The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1912-05-17

feet, So doing. his fingers slipped or
the mans greasy skin and be STUN
bled of his balance.
His object, however had been 40
complished The murderer, hurled q
yard or more through the air. fell and
slid along the deck into a group Of
lascars. one Of whom, like a nine-pin,
was knocked over and fell atop OF
him.
O'Rourke recovered and stepped for
ward, revolver poised to administer
the quietus TO the murderer-an ami
able intention which was. however
doomed to Illustration. With almost
inconceivable swiftness the group Of
lascars had become mere tangle Of
arms and legs, a melange of strug
Cling limbs and bodies. Where he
had thought TO find a single PROSTATE
form, there were six struggling in con
fusion on the deck
For a thought he stayed his finger
on the trigger, waiting to pick out the
undermost and slay him first Of ALL
unwilling, furthermore, to waste one
Of the four invaluable cartridges re-
naming in his revolver. And then
unexpectedly the tragedy seemed over
and done with altogether.
From the bottom of the heap of bod
les a terrible cry of mortal anguish
shrilled loud; and almost at once the
mob seemed to resolve into its orig
lnal elements. Five sascars crawled,
arose, or flung themselves away from
the sixth. who lay inert, prone, limbs
still twitching, a knife buried in his
! back.
For a thought the tableau held,
there in the pure brilliance of the
moonlight; the half dozen standing
figures. O'Rourke a space apart from
the rest. and two bodies. the one face
down, Quick with a face to the stars,
each with its dread background; a
black stain that grew and spread slow.
ly upon the white, dazzling
planks.
Quietly the tallest of the lascars
moved forward, knelt and drew the
knife from the back Of his dead fel-
low. He Strengthened up, facing
ORourke without a tremor, his eyes
afire, and wiped the blade of the kris
on his cummerbund.
do not shoot, sahib," he said
smoothly in excellent English. do
not shoot, sahib, for it is 1 who have
avenged. This dog" and with his toe
he stirred the thing at his feet, ran
amok Now he is dead"
This was the serang who spoke.
g CRourke eyed him coldly through
prolonged silence. At length, That
seems quite evident" he admitted
coolly. Pick up that body and throw
it overboard!" he commanded sharply.
In obedience to a sign from the Sc
rang, two of the lascars seized the
body. A subsequent splash oversize
told the Irishman thai his order had
been carried out But he heard 1t
abstractedly, confronted as he was
with a problem whose difficulty was
not to be underestimated, the problem
embodied in the statuesque, inpertur.
bable serang.
1t was hard to know what to do,
what to believe, what action to take.
If he were right in his surmise, the Sc
rang should rightly he shot down in.
stantly, without an lnstant's respite.
Yet the heartless brutality upon which
his theory was based made him hesi
tate. 1t was difficult to believe that
the serang had been able to accom-
plish what O'Rourke was inclined to
credit him with; that he, the wielder
of the kris, the murderer of Quick,
thrown off his feet by the Irishman's
attack had deliberately involved his
fellows with him in his fall and profit.
ed by the confusion to slay one upon
whom he could throw the blame for
all that had happened.
The weapon quivered in O'Rourke's
grasp. More than once in that brief
debate he was tempted to shoot the
fellow Oh suspicion. Yet he held his
hand; he could not be positive. With
every circumstance against him, he
might still be telling the truth. The
whole horrible affair might boil down
to nothing more than an insane crime
of crazy Malay, one who, as the Sc
rang claimed, had run amok."
He had not made up his mind when
his thoughts were given a new turr
by a new complication, in the shape
of Mrs. Prynne herself. That lady
came up the companion steps with nc
apparent hesitation, no fear or appre
hension; quietly and confidently alert,
on the other hand, she was visibly
armed and prepared against danger in
whatever form she might have to en-
counter 1t.