Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-02

bill, Lady Donoyle," answered Miss
Sidcombe, dejectedly. And the worst
of it is even when the ransom is forth
coming, Zidan is such scoundrel he
may still keep us, or send us back in
serial form"
my dear girl! You abuse Muley
Zidan because you have never been
married. He's not half as bad as
some husbands. l wonder where all
the men have gone to-there are only
a couple of the picturesque dears
guarding the entrance of the glen
Here they come back!" announced
Lady Kitty, as distant shouting came
to their ears, and two horsemen gal
loped into right, waving their long,
clumsy muskets, their burnouses
floating picturesquely about them.
Five minutes afterwards the alley was
full of zidan's followers, guarding six
detected men, looking like stage tour
lists, five of whom were so obviously
i'll at ease in their clothes that they
would have imposed on no one but
simple Moorish brigand.
"Why!-it's Mr.. Vandraken, NAM
nal" cried Lady Kitty, and she started
towards him; but Vandraken looking
startled and surprised, cut her dead,
| and, while she gazed at him in dismay,
| winked knowingly, and passed on.
And that was how Lady Kitty and
Vandraken met again, after nearly
two years.
AS Dashmore had foreseen, they
| were not bound, and during the even
| ing he managed to communicate to
Lady Donoyle the plans for their res
cue, and informed them that, having
twice broken faith before, Zidan could
not be depended upon to abide by a
ransom where women were concren-
ed
Dashmore's plans worked out like
proposition of Euclid When he APP
peared next morning with the mules,
laden with specie, and six tried driv.
ers, it aroused no suspicious in the
minds of the brigands, for the first
mule really was laden with specie;
and while the brigands were enthus-
iastically handling it he shot Muley
Zidan dead with his revolver. Being
a marvellous shot he bagged four
more brigands as fast as he could
fire, and that was the signal for all
hands to grab the axes and sail in.
Most of the bandits came straight
for the prisoners, and If Vandraken
and his men had not ragged around
with their axes, in Bersek fury, they
would have taken their revenge; but
Vandraken, fighting like Dervish
held his own till Dashmore smashed
his way through to them.
| Numbers were all in favour of the
Moors, but the loss of their leader,
q ne n,
with which the axes filled them, broke
} their nerve; for being chopped down
like trees, or split like kindling, had
J never been contemplated when they
went into the brigandage business.
How long that fight lasted, none OF
the participators ever knew; and the
spectators had been relieved of thei1
watches, SO they couldn't time it
Dashmore thought about five minutes
, Miss Sidcombe thought about five
hours
; Anyone who has ever been in 8
hand-to-hand fight, knows that it can
: not be described by rounds, like {
{ prizefight. To Vandraken, 1t consist
| ed of little separate lifetime, wher
7 the world looked red, and had no sole
foundation; a time when the desire tt
kill became stronger than the desire
. to live-a feeling that he must Away:
. keep his body between a girl wht
: seemed to belong to him and the SCI
!. of weapons which threatened her. 4
, time when the veneer of civilization
peeled off, and left him a primitiv,
man, fighting for his mate. He knew
that lat one time, they were beins
over whelmed by sheer weight, ant
1 they heard the cheer of the reserves
J charging into the fray, hacking dow
the enemy from the rear.
: To Lady Kitty, it was sometimes al
= impressionist picture, in which a SCI
. Of weapons flashed in the sunlight
falling and rising, in waves of steel
on world of dust; and sometime
, clearer, like a kaleidoscope, wherein
: she saw mems faces, snarling wit
hatred blown about like the leaves i
the wind, eddying off the rim of tn
fight in little struggling groups, an
shrieking vortex.
a There are as many roads to won
a ans heart as there are to heaven, an
r perhaps the Oldest is the shortest. r
# Lady Kitty, watching her man figh
ing over her. putting forth his strengt
d and risking his life, that she migf
: live, all the scandals she had hear
about him, all the selfexamination {
her feelings towards him, SCENE
small and Insignificant They pale
beside the essential fact that, wha
ever his life had been, he was still
virile fighting man, able to protet
her She watched him, facinated, til
just as the fight was thinning to a
end, he fell beneath the dubbed mu
' ket of Moor, who then turned an
D joined his fleeing comrades. Das
more, whou had been his partner 6
down. dropped the brigand with b
revolver before he could reach h
scanty accomplices, and that ended tt
= fight The mules were caught, tt
> ladies and the wounded were loade
on to them, and the victorious expo6
+ ton returned to Tangier, where
doctor, at the hotel examined Va
j. draken, and shook his head.
st is matter Of constitution"
told Dashmore "If his has NOT het