Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1909 — A MIX-UP IN THE DARK. [ARTICLE]

A MIX-UP IN THE DARK.

There was a- dark wot surrounding the young man’s left eye and various cuts and bruises were sprinkled Impartially over the rest of his countenance. He walked as It his knee were stiff and he occasionally rubbed the back of his neck as If It hurChim. *T*ll bet,” said his friend, after carefully studying him, “since you are six feet three, that the other fellow got the worst of it.” "He was over six feet, too.”' said the battered young man. “Tou might x call it a draw unless you were particular about fine points. Anyhow, he looks worse than I do. I—” “Seems to me that for a man of peaceful instincts you’ve managed to do pretty well,” said his friend. “I didn’t think you lost your temper so easily. Still, in this hot weather there’s no telling. What did you have against him? How did he irritate you?” “It was howllngly funny,” exclaimed the battered young man. "At the time, if any one had inquired, I might not have been of the same opinion, but time alters all things, you know, and the encounter was three days ago. "His name was Timsln and he came from Oshkosh, but in spite of those drawbacks he was all right—college man and all that I couldn’t hate him even though he did cast eyes toward Betty Haswlch, who is the prettiest of the Haswlch girls, and whom I rather like myself. "We were down at Mrs. Haswlch’s cottage for the week end and Timson and I were given a room together. It was a large room with windows opening out on a balcony overlooking the lake and when you went in you sniffed lavender, and the chairs weren’t spindly sticks that break if you look at them, but big fat ones with chintz covers ‘Timson had the luck to be the man on the spot when Betty Haswlch and some others took it into their heads to go for a moonlight automobile ride. They said they were going to drop in on some friends 10 miles away and I knew what that imeant —back not before midnight. “Well, I talked with Betty’s older sister and played a rubber of bridge and then went upstairs. ]. wasn't sleepy, for it was only 10 o’clock, but there didn’t seem much to do. Funny, isn’t it, how some persons always seem to keep things going and to make things 'interesting? That’s why 1 like Betty. “The moon was shining and it was hot, so I went out on the balcony for a smoke. Tou know how dark it is in the country even with a husky young moon working? ’Well, the grounds were full of shadows and everything was still and mysterious. After a while I began to grow drowsy from the effects of the moon and the quiet and the shadows, so I got to my feet and put one foot over the low sill of the window into the dark room. Then I stopped, for, just coming stealthily through the door, was a man. “He too, stopped as my figure loomed up in the window. We might have been carved out of granite for a minute. I could hear him breathe—the deep breathe of a man who had been surprised. My heart thumped a little, too, for it isn’t pleasant to run on a burglar. He hadn’t made a sound coming upstairs or at the door. He evidently was an expert. "I think we Jumped at each other simultaneously. At the first grip I knew I had a fight on my hands that was going to be something good. I set my teeth and he gritted his, and we went at it hammer and tongs without a word of preliminaries. I found I needed all my breath for active service without wasting any on pink tea conversation. “He smashed my eye, and I crackthe table and upset it. We fought all across and around'that room with no regard for the furniture. Of course the noise was fierce and there were shrieks from all parts of the house. Presently, just as he was strangling me and I was yanking his hair out by the roots, everybody burst in upon us with lights, and some of the men pulled us apart. “I wish you could have seen that room. Window curtains down, one chair smashed, the writing materials on the table scattered, the bed coverlet torn in two, the hardwood floor scraped and the rugs in hard knots. In the middle of the wreck and ruin were Tlmson and I, battered, bleeding, torn to pieces as to clothes, gasping like fish and trying to get at each other like two bulldogs! "Oh, it was very simple. The automobile had broken down, as usual, two miles from home, and the party had come in by the road at the back. Finding the house in darkness, they had come upstairs quietly. Their Idea was not to disturb us. That is what Timson kept repeating pathetically—that he hadn’t wanted to disturb me and so he had come in carefully. He is a thoughtful man, Tlmson. Of course he supposed I was asleep and the man climbing in at the window was a robber. “Betty said we both deserved what we got for being such- idiots. I’m terribly afraid that girl is a flirt, and 4oesn’t care about either of us from the way she laughed. She hung to t&e door and simply shrieked. I’m going down next week to remonstrate with her for her heartleesness.” “Is Timson going, too?” inquired the friend. "If he does,” said the battered young man, 'Til finish him this time-” —Chicago News.