Part 41 (2/2)
”Sheer off, Doret! You can't land here!”
She saw a gun in Runnion's hand, and a terrible, sickening fear swept over her, for he was sloalking down the spit, keeping abreast of the canoe as it drifted She could see exactly ould happen: no ainst the will of an armed marksman, and if Poleon slackened his stroke, or stopped it to exchange his paddle for a weapon, the current would carry hi paper shell harried by a boiling current, whereas the other man stood flat upon his feet
”Keep away or I'll fire!” threatened Runnion again; and she screamed, ”Don't try it, Poleon, he'll kill you!”
At her words Runnion raised his weapon and fired She heard the woods behind reverberate with the echoes like a sounding-board, saw the white spurt of smoke and the skitter of the bullet as it ide It was a long shot, and had been fired as a final warning; but Doret ; instead, his paddle clove the water with the same steady strokes that took every ounce of effort in his body Runnion threw open his gun and replaced the spent shell On ca, crazy craft in a sidewise drift, and with it the girl saw coravelled ridge behind her ene the value orclearly what she would do; but as she drew near she saw Runnion raise his gun again, and, without thought of her own safety, threw herself upon hiain his shot ide as he strove to hurl her off, but his for to this, now that she fought for Poleon's life Runnion snarled angrily and thrust her away, for he had waited till the canoe was close
”Let ain she ran at hiainst his, but paused, and as he undertook to fire she thrust at his elbow, then dodged out of his way Her bloas crafty and well-tiain she destroyed it with a touch and danced out of his reach She was niht, and quickened now by a cold calculation of all that depended upon her
Three times in all she thwarted Runnion, while the canoe drove closer every instant On the fourth, as she dashed at hi wickedly--struck as he would have struck at a led, aard little figure sprawled upon the rocks; but the delay proved fatal to hiainst the bank, and the huge man in it seemed to offer a mark too plain to be missed, he was too close to per utterance to a strange, feral, whining sound, as if he were crying like a fighting boy; then, as the gambler raised his arm, the Canadian lifted himself up on the bottoht, and leaped As Runnion fired he sprang out and was into the water to his knees, his backward kick whirling the craft from underneath him out into the current, where the river seized it He had risen and ju hiain, but Poleon carizzly that no missile can stop Runnion's weapon blazed in his face, but he neither felt nor heeded it, for his bare hands were upon his quarry, the i the other from his feet, and neither of them knehether any or all of the last bullets had taken effect Poleon had coliht of lead nor length of blade could stop In his haste he had left Flas were superfluous, and he had never fought with any but those God gave hi that his hands could not ainst this ar for hi his eyes They grappled and fought, alone and unseen, and yet it was no fight, for Runnion, though a vigorous, heavy-muscled man, was beaten down, sreat naked felloho all the ti fury
They swung half across the spit to the farther side, where they fell in a fantastic convulsion, slipping and sliding and rolling aaainst the naked flesh of the other, against the distorted face that snapped and bit like the muzzle of a wolf, while all the tier at his ear
The Canadian's clenched hands crushed whatever they fell upon as if s that could not be loosed It was a frightful coainst a maddened beast whose teeth tore and whose claws ripped, whose every move was irresistible And so it was over shortly
Poleon rose and ran to the fallen girl, leaving behind him a huddled and twisted likeness of a ; but as her li her pale, blind features up to the heavens, he began to cry, this ti tears, the agony of which seared his soul He laid her carefully beside the water's edge, and, holding her head and shoulders in the crook of his left ar over her, half nude, dripping with the sweat of his great labors, a tender, palpitating figure of bronzed muscle and sineith all his fury and hate replaced by apprehension and pity The short es to him, but she revived beneath his htened look of consciousness was changed to asmile
”W-what happened, Poleon?” she said ”I was afraid!”
He stood up to his full height, shaking, and weak as the water that dripped from him, the very bones in him dissolved For the first tiosh!+” and ran his hand up over his wet face
”Where is he?” She started to her knees affrightedly; then, seeing the twisted, sprawling figure beyond, began to shudder ”He--he's dead?”
”I don' know,” said Poleon, carelessly ”You feel it purty good now, eh, w'at?”
”Yes--I--he struck ed over her, and she buried her face in her hands ”Oh, Poleon! Poleon! He was a dreadful man”
”He don' trouble you no lad you did it!” She broke down, tre at her escape, until her selfishness smote her, and she was up and beside hiht of that
You must be wounded!”
The Frenchman felt himself over, and looked down at his liuess not,” he said, at which Necia noticed his re attire, and simultaneously he beca his eyes over the river for his canoe, which was now a speck in the distance
”Ba gosh!+ I' for lookin' at,” he said ”I'm paddle hard--dat's w'y Sacre! hoeat!” He hitched nervously at the band of his overalls, while Necia answered:
”That's all right, Poleon” Then, without warning, her face froze with led repulsion and wonder ”Look! Look!” she whispered, pointing past hi painfully into a sitting posture, uplifting a terriblyfor possession of his wits He saw the