Jack and His Seven Foes — page 185: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DAT hoe ELL Se Boal bin RAST Rene a6. coy, Bom ¢) a a eye — Vere ‘ ; 4 Kiar 25 ; r are 4 - nee JACK AND Pore POR SS Bee: CP Gea Na Cae es j Spl ‘ ae to hisfeet. Master J ack, you will not have time to kill us both.” Another flash of hghtning, so bright that it temporarily blinded them, and the earth shuddered lke a bridge over which a heavy train 1s passing. “Choose between you,’ cried Jack ‘Let it be me, then,’ cried the Panther. “Id as het be dead as witness what’s coming.” : “ Swagegerer,’ cried Jack, hurriedly, “stand there, and make no attempt to moveuntil | bid you. Panther, we fight at seven paces. I’ll measure the ground. e He walked backwards quickly, hke one who has work to do and no time to lose. The Panther simply moved out and stood where Jack had been. The Swaggerer, with blanched cheeks and white lips, stood a httle back, with his hands hanging listlessly by his side. ‘‘ Are you ready,’ cried Jack. “Tve not loaded in two chambers,”’ replied the Panther, looking at his revolver. “ Load, then, and be quick about 1t.” As Jack spoke, forked hghtning leaped from several points of the compass at once, and darted into the centre of the sky. remendous thunder followed, and the earth rocked like a eradle. Jack staggered back a pace, and ere he could recover himself the Panther swung round and fled. “The earthquake!” he shouted. Tike his namesake, the fierce panther of the forest, he sprang over the ground, and, in a moment, as it were, was a hundred yards away. The wild terror that comes to men at such a time was upon him. The Swaggerer caught it, too, and, with a fierce yell, bounded after him. “Turn, you cowards! ” cried Jack. The deadly fear that was on them had not taken possession of the heart of Jack, and he thought they were simply flying from his vengeance. Terrible as that was, they were flying from something more, and flying from it without hope of refuge. So they sped on, even as beasts fly ahead of a forest on fire, without a thought of whither they were going— wildly, madly seeking safety. Jack, crying on them to stop, followed in pursuit, but though ee of foot, a could not gain an inch upon them. If anything, he was losing ground. Both were out of pistol- shot, and to fire would be a waste of ammunition. Jack therefore made no use of his weapon. | To the left of where they were was a spur of the Black Mountain, a tower- ing crag, black, barren, and forbidding. Here, least of all, was safety to be found, but towards it the flying Panther made his way. Lightning again, so fierce that the air seemed turned to flame, and the thunder that followed was deafening and appalling. Jack pulled up for a few moments bewildered, and when he was again able to look about him, he saw the Swaggerer and Panther ahead, staggering “about like drunken men. Even then Jack would not leave his quarry, but hurried on, only to be speedily checked again by a strange shifting movement of the earth, as 1f it were a gliding trap of a stage. It was impossible to keep his feet, and he staggered and fell. Again upon his feet, to find the air alive with forked flame, and a great column of black smoke in the distance —the moon and stars no longer in the sky. The lightning ceased, and a darkness that was as the darkness of the grave was there. Horrors were accumulating, but Jack kept on. He could hear if not see his foes. The Panther was shrieking like some wild beast in pain, and the Swaggerer answering him with the shouts of a madman. More lightning, vivid beyond description, and by its heht Jack could see that all overhead was dense black rolling smoke. From whence had come this appalling phenomena P Stout of heart as he was, he quailed then. It was too horrible for mortal to endure without shrinking. Darkness followed, and the thunder rolled horribly just over his head. In the distance there was the sound of rocks rending. And now came the finish to the awful time. GOMmIiGDoOoks Gcom