AN AMERICAN DAREDEVIL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8102, 30 August 1904, Page 2

AN AMERICAN DAREDEVIL.

, *„ « — 1 MODERN SOLDIER OE FOR- - TUNE. "If it is ever written, the story of the life of* Herbert- 0. Jeffries, commander of the Pacific flotilla of the new Panama Republic, wili mako t h " talcs of our western scouts seem fit for nursery," writes a member of the Geological Survey, who has spent considerable time in Central America. He tolls about Jeffries, a graduate of WestPoint. Academy, N.Y., in the "New York Sun." " " ; Jeffrie*;, when in Guatemala, fell out with President Barrios, and was exiled, and a price put on his head. He fled with ! General P. P. Brannon. a "redoubtable j Pennsylvanian fighter. Both were weicom- j ! ed '•by Don Luis .oogran, known as the * Diaz of Central -America, then Preside*^. j Tb-ey planned the ambuscade which resulted I in the slaughter of nearly 400 Guatemala invaders. Among the Americanis who flocked to the capital at Tegucigalpa wa_ a New Yorker named Palmer, a polished gentleman, and the possessor of a magnificent baritone voice. Palmer- and Jeffries became chummy, and for months were inseparable. Both were in demand at social functions, Jeffries being a fine tenor singer, and passionately fond of muaic. Their popularity roused the- jealousy of Cecil (administrator of the telegraph lines), who, while carefully avoiding Jeffries, constantly sought a quarrel with Palmer. On the night of- a presidential ball, Cecil, drunk and *noisy. met Palmer in the bar-room of the Picalilly Hotel, grossly insulted him, and then shot him dead. So powerful was Cecil's influence that he was not even arrested. -A . Jeffries was at Yuscaran, two days distance by tho usual mod© of travel, hut he made the journey in twenty-four hour?, killing two mules en route. He wired Cecil that he was coming to kill him. When Jeffries rode up to the hotel, fully twelve hours before he was expected, found Cecil in the bar-room, surrounded by a number of native officers, boasting of what he would do to Palnwr's friend. Jeffries's entrance was tho occasion of a stampede on the part of the natives, many I of whom threw themselves headlong out of tha windows' in their frantic efforts t.o \ escape the calm, determined-looking man in the doorway, whose big revolver seemed to cover every man in the room. Two shots rang out. Jeffries strode into the yar-3, mounted his mule, and, without looking backward, rode away. " Cecil was found dead, with a bullet in his heart, J—* over tlw P* l1 * 1 °* Zhe door through which Jeffries entered, on a line with hie head, was the mark of Cecil's tulle*. It was a duel -to x the death-,---i and Palmer was avenged. There was no J trial,. --- ':•'