Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-27

When had he heard of it? At what
time had his Grant footsteps taken
him through this curious survival OF
Eighteenth Century London?
Not that it mattered when. 1t
could have no possible bearing on the
emergency. He really gave it little
thought; the mental processes re-
counted were mostly subconscious, if
none the less real His objective at
tention was wholly preoccupied with
the knowledge that Calendars cab
was drawing perilously near. And he
was debating whether or not they
should alight at once and try to make
bettre pace afoot, when the de-
cision was taken wholly out Of his
hands.
Blindly staggering on, wilted with
WEAKNESS, the horse stumbled in the
shafts and plunged forward on it's
knees Quick as the driver was to
pull it up with cruel jerk of the
| bits, Kirkwood was caught unpre,
pared; lurching against the dashboard,
he lost his footing, grasped frantically
at the unstable air, and went over,
bringing up in sitting position in the
gutter, with solid shock that Jared
his very teeth
For moment dazed he sat there
| blinking; by the time he got to his
feet, the girl stood beside him, ques
tioning him with keen solicitude.
| NO. he grasped mot hurt-only
| surprised. Wait.
I Their cab had come to a complete
1standstill; Calendars was no more
than twenty yards behind, and a:
,Kirkwood caught sight of him the ia
| adventurer was in the act of lifting
himself ponderously out of the seat.
Incontinently the young man turned
to the girl and forced the travelling
bag into her hands.
run for it," he begged her. Don
stop to argue. You promised-run
I'll come. 3
"Philip!" she pleaded.
Dorothy he cried in torment.
Perhaps it was his unquestionabl
distress that weakened her. Sudden
. " she yielded--with whatever res
son, He was only hazily aware Of tn
swish of her skirts behind him; h
had no time to look around and Sc
; that she got away safely He ha
only eyes and thoughts for Calenda
and 5tryker.
: They were both afoot, now; ant
: running toward him, the one a
l awkward as the other, but neithe
!, yielding a jot of their malignant pu
r pose. He held the picture of it oddl
graphic in his memory for many
+ day thereafter: Calendar making
l rectly for him, his heavy-featured fac
: a dull red with the exertion, his IL
head dropped forward as if too heav
for his neck of a bull, his small eye
a bright with anger; Stryker shying Q
!, at a discreet angle, evidently with tt
L intention of devoting himself to tt
L capture of the girl; the two cabs viii
: their detected screws, at rest in tt
t middle of the quiet, twilit street +
e seemed even to see himself standlI
|, stockily prepared, hands in his CO.
r pockets his own head inclined vii
d a suggestion of pugnacity.
J. To this mental photograph anoth
5, succeeds, of the same scene an insta
S later: all as it had been before, the
X relative positions unchanged, sa'
s that Stryker and Calendar had con
b to a dead stop, and that Kirkwood
t, right arm was lifted and extende
Il pointing at the captain. -
n So forgetful Of self was he, that
It required a moments thought to &C
vince him that he was really respc
g, sible for the abrupt transformatic
/" Incredulously he realized that he HI
If drawn Calendars revolver and pull
le Stiyker up short, in mid-stride, by t
1T mute menace Of it, as much as by
y hoarse cry of warning:
e. "Stryker-not another foot"