The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-12-19

At her words Runnion raised bis
weapon and fired. She heard the
woods behind reverberate with the
echoes like a sounding board, saw the
| white squirt of smoke and the skitter
Of the bullet as it went wide. 1t was a
long shot and had been fired as a final
warning, but Doret made no outcry,
nor did he cease coming. Instead his
paddle Glove the water with the same
steady strokes that took every ounce
Of effort In his body. Runnion threw
open his gun and replaced the spent
shell. On came the c%areening, crazy
craft in a sidewise drift, and with 1t
the girl saw coming a terrible tragedy.
She started to run down the graveled
ridge behind her enemy, not realizing
the value or moment of her action nor
knowing clearly what she would do,
but as she drew near she saw Run
MON raise his gun again and without
thought of her wi safety threw her
self upon him. Again his shot went
wide as he strove to hurl her off, but
his former taste of her strength was
nothing to this now that she fought
for Poleon's life. Runnion snarled an
grily and thrust her away, for he had
waited till the canoe was close.
LET me go, you devil!' he cried and
aimed again. But again she ran at
him. This time, however, she did not
pit her strength against his, but paus-
ed, and as he undertook to fire she
thrust at his elbow, then lodged out
Of his way. Her blow was crafty and
well timed, and his shot went wild.
Again he took aim, and again she de-
stroyed 1t with a touch and danced
out Of his reach. She was nimble and
light and quickened now by a cold
calculation of all that depended upon
her.
Three times in all she thwarted
Runnion, while the canoe drove closer
every instant. On the fourth, as she
dashed at him, he struck to be rid Of
her, cursing wickedly-struck as he
would have struck at a man. Silently
she crumpled up and fell, a pitiful,
|draggled, awkward little figure sprawl.
ed upon the rocks. But the delay
proved fatal to him, for, though the
was close against the bank and
the huge man In 1t seemed to offer a
mark too plain to be missed, he was
too close to permit careful aim. Run
MON heard him giving utterance to a
strange, feral, whining sound, as il he
were crying like a fighting boy. Then
as the gambler raised his arm the
Canadian lifted himself up on the bot
tom of the canoe until he stood
stretched to his full height and leaped.
AS Runnion fired he sprang out and
was into the water to his knees, his
backward kick whirling the craft from
underneath him out into the current,
where the river seized 1t. He had
risen and jumped all in one moment,
launching himself at the shore like a
panther. The gun roared again, but
Poleon came up and on with the rush
of the great brown grizzly that no
missile can stop. Runnion's weapon
blazed in his face, but he neither felt
nor needed 1t, for his bare hands were
upon his quarry, the impact Of his
body hurting the other from his feet,
and neither of them knew whether
any or all of the last bullets had taken
effect.
Poleon had come, like an arrow,
straight for his mark the instant he
glimpsed 1t, an insensate, u~nreasoning,
raging thing that no weight of lead
nor Ionptb Of btodo could cton Tn hiS
haste he had left Flambeau without
weapon of any kind, for in his mind
such things are s%uper1uous, and he
had never fought with any but those
God gave him nor found any living
thing that his hands could not mas
ter. Therefore he had rushed head
long against this armed and waiting
man, reaching for him ever closer and
closer till the burning powder stung
his yes. Tbax granpled and fought
alone and unseen, and yet 1t was no
fight, for Runnion, though a vigorous,
heavy museled man, was beaten down,
smothered and crushed beneath the
onslaught of this great naked fellow,
who all the time sobbed and whined
ard meMed in n rantIng FURY
They swung half across the spit to
the farther side, where they fell In a
fantastic CONFUSION, slipping and
sliding and rolling among the rocks
that smote and gouged and bruised
them. The gambler fought for his
life against the naked flesh Of the 9th
err. against the distorted face that
mapped and bit like the muzzle Of a
wolf, while all the time he heard that
fearful, inarticulate note of blood
aunger at his ear. The Canadians
,linched hands crushed whatever they
fell upon as If mailed with metal. The
fingers were like tearing tongs that
could not be loosed. 1t was a fright
full combat, hideous from its inequalf-
ty, like the battle Of a man against a
maddened beast whose teeth tore and
whose claws ripped, whose every
move was irresistible. And so it was
rel shortly.
Poleon rose and ran to the fallen
girl, leaving behind him a huddled and
twisted likeness of a man. He picked