A nightmare weakness was in his knees so that he
could hardly reel to his feet and he moved with outstretched hands
towards the door until his toe clicked against his fallen revolver. He
paused to scoop it up and turning back through the door, he realized
suddenly that Red Jim had not moved. The body lay spilled out where it
had fallen, strangely flat, strangely still.
With stumbling fingers, the foreman lighted a match and by that
wobbling light he saw Perris lying on his face with his arms thrown
out, as a man lies when he is knocked senseless--as a man lies when he
is struck dead! Yet Hervey stood drinking in the sight until his match
burned his fingers.
The old nightmare fear descended on him the moment the darkness closed
about him again. He seemed to see the limp form collect itself and
prepare to rise. But he fought this fancy away. He would stay and make
light enough to examine the extent of his victory.
He remembered having seen paper and wood lying beside the stove. Now
he scooped it up, threw off the covers of the stove, and in a moment
white smoke was pouring up from the paper, then flickering bursts of
flame every one of which made the body of Perris seem shuddering back
to life.
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