The Mena weekly star., 1909-07-08
tContlnuod from last issue

t4fo the patio 10 enter tnS touring car.
 ,.,,ey walked up to the empty machine.
 q.bo colonel stepped into the front
 .sat of the machine. Something in
 the noise of the engine which was
 1anting and straining against it's con
 {,nl some tiny sibilant undertOne
 Which any other ear would have
 +aissed warned his; he bent quickly.
 dark object gyrated above the
 heads of the other two just mount
 iag the long step: 1t landed with
 prodigious splash in the foun-
 isin. flying into a multitude of
 xnuttering atoms and hurling great
 column of water high up in air. Un-
 bpedlng it's shrieking clamor, the sol
 fier sprang over the side of the car,
 dhrted through the great arched door
 NAV out upon the terrace toward
 Hump of rubber trees. He fired: again
 he fired
 In every catastrophe the spectators
 minds lose some parts of the action.
 There are blanks to be supplied by no
 nne. Every one of the men and wom-
 ep present on that fatal morning had
 different story. Colvin was packing
 De could only remember the deafening
 Boar and the shouting; and when he
 Eot downstairs and saw--he turned
 Ready sick; his chief impression is
 the backs of people and the way their
 hands would shake. Janet Smith, in-
 ede dressing Haley's wounds, was
 frst warned by the tumult and cries.
 the as well as Archie and Haley who sRere with her could see nothing untii
 they got outside. All Mrs. Melville
 law was the glistening back of the car
 and Mercer stepping Into the car and
 Instantly lurching forward The ex- zplosion seemed to her simultaneous #Nith Mercer's entering the car. But
 Mrs, Rebecca Winter. who perhaps
 had the coolest head of all, and who
 Tas standing on the dais of the arcade zfxactly opposite the car. distinctly Hfaw Keatcham with an amazing exer
 lion of vigor for man just risen from
 a sickbed. and with kind of whirl-
 Ing motion. literally hurl Mercer out sof the car. She heard the crackle
 and a roar and Kito screamed fin Jap
 anese, running In from the carriage
 side. She cannot tell whether Tracy
 or Arnold reached the mangied crea-
 ture on the pavement first Arnold sonly remembers how the carriage robe Hfapped in Tracy's shaking hands be- tsfore he flung 1t over the man. Tracy's
 fair skin was streaky. bluish white,
 and his under jaw kept moving up
 there and down like that of q fish out #of water while he gasped. never ut
 tering a sound.
 # Young Arnold was trembling so that & DIS hands shook when he would have #ralsed the wounded man. Mercer #alone was composed although deathly #pale. He had the presence of mind 10
 throw the harmless fragments of the $ bomb Into the fountain and 10 examine # the interior of the car lest there
 shou!d he more of destruction hidden #therein- Then he approached the heap &on the flags; but Keatcham was able # 10 motion him away. saying in his old voice. not softened in the least # Don't you do that! I'm all in No q use. They got me. But 1t won't do 4 them any good; you boys know that 4 VIII you witnessed; 1t gives fifty
 thousand for the arrest and conviction
 or the killing of Atkins: his own cut
 throats will betray him for that. But -where's Winter? You damn careless Tools didn't let him get hurt?"
 Shure, sor. he didn't let himsilf & glt hurted," Haley blurted out: he had # run in after Miss Smith, brandy bottle ID hand; "tls the murdering dagoes IS gettin hurted off there behind the DE rubber trees; I kin see the dead legs of thim, this minnit. 'Tis a grand
 cool shot the colonel Is. sor."
 Bring him in. let them go; they We're only tools.' panted Keatcham weekly; but the brandy revived him; ana his lips curled in faint smile as Janet Smith struck a match to heat me teaspoonful of water for her hypo- oermic Make it good and strong, give me time to say something to Mercer and Winter-there he comes; good runners those boys are!'
 Tracy and Arnold. acting on com mon unspoken impulse, had dashed ar'er Winter and were pushing him & forward between them. Keatcham was nearly spent, but he rallied to say the words in his mind He kept death at pay by the sheer force of his will. when Winter knelt down beside him, wl'h a poignant memory of another .lme In the same place when he had Anet beside seemingly dying man. 4 ana gently touched the unmarred right 4 hahd lying on the carriage-robe, he could still form a smile with his stifr 0 nps and mutter: Only thing about me isn't in tatters: of course you 4 touched 1t and didn't try to lift me where I'm all in pieces. You mways understood Listen! You, JOG Mercer Winter knows the shngs I'm bound to have go through. Ve explained them to him You'll De my executors and trustees? A nuhafed thogSand a year. not too uis salary for the work-you can do "' US a bigger job than the army one Winter. Warnebold will look slter the other end. He's narrow but ne IS straight. I've made 1t worth his "hlle' Some loose ends--it can't be neiped now. Maybe you'll find out .hefe are more difficulties in adminis- eiihg a big fortune than you fancied; anu that fl tausf tba eaaiaat thing in