The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-09
BY EDWARD PEPLE.
Author of "Prince Chap"

The two men fought as their skin-cIad
| forbears battled in the age of stone.
! tiercely, savagely, each seeking to stun
vitality by raw, unartful strength, vet
/ failing because of the others racial
germ of pluck.
But the end was in sight at last. Joe
drew a long, deep breath and gathered
/ his powers for a final, staggering rush.
/ Lord CrantOn watched him coming and
| tried to raise his guard, but his mus
/ cles refused the strain and his arms
sank quivering to his sides. His limbs
were shaking, wabblipg at the knees,
and supporting his weight by the force
of will alone. He was all in, and knew
it, but he did not finch.
Joe smiled, and set himself for a
| knockout blow. Before him. undefend-
ed, waited the point of a strong, aris-
tOcratic jaw. One swing would send his
tenemy crashing to the beach and wipe
away an insult from the slate of pride
And yet there was another way, less
brutal, but more complete. The hand
shot Out-nOt the hard, doubled fist, but
! fingers that gripped an unresisting body
and spun ii half around; then Joe pro-
ceeded earnestly to kick his lOrdship-
twice.
With a cry of fury Lord CrantOn
wheeled about, and. with his last re
naming ounce of strength, struck vi
ciOusly at his conqueror's swollen face;
then he shivered and sank exhausted
on the sand.
He was sleepy now, and seemed to
doze away, with the thunder of break
ers pounding in his ears, while he
dreamed a dream of Bunker and Ma
juba hills. He was beaten-not by
skill or courage, but by a brother ami
mai of his own proud lighting blood an
animal hardened in the heat and cold
of the western plains, training IN
known at Cambridge and one which
units a man to acknowledge any living
master save himself.
When his lOrdship awOke his first
sensations were of heat and cold; the
one was a fiery trickle from a TASKS
neck forced between his teeth; the
other a dOuche OF cool, fresh water
pOred gently from the spout of a cOf-
fee pot, and both were vastly pleasing
to Milford. He opened mis- one available
eye, while his lips twitched family into
a twisted smile.
Jolly old scrimmage, Ell? Ripping,
And now concerning that apology
made of myself no end of silly ass,
and I~want to say"
"Aw, you shut up" commanded Joe,
and Lord CTantOn laughed.
They were silent for a time, till the
bruised Kentuckian spoke again.
Look yonder,'' he said. as he pointed
to a snaky coil of smoke, with a dis
tant, duck-like craft beneath it. It's
that durn fool battleship what run us
down, an if l amt nosin' off the trail
she's a-lOokin' for a lord what's lost or
strayed."
What luck" observed the Briton sol
EMMY. Il hope, by Jove, she has a
surgeon in her crew.
Look here" said Joe at the end of
another -Oiceless twenty minutes
when we gets to land viii you stay
with me d spell on my horse ranch down
i'm old Kint Icky?"
'Well. ratEeTi' returned his lOrdship,
beamingly. And if things grow dull,
Wen have another gO-glOves, old chap
but dash me if licking isn't barred"
Then another silence fell between the
two, as they lay and watched the COM
ing battleship. They spoke no word,
yet their hands crept out and touched.
in a grip that means far more than the
babbling symbols of our tongues.