Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-07-09

Thu
lungs wheeling, their faces trickling
blood and sweat. Roys left hand pain
ed him overwhelmingly, while Nc
Namara's macerated lips had turned
outward In a hideous pout. They
crouched SO for an instant, cruel
bestial-then cltnched again The of,
fice-fttings were wrecked utterly and
the room became a litter Of ruins.
The mems garments fell away till
their breasts we're bare and their arms
swelled white and knotted through the
rags. They knew no pain. their bod
les were insensate mechanisms.
Gradually the older mans face was
beaten into a shapeless mass by the
others cunning blows, while G1enis.
ter's every bone was wrenched and
twisted under his enemy's terrible on.
slaughts. The miners chief effort q
Is true, was to keep his feet and IN
break the mans embraces Never
had he encountered one whom no
could not beat by sheer strength an
he mot this great. snarling creature
who worried him hither and Won as
though he were child. Time and
again Roy beat upon the mans face
with the blows of sledge. No rules
governed this solitary combat: the
men were deaf to all but the roaring
IN their ears, blinded to ali but hate,
insensible to everything but the blood
mania. Their trampling feet caused
the building to rumble and shake as
though some monster were running
amuck
Meanwhile bareheaded man rush
ed out of the store beneath. humping
into pedestrian who had passed on
the sidewalk, and together they sour.
ried up the stairs. The story which
Roy had seen at sea had shot. the
breakers. and now its three passen.
gers We're tracking through the wet
sand towards Front street. Bill Wheat.
on in the lead. He was followed bv
two rawboned men who travelled with.
out baggage. The city as awakening
with the sun which reared a conner
rim out of the sea. Judge atdain,aa
and Voorhees, came down from the
hotel and paused to gaze through tae
mists at caravan of mule teams
which trotted into the other end Of
the street with Jingle and clenk. The
wagons were blue with soldiers, the
early golden rays slanting from their
krags, and they wers bound for the
Midas.
Out of the fogs which chung SO thick.
ly to the tundra there came two other
horses, distorted and unreal. on one
girl, on the other figure Of pain
and tragedy, grotesque creature that
swayed stiff1y to the motion of it's
steed, It's face writhed into lines Of
suffering, its hands clutching cantle
and horn.
It was as though fate, with invisible
toucn, were setting her stage for the
last act of this play, assembling the
principals close to the Golden sands
where first they had made entrance.
The man and the girl came face to
face with the Judge and marshal, who
cried out upon seeing them but as
they refined in, out from the stairs be-
side them a man shot amid clatter and
uproar.
"Give me hand-qnick!" he shout
ed to them.
Whats up?" inquired the marshal.
"It's murder! Mcnamara and Glen
ister!" He. dashed back up the steps
behind Voorhees,, the Judge following,
while muffled cries came from above.
The gambler turned towards the
three men who were hurrying from the
beach, and, recognizing Wheaton, call
ed to him: unite my feet! Cut the
ropes! Quick!"
whats the trouble?" the lawyer
asked but on hearing Glenister's
name bounded after the Judge, leaving
one of his companions to free the rider.
They could hear the fight now, and all
crowded towards the door. Helen
with her brother, in spite Of his warn
ing to stay behind.
She never remembered how she
climbed those stairs, for she was borne
along by that hypnotic power which
drags one to behold a catastrophe In
spite of his will Reaching the room,
she stood appalled,; for the group she
had joined watched two raging things
that rushed at each other with inhu-
man cries. ragged, bleeding, lighting
on a carpet Of debris. Every loose
and breakable thing had been ground
to splinters as though by iron slugs in
a whirling cylinder.
To this day, from Dawson to the
Straits, from Unga to the Arctics, men
tell Of the combat wherever they fore
gather at fiaring camp-fires or in dingy
bunk-houses; and although some scout
the tale, there are others who saw it
and can swear to its truth. These say
that the encounter was like the bat
tie Of bull moose in the rutting sea-
son, though more terrible. averring
that two men like these had never
been known in the land since the days
of vitus Bering and his crew; for
their rancor had swollen till at feel of
each others flesh they ran mad and
felt superhuman strength. 1t is true,
at any rate, that neither was conscious
Of the filing room. nor the cries of
the crowd, even when the marshal
forced himself through the wedged
door and fell upon the nearest. which
was Glenister He came at an instant
when the two had paused at arms
length, glaring with rage-drunken
eyes, gasping the labored breath back
into their lungs.
With a fling of his long arms the
young man hurled the intruder aside
SO violently that his head struck the
iron safe and he collapsed insensible.