-only
he had been impotent--impotent. But he was not impotent here--to keep
those dregs from Mrs. MacQuigan, the only soul on earth he cared for
now. And suddenly Bradley laughed--loud--high above the roar of the
train, the shouts and screams of the maddened creatures it was sweeping
to eternity, and the human gorilla in the cab shot its head forward and
covered Bradley with its revolver, teeth showing in a snarl.

And so Bradley laughed, and with the laugh poised himself--and sprang
far out from the car roof in a downward plunge for the tender, reached
the coal and rolled, choking with the hot blood in his throat from the
shot that had caught him in mid-air, rolled down with an avalanche of
coal, grappled with the frothing creature that leaped to meet him,
staggered to his feet, struggled for a moment, fast-locked with the
madman, until a lurch of the engine hurled them with a crash against
the cab frame, and the other, stunned, slid inertly from his grasp.
And then for an instant Bradley stood swaying, clutching at his
throat--then he took a step forward--both hands went out pawing for the
throttle, found it, closed it--and he went down across Bull Coussirat's
empty seat--dead.

Only a humble figure, Bradley, just a toiler like millions of others,
not of much account, not a great man in the world's eyes--only a humble
figure. Measure him as it seems best to you to measure him for his
frailty or his strength. They call him a game man on the Hill
Division. His story is told.

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