Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-06
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ceased their work. Two of the men
the young man who had been with the
two girls and one of the others-ran
into the hall at a call from the tall
man. He pounded upon the door again
and called to Bole. Then the three ap-
parently put their shoulders to the
door: it held and some one brought a
down. The panels crashed in and then
the door burst open. With swearing
and cries of alarm the three men broke
INTO the little room. The others who
had been in the salon-the three wo-
men and two girls and one of the men
had now gone into the hall, too, and
left the large front room deserted. lin
crossed behind them into the salon.
Outside the house as well as within
there was disturbance. 1t might mean
that Sibert and his men had arrived;
it might mean that the guards without,
alarmed by the confusion within, were
entering to investigate. In either case
it was the moment in which Jim must
act-the moment in which he must
take his chance. He swept up a heap
of letters from the larger table and,
bundling them together, he thrust them
under his coat before any one turned
about.
Then the person who turned was
the young girl who had sat facing the
door. Jim had made no noise which
could have caused her to suspect his
presence. She seemed to have realized
before any of the others that the fact
that Bole was bound mean that the
one who had been Bole's prisoner must
be free In the house. She spun about
to the salon to protect the documents
there, and, seeing Jim, she did not re-
coil; she cried to the others and ran
at him.
The rest, still much amazed, did
not follow her at once and she advanc-
ed alone upon Jim. He backed toward
the nearest window and, pointing his
revolver, tried to brighten her.
"Stop!" he warned her sharply. "Go
back!"
"Shoot!' she dared him. "Please
fire!' and she rushed at him.
He skipped back to the curtain oyer
the window. and as she reached him
he fired. The firing did not frighten
her. He had pointed the revolver far
to one side to avoid all chance of hit
ting.
She saw this before he shot, and
she laughed at him tauntingly as she
seized his hand. He dropped the re-
volver and tried to throw her off, but
she held him. A man rushed up to
help her. 1t was the young mar In
evening clothes. Jim threw the girl
back from him, and as the man came
Jim caught him with a fist under the
jaw, but the man came on and Crap
pied at the same moment that the girl
tripped Jim, and he crashed back
against the window, shattering the
glass about him and the man who
fought with him.
The girl cried out shrilly as the glass
smashed on the floor. Then she stifed
her cry, and as Jim struggled with his
antagonist he felt the girls small,
tense hands Selling him. He was roll
ing on the floor amid the broken glass
with the man who had grappled him
when a pistol shot rang out in the
street.
Another shot replied from beside
the house. Now there were shouts all
about, and a whistle blew. AS Jim
wrestled and rolled over below the
window, from outside a man smashed
in the rest of the glass and stepped In.
A window farther down the DON was
burst open, and as another man ap-
peared the lights in the salon went
out.
In their place q flame 1ared sud
denly from the center of the room and
jumped from rug to table and to the
hangings before the door, and Jim as
he gasped for breath sucked in the
fumes Of gasoline.
The man with whom he was wres-
thing was trying no longer to hold him.
Instead the man now was struggling
to get away, and Jim was the who
was holding. The girl no longer inter.
fered. Now, Jim made out Sibert's
voice calling commands to his men In
the burning room,
~ and Jim's antag-