New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-11-22

formallties. this time by Karnian
sentrles. Then the jerk following a
hasty letting-in of the clutch, and they
were off again.
For some time they climbed steadily.
But Milky. who knew the road, bided
his time. Then at last, Mt two o'clock,
came the steep ascent to the very
crest of the mountain, and a falling
back. gear by gear, until they climbed
slowly in the lowest.
Milky unfolded his length quietly.
The gears were grinding, the driver
bent low over his wheel. Very de-
liberately, now that he knew what he
was going to do, Milky unbuttoned his
tunic and slipped 1t off. 1t was q rash
under any circumstances, In a moving
car-particularly rash here, where be-
tween the cliff and a %precipice 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 tunic 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 n 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 ear.
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. on the very
edge Of eternity, and the chauffeur
held 1t there.
"Set the hand brake!" Milky said.
to make him dizzy.
The chauffeur ceased struggling, and
set the hand brake. His head was still
covered. But having done that, he
commenced a struggle more furious
than forceful, for both Of them were
NuluiSuppCu
And Milky a 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 1t.
1t was hateful. The very dull thud
Of 1t was sickening. And there was a
bad minute or two when he thought
he had killed his opponent. The man
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
his wi towing rope, and lying ex.
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 1t carefully in the unin-
jured side of his mouth.
"Just as o 10 as you are up to it."
said Milky, I'VE 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, l have the letter.
That saves your worrying about II.
You can clear your mind for action"
Suddenly Milky dropped his mocking
tone. He was in earnest, grim and
deadly earnest.
II have a fancy, my friend" he said, |
ito take that letter Of yours on to its
destination. But what that destination
is, you are to tell me-"
The man on the ground grinned
sardonically. you know better than
ask that" he said. II will never
tell you"
Milky had thought things out fairly
well, for him. In that ten minutes. In
a b~usinesslike fashion he turned the
PROSTATE prisoner On his side. SO that
he faced toward the chasm. A late
moon showed its depth, and the valley