Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-07-19

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his own peril In the twinkling OF an
eye he saw flash of light gliding tos
! wards him with resistless impetus.
Intuitigely he swung to one side, to
! the right and leapt to his feet At
| that the knife. a kris sinuous and
keen, ran cold upon the flesh of his
| chest, slit through his shirt, caught
in the thong that held the Pool of
Flame, and tore out, leaving tapping
hole and scraping a hands breadth
! of skin from his forearm Needless
of this, only in fact subconsciously
aware that the chamois bag had fallen
| to the deck. he caught at the hand
that had welded the kris; his fingers
closed about the wrist, and, bracing
himself, he swung the assassin off his
feet. So doing. his fingers slipped on
! the mans greasy skin and he stuE.
bled off his balance
His object, however, had been ae~
eomplished. The murderer, hurled 8
yard or more through the air, fell and
slid along the deck into a group Of
lascars, one OF whom, like nine-pin,
was Knocked over and fell atop OF
him
ORourke 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
lnconceiyabie swiftness the group OF
lascars had become a mere tangle Of
arms and legs. melange of strug-
Cling limbs and bodies. Where he
had thought to find single PROSTATE
form, there were six struggling in con.
fusion on the deck.
For thought he stayed his finger
on the trigger, waiting to pick out the
undermost and Stay 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 terrible cry of mortal anguish
shrilled loud; and almost at once the
mob seemed to resolve into it's orig
NAL elements. Five lascars crawled,
arose, or flung themselves away from
the sixth, who lay inert, prone, limbs
still twitching knife buried in his
back
For 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 sai
low. He Strengthened up, facing
O'Rourke without 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 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.
Q Rourke eyed him coldly through a
prolonged silence At length, That
seems quite evident he admitted
coolly. Pick up that body and throw
1t overheard he commanded sharply.
In obedience to a sign from the Sc.
rang, two of the lascars seized the
body. A subsequent splash oyersidA
told the lrishman thai his order had
been carried out But he heard it
abstractedly, confronted as he was
with problem whose difficulty was
not to be underestimated. the problem
embodied in the statuesque, in.pertur.
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 be shot down in,
stantly. without an instant's respite.
Yet the heartless brutality upon which
his theory was based made him hest
tate. 1t was difficult to believe thar
the serang had been able to accom-
P--' H"' y i1oui nc was inclined to
credit him with; that he, the wieIde,
of the kris, the murderer of Quick
thrown off his feet by the Irishman
attack had deliberately involved his
fellows with him in his fall and profit. |
ed by the confusion to Stay one upon
whom he could throw the blame 10,
all that had happened.
The weapon quivered in ORourkes !
grasp. More than once in that brief
debate he was tempted to shoot the /
fellow on suspicion. Yet he held his /
hand; he could not be positive. With I
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 |