Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1917-01-19

They Fought With Clasps and Grunts.
on the campanile-like balcony crown
ing that skyscraping structure. he
knew, even as he saw two figures
standing there before him, that he
was too late.
That much he knew, even before he
caught at enough breath to call out
a warning to Enoch Golden or swing
about and spring for the second figure,
already shrinking back IN the shadow
of that many-columned cupola. For in
the hand of the second figure Marley
had already caught sight Of teIl-tale
sheet Of paper. 1t was a yellowed
and time-worn scrap OF paper, and lit
tie more, but to Manley q had become
the emblem and pennon of a desperate
cause, a flag to be rallied roUad and
fought Tor, to the last ditch ans the
last gasp. as harried soldiers SIGHT
through thu smoke of battle for saeir
colors.
And Manley, as he clinched with lie
CARS stalwart emissary, fought fer Il.
Nor was his opponent one to be de-
spised. The two men fought along the
crest of that midnight tower as two
mountain lions might fight along the
brink of an Andean precipice. They
fought with gasps and grunts, with
strange cultural sounds, with teeth
barred and face distorted, blind to the
blows that were given and taken. Un-
conscious of the fact that the very pa
per for which they were fighting had
already fallen to the cupola floor. and
from there had been blown by tae
north wind to the furthermost edge OF
the cornice circling the stone column
supports.
Golden himself was already reaching
for that paper when Legar's confed-
crate caught sight Of 1t, broke from
Manley's grasp and dove bodily for
where 1t lay. Manley, a second later,
followed him. There, half astride the
balustrade of coppered wood painted
to look like marble, the fight was re-
newed. Each crouched low as he
fought, drunkenly conscious now OF
the abyss that yawned so close to his
feet But still they fought.
Then a second breath Of night
breeze, signing through the tower top,
carried the paper slowly along tbs
cornice edge. 1t was Legar's man who
saw 1t as 1t moved. He wrenched
away, twisted about, and caught at IL
as it fell But already he was too
late. It lifted with the wind, drifteI
and eddied slowly about in the moor,
light, and floated swayingly down INTO
the darker canyon of Broadway, where
1t was soon lost to sight.
But neither Manley nor his enemy
saw that descent, for Legar's man az
he lurched suddenly forward threw all
his weight on the outstanding copper
cornice, painted white to look like
marble. And it was a cornice made
only for ornamentation, and not for
support. For its fastenings surren-
dered to the strain of that suddscly-
imposed weight and the bucklins seq
ment of copper swayed outward as tina
desperately-clineing fingers elStched
at its edges.
Manley, hanging to the baiustrade
with one arm, reached out to grasp
that buckling strip of metal to which
a helpless man was hanging sheer
over space. He caught at 1t, even as
Golden caught at his straining shout
ders to hold him steady.
But law, stronger than the win %
man, seemed to suck the metal slowly.
inevitably, out Of the clutch Of his
tired fingers. Then the last fastenings
gave, the strained and twisted sheet
metal tore slowly away, and the blaoa
shadow of a man fell like plumnet q
the iron and stone Of Broadway. .arss
hundred feet below.
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