halliwell, as their names were given
on the roughly printed playbills. Ben's,
part was to stand with his back to q
board while Harry planted knives all
about him so that when Ben walked
away he left his outline in knives on
the board. 1t occurred to me that it
was a horrible way of making a living,
for an accident must surely occur in
time. But this gave the sympathy Of
| the audience to the brothers, the spec
tators holding their breaths till the end
OF the game, then ~applauding v%ocifer-
ously.
The Halliwell brothers were down
for two performances, and just before
the second a specimen Of the toughest
class at the mines, a thickset, red
faced, thick Tipped man, with SatanB'
own look, sidled around and got in be-
hind the ropes on to the plot reserved
for the performers. He stood opposite
the knife thrower and sidewise to the
man at whom the knives were thrown.
Harry had nearly pinned his brother in
when / saw a flash of light OH Harry's
face just as he was throwing a knife.
1t went through the feshy part of his
brothers leg. 1 had been watching the
man who stood opposite him and a
second before the knife that wounded
Ben was thrown | saw the intruder
manipulate q pocket mirror. 1t was he
who threw the light of a lamp into
Harry's yes and caused him to mis-
send the knife. The audience had kept
their gaze fixed on the brothers. espe-
cially the n standing for a target. and
nobody but myself seemed to have e
the cause of the failure. I'm sure if
they had the man who had contrived it
would have suffered for his act. Being
unused to such scenes / prudently kept
my OWE counsel. A tenderfoot is not
alSSd w edhC paw IL luS lualACiS VI VIC
people of new countries.
I saw Harry Halliwell give the man
a glance and was confident that he
vas aware of the cause of his wound
ing his brother. In that glance l also
saw a premonition of revenge. OF
course the incident ended that part Of
the performance. The brothers with
| 1rou on1 thn hill uyoc finicho1 nv tho
others. So far as I could see, the spec
tators supposed that an accident had
happened, but were SO used to scenes
Of sudden bloodletting that they soon
forgot it.
The next day l learned that the hend
who had caused the trouble had been
melted against Harry Halliwell for
some reason not known to my in
formant. He passed under the name
Of Nevada Tim and had a black record
behind him. His occupation vas gam
bling, and he passed most of his time
at the Metropolitan, a gambling den i'll
the place. l was also told that he had
been Informed that Harry Halliwen
had accused him of throwing a light in
his eyes as he was about to throw the
knife, and he was looking for Harry
to kill him.
The afternoon after the performance,
having nothing to do, 1 sauntered into
the Metropolitan and stood looking at
the game. l was surprised to see Har-
ry Halliwell sitting at the table play
ing very moderately. He seemed more
interested in watching the door thar
in the game. I went out after awhile,
but something's could not tell what
led me to go back. There was Harry
Halliwell still sitting at the table, the
door on his left, and now 1 noticed his
brother leaning IN a crutch standing
opposite. Presently the door opened,
and Nevada Tim walked in. l saw
him start when he saw the knife
thrower, and instead of walking
straight up to the table. as he had
started to do, he sided around to the
left.
AS soon as the man entered I saw
that both the Halliwells were aware Of
his presence. Ben drew a little off
from the table where he and Harry
could better see each other, and his
eyes never left their enemy for a sec
ond. Nevada Tim kept edging around
to get in Harry's rear, but in an ap-
parently careless way not likely to at
tract attention. 1 wished l hadn't come
there. for I knew what he was bent or.
and l wasn't sure the brothers did.
Finally he attained a position directly
behind Harry, and 1 saw him turn with
sudden swiftness and level q revolver
at the back of Harry's head, but before
he could pull the trigger 1 heard a thud
and at the same moment saw the
handle of a knife protruding from his
left breast. He pitched over back
ward and lay perfectly still.
Ben Halliwell had given his brother
a signal which, had it come a few Sec
onds later, would have come too late.
Harry had turned only half around and
. thrown the knife over his left shoulder.
So sure was his aim that he had
pierced the heart in it's center.
had condemned mvsoIf hiftor1y Gov