Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1910-11-10

nc reached out II OBTAINING hand. In
the darkness it encountered the bare
flesh of her arm.
please don't! You'd have to strike
light to find it. and don't want a
light now"
1T has been pleasant evening"" she
said namely.
II saw you for the first time tonight,
Cherry. think have begun to know
you"
Again she felt her heart leap. Reach
Ing out to say goodby. his baud slipped
down over her urm like a caress until
her palm lay In his.
With trembling. gentle hands she
pushed him from her
When the black bulk OF Mnrsh's can
merry doomed ahead of Emerson he left
the gravel beach and turned up among
/ the buildings. seeking to retracc his
former course. AS he turned the cor
ncr of the FIRST building he nearly ran
against man who was standing NO
! tio1tess against the wall. The fellow.
! with sharp exclamation. vanished
/ into the gloom. Boyd lost 10 time in
gaining the plank runway tlu; led to
the dock and, finding an angle in the
, building, backed into 1t and waited.
From his momentary glimpse of the
man rs he made off he knew that he
was tall and active-just the sort of
| person to prove dangerous in an en-
counter. But IL his suspicious were
correct there must be Others close by,
and Boyd wondered why he had heard
no signal. After breathless wait of
n moment or two he stole cautiously
out, and, selecting the darkest shad-
ows, slipped from one to another till
he was caught by the sound of voices
Issuing from the yawnins entrance of
the main building on his right The
next moment his tension relaxed; one
Of the speakers was Il woman. Evi-
IDENTITY his alarm had been needless,
for these people. whoever they were.
made no effort to conceal their pres
ence. On the contrary, the woman had
raised her tone to louder pitch. al
though her words We're still undistn.
guishable
Greatly relieved. Boyd was about to
go on, when sharp cry. like signal.
came In the woman's voice. cry
which turned to genuine wall Of dis
| tress. The listener heard mans voice
cursing In answer, and then the sound
Of scutiie. followed Mt length by
choking cry. that brought him bound
ing into the building. He ran forward.
! recklessly. but before he had covered
, half the distance her collded violently
with piece OF machinery and went
sprawli.g to the floor. A glance uD-
ward revealed the dim outlines OF u
topper and showed him farther
down the building. silhoucttcd briefly
against the lesser darkness of the win
dows, two struggling figures AS he
rcgained his footing something rushed
past himman or animal he could not
tell which. for It's feet made no more
sound upon the floor than those OF a
wolf dog. Then, as he bolted forward.
he heard man cry out, and found
/ himself In the midst Of turmoil. His
hands encountered human body, and
he seized 1t, only to be hurled aside as
If with a giants strength. Again he
clinched with q mans form, and bore
1t to the floor. /cursing at the darkness
and reaching for it's throat. His an.
tagonist raised his voice in wild
clamor. while Boyd braced himself for
another assault from those huge hand;
he had met moment before. But 1t
did not come. Instead he heard a cry
from the woman. an answer in deep
er voice and then swift, pnttering
footsteps growing fainter. Meanwhile
the man with whom he was locked
was fighting desperately. with hands
and feet and teeth. shouting hoarsely
Other footsteps sounded now. this
time approaching, then at the door a
lantern fared. a Waterman came rum
ming down between the lines of ma
chinery. followed by other figures half
revealed.
Boyd had pinned his antagonist
against the cold sides Of a retort at
last and with fingers clutched about
his throat was beating his head vio-
lenty against the iron when by the
lanterns CLEAN he caught one glimpse
of the fat. purple face In front of him
and loosed his hold with startled eX-
clamation. Released from the grip
that had nearly made an end Of him,
Willis Marsh staggered to his feet.
The man was wounded. badly
wounded, as he saw by the red stream
which gushed down over his breast.
Marsh leveled trembling finger at
Boyd and cried Historically:
There he Is. men. He tried to muir
der me. lin hurt. III have him
arrested"
The seriousness OF the accusation
struck the young man on the instant.
He turned upon the group.
II didn't do that heard fight
going on and ran in here
He's liar" the wounded man in.
terrupted shrilly. Hes stabbed me.
See" He tried to strip the shirt from
his wounds. then fell to chattering and
shaking. 20 God, I'm hurt" lie
staggered to packing case and sank
upon 1t. weakly fumbing at his sod
den shoulder.
Il didn't do that" repeated Boyd.
II don't know who stabbed him.
didn't"
Then who did~ some one de.
handed.
what are you doing in here? You'd
killed him In minute" said the
man with the lantern.