The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-19

paper l was hanging. 1t was the last
strip, too. Blagdon. Oh, it was softer
than mush! 1t seemed almost like
stealing. 1 felt like"
"Will you invite danger, with this in
fernal chatter and delay?" Missed Bag
don, with suppressed ferocity. Get
the contract at once, or you will get
nothing from me for the job you hssve
done''
'Oh, yes 1 shall, Blagdon, for L have
you on the hip, all right sneered
Crooke. from the ladder. But l now
will cut it out, and then we'll be off.
Look, you, a cash this way and that.
and l now can turn down nearly a foot
of the wall paper. The paste is bare
ly dry. And here's your daffy little
contract, Blagdon, as snug as a bug in
a-perditiOn! What's that?"
One of the newly laid boards under
the feet of the burly chief inspector had
cFeaked loudly.
The sound was instantly followed by
ringing shout from Morris Donald: AT
them, Gibson
He leaped up while he spoke, and the
wardrobe door flew open, with a crash.
A shrek of dismay came from Blagdon,
as Gibson seized him from behind and
pinned him to the wall.
Not sound came from his confed
crate, however. Yet all that was des-
perate in Jimmy Crooke, as remarked
upon by the chief that afternoon, in
stantly came into play.
With the leap of a frightened leopard,
he left the ladder, hurting it fiercely in
Donald's direction, then daGed swiftly
through the outer office.
Both the ladder and the screen fell
with a crash, and Donald pitched head
long over both. Up in an instant, how
ever, he rOared sharply:
Hang to your man, Gibson! I'll land
your crooki'
There is no language to suggest, even
vaguely the sentiments that imbued his
ringing words. Before the last was ut
tered he was dashing like a mailman
through the main office, revolver in
hand.
Crooke already had reached the cor
ridor, and banged the Office door behind
him. Three men, by chance approach
ing, cut off his escape by the street
stairs. He turned like a cornered wolf
and darted up a rear fight some TWEEN
ty feet away.
Before he could reach the next land
ing, however, Morris Donald emerged
from the bankers office. and the spite
full crack of his revolver rang through
the corridor.
1t was instantly echoed by another,
and a flash of fire dispelled for mo-
ment the deepening dusk at the head
of the stairs.
The bullet sang by Donald's ear, and
a splash of dry plaster from the wall
near by showered him from head to
foot Through a veil of smoke, as he
mounted the stairs, he saw Crooke van
ish up a second fight toward the fourth
floor.
There Crooke discovered a rear win
dow, and saw outside section OF the
staging previously mentioned. With
ewes agIow and features livid with des-
peration, he beat out the panes with
his revolver, then leaped out upon the
staging.
Sixty feet below was an open area,
in which the foundations for a new
building were being laid. Across this
open space. nearly forty feet away,
was the side wall of another partly fin
ished building, it being a period when
considerable reconstruction in lower
State street was in progress. In the
area mentioned, and nearly midway be-
tween the two buildings, was a lofty
derrick for hosting stone.
Bent upon climbing down the several
sections Of staging, and thus reaching
the ground. CroOke ran rapidly along
that on which he stood, and looked for
the nearest timbers leading downward.
Before he had covered thirty feet,
however, Norris Donald was at the de-
molished window, and the report of his
revolver rang out.
A score of moving. people in the street
some distance away heard the start
ling sound, and halted to gaze upward
to witness one of the most blood-cur-
ding feats one is often fated to view.
Donald's bullet passed within a foot
of Crooke's head. He glanced back
and returned the shot. His eyes had
the glare of a hunted leopard. To es-
cape by the way he had in mind was
utterly impossible. He knew that he
should be shot before he could descend
& dozen feet.
He had discovered another way, how
ever He had caught sight of a long
line making from the arm of the der
rick to one of the upright timbers of
the staging. On the end of this line
was a pair of heavy iron graphing
hooks. On the face of the wall. forty
feet away, was q series of stagings like
those below him. With one swift glance
he measured the length of the line, just
as his pursuer sprang out upon. the
stage.