The Argosy, March 1907 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

.. within oh = 7 - Pd aod A : x Soe, ee ca “ ee ~ - >" ie = - = >» atten ttha etn = ee 3 Lae - al 3 + ? 7 : $< ees 4 ° a a ~ — - = > . get J Now one, now the other, woutd be on top, as they strove for supremacy, ee ‘but, locked in close embrace, each was at the same time striving to keep the other - from flinging himself off to the ground. The siding upon which Davis had un- wittingly diverged was a steep incline, and once fairly upon it, the car, gather- ing impetus, increased its speed. Faster and faster spun the wheels, more rapidly rose and fell the unmanned handle-bar ; but these two clinched in the grip of battle paid no heed. All over the narrow space of floor they wrestled, their fingers clutching at each other’s throats, ribs cracking under the pressure of twisting elbows, legs intertwined in strenuous struggle. At one moment, his body half off the car, Davis’s feet would be bumping over the ties; the next, their positions would be reversed, and Spear’s long limbs would be dragging to the rear like an un- shipped rudder. It had been Gardiner’s idea that the combat must come to an abrupt end -when they reached the entrance of the abandoned mine and crashed into the heavy timbers which boarded up _ its front, and hence he had been trying to hold himself to the back part of the car, but as he came on top for a mo- ment and cast a glimpse ahead his bloodshot, straining eyes saw that such was not to be the climax. | The timbers had been removed, and unless the car were checked it must in- evitably plunge down a sharp declivity the mine, and then precipitate itself and its occupants into a pit one hundred and fifty feet deep, and nearly half full of water. The full scope of the diabolical plot hatched against him was now disclosed to Davis. It had been Spear’s manifest purpose either to kill or stun him by the blow from the coupling-pin and then send the car bearing his unconscious form down the siding and into the oblivion of the gloomy snaft. No escape would have been possible, no clue would have been left to his fate. The planking would have been re- placed before the mine’s entrance, and- he would simply have ranked as another of those mysterious disappearances which had so puzzled the coal-fields, and clean living of the other man ‘THE “ARGOSY. Z = ; = Be ae which ‘had no doubt been wrought by similar means. ea The thrill of horror which — shot through him at this realization, the fur- — ther knowledge that the danger was still imminent, came near proving fatal to. him, for inadvertently he released his hold upon his antagonist, and Spear, | quick to profit by the respite, drove home a short-arm jolt squarely pen the point of the jaw. Gardiner’s head flew back with a crack, and for a moment his brain whirled dizzily. He felt himself letting go his grasp upon consciousness, drift- ing easily out upon a sea of serene indif- ference. : ; And then, whether it was because the blow delivered at such short range had lacked sufficient steam or that the very certainty of his doom roused him to re- sistance, his senses returned with a rush. The clasp which had momentarily loosened upon his opponent tightened once more in a grip of steel, and the contest was on again as savagely as ever. But with this near-victory Spear had shot his bolt. He still fought on dog- gedly, unyieldingly; but the youth and was bound to tell. With a fierce elation surging up into his throat, Gardiner felt the muscles of his adversary weakening, his furious efforts growing more impotent. He himself was well-nigh spent, his breath coming in labored gasps, the beat of his arteries pounding like trip-ham- mers at his ears; but he knew that he was now immeasurably the superior. ; Steadily pressing his advantage,» he pushed his opponent forward until the latter’s head rested under the heavy handle-bar which had hitherto been im- partially thwacking them both, and holding it there, he let the machine do © the work which, déspite his supremacy, would still have required more time than he had to spare. His object was, of course, to bent Spear into submission, ‘and then, notwithstand- ing the fearful momentum which the car had now attained, to fling himself and his conquered foe from the platform and let the abandoned contrivance go on to de- struction. But Spear still clung to him with a comicboo