The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 103: what you’re looking at

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

DARING THE DANGER ZONE, 93 fought with each other to free themselves for the deadly eye gouge. The great muscles on Symmonds’s neck bulged as he bore down his weight upon his adversary. He felt the stranger grow limp in his terrific embrace, and the wild joy of victory seemed to add its power to his terrific muscles. He freed his hand from the stranger’s weakening grasp, and drew back his fist for a crashing blow which was to end the struggle. . Ina moment he regretted his rashness; the limp body of his foe suddenly galvan- ized, his arm shot out, and the fingers closed upon Symmond’s_ unprotected throat. He tossed his head, expecting to free himself from the grasp, but it merely increased the exquisite torture. That. grip was not an ordinary throat- hold. It was the deadly pressure of scien- tific jiu-jitsu, the compression of a nerve in the throat, the effect of which no scien- tist has ever explained. Symmonds’s head swung from side to side. His eyes bulged. Still the deadly pressure. There came a splitting rattle from his throat and he fell forward, mo- tionless, upon the body of his conqueror. Gerard Derby struggled to his feet. How little had he dreamed that the days of wrestling on the Japanese mail steamer would one day save his life! Nancy rushed toward him with out- stretched arms and, sobbing with joy, seized his hands. “Thank God you came!” she cried. “ A little longer and it would have been too late!” She shuddered violently. “Oh, thank you, thank you!” she sobbed, with the simplicity of tense emo- tion. Now that the danger was over, her nerves, which had faced peril undaunted, broke, and she wept unreservedly. Derby groped for words with which to soothe her. The whole situation had arisen so suddenly that his mind was in a whirl. Nancy suddenly noticed his forehead, cut and bleeding from the broken glass. With a little cry of pity she sprang away and ran into her room, returning in a mo- ment with a basin of water and strips of bandages. She led him, still dazed, to a chair, and with tender care and wonderful delicacy of touch bathed the jagged cuts. “Don’t bother!” he exclaimed, still panting violently. ‘‘ The cuts do not amount to anything. But tell me,” he added, indicating Symmonds’s prostrate body, ‘“‘ what has happened? Who is this man? Why did he come here?”’ Nancy rapidly and _ brokenly, with quick gasps between her words, related the story to him, the while her fingers still worked adjusting the bandage about his head. As she spoke, his hands clenched with wrath. “YT wish I had killed the brute!” he ejaculated. “Are you sure you have not?” she asked. ‘‘ Look! He is motionless, and does not seem to breathe.” Gerard rose and walked ‘across the room to where Symmonds lay. Kneeling down, he examined him carefully. man’s heart. The beating, if it existed, was too faint to be detected. ‘Bring me a mirror!” he demanded, looking up at Nancy. The girl brought the glass, and Derby held it close to the pale lips. A faint cloud of moisture gathered on the clear surface. ‘No, worse luck to him, he is alive,” reported Derby. ‘“‘ Now I suppose I must play doctor and bring him back to con- sciousness, even if we hang him later. But first we will fix him so that he will not be such an unpleasant customer as he was. I can still feel his arms cracking my ribs. Have you any rope?” “T will get a lariat from the corral,” she answered. When she returned with the rope Gerard proceeded to “ hog-tie”’ his pa- tient with more efficiency than delicacy. He slipped the gun, which Symmonds had He placed his ear above the unconscious — (E@) COnnicoool<s