Evening star., 1939-01-02
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A& WORLD DICTATOR

q dignif1ed salute and stood SILENT
ly radiating his personality upon
the audience. Beside him and
little behind him was Frohisher.
BY contrast with these two tall
figures Rud looked gnome-like,
lacking in dignity, inferior. Yet
also he looked much more alive
and malignant. Bohun realized at
once Rud's speech had turned the
hall against him. He cried to
Hoggin; Bring our men in now!"
Fighting Begins.
Il knew it," whispered Mr.. Abra-
hams. "A hundred OF 'eml" For
a crucial moment his face was
jammed against the broad back
OF the man in front of him. When
he got a clear view of the plat
form again Bohun was graphing
with Rogers, who had intervened
between him and his pseudo
double; the masker and one or
two others of the platform crowd
had been pushed right over the
edge and on to the front rows of
the audience; and the chairman,
who had become as long -limbed,
1t seemed, as gibbon, had pro-
duced a bell which he was not so
much ringing as using as an i'm
partial mace upon the heads about
him. A wedge Of toughs had ap-
peared from the back OF the plat
form in response to Bohun's cry.
One extremely ugly face stood
out among these newcomers, and
Abrahams seemed to recognize it
as the face of the Terrible Slew,
the all-in wrestler. Then he felt
sure it was the Terrible Slew.
"Gollys!" Rud had been pushed
against the wall to the left of the
platform and was apparently hav-
ing difficulty in keeping his foot
ing and not being showed down
into the hall. He was hitting about
weakly with one fist and seemed
then to be resisting pressure rather
than actually fighting.
But 1t was very hard to grasp
the situation as a whole and Mr..
Abrahams found his powers of OBJ
servation confused by the danger
Of being trodden on and crushed
and by a desire to pull back
chair against the wall and stand
on 1t and see more. There were
too many heads and too much
minor action between him and
the drama on the stage. Every one
was standing up and lot of men
were kneeling and standing on the
chairs. The chairs were having a
bad time. cracking and collapsing
with a sort of squelch. The gen.
eral thrust, happily for little Mr..
Abrahams, was toward the platform.
So far as he could grasp the
situation, the hall had been packed
against Lord Horatio, but now
formidable counter attack from
the back entrance had been un-
masked. "Slew!" said Mr.. Abra-
hams. He'll hurt somebody"
Crowd Shouts for Rud.
A lot of people were shouting:
I'VE want Rud Whitlow!" But that
cry was not sweeping the meet
ing. 1t was just as If some cue
had gone wrong. I'VE want Rud!"
bawled a youngster close to Abra-
hams ear. why aren't you shout
ing, sir? What's the matter with
you?"
"Oh, I'm neutral" said Mr.. Abra-
hams.
Neutral are you? Then what
the devil are you doing here?"
I'm the printer"
Printer be damned. You lift
your voice, sir, and show your
colors."
II want Rud!" shouted Abra-
hams perfunctorily Whats hap
pening now?"
The attention of the young man
who had challenged him was hap
pily diverted.
The milling crowd on the left
OF the platform reminded Abrahams
Of swarming bees. He saw a chair
leg go spinning across the hall to
no definite address. Somebody in
the front row began yelping shrilly
with pain.
Bohun, the Terrible Slew, Rogers
and Steenhold lowered over the
swaying platform battle and there
seemed to be conveyance of
conflict fou,o rdc fbo hoclx onfro~oa