The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-06-12

into the partition.
countered one whom he could not beat
by sheer strength till he met this great,
! snarling creature who worried him
hither and yon as though he were a
child. Time and again Roy beat upon
| the mans face with the blows of a
sledge. 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 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 it's 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 an.
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 $,
thickly to the tundra there came tvs
other horses, distorted and unreal, o..
one a girl, on the other figure q
pain and tragedy, grotesque creature
that swayed stiffly to the motion of it
steed, it's face writhed into lines o.
suffering, its hands clutching can't
and horn.
1t was as though fate. with invisih
Eoucn. were setting her stage Tor tLt
last act of this play, assembling tn
principals close to the golden sands
where first they had made entrance
The man and the girl came face + |
face with the judge and marshal, who |
cried out upon seeing them, but a
they refined in, out from the stairs be-
side them a man shot amid clatter ana |
uproar.
give me hand-quickr he shouted
to them.
whats up?" inquired the marshal
Its murder! Mcnamara and Glen.
lsterv' He dashed back up the steps
behind Voorhees,, the judge following
while puftled cries came from above
The gambler turned toward the thre
men who were hurrying from Il,
beach and, recognizing Wheaton,
called to him: Unite my feet Cut
The ropes Quickr'
Whats the trouble?" the lawyer
asked, but on hearing Glenister's name
pounded after the judge. leaving one
If his companions to free the rider
They could hear the fight now and ali
crowded toward the door, Helen with
tay behind.
She never remembered how she
limbed those stairs, for she was borne
long by that hypnotic power which
rags one to behold catastrophe +
pite of his will. Reaching the room
he stood appalled,; for the group she
ad joined watched two raging thing
hat rushed at each other with in
uman cries. ragged, bleeding fighting o
n carpet of debris. Every loose and :
readable thing had been ground to 2
plinters as though by iron slugs In
yhirling cylinder. y
To this day, from Dawson to the =
traits, from Unga to the arctics, men :
I'll OF the combat wherever they fore. !
ather at faring campfires or in dingv :
and, although some scout te
lie tale, there are others who saw II
nd can swear TO Its truth. These sa'' I,
lat the encounter was like the battle
bull moose in the rutting SEASON
Tough more terrible, averring that
70 men like these had never beco
lown in the land since the days of