Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1916-12-20
'Then I'll Come Back to You"
LARRY EVANS
AUTHOR OF ONCE TO EVERY MAN"


where his face had been.
There was madness in Harrisan's hideous
roarings Of hate, madness in his blind
rushed, and his bull strength availed at
first. He weathered destruction and man.
aged to close again. This time the lighter
man was ready for the scuff eff those armed
boots. He twisted and covered his face
with his shoulder. and only the his shirt
ripped open and lc. God stream from the
rent. On their feet lacy rocked-to their
knees. Faces grinding into the earth, they
strained and broke away. And always Har-
rigan came back and fought him blindlv.
Once his hairy hands searched O'Mara's
face, and O'Mara's forehead went wet with
the agony of fingers tearing at his eye
sockets. Dropping, he escaped that goug-
ing grip. Coming up he caught HarrigaE's
chin and turned him over backward.
Harrigan squandered his strength in
drunken PUSHES, his breath in screams Of
hate. And now Steve was laughing aloud.
lie knew that she was watching, knew what
loathing was in her eyes. And he-he was
n riverman! Sobbing for air, dripping
crimson from forehead and shoulder. he
set himself and swung from the waist.
Like a pole axed OK Harrigan stopped as
he was lurching in. His mouth sagged
his eyes flew wide in a fixed and stupid
stare. Then his legs folded under him and
he swayed Imply down. But that blast
of wrath would not let him lie! 1t raised
him and beat him down again; raised him
and beat him down. BY his throat Steve
swung him up-by throat and buckled belt.
High over his head he swung that bulk and
dashed forward from his heels. And Har-
rigan went back to his painting followers.
Twisting and spinning, his body swept
Shayne inc Fallon TO the ground.
Allison had not stirred, nor putty faced
Wickersham, nor the girl who stood with
hands at breasts. And now toward them
Stephen O'Mara wheeled. His legs would
fail him. and he steadied them. Blood
blinded him, and he steadied them. Sway
ing giddily. he managed somehow to smile.
"Wickersham, | have met the man whom
You hired to fight for you" he called
clearly, "and be has earned his wagel Are
You man enough to step forward now and
fight for YOURSELF"
Archibald Wickersham clucked drily
in his throat and lifted an elbow to shield
his face. Shrinking back behind the first
shelter that chance afforded him, he put
the girl between him and his fear. And
then weakness seized upon that sick and
Sxr,ax "a, N hrt In EpaEa IN har--tn tho
u~nspeakable horror in her eyes.
Barbara" he called thickly, Bar
bara =
He CROPPED toward her, and she cried out
and drew back from such hands "a those.
Then a black wall rose before him and shut
her from his sight Fat Joe caught him a
he fell.
Like huddled sheep O'Mara's men and
Wickersham's watched Joe bear him up the
hill. Shaync and Fallon were bending over
Harrigan: by the other he lay ignored.
1t was n mob without a leader, as il the
way in all crises, a new leader arose. Big
Louie. stolid face no longer stolid. strobe
between those two factions and achieved
unknown heights for which his eyes had
hungered.
81 work for no man but il n mani he
doomed. ''That bridgc-she still j. hold!'
Steve had hidden Hardwick Elliott watch
these men if their moment ever came. And
Elliott and Allison watched now. They
were sheep no longer nor malcontents nor
misled tools Of cunning. Like wolves they
followed that namelesS man who was out
upon the jam. Wickersham's men were
back on the river, but that bridge would
to hold. And while they work
ed, while Elliott and her father watched
spellbound, blindly Barbara Allison turn
ed, with no thought of what she was doing,
and walked blindly into the brush.
The river was running clear by dusk
for her. Ii was dark when a runner bore
the news TO the cabin on the hillside that
she was missing. And when men had been
beating the woods for her for twelve hours
"A best they could in the dark and no word
came that she was found Fat Joe no long
er dared let lie in sleep his friend, whose
body he had clansed and bandaged. Al
daybreak Joe walked him and told him Bar
bara was lost. They tried to argue with
him. for HI knee: were still unsteady. Even
Allison. whose jovial body seemed 10 have
shrunk during his hours of waiting. tried
to convince him that the men now looking
for her would find her soon or had already
found her perhaps. But he brushed them
while he was dressing. lie threw
of the hands that tried to defain hun
And it was Steve who found her. a. he had
it would be. just before a second