Adventure, December 1914 — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

Not Down decided there was no cause for worry. Still, all the time he was worrying. He says now that he knew something was coming, only he wouldn’t admit it to him- self because he couldn’t believe anybody would attempt a thing as fiendish as the thing Pitkin did. Just the same, when Mitchi and Pitkin came in, Tom watched the girl climb the tower, and all his love took hold on him afresh. She was little, and slender, and sweet, and he could see her face looked wor- ried, too. When the band stopped, and the mega- phone barked, and his own and all the other acts in the rings came to a pause, he says now, he had all he could do to keep from yelling out and telling them to stop right there. All he did do, however, was to draw him- self up and sit on his bar, watching Pitkin and Mitchi’s little pink figure, with every muscle in him tight with watching. The act began all right. Mitchi did her stunts on the wire and came back for the slide. Pitkin took her to the edge after he’d fastened on her wings, and held the mouthpiece for her. They did it that way then, though now she always takes the mouthpiece in her teeth first. And there’s a reason for that. Well, Pitkin, who always wore rubber gloves, lifted the mouthpiece for her to bite, and Tom saw him speak to her when he did it. Mitchi shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. The Russian frowned and sort of nodded his head. Mitchi flapped her wings and tilted back her pretty little face. Even then Tom never suspected anything except that Pitkin had proposed again, which he had—the last time, too, as it happened. I guess in his crazy mind he thought he was giving the girl a final chance. ALL at once Mitchi goes up on her toes and grips the rubber bit in her mouth, and then, right before the whole tent, she stiffens and seems to stretch out in a sort of spasm. And before any- body could lift a hand, Pitkin pushes her off the tower and down she goes. You know how a current will produce a spasm of the muscles. Well, that’s what happened. When the current hit her through the jaws, they locked into the rub- ber and she couldn’t let go or fall off. Pit- = _ on the Bill 169 kin knew that and figured on it to give the current time to kill her. She flashed along the wire, hit the net and lay still under the wire, with the bit still fast in her teeth. And she never moved. It sure was awful. When she hit, some of the lamps she wore broke and cut through her tights, but she never felt it. She just lay there and cooked. She was uncon- scious. I gave one look at her poor little huddled shape In the net and turned away—sick. Then I looked up at the tower. Pitkin stood there with his arms folded and his head back, and the most awful, hellish grin on his face I ever saw. The whole tent was in an uproar. Sev- eral men ran toward the tower as if to climb up and shut off the current. Women were screaming and fainting all over the place, and men were yelling and cursing in excite- ment. The ringmaster was trying to prevent a panic in the crowd. Through the mega- phone he began barking at Pitkin over the shrieks and yells: “Turn off the juice! Turn off the juice!” Pitkin seemed to wake up at that, and looked down. The smile on his devil’s face got wider, it seemed. He waved a hand to- ward poor little Mitchi and pointed to him- self, as if to say he had meant to do it, and had succeeded, and defied us to do anything in time to save the life he was taking. By that time one of the boys was half way up the tower, but he never would have made it in time. Even if he’d got up, he’d have had to fight Pitkin before he could reach the switch. Right there the band began playing, by orders, to quiet the crowd. It seemed ghast- ly, too. There they were banging out rag- time, with that girl burning to death before everybody’s eyes. I felt sick all over, be-. lieve me. It was fierce. ais IT WAS Tom Collins, the man who 2's really loved her, who saw the only J way out and took’it on the jump. While we were yelling at Pitkin to cut off the current, and he was grinning his hellish triumph, Tom got busy. He let himself down from his bar by his arms and began to swing. He gave himself a pretty strong momen- tum and forced himself to wait until it was sufficient. Then helet go. I’ve mentioned NOOK C©