Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1907-11-21


They trspped across the floor. crashing
into the partition.
and rolled In 1t, then. by consent.
wrenched themselves apart, rose, eye
to eye, their jaws hanging. their lungs
wheeling, their faces trickling blood
and sweat. Roy's left hand panied him
overwhelmingly, while McNamara's mac
Grated lips had turned outward In a
hideous pout. They crouched so for an
instant, cruel, bestial-then clinched
again. The Office fittings were wrecked
utterly, and the room became a litter
OF ruins The mems garments fell
away till their breasts were bare and
their arms swelled white and knotted
through the rags. They knew no pain,
their bodies were insensate mechan-
isms.
Gradually the older mans face was
beaten into shapeless mass by the
others cunning blows, while GIenis-
ter's every bone was wrenched and
twisted under his enemy's terrible on
slaughts. The miners chief effort, it Is
true was to keep his feet and to break
the mans embraces. Never had he en-.
countered one whom he could not beas
By sheer strength till he met this great.
snarling creature who worried him
hither and yon as though he were q
child. Time and again Roy beat upon
the mans face with the blows of
eledge. No rules governed this solitary
combat; the men were deaf to all but
the roaring in their ears, blinded to all
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 a bareheaded man rushed
out Of the store beneath, humping into
a pedestrian who had paused on the
sidewalk, and together they scurried
up the stairs. The dory which Roy
had seen at sea had shot the breakers,
and now its three passengers were
tracking through the wet sand toward
Front street, Bill Wheaton in the lead.
He was followed by two rawboned
men who travelled without baggage.
The city was awakening with the sun
which reared a copper rim out Of the
sea. Judge Stillman and Voorhees,
came down from the hotel and paused
to gaze through the mists at a caravan
of mule teams which trotted Into the
other end of the street with Jingle and
clank The wagons were blue with
soldiers. the early golden rays slant
Ing from their Krags, and they were
bound for the Midas.
Out of the fogs which chung so
thickIy 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 stifiy to the motion Of Its
steed. its face writhed into lines of
suffering. It's hands cIutching camille
and horn.
1t was as though fate. with invisible
touch, were setting her stage for the
last act Of this play. assembling the
principals close to the golden sands
where frst 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 man shot amid clatter and
uproar.
"Give me hand-quickr' be shouted
to them.
whats up2" inquired the marshal
tits murderl Mcnamara and Glen
isterr' He dashed back up the steps
behind Voorhees,. the Judge following
while muf1ed cries came from above.
The gambler turned toward the three
men who were hurrying from the
beach and, recognizing Wheaton.
called to him: Unite my feetl Cut
the ropesl Quickw
whats the troubleq" the lawyer
asked, but on hearing Glenister's name
bounded after the Judge, leaving one
of bis companions to free the rider
Whey could hear the fight now and all
crowded toward the door, Helen with
her brother, In spite Of his warning 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 catastrophe in
spite OF bis will. Reaching the room.
she stood appalled,; for the group she
had joined watched two raging things
that rushed at each other with In
human cries, ragged, bleeding, fighting
IN carpet Of debris. Every loose and
breakabIe thing had been ground to
eplinters as though By iron slugs 10 9