Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-22

DenI low over MS wheel. very de-
liberately, now that he knew what he
was going to do, Milky unbuttoned his
tunie and slipped it off. 1t was a rash
thing, this plan he had in mind, rash
under any circumstances, In a moving
car-particularly rash here, where be-
tween the cliff and a p~recipice that
fell far away below, was only a wind
ing ribbon of uneven road.
Milky, he waited his moment, and
then, with one %singularly efficient ges-
ture, he flung his tsnic over the
chauffeur's head. He drove a car
himself, did Nikky-not his own, of
course; he was far too poor-and he
counted on one thing-an automobile
driver acts from the spinal cord, and
not from the brain. Therefore his
brain may be seething with a thousand
frenzies, but he will shove out clutch
and brake feet in an emergency, and
hold them out.
SO it happened. The mans hands
left the wheel, but he stopped his car.
Not too soon. Not before it had struck
the cliff, and then taken a sickening
curve out toward the edge of the
precipice. But stop it did, Oh the very
edge of eternity, and the chauffeur
held it there.
"Set the hand brakel" Milky said.
The lamps were zeal enough the edge
to make him dizzy.
The chauffeur ceased struggling, and
set the hand brake. His head was stiff
covered But having done that, he
commenced a struggle more furious
than forceful, for both of them were
handicapped.
And now Milky was forced to an
unsoldierlike thing that he afterward
tried to forget. For the driver de-
veloped unexpected strength, refused
to submit, got the tunic off his head,
and, seeing himself attacked by one
man only, took courage and fell to.
He picked up a wrench from the seat
beside him, and made a furious pass
at Nikky's head. Milky ducked and,
after a struggle secured the weapon.
All this In the car, over the seat back.
1t was then that Milky raised the
wrench and stunned his man with it.
1t was hateful. The very dull thud
of it was sickening. And there was a
bad minute or two when he thought
he had killed his opponent. The a
had sunk down In his seat, a sodden
lump of inanimate human flesh. And
Milky, whose business, in a way, was
killing, was Mortified.
The chauffeur wakened, ten minutes
later, to find himself securely tied with
~. 41.-1 4oxvfAr ,ono md 1rfnn u.
tremely close to the edge of death.
Beside him on the ground sat a steady
eyed young man with a cut lip. The
young man had lighted a cigarette, and
was placing it carefully in the unin-
jured side of his mouth.
"Just as soon as you are up to It,"
said Milky, 1--WE shall have a little
talk"
The chauffeur muttered something in
the peasant patois of Karnia.
Come, comet" Milky observed.
speak up. No hiding behind strange
tongues. But first, / have the letter.
That ave- your worrying about 1t.
You can clear your mind for action"
Suddenly Milky dropped his hooking
lOLc lit was liz CuIACSI, 6l1A IL
deadly earnest.
81 have a fancy, my friend" he said,
ito take that letter of yours on to it's
destination. But what that destination
is, you are to tell me-"
The man on the ground grinned
sardonically. you know better than
to ask that" he said. ST will never
tell you"
Milky had thought things out fairly
well, for him, in that ten minutes. In
q ~businesslike fashion he turned the
PROSTATE prisoner on his side, so that
he faced. toward the chasm. A late
zoe showed its depth, and the valley
in which the air flowed swiftly. And
having thus faced him toward the next
world, Milky, throwing away his
cigarette because it hurt his lip, put a
stone or two from the roadway behind
hiS prisoner, and anchored him there.
Then he sat down and waited.
"Any news?" he asked, at the end
of ten minutes unbroken silence.
His prisoner said nothing. He was
thinking, doubtless. Weighing things,
too-perhaps life against betrayal, a
family against separation.
Milky examined the letter again. It
was addressed to a border town In
Llvonia. But the town lay far behind
them. The address, then, was a false
one. He whistled SOFTLY
Half an hour.
"Come, come" said Milky fercely.
I'VE are losing time" He looked
fierce, too. His swollen lip did that.
And he vas nervous It occurred to
him that his prisoner, in desperation,
might roll over the edge himself, which
would be most uncomfortable.
But the precipice, and Nikky's fierce
lip, and other things, had got In their