select only half of the nodes in a node set

Say I have 10 <item> is there a way to send half to one template and half to
another

<xsl:apply-templates select="//config/network/channel/features/item[1..5]"
mode="left"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//config/network/channel/features/item[6..10]"
mode="right"/>

P.S. my message seem to take an extraordinary amount of time to get to the
list. Is there sopme setting that I need to apply to get my messages to show
up quicker?


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list