Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-12-06

tremendous spring, had cleared the
six-foot distance between footlights
and box. There was a confused,
whirling, cursing mass Of bodies and
arms. Then the whole group rolled
outward over the rail.
Before they had fairly touched
ground Give was on his feet, the cen
| ter of a surprised but belicose swirl
of opponents who were nothing loath
to change their plan of batting we'll
dressed girl into the more thrilling
pastime of beating well-dressed can
didate.
AS the score of toughs rushed him.
Give had barely time to get his back
| into the shallow angle between the
bullying outer bases of the two prose
cenium boxes. Then the rush was
upon him.
Hitting clean and straight, and
with the speed and unerring deadli-
ness of the trained heavyweight
boxer, Give for the moment held his
own. There was no question of
guarding. He relied rather for pro-
lection on the unusual length of his
arms.
Nor could blow be planned before
hand. 1t was hit, hit, and keep on
hitting. Fully 20 youths and men
surged forward at him, and at nearly
every blow one went down among the
pushing throng. But for each who
fell there were always two more to
take his place. The impact and crash
of blows sounded above the yells and
shuttle of fet. This was not boxing.
1t was butchery.
Only his semi-sheltered position
and the elf-confusing hurry and
numbers of his assailants kept Give
on his feet and allowed him to hold
his own.
Yet, as he dimly realized even
through the wild lust of battle that
gripped and intoxicated him, the fight
was but question of moments. Soon
some one, running in, must grapple
or trip him. And once down, in that
of stamping, kicking feet, his life
would not be worth a scrap of paper.
While it lasted, though, it was glor-
ious. The veneered shell of civiliza-
tion had been battered away. He was
primitive man, gigantic, furious, ter
rible; battling against hopeless odds.
Yet battling (as had those ancestors
from whom his yellow hair, great
shoulders and bulldog jaw were in
herited) all the more gladly and
doughtily because of those very odds.
He was aware of a man who run
ming along the box rail from the
stage, had dropped to his side and
stood swinging gilded, blue cush-
Toned chair about his head. This ap-
partition and the whizzing sweep of
his odd weapon caused the toughs to
give back for an instant.
Good old Anselw painted Give.
Save your BREATH grunted Karl.
You'll need it."
Then a yell from twenty threats
and the rush was on again. At first,
anticipating the easy triumph which
their type so love, the toughs had
turned from the milder fun of fright
ening a girl of the better class to the
momentary work of thrashing the
solitary man who had interfered with
that simple amusement. Now, bleed
ing faces, swollen eyes and more than
one fractured jaw and nose had
transformed the earlier phase of
rough spirits into one of murderous
rage.
The man who had so mercilessly\
punished them must not be allowed
to escape alive. The tough never
fights fair. When fists fail, a gouge,
able. When, as in the present in
stance, the intended victim is so pro-
tected as to render these tactics diff
cult of success, pockets are usually
ransacked for more formidable weap-
ons.
Ansel's arrival on the scene had but
checked the onrush. No two men, big
and powerful as both were, could sub
due nor hold out against that assault
Give struck, right, left, with the
swiftness of thought. And each blow
crashed into yielding, Keeling flesh.
Down whirled Ansel's chair on the
bullet head of one man, and down
went the man beneath the impact.
Up whirled the chair and again it
descended on another head-de-
scended and shivered into kindling
wood.
Dropping the fragments, Karl
ranged close to Give and together the
two struck out, the one with the wild
force and fury Of kicking horse, the
other with the colder but no less ter
rifle accuracy of the trained athlete.
A tough, ducking one of Ansel's
wild swings, ran in and caught him
about the waist. Doubling his left leg
under him, Karl caught the mank
stomach with the point of his knee.
The assailant collapsed, gasping,. But.
the momentary lapse of the tall New
Englander's fstic attack had opened
breach through which two more men
rushed and flung themselves bodily
on him.