The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1912-04-09

l could mark their faces now, cruel,
angry, revengeful; the hands that
grasped the veranda ratings the leap
ing bodies; the rife butts uplifted to
batter down our frail defenses.
AS trapped tigers we fought hurting
them back from the windows, slashing,
clubbing, striking with fist and steel
Two lay dead across the sill before
me, cloven to the very chin, but their
bleeding bodies were hurled remorse-
lessly aside, while others clambered
forward, mad from lust of blood,
craZed with liquor With dubbed
guns we cleared 1t again and again,
battering mercilessly at every head
that fronted us. Then a great giant
OF a fellow-dead or alive, | know
not-was hurled head-long through the
opening. an inert, limp weight, that
bore the two soldiers beside me to the
floor beneath his body. With wide
sweep of my gun | struck him. shat
tering the stock into fragments, and
swung back TO meet the others, the
hot barrel falling to right and left like
a fail. They were through and on
me! Wild as any sea-rover of the
north l fought. crazed with blood, I'M
conscious Of injury, animated solely
by desire to strike and Stay! Back
had to go; back-I trod on dead
bodies, on wounded shrieking in pain.
yet no man who came within sweep OF
that iron bar lived. | loved to hear
nf
glaring eyes, my blood afire, my arms
like steel. Through the red mist be-
held Cation for an instant as twenty
brutal hands upilfted, and then hurled
! him into the ruck beneath their feet
Whether / fought alone / knew not,
cared not. Then some one pressed
next to me, facing as l did, welding a
sword like a mailman. We had our
backs against the piano, our Shout
ders touched; before us that mob
swayed, checked for the moment, held
fast by sudden overpowering dread
j glanced aside. My companion was
Brennan, hatless, his deep-set eyes
afiame, his coat torn off, his shirt
ripped open to the waist, his bare
breast red with blood.
NO shootin', damn vel" shouted a
voice, hoarsely. mo shootin'; want
that Reb alive!"
Through the swirling smoke l rec
ognized the malicious face of Red
Lowrie as he pushed his way to the
front. To me it was ike a personal
challenge TO combat
Rush them" / muttered into Bren-
mans ear. "Hurl them back a bit, and
dodge under into the next room"
never waited to ascertain II he
heard me. With one fierce spring
struck their stunned line, and my
iron bar swept clear space as It
crashed remOrselessly into them The
next instant Lowrie and l were seem.
ingly alone and fronting each other
a wild cat enraged by pain looks as
he did when he leaped 70 meet me-
Hate, deadly, relentless, glared I'm his
eyes, and with a yell OF exutation he
swung up his long rife and struck
sayagely at my head with the stock
1 caught 1t partially on my barrel
breaking its full force, and even as It
descended upon my shoulder. jabbed
the muzzle hard into his leering face
With a snarl OF pain he dropped his
gun and grappled with me. but as
his fingers closed about my throat
something swirled down through the
maze, and the maddened brute stag
gered back his arms uplifted his red
beard cloven I'm twain.
Now for #, Waynel' shouted Bren-
nan Back with youl'
With a dive 7 went under the piano.
! heard the sliding doors shut behind
us, and almost with the sound was
again upon my feet
ITO the stalrsl" ] painted "Bren-
nan, take the women 10 the stairs
those fellows are not fin the hallway
yet and we can hold them thore a
while"
In our terrible need for haste. and
amid the thick swirllng smoke I'LL
ing that inner room almost to suTo-
cation, ! grasped the woman CHANGING
to be nearest me without knowing
at that moment who she was Ale
ready the rine-butts we're splintcrlug