(Complete Story) THE STRIKER’S STORY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 14 January 1905, Page 50

(Complete Story) THE STRIKER’S STORY.

HOW McTERZA. STOPPED THE RAILROAD RIOT.

(By

FRANK H. SPEARMAN.)

I would not call her roniittwn. Not bemuse I would be afraid to. though most of the boy* were more or less afraid of Mrs Mullenix. but simply l»e--cause it wouldn’t be right —not in my opinion. She kept a short order house—let that be admitted at once—-but her husband was - long a West Paid engineer. Deni* Mtillenix went into the Peace with 1 (alley and Ed Peetu ana Durden the night of the big dune water on I hr West End. The company didn’t treat her just right. I was a strong company man, although ( went out with the boys. But ( say. ami I’ve always *aid. the company ci d not treat Min Mullenix just right. A widow, and penniless, she bought the eatuig-hou.*e ai Md loud with the fc*r hundreds they gave her. There were live young Mullrnixes. and they were, every one, star children — from Sinkers, who was foxy, to Kate, who was not merely fine—die was royal. T.verity, and straight, and true, with a complexion 1 kc sunrise and hair like a sunset. Kate kept the cottage going, and Mr* Mußcnix ruled personally iu the eating house and in the short order annex. Any one who ba* tasted i steak grilled swe’l in Chicago or in Denver, and tasted one broiled plain by Mrs Mulleuix in MtCloud, half a block from The" dejad, can easily understand why the boys behav* cd wed. As for her eotiec—lir«icvr it or not—we owe most of our worldfamous West End runs, not so much to the Baldwin Locomotive Works, renowned as they are. nor to Mr George Westinghouse, prince of inventors t hough-we rank him—but to the codec drawn by Mrs Mary Mullenix; honour to whom honour is due. Mrs Mudlenix’s e»»lTee for many yearW made the boys hot: what now niakeJ# them hot is that she can’t be persuaded to draw it for anylnxiy except Mo Terza. and they claim Uiat’s the wav he holds the White Mail with the SOS; but all the same McTerza is fast stuff.* coffee or no coffee. They were n >ne of them boisterous men, those Reading engineers who took our jtd>* after the strike: but MvTerza was an oyster—except that he couldn’t !>• swallowed. McTerza didn’t give up very much to anybody; not even tn his own chum*, Fo’ey and Sinclair. The fact is he was diffident, owing, maybe, to a hesitation in his *pe?eh. It was funny, the bit of a halt, but not so odd as his disposition. which approached that of a grizzly. He had impudence and indifference and quiet—plenty of ceeli. There was one p’aee up street which was. in special and partieular. headquarters for the bad men in our crowd — for wc had some —Gatling’* billiard hall Ha!cy hinfrseh never <ia»l the nene to tackle Gatling’s. But one night, all alone and come from nobody knew where, the hall *tulTwl with striking men who hid tasted blond that very day—McTerza waß-el into Gatling’*. It was like a yearling strolling into a canon full of w dves. They were so surprised at first they couldn’t bite, but pretty soon they got McTerza up against a mirror and began past ng balls at him. When Ed. Ranks arrived. .L was as bad as a rapid-fire gwn. and he carried MeTerza out the side door like a warm tapioca pudding. But when the l\dl*»w got around again he was jiwt as careless H wi»s pretty /generally that in the strike the short order house was w T th us. Mrs Mulleuix had reason h» feel bi Her-toward tiie contpany, and it !>oeamc speedily known that Mrs Alullenix’s was not a healthy place for the men who toak our engines; their money was not wanleti. la fact, none of the new men ever tried to get service there except MrTerxa. McTerxa one morning dropped info the thort order house. "Coffee,” said he; he alwaj-g cut

things shvrt because he wa» afraid he would get hung up between stations in remarks. Mrs Mnllenix, sick, had to manage as she could. Kate was looking after things that day at the restaurant. and she w«s atone. She looked at McTerza chillingly. Kale hail more titan enough in-tinet to tell a Reading man from the Brotherhood type. She turned in sitenee. and she [■ouretl a etip of coffee, but from the night tank: it was the grossest indignity that could be perpetrated on a ntan in the short order management. She set it with little of ch ihty anti leas of sugar before M>-Terza, and pushing Iter girdle down, coldly walked front, half perched on a -tool, and looked with animation out of the window. ~Cool.’’ ventured MrT.-rza as he stirred a lump of sugar hopefully into his purchase. Kate made no (Utmment on the observation; the thing appeared self-evident. “t'ouhl 1 have a little e-e<ondensed milk?- inquired Mcterra presently. "This se-se-seream looks pretty rieh.” he added. stirring thoughtfully as be spoke at the pot of mustard, whieh was the only liquid in sight. Kate Mullcnix glared contemptuously at him. but she passed out a jug of cream—and it was eream. Front the ilehance on her face as she resumed her attitude she appeared to expect a protest about the cold coffee. None came. McTerza drank the -stuff very slowly, blowing it carefully the while, as if it was burning him up. It vexed Kate, for it appeared impertinent. "How much?" asked McTerza humbly, as he swallowed the last drop before it froze to the spoon, and fished for a dime to square his aeeottnt. "Twenty-five cents.” He started slightly, but reached again into his pocket. and without a word produced a quarter. Kate swept it into the drawer with the royal indifference of a circus faker and resumed her stool. •T'-e-c<m*d I get another c e cup?” asked McTerza patiently. It looked like a defiance: however, she botdlv poured a second cup of the c-old coffee, and McTcrza tackled it. After an interval of silence he spoke again. "Do you sell tickets on c-c-offee here?” She looked at him with question-

ing insolciur, “I mean. a fellaW Imy a chance—or get into 'a ralr— m the h-h-h-hoj tank*” asked McTerna, throwing a sad glance’bn the IWe eofifea itra. which cosily beside ita spent companion. “Thai tank is empty,” snapfted Kata Mullenix rFeklessly. for iu spite of herself she was confused. < “If it is." Miggr-tcd McTerza, peering gravely underneath at .the jet of gas which blazed merrily, “you ought to draw the fire; yon’re liable to b b-to-Imrn your e-e-erowa-sheet.” “UhatU tire matter?’-’ demanded Kate angrily; “is ymtr coffee cold?” "Oh, no.” he responded, shaking hie head and waiting for the surprising disclaimer to sink in. “Not exactly cold. It’S just dead.” “Be don't serve Reading men here,** retorted Kate defiantly. “Oh. yes, you do.’ responded MeTerza, brightening at once. ‘•You serve them t t-rrasqw.” ’lTien after a pause: "Cqurti I «et a cigar?” “Yes.T “How much is that kind?” “Fifty cents.” snapped Kate, g’anoing into the street for some friendly striker to appear. "I want a good one.’” “That’s a good one.” “Fifty cents a b-b-bax?'* “Fifty cents apiece.” “Give me a mild one. please.'* He put down a dollar bill as he took the cigar. she threw a half back on toe case. At that moment- ia walked two of our boys. Curtis Rucker and Bea Niehokton. McTerza. itaii a great chanen to walk out, but lie didn't improve it. Itiifker and Ben were Reds, both of them. Ben, in fact, was an old ruf- - ilan at best, but Curtis Rucker was a blackish, quick young fellow, fine a* silk in a cab, iait a devil in a strike, and what was more, a great admirer of Kate Mullenix. and the minx knew it. As MeTerza bit off the end of his cigar and reached for the gas-tighier Ire notreed that her face lighted wonderfully. Wiih a smile the newcomers called for coffee, -and with a snwle they got it. McTerza, smoking quiet-iy at the eigurcase. watched the steaming tiq. uid pour from the empty tank. It wa» a dispiriting reveiatkm. Imt he onlr puffed - leisurely — on. When Kara glan<z-d his way, as she presently did, disdainfully. McTerza raised his finger, and pointed to the change she had thrown at him. . - "What is it, sir?” "Mistake.” Tire strikers pricked up their ears. •There isn’t any mistake, sir. f to’d.you the cigars were fifty ceuta each,” replied Kate Mulienix. Rucker pushed hack his ooffee, and sliding off his stool walked forward. “Lh'ange isn't ’right,” persisted MnTerza. looking at Kate’ Mutlenix.

“Whj ..... . **¥«u forget to take out tweßtjF'Bf* erate more for that last cup of e-e-eof-Wee,” rUßarn.il Che Beading man. Kate Book up tire eoin and handed a quarter fmek from the register. . “That's right/ 1 pat j n Rucker pron.ptly, "mate the seabs p-p pay for »i«nt they They’re sp-p-ponding our money.” The hesitating Reading man appeared for the first time aware of an enemy; interested for the first time in the abuse that had been continually heaped on him since he <ame to town; it appeared at last to sinu in. He returned Rneker's glare- _ "You cal! me a scab, Jo yon?” he said at last and with .he stutter all K>ut. “I belong to a labour order that •runts tirousands to your hundreds. Your seabs came in and took our throttles on the Reading—why shouldn't we pull your latches ont here? Your, strike is beat, my bsi -k. and Reading men heat it. You had look for a job on a threshing- machine. Rucker jumped for .MeTr za. and they mixed like clouds in a cyclone. For a minute it was a whirlwind, ami nothing could be made.of it: but when thes 'fould. be -seen McTerza had the best 'man in our eamp pinned under a table rwith his throat is one hand like the Batch of a throttle. Nicholson at the kame moment raised an oak stool am! Smashed it over McTerza’s head. The ■fellow went flat as a dead man. but he must have pulled up quick, for when Nej.hbor. rushing in, whirled Nicholson into the street, the Readjng HMD already had his feet, and u corner to work from. Reed, the tra.npnaster, war- right behind the big master mechanic-. Rucker was up, but saw he was outnumbered. "Hurt,, Mae? ’ asked Reed, running toward the Reading roan- The Mov. had oertainly dazed him; his eyes rolled seasick for a minute, then he stared straight ahead. "Look out,” he muttered, pointing over Rbed'z shoulder at Kate Mullenix. •*shes going to faint." 1 The trainmaster turned, but she wxs gone before her brother Sinkers could reach her as he ran in. Rucker moved towards the door. As Ke passed MeTersa he sputtered villainously, but Neighbor's huge bulk was between the two men. .“Never mind,"/ retorted McTerza: “next time I get you I’ll ram a billiard e e-c-cue down -your throat.”. It was the first intimation our lighiing men had that the Reading, fellow rould do business, and the affair caused McTerza to be inspected with some interest from behind «creen« and cracker boxes as he sauntered up and down the street. When the boys asked him what he was going to do about his treatment, in the short order house he seemed indifferent; but the indifference, as cur boys were beginning to find out, only covered live coals; for when he was pressed he threw the gauntlet .-t the whole lodge of us, by saying that before he got through lie would close he short order house up. That threat made him a.marked man. The Reading eu were hated, but McTerza was siated for the very worst of it- Everybody on both sides understood that — < xcept McTerza himself. He never ,un- < erstoed anything, for that matter, till it was on him, and he dropped back into is indifference and recklessness almost “t onre. He even tried the short order ouse again. That time Mrs Mullenix -rseif was in the saddle. There were

aings in life which even McTerza didn't o-nker after tackling more than on-.—, end one was a second interview with Mfs Mullenix. But the fellow must have made an impression on even the redoubtable Mrs Mary, lor she privately askel Neighbour, as one might of an honourable adversary. for, pea.;-< sake to keep • that man away from her restaurant; so McTerza was banned. He took hi* rexenge by sauntering in and out cf Gatling's until Gatling himself was greyheaxieit with the fear that another riot would be brought on his place. Oddly enough. McTerza had one friend in the Mullenix family. On the strike question. like many other McCloud families, .the house of MulHnix was divided against itself. All held for the engineers except the youngest nomb-r— Sinkers. Sinkers was telegraph messenger, and was strictly a company man in spite of everything. He naturally saw a great deal of. the new mea. but Sinkers never took the slightest interest in McTerza til! he handled Rucker; after that Sinkers cultivated him. Sinkers Mould listen just as long as McTerza would stutter, and Oxy Became fast friends long before the yard riots. The day the cartload of detectives

was imported the fight was on. Scattering collisions breaking here and there into open fights showed the feeling, but it wasn't till Ist tie Russia went out that thirgs looked roeky for the company property at McCloud. Tattle Russia had become a pretty big Russia at the time of the strike. The Russians, planted at Benkleton by Shockley. you might say, had spread up sn.t down the line, and their first cousins, the Polaeks. worked the company coal mines. At McCloud they were as hard a crowd after dark as you would find on the steppes. The Polaeks. 400 of them, struck Wrtile the engineers were out. and the fat went into the fire with a flash. The night of the troub’e took even ii» by surprise, and the company wawholly unprepared. The engineer-, in the worst of the heat were accused of the rioting, but we Itad no mere to do with it than Hcnresteaders. Our boys are Americans, and we don’t Eght with torches and kerosene. We don’t hav-t to; they're not our weapons. The company imported the Polaeks, let them settle their own accounts with them, said our fellows, and I called it right. Admitting that some of our Reds got out to r.iix in it, we couldn’t in sense be held fcr that. It was Neighbor, the craftiest old lox on the staff of the division, who told the depot people in the afternoon that something was coming, and thinking. back afterward of the bunches of the low-browed fellows dotting the bench ami the bottoms in front of their dug-outs, lowering at the guards who patrolled the railroad yards, it was strange that no one else saw it. They had been out three weeks, and after no end of gabbling t urned silent. Men who talk are rot. so dangerous; it’s when they- quit talking. Neigl'.bour was a man of a thousand to act on his apprehension. All the al- < rnocn he had the switch engines shunting cars about the roundhouse: ti e minute the are lights went on the result . <onld he seen. The old man had loag lines of furniture vans, box cars, gondolas, and dead Pullman's strung around the big house like parapets. Whatever * anybody ■ else thought. Neighbor was ready. Even old John Boxer, hi; head blacksmith, who operated an amatetlr liatlerv for salutes and rtl-hrzifoss. had ■ bis gun overhauled: the roundhouse was'looking for trouble. It was barely eight o'clock tba? n'ght when a group of us on Main--strect saw .the depot. lights go cut, and pretty soon telephone message■ began coming in to Gatling's from the company plant up the iiv;r for the sheriff; the Polaeks were wrecking the dynamos. The arc lights covering the yards were on a different circuit, but it didn’t take the whiskered fellows long to find that out. Half an hour later the city -plant was attacked:—no one was looting for trouble there—and the great system of arcs lighting the yard for miles died like fireflies. We knew then—everybody knew—that the Polaeks meant business;

Not a man was in sight when the blaze spluttered blue, red, and black out; but in five minutes a dozen torches were moving up on the in-freight house Tike 'coyotes. We eould hear the crash of the big oak doors clear down on Main-street. There, again, life company was weak; they hadn’t a picket out at either of the freight houses. There wasn’t so much as a sneeze till they beat the doors in; then a cry; the women were taking a hand, and it was a loot with a big 1,. The plunder maddened them I’ke brandy. Neighbor, who feared not the Bolicks nor the devil, made a sortie with a dozer, men from his stockade, for that was what- the roundhouse- <lefences ■looked like, to try to save the buihiii'tf. It wasn’t in men to do it. The gutting was done and the kerosene burning yellow before he was half-way across, and the mob, running then in a wavering black line from the flames that lieked the high windows, were making for the storehouse. The fellows were certainly up to evtr- thing good, for in plundering the freight house they first gave their women the chains- to lay in supplies for months. Neighbog saw in a minute there was nothing left for him to protect at the east end, and before he could ent off the constantly lengthening line of rioters, they were between him and the long storehouse. It must have mad.' the old man weep blooi, and it was there tint the first shooting occurred. A squad of the detectives reinforcing Neighbour's little following, ran in on the Hank of the rrotera as the master

mechanic caught up their rear. 1 hey wheeled, on his command to disperse, and met it with a eioud of stones and coupling pins. The detectives opened wit': their Winchesters, and a yell went up that took me beck to the Haymarket. Their answer was the twieh to the storehouse and a charge on the imported guards that slums their iro.tt like a whirlwind. The defectives rts» for Neighbor's breastworks, wita tne miners hot behind, and a hail os d-'adly missiles on their baess. Gue went down at the turn-table, and it didn’t look as if his life was wortu a piece of waste. But the feikiw, raising wu one arm, began picking oh the Poiacks closest with a revolver. They scattered like turkeys, and he staggered across the table before they could damage him any worse. Half a dozen oi us stood in the cupola of the tirc-er.gine house, with the thing laid below like a panorama. Far as the blazing freight house lit the yards, we could see the rioters swarming in from the bottoms. The railroad officials gathered Upstairs in the passenger depot waited helpless for the moment w-hen the fury of the mob would turn on the unprotected building. The entire records of the division, the despatehers’ offices, tire headquarters of the whole West End were under that roof, with nothing to stand between it and the mob. Awkwardly as the rioters ha<l manoeuvred. they seemed then to be getting into better shape for mischief. They were quicker at expedients, and two intensely active leaders rose out of the crowds. Following the shouts of the pair, which we eould just hear, a great body of the strikers dashed up the -.ard. “By the Gods!” eried Andy Cameron at my elbow, “they're going for the oilh ousel” Before the words were-out we could hear the dull stroke of the picks sinking into the eleated doors. Buckets were passed in and out from the house tanks. Jacketed eans of turpentine and varnis-h were hustled down the line to men drunk with riot; in a moment twenty ears were ablaze. To ton the frenzy they “fired ' the eR-honse itself. Destruction had erazed the entire population- of the bottoms. - The horning ears threw up into the sky- the front of the big brick depot. As the icfleetion strnele back from the plateg’ass windows, the mrdj split into two greart waves, and one headed for the passen-

ger depot. They crowed the wpurt brunJibihing torches and a!edges d»d bar*. We could them plain •« Moek signal*. Every implement that ever figured in a yard shown! in their line. l>uL their leader, a young**vh fclosv, swung a tapering stake. As the foremost Prdark climbed tip on the last string of ftn-ts that separated them from the depot, the storage tank* in the oil-house took fire. The roof jumped from the wall-plates like one vast trap floor, and the liquid yrHew spurted flaming a hundred feet up into the black. A splitting yell greeted the hurst, ami the Polarks. with added fury, raced towards the long depot. I niud<* out. then the man with the club. It Rucker. The staff of the superintendent, and the force of despatches, a handful of men all told, gathered at the upper windows and opened fire with revolver*. .This was just enougn to infuriate the rioters. And it appeared certain that the house would be burned under the defenders’ feet, for the broad platform was bare from end to end. Not a ghost of a barricade; not a truck, not a shutter stood between the depot ao-1 the torch, and nobody thought of a man until Cameron with the quicker tried: “Fcr God’s sake! There's McTerza!'* Sure as pay-day there he was walking down the platform towards the depot. and humping alongside- Sinkers. I guess everybody in both camp® swore. Like a man in his ®’eep he was walking right in the teeth of the PoIr.cks. If we had tried ourselves fa pit him it con id n’t have been <k»ne cleaner. His friends, for McTerza had them, must have shivered—hut that just. McTerza; to Im', when he shouldn’t where he shouldii’t. Even bad there not been more pressing matters, nobody could have figured nut where the fellow had come from with his v<»nvn>, or where he was going. He was there: that- was all—he nn? there. The despaicher.s yelled at him from above. 'Hie cry eehoed baek short from a hundred Pole.i-k throats, and they sent a splitter; it was plain they wer mad for blood. Even that cry didn’t greatly faze the feEow. but in the clatter of it all heXraiight cry a cry sent straight to McTerr.a’s ear, and he turned -'t the voice and the word® like -a man stuns. Rucker. leaping ahead and brandishing the truck-stake

•t the hated stutterer, yelled, ‘‘Kill the •cub:”

The Heading engineer halted like .1 bulb'd iieL.ar. Rucker’s cry was enough —in that time i‘"J at that place it was enough. MiTcrtS froze to the platform. There was more—" e knew it. all of us—more between those two men than scab and brotherhood, •trike and riot, flood or fire: there was a woman. We knew it so well there was hardly a flutter anywhere, I take it, when >ncn saw McTerza, stooping, grasp Sinkers, shove him towards the depot, slip like a snake out of his peajacket, and turn to front the whole blooming mob. There wasn’t any fluttering. I lake it—and not very much breathing: only the scab, never a tremendous big man, swelled bigger in the eyes then straining his way than any man in McCloud has ever swelled before or since.

Mobs are queer. A minute before it was the depot, now it was the scabkill him. The scab stood. Rucker stumbled across a rail in his fury, and went sprawling, but the scab stood. The line wavered like tumbleweeds. They didn’t understand a man fronting forty. Then Ren Nicholson —I recognised his whiskers—bega.n blazing at him with a.pistol. Yet the seah stood and halted the Polaek line. They hesitated, they stop|x*d to yell: but the scab stood.

"Stone him!” shouted Ben Nicholson. McTerza backed warily across the platform. The Polacks wavered: the instinct of danger unsettled them. Mobs are queer. A single man will head them quicker than a hundred guns. There is nothing so dangerous as one man.

McTerza Saw the inevitable, the steady circling that must get him at last, and as the missiles flew at him from a score of miners he crouched with the rage of a cornered rat. one eye always on Rucker.

"Come in. you coyote!” yelled McTerza, tauntingly. “Come in!” he cried, catching up a coupling pin that •truck him and hurling it wickedly at 'his nearest assailant. Rucker, stringing his club, ran straight at his enemy. “Kill the scab!” he cried, again, and a dozen bristling savages, taking his lead, elowd on the Heading man like a fan. From the windows above the railroad men popped with their pistols; they m'.’iit as well have thrown firecrackers. McTerza. with a cattish spring. leaped through a rain of brickbats for Rucker. The club in the striker’s hands came around with sweep enough to drop a steer. Quick as a sounder key M<Terza's head bobbed, and he went in and under on Rucker's jaw with his left hand. The man's head twisted with the terrific impact like a Chinese doll’s. Down he went, McTerza, hungry, al his throat: and on top of MeTefza the Polacks. with knives and hatchets and Cossaek barks, and they closed over him like water over a stone. , Nobody ever looked to see him pull out, yet* he woiined his way through them cork screw fashion, even while they hacked at one another, and sprang out behind his assailants with Rucker's chib. In his hands it cut through guards and arms ami knives like toothpicks. Rueker was smothering under toppling Ik iai-ks. But others ran in like rats. They fought McTerza from side to side of the platform. They charged him and flanked him —once they surrounded him —but his stanchion swung every way at once. Swarm as they won) 1, they could not get a knife or a pick into him, and it looked as if he would clear the whole platform, when hi.- darning eye caught a rioter at the baggage-room door mercilessly clubbing poor little Sinkers. The boy lay in a pitiful heap no better than a dying mou-e. McTerza. cutting his way through the circle about him, made a swath straight for the kid. and before the brute over him could run he brought the truck stake with a fnll-ann sweep flat cr- lis back. The man's spine doubled like a jack-knife, and he sunk wriggling. McTerza made Iml the one

pass at Ion: he !>■•■ i r got up again. Catching Sinkers on his free arm, the Reading man ran along the depot front, puiling him at his side and pounding at tire doors. But every door was birred, and nouc dared open. He was clean outside the breastworks, and as he trotted warily along, dragging the insensible hoy, they cursed and chased and struck him like a hunted dog. At the upper end of the depot stands a huge icebox, McTerza, dodging in the hail that followed him, wheeling to (trike with a single arm when the sav-

ages closed too thick, reached the recess, and throwing Sinkers tn behind, turned at bay on his enemies. With his clothes torn nearly off. his shirt streaming ribbons from his arms, daubed with dirt and blood, the seal) held the recess like a giant, and beat down the Polacks till the platform looked a slaughter pen. While his club still swung. old Jolin Boxer’s cannon boomed across the yard. Neighbor had run it out between his parallels, and turned it on the depot mob. It was the noise more than the execution that dismayed them. McTerza's fight had shaken the leaders, and as the blacksmiths dragged their gun up again, shotted with nothing more than an Indian yell, McTerza’s assailants gave way. In that instant he disappeared through the narrow passage at his back, and under the shadow behind the depot made his way along the big building and up Mainstreet to the short order house. Almost unobserved he got to the side door, when Rucker's crowd, with Rucker again on his feet, spied him dragging Sinkers inside. They made a yell and a dash, but McTerza got the boy in and the door barred liefore they could reach it. They ran to the front, baffled. The house was dark, and the curtains drawn. Their clamour and their threats brought Mrs. Mullenix, halt dead with flight, to the door. She recognised Nicholson and Rucker, and appealed to them. “Pray, God, do you want to mob me, Ben Nicholson?” she sobbed, putting her head out fearfully. “We want the scab that sneaked into the side door. Mrs. Mary I” roared Ben Nicholson. “Fire him out here.” “Sure there’s no one here you want.” “We know all about that,” cried Rueker, breaking in. “We want the scab.” He pushed her back and crowded into tire door after her. The room was- dark, but the fright was too great for Mrs. Mullenix, and she cried to McTerza to leave her house for the love of God. At that moment some one tore down the curtains; the glow of the burning yards lit the room, and out of tire gloom, behind the lunch counter, almost at her elbow —a desperate sight, they told me—panting, bloodstained and torn, rose McTerza. His fingers closed over the grip of the breadknife on the shelf beside him. “Who wants me?” he cried, leaning over his breastwork. “Reave my house! For the love of God, leave it!” screamed Mrs. Mullenix, wringing her bands. The scab leaped across the counter, knife in hand. Nicholson and Rueker bumped into each other at the suddenness of it, but before McTerza could spring again there was a cry behind. “He shan’t leave, this house!” And Kate Mullenix, her face ablaze, strode sharply forward. “He shan’t leave this house!” she cried again, turning on her mother. “Leave this house, after he's just milled your hoy from under their cowardly clubs! Leave it for who? He shan’t go out. Burn it over our heads!” she cried passionately, wheeling on the rioters. “When he goes we’ll go with him. It’s you that want him, Curtis Rueker, is it? Come, get him. you coward! There he stands. 'lake him!” Her voice rang like a firebeU. Rueker, burnt by her words, would have thrown himself on McTerza, but Nicholson held him back. There never would have been but one issue if they had met then. “Come away!" called the older man hoarsely. “It's not women we’re after. She’s an engineer-’s wife. Curt: this is her shanty. Come away, I say.” and saying, he pushed Rucker and their coyote following out of the door ahead of him. Mrs Mullenix and Kate sprang forward to lock the door. As they ran back McTerza. spent"with blood, dropped between them. So far as I can learn that is where the courtship began, right then and there) —and as McTerza says, all along of Sinkers, for Sinkers was always Kate's favourite brother, as he is McTerza’s now. Sinkers had a time pulling through after the clubbing. Polaeks hit hard. There was brain fever and no end of trouble before he eame out of it, but sinkers are tough, and he pulled through, only to think more of McTerza than of the whole executive staff. At least that is the beginning of the courtship ns 1 got it. There was never any more trouble about serving the new men at the short order house that I ever heard; and after part of us got back to work we ate there side by side with them. McTerza got his coffee

out of the hot tank, too, though he always insisted on paying twenty five cents a cup fur it, even after he married Kate and had a kind of an interest in the business. It was not until then that he made good his early threat. Sinkers being promoted for the toughness of his skull, thought he could hold’ up one end of the family himself, and McTerza expressed confidence in his ability to take cure of the other; so, finally, and Wirough his persuasions, the short order house was closed forever. Its coffee to-day is like Hie AJcCloud riots—only a stirring memory. As for McTerza, if is queer, but he never stuttered after that night, not even at the marriage service; he claims the impediment was seared clean out of him. But that night made the reputation of McTerza a classic among the good men of McCloud. McCloud has, in

truth, many good men, hut the head of the push is generally conceded to be the husband of royal Kate Mullenix-* Jimmie McTerza.