Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1912-09-12

the vacation funds joined the old gew-
gaws.
And now everybody had been
robbed but Marjorie. She happened to
be at the center OF the line, and both
men reached her at the same time.
II seen her FIRST" the first one
shouted.
You did not" the other roared.
Il tell you l did"
Il tell you l did" They glared
t~hreateningly at each other, and their
revolvers seemed to meet, like two
game cocks, beak to beak.
The porter voiced the general hope,
when he sighed: "Oh, Lawd, II they'd
only shoot each other"
This brought the rivals to their evil
senses, and they swept the line with
those terrifying muzzles and that
heart-stopping yelp: Hands up!"
Bill said: you take the east side OF
her, and I'll take the west"
All right"
And they began to snatch away her
side-combs, the little gold chain at
her throat, ieweled pin that NAL
Tory had given her as the first token
OF his love.
The young soldier had foreseen this.
He had foreseen the wild rage that
would unseat his reason when he saw
the dirty hands Of thieves laid rudely
on the sacred body of his beloved.
But his soldier-schooI!ng bad drilled
MIN to govern his impulses, to play
tho coward when there was no hope
of successful battle, and to strike only
when the moment was ripe with per-
feet opportunity.
He had kept telling himself that
when the finger Of one of these men
touched so much as Mariorie's hem.
he would be forced to fling himself
on the profane miscreant. And he
kept telling himself that the moment
he did this, the other man would
calmly blow a hole through him, and
drop him at Marjorie's feet, While the
other passengers shrank away in ter
ror.
He told himself that, while It might
be a fine impulse to leap to her de-
Tense, 1t was q fool impulse to leap
off a precipice and leave Marjorie
alone among strangers, with a dead
man and a scandal, as the only re-
wards for his impulse. He vowed that
he would hold himself n check, and
let the robbers take everything. leav-
ing him only the name OF coward,
provided they left him also the power
to defend Marjorie better at another
time.
And now that he saw the clumsy
handed thugs ri1ing his sweetheart's
iewelry, he felt all that he had fore
seen, and his head fought almost in
vain against the white fire of his
heart. Between them he trembled
like a leaf. and the sweat globed on
his forehead.
The worst Of 1t was the shivering
terror of Marjorie, and the pitiful eyes
she turned on him. But he clenched
mis- teeth and waited, thinking fierce
", Watching, ike a lowering eagle, q
chance to swoop.
But the robbers Kept glancing this
way and that, and one motion would
mean death. They themselves were
SO overweight with their own ordeal
and its immediate conclusion, that
they would have Killed anybody, Nal
Tory shifted his foot cautiously, and
instantly a gun was jabbed into his
stomach with a snarl; Don't you
novel"
Who's moying?' Mallory answered,
with a poor imitation OF a careless
laugh.
And now the man called Fill had
reached MafJorie.s right hand. lie
chortIed: 'Goly, look at the sinners. -
But Jake, who had chosen Mar
lorie'a left hand, reared:
say, you cheated. All get Is TINS
measly PLAIN gold band''
on, cont take that!" Marjorie
gasped' clenching her hand