The Halifax Comet. — 1893-09-02 (Halifax, West Yorkshire, England)

THE COMET.  groan, to which he paid little attention. "Hold your owa I " he shouted, springing forward at hazard, "help is coming." Nobody answered the generous cheer, but the captain continued to push straight ahead like a wild boar charging, without questioning whether he might not arrive too late or fall into some ambuscade. Served by his instinct as a soldier accustomed to march where the sounded, he did not deviate, despite the obstacles of the road, and on coming out into an open space he stumbled over a body stretched across the path. " Thunder ! " he said, going down on his knees to raise the man off the sward; "I believe I am too late; the ruffians did not miss him. Now who ia he? " In trying to raise the unfortunate stranger, the rescuing hands encountered a pistol with the barrel still warm. "Dash it!" be muttered, "this changes my opinion rather. Is it simply a suicide? Yes, The shot was fired with the muzzle against his breast, for the waistcoat is burnt. lam much afraid it is the Russian whom Caritides cleaned out, but it is so dark I cannot see his face. And Cornillon has sprained his ankle; if he were here he would aid me in carrying the poor fellow away, for he niay not be quite dead. Yet the heart does not beat—lot's see by the face. Ah ! I have some matches in my pocket, and I can—" He never finished the sentence. Suddenly he felt a pair of sturdy hands come down on his shoulders, whilst a blanket or something similar was passed over his head in a second. He tried to rise, but he had been surprised in a posture which paralysed all his power.; and, besides, he had instinctively thrown up his hands to his neck to clear away the object which smothered him. He neither succeeded in removing the kind of (gag so dexterously applied, or in getting on his feet. He struck out and kicked right and left to no purpose; he could not prevent his captors searching him, and not only removing the gold he had won, but his watch, scarf-pin, and the family signet-ring he wore on his little finger. The operation was so deftly done that he was totally relieved of his valuables before he well knew what it was all about. The thieves were certainly experts in their trade, and, what is more, men pressed for time, for hardly had they finished emptying his pockets, and taken off his jewellery, than they released their prey. He rolled over on the corpse he was feeling when he was assailed, and his natural impulse was to call for help; but the covering with which the bandits had muffled him so tightly squeezed his throat, and closed his mouth so thoroughly that he could emit only dull groans. He tried to unloosen it with his hands, but the knot was so hard that ho could not manage to do se ; he was therefore reduced to dragging himself off a little way, to avoid contact with the dead body on which he had fallen, and sit there till he was delivered. He was suffocating as much with rage as from the effect of the choking ligature, and it was a miracle he did not die then and there of suppressed fury. It is true that his position was one to exasperate the quietest man in creation. Half-throttled by the dreadful gag which made him mute and blind, Des Orgenes was condemned to absolute impotency. There was not even the hope of being rescued by Corn illon, who could not walk owing to his accident. He was threatened with passing the night in this plight, as irksome as it was ridiculous, unless some of the players leaving Caritides's came his way. And the prospect of being picked up by these gentry, or even by some early chance comer' had no consoling feature, as the tale would be spread about in