Two American Boys in the War ZoneGreen, Levi Worthington
General
Two American Boys in the War Zone
Green, Levi Worthington
Americans -- Russia -- Juvenile fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Russia -- Juvenile fiction
When Raymond had reached the angle of the alley, the man behind was so
close that he believed he would be overtaken, especially as his breath,
from the violent running uphill, was becoming very short. So he decided
to resort to a trick. After running for a few feet along the level
floor of the alley beyond the turn, he dropped to one knee and turned
to face his pursuer, crouching closely to the ground. The fellow came
on at full tilt and Raymond grasped him by one leg and rose with his
burden. The impetus the man had acquired in running sent him hurtling
through the air and he crashed, head first, against the wall. Stunned
by the blow, he fell in a huddled heap.
Instead of running on after Sidney, as Raymond’s first impulse had been
when his pursuer was placed _hors de combat_, with a sudden thought
he stopped to examine his fallen antagonist. Something in the aspect
of the man as he was flying over Raymond’s head had seemed familiar.
He turned the form over to bring the face upward and, stooping,
peered closely. It was just as he had suddenly suspected, the man
was the English-speaking policeman. That meant that he probably had
a revolver stuck in his belt, and Raymond immediately fumbled under
the man’s coat. Pulling out the gun which he felt there, an instant’s
examination, even in the dark, convinced him that it was indeed a .38
caliber. He wanted to whoop for joy that he once more had a serviceable
weapon to fit the ammunition which they still possessed. It did not
occur to him for a moment that in appropriating the revolver he was
doing practically the same thing that the policeman had attempted when
he coveted their money. The gun was so precisely what they needed that
it only seemed as though a kind fortune had presented it to him.
As Raymond straightened up with the revolver in his hand the prostrate
man raised himself to his elbow. The thick lamb’s wool cap which he
wore, and which is the usual head-covering of men in the Caucasus,
had so protected his head that the shock of being thrown against the
wall had only slightly stunned him. Raymond was confronted with a new
danger. With the man conscious, he would not be able to hide from him
or to escape him in the end, though he might at first outdistance him
in running.
The thought of a possible return to the filthy jail was more than
Raymond could endure; he simply _must_ prevent any danger of that. He
had a savage, momentary impulse to shoot the man as he lay before him,
but he could not bring himself to do that, and, anyway, it would make
too much noise. There was one other way, and clubbing the pistol he
brought it down with full force on the man’s head. The fellow sank back
on the ground without a sound and lay without moving. Raymond sped on
and in a moment came plump against the wall at the end, when Sidney
hailed him, and he climbed the ladder.
“Where is that fellow who was chasing us?” asked Sidney in a whisper,
when his brother appeared at the head of the ladder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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