The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1912-08-08

and let II gently TO the deck.
But in a trice he was alive again to
his own peril. In the twinkling OF an
eye he saw a fash OF light gliding to-
wards him with resistless impetus.
Intuitiyely 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 a Tapping
hole and scraping a hands breadth
of skin from his forearm. Needless
of this, only In fact subconsciously
aware that the channels bag had fallen
to the deck, he caught at the hand
closed about the wrist, and, bracing
himself, he swung the assassin off his
feet. So doing, his fingers slipped or
the mans greasy skin and he STUN
bled off his balance.
His object, however, mad been &C
complished. The murderer, hurled a
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
uncomfortable swiftness the group of
lascars had become d 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 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 a terrible cry Of mortal anguish
shrilled loud; and almost at once the
mob seemed to resolve into its orig
inal elements. Five lascars 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 a 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 fell
low. He Strengthened up, facing
O'Rourke 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. dc
not shoot. sahib, for 1t is I 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
ORourke 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 oversize
told tho Irishman that his order had
been carried out. But he heard II
abstractedly, confronted as he was
with a problem whose difficulty was
not to be underestimated, the problem
embodied in the statuesque, impertur
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 70 believe that
the serang had been able to accom-
plish what O'Rourke was inclined tc
credit him with; that he, the wieidel
of the kris, the murderer of Quick
thrown off his feet by the Irishman's
attack, had deliberately involved hi,
fellows with him in his fall and profit
ed by the confusion to STAY n upor
whom he could throw the blame fol-
all that had happened.
The weapon quivered In O'Rourke'.
grasp. More than once in that briet
debate he was tempted to shoot thu
fellow on suspicion. Yet he held bill
hand: he could not be positive. With
every circumstance against him, hi
might still be telling the truth. The
whole horrible affair might boil dowr
to nothing more than an insane crime
of a crazy Malay. one who. as the Sc
rang claimed. had run amok."
He had not made up his mind wher
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