The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1912-03-01

Dlack That must be the rail. Ard he
shook his head, dismayed; he could
never scale that, he thought; not even
the O'Rourke could accomplish a mir
acle. But in a breath it had faded
back, and he realized that the tower
ing poop Of the junk had misled him.
They were now alongside at the waist
He stood up and saw a low railing
moving and caught it over the edge of
the rail, drew the launch In, let 60 the
boathook and, with the headwarp
wrapped about his hand, jumped
blindly.
Something dealt him a vicious, all
but paralysing, blow In the pit of the
stomach; he doubled up, for a mo-
ment helpless, across the junk's rail,
but retained sufficient presence of
mind to hold on to the headwarp.
Then, recovering trifle, he squirmed
over and fell sprawling upon the deck,
his heels drumming an abrupt and
violent alarm. From somewhere he
heard shrill jabbering arise, with an
ensuing patter of bare feet. Swiftly
headwarp, with his free hand search
ing along the rail for a cleat Some
thing thumped heavily on the deck be-
side him, and grunted; and something
else followed with a second bump;
and the launch swung outward and,
caught by the current, jerked the
headwarp from his grasp. May the
luck Of the O'Rourke still hold" he
prayed fervently, getting upon his feet
to realize that, with Couch and the
man Wheeler, he was imprisoned
aboard the junk, doomed there to re-
main whatever might befall, until
the coming of the second launch
or perhaps for a longer time.
AS he rose some indistinct body ran
into him and cannoned off with an I'M
couth yelp; with no time to draw his
revolvers, the adventurer struck out
with bare hand and had the salts
faction of finding a goal for his blow
of landing heavily on bare flesh and
Of hearing the dull sound of a fall
upon the deck.
Spontaneously lights were flashing
out for and aft. A revolver spat ven
omously beside him. Somewhere
man screamed and fell, whimpering
horribly. The revolver expoded a sec
ond time. There were confused
noises, as of furious struggle, rough
and tumble, and he suspected that one
or another of his companions had
been tackled bodily by one of the
junk's crew. On his own part he
caught glimpse of shadow moving
ghostlike against one of the lights,
and promptly exercised it with a shot.
By this time the vessel seemed to
be caught in the grip of pandemon-
ium; shouts and shots wed with
screams, groans, confused padding
footsteps, to make the moment one of
a nightmare. The boarding party stood
at bay, not daring to venture from the
spot on which they had landed, firing
steadily but with discretion.
Huddled together like children in
fear of the powers of darkness, the
three held their fire against the inev-
liable assault in 1orce, handicapped
fearfully by their absolute ignorance
Of the lay of the deck, of the number
Of their opponents, and of from which
quarter they had to expect the attack.
And the silence and the suspense
wore upon their nerves until the final
struggle came in the shape of boom
to save them from madness. And it
came with rush and a will, cyclonic,
tremendous, overpowering. By sheer
weight of human flesh the Europeans
were pinned against the rail, fighting
at handgrips with a cruel and cunning
foe far better prepared for such bus.-
ness than they. For at such close
quarters pistols were practically
worthless save as clubs, while knives
could slip to Stay through almost any
interstice, however straitened.
O'Rourke had no time to think of his
companions. Stung to desperation by
the silent, unrelenting fury of his as
sallants-twice he was conscious of
the white-hot agony of knife-thrust,
one penetrating the flesh of his side
deep into his thigh-he fired until he
had but one cartridge left in his re-
volver, and expended that blowing out
the brains of an extraordinarily per-
sistent coolie, then dropped the use
less weapon and trusted to his naked
strength.
1t served him we'll for a little One
man, precipitated by the weight of
those behind him into the adventur.
er's arms, he seized by the throat and
throttled in a twinkling; then lifting
him from the deck, he exerted his
power to the utmost, and cast the
body like a log into the midst of the
melee. Thus clearing a little space, he
found himself able to step aside and
let another run past him into the bull
Wark; and seeing the sheen of a
swordblade in the fellows hand, be-
fore he could recover seized his wrist
twisted it savagely, and wrenched the
weapon away.