Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1914-10-31

shouting directions which, however,
were unintelligible to his distracted at
tention. Somewhere near by, Beau
Jeans string of rough oaths roared
upon the turmoil, and Lovejoy began
yelping for the police. At this latter
cry there was slight wavering among
their unknown assailants, but it was
quickly mended by a new onrush
The men who had been working at
the. ship now left their tasks and
Joined the fracas on general prin-
ciples, siding with neither party, but
laying about them with vigor and a
splendid lack of discrimination. But it
was already quite a fierce struggle, and
Pedro very soon began to find it diff
cult to keep his feet. The man with
whom he was confronted had an over
whelming advantage in height and
weight, while Pedro was slight and
soft, and, truth to tell, rather badly
frightened. If only he could manage
to keep the fellow from knocking him
out till Beau-Jean and Lovejoy man
aged to win, or the police arrived. But
what if he should fail?
1t seemed as though they had an
army against them, though as a mat
ter of fact, there were not more than
ten in all. Twice he with difficulty
suppressed the temptation to call upon
his friends for help, and with sobbing
indrawn breath fought on wildly, elu-
sively, striving desperately to prevent
his opponent from graphing with him.
A solitary policeman Ca night rounds
MANI had come up. Pedro could hear
him shouting above the din, but his
efforts at establishing order were alb
solutely Intellectual.
By now Pedro was fast losing
strength. 1t seemed to him that at any
instant he must succumb, and sink to
the ground Only a horror of being
trampled on sustained him, and his
head was growing light. Then his an
tagonist, who was bent upon his in
jury or capture, Infatuated at being
held off so long by this mere slip of
boy, managed to get leg hold upon
Pedro. 1t was too much, and the boys
courage gave way.
-Au soucceuri" he screamed. "A
moi, Beau-Jeani Au soucceur!"
Then somehow. he never quite knew
in what manner, the giant was beside
him, and the black menacing shape of
the other man hurled through space
and landed among his fellows, scatter
ing the fighters for an instant. Then
Hills voice arose again, and this time,
Pedro, leaning GREATNESS and painting
against the house, heard and under
stood.
open the window" Hill was yell
ing, Its fastened from the outside.
Open the window"
With aching arms, Pedro strove to
obey, but the heavy iron bar that held
the galvanized shutters closed, re-
sisted his effort. Beau-Jean, mean
while, was a veritable windmill, and
one of the stevedores had ranged him
self beside the Frenchman, feeling, no
doubt, that it was desirable to fight
with, rather than against. this power
full person.
open the window" yelled Hill
ceaselessly. Pedro bent all his strength
to another effort, and at the same mo-
ment there came to his ears the rap
ping of the lone policeman's club upon
the pavement, a signal that was not
wholly without effect upon the entire
crowd. Again the heavy iron bar of
the shutter lifted an inch or two, and
again it slipped back into it's socket.
Then some one struck him upon the
shoulder and turning to defend him.
self, he looked up into the fat dripping
face of Mr. Lovejoy.
God bless mel" pulled that worthy,
that was a near thing, Thought you
was the enemyi" Pedro managed to
gasp:
THE shutter-bar! Help mel"
In the twinkling of an eye the heavy
iron lath had been extracted and was
being brandished over the lunch-wag
oner's head, a deadly weapon that
swept a space clear about the window,
which now burst open to emit the dis
heveled furious figure of Samuel Hill,
who was armed with an improvised
cudgel, evidently the leg of a table
taken from the furnishings of his
prison
springing into the fight with relish.
Then came a cry that was echoed on
all sides
The reserves. the reserves, the po-
lice." and the crowd began to scatter
Almost as magically as they had
been surrounded. they were left alone,
but now, to be so left was fraught with
almost as many dangers as had beset
them a moment sooner; for that the
police should not lay hands upon them
was the paramount thought in the
minds of all Hill was the first to act
This wayi" he called, darting of
toward an ill-lighted, ill-paved street,
hanked only by poster-coyered fences
BY great good luck the rescue party
managed to escape pursuit and in less