A Duel in Mid-Air

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Tom Dowling. a young structural steel worker, and Jim Reagan, one of his fellow workmen, both love pretty Kitty O'Hara. Jim proposes to Kitty hut is refused just as Tom calls on her. The manner in which he is received by Kitty leads Jim to suspect that he is the favored one. Jim leaves the house in a jealous rage, vowing vengeance on Tom. At the Steel Workers' Ball Reagan, who has been drinking, claims a dance from Kitty. She pleads a previous engagement with Dowling. Reagan roughly and in a drunken way insists, taking hold of Kitty. Dowling interferes and Reagan attacks him, but is prevented from continuing the quarrel by mutual friends. The next day the two men meet at the top of a skyscraper in course of construction. Reagan attacks Dowling as he is suspended high in the air on a steel girder that is being lifted to the roof, and a thrilling fight ensues. Back and forth their figures sway at that dizzy height, the frenzied Reagan with fingers sunk deep in Dowling's throat striving to break his hold on the chain. Weight and strength begin to tell and Dowling is being gradually forced backward, when his assailant, in attempting to shift his position so as to reach a heavy hammer, loses his balance, clutches wildly at the air and falls from the girder to the ground. Dowling, losing consciousness, sinks in a faint, bur is prevented from falling by his peculiar position on the girder, and is soon rescued by fellow workmen. Reagan is taken to the hospital, where, in a signed statement, he charges Dowling with deliberately attempting to kill him. Dowling, arrested at Kitty's home, is brought before Reagan for identification, but in the meantime Reagan, realizing that he has but a short time to live, retracts his former statement and tells the truth. The story ends by Reagan taking the hands of the two lovers and holding them together, as he expires. The story in the picture, a combination of love and melodrama, is concisely told. The character types are interesting and the narrative thrilling and absorbing throughout.