BANCROFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
The Stagecoach. 
 
ROUGH LIFE ON THE 
 FRONTIER. 
 
 BY 
 
 SCOTT VAN GORDEN. 
 
 < <!HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED^*** - 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 THOS. W. JACKSON PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the ye&r 1903, 
 by the 
 
 RHODES & McCLURE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D C. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER i. Clayton Palliser's Mission - - - - 17 
 
 CHAPTER 2. The Grave on the Mountain Side - -41 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER 3. The Arch Villain ------- 76 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER 4. The Marshaling of the Clans - - - 93 
 
 CHAPTER 5. An Aggregation of Startling News - 124 
 
 CHAPTER 6. A Lover's Quarrel ----- 148 
 
 CHAPTER 7. How Bob Willis unfolds His Plan - 165 
 
 CHAPTER 8. The Meeting of the Forces - - - 183 
 
 CHAPTER 9. Clayton Finds a Clue 199 
 
 CHAPTER 10. Bill Thornton's Scheme - - - - 214 
 CHAPTER u. Border Combat ----.- 225 
 
12 CONTENTS CONTINUED. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER 12. The Compact ------ . 245 
 
 CHAPTER 13. A Night in Fox Valley - - - - 266 
 
 CHAPTER 14. The Midnight Execution - - - - 305 
 
 CHAPTER 15. The Exhumation ------ 326 
 
 CHAPTER 16. Tlie Lurking Foe 364 
 
 CHAPTER 17. Tom Alton's Story 382 
 
 CHAPTER 18. The Written Confession - - - 
 CHAPTER 19. News from Fox Valley - - - - 430 
 CHAPTER 20. The Rose-Crowned Precipice - - - 445 
 
 CHAPTER 21. Hart Emerson's Reparation - 472 
 
 CHAPTER 22. The Serpent's Last Wriggle - - - 507 
 
 CHAPTER 23. A Self-Appointed Detective - - - 517 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FROM DRAWINGS BY H. S. DELAY. 
 
 OPPOSITE PAGZ 
 
 The Stage Coach -- ------ Frontispiece 
 
 In another moment the horsemen had ridden up with 
 a chorus of pleasant greetings ------ 41 
 
 They saw there, lying dead, their old schoolmate, 
 Fannie Benton -----------76 
 
 4 'Promise me one thing before you go, won't you, 
 Willie?" ------------- 92 
 
 One of the robbers had his horse shot from under 
 him -------_-_-, -124 
 
 The two boys stood with open-mouthed wonder at 
 
 the expression on his face --------148 
 
 "But suppose it is found out on us, what then?" - 165 
 The campers beheld within the radius of the firelight 
 
 a weirdly clad figure ---------183 
 
 The young man was just in the act of tethering his 
 
 pony when Clayton came up------- 199 
 
 Bill Thornton had ridden up to camp in the first 
 
 gleam of the morning sun ---214 
 
 Sweeping down on the place, leaving a cloud of dust 
 
 behind them 225 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS CONTINUED. 
 
 "You'll have to take them over our dead bodies, if 
 you want them ----------- 245 
 
 In an instant two rifles were thrown to burly 
 shoulders ------------- 266 
 
 Waiting and watching for the quivering form to be- 
 come motionless ----------- 305 
 
 She stepped out into the yard to get a better view 
 of them ------------- 326 
 
 ' ' Well, do I look like a desperado ?" - - - - 364 
 
 They beheld the stricken foe stretched out on his 
 
 back, apparently lifeless -------- 382 
 
 He grabbed her by the throat and choked her to 
 
 death - 418 
 
 Nick Alton, standing with his back to the fire - - 430 
 Elsie Britman, looking out of the window at the 
 
 departing day ----------- 445 
 
 Clayton was left alone with the man that had been 
 the foundation of his troubles - - - - - - -4/1 
 
 It required every grain of the Palliser grit to stand 
 that tortuous ride over the mountains - - - - 507 
 
 As Jack fired his horse shied at the dogs - - - - 517 
 
ROUGH LIFE ON THE 
 FRONTIER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CLAYTON FALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 There were only six men aboard, all men, and men, 
 too, in all respects determined looking men, who looked 
 as though they could acquit themselves creditably in any 
 undertaking. Without any gainsaying they were the 
 sort of men that constitute the nucleus of civilization, 
 although if any one unacquainted with them and the 
 conditions they strove with could have peered beneath 
 their coats and beheld there the forty-five calibre six 
 shooter and cartridge belt they would have averred to 
 the contrary. And it is just possible that no mere hand- 
 ful of roadagents would have dared tackle that stage had 
 they known the character of the occupants, as the afore- 
 mentioned weapons were only the arbiters of justice, and 
 directed only where necessity demanded against the law- 
 less element then threatening to engulf the sparsely 
 settled portions of the region West of the Mississippi. 
 The driver had thrown off his coat, so warm was the 
 bright November sun which hung like a bambent ball of 
 fire in the Western sky, lighting up the long purple 
 
1 8 CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 stretches of mountain scenery viewed by the passengers 
 who had let their conversation flag and finally die out 
 and were looking intently for outlines of Fox Valley. 
 Here was the place where the stage had been held up 
 twice. It was just over the next rise, and no better 
 place could be imagined for a stage robbery. But the 
 passengers viewed the scenery with evident satisfaction, 
 evincing no signs of alarm as yet, while the stage slewed 
 and bumped and floundered over the rough mountain 
 road. And yet, while the men viewed the scenery and 
 dreamed of cheerful firesides, the lurking devils that lay 
 underneath that beautiful panorama of nature were seek- 
 ing to make their homecoming one of sorrow and regret 
 instead of joy. 
 
 These six men were just returning from a visit to 
 relatives in Kentucky, which was their native state. But 
 as only two of them are to play any part in this narrative 
 we will only take the trouble to describe those two. 
 
 The other four were miners from the flourishing min- 
 ing town of Joplin, and although they were damaged 
 by the freebooters in a bank robbery that had already 
 been perpetrated, thereby losing small deposits, they 
 were as yet uninformed in regard to their loss. But the 
 lumbering old vehicle was fast approaching Hobson's 
 Tavern, where it was to stay over night, and until it 
 arrived there the passengers were all ignorant of any 
 damage done them by Tom Alton and his followers, 
 although they had engaged in a conversation in regard 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 to the future operations of the chief and his band. 
 
 The other two men had been lifelong friends, although 
 there was a difference of fifteen years in their ages, and 
 a vast difference in education, power of mind, and until 
 a few years before the opening of our story there had 
 been a great difference in financial standing. Clayton 
 Palliser, by the record inscribed in the old family Bible 
 at his home was twenty-seven years of age, quite enough 
 to develope all the faculties of manhood. Many and 
 many men grow up to manhood without anything to mar 
 the even tenor of their lives, nothing unusual happening 
 to gage the manly qualities in them. But Clayton 
 Palliser was not one of them. A great calamity had 
 befallen the Palliser family, one of doubt and perplexity 
 of unforseen results, for they did not know whether to 
 grieve or not until the true nature of the calamity was 
 revealed. 
 
 The Palliser's were a race of pioneers, and always 
 seemed better satisfied in combatting the difficulties of 
 the pioneer than in enjoying the advantages of a country 
 already developed. Strong minded, buoyant, spirited, 
 with creative minds and fearless, they had been promin- 
 ent in the development of several of the states East of 
 the Mississippi, and until a few years before our story 
 opens they had not ventured on the West side of the 
 Father of Waters. Clayton's grandfather was one of 
 the early pioneers of Eastern Kentucky, and being far- 
 sighted enough to obtain a great body of land while it 
 
2O CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 was cheap he had been able to leave his children all 
 pretty'well off in this world's goods. Aside from that 
 there was a lot of good advice left to his offspring, advice 
 which, if followed, would have prevented the calamity 
 that had befallen the family. But the children as well 
 as the grandchildren had all been thrilled by his narra- 
 tives of pioneer days, and the effects thereof had not 
 been dispelled as time passed, and the old gentleman was 
 laid to rest and could no longer admonish them not to 
 leave the comfortable surroundings that had been gained 
 by so much toil and hardship. Time passed and the war 
 between the states came on with all its dreadful con- 
 sequences. The marshaling of the clans] the marching 
 and countermarching, the terrible struggles between the 
 contending armies has all been recorded by abler pens 
 than ours. Clayton was thinking of that now. It 
 seemed but yesterday that he had stood with the rest of 
 the family and watched the retreating form of his father 
 as he marched away to join his company. Then came 
 a return home on a furlough and a short stay, after 
 which the father and husband went away again. Then 
 came the important battles, the eager scanning of the 
 newspapers for the names of the killed, wounded and 
 missing. Clayton well remembered the eager yet half 
 dreaded occasions when the neighbors assembled for the 
 purpose of learning through the reports who of their 
 friends or relatives were bereaved and offering condol- 
 ence. Then, while he had seen others grieved he had 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER S MISSION. 21 
 
 not been so himself, for Jason Palliser came out of that 
 memorial struggle safe and sound. The war cloud had 
 blown over and left the Palliser family intact. 
 
 Peace had spread his wings over the reunited land, 
 and while the many cruel scars were being gradually 
 healed by time, capricious fate was preparing to thrust 
 its shackles on many who had not been bereaved. The 
 restless tide of immigration had set in from the over- 
 crowded sections of the East, and many soldiers of the 
 North sought homes in the South, while the discovery of 
 rich deposits of mineral in the region West of the Mis- 
 sissippi attracted thither great numbers some in search 
 of homes, some in quest of money, some prompted by 
 love of adventure. The California gold mines, although 
 not as rich as when first discovered, yet attracted great 
 numbers in search of the precious metal ; while the 
 brpad, rich prairies, and deep, fertile valleys were being 
 rapidly settled, the rugged Ozark region was being ex- 
 plored for the most fertile spots by emigrants from the 
 East who preferred to live in a wooded, mountainous 
 region to the broad treeless plains that spanned the region 
 between there and the Rockies. 
 
 The early pioneer days of the Ozarks were long since 
 passed, and many tales were told the newcomers by the 
 natives how their fathers and grandfathers slew the black 
 bear in his den and shot the wild deer for sport. These 
 legends of the early history of the Ozarks were generally 
 rehearsed by the flickering firelight of the capacious 
 
22 CLAYTON PALLISER S MISSION. 
 
 fireplaces that was always a part of the dwellings then 
 in vogue. That was the period when the railroad was 
 almost unknown, when the settlers who had discovered 
 and settled the most fertile tracts of the rugged region 
 rounded up their cattle which roamed over a thousand 
 hills, drove them to market and hauled their supplies in 
 ox carts, when the twang of the drover's and ox driver's 
 whips made the welkin ring, and the crack of the hunt- 
 er's rifle awakened the wild echoes of mountain gorge 
 and forest plateau. And many of these early settlers 
 amassed considerable wealth, despite the crude, rough 
 conditions. Those who had come from the far East and 
 the older settled portions could not tell how much their 
 neighbors were worth by outside appearances, for as there 
 was no necessity for stylish living, and as it was then very 
 risky to place money in a bank, on account of the notori- 
 ous legions that we have already mentioned, the settler's 
 wealth for the most part represented solid cash stowed 
 away somewhere inside of the territory over which he 
 was lord and master. This was about the condition of 
 things when the tide of immigration set in and a new 
 era began, which would have been both peaceful and 
 prosperous had it not been for the lawless legions that 
 lived by the sweat of others' brows. 
 
 Many letters from the new settlers found their way 
 into the old home communities giving graphic descrip- 
 tions of the new country, of the abundance of game, of 
 the cheapness and fertility of land, and of the frank 
 
CLAYTON PALLISERS MISSION. 23 
 
 hospitality of the natives. This encouraged more of 
 their friends and relatives to try the untamed region, and 
 while some were attracted by the cheapness of land, 
 others were attracted by the plenty of game, and some 
 few were attracted by another cause, which will require 
 a somewhat more lengthy description. 
 
 When the flag of the Confederacy was folded away 
 in the vaults of Appomattox the soldier who had gone 
 through four years of stirring scenes was truly glad that 
 he was no longer compelled to shoot down his brother 
 and countryman like a dog, glad that once more the flag 
 of the forefathers had triumphed, and although the ugly 
 scars were still visible to his naked eye and his domestic 
 felicity impaired he returned home with heartfelt joy to 
 weld his sword into a pruning knife and take up once 
 more the battle of life. But it was not long ere the 
 battle of life began to grow tame and irksome and the 
 soldier began to long for more thrilling operations than 
 the commonplace one of daily duty on the farm, in the 
 factory, and behind the counter. Hence the letters that 
 found their way back to the old home communities relat- 
 ing the stirring warfare between the lawless element and 
 the law-abiding settlers also hinted that the latter were 
 very much in the minority. This gave many of the 
 soldiers an opportunity they had longed for. Here was 
 their chance to get into active operations once more. 
 Why not go to the region and show the denizens thereof 
 how to make short work of the hellhounds that held such 
 
24 CLAYTON PALLISER S MISSION. 
 
 despotic sway over the country that lay beyond the wide 
 turbid sheet of water called the Mississippi. The news- 
 papers also abounded with graphic descriptions of the 
 struggles of the pioneers to break the yoke of the white 
 savages that always succeeded the red ones in every new 
 country. Many of them availed themselves at once of 
 the opportunity thus offered to display their prowess and 
 their bravery, but to some there was a great many draw- 
 backs to their cherished ambitions. 
 
 One of those who found their wills blocked in regard 
 to migration to the new country was Jason Palliser. His 
 family, after the death of his father, consisted of his wife 
 and three sons, who were named respectively Clayton, 
 Jason and Richard. The two latter were many years the 
 junior of Clayton, and at the time our story opens were 
 aged respectively fifteen and twelve. Jasie, as he was 
 called, was the image of his father and also like him in 
 disposition. Clayton was of a studious disposition, there- 
 by taking after his mother's people, while Dick, the 
 youngest, was cf a very quiet inoffensive disposition, and 
 seemed as though he was perfectly satisfied to let things 
 take their natural course. But Clayton and his brother 
 Jason, being both ambitious and high-mettled, although 
 their ideals of life were different, were the chief elements 
 of domestic turbulance in the family. However there 
 was one point on which they agreed, and that was theii 
 readiness to follow their father intc the uakiiowtt r6rion* 
 of the West. 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 25 
 
 Jason Palliser had, like most of his comrades, been 
 content with domestic felicity for a brief space of time 
 until the reports of the struggles for liberty of the West- 
 ern pioneers over whose portion of country the strong 
 arm of the law had not been established began to pour 
 in. Then came discontent. After that came a longing 
 desire like the restless charing of the war steed who scents 
 the battle from afar, until the strenuous efforts to sup- 
 press his cherished ambition on account of his better 
 half only added fuel to the kindled -fires of newly 
 awakened pioneer ambitions. The wife and mother was 
 strongly opposed to any such step, and being a woman 
 who never hesitated to speak her mind, she hit the argu- 
 ment he advanced some pretty smart raps, while her 
 heart was quaking violently for the safety of her own 
 cherished ambition, that of remaining amid the com- 
 fortable surroundings of their peaceful Kentucky home. 
 
 But she knew the Pallisers well enough to know that 
 she might as well have tried to smother the volcano of 
 Catopali as to thwart this new calamity, as she called it. 
 The raging fires of ambition were ablaze. The long 
 smoldering pioneer instincts were awakened. The father 
 had worked on the fancies of his sons till the pioneer 
 blood in their veins began to tingle at first and finally to 
 boil and bubble. Often could they be seen reposing be- 
 neath the shade of some tree, the sons listening to some 
 of the pioneer legends of the family that their father was 
 rehearsing for them. Oftentimes the mother discovered 
 
26 CLAYTON PALLISER's MISSION. 
 
 them thus of a hot summer day, and her heart would 
 sink within her. 
 
 Then came a short lull, during which Palliser sought 
 a purchaser for his property, while Mrs. Palliser, if she 
 knew anything of his maneuvers, did not betray it either^ 
 by word or look. 
 
 After that came another storming of the citadel, and 
 as we cannot take the time to recite all the arguments 
 pro and con we will simply state that the wife and 
 mother, realizing that she would see no peace till she 
 gave her consent, did so, though reluctantly. 
 
 So one morning in the month of September, in the 
 year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, Jason 
 Palliser went forth from his peaceful Kentucky home 
 bound for the Ozark region. Clayton well remembered 
 that farewell. It remained for him to bear the brunt of 
 maternal wrath when, after the receipt of one letter from 
 Jason Palliser, they heard no more of him. He had 
 suddenly disappeared. No one of the old home ac- 
 quaintances to whom they had written could give them 
 any clew as to his whereabouts. The last any of them 
 had seen of him was at the town of Ozark during the 
 session of Circuit Court. He was in company with one 
 Emerson, a man who bore a~very tough name. He was 
 negotiating for the purchase of a plantation in the James 
 Rives valley, that was then owned by the man Emerson's 
 son, Hart Emerson. 
 
 But all this had been communicated to the family by 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 27 
 
 Jason himself, but there was also a request, an admon- 
 ition, or whatever it might be called. Clayton remem- 
 bered it well, for the words seemed inscribed on his 
 memory in letters of fire. 
 
 " If I should happen to come up missing," wrote 
 Jason Palliser in the finishing of his letter, " I want you 
 to move out here and stay until you ferret out the 
 mystery. I hav been through a long and bloody war, 
 and have stood in the front ranks when the iron heel of 
 death trod the lives out of men so fast their souls jostled 
 each other in their outward flight. I have fought hand- 
 to-hand conflicts with pistol and sabre when the air 
 seemed illuminated with flashing devils. I have seen all 
 of the rough side of life. Yet I never was seized with 
 such gloomy feelings and dismal forebodings in my life 
 as have possession of me while I pen you these lines. If 
 I should not write any more make up your mind at once 
 that I am betrayed. I will, however, take as good care 
 of myself as possible. I had a strange sort of sensation 
 the other night while asleep. It seemed as though I had 
 been burried alive. I awoke with a half stifled scream 
 and when I recovered my equilibrium I rose and dressed 
 and went out to get a little fresh air and recover from 
 the effects of the sensation. This is all I have to tell 
 this time, but don't let it trouble you as it does me. You 
 know if I had stayed at home I could not have averted 
 anything that was destined to befall me." 
 
 Well, to make a long story short the family had 
 
28 CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 carried out his instructions and moved to the Ozark 
 country, settling in a fertile little basin some eight or ten 
 miles from the town where Jason Palliser had last been 
 seen. Jason had taken with him all the money he pos- 
 sessed save about five hundred dollars. If he had not this 
 story would never have been written. Five hundred dollars 
 was quite sufficient for the establishment of a home in the 
 new country. The boys went to worl with a will and 
 soon overcame the difficulties of opening up a new place 
 by steady attention to business. There was a snug little 
 frame house built and other necessary equipments were 
 added as time and means allowed. But Clayton and 
 Josie were very particular in the construction of their 
 dwelling to have as a necessary department of the house 
 a room for the purpose of stowing and keeping their 
 grandfather's legacy of books and old-fashioned weapons, 
 the former the property of Clayton, the latter the prop- 
 erty of Jason, Jr. 
 
 Time went on apace, and the family having searched 
 vainly for a clew for two years were on the point of 
 despairing when the news came of the death of Mrs. 
 Palliser's father, and a fresh grief was added to the list. 
 But time passed and the grief of losing their relative was 
 drowned out in a renewal of courage and devotion to the 
 search for the missing. one. The old grandfather had 
 left legacies to them all, five hundred dollars' apiece, and 
 with the money at their disposal they would leave no stone 
 unturned that might possibly lead to a solution of the 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 29 
 
 mystery. And Clayton was just returning from the old 
 home community, whither he had been to obtain the 
 money, to relate their experiences and' visit their rela- 
 tives that still lived there when our story opens. 
 
 Jeff Carlton was forty-two, stoutly built, with a fat, 
 blonde face, clear gray eyes, and of a jovial tempera- 
 ment. Jeff had been a renter on the Kentucky farm 
 owned by the Palliser's until about two years before the 
 disappearance of Jason Palliser, when he had come to 
 Ozark region and settled. Many a time he had taken 
 Clayton from his mother's arms and amused him by 
 singing some of the rollicking songs picked up from the 
 melody-loving darkies of the plantations in the commun- 
 ity. Jeff had always assumed a fatherly interest in the 
 boy, and could not help doing yet, since Clayton had 
 attained his majority. But Jeff was no more capable of 
 fathoming the depths of Clayton Palliser's mind than the 
 child, the baby boy he had dandled on his knee, was 
 capable of fathoming his own. Carlton, who was some- 
 what egotistical, was not aware of this, and as Clayton 
 was too good natured to even hint the fact, as a result 
 nothing had ever occurred to mar their friendship. Jeff 
 was possessed of a very great amount of common sense, 
 and never undertook to dispense with any of his witty 
 raillery in Clayton's presence since his bereavement. A 
 short tuft of chin whisker graced his chin, a short stubby 
 mustache his upper lip, while the mild gray eyes were 
 ever sparkling with humor, but it did not require a very 
 
3o CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 good student of human nature to tell you that he was 
 strongly combative. Indeed, Jeff was a good fellow 
 when things went smooth, but once let him get excited 
 about the barbarous wrongs of the settlers and those mild 
 gray eyes could emit glances of fire as terrible as the six 
 shooter that dangled under his coat. He had gone 
 through four years of toil and hardship in the new coun- 
 try, and was fairly started on the road to prosperity, and 
 was seemingly contented. But alas for the rosy fancies 
 of the poor pioneer. He who had been a prominent 
 ringleader in the warfare against the brigands of Fox 
 Valley, was marked for vengeance, nay that vengeance 
 had already fallen upon his luckless head. 
 
 And the stage that the two friends and neighbors were 
 making the return trip upon was now ascending a short 
 incline, from the top of which could be seen the weird 
 scenery of Fox Valley, where wild beasts and wild men 
 abode unscared. A fit haunt it surely was for those who 
 lived by prey for the wild impenetrable dingles and deep 
 sheltered ravines and steep sided gulches offered shelter 
 that no other place could afford, no, not even the dark 
 pine forested plateaus surrounding it. The stage dropped 
 slowly down the mountain sides, down through the 
 mullien thickets and hawthorn and boulder-spangled 
 glades, now reeling to this side, now suddenly wrenching 
 to that side over some rugged boulder, until at last it 
 lowered itself down a steep incline into the cool, dark 
 thickets of the valley. Ominous looking enough was the 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 31 
 
 place through which they were passing, and it was only 
 the sharp clipping voice of the driver that kept the pas- 
 sengers' spirits from sinking, for it seemed as though the 
 cool, ominous shades were full of whispering demons 
 boding disaster to the travelers who were bold enough to 
 travel that dominion of evil. Not a year before that 
 time that same stage had been held up while passing 
 through this same woody dingle. But this time there 
 was such a storm of leaden missiles hurled at them that 
 they were glad to beat a hasty retreat into the jungle, and 
 it was the opinion of many that it would never be under- 
 taken again. But whatever the six passengers aboard 
 believed, they were like the man visiting the haunted 
 house who did not believe in ghosts, they could not help 
 feeling a little creepy when they got into the place. The 
 four stout stage horses were going a little brisker, as 
 though they too were scenting danger, but one of them 
 had been behaving in a "very" * strange manner, as 
 though something unusual was agitating him. Every 
 now and then he would suddenly stop and throw up his 
 head in a violent manner, at times nearly throwing the 
 others off their balances. Then would be heard the 
 sharp, stern voice of the Jehu firing a string of oaths at 
 him, and then the stage would roll on till whatever it 
 was that was agitating the horse would bring out another 
 similar caper. 
 
 But since leaving the top of the slope and starting 
 down the long tortuous incline the horse had not repeated 
 
32 CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 his trick. The driver might have known that something 
 about the harness was torturing the beast, but if he 
 did he did not seem to care. Be that as it may, mat- 
 ters were soon brought to a climax. The passengers 
 were just beginning a lively hum of conversation about 
 the possibility of a holdup, the driver was jujt reaching 
 out for his coat, as the sun had sunk behind the crest of 
 the mountain and the air was growing chilly. The place 
 where the holdup occurred had been pointed out to the 
 men before by the Jehu was near at hand. 
 
 Suddenly there was a tremendous lurch of the clumsy, 
 ponderous old vehicle, the driver, who was just endeavor- 
 ing to fasten the lines to the line-staff while he drew on 
 his coat, was nearly precipitated from his perch, and as 
 the passengers sprang to their feet the stage came to a 
 dead standstill. It is needless to say that the huge re- 
 volvers underneath the coats of the passengers flashed 
 into view in the twinkling of an eye. The driver threw 
 his coat down, jumped to the ground, and as he did so 
 half a dozen heads were thrust out and as many anxious 
 voices inquired the cause of the stoppage. 
 
 "That's what I must find out," laughed the Jehu, 
 evidently much amused at their evident alarm. 
 
 "Well, hurry up and find out then," replied Jeff 
 Carlton with a sigh of relief. " I don't want to stay in 
 this place a second longer than I'm obliged to." 
 
 A subdued chuckle was the only reply, and the men 
 again resumed their seats. 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 33 
 
 It only required a few minutes for the driver to find 
 out that the horses collar was buckled too high to adjust 
 it to suit the animal, and then after carefully scrutinizing 
 other points to ascertain if anything was out of gear, he 
 again resumed his seat, drew on his coat and uttering his 
 sharp word of command, the horses again started the 
 vehicle. Soon they were ascending the other slope, while 
 the last glinting rays of the November sun were fading 
 out on the top of the Eastern slope and the gayly frescoed 
 landscape was fast being shrouded in darkness. Then, 
 like the sudden exit of the pilgrim from the valley up to 
 the still, sunlit hills the courage of the passengers arose, 
 their tongues were loosened and they began another 
 spirited conversation on the same topic. If the pas- 
 sengers had been high up on the pinnacle of thought 
 and taken into consideration certain aspects of the 
 case, they might have ascertained without any trouble 
 the reason why they were not held up. But not even 
 Clayton, who possessed the widest range of thought 
 of the company and deepest mind, also the best educa- 
 tion, had made any remarks suggestive of the true 
 cause, which we who are behind the scenes, know. Only 
 twice had the attempt been made, and both times it was 
 a failure, although the latter attempt was more so than 
 the former. It seemed as though the bandit hordes had 
 made up their minds to follow every line of brigandage 
 that had yet been invented, and when stage robberies, 
 bank robberies, cattle stealing and illicit distilling of 
 
34 CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 mountain dew became the chief topic of excitement, the 
 settlers realized that their community was fast being 
 swamped in a hopeless sea of outlawry. But whether 
 the bandit chief was the son of the rich planter who had 
 been led astray by the absorption of flash literature or 
 some other member of the numerous Altan clan, or still 
 some particular adventurous outcast who happened to 
 assume that name, he was certainly well posted enough 
 to know that trying to rob that stage was not worth their 
 attention. Tis true, no better place for a holdup could 
 be invented than the one that the two former attempts 
 had been made in, but then it is likely that the shrewd 
 bandit chief well knew that the men who traveled that 
 route were all or nearly all of them Southern and West- 
 ern men who were well trained in the use of firearms and 
 always had them ready for use. This was the great 
 artery through which surged the adventurous blood of 
 two sections, and the banditta, having once been con- 
 vinced of the uselessness of the attempt were content to 
 let well enough alone and be satisfied with other fields of 
 operation more easy and more profitable. 
 
 So while the stage is going on towards Hobson's 
 Tavern, which was still some two or three miles farther 
 up the slope of the mountain, we will venture on a still 
 further description of the chief actors in this narrative. 
 
 Clayton Palliser, whose age as we have already stated, 
 was seven and twenty, and for superb, manly beauty he 
 might be equaled, but never excelled. . That was a family 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 35 
 
 heritage of the Palliser's, but Clayton, who was, as it 
 seemed, a revival of some old type of facial mold long 
 ago extinct in the family, was a man who at once com- 
 manded admiration and respect, both for the princely 
 face and figure and the quiet though forceful demeanor. 
 A frank, intelligent expression, clear liquid brown eyes 
 and hair of the same lustrous brown, with a mustache of 
 the same color also gracing the upper lip ; he was of a 
 somewhat patrician appearance. He had treated him- 
 self to some new and somewhat costly clothes out of his 
 part of the money left by the old grandfather, and as he 
 was garbed therein, now he very much resembled some 
 wealthy young Southern planter on his way to the West 
 in search of adventure. And he was not unaware of his 
 personal charms either, from the boldness with which he 
 had courted the favor of Miss Elsie Britman, a young 
 Springfield belle, who occasionally visited her uncle, who 
 kept the country store in the valley some two miles from 
 Clayton's home. Indeed that young lady seemed quite 
 unconscious of any difference in her social position and 
 that of the handsome young mountaineer, whose story 
 she knew by heart and whom she considered her ideal hero. 
 Clayton was one of those rare specimens of humanity 
 whom everyone likes. But no one was inclined to be at 
 all jealous because he showed such marked preference 
 for the friendship of the son of a neighbor, a ranchman 
 who lived some four miles from his home. And while 
 some considered it none of their business and said noth- 
 
36 CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 ing about it others could not refrain from asking those 
 who were calculated to know what a man like Clayton 
 Palliser could see to admire in the harum' scarum young 
 ranchman, whose education consisted chiefly in cowboy 
 skulduggery. If Jack Dalton had been brought up in 
 the midst of surroundings not exactly calculated for the 
 imbuement of gentlemanly instincts and absorption of 
 worldly knowledge it certainly was no fault of his, but 
 nevertheless he possessed one singular charm, that of 
 sincerity. It was only while under the influence of 
 liquor that he said things he did not mean. But his 
 sincere frankness when sober was the chief attraction for 
 his boon companion and close friend, young Palliser. 
 But these were the days when the cattle barons of the 
 West often accused each other of theft, and as a conse- 
 quence bloodshed was sure to follow. The lie was 
 passed, the weapons cracked and flashed, the welkin 
 rang with shouts of defiance and screeches of pain, while 
 the blood flowed and left its dark, guilty stain upon the 
 greensward. Young Dalton's mind seemed occupied 
 chiefly with this sort of spirited fancies, but he was a 
 friend worth having for all that. His knowledge of the 
 world being gleaned from paper-backed novels of ad- 
 venture and a limited supply of school books, he never 
 failed to ask his friend about anything he did not under- 
 stand. In fact, Jack was athirst for knowledge, but he 
 preferred to bave it instilled into his mind orally than to 
 pour over books. So time passed and the friendship be- 
 
CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 37 
 
 tween the two had been firmly cemented, for Jack was 
 as untiring in a search for a clew to the mystery of Jason 
 Palliser's disappearance as Clayton was himself. 
 
 " I wonder what the brotherhood is doing now," re- 
 marked one of the miners. The brotherhood, by the 
 way, was the phrase invented by the settlers that denoted 
 the lawless element. The man that spoke seemed to be 
 a listless, absent-minded fellow, and had not caught the 
 drift of the conversation. 
 
 'Don't know, for my part," responded Jeff, remov- 
 ing the big meershaum pipe that he had just lit from his 
 lips and blowing a cloud of smoke upwards. " Durn me 
 if I ain't half afraid they're all out on some other tear-up, 
 or else they'd a bin after us to-night." 
 
 " Wait till we get to Hobson's, Jeff," replied Clayton, 
 with a light grin, " maybe he can tell you." 
 
 Clayton had reference to the news-dispensing quali- 
 ties of the old innkeeper, who was a subscriber to several 
 good newspapers of both local and national fame, and 
 never wearied in reciting their contents. So the stage 
 rolled on up the slope while the passengers let the con- 
 versation flag at first, then die out, then nothing broke 
 the silence but the groaning and creaking of the old 
 vehicle, as the horses, perhaps spurred by the thoughts 
 of a liberal outlay of oats, corn and hay, drew the 
 stage up the slope with a strong, steady stride. 
 
 The moon rose in the Eastern sky and lit up the 
 
38 CLAYTON PALLISER'S MISSION. 
 
 Ozark Range in all its weird, somber beauty ; the night, 
 although slightly chilly, was seemingly suffused over^ 
 head with a warm, mellow glow, imparted by the depart* 
 ing rays of the sun, which was not yet ready to give 
 place to the queen of the night. The owls began their 
 ominous night serenade, occasionally checking up to fly 
 away as they saw the sparks from some settler's chim- 
 ney. And amid this solemn hush of nature's forces 
 Jeff Carlton was seized with a fit of melancholy that 
 finally developed into one of fear and anxiety. 
 
In another moment the horsemen had ridden up with 
 chorus of pleasant greetings. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 Meanwhile at Hobson's Tavern all was bustle and 
 activity. The two hostlers were kept busy caring for the 
 constantly arriving guests, while those that arrived dur- 
 ing the day were in the house striving to pass the time 
 intervening between that and supper. Those who had 
 lately arrived all stood around the barnyard in little 
 groups talking, while some of them kept a sharp eye 
 upon the movements of the hostlers lest they were slack 
 in their treatment of their steeds. The milkmaid at the 
 corral back of the huge barn was singing a love ditty, 
 while the plaintive tones of a banjo, wielded by some 
 skillful hand up at the house, were plainly audible, and 
 the air seemed to vibrate with delicious melody. Pic- 
 turesque planters from the James River, wealthy sports- 
 men from Springfield mingled freely with cattle drovers, 
 Amblers, hard-fisted, weather-beaten tillers of the soil, 
 and a light sprinkling of travelers were the guests that 
 were to partake of the hospitality of the old stage-route 
 tavern that night. The constant banging of the storage 
 house door and the flitting figures through the lights oi 
 the kitchen window gave evidence that the cooks were 
 striving to please the numerous assembly of well-to-do 
 
42 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 guests by a well-cooked and bountiful spread of sub- 
 stantial viands. And while all this was going on old man 
 Hobson, ''Uncle Zack," as he was called, sat in his 
 office reading a newspaper, aloud to about half a dozen 
 listeners whc gave him that strict attention which he was 
 so fond of wjrle dispensing the news. Uncle Zack was 
 reading in a l<? j id, excited and spasmodic strain, and 
 occasionally stopped to explain his view of the case, 
 while the listenei* gave a chorus of assenting grunts, 
 and then the old ^an would adjust his spectacles and 
 read on. 
 
 The country was ablaze with excitement. The news- 
 papers were full of th^ accounts of depredations com- 
 mitted, both great anc* small. The brotherhood of 
 plunderers had shocked *he nerves and disturbed the 
 peace of their fellow men once more. None of the re- 
 ports were in the least exaggerated, as it afterward trans- 
 pired, for, emboldened by the weak and futile efforts of 
 the citizens to protect themse^es by law, the bandit 
 bands had startled the country nt large by a bold and 
 shocking crime, one that would ha^e made the ghosts of 
 ancient brigands whistle with surprise. The feud-ridden 
 Ozarks were once more to be torn with clannish strife. 
 What had been done to check the advance of lawless- 
 ness seemed to be but a scarecrow, ai)d the cvows had 
 found it out and were now flapping theft w:n^ 
 and hurling defiance in its teeth. 
 
 And it was of this that Hobson was reading 
 
1 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 43 
 
 plaining, but we will leave it with him and his listeners 
 'while we recite the arrival of one more guest. 
 
 The bright, mellow rays of the November moon, 
 mingling with the departing rays of the sun, cast a warm 
 mellow glow over the sky, and the new arrivals still 
 lingered at the barn tot. The milkmaid had finished her 
 task and retired, the banjo-player had grown tired and 
 ceased his playing. The noise of the place was gradu- 
 ally dying down and subsiding into a quiet almost as 
 dense as that of the deep, dark woods that hemmed it. 
 Nothing, only the occasional click of a gate latch and 
 the munching of the horses, broke the stillness. 
 
 The throng of guests wt/,i*e at last satisfied that their 
 steeds were well cared for and were just filing out of the 
 big gate that opened into the highway. The tavern 
 stood just across the road, some twenty yards distant. 
 The air was growing slightly chilly, and some few of 
 them, anxious to get indoors, strode rapidly toward the 
 house, while some of the others lingered out in the road, 
 evidently having not been satisfied with the length of 
 their conversation. 
 
 Suddenly the clatter of horses' feet broke in on the 
 hearing of those outside. Nearer and nearer came the 
 hoof beats, while some who were misled as to the direc- 
 tion looked the wrong way. 
 
 " What does that mean ?" remarked a wealthy Spring- 
 field sportsman, a man of some forty years of age. 
 
 " Guess we'll have to wait and see," replied another 
 
44 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 Springfield hunter, who had come into the wild region 
 every season for the last ten years. This was the hunt-' 
 ing season, and all the months of November and Decem- 
 ber Hobson's place was more or less favored with this 
 class of guests. But the eyes of the bystanders, when 
 turned in the right direction, beheld the object that had 
 attracted their attention in the shape of a young and 
 smooth-faced man with large blue eyes, flashing with 
 excitement, and a broad-brimmed white hat set jauntily 
 on the back of his head, overcoat buttoned tightly around 
 his body and riding at a brisk canter from the Western 
 terminus of the short lane. On each side of the nimble 
 little pony which he rode was one more mettlesome 
 pony with saddle on, and the clatter of the stirrups 
 and creak of the saddles made some of the horses 
 already installed within the capacious barn snort with 
 terror. As the weather had been dry for some time, the 
 road was covered with a thick coat of dust, and the three 
 animals left a thick cloud of it behind them. The crowd 
 scattered out of the road, some going to one side, some 
 to the other, but all of them, having their curiosity 
 aroused, staid to learn the errand of this youth with the 
 three saddled ponies. 
 
 Drawing- rein abruptly, the young man shouted to the 
 hostler who was just closing the gate: 
 
 " Hold on, Sam, don't close up yit." 
 
 The hostler looked around, and without any word of 
 greeting, replied : 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 45 
 
 "Ride in if you want to put up." 
 
 " Ain't only goin' to stay for supper," responded the 
 young man, as he rode in. 
 
 "Why, what's up, Jack," replied the hostler, closing 
 the gate and coming around the heads of the ponies the 
 young man was leading in order to avoid any contact 
 with their heels. " What ye doin' over here with them 
 three saddled ponies ?" 
 
 The crowd in the road, also anxious to ascertain that 
 "Which the hostler had asked, now came and peeked 
 through the slats of the gate, eager to catch the reply. 
 The young man with the ponies had stopped when he 
 had ridden in, and sat jauntily in his saddle while the 
 fiery, restless ponies pranced around the one that was 
 being ridden, making the hostler dodge first one way and 
 then the other. 
 
 The young man reflected a moment before replying 
 to the hostler's query. 
 
 "Well, it'll keep, boys," he said, looking around at 
 the others with a familiar, knowing expression on his 
 bold, handsome visage. "Wait till we git these wild 
 zebras out of the way and if I don't tell you somethin' 
 worth hearin' my name ain't Jack Dalton." 
 
 With this assurance the crowd betook itself to 
 the house while the hostler led the way to the barn, fol- 
 lowed by Jack Dalton and his ponies. 
 
 When Jack had dismounted the hostler, after open- 
 ing the door of an empty stall, spoke and said: "I 
 
46 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 guess yer jist goin' to tell us about the late tear-up, ain't 
 yer, Jack? We already know about that." 
 
 "The devil you do ?" blurted out the young man. 
 "How in Sam Hill did you git hold of it ?" 
 
 "The papers ar' full of it," answered the hostler, 
 with a light ring of irony in his tone. 
 
 Dalton seemed nonplussed for a moment, but his bold 
 spirit soon rallied. 
 
 " But the papers don't know ever'thing though, Sam. 
 I'm fresh from the scene of action, and have had ocular 
 proof of ever' detail." 
 
 The hostler stared hard for a moment, but it was the 
 improvement in Jack's grammar rather than his announce- 
 ment that caused him to do so. 
 
 "Bin goin' to college, ain't ye, Jack ?" 
 
 " Naw, I ain't," replied young Dalton, as he un- 
 strapped the saddle girth of the pony he rode. " Never 
 mind anything of that kind now, Sam." 
 
 So the two proceeded to stall and feed the ponies 
 without any further remarks other than that which re- 
 lated to the business in hand. A lapse of quiet again 
 ensued, and the two young men were through with their 
 task and were once more in the mood for talking. They 
 stood for some time leaning against the side of the barn 
 talking in low, muffled tones. And while Jack was recit- 
 ing what he knew about the late depredations of Tom 
 Alton and his followers, and the hostler was informing 
 him what the newspapers lacked of having the complete 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDB. 47 
 
 report, the stage coach was lumbering up the last slope 
 and coming out on the level that stretched for some dis- 
 tance before reaching the tavern. The moon rose higher 
 and higher in the vault of heaven, and only the most 
 prominent of the stars shone through the yellow glare 
 that overspread the sky. Nearer and nearer came the 
 stage, till at last the noise thereof broke in on the hear- 
 ing of the two young men at the barn. 
 
 " There they come now," ejaculated the hostler, 
 starting at a brisk pace toward the gate, followed by 
 Jack. 
 
 * ' Yes, and there is two passengers aboard that will 
 ride them two extra ponies out to-night," remarked 
 Dalton, as he unbuttoned his overcoat and loosened the 
 pistol belt that encircled his waist. "My, Sam, but I'd 
 give twenty-five dollars if it was over with." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "The job of telling them the news," answered Jack. 
 "Oh, but won't Jeff tear his hair when he learns what's 
 happened ?" 
 
 4 ' That's what he will do at first, I guess, but I'm 
 thinkin' he'll lift a little hair to wind up with if I'm enny 
 judge of human faces." 
 
 "Dead right you are, Sam," replied Jack. "Jeff 
 didn't go into the fray with any intention of backin' out, 
 and don't you forget it. " 
 
 The two repaired to the road to meet the stage, while 
 
 other two hostlers, having caught the sound of the 
 
-48 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 arriving vehicle, hastily joined them. They had not 
 long to wait, however, for almost ere young Dalton and 
 the other hostlers had exchanged greetings, the driver's 
 voice urging the horses into a brisk trot was plainly 
 audible, and in a moment the vehicle drew up to the 
 tavern, the driver jumped to the ground, and the dust- 
 begrimed horses dropped their heads, weary with the 
 long, arduous ascent of the slope. In a brief moment 
 there emerged from the coach six solid looking men, the 
 passengers we have before mentioned, and there was a 
 hasty rush by the three young men for the group who 
 stood on the grass-plot looking around for some one to 
 welcome them. 
 
 While the hostlers are busy caring for the horses, and 
 the guests at the house are lounging and endeavoring to 
 pass off the time till supper, we will recite what trans- 
 pired there on the moonlit grass-plot this eventful No- 
 vember night. 
 
 The six men had not long to wait for some one to 
 appear, for the bright light of the moon enabled them to 
 recognize, besides the two hostlers and young Dalton, 
 two men coming from the house who had either become 
 tired lounging and wanted to stretch their legs in walk- 
 ing about, or had an interest in some of the passengers 
 who had just arrived on the stage. But the four miners 
 evidently recognized them from the remarks they made, 
 while Jack was exchanging greetings with his two friends, 
 asking questions about their trip and trying to hide the 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 4Q 
 
 j-estless, anxious feeling that naturally possessed him at 
 having to tell his friends of the important and terrible 
 events of the last few days. By the time the two other 
 men had arrived on the scene Jeff had discovered the 
 suppressed excitement of his friend, and a spasm of 
 alarm convulsed him. Clayton also noticing the jerky 
 manner of his friend, immediately surmised that some- 
 thing was wroqg, and knew also that Jack was striving 
 to invent some easy way of beginning his recitation. 
 Clayton knew the nature of young Dalton well, and 
 played upon his feelings just like a musician does his in- 
 strument. His mind at once began to revolve a plan for 
 loosening Jack's tongue. Noticing also that Carlton was 
 getting restless he studied hard for a moment while the 
 other two men had come up and exchanged greetings 
 with the four miners. 
 
 Turning to the two men after they had exchanged 
 greetings, Clayton began thus : " Quite a crowd here 
 to-night, isn't there ? Shouldn't wonder if we didn't 
 have to move on on account of the rooms being all 
 taken." 
 
 This latter was addressed to the miners, and they 
 began to fear that he was in earnest, as they did not 
 know the capacity for accommodation like those who were 
 wont to frequent the place. They made no reply, and 
 Clayton again spoke : 
 
 14 1 guess Uncle Zack is as happy as a young pigeon 
 
5O THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 to-night, isn't he ? Wonder if he's dispensing the news 
 to his guests to-night ?" 
 
 This latter remark attracted the attention of Jack 
 Dalton, and he threw off the disguised tranquility in a 
 jiffy. Taking a step or two toward Clayton he ejacu- 
 lated wildly: 
 
 "News! You bet there's news, and plenty of it, 
 too, date." 
 
 The two men that came out to greet the miners now 
 seemed pleased that the ice was broken, and began to 
 stride excitedly around on the grass, undecided whether 
 to let young Dalton tell the tale or take their friends off 
 to one side and tell them separately. After Jack's ex- 
 plosion Clayton, Jeff and the four miners were plunged 
 into a whirlpool of anxiety and curiosity, and when, 
 after a short lapse of comparative silence, neither Jack 
 nor the other two had started to unfold the budget of 
 information, Clayton again interfered, thus : 
 
 44 Jack, you and these men know something that we 
 want to know too, and the sooner we are told the better 
 we will like it. What is it, anyhow ? Has the brother- 
 hood been on another forage, or is some of our folks 
 dead ?" 
 
 "The former, Clate. The former." Jack was mak- 
 ing very good progress under Clayton's tutorship in the 
 acquirement of proper grammatical sentences, and he 
 was also making good progress toward the formation of 
 his narrative. '* Listen now, boys," he entreated, " and 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. $1 
 
 I'll tell you something that will make your hair stand up 
 straight." 
 
 The others now formed a group in front of the excited 
 young mountaineer, and without any further urging he 
 began and told the following bit of news : 
 
 On the night of the 8th of the month Alex. Dalton, 
 Jack's father, had taken with him all of his cowboys, 
 save two, and started for the town of Republic with a 
 drove of cattle for shipment. While they were away 
 and the same night about midnight Tom Alton and his 
 men swooped down on the ranch, killed the two remain- 
 ing cowboys and drove off about fifty head of two-year- 
 old steers. Not satisfied with that, they had, in passing 
 Jeff Carlton's house, set fire to every building on the 
 place and stolen all of his best horses that were in the 
 pasture next to the ranch. Next morning Jasie Palliser, 
 while out hunting, ran across the dead bodies of the 
 cowboys and gave the alarm, after which a search was 
 inaugurated to see if anything more had transpired of a 
 damaging nature. 
 
 But Jack had reserved that part of it relating to Jeff's 
 loss for the last, and while Jeff was slowly letting the 
 fire of wrath kindle within him, and beginning to believe 
 that he had escaped, Jack came out with this startling 
 announcement : 
 
 4 'And, Jeff, they've settled you, too, this time," he 
 continued rapidly, having now paved the way for the 
 
52 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 reception : " Burnt every building on the place and stole 
 all yer best horses." 
 
 Carlton started as if he had been stung by an asp 
 and an ashy pallor overspread his countenance. He took 
 a step forward and laid one hand on Jack's burly shoul- 
 der, ejaculating wildly: " Jack, do you speak the truth ?" 
 On being assured, Carlton stepped back, nearly knock- 
 ing over one of the miners in his terrible frenzy. A 
 frightful spasm of rage convulsed his solid frame and his 
 hand involuntarily clutched at the pistol underneath 
 his coat, but the folds of the garment intervening re- 
 minded him that the hated foe was not yet in sight. A 
 light strain of sorrow had been detected in his voice at 
 first, but the combative element of his nature soon held 
 undisputed sway, and Clayton and Jack turned away 
 with a shudder of horror. Never before had they beheld 
 the countenance of that beloved friend light up with such 
 ghastly fires of evil passions. 
 
 Ah, what a world of meaning can sometimes be ex- 
 pressed in one short sentence. That startling announce- 
 ment had in it the spark that exploded the magazine of 
 wrath all over the country, for it had been announced in 
 every conceivable way. By the newspapers in long 
 thrilling sentences ; by the armed men roving the wild, 
 untamed region, and by all sorts and all conditions of 
 people. The down-trodden pioneers of the West were 
 now thoroughly aroused, and could Jeff Carlton but have 
 felt the sympathy of his fellow men that was being then 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 53 
 
 ^expressed for him his soul would have cast off the terri- 
 ble spasm of wrath in a flow of manly tears. But as he 
 was not aware of anything but the fact that the toil of 
 years had all been devoured by the flames of wrath 
 hurled at the settlers in bold defiance, he gave vent to 
 his feelings in a string of maledictions while the others 
 looked on in silence and deprecating assent. 
 
 The flitting shadows of the night were fast disap- 
 pearing before an ascending moon, the night wind began 
 a low, muffled stir mid the tall pines and gnarled oaks 
 of the surrounding forest ere the two hostlers had finished 
 caring for the four stage horses and joined the group on 
 the greensward. The two men that had come from the 
 house when Clayton and the other passengers had arrived 
 now managed to impart to the four miners the fact that 
 the bank at the town of Girard, Kansas, had been robbed 
 and that they were all of them losers thereby. Jack had 
 informed Jeff that it was all right, that he had come 
 there for the purpose of taking him and Clayton back 
 with him to a meeting that was appointed for the following 
 day, in which a purse was to be made up for him and 
 others that had been unfortunate enough to lose a portion 
 of their hard earned possessions by the hands of sneak 
 thieves. He also whispered something in Jeff's ear, also 
 Clayton's, but what it was we will leave alone until the 
 three are started out on their moonlight ride over the 
 mountains. 
 
 " Where are we to meet at did you say ?" exclaimed 
 
54 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 Carlton, absently. Another emotional spasm was creep- 
 ing upon him ; this time a conglomerated infusion of 
 spirits strove for the mastery. One of them was a feel- 
 ing of glad surprise at the interest the people took in his 
 loss. 
 
 " At Ike Steven's," answered Jack, anxious to see Jeff 
 be quit of the terrible spasms of emotion that rent him. 
 "Ike is goin' to have a sale of some cattle to-morrow, 
 and we must be there at all odds. Don't take it so 
 hard, Jeff," he entreated, stepping up closer and laying 
 his hand on Jeff's shoulder. "You've got more friends 
 than you think you have, and you mark my word for it 
 this will be the beginning of the end of Tom Alton's 
 reign." 
 
 Carlton, now realizing the fact that he was only dis- 
 tressing all present and doing no good, affected -a return 
 of his equilibrium if he did not actually feel the tumult 
 subsiding within him. He stood for a brief space of time 
 gazing Westward toward the home that lay in ashes, and 
 while the others were discussing the late bank robbery, 
 and the miners, the men who had lost their savings there- 
 by, were also uttering a chorus of maledictions, he was 
 enveloped in a melancholy fit of sadness that seemed a 
 relief to his over- wrought feelings, just torn by the caus- 
 tic and terrible emotions of wrath of deep-dyed hate and 
 resentment. The voices of the men grated on his sense 
 of hearing like so many ghostly whispers, now remind- 
 ing him of past hopes that were dead and gone forever. 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 55 
 
 His long, arduous battle with the rough mountain soil, 
 the many hard thumps and bumps of the pioneer hus- 
 bandman were all for naught. No wonder the poor set- 
 tler had given way to the dominant element of his nature 
 when it was imparted to his knowledge that all the toil 
 and sacrifice of years had gone up in flames, and he was 
 mentally forming a picture of the desolate scene that lay 
 far away to the Westward. He had been informed by 
 young Dalton that his family was at the ranch, and a 
 great longing to see them once more came over him. To 
 clasp once more the wife in his strong arms, to tell her 
 that he was not yet beaten nor discouraged, to tell her 
 once more of his love, and to once more see his children 
 and hear their artless prattle, and to fondle them as 
 never before was now his chief desire, and he was be- 
 ginning to chafe at any proposed delay. He turned once 
 more to the excited group. He made no pretense of 
 mixing in the noisy gabble of the others, who were at- 
 tracting the attention of those at the house by their loud, 
 excited and maledictory expressions now floating out on 
 the night air in clear resonant tones. Not a word did he 
 speak, not a sign of emotion did he betray as he listened 
 intently to the explosions of wrath that now seized upon 
 his fellow travelers on receipt of their own message of 
 calamity. 
 
 But this demonstration of wrathful excitement could 
 not last always. The smell of the cooking viands eman- 
 ating from the kitchen was whetting the already well 
 
$6 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 braced appetites of the assemblage and those of the 
 group outside who had not undergone great mental 
 agitation were beginning to evince a desire for retiring. 
 Presently Jack, stimulated perhaps by the scent from the 
 kitchen and an anxious desire to be on the way, ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 "Well, boys, lets go to the house. No use takin' 
 any more of the night air than we are compelled to." 
 
 And, leading the way, young Dalton gave evidence of 
 a prompt, decisive action. The others followed, still 
 keeping up a chorus of excited comments. Just as the 
 last man had stepped inside the yard and was in the act 
 of closing the gate, the bell, which was elevated on a 
 stout post near the corner of the kitchen, gave a thun- 
 derous peal, announcing supper. 
 
 Let us pass over the interval between that and 
 the time of starting, as nothing of an important nature 
 transpired during the meal, which was not marked 
 by any demonstration of excitement save an occasional 
 pitying glance bestowed by the few who were acquainted 
 with him upon the man who had met with the loss of his 
 home. Casual remarks about the weather, the prospect 
 of hunting the swift-footed deer, and the wild turkey 
 with which the region abounded, but nothing was said 
 about hunting the human wolves that made their ren- 
 dezvous amid the dark, deep recesses of the craggy 
 mountain stream that lay only a few miles off. And 
 Jeff, who had managed to recover from the frightful 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE FOUNTAIN SIDE. 57 
 
 emotions that convulsed him, actually took part in the 
 spasmodic talk about the hunting prospect as if nothing 
 had happened. 
 
 But he only made pretense of eating. Despite the 
 copious draughts of delicious coffee, flavored with rich 
 country cream, the food he attempted to swallow would 
 suddenly swell within his throat, nearly starting the tears 
 from his eyes, while he was glad of the chance of assist- 
 ing the wealthy sportsmen to his knowledge of bagging 
 the objects of their thoughts in order to sit out the 
 allotted time of the meal. And the hunters were greatly 
 surprised and elated at the information imparted by Jeff, 
 for he had been a successful hunter of wild animals be- 
 fore he -became a hunter of wild men. His knowledge 
 of the habits of wild animals was gleaned from the 
 books treating on that subject which he had borrowed 
 from the library of Clayton, the legacy of Grandfather 
 Palliser. 
 
 The moon was sailing grandly up through the Eastern 
 sky, diffusing a volume of bright light undisturbed by any 
 sign of clouds or weather lights, when our three friends, 
 accompanied by the two hostlers, emerged from the 
 house. Repairing straightway to the barn, the trio was 
 soon mounted, and with farewell greeting to the hostlers 
 they put spurs to their steeds and the nimble little animals 
 shot up the road like so many carrier pigeons just turned 
 loose. The hostlers shouted after them to be careful and 
 not expose themselves unnecessarily to danger, but the 
 
58 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 creak of the saddles and the thud of the hoofs drowned 
 it out as the trio shot with the speed of the wind out of 
 the mouth of the short lane and turned the corner of 
 the corral fence, and after a short distance plunged into 
 the deep, dark woods. The rail fence inclosing the old 
 field of some ten acres that lay West of the corral 
 stretched away to the right for a short distance, and 
 then after another short stretch it turned a square corner 
 and ran directly on the East and West line. Beyond the 
 Eastern boundary of the field lay a conglomerated mass 
 of woods, small patches of cultivated land, some of it 
 lying in the small basins that the early settlers found 
 covered, not with timbers, but grass, and were very pro- 
 ductive and owned by Uncle Zack Hobson, who had it 
 enclosed with a barbed wire fence, as the land that was 
 the most productive was only in small patches. But we 
 are digressing. After the distance of a mile, perhaps, 
 the trio struck the last slope before reaching the crest of 
 the mountains, and realizing that wiry and long winded 
 as the tough little ponies were, their trip of forty or 
 more miles over the rough mountainous country in so 
 short a space of time was quite enough to exhaust them 
 without putting them to their best pace up the ascent, 
 they checked their speed and relapsed into a walk. The 
 ponies did not object to the proposed change of gait, but 
 their recuperative powers being of a quick, elastic nature 
 they began to chafe for the old gait ere the long tortuous 
 ascent was covered. But their riders withheld them 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 59 
 
 with a strong, steady grasp till the summit of the slope 
 was at last recognized by the little clearing through which 
 ran another road, crossing the one they were traveling. 
 A log cabin, with a low flat roof and chimney built with 
 the outside of the arch of sticks of wood split, and the 
 flat side turned within, and lined with rocks and plastered 
 with the sticky red clay of the mountains, stood at the 
 North edge of the clearing, nearly hidden by a rank 
 growth of oak sprouts. The settler that had pitched his 
 tent there had long ago been convinced- that the thin 
 soil of the summit would not yield him a living, and 
 pulled up stakes, leaving his claim to the mercies of the 
 claim jumper. But no one had been inclined to renew 
 the struggle with the thin, grubby soil, and the oak 
 sprouts sprang up profusely from the grubs and low cut 
 stumps of the clearing, and would have reigned supreme 
 but for the annual possession taken of the place by 
 parties of hunters who camped in the old cabin for the 
 purpose of enjoying a season of undisturbed communion 
 with nature, and giving full vent to their pent-up animal 
 spirits without shocking the nerves of polite society. 
 This was for the most part the class of sportsmen now 
 installed at Hobson's this fine November night. Wealthy 
 planters, rich merchants, with a light addition of sports- 
 men from St. Louis, were generally the occupants of the 
 cabin for a short time either in the month of November 
 or December, generally the former. But there was no 
 one there now, and the trio of horsemen again gave the 
 
6O THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 ponies free reign, while they cast furtive glances at the 
 dark shadows mid the clearing lest some lurking foe be 
 concealed there. On they went, with rapid, untiring 
 energy over the divide that stretched out for a distance 
 of two or three miles, and then down the rocky slope in 
 the valley of Brush Creek. By ten o'clock, as shown by 
 an examination of Jack's watch, they had reached the 
 head of Swan Creek, and knew that half of the distance 
 between there and their destination was covered. 
 
 Jack had checked his horse in order to ascertain the 
 time, and the other two did likewise. Jack turned the 
 dial up to the light of the moon, and when, after a care- 
 ful scrutiny, he announced the time, and his companions 
 were waiting for him to replace his watch in his pocket, 
 their ears caught the unmistakable sound of hoofs strik- 
 ing against the limestone boulders that studded the road 
 at intervals of twenty 'or thirty feet. The road here 
 circled around a glade of some two hundred yards in 
 length, studded by the usual scattered growth of cedars, 
 prickly pears and stubby hawthorn. Part of the glade 
 lay in a basin or sag to the left. As the bottom of the 
 sag was too rough for travel, as a consequence the road 
 circled around the head of it. ' But the trio had not long 
 to wait for the approach of those who had startled them, 
 for casting a searching gaze forward in the moonlight 
 they beheld two mounted men coming up out of the 
 basin by a short cut that led across the head of the sag 
 and which, owing to the rocky surface, was scarcely 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 6 1 
 
 noticeable by one unacquainted with the place. 
 
 In a few seconds the horsemen had covered the dis- 
 tance between them and the three friends, and greatly to 
 the surprise and agitation of the latter drew reign and 
 stopped. 
 
 A thrill of mingled fear and curiosity convulsed the 
 trio at thus being confronted by they knew not whether 
 they were friends or foes, but owing to the excited con- 
 dition of their comprehension they judged them the 
 latter. 
 
 For a moment supreme silence reigned. Then the 
 stillness was broken by the voice of one of the strange 
 horsemen : 
 
 "Who are you ?" he asked in a tone that could not 
 possibly give offence. He had ridden up by the side of 
 Clayton and eagerly scanned his features in the light of 
 the moon. 
 
 "Clayton Palliser, Jeff Carlton and Jack Dalton," 
 was Clayton's prompt reply, and a quaver of some rising 
 emotion was plainly audible as he pronounced the name 
 of his chum. What was it that suddenly stirred the 
 depths of his emotion, do you ask. We will tell you. 
 It was the face of the man who addressed him. 
 
 The maa was apparently a very old man, although 
 his figure was straight and unbent. His skin was the 
 color of old parchment, with deep furrows lining the 
 sunken cheeks, while a bushy white beard and luminous 
 black eyes that glowered and snapped in the moonlight, 
 
62 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 and the sepulchral, sorrowful tone that he asked the 
 question in made young Palliser start and his voice quaver, 
 for the old man was to him the ghost of his grandfather, 
 whose image was indelibly stamped upon his memory. 
 
 But Clayton's agitation was immediately discovered 
 by the old man, and he let the fretful animal he was 
 riding move on past t'he group a little way. Then he 
 checked up again, and his companion rode up to the spot 
 he had occupied and exclaimed : 
 
 4< If that is who you are, you are no enemy of ours, 
 gentlemen." He spoke in an emphatic tone, which set 
 the trio of friends at ease. 
 
 " But who are you?" demanded Jack, in his bold, 
 off-hand manner of speaking when not in company with 
 ladies. Jack's bold but sincere, impromptu way of talk- 
 ing was one of the chief attractions for Clayton, that 
 amused and pleased him. 
 
 The stranger seemed in no hurry to speak, but finally 
 did so. "Well, my friend, if I tell you who we are will 
 you believe me ?" 
 
 He was to all appearance not over thirty years of 
 age, tall and of regular build, a rather heavily molded 
 head, and flashing blue eyes that shone with the clear 
 light of honesty and truth. A long brown flowing beard 
 covered his chin and the front of his shirt. 
 
 "We certainly will, unless your voice, wnen telling 
 us, gives a less truthful ring than it hap so far," replied 
 Clayton. 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 63 
 
 "Well," began the other, in the same gentlemanly 
 fashion, "we are the first and second lieutenant of the 
 Fox Valley Stranglers, an organization of recent date, 
 organized for the purpose of exterminating, by the use 
 of a liberal supply of hemp and lead, those who have 
 been preying upon us ever since the breaking out of the 
 war. I am first and my companion there is second lieu- 
 tenant of the organization. You see I know every one 
 of you by reputation, and know your ambitions as well 
 as I do my own. I know why you are here to-night and 
 know all that one of you, perhaps, desires to know. We 
 are now on our way back to the valley, having been out 
 on a scout, and ascertained a lot of information that will 
 be beneficial to us in our future operations." 
 
 Had the minds of either of the trio been settled they 
 might have manifested a keen interest in the reference 
 the man had made to one of their number. But their 
 overwrought senses were already numb with the excite- 
 ment of the time and the contact with the chilly night 
 air, and the stranger, after a careful scrutiny of each 
 countenance, having convinced himself that he was not 
 thoroughly understood, spurred up his horse. 
 
 " Coin' to leave us ?" asked Jack, looking around. 
 
 4 'Yes, we'll ride on now," answered the man, and 
 then added by way of a parting salute: "Go after 
 them, my friend, and spare not. Remember us, who 
 have the most wrongs to redress, and tell your friends 
 that we are greatly outnumbered, but while you are 
 
64 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 hammering at them from without we will be tearing at 
 them within. Good night," and the two strange men 
 rode on. 
 
 Morning broke at last over the mountains. The sun 
 came up bright and clear and unclouded as usual. The 
 chilly breath of the night was soon chased away by the 
 warm rays of the lord of the day, diffusing light and 
 warmth to all creatures. The squirrel leaped joyfully 
 from branch to branch of the tall oaks, the whir of the 
 peasant's wings once more broke the stillness of the 
 forest, and the sound of the hunter's dogs and gun once 
 more echoed over the landscape. But all this was of 
 secondary importance on this particular morning. 
 
 The farm of Ike Stevens was one of the few upland 
 farms of the region that presented a neat, well kept ap- 
 pearance. But this was owing, perhaps, to the fact that 
 Ike had been to California on a search for gold, and had 
 been successful on a small scale, finding at least enough 
 of the precious metal to come back home and lift the 
 mortgage that was eating up the homestead, and to im- 
 prove and stock it well with a high grade of stock. 
 Being a bachelor, and of a generous and charitable dis* 
 position, Ike, having no family to tax his finances, lived 
 alone on his farm with a hired hand whom he paid a 
 good monthly salary, while he did the housekeeping and 
 sought out and relieved all the new and poor settlers 
 whose oftimes destitute condition appealed to him. And 
 Ike was also fond of entertaining company oi ihe male 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 65 
 
 persuasion, and many were the nights that belated 
 travelers found refuge beneath his hospitable roof, while 
 no matter what time in the day any one came there, nor 
 did it matter the distance that he had come, Ike was 
 sure to ask him whether he had eaten. 
 
 So this bright November morning Ike, who was an 
 early riser, on going out to the wood pile to get more 
 wood to replenish the kitchen stove, was startled at the 
 sudden noise of hoof beats breaking in on his hearing, 
 and on looking down the road that ran nearly due East 
 from his front door, he saw in close proximity three 
 mounted men. At first glance he did not recognize 
 them, but in another close scrutiny of their countenances 
 beaming in the bright glow of the morning, he knew 
 them, and a wave of pleasant surprise swept over him. 
 In another moment the horsemen had ridden up with a 
 chorus of pleasant greetings and familiar, good natured 
 banter. 
 
 "Hello, Ike. How are you this morning. Ain't 
 afraid to stay by yerself yit. Bin to breakfast ? Fine 
 morning, ain't it ?" All these questions and queries were 
 rapidly ejaculated as the three sprang from their saddles, 
 well knowing that Ike, who was bewildered a little by 
 their sudden appearance, would give them a warm wel- 
 come as soon as he recovered, and also a good warm 
 breakfast, of which they stood in need after their long 
 ride through the night air. And they also knew that all 
 they had to do was to mention the fact that they had 
 
66 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 ridden all night and Ike would suggest that they go to 
 bed after they had eaten and get some sleep. 
 
 "Well now, did you ever," exclaimed Stevens, a 
 pleasant light in his mild, blue eyes, " Where in the 
 name of creation hfeve you all been, anyhow ?" he con- 
 tinued, as they came up with their bridle reins in one 
 hand and formed a line in front of him. 
 
 "Been to Kentucky, Jeff and I," replied Clayton. 
 
 " And you, Jack ?" said Ike, addressing young Dalton. 
 
 "Oh, I've been over to the valley after them," re- 
 plied Jack, with a humorous twinkle in his eye. "I 
 wanted to get them out of there as quick as possible for 
 fear they'd get into trouble." 
 
 " Oh yes, I know what you mean," replied Ike, with 
 a knowing look, at the same time bestowing upon Carlton 
 a pitying glance. " Well, hitch up and come in boys," 
 he said as he rapidly filled his arms with wood and turned 
 and opened the gate. 
 
 The trio obeyed, and followed him into the house. A 
 bright fire was blazing cheerfully in the spacious fire- 
 place, and as the trio were chilled somewhat with the 
 night's ride, they took the chairs proffered by their host 
 and pulled them close to it. Then they sat down to 
 meditate on the complicated state of affairs that en- 
 grossed their minds, while Stevens went on to the kitchen 
 with the wood. 
 
 Presently Ike came back into the room, with a strange, 
 mysterious expression on his ruddy face. He looked at 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 67 
 
 Clayton long and steadily, while Jack and Jeff were 
 sitting in their chairs half asleep, their senses benumbed 
 by the various unpleasant circumstances that had lately 
 befallen them. Clayton had also been enveloped in a 
 veil of drowsiness, but on hearing Ike's footstep he had 
 managed to shake it off long enough to attempt a con- 
 versation. But Stevens showed no inclination to talk 
 just then, and Clayton caught the strange expression of 
 his visage, which he construed into meaning that Ike had 
 found a clue to the late depredations of the outlaws that 
 had been covered in mystery. 
 
 But after a few minutes had passed thus, and Clayton 
 was again seized by the spell of drowsiness, Ike went 
 back to the kitchen. 
 
 A short lapse of time passed and our three friends 
 were awakened out of the doze they had fallen into by 
 the voice of their host from the kitchen door, saying : 
 
 "Wake up, boys, and eat a bite before you go to 
 sleep." 
 
 They shook off the spell as best they could, and 
 obeyed the command, while Ike began the arrangement 
 for waiting on them. When they were seated and had 
 begun the onslaught on the bountiful supply of vituals 
 Ike seated himself in a chair near the stove and began 
 thus: 
 
 1 ' I guess you are all going to Washburn's to-morrow, 
 aren't you. We're to meet there to-morrow at 10 o'clock 
 and see if we can't find some way of stopping all this 
 
68 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 cussedness. And boys, we have got to fight," he ex- 
 claimed, raising his voice in a high pitch of excitement. 
 "We've been dogged under long enough waiting for the 
 law to take hold, and the longer we delay the worse it 
 will be for us." 
 
 " Yes, you are right," responded Jeff, " but this is the 
 first I knew of the resolution being adopted." 
 
 ' 'That was because I know'd you couldn't take on 
 too much at once," exclaimed Jack. "I put off tellin' 
 you till we got here, so you would be in better shape to 
 understand the new resolutions that have been drafted 
 and ratified. " 
 
 A moment of silence ensued, in which the trio at the 
 table slowly masticated their food and endeavored to 
 collect their thoughts. Presently Ike, who had again 
 assumed that strange expression, and who seemed as 
 though he was anxious to relieve his mind of some secret 
 he held, spoke thus : 
 
 "Wonder if Hart Emerson will be there this time ?" 
 
 Clayton, who was facing him, now looked straight 
 into his face and caught the strange expression. A thrill 
 of apprehension convulsed him, a feeling of an expected 
 clue to the unraveling of the dark mystery that he had 
 so long sought in vain. And Ike, surmising the situation 
 as it really was, awaited an answer before broaching his 
 subject, while Jack went on with the following tirade : 
 
 "It seems to me as though them fellers over there in 
 the James valley don't care a rap which way the cat 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 69 
 
 jumps, that is none of them save Bill Nash. As many 
 meetin's as we've called none of them but him has ever 
 showed up yit. Now, about Hart Emerson ; boys, its 
 my opinion that he is a dark horse, and up to a good 
 many wicked plottings that no one knows anything about 
 but him. You know his name is on the roll, but what 
 has he ever done to help us out ? Not a thing. He ain't 
 any worse than the rest of them, though, who always go 
 off huntin' or fishin' or to Springfield on business every 
 time there is work to do." 
 
 Ike had listened with a show of impatience to Jack's 
 tirade, and when he had finished he rose from his chair 
 and taking the coffee pot in his hand he proceeded to 
 replenish the cups. When he came around to Jack he 
 filled his cup rapidly, and stepping back set the coffee 
 pot on the stove. 
 
 -Say, Jack?" 
 
 Jack looked around with a knowing expression, as if 
 he knew what was agitating his friend. " Well," was all 
 he said. 
 
 " Did you ever tell Clayton about the discovery you 
 made ?" inquired Stevens, catching, as he spoke, the 
 startled expression assumed by Clayton. 
 
 Jeff was too much occupied with his own troubles 
 just then to catch the drift of the talk. t Another sorrow- 
 ful convulsion took possession of him, no doubt instilled 
 by the thoughts of man's cruelty to his fellows, as the 
 various events transpiring since the war had illustrated. 
 
7O THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 The close friends as well as the intimate acquaintances 
 of young Palliser all believed with one accord that Jason 
 Palliser had met with foul play at the hands of the 
 Emersons. 
 
 Another pause in the conversation of a few seconds, 
 and then Jeff was conscious that something of import- 
 ance was being unfolded by Jack, who had begun and 
 continued thus : 
 
 4< Clate, you know what we have always suspicioned, 
 don't you ?" A nod of assent from Clayton, and Jack 
 continued : " Well, the other day while we were comin' 
 back from town, I made a discovery that fully confirms 
 my own suspicions that I had long before I ever met with 
 you. Don't say a word to interrupt me now, and I'll 
 tell you all about it." Jack here nudged Jeff, who started 
 up from his emotional reverie, but it was quite a bit 
 before he could extricate himself from his condition 
 enough to catch the drift of Jack's narrative. Jack con- 
 tinued : " It was the next day after the raid, and we 
 Tiad had unusually good luck in gettin' off the cattle, and 
 were comin' home ignorant of what had happened while 
 we were away. Now, then, it seems strange how little 
 things often lead to big things, don't it ? I was drivin' 
 the nag on back and Bill Nash was in the wagon with 
 me. His horse had got loose in town, as he was ridin' 
 a young skittish colt who got skeered at the cars and 
 went flyin' out of town like the devil was after him. Bill 
 know'd he would have to get home some other way, and 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. /I 
 
 just as I was driving out of the wagon yard he come to 
 me and stopped me and asked me to ride in the wagon. 
 As I was by myself and didn't object to a little company, 
 I told him I would be glad to have his company, and so 
 we pulled out. The mules went very well till we got out 
 on the flats, a few miles from the old Alton place, where 
 Hart Emerson lives, and then they began to poke. We 
 had come out into that little prairie up there, and as I 
 noticed that the sun was gettin' low I got fightin' mad at 
 the mules and reached down in the wagon bed for my 
 whip, It was gone, and I know'd it couldn't loose out 
 through the bottom of the bed, so I began to study the 
 matter a little, and all at once I recollected leaving it on 
 the ground in the wagon yard. ' What'll we do, Bill ?' I 
 says, ' there ain't a switch as big as a darnin' needle in a 
 mile of here.' 'Oh,' says Bill, ' we ain't got far to go 
 till we can get one. Wait till we get down there on that 
 bench above Emerson'sr graveyard and you can g'et any 
 kind of a gad you want.' I know'd Bill was right, and 
 so I concluded to make out the best we could till we got 
 there, and I larruped the mules with the lines, which 
 made them trot up a little, and then fall back into the 
 old gait after they struck the first little pull." 
 
 Jack here broke off his narrative, perhaps striving to 
 ape the style of the actors in the story books, and con- 
 scious that he had ended the first part of his narrative. 
 He had eagerly scanned the face of his friend for any 
 traces of emotional interest, but Clayton only sat with 
 
72 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 averted face and downcast eyes, with that dreamy revei- 
 ential expression of countenance that was his wont when 
 listening to a long speech. He was of a careful, meth- 
 odical disposition, and never vouchsafed an opinion until 
 he was sure that he made no mistake. This had often 
 been mistaken by his friends for lack of appreciation of 
 their oft-repeated assertions of interested manifestations 
 of his troubles, but especially their belief in 4:he guilt of 
 the Emersons. Not even Jack's rabid declaration that it 
 was his belief that it was the burden of that crime on 
 Boyd Emerson's mind and soul that drove him mad 
 elicited any favorable comment from Clayton. He knew 
 that Boyd Emerson had mixed up in a bitter feud back 
 in the Cumberlands, and might have dispatched some of 
 his enemies in some out of the way place that no one 
 but himself knew about, and which might have prayed 
 upon his mind till it drove him mad. He knew the story 
 of that feud well. Better, perhaps, than any of the in- 
 habitants of the Ozarks. His brother Jasie had often 
 stoutly declared that the leader of the Fox Valley out- 
 laws was no other than Jack Marston, one of the clan 
 that had opposed the Emersons, and who had been 
 sentenced to a short term in state prison for the killing 
 of Dodd Emerson. To the boyish imagination of Jasie 
 there was only one really bad man in the world and that 
 was Jack Marston, the man who, according i^ popular 
 belief, murdered in cold blood Dodd Emerson back in 
 the Cumberlands. The .great ambition of the boy was 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 73 
 
 to become a successful hunter, but he had often declared 
 that he would one day run across the leader of the Fox 
 Valley outlaws and kill him, just like he would a deer or 
 a turkey. The latter accomplishment had not yet been 
 attained, however, for the lad had found that the old 
 fashioned muzzle-loading rifle, the legacy of his grand- 
 father, was of no account in regard to killing game at 
 long range, which was the only way that an unskilled 
 hunter could possibly kill them owing to the openness of 
 the woods. However, there came one Christmas morn- 
 ing a glad surprise for the boy in the shape of a repeat- 
 ing rifle, and to say that he was a proud boy was 
 exqressing it mildly. 
 
 Jack, after a brief respite, in which he resolved that 
 if this weighty evidence did not elicit the desired con- 
 fession he would not any further interest himself, con- 
 tinued in a slow, solemn strain : 
 
 "When we got down on the bench I handed the 
 lines to Bill and got out and drew my Jack knife from 
 my pocket. I walked down to the thicket and stopped 
 and began to cast my eye around for a suitable gad. 
 Not seeing any on that side, I went around next to the 
 old cabin site there and found an openin' that led straight 
 down from the ruins of the old house toward the corner 
 of the graveyard. I walked down through the openin' 
 in order to get one of the keen plum sprouts that grew 
 up under the wild plum tree, some twenty steps from the 
 old ruined fireplace. Beyond the plum tree a few feet 
 
74 THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 
 
 the openin' widened out three or four times as wide as 
 the passage I had come through. Before I could make 
 up my mind on the switch that best suited me, my eye 
 caught sight of a bare lookin' spot that lay surrounded 
 by a thin growth of sumach sprouts about six feet beyond 
 the plum tree. All at once it flashed over me tfyat I 
 might make an important discovery, and I made a thor- 
 ough examination of the spot, which I settled in my 
 mind was a grave. At first I believed it to be one of -the 
 numerous graves where some ambushed settler was re- 
 ported to have been killed, either by the Indians back 
 in the early days or by bushwhackers during the war, 
 but on close examination I found that there was no sign 
 of an elevation above tbe level of the ground. The 
 grave, if grave it was, was as flat as a board, which led 
 me to believe that some victim of treachery had been 
 thrown in a*rough hole and covered up, and the ground 
 leveled down to hide the traces. There was only about 
 half of the surface exposed by the clay, as was evidenced 
 by the edges being sunken, not a great deal,* but enough 
 to show that it was a grave and no mistake. This led 
 me to believe that it contained the remains of your 
 father, for you know you have often said you expected 
 to find his grave in some out of the way place where he'd 
 been murdered and robbed." 
 
 Jack here stopped his narrative again, and when, 
 after a moment's deathlike silence in the room, he did 
 not resume it, Clayton concluded he had done. He 
 
THE GRAVE ON THE MOUNTAIN SIDE. 75 
 
 raised his eyes to Jack's expectant gaze. "Jack, "he 
 said, in a sorrowful, tremulous tone, "I believe with 
 you that you have found the grave of my father. All 
 the evidence we have in hand point to it, while the 
 character of those we have suspicioned is such that no 
 one will doubt our proof, which we will soon be able to 
 unfold by an exhumation of the grave you have ac- 
 cidentally -discovered. Wait till things get settled a 
 little and we have more time, we will, under cover of 
 some dark night, seek out and exhume the remains, after 
 which we will determine, if it lays in our power, whose 
 remains it is that lay under that mysterious spot. Now, 
 boys, let us get our minds on the business in hand for 
 the present. I feel as though this was not all the 
 evidence that we are to find before we make the pro- 
 posed exhumation. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 The picturesque, romantic vales of the Ozarks were 
 settled along in the forties, principally by Southern peo- 
 ple. Hence nearly all of the dwellings that nestled 
 snugly against the base of the mountains were modeled 
 after the old Southern slave-holding class of the states 
 East of the Mississippi. Sometimes a Northerner East- 
 ern man settled there among them, but he seldom ever 
 had the house remodeled after the fashion of his section. 
 Usually the Northerners were what would be termed in 
 the vocabulary of the region as "struck" on the old 
 fashioned plantation dwellings, and never molested them 
 unless they were sadly in need of repairs. Old fashioned, 
 high shouldered chimneys, broad, cool porches, some- 
 times matted with vines, a yard studded with beautiful, 
 tall, straight poplars and cedars, and a plank fence sur- 
 rounding the whole made a habitation that any one would 
 be likely to be satisfied with. About all that the houses 
 as a rule needed was a fresh coat of paint, and that was 
 merely a matter of indifference and neglect. 
 
 In one of these little valleys, a tributary of the 
 James River, and about three miles from that stream, lay 
 the home of Hart Emerson. We will not attempt a 
 
 (76) 
 
They saw there lying dead their old schoolmate, Fannie Benton. 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 79 
 
 lengthy description of the place, for it was entirely out 
 of keeping with the other places one sees in the region. 
 There was an air of neglect about it that contrasted 
 strongly with the others along the road that skirted the 
 base of the hills. Yet for all that it was a place unsur- 
 passed for beauty, requiring only a small amount of labor 
 to transform it into a wonderfully enticing feast for the 
 eye. The house stood at the forks of the road, the left 
 hand leading up the mountain to the nearest point on the 
 railroad, while the other one meandered up the valley, 
 which made a sharp turn there, finally, after about five 
 hours travel, leading the traveler into the city of Spring- 
 field, with its roar and jam and push of mighty Western 
 energy. Altogether it would seem to a keen observer 
 that one who had been fortunate enough to possess this 
 estate was very foolish to abandon it for the dangerous 
 profession of outlawry, for this was the boyhood home 
 of the noted freebooter who had made his name a terror 
 throughout the Ozark region, and whom every one who 
 knew his history wondered at for his fierce disposition. 
 
 Well, some said one thing and some another thing 
 about Tom Alton and his stepbrother, Hart Emerson, 
 but they all agreed that Alton's career was a source of 
 much worriment to Hart, who stoutly denied that the 
 outlaw was his step-brother, whom, he said, he could 
 prove was dead. He averred that he was killed in the 
 battle of Pea Ridge, and a few believed his assertion, 
 but the majority asserted that Tom Alton was turning 
 
8O THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 out just like they expected. They based their assertion 
 on the lenient conduct of his mother, who allowed him 
 to read all the trashy literature he wanted to, and young 
 Alton had got into several bad scrapes before he finally 
 took it into his head to join the army and fight for the 
 perpetuity of the Union. As for Hart Emerson, he 
 showed no inclination to risk his life on the battle field, 
 and remained at home with his father to protect and care 
 for young Alton's property. Still there was no suspicion 
 among the neighbors such as Jack Dalton had given vent 
 to, for young Emerson was very much respected by a 
 part of the people of the community. Barring a few 
 who believed him guilty of the murder of a young girl 
 named Benton, the neighbors all looked up to him as a 
 leader of country society, and they set it down that his 
 negligence of the place was due to grief at the sad plight 
 of his father and the suspicions regarding the murder of 
 his former sweetheart, Fannie Benton. 
 
 One night a party of young men were out hunting 
 and, coming down into the valley, they came out on a 
 little promontory that jutted out into the valley to the 
 creek bed. Here the path that led to the school house 
 ran over the little bench, and as it was a dark night the 
 boys had to carry a lantern. The one that carried it 
 stumbled over something he at first supposed to be one 
 of the dogs, but as no howl of pain escaped the object 
 he determined to investigate. Turning the lantern so its 
 rays would fall obliquely upon the object, he stooped 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 8 1 
 
 and looked. The next instant he started backward with 
 an exclamation of horror, and his companions, hearing 
 his cry, paused and turned back, indulging in many jest- 
 ing remarks. But their jests soon ceased when they saw 
 there lying dead their schoolmate Fannie Benton. 
 
 Well, the coroner's jury rendered the verdict that the 
 girl had met her death by strangulation at the hands of 
 Hart Emerson. Coroner's juries, you know, only seek 
 the mode of death and point to the person most likely 
 to have committed the deed, but their verdicts are not, 
 of course, to be taken as final. Emerson stoutly denied 
 his guilt from the start, and was heard to remark that he 
 <vas going to clear himself if it took every penny he 
 possessed. And it was evident that he meant what he 
 said, for he immediately tried to sell the plantation, but 
 as most of the set. there doubted him having a clear 
 title they hesitated about buying. The reader already 
 knows how he tried to dispose of it to Jason Palliser. 
 
 Isaac Benton thoroughly believed in his guilt, and as 
 his definition of the Scriptures was "an eye for an eye 
 and a tooth for a tooth," he had done his best to hang 
 Hart Emerson, but Hart was seemingly not much 
 worried at Benton's refusal to continue to associate with 
 him. So time went on apace, and Hart grew more and 
 more indifferent to the beliefs and disbeliefs of his neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 Now, Hart Emerson had an old bachelor uncle living 
 at Springfield who was very fond of society, and he had 
 
82 THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 wrung his nephew into the elite circle of that place. 
 This quite turned the young man's head, as appearances 
 indicated, and he was away up there much of his time. 
 The two trusty negro servants that had been the property 
 of the elder Alton were entrusted with the care of the 
 poor lunatic that was confined within the rocky walls of 
 a small stone hut that stood over in a little brushy hollow 
 out of sight of the road. The hut stood on the South 
 slope, nearly at the foot. A few feet from the floor, 
 about ten inches long by two in width, was a little win- 
 dow. This enabled the two servants to hand in food to 
 the poor man confined therein, and it may be added that 
 they hurried away as fast as their legs could carry them 
 after this performance, and they would never have been 
 any the wiser if their own mother had been confined 
 therein instead of their master's father. 
 
 The old couple that kept house for Hart never pre- 
 tended to meddle with his business. No, they were 
 having too easy a time and were afraid of being fired if 
 they meddled. 
 
 Hart Emerson sat in his room writing writing with a 
 sort of nervous sweep and a cynical half-cowed expres- 
 sion on his face. Several sheets of paper lay on the 
 table, and it was evident that he was satisfied with the 
 writing, for he did not tear any of the sheets up, nor 
 did he pause in his writing, but kept steadily on as 
 though he was in a desperate hurry. Sheet after sheet 
 was laid aside and another one taken and went over in 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 83 
 
 the same manner till at last he seemed satisfied that he 
 had written enough. Uttering a deep sigh of relief, he 
 shoved back his chair, took out his watch, examined its 
 face and putting it back, drew the chair up again and 
 commenced perusing the sheets. 
 
 "Well, I guess that will do," he muttered aloud. 
 "Oh pshaw, [t worries me to think there are so many 
 people in the world that would as soon see me out of it 
 as not. Nay, there are those who would kill me if they 
 knew if they knew. Well, I'm not going to kick against 
 the pricks any more, but just take things easy. This 
 last act of mine seems to have stirred up a hornet's nest. 
 Well, let them go it, I don't think that Hart Emerson 
 will respond to the roll call this time. " 
 
 This last was not said aloud. He relapsed into a 
 brown study again, and sat for about ten minutes. Then 
 he arose, and carefully folding the sheets together he 
 placed them at the bottom of the huge, old fashioned 
 iron bound trunk. Closing and locking the trunk, he 
 put away the writing paper, pen and ink. This being 
 done, he went to another trunk and took out a dark, 
 purplish brown suit of clothes and proceeded to array 
 himself therein. 
 
 "If it wasn't for my hopes of winning the fair Elsie, " 
 he muttered, "I would leave this sin-blackened life and 
 go elsewhere and begin anew. Oh, fond hopes, if it 
 were not for you the world would be blank indeed. We 
 Emersons always were considered a hard set. I wouldn't 
 
84 ' THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 % 
 
 be surprised to run across a manuscript like that I have 
 just finished up there telling some very gruesome things 
 about my uncle's life. But those wistful brown eyes, so 
 much like the others, seem to burn in my brain like two 
 live- coals of fire, and well I hope that black imp of 
 satan will be put out of the way, anyhow. It would be 
 just like Carlton to swear a heavy oath against his life." 
 
 These thoughts were half uttered aloud in an ab- 
 stracted manner, and an occasional nervous turning of 
 the head, as though he expected some of his enemies to 
 be at his elbow. Having finished his toilet, he went out 
 in the kitchen. Taking a copious draught of water, he 
 addressed the cook thus : 
 
 " How long till dinner, Nancy ?" 
 
 "About twenty minutes, I guess," replied the woman 
 without looking up. 
 
 ' ' Well, hurry it up, I've got to go to town this even- 
 ing, " he remarked as he went out. 
 
 Then he took his hat and went to the stables, where 
 he found one of the negroes grooming his horse. The 
 negro looked up as he opened the door, and Hart, beck- 
 oning to him, said : 
 
 " Come out here a minute, Roe, I want to talk with 
 you." 
 
 The negro obeyed and came out. 
 
 Taking him by the shoulder, Hart led him to the lot 
 fence and leaning against it, he spoke again and said : 
 
 "Now, Monroe, I want to instruct you in a little 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 85 
 
 matter which is of the highest importance. You know 
 I've always made a confident of you, and you have always 
 carried out my wishes to the letter." 
 
 "Yes, sah," responded the negro, his heart aglow 
 with honest pride. 
 
 "Well, what I wanted to speak of was this : There 
 is a secret I have kept these several years, and one which 
 I could not carry to the grave. Don't think that I am 
 about to confess to the murder of my poor sweetheart. I 
 am as innocent of that as you are. But it is another, 
 more serious, matter that I am about to speak of. Do 
 you remember the fall you and Jerry were away down at 
 Forsyth visiting ?" 
 
 "Yes, sah, I does," replied Roe, with a nod. 
 
 "Well, that was the time it happened. While you 
 were away a man came here who said he was looking for 
 a location. My father saw him in Ozark and .told him 
 that I wanted to sell this plantation, and he came here 
 to look it over. 
 
 ' ' Now, Monroe, I never have hinted to you even that 
 there was once a deadly feud between the Emersons and 
 another family named Marston back there in the Cum- 
 berland mountains. No, you say. Well, I thought not. 
 You see it was this way: When two families fall out 
 back there they generally settle it like the North and 
 South did about you colored people. That is by force 
 of arms. Well, sometimes one or both families are 
 totally annihilated, but this time the law stepped in and 
 
86 THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 sent the murderer of my uncle to the penitentiary for 
 twenty years. Quite a number had been killed on both 
 sides, and when the other side came to us and proposed 
 peace we were glad to make any fair terms. 
 
 ' * Well, after a while the trouble broke out again, and 
 this time I admit the fault was on our side. A hot 
 headed young nephew of mine was the cause ot it, and 
 fortunately for me and my father we had left there then 
 and thought that we were out of the scrimmage. My 
 father was unaware that Jason Palliser, the man who 
 came here to buy the place, was a member of the Mars- 
 ton clan and had come here with the intention of killing 
 us both. One night he and my father were coming from 
 town and the man Palliser, when they had got to that 
 bench up here, pulled out a big revolver and told my 
 father that he was a member of the Marston gang and 
 for him to say his prayers quick as he was going to kill 
 him. 
 
 " But my father had been in such tight places as that 
 before and knew exactly how to get out of them. Reach- 
 ing over, he knocked the pistol from his hand, but toh is 
 surprise the man pulled another one, or was about to, 
 but before he could cock it my father had drawn his 
 own pistol and shot him dead. I was down here at 
 the house and was sitting up reading when I heard 
 the report. I grabbed my hat and a lantern and 
 started briskly up the road. On and on I went up 
 the tiresome slope till at last I discerned some 
 dark objects in the road. I found my father bending 
 over the prostrate form of the man, and I shall never 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 8/ 
 
 forget the awful stare that was in his eyes as I held the 
 lantern up to his face. It did not take a second glance 
 to tell me that the light of reason was fast fading out 
 and I immediately begged him for an explanation. He 
 told me the same as I have told you. " 
 
 Hart paused to note the effect of his story upon the 
 negro, and as that individual was too astonished to speak, 
 he continued, after a brief period of silence : 
 
 "Now, Monroe," this name had a magical effect 
 upon the negro, and to call him that would be to make 
 him doubly your friend and servant, "I have written 
 out a full description of this affair, together with the in- 
 formation of what became of the man's body. That I 
 never could find out from that day to this. This infor- 
 mation I want sent to Mr. Clayton Palliser, and I will 
 address it to him on my return, as I have no envelope 
 that is large enough to hold it. But remember, it is only 
 in case I meet with an accident and should happen to die 
 of a sudden that I want you to see that it is sent. 
 
 " This young man, Clayton Palliser, came out here 
 in order t6 ferret out the mystery of his father's disap- 
 pearance, and in order, as I suppose, to be close to the 
 scene of the disappearance, he settled near here with his 
 mother and two brothers, and ever since they have been 
 trying to obtain a clew. But I don't think he has struck 
 one yet, or young Palliser, brainy and well posted as he 
 is, would have run the mystery down by this time. He 
 has been very friendly with me, but I have not been 
 
88 THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 friendly in return for I sometimes think he suspects me 
 of having murdered Jason Palliser, and fear he is only 
 trying to get the advantage of me to kill me just as 
 Jason Palliser did my father. 
 
 "Now, then, I will change the subject a little, as I 
 want to talk a little about your old master, Tom Alton. 
 You have no doubt heard a great deal about him since he 
 went away, although you have never seen him. That is 
 one thing I would like to warn you of, for I know that 
 you colored folks are hard to deceive in an ocular sense, 
 but when you hear things you do not see, then it is pos- 
 sible that you may be deceived. Now, you have heard 
 two conflicting stories about your old master, my step 
 brother, have you not ?" 
 
 "Yes, sah." replied Roe, his bulky form heaving with 
 excitement, his eyes set in a rigid stare. 
 
 "One of them is that he is dead killed in the battle 
 of Pea Ridge," suggested Hart. 
 
 "Yes, sah." 
 
 "And the other is that he is the leader of the Fox 
 Valley outlaws, the Alton gang, as it is called. " 
 
 "Yes, sah," replied Roe, wondering which one of the 
 reports was true. 
 
 Hart always was prompt in a conversation, and if he 
 was asked a troublesome question he had no difficulty in 
 framing a reply without hesitation. His mind was com- 
 pletely swayed by evil tendencies, and what he told the 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 89 
 
 negro about his old master was not devoutly believed by 
 himself. 
 
 "Now, Monroe, you are pretty shrewd yourself. I 
 want to know just what you believe. I mean which one 
 of the reports do you think is correct ?" 
 
 But Monroe was wise in the wisdom of his race, and 
 would not vouchsafe any opinion. He felt sure that 
 Hart knew positively, or thought he did that one or the 
 other of the reports was true, and yet he knew enough 
 of the strange coincidences of life to assure him that 
 Hart might be mistaken after all. Hart resumed in a 
 positive tone : 
 
 "We have positive proof that he was killed in battle. 
 I have talked with men who fought by his side in the 
 battle of Pea Ridge and saw him fall. Afterward, as 
 they were forced back, they saw him lying dead with a 
 bullet hole through his heart." 
 
 " Then he's dead, sah, do you think?" asked Monroe, 
 and there was a note of sorrow in his voice. He had been 
 so fond of his young master that to be told that he was 
 dead, whether he had ocular proof of it or not, was 
 enough to stir his African soul to its depths. Of the two 
 reports concerning his former master, he hardly knew 
 which one of them he wanted to believe, as both of them 
 had their good and*bad side to them. 
 
 " But I want to know what you think about it, Roe ?" 
 asked Hart. 
 
 The boy was in deep thought and did not answer. 
 
THE ARCH VILLAIN. 
 
 The wily schemer knew well how to play upon the emo- 
 tions and fancies of the colored race as well as the white 
 people who were not shrewd enough to read his thoughts 
 and intentions. That was what made him resist the ap- 
 proaches of Clayton Palliser, for although Hart was not 
 as harmless as the dove, he was as wise as the serpent, 
 and he instinctively guessed that Clayton's reputation as 
 a mind reader was not altogether without foundation. 
 
 ' ' Surely you cannot believe that your former master 
 is a lawless ruffian and bold plunderer, do you, Monroe ?" 
 asked Hart. 
 
 ' ' No, sah, " responded the impressionable darkey, the 
 light of conviction beaming in his eyes. 
 
 "Then you must believe that he is dead," assured 
 Hart. " Indeed, what else can any of us believe." 
 
 "I doan doubt but what he's dead, sah," said Monroe 
 in a sorrowful voice. 
 
 "We all of us, no doubt, wish he was not, but as 
 we have good proof of the fact that he is we may as 
 well bear our loss in a philosophical way." 
 
 After dinner, while the negro, who was quite swelled 
 up with the knowledge that he was in possession of an 
 important secret, brought the horse, Hart gave him a 
 few instructions. Then he packed a small valise, and 
 mounted and rode away in the direction of Springfield. 
 
'Promise me one thing before you go, won't yoti, WiUie?' 1 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 At "toe /nouth of the small creek on which the old 
 Alton homestead lay was another one of those -small 
 plantations so common in the James valley, and this one 
 was not in keeping with most of its neighboring planta- 
 tions, which, like that of the Alton place, presented a 
 more or less dilapidated appearance. The large planta- 
 tions were a little in the minority in regard to numbers, 
 and most all of them seemed to have a neglected appear- 
 ance, although there were exceptions. This particular 
 plantation that lay at the confluence of the little valley 
 with that of the broad, romantic valley of the James, at 
 this period had undergone a series of repairs. The 
 fences had been rebuilt, the old fashioned worm fences 
 being displaced by straight post and rail fences, the 
 rickety old gates had been torn down and converted into 
 kindling, while gates of the latest patent superceded 
 them. The barn had had a few necessary repairs, while 
 numerous other little improvements were noticeable, but 
 the one most conspicuous to the passer-by was a new 
 coat of paint on the old fashioned Southern dwelling. It 
 stood above the road on a flat point surrounded by a 
 profuse mixture of poplar, cedar and catawba trees and 
 
 (93) 
 
94 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 clusters of rose bushes, the whole surrounded by the old 
 plank fence, on the inside of which was a row of goose- 
 berry bushes. Beneath the boughs of the yard trees 
 were various kinds of seats constructed for the benefit of 
 those who wished a nice, cool place to while away the 
 hot summer days of inaction during the latter part of 
 August, when all nature seems to sink into a quiet repose. 
 The cliffs on the opposite side of the river,, lined with a 
 profusion of cedars, afforded a pleasant feast for the eye, 
 inspiring one with a dreamy, reverential feeling as he 
 lounged beneath the shade of the trees within the yard 
 of the old Nash homestead. 
 
 The Hash's were counted among the leading citizens 
 of the country, as they were a family of early settlers 
 and owned the fine farm we have described, which was 
 very fertile as well as it was well kept. The scenic 
 beauty of the place was scarcely equalled by any of its 
 neighbors, either above or below. Beyond the level 
 stretch of smooth meadows next the river bunk 
 stood an old plantation, the residence of one of the 
 neighbors, with its quaint old architecture plainly sil- 
 houetted by the background of the dark woods that lined 
 the bank of the stream, while glimpses of tho water 
 could be obtained through the openings that ROW and 
 then pierced the woods where the bank was low and the 
 stream fordable. Still beyond that, on the fir side oi 
 the stream, another house, which, like that cf the Nad* 
 home, had received a new application of bri^it colored 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 95 
 
 
 
 paint, ..could be seen through a gap in the timber where 
 there was a ford, where the neighbors desiring short cuts 
 were wont to cross. Adding to the scenic beauty thus 
 described were the towering, cedar-lined cliffs and the 
 clay bottomed road that began the ascent of the moun- 
 tains far back from the terminus of the cliffs in the midst 
 of a dense thicket of cedars. 
 
 On the morning of the appointed meeting at Wash- 
 burn's prairie the Nash family, which consisted only of 
 Bill Nash, his wife and his sister Emily, a solemn visaged, 
 brown eyed little woman of perhaps twenty-five years of 
 age, were all assembled at the usual hour in the dining 
 room. The Nash's, like all the other inhabitants of the 
 region, were not in the habit of keeping late hours, 
 as it was generally the custom to strive for the outdoing 
 of the neighbors in the matter of early rising. Then it 
 seemed as though the old portion of the inhabitants, 
 which were but few at this day, they having been gath- 
 ered to their fathers one by one till only a few remained, 
 had been wont to daily preach the old adage of ' ' early 
 to bed and early to rise, make one healthy, wealthy and 
 wise," until they had instilled it into their offspring as a 
 part of their training. The Nash's, however, had always 
 been punctual in this regard, but they had risen on this 
 particular morning a little earlier than was their custom. 
 There was a subdued silence this morning as they gath- 
 ered around the board, however, and the usual, cheerful 
 flow of talk was conspicuous by its absence. The face 
 
96 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 of Emily showed evident signs of deep sorrow and a 
 stamp of recent emotional conflict, while Mrs. Nash, as 
 she seated herself, also betrayed a wistful, sorrowful light 
 in her eyes, no doubt from emotional interest i.n that of 
 her sister-in-law. Women jas a rule, apparently, are as 
 deeply moved by the sorrows of another one of their sex 
 as the one to whom the actual sorrow belongs, and what- 
 ever it was that had moved Emily Nash to an emotional 
 display, her brother's wife, who was very fond of her, 
 truly and deeply sympathized with her. The Nash family 
 being small, as no children save the brother and sister 
 had survived, was bound together in a close bond 
 of affection, Bill with fatherly interest, as he was several 
 years the senior of his sister, had assumed guardianship 
 over her, giving special interest to all her desires, watch- 
 ing with close interest the intellectual powers develop 
 with great rapidity, till at last the young lady had gradu- 
 ated, and after a short rest from her mental labors began 
 teaching the country schools. Bill was very fond and 
 very proud of her, but his nature being of the worldly 
 type, although he was kind and generous, he could not 
 see beneath all the wonderful intellectual powers a sub- 
 strata of tender emotion and romance. And as Bill was 
 very irascible in his temper when anything of a disgrace- 
 ful nature presented itself, his weak point had often been 
 tried by his sister in regard to a certain attachment she 
 had formed for a certain man whom it will take some 
 length of time to describe. 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 97 
 
 Emily had spent a sleepless night. Since the recent 
 development of the increased volume and boldness of the 
 lawless depredations that with one accord the inhabitants 
 believed the notorious Tom Alton to be the head and 
 nerve center of, Miss Nash had evinced a restless, 
 emotional anxiety. Another periodical attack of crime 
 was convulsing the country, and many were the wrathful 
 epithets hurled a the son of the old planter who had, 
 according to old settler's lore, been ruined by the lenient 
 treatment of his widowed mother, who allowed him to 
 grow up without any training in the rudiments of civilized 
 life. Back in the old anti-bellum days, when the old 
 valley settlers were enjoying a season of unwonted pros- 
 perity, young Alton, in common with a great many other 
 scions of wealthy families, had evinced a tendency for 
 lawlessness by getting into numerous adventurous scrapes 
 which the settlers ascribed to the absorption of flash 
 literature, and which the social and financial influence of 
 his family always got him out of. Although a popular 
 favorite with his youthful, impressionable companions, 
 and also with the young ladies of a romantic tempera- 
 ment, young Tom did not evince a desire to justify his 
 many lawless but comparatively light acts, for it was 
 then considered the height of fashion to do something 
 slightly beyond the pale of the law and be fined there- 
 for. To hunt, and ride, and drink, to fight and quarrel 
 over politics and various other subjects too numerous to 
 mention, to spend the days when home duties did not 
 
98 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 demand their attention, in loafing about town, and then 
 ride home by the light of the moon or stars, making the 
 welkin ring with emitted yells of pure defiance of God, 
 man and beast, seemed to be the chief occupation of the 
 reckless young mountaineers. And young Tom Alton, 
 not desiring to be considered a nonentity, did with a 
 whim seldom equalled, his full share of these half inno- 
 cent pastimes when not in the meshes of some of the 
 handsome belles of the home region. Many times had 
 he fallen in love, and as many more times the fall had 
 not bruised him any on account of the shallowness. 
 
 But old father time was spinning out the years, and 
 with every turn of his kaleidoscope he showed many 
 people who had prophesied certain things that their 
 clairvoyant powers were null by a direct reversal of their 
 prophecy. Some of the acquaintances of young Alton 
 predicted that his faculties of love were small and cold 
 and that he would never love deeply. Bye and bye, 
 when he was beginning to believe their assertions him- 
 self, and when he had attained his majority and was 
 trying to efface the memory of his youthful misdeeds and 
 foolish fancies, he discovered an aching void in his heart, 
 A season of listless boredom ensued, during which he 
 began the absorption of a new and better type of litera- 
 ture, which was calculated to elicit all that was noble or 
 ignoble in a man's nature. We refer to the anti-slavery 
 literature that was being circulated throughout the land 
 a few years before the war. 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 99 
 
 But one day the young man roused himself from this 
 lethargic absorption of the political views of the leading 
 lights of the anti-slavery movement. He was becoming 
 tired of his self-imposed confinement, and as the great 
 political upheaval was waxing stronger, and he had been 
 thoroughly converted to the views of the anti's, he be- 
 thought him that he would bestir himself among the 
 neighbors to ascertain whether they had been as deeply 
 impressed as himself. Heretofore he had remained for 
 .the most of the time shut up in his room, and nothing 
 that transpired round about his home seemed to interest 
 him. Not even the announcement by a juvenile darkey 
 that his favorite saddle horse had seriously injured one 
 of his legs in his wild gambols, or that the hounds had 
 started a deer up the bench above the graveyard, could 
 tempt him to give up his literary envelopment. 
 
 "Doan no wat kin be the mattah with Mar^a Tom 
 heah lately," was the usual comment of the black boy. 
 "H jist stay all day long in him room an' won't cum 
 out fer nuffin." 
 
 But one day the little black was surprised to see him 
 emerge without any solicitation, and then as the other 
 members of the household were ignorant of anything he 
 did after he entered his own sanctum, they began to 
 question him concerning his conspicuous long habitation 
 of the house. 
 
 The first place he visited was the Nash plantation, 
 some few miles below, and young Alton had not ventured 
 
IOO THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 there with any other than political intentions, until he 
 was aware that he was in the presence of a pretty, 
 solemn faced, brown haired girl. He had not seen 
 Emily Nash for some time, as she had been away at the 
 Springfield High school, during which time she had 
 developed from an awkward half formed and homely 
 young girl into a beautiful young lady. Tom instantly 
 discovered that the element of love in his nature was not 
 dead, but only slumbering, and he fell head over ears in 
 love with Emily before he took his departure, and when, 
 after a brief courtship, he discovered on confessing his 
 love that he had always been her ideal hero, he was 
 more in love than ever. 
 
 This happy state of affairs continued fora few months 
 and then the war cloud overspread the land and the great 
 political volcano was soon sending forth its streams of 
 destroying lava, bringing not only death and destruction 
 but division ; division not only of the Nation, but of 
 families and kindred as well. 
 
 Tom had been wary enough to feel of the political 
 pulse of his neighbors before expressing himself, and 
 knowing the Nash character he found, on a careful ex- 
 amination, that they were rabid in their denunciation of 
 abolition schemes. Therefore, no one of his neighbors 
 or kinsmen knew of his political sentiments until he had 
 declared for the Union when the news of the beginning 
 of the struggle became ratified. While a great many 
 who were now slaveholders espoused the same cause that 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. IOI 
 
 Alton did, but very few of his own class followed him 
 into the ranks of those who wore the blue. We say 
 followed because the others having been repressed by 
 popular sentiment had not dared to brave the wrath of 
 their fellow citizens till young Alton announced one day 
 in a short speech that he was going to fight for the old 
 flag, and gave his reasons for so doing. After that the 
 others took courage and announced themselves in a 
 similar way. 
 
 And the upshot of all this was that the Nash's turned 
 against him ; his mother, after she recovered from the 
 shook, attempted to quell his newly acquired sentiments 
 and positive demonstration by a threat of disinheritance, 
 and after a serious quarrel with his fiancee he rode away 
 to the army with those of like view amid the irate and 
 furious epithets then in vogue. His step brother, Hart 
 Emerson, pretending to sympathize with his views, had 
 feigned an attack of sore eyes as an excuse for not going 
 with him, and no one but Hart knew that the inflamed 
 appearance of the eyes was produced by a certain drug 
 well calculated for the purpose. 
 
 Now, it is a common failing of human nature that 
 they never know the value of anything they possess until 
 they lose it, especially through their own fault. This 
 well befitted the case of Miss Nash, who had dismissed 
 her lover in a fit of spontaneous political rage, which she 
 afterwards repented of. When she had calmed her 
 ruffled feelings and recovered from the tumultuous flow 
 
IO2 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 of ire that convulsed her, she admitted to the first of 
 those who broached the subject to her that she was 
 wrong, that her lover had as good a right to his opinions 
 as anybody else. Indeed, she compared, after her 
 romantic impulses had superseded her return to equipoise, 
 the brave, honorable action of her lover to that of Hart 
 Emerson, who lingered and loitered around the old place 
 long after the drug that gave the deceitful appearance 
 had been eradicated and all blemishes had disappeared. 
 But the war had come and gone and the aspect of things 
 had been changed. There was a constant influx of new 
 settlers arriving and settling up the still remaining tracts 
 of fertile land ; bold freebooters were pillaging unharmed, 
 and the crimes and outrages committed were a source of 
 shame to the old portion of settlers. The strong bodied, 
 half illiterate, God-defying, rugged featured, whisky guz- 
 zling haters of civilization who haunted the wild moun- 
 tain and preyed upon the fruits of others' toil, were, 
 according to popular belief, led and directed by the son 
 of one of the old pioneer planters, of which the semi- 
 civilized region was so proud. 
 
 The repressed silence of the meal continued unabated, 
 unbroken to the end, except a few subdued remarks 
 relating to the wants of those present asking each other 
 to pass them certain articles of food. Bill, noticing the 
 emotional traces on the faces of the two women, made 
 several attempts to speak, but some unseen power seemed 
 to bind his speech, and whatever he was going to say 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 1 03 
 
 never escaped his lips. He was not ignorant of the true 
 cause, however, for more than once there had been a 
 spirited dispute in regard to the continued attachment of 
 Emily for the man who was supposed to be the king of 
 the Ozark bandit league, whose headquarters were in the 
 wild region we have described. 
 
 Breakfast over, the three rose from their seats, and 
 while the two women were bustling- around making 
 preparations for rearranging the room, Bill opened the 
 east door of the dining room and looked out on the 
 beautious morning scene. The red glow of the approach- 
 ing sun cast a wierd, fantastic volume of light over the 
 gorgeously bedecked mountains, with their voluminous 
 sides covered with a natural growth of oak, poplar, cedar 
 and hickory, with their foliage of different hues contrast- 
 ing well with the scenic beauty of the valley below. The 
 river, wherever discernable, glowed like a freshly polished 
 mirror under the shadow of the mountains, the foliage of 
 the belt of timber that lined its banks having a deeper 
 tint added to them by the red glare of the sun. The 
 quaint old plantation house next the river bank looked 
 more quaint than ever in the glow of the morning, while 
 a rank volume of smoke emitting from the mouth of the 
 capacious old chimney and flowing upwards on the morn- 
 ing air, caused Bill to turn in the doorway with his back 
 to the casement and remark in a dry, matter of fact 
 tone : 
 
 "Guess the weather is going to continue dry and 
 warm from the way the smoke goes up. " 
 
IO4 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 "That will be- all the better for finishing the corn 
 harvesting, won't it, Billie ?" asked Mrs. Nash quietly. 
 
 "Yes, I think so myself," assented Bill in a restless, 
 chafing tone, "but I have other business to attend to at 
 present that I can't well postpone." 
 
 A dead silence of a moment's duration ensued, and 
 then as Nash turned once more for a view of the mingled 
 handiwork of man and nature, he assumed a belligerent 
 mien. He had been expecting a remark in regard to his 
 man hunting expedition, and did not relish it, although 
 he had fortified himself with what he considered sound, 
 logical arguments. But the two women also did not 
 relish any war of words, for they knew that it would only 
 result in making what they considered a bad matter 
 worse. 
 
 " I wonder why Hart don't come on," remarked Bill 
 presently. ' ' I have been expecting his arrival for more 
 than an hour." 
 
 Poor deluded Bill, what a poor judge of human 
 nature you are, with your mind surfeited by material 
 objects of worldly ambitions and illusions. You can't 
 see under the veil of outside polish that envelopes the 
 dark interior of your neighbor yet, many times as he has 
 deceived you. Many is the time he has thrown dust in 
 your eyes to prevent you discovering some hypocritical 
 movement of his, many the time he has laughed in his 
 sleeve to think how easily you were duped. You don't 
 know yet that his wily schemes for his own self interest 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 1 05 
 
 have worked well just because the majority of his neigh- 
 bors were like yourself, unable to penetrate his disguise. 
 This is consistency with a vengeance, is it not ? You 
 need not tarry this morning waiting for the appearance 
 of Hart Emerson, your eyes will never again rest upon 
 that animated lump of clay till the trumpet of the Arch- 
 angel awakens the dead from their long sleep. 
 
 -William." 
 
 Nash turned again with an inquiring glance. "What 
 now ?" he asked, in a slightly petulant tone, as he braced 
 his arms against the casements and stretched his full six 
 feet in the doorway. Bill was a good type of the pic- 
 turesque Southern planter, with his tall, long frame and 
 reddish brown mustache setting well in a rugged type of 
 features, out of which peered a pair of earnest, kindly 
 blue eyes. 
 
 It was Emily that spoke, addressing him. 
 
 "Promise me one thing before you go, won't you, 
 Willie ?" she said in a husky but firm tone, as she drew 
 a chair before her and braced one foot thereon. 
 
 "That depends on what it is," replied Bill, with an 
 irate gleam in his eyes. "You ain't going to detain me 
 by any useless arguments, I hope." 
 
 " Nobody said anything about argument, Bill," she 
 answered, in a half sorrowful, half irate tone. She 
 always called him William, Willie or Bill, according to 
 the mood that she was in when addressing him. Bill 
 never pretended to notice the change of the name, but 
 
IO6 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 it was not always that he gave special attention. Fre- 
 quently there were times when the women talked to him 
 about various topics when he would have his mind en- 
 grossed in other matters and he would reply only in 
 monosyllables. 
 
 Emily let this shaft fly in order to prepare him for 
 the reception of her plan. " I don't want to stir up any 
 unpleasant feelings, brother," she resumed, assuming a 
 milder tone. " I only want you to promise me that if 
 you should happen to run across him, if you should per- 
 chance engage him in combat, and should happen to get 
 the advantage, spare him for my sake, won't you, 
 Willie ?" 
 
 Nash gave a snort of irate impatience and took a step 
 or two toward his sister, his face clouded with a fretful 
 glow of wrath. But on taking another glance at Emily 
 and noticing the haunting sorrow in her eyes, and the 
 humble, tearful expression on the pretty face he stopped. 
 Now he was half ashamed of the irate demonstration 
 and drew back again, leaning against the casement. He 
 was melted, refined and softened into a tender sympathy 
 by that humble, pleading look. 
 
 " You seem to be sure that it is he," he said. 
 "Not that I am positive that it is," replied Emily, 
 brightening up at her brother's sudden change, "but I 
 am confident that if it is he it is all my fault. That is why 
 I am solicitous for his safety. Do you promise me, 
 Willie ?" 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. IO7 
 
 Bill seemed to be quite converted to her opinion, but 
 man like he was slow to admit it. He reflected a mo- 
 ment, during which time Emily stood impatiently await- 
 ing his answer, and half doubting the success of her 
 plan. 
 
 "Perhaps you are right, Emily," he assented present- 
 ly, assuming a kinder tone and expression, "I promise 
 you that I will spare him if he should fall in my power, 
 not only for your sake but for the sake of the old days 
 when we were all so happy together." 
 
 "And there speaks the Willie of old days, too," re- 
 plied Emily, coming forward in an exultant glow of ten- 
 der emotion and drawing his face down to her own and 
 kissing him. Then she stepped back, exclaiming : " Oh 
 God, I pray to thee day and night restore us from our 
 lost, ruined condition, restore once more the old happy 
 days, destroy the lurking devils that have divided us and 
 destroyed our happiness." 
 
 "Amen !" echoed Bill, solemnly. " God grant that 
 your prayer be fulfilled." 
 
 So Bill Nash, after waiting for Hart Emerson to put 
 in an appearance as long as he thought was necessary, 
 with a parting salute to his wife and sister standing on 
 the broad porch to see him off, wrapped his overcoat 
 tightly around him and strode rapidly down the path 
 leading to the stables. Very soon he had curried and 
 saddled his horse, and leading him out into the road he 
 mounted and rode away, slowly at first, while he knew 
 
IO8 THE MARSHALING OP THE CLANS. 
 
 the eyes of his loved ones were upon his retreating 
 figure, then when out of sight he put spurs to the met- 
 tlesome steed and dashed briskly away across the valley. 
 
 Now, while the mountaineers are leaving their homes 
 and traveling toward the scene of the proposed meeting, 
 it would be well for us to describe for the readers' benefit 
 a little incident that took place at the town of Ozark, 
 which lay like some ancient baronial castle, perched on 
 the side of the mountain, a beacon light of civilization 
 in the wilderness where the settlers were wont to con- 
 gregate for the purpose of obtaining needful home supplies, 
 swapping horses and exchanging news upon the subject 
 of agriculture and outlawry, the principal topic then in 
 vogue. Other modes of passing the time were invented, 
 such as playing marbles, pitching horse shoes and target 
 shooting. The latter, however seemed to be the principal 
 one of recent invention, for the young settlers of the 
 masculine persuasion were no sooner out of knee breeches 
 and had laid aside the implements of childish pastimes, 
 among which was always a toy pistol with which they 
 shot in imaginative hilarity many legendary ogres and 
 other goblins of the invention of ancient lore, than they 
 sought and obtained a real pistol that did more than 
 make a noise. With these they practiced almost daily, 
 now that there was a necessity for it, for the state of 
 affairs was getting so that one was justified in having 
 them ready for use. 
 
 The streets of the little mountain village were rapidly 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. IOQ 
 
 filling with a throng of excited men and riotous boys, 
 some sitting on their horses talking to little groups that 
 were standing,*while others stood in little knots about the 
 hitch rock talking and gesticulating, while others congre- 
 gated in front of the court house, rilling the air with ex- 
 cited shouts and vituperative mountain slang, giving vent 
 to their long repressed animal spirits in a noisy demon- 
 stration of excited wrath. A babel of irate voices of 
 different pitches of tone, the heavy thud of hoofs as 
 more men galloped through the streets and dismounted, 
 the noisy clatter of feet on the rickety old sidewalk, and 
 the general hurry and skurry of a busy day in town all 
 manifested that there was something unusual transpiring. 
 The merchants stood in their doors with half bewildered 
 expressions on their faces and dunned the passers for 
 their debts, and asked them to trade, as the case pre- 
 sented, while those who kept a stock of up-to-date fire- 
 arms were kept busy waiting on the man hunting element, 
 who determined not to be outstripped in the matter of 
 weapons. As fast as they were dealt out the purchasers, 
 after ordering a good supply of ammunition, would 
 repair to an old field, some three hundred yards below 
 the town, for the purpose of trying their new firearms in 
 a free-for-all target practice. The old field, although 
 under fence, was not under cultivation. It was the 
 former abode of an old negro who, by some chance or 
 other, had obtained his freedom, but who died about a 
 year before, leaving nothing to mark his earthly 
 
IIO THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 but the little old field in which stood next to the Western 
 edge a small frame shanty. Here the men, young, mid- 
 dle aged and old, came to watch the sport, the young 
 men ruthlessly tearing the roof of ths old shanty off for 
 target boards. 
 
 Very soon the fun began, and the welkin rang with 
 the whip-like snaps of the new class of firearms, which 
 were for the most part repeating rifles, a luxury some of 
 them had long denied themselves on account of the high 
 price. But the merchants, realizing thrt they would 
 clear a good profit by cut prices and quick sales, seized 
 upon the opportunity with' avidity. The crowd steadily 
 increased until the air became filled with Uie powder 
 smoke which drifted lazily off down the mountain and 
 formed a veil over the road which ran in serpentine 
 curves down the steep, rocky slope. 
 
 The smoke and timber together disguised the ap- 
 proach of two men on horseback. 
 
 The excited crowd did not notice them until they were 
 in close proximity, and then the two men stopped their 
 horses and cast furtive glances at the assemblage. Some 
 of the mountaineers were clustered around two young 
 men who had just arrived from the direction of the town, 
 and they all seemed to be firing a volley of excited ques- 
 tions at one of them, who was strenuously endeavoring 
 to satisfy them all. The other young man chipped in 
 and tried to help his companion answer the questions all 
 he could. 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. Ill 
 
 The distance between the road and the target ground 
 was only about twenty yards. The group of young men 
 stood back a little way towards the road to keep out of 
 the way of the whizzing bullets that hummed in the still 
 autumn air like a swarm of bees as the rifles cracked and 
 the smoke drifted. A lapse of perhaps a minute ensued 
 after the appearance of the two men who had not been 
 noticed by the little concourse who were under a heavy 
 strain of excitement. 
 
 Presently they were startled by a shrill voice behind 
 them emitting in defiant tones the following pointed 
 question : 
 
 " Hello, boys, gittin* ready for Another picnic, air ye? 
 I guess yer jist practicin' up so ye wont make any bauble 
 next time, ain't ye ?" 
 
 The group turned their gaze toward the road, some 
 of them recognizing by his voice before they did by their 
 ocular senses the noted tough and criminal, Milt Harper. 
 
 He was a low, thick set, swarthy complexioned, dark 
 eyed man, with thick, shaggy eyebrows, black hair and 
 thick prominent nose, and was smooth shaven at this 
 time, which gave him a meaner appearance than usual. 
 A small mouth with thin set lips was the only redeeming 
 feature of his visage, and at times they would close to- 
 gether so tight that they assumed a harsh appearance. 
 But the one prominent feature of his anatomy were his 
 large, flabby looking ears. 
 
 He was dressed in the usual garb of the dwellers in 
 
112 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 the mountain fastnesses, with a pistol belt strapped 
 around his waist and overcoat strapped to the hind part 
 of the saddle. A pair of saddle pouches protruded from 
 under the overcoat, and the horn handle of a hunting 
 knife from under his coat. 
 
 The reader has not guessed who the two young men 
 are who had just been surrounded and pelted by the 
 little concourse with such a rapid fire of questions. If 
 he or she has not, we had better inform them before we 
 relate what happened after the outlaw began his banter. 
 It was Clayton and Jack. They had ridden into town 
 with Ike and Jeff abogt the time that the shooting com- 
 menced, and when they had found out what was trans- 
 piring at the little old field they had started thither 
 without delay. The time for attending the meeting at 
 Washburn's prairie was yet an hour off, and as the dis- 
 tance was only about five miles up country toward the 
 state line, they knew there was plenty of time. 
 
 "By the great jumpin' Jehoshaphat, you're gittin* 
 sassy, ain't ye, Milt ?" exclaimed a rawboned, rugged and 
 red faced Irishman. "Be the shamrock that grew on 
 me great grandfather's grave, I say now, what kind o' 
 milk are ye suckin' now ? What brave man's baist have 
 ye roasted and ate ?" 
 
 A spasmodic guffaw of laughter greeted this sally, as 
 the Irishman was a noted wag, who often gave gratis ex- 
 hibitions of his witty humor. Encouraged thus, he con- 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 113 
 
 tinued, after the laughter had subsided enough to be 
 heard : 
 
 " Now, Milty, if ye be as big as ye feel I'd advise ye 
 to not waste any ammunition on this, yer opponents. If 
 ye be anxious to get thim outen the way, jist thry me 
 own plan wanst an' ye'll find it the easier way. Jist rear 
 up on yer hin' legs an' come down on 'em cawhollop an 1 
 smash 'em." 
 
 Another ringing peal of laughter convulsed the con- 
 course and added fuel to the already kindled wrath of the 
 object of mirth. 'Shouts of derision also were audible to 
 his auricular senses, and the dark, snaky eyes began to 
 gleam with wolfish passion. The second round of laughter 
 had subsided and given place to a derisive demonstration 
 when he, evidently compelled to find an outlet for his 
 wrath, shouted again and said : 
 
 "That's it, boys, laugh all ye kin. It's the only con- 
 solation you have, anyhow." 
 
 " What do you mean by that, Milt ?" ejaculated Jack 
 Dalton, stepping a few paces toward the tough and 
 assuming a threatening attitude. The balance of tlVfe 
 crowd, fearing trouble, moved up too. The outlaw did 
 not seem disconcerted by this sudden affront, but cried 
 out boldly, while a triumphant expression overspread his 
 countenance : 
 
 ' I mean that as far as we are concerned we don't 
 care how much ye practice ye can't scare us by yer noise. 
 Couldn't none of ye hit a steer ten steps from ye." 
 
114 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 " Pshaw, Milt, " retorted Jack, "I could hit one of 
 your ears as far as I could see it." 
 
 Harper, in a spirit of bravado, retorted back, thus 
 incited no doubt by another spasm of laughter that con- 
 vulsed the crowd : 
 
 <( Bet ye a fiver ye can't do it." 
 
 And before any of the bystanders could interfere Jack 
 jerked his pistol from its holster and fired. A cry of pain 
 escaped the outlaw, and he reeled in his saddle and would 
 have fallen but for his companion, who braced him in 
 the saddle with his gorilla-like arms, and when the shock 
 was over the two rode on, while the concourse knew that 
 Milt had not only lost his bet but his ear as well by the 
 trickling of blood that was visible on the neck of the 
 bully. 
 
 This incident added another topic of conversation to 
 those already inaugurated. When the concourse broke 
 up and went back in town they learned that Milt had 
 consulted a physician and had his wound dressed, but 
 that he was not subdued by any means. Every one who 
 knew him by sight as well as by reputation, knew that 
 he would seek vengeance the first opportunity that offered 
 itself. 
 
 Well, let us now go to Washburn's prairie and see 
 what is transpiring there in the little rocky glade, which 
 in reality it was. It lay at the base of one of the rocky 
 peaks of the Ozarks, from the top of which other peaks 
 and rugged curves of the range, among which were the 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLAXS. 11$ 
 
 twin peaks of Big and Little Bald, loomed up in their 
 wild, savage grandeur-like spokesmen for the other, who 
 seemed tacitly saying to mankind: "You will have to 
 strike many thousands of hard licks and go through a 
 world of tribulation before you subdue us." 
 
 The settlers, had they been in the habit of studying 
 the silent force of nature, might have acquiesced in this 
 silent language of the inanimate elevations of earth as 
 they congregated there under the boughs of a majestic 
 old oak that stood near the road that angled across the 
 little prairie and discussed the drawbacks and serious 
 checks to the progress and development of the country. 
 The rocks, the woods, the wild dingles and deep moun- 
 tain chasms seemed to be filled with the hosts of evil. 
 The gathering clans even now, while viewing with con- 
 scious pride and a sense of superiority their own numeri- 
 cal strength, seemed to think that the boulders that 
 studded the little grass-covered glade hid the forms of 
 lurking devils from the anxious, furtive glances they be- 
 stowed upon them. This was what gave the name of 
 prairie to the little opening on account of the luxuriant 
 growth of grass that nearly hid some of the smaller 
 boulders from view. The old spreading oak under which 
 the settlers were congregating was the place where the 
 stock during the summer months had been wont to come 
 for shelter from the heat of the day, and the grass was 
 beaten down all around like an oasis in the desert. The 
 opening, which was about a quarter of a mile square, was 
 
Il6 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 bounded on the North, East and South by the forest of 
 scrubby, gnarled oak that was usually found near the 
 peaks, while on the West side a thicket of hawthorn, 
 sassafras, persimmon and a scattered growth of oak sap- 
 lings hid from view the buildings of the Washburn ranch. 
 
 About a quarter to ten o'clock, the appointed time, 
 some fifteen settlers had arrived and sat around the old, 
 oak talking in low, muffled tones, lest some lurking 
 enemy be concealed behind the boulders in close prox- 
 imity. Aside from the rocks that afforded good places 
 for concealment, the grass which grew in places where 
 the soil was rocky in bunches, also could easily hide the 
 forms of dozens of men. A bad place for a secret coun- 
 cil surely. But the regulators had seemed to evince a 
 desire to begin operations near the settler's residence that 
 suffered the most at the hands of the freebooters in order 
 to coagulate the wrongs of the entire region there where 
 the most of the wrongs were inflicted, and add fuel to the 
 flame already ablaze by having the Washburns recite the 
 story of their long suffering forbearance and numerous 
 repeated losses. The elder Washburn, who was some- 
 what fond of rehearsing the incidents of the repeated- 
 raids, detailing every item thereof, was now reciting the 
 last one to his interested audience. 
 
 Suddenly there was a swift clatter of hoofs resound- 
 ing from both directions, and the road was suddenly filled 
 with men on horseback, riding at a brisk canter from 
 each side of the opening. The little group squatted^ be- 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 neath the boughs v^f the oak hastily rose to their feet, 
 and Washburn, ceasing his story, rose also and looked 
 up at the platoon of approaching regulators with a sigh 
 of satisfied gladness that the time of retribution had 
 arrived. The eyes of the long suffering settler eagerly 
 devoured the fierce looking, swift moving, roughly clad 
 forms of the mountaineers, who, with their broad 
 brimmed hats, heavy flannel shirts of russet brown, navy 
 blue and bright scarlet hues flashing from between the 
 border of their coats, which hung open at the breast, and 
 various colored trousers of rough, home-made yarns 
 tucked in their boot tops, and rifles of both old and new 
 patterns, presented a picturesque but formidable appear- 
 ance. Very soon they had ridden up and formed a group 
 in the road, exchanging greetings and remarks about 
 arriving all at once. Those that came from the West 
 were the denizens of a fertile tract lying back of the 
 Washburn ranch some four miles in extent, and covered, 
 except the openings made by the settlers, by a sparse 
 growth of timber and a thick, unbroken growth of grass. 
 Beyond that were other settlements far out of the range, 
 but there were also a few from these among the new 
 arrivals, and the faces of all present were lighted with 
 evident pleasure at the discovery of the numerical 
 strength of the band, for many new accessions from out- 
 lying settlements were noticed and commended. The 
 plan for action being already outlined, they had only to 
 await the appearance of their leaders and the roll call 
 
Il8 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 before beginning operations. The outlined plan of action 
 we will leave for a future chapter while we cull from the 
 conversation of the regulators some hints on the charac- 
 ters and ambitions of some of our actors. 
 
 The first dash of new arrivals was very soon suc- 
 ceeded by another one of smaller dimensions and more 
 scattered than the first, but this time they all came from 
 the East. The road made a circuit of some proportions 
 around another small peak just before reaching the 
 prairie, and then, emerging from the forest, shot out in 
 a Southwesterly direction across the prairie. The new 
 arrivals emerged from the forest into the opening in a 
 slow, scattering string, and when the foremost of them 
 had ridden up, the regulators recognized their leaders in 
 the persons of Alex. Dalton, Jeff Carlton and Bill Nash. 
 
 "You're a little late, boys," remarked Washburn, ex- 
 amining his watch by the dazzling light of the warm No- 
 vember sun. <4 It's a quarter past now." 
 
 ' ' Well, we got stirred up a little down there at the 
 town," remarked Dalton, riding close up to Washburn. 
 
 " What was it ?" inqui:ed Washburn. 
 
 Then, while the rest of the crowd was in uproarious 
 conversation and those that did not answer to the roll 
 call were being noted, Dalton related the incident of 
 Milt Harper losing his bet, with many ejaculations of 
 praise for the pluck and marksmanship of his son. 
 
 Jack, who with Clayton and several others rode up 
 behind Alex, and the other leaders, answered to his name 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. I IQ 
 
 and then gave his attention to an exchange of remarks 
 between Washburn and his father. 
 
 When Dalton had finished his recital and Washburn 
 had vouchsafed his opinion concerning the episode, Jack 
 and Clayton both listening, heard Washburn say : 
 
 "I don't like the looks of that feller, nohow. Seems 
 to me he's always up to some meanness or other, and 
 may be he deserved the punishment he got for his sassi- 
 ness. But I wonder what a man like Hart Emerson can 
 see in such a lookin' chap as him an' such a hard name 
 as he bears. I saw them together in town t'other day, 
 and when I accidentally run on 'em in that alley leadin' 
 to the hitch rack talkin' kind of low like, they looked at 
 me as black as thunder. Now, I always have heard a 
 good deal about Hart bein' a bad egg, but I thought to 
 myself I'd not believe it till I seed further. I guess he's 
 not here to-day, is he ?" 
 
 "No, he is not," replied Dalton, with a positive shake 
 of his head. "Bill told me that he waited till way after 
 sun up for him, but he never come." 
 
 4 'Well, it's nothin' new, anyhow," replied Wash- 
 burn. " Many times as we have called the roll he never 
 has answered to his name." 
 
 " Wonder what he could have been talking with Milt 
 about." 
 
 Washburn emitted a squirt of tobacco juice upon the 
 ground, and raising his hat scratched his head in a re- 
 
I2O THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 flective manner, trying to recall some item of the talk he 
 had interrupted. Presently he looked up and spoke 
 again : 
 
 "Wall, if my memory serves me right I believe I 
 overheard Hart sayin' this. That was before they saw 
 me, though : ' If it isn't enough, Milt, I can easily double 
 it for you. But I want the job done quick/" 
 
 Here some of the others, attracted by the remarks of 
 the two men, having their curiosity aroused by thf ~^n- 
 tion of Hart Emerson's name in connection with that of 
 Milt Harper, and rinding the regulators they had selected 
 for a talk uncongenial, came up and formed a listening 
 group on the ground,- while others, seeking congenial 
 company and who had not dismounted rode up and gave 
 their attention to the ensuing conversation between the 
 two old men. Bill Nash, who was in company with one 
 of the settlers living between there and his home, was 
 undergoing a revelation of enlightenment, and sat in his 
 saddle in a listless way, unheeding the repeated attempts 
 of his companion to rouse him by some interesting com- 
 ment into a sense of his presence. The sudden insight 
 into the interior of Hart Emerson's character was quite 
 a revelation to him, who had always believed in his in- 
 nocence. His mind as well as that of Jack and Clayton 
 readily grasped the pith of the old man's remarks. He 
 had been a believer in Hart's innocence of character, as 
 well as a believer in the identity and awful guilt of his 
 old boyhood's playmate, who had been reported killed at 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 121 
 
 the battle of Pea Ridge, and now that he had received 
 light upon the interior machinations of one of them he 
 was resolved to ferret out the mystery that^ surrounded 
 the other. 
 
 Amid the noisy babble of voices that ever and anon 
 rose to high, excited keys and then subsided into low, 
 muffled tones, inspired no doubt by fear of eavesdrop- 
 pers, Bill heard many muttered threats against the latter 
 mentioned object of his thoughts, and happening to 
 think of the promise made his sister he almost trembled 
 with a feeling of weakness when he thought of the 
 probability of the outlaw falling into the power of others. 
 He knew that the high pitch of frenzied wrath to which 
 the sturdy settlers were strung would require some quick 
 and cunning machination to prevent the destruction of 
 his old acquaintance. A feeling akin to terror seized 
 upon him when he noticed two of the regulars in the 
 group just ahead who were sitting with their legs cross- 
 wise in their saddles, and heard their direful threats 
 directed against the bandit chief. 
 
 "I tell you what, Abe," thundered Ben Thompson, a 
 massive, rugged mountaineer of forty, with big, ominous 
 looking eyes and a rather sardonic countenance, "the 
 sooner we do it the better for us all. I made up my 
 mind the last time he led his men over here, that is, I 
 mean the time before the last, I then resolved that if 
 somebody else didn't hunt him down and riddle him with 
 bullet holes I would do it myself," and there was a dan- 
 
122 THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 
 
 gerous gleam in Thompson's eyes as he brought his pon- 
 derous fist down on the pommel of his saddle to empha- 
 size his words, that boded no good to Tom Alton. 
 
 An assentive chorus of ayes greeted this demonstra- 
 tion, that was plainly distinguished above the babble of 
 voices that ebbed and flowed from a low to a high key 
 as their excited fancies dictated. Now rising to a frenzied 
 pitch, now subsiding on one side and rising at the same 
 time in another part of the concourse, the muttered im- 
 precations became thicker and faster, but were all of 
 them impressed upon the comprehension of the man who 
 was perhaps the only one present that entertained the 
 least thought of mercy for the object of malediction. 
 No scruples for law or the plan of extinction were stamped 
 on the countenances of the wrathful concourse, no 
 thoughts of showing mercy to the destroyers of their 
 peace and prosperity. And no one scanning the de- 
 termined wrathful faces aglow with wrathful zeal could 
 doubt for a moment that they would carry out all the 
 threats they made. 
 
 4 'The law- be damned," Bill heard some one say. 
 "We have got to make room for the law to act before 
 we can have any law. " 
 
 And viewing all the recent events transpiring since 
 the reports of recent outrages had come pouring in like 
 the ambulance wagons of a battle field, or the first bul- 
 letins of a national election, the denizens of the wild 
 
THE MARSHALING OF THE CLANS. 123 
 
 Ozarks were all with one accord confident that the law 
 of self preservation was their only hope. 
 
 The first shock of the upheaval was over, the settlers 
 had made up their minds, the officers of the law stood 
 aside, knowing well that the long pent-up storm of wrath 
 was breaking. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 Captain David Garnett sat by the fire in his favorite 
 chair smoking and talking. This had become a fixed 
 habit with Captain Garnett during the winter months of 
 the year. Having just turned his sixty-fifth year, and 
 fully feeling the departure of animal matter in his bones, 
 and not being compelled to exert himself for a living, he 
 was thoroughly enjoying the fruits of a long period of 
 arduous exertion in behalf of a competence for his old 
 age. No need for him to take any rough weather or 
 any arduous exertions now, for he was the owner of a 
 large plantation, a good bank account, besides a numer- 
 ous lot of graded stock, and also a large saw mill that 
 supplied the country with a good grade of lumber. Nu- 
 merous workmen were in his employ, who received a 
 high rate of wages and kind treatment. All of his chil- 
 dren save one were married and settled near by, and his 
 eyes were daily feasted on the smiling, happy faces of 
 little grandchildren who, when they were there, kept the 
 house in an uproar with their clamor and artless prattle, 
 while numerous guests also partook of his hospitality, 
 thus keeping the house filled with outsiders. But the 
 house was large and contained many rooms, and the old 
 
One of the robbers had his horse shot from under him, 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. I2/ 
 
 <aptaift, who loved nothing better than to sit by a cheer- 
 ful fire smoking his big old-fashioned wooden pipe and 
 reciting past reminiscences of his life to those of his 
 guests who he thought would listen, he was rarely in- 
 vaded when he expressed a desire not to be by the 
 juvenile forces that almost daily invaded the premises. 
 Frequent visits of the laborers on his pay roll were not 
 considered a breach of society, but received the same 
 courteous treatment as the well-to-do planters and drovers 
 that roamed up and down the picturesque White River 
 valley. To these the Captain was in the habit of talking 
 to for hours as the winter season approached, with its 
 sudden changes of temperature, its spasmodic flashes of 
 rain, suddenly changing to snow or sleet, its raw, damp, 
 windy days aud occasional periods of clear and sunshiny- 
 weather. Thus the old Captain, like some old patriarch 
 of olden times, was ensconced in the midst of worldly 
 emoluments that ought to have satisfied any reasonable 
 mortal, and had nothing to mar his serenity. 
 
 The room he was accustomed to occupy with his 
 guests was the room that was the Eastern terminus of the 
 house, with the usual high-shouldered, old fashioned 
 brick chimney that contained a fireplace both up stairs 
 and on the ground floor, the one the Captain was wont 
 to entertain his guests in. The room on the other side 
 of the anteroom was exactly like the one we have de- 
 scribed with a fireplace on the first as well as the second 
 floor, while the kitchen was in an "L" that jutted from 
 
128 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 the Eastern terminus. The "L" containing the kitchen 
 and dining room was surrounded by an array of low log 
 buildings that had been the quarters of the negroes dur- 
 ing the period of slavery, and also a large frame smoke- 
 house and other outbuildings of various sizes and material. 
 At the end of the broad corridor that spanned the "L" 
 from end to end stood the ponderous old bell, elevated 
 on a stout cedar post. The yard was studded profusely 
 with shrubbery, the large fine orchard lay adjoining the 
 yard, and at this season was shedding its ripening fruit in 
 liberal quantities upon the ground. 
 
 On the opposite side of the river the rugged outlines 
 of the Boston Range, a section of the Ozarks that 
 spanned the remaining territory of Missouri, the North- 
 western part of Arkansas and meandering away Westward 
 till they were lost in the mazes of the Western prairies, 
 could be plainly discerned of a cloudy day. The spec- 
 tators viewing from the opposite side the landscape of 
 the region saw a similar display, except that the base of 
 the hills was dotted with clumps and thickets of cedars, 
 and higher up an occasional glade through which the 
 road that meandered up the mountains ran. Just in 
 front of the Garnett house the road descended into the 
 main thoroughfare that traversed the valley. 
 
 About one hundred and fifty yards up the valley from 
 the house was a row of old log cabins, the former resi- 
 dences of the slaves that used to belong to Captain Gar- 
 nett. They were nearly of uniform size, built out of 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 12$ 
 
 round logs, and the cracks chinked with a mixed aggre- 
 gation of sticks, stones and wooden blocks and daubed 
 with mud. Some of them had chimneys, others only 
 parts of chimneys, generally part, or the whole of the 
 arch, while still others had a part of the stem. They 
 were rude affairs, constructed in the hasty manner of the 
 time before the art of chimney building was brought to 
 perfection, with an outside hull of wood, including a 
 layer of flat rocks, but the mortar used in their construc- 
 tion was of lime. The stems were run up with small 
 round sticks projecting a little above the comb of the 
 roof, which, unlike many of the pioneer cabins, was 
 somewhat steeply pitched. They stood just above the 
 road on a little grassy knoll, and were the quarters of the 
 plantation hands, while those at the house being the 
 servants' quarters. Besides the decimated appearance 
 of the chimneys, the cabins presented many other signs 
 of decay. The roof of one of them had been torn off 
 for the most part, except where the nails were driven un- 
 usually tight, and lay scattered in common with a collec- 
 tion of stones of various shapes, sizes and colors around 
 over the grassy knoll in an arrangement of juvenile play- 
 houses ; the mud and chinking were knocked from some 
 of the cracks, and one or two of them showed a number 
 of the logs in their construction to be nearly ready to 
 drop out with rottenness. The one that presented the 
 best appearance was the one that formed the Eastern 
 terminus. It had been built especially for the head man 
 
I3Q AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 out of walnut logs, which stubbornly repelled the exer- 
 tions of the elements to decay it. Its logs had been 
 striped of the bark before the erection, and the gray 
 walls loomed up in view as though they would remind 
 people of an era of which the old quarters were a monu- 
 ment, 
 
 Captain Garnett was one of the old pioneer settlers 
 of the valley, and had, after a long battle with the forces 
 of nature, wrested from their stubborn grasp a large 
 body of land with which to carry out a long cherished 
 plan. He had come South with the intention of becom- 
 ing a planter on a large scale, and had been successful 
 after a number of years of exertion, in which his for- 
 tunes varied from good to bad, and vice versa. He was 
 fond of relating this part of his history to his guests who 
 did not know of it, and many of them were regaled with 
 stories of his early struggles. There was, to begin with, 
 roving bands of Indians and outlaws to dread, the soil 
 to prepare for cultivation by fencing with rail fences to 
 keep off the intrusions of neighboring stock, and all 
 rough work of hewing out a farm in the wilderness, be- 
 sides the ruthless invasions of wild animals who ate up 
 the crops. No matter how much time and ammunition 
 was spent the overflowing gigantic aggregation of wild 
 animals that were then regarded in the light of pests did 
 not seem to decrease one bit. The wolf sent forth his 
 dismal wail from the very door of the settler's domicile, 
 while cftimes the settlers peered through the cracks that 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 131 
 
 served for windows of their humble residences and saw the 
 voracious animals tearing their sheep and devouring them 
 and could not help themselves. Next in order were the 
 freshets and overflows that tore all the fences out and 
 piled against the trunks of remaining trees huge, un- 
 wieldly piles of drifts, then when all this labor was re- 
 placed and a crop started, sometimes the crop pests 
 would destroy it, or an occasional draught cut it short. 
 But at last there came a change, and when the obstacles 
 one by one vanished or became less frequent the richness 
 of the land soon repaired all damages in several good 
 crops. This enabled the Captain to buy a good number 
 of slaves, after which he added a little more land and 
 established quarters for the new help. Then came a 
 reign of prosperity that made Captain Garnett one of the 
 wealthiest and most respected citizens of the country, a 
 position he held yet. 
 
 The Captain, like a great many others, became im- 
 bued with anti-slavery ideas, and as a consequence a few 
 years before .the war he had liberated his slayes. He 
 thought they would remain with him, as he had always 
 treated them well, but he was mistaken. All of them 
 but one had scattered out and settled in the various negro 
 settlements that had gotten their liberty. That one was 
 the head man, who remained there till this day, now 
 living in the best preserved cabin of the row, the one 
 that had been erected for him. 
 
 The old gentleman now had nothing to do but sit and 
 
132 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 recount his past experiences to the guests that daily 
 thronged that old fashioned Southern dwelling, whose 
 master as well as itself held a unique charm for all 
 visitors, both far and near, rich and poor, stranger or ac- 
 quaintance. No matter what sort of a life any one had 
 led, he was sure to be pleased there. No difference 
 whether it was the tourist from the aristocratic halls of 
 the East, or the Northern city man, or the well-to-do 
 planter, or the uncouth professional hunter, or the labor- 
 ing man, they all found a place where democracy and 
 pleasure united them. The Eastern patrician forgot his 
 wealth and lineage, the city sybarite his luxury, and all 
 blended together in a true democratic blend, discussing 
 various topics and listening to the Captain's stories. 
 
 The Captain had in his house as a protege the daugh- 
 ter of an old army comrade, one of his lieutenants, who 
 was killed in the battle of Pea Ridge, and who was an 
 old friend of his. Her name was Lottie West, and no 
 prettier girl made her home in White River valley. She 
 was of the brunette type, with lustrous curly brown hair, 
 dark hazel eyes, and pretty, round, plump features. A 
 sort of ruddy pink or dusky complexion, and a plump 
 little chin, with full red lips that could at times smile at 
 the gazes in a ravishing way, with a plump figure of 
 medium height, made her a girl to be admired at sight 
 and loved by many. However, it seems as though in 
 most cases it is the prettiest girl that is most easily duped 
 by slick tongued villains, as was evidenced later on in 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 133 
 
 the revealing of the numerous mysteries that engrossed 
 the minds of the people. 
 
 First, there was the mystery of Fannie Benton's 
 murder that never yet had been solved ; then there was 
 the mystery of Tom Alton's death that was yet to be 
 probed and confirmed. Then there was, for years before 
 the war, a crime that had never been traced to its true 
 perpetrators. It was the burning of a settler's house 
 over near the head of Swan Creek, for which a certain 
 man, an old bachelor living in the Fox valley region, had 
 been arrested and tried for, but was able to prove an 
 alibi after some trouble. Indeed, there were so many 
 mysterious crimes committed that the people had become 
 somewhat bored at hearing them mentioned. But at 
 times the people shuddered for their own safety, even 
 while in their own houses, and several ineffectual attempts 
 had been made to quell the lawless element, but the real 
 uprising had not yet taken place. 
 
 On the day of the appointed meeting of the regulators 
 at Washburn's prairie, Captain Garnett sat in his room 
 talking over the late war between the states with another 
 man, who had been in the Confederate army. The Cap- 
 tain had been one of . the few in the White River section 
 to espouse the cause of the Union, but he was no less 
 reverenced by his neighbors after the strife was over for 
 his stand. Often did the old soldiers of both sides meet 
 there on different errands and recount their thrilling ex- 
 periences. Sometimes there was a mixture of both, 
 
134 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 sometimes only one or the other was there, but this day 
 the sole occupants of the room consisted of Captain 
 Garnett and Dick Plummer. 
 
 While the Captain smoked and occasionally shifted 
 his position in his chair, Dick Plummer placidly rolled in 
 his mouth a quid of black navy tobacco, taking a time 
 about with the Captain in spitting into the fire, which 
 had died down to a few chunks and glowing embers, some 
 of them remaining poised on the massive old brass 
 andirons. The day was open without, as no sign of 
 rough weather was visible, but the air was laden with a 
 light, chilly haze that was not very pleasant to one of 
 the Captain's years, but Plummer, who was not yet fifty 
 and well preserved, did not mind it, as he had ridden 
 down from his own place further up the river for the 
 purpose of purchasing some of the Captain's fine four- 
 year old beeves. 
 
 The business had been settled, and the talk turned 
 into other channels. It was evident that the visitor had 
 some news to unfold by the restless manner he assumed. 
 Both men seemed in a hurry to have the deal closed, so 
 they could broach the subject that was nearly always 
 uppermost in their minds. 
 
 "I say, Cap," finally began Plummer, after spitting 
 into the fire and changing his position, <4 I say, have you 
 heard the latest tearup that took place ?" 
 
 The Captain looked at Dick with his large blue eyes 
 feigning well bred surprise he did not feel. These forages 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 135 
 
 of the lawless element were becoming so frequent and of 
 such gigantic proportions that they were nothing new. 
 
 " To what do you refer?" asked Garnett presently. 
 "Is Tom Alton and his men out on another round, or 
 some one murdered in cold blood and left lying on the 
 ground like Fannie Benton ? No, I haven't had a paper 
 for two weeks. I sent Andy to the office this morning for 
 the mail and he hasn't got back yet." 
 
 " I refer to the bank robbery at Girard, Kansas," re- 
 plied Dick with an evident show of pleasure at being the 
 first one in the valley to hear of it. " It seems like I am 
 the only one in the valley that has not been behind in 
 getting his mail. But about the robbery, it was this 
 way: About nine o'clock on the morning of the seventh 
 the robbers, ten in number, I believe, and without masks, 
 rode boldly up to the bank and dismoufited. As the 
 streets were at that particular time deserted, except for a 
 few who had ventured out for wood, the robbers got in 
 their work very quickly, and were just preparing to depart 
 when they were suddenly startled by the report of fire- 
 arms and the whizzing of bullets. Some of the store 
 clerks that had gone out for wood, surmising that the 
 crowd of men suddenly congregating there in front of the 
 bank building were robbers, and thinking of the reward 
 offered for the noted robber chiefs then plying their trade 
 throughout the West, had armed themselves and taken 
 a good position in an upper story of the store opposite 
 the bank. One of the robbers had his horse shot from 
 
136 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 under him and attempted to get away on foot, but while 
 his companions succeeded in getting away with the swag 
 this fellow was run down and captured. " 
 
 " And have they found out who it was that commit- 
 ted the robbery ?" asked the Captain abruptly. 
 
 " They have," replied Plurnmer, emphatically. "The 
 robber they succeeded in capturing agreed to turn state's 
 evidence, and was released after informing them what 
 particular band he was of." 
 
 "And what one was it," queried Garnett, with un- 
 mistakable interest. 
 
 Plummer hesitated a moment, trying to formulate the 
 answer in the best way. Presently he replied: "The 
 man they captured gave the name of Joe Martin and his 
 place of residence as Fox valley," and with a knowing 
 look he left the Captain to guess the rest. 
 
 "Ah ! Well, then it's the bloody Tom Alton and his 
 crew. " 
 
 "No, only a part of his crew," corrected Plummer. 
 * * It was him that led them in person, which leads me to 
 believe that Harper has led some other detachment on 
 another expedition which we have not yet heard of. You 
 know that is generally the tactics they pursue." 
 
 "Yes, yes; I'm sure you are right," assented the 
 Captain, knocking the ashes from his pipe in a reflective 
 way. "I think my paper will contain what you have 
 mentioned, and " 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 137 
 
 " It wouldn't surprise you if the next move was con- 
 ducted on a bigger scale, eh," finished Plummer. 
 
 "Exactly, exactly," rejoined the Captain, as he drew 
 his tobacco pouch from his coat pocket. "It just 
 strikes me that they have been so lucky about going un- 
 punished that they get a little bolder evety time. But 
 take care," he resumed with a look of determined fore- 
 knowledge, "it won't do for them to go too far, or the 
 ice might break. " 
 
 "Ah, Dave, you are more than right," assented Dick, 
 shifting his position again in his excitement, and emitting 
 another squirt of tobacco juice into the fire. 
 
 Before the Captain could reply the door opened and 
 Andy Garnett stalked into the room with his coat pockets 
 stuffed to the bursting point with mail. 
 
 "Now we'll see," said the Captain, excitedly, as he 
 and Dick both rose from their seats. 
 
 "Hello, Andy," said Dick in greeting, "Got any 
 news for us ? You see I've just been telling the Captain 
 all I know about the latest events, but I'm quite con- 
 fident I don't know it all yet." 
 
 Andy was busy laying out the mail on the gorgeous 
 stand table, and did not reply to Dick's query till he was 
 though. 
 
 "Why don't you answer him," said the Captain, a 
 little petulantly. 
 
 "When I can find a place to begin I will," replied 
 Andy, ' but there is some news that will set the hair on 
 
138 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 you. Here is a letter from Uncle Alex. You and 
 Dick find out for yourselves. I've got to have my dinner, 
 for I'm as hungry as a tramp," and Andy, after he had 
 finished laying out the mail, stalked out, followed by a 
 quizzical look from each one of the two old gentlemen. 
 
 And while Andy is satisfying the inner man with sub- 
 stantial edibles we will peruse the letter and see what the 
 plan of action as outlined by the regulators really was. 
 
 Captain Garnett's wife was a sister to the wife of 
 Alex Dalton, and there had passed a great many letters 
 between the two families that rarely ever contained any- 
 thing of interest. They were usually read and tossed 
 aside with wearied indifference, but the Captain, recog- 
 nizing a certain mark at the end of his name, knew that 
 Alex had written on business, and proceeded to open the 
 letter, while Plummer seated himself again. 
 
 "Here, Dick, take the paper and read it while I 
 read the letter," exclaimed the Captain, as though he 
 had been defective in politeness. Dick took the paper 
 and the Captain seated himself with the letter, which he 
 commenced to read. Presently an exclamation escaped 
 him, and Dick looked around inquiringly. The Captain 
 took his eyes from the letter and looked at Dick. For a 
 moment the language of the eye was in full sway. * 
 
 "Well, what is it ?" asked Plummer, quietly. 
 
 "Your prognostication has proven correct, Dick," 
 replied Garnett, unable to control his excitement. "I 
 only glanced over his letter to learn the gist of it, and it 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 139 
 
 is even as we thought, Worse, in my opinion. I'll read 
 it to you, for it no doubt concerns you as well as me." 
 
 " Go ahead, then," replied Plummer. "I'm all ears 
 just now." 
 
 The Captain even at that advanced age did not use 
 spectacles when reading, nor for anything else for that 
 matter. He was a rapid reader, and no one listening 
 could find any fault with his pronunciation, which was 
 clear, concise, and distinct. 
 
 "Here it is in a nutshell," he said, and began to 
 read : 
 
 "OzARK, Mo., November 9th, 1873. 
 
 "Dear Brother: I seat myself to write you on a 
 little matter of business, hoping you will be prompt in 
 complying with it as usual. The last letter we mailed 
 you told you that everything was sailing smooth, but we 
 are just now having a little rough sailing. I have some 
 news to tell you this time, news that will startle you and 
 make your fighting blood fairly boil. Well, Dave, to 
 begin with, we have been raided again, and this time I 
 think they have put on the straw that broke the camel's 
 back.. And I am confident from the way things are 
 going now that this will be their last. You know, Dave, 
 that there must be an end to all things, and I think the 
 end of Tom Alton's reign has come, or that is I mean 
 the beginning of the end. Well, the long and the short 
 of it is this : We've been raided, and the law of self 
 preservation is our only show. The rope, the rifle and 
 
I4O AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 firebrand are our arbiters. That is strange talk for a 
 substantial American citizen to indulge in, is it not? But 
 look ye, Dave, what else can we do? What kind of a 
 country have we got that we can't get no protection ? 
 We must make room for the law to .act before it can be- 
 gin its action, and the sooner we do it the better it will 
 be. Now, then, for the items of interest which I sup- 
 pose you will get in your paper. While we were away 
 shipping a drove of cattle the Alton gang swooped down 
 on us and killed the cwo range riders, Flint and Riley, 
 and drove off about fifty c f our steers. Then, having a 
 chance to wreck their vengeance on poor Carlton, as he 
 was away in Kentucky and his family at my house, they 
 burned his buildings to the ground and stole four of his 
 best horses. They left a note sticking to a tree up there 
 warning us that if we attempted any summary means of 
 redress we would i>e served likewise. Now, Dave, don't 
 smash any of the furniture when you come to this, for I 
 will just write a sentence that will be a world of meaning 
 to you who understand it : We are going to Blanton's. 
 The time has come for action, has it not ? And now, 
 Dave, I want you to be ready to receive me and fifteen 
 picked men next Wednesday night, and lodge us, and 
 also raise as many men as you can there. We will meet 
 at Washburn's Tuesday and form farther plans for action, 
 after which we will pick out fifteen good men to take 
 along to the Territory. Then we will choose two good 
 men to send as spies to Fox valley. So long, will tell 
 you more when I get there. Yours in haste, LEX D." 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 14! 
 
 For a moment silence reigned supreme in the room, 
 while the two men gazed into each other's eyes in speech- 
 less and astonished excitement. Plumrner ceased the 
 shifting of his quid while Garnett forgot for a moment 
 the craving for his pipe. It seemed too preposterous for 
 belief, and yet there it was in black and white, written 
 in bold round characters. Alex knew the Captain's tem- 
 per well, and his admonition was well directed, for as 
 the Captain's astonishment wore away and his mind had 
 digested the facts set forth, he jumped to his feet and 
 strode excitedly around the room. 
 
 "Easy, Dave, easy," exclaimed Plurnmer, also rising 
 to his feet. The Captain when excited looked so dan- 
 gerous that even his friends could hardly repress a little 
 fear for their own personal safety. 
 
 Dick grabbed up the paper again and scanned its 
 columns for headlines on the subject. 
 
 "Here, Dave," he said, "wait a moment and let us 
 see what the paper says." 
 
 His eye caught these flaming headlines : 
 
 "Joseph H. Martin tells a few secrets. Reveals tha 
 personal appearance of the Fox valley robber chief. 
 Milt Harper's testimony evidently false." 
 
 "Now what," exclaimed the Captain, coming up and 
 looking on the paper where Dick pointed with his finger. 
 
 "Look there," said Dick. "Our doubts will no 
 doubt be eradicated now and we will surely learn for 
 
142 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 sure whether the description that is in the hands of all 
 the sheriffs in Misouri and Kansas is concise." 
 
 " Read it," said Plummer. -'You can beat me at 
 that." 
 
 "I won't stop to argue that point now," said Garnett 
 as he took the newspaper and seated himself again, while 
 Plummer did likewise. Garnett repeated the subject 
 printed in flaming headlines, the editor, no doubt with a 
 view of attracting the subscriber's attention to this item, 
 which was one that the settlers wished to be positive of, 
 had intentionally printed the headlines with the largest 
 and plainest type at his command. 
 
 " The captured bank robber now detained at Girard, 
 Kansas, has revealed a good many things that have long 
 been a subject for doubt and discussion. He says that 
 he is not an outlaw at heart and that he was only insti- 
 gated by motives of self protection in joining the gang. 
 Here is the interview that took place between him and 
 Sheriff Canfield : 
 
 " 'Why did you think you were compelled to join 
 them in order to protect yourself ?' asked the sheriff. 
 
 " 'From their threatening manner toward me. I had 
 come into the region and settled unwittingly in the midst 
 of a desperate outfit. They assumed a belligerent atti- 
 tude toward me from the first, but I paid no attention to 
 that for a while. Of late, however, I heard serious re- 
 ports of threats to burn me out, and thought that I would 
 have to take some measures to protect myself and family 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 143 
 
 till I could get away. I did not tell my wife about my 
 proposed plan, which now seems foolish to me. But I 
 had for some time wanted to visit this part of the coun- 
 try, and took these means of doing so.' 
 
 ' ' ' Then you fully intended to restore your part of 
 the booty ?' 
 
 " 'I did. I learned a great many of their secrete, 
 and one of them was that they always went to Blanton's, 
 a ranch in the Territory, for refuge and recreation just 
 after a raid. Blanton, who is a noted desperado him- 
 self, and has two sons, Joe and Alf. who are just as bad 
 as he, generally has around him a crowd of that sort 
 who are dodging the detectives and sheriffs. They will 
 doubtless have a big time there now. ' 
 
 " 'And do you think that all the stolen stock that the 
 Alton gang and others take out of the states all goes to 
 Blanton ?' 
 
 " 'Yes I do. That is probably the reason why the 
 horse thieves that are raiding this state are lucky about 
 their maneuvers. They operate under Blanton's direc- 
 tions, which is this way: Blanton and his crew meet them 
 somewhere out here in the sparsely settled districts and 
 exchange them horses of an inferior grade for the stolen 
 ones, and then when they happen to be overhauled and 
 the horse they are riding is different and of inferior 
 quality, and no money is found on the person of the 
 suspect showing that he had traded the stolen animal for 
 another of less value, receiving boot, all evidence dis- 
 
144 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 appears, the captive is freed and has a horse of his own 
 to do as he pleases with.' 
 
 " 'What, in your opinion, do you think will the Mis- 
 souri regulators do now ?' 
 
 4 * ' That is a hard question to answer. The regulators 
 are wise enough to keep their own counsel, and they 
 probably have done things that remain a secret till now.'" 
 
 Then the paper had this to say about the interview : 
 
 ''Mr. Martin's testimony, no doubt, throws a whole 
 flood of light on the mysterious machinations of the 
 crooked element of the country. We trust it will result 
 in a final restoration of law and order, as the officers of 
 the law have been frustrated in their designs by the clever 
 way* the crooks have of eluding suspicion. We have no 
 force of trained detectives dogging their footsteps like 
 they do in the large cities, and as they have more room 
 to act in and but few to watch them, they have been so 
 far having things pretty much their own way." 
 
 "So they have," exclaimed the Captain, folding the 
 paper and letting it rest on his lap while he felt for his 
 pipe and tobacco. "So they have," he repeated again, 
 "but I think the end is coming soon." 
 
 Fortunes and misfortunes always seem to come en 
 masse, and the minds of those whose eyes rested upon 
 these lines were comprehensive of an awakening and a 
 clearing up of the several mysteries. The story of Jason 
 Palliser's disappearance, although known by the people 
 of their neighborhood, was not known by many living at 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 145 
 
 a distance. The Garnetts knew about it, and some of 
 their intimate friends, but the great central satellite of 
 all the mysteries was the one that surrounded the bandit 
 chief of Fox valley. 
 
 "Don't light till you've finished the piece, Dave," 
 suggested Plummer. 
 
 The Captain obeyed, and laid his pipe down, taking 
 up the paper again. 
 
 "Let's see how much more there is to be said. Oh, 
 we're just now coming to the most interesting part." 
 
 "'How about the description of the Fox valley 
 leader,' asked the sheriff. 
 
 " ' Oh, as to that I can enlighten the public a little in 
 regard to that, too. He is above the average in stature, 
 and is dark, with bold, rugged features, and is a perfect 
 model for a bandit king.' 
 
 11 'Then the description given by Milt Harper is in- 
 correct, is it not ?' 
 
 " 'Very much so,' replied Martin. 'He requires no 
 oath of allegiance, but it requires a stout heart to turn 
 traitor to the band, as the turncoat is always, when 
 caught, put to death or tortured unmercifully." 
 
 " 'Then they are of the stuff that the merciless free- 
 booters are that figure in all these stories and novel's, are 
 they not ?' 
 
 " 'Pardon me.' replied Martin, with a little show of 
 impatience. 'What is there to scoff at in the pictures 
 drawn by the novelist ? Why, if there are people who 
 
146 AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 
 
 murder by inches and people who are not following the 
 trade of pillage who get mad and slay their fellow man 
 in a passion, then why shouldn't these merciless cut- 
 throats, who are filled to the brim with the spirit of the 
 devil, take off and clip out all the weak kneed members 
 in the brutal manner I have mentioned ?' 
 
 " 'You are doubtless correct/ replied Canfield, 'but 
 does the chief generally superintend that part of it in 
 person ?' 
 
 " <No, that is generally consigned to a few who do ( 
 not mind killing a man any more than they do a fox.' 
 
 ' * * Well, are you not afraid to venture back there 
 now ?' inquired Canfield. 
 
 " * I will probably get back and get my family away 
 before they get hold of this,' replied Martin. 'I will go 
 in under cover of darkness and come out the same way. 
 They don't travel about much of a night since the organi- 
 zation of the stranglers, for the latter are ever on the 
 lookout, and if I should happen to fall into their hands 
 the stranglers would doubtless rescue me before they 
 could harm me.' 
 
 "Thus ended the interview between Sheriff Canfield 
 and the captured bank robber. Joe Martin will probably 
 be rewarded with something else besides his liberty, as 
 he ought to be for this manly defiance." 
 
 "What do you think of that, Dick?" asked the Cap- 
 tain, as he nervously laid the paper on the stand and felt 
 
AN AGGREGATION OF STARTLING NEWS. 147 
 
 again for his pipe in his pocket. "I wonder what's gone 
 with my pipe ?" 
 
 ''You laid it on the table," said Dick, with an amused 
 smile. "What do I think of that, do you say? Why, 
 I think we are going to have a lively time of it for a while, 
 something like the time when you and I were against 
 each other. This time we'll both be on the same side 
 of the fence, won't we, old man ?" 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 Andy Garnett was a 4)ig, strapping fellow, weighing 
 not less than one hundred and seventy-five pounds, with 
 a slim, dark face, a pair of dark, mellow looking eyes 
 and big, black mustache, with hair of the color of the 
 raven's wing. He was handsome, with that dark brigand 
 sort of beauty that all women rave about. His carriage 
 was of a loose, swinging sort, but of rather slow move- 
 ment, although he could hold his own with any of the 
 other young men in the athletic feats of riding in the 
 tourney, playing ball, wrestling and jumping, which were 
 the usual modes of enjoyment.. Andy, unlike the Cap- 
 tain, rarely ever sat in a chair, only while eating his 
 meals. He was fond of bustle and activity and out-door 
 exercises, and would sit for hours at times with one leg 
 over the pommel of his saddle talking to some other man 
 he happened to meet in his meanderings. But he was 
 accustomed to strange, sullen moods which were often a 
 source of unpleasantness for the other members of the 
 family, and outsiders included. When in one of these 
 tantrums he would, when addressed, reply only with a 
 surly grunt, which, however, as we can not spell it, we 
 will say took the form of a request for a repetition of 
 
Tb* two boys stood with open-mouthed wonder at the expression 
 on his face. 
 
A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 whatever was said, and then when repeated a surly, 
 evasive reply generally was the answer which caused the 
 one trying to be congenial to desist. But when in good 
 humor there was no better fellow living than Andy 
 Garnett. 
 
 Andy, like all other boys of Southern breeding, 
 treated every other white boy of respectable tendency 
 with respect, but some way or other had a particular 
 spite at negroes. Perhaps it was the unthankful manner 
 which the exodus of the slaves was made in, perhaps it 
 was an inborn quality generated from the knowledge of 
 the superiority of the white race and the inferiority of the 
 black that made Andy harsh towards the black people. 
 His harshness was generally confined to the old negro 
 that lived in the old quarters and his two sons, who were 
 employed as occasion demanded in laboring about the 
 place. 
 
 But the colored people are not altogether devoid of 
 gratitude any more than any other race. Out of love 
 and respect for the Captain, old Uncle Lige had remained 
 to spend his remaining years in his service, while the 
 others, who had been imported from the cotton fields of 
 Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, and had been used to 
 brutal treatment, had become rather unruly in spirit and 
 devoid of sympathetic tendencies, had seized with avidity 
 their chance of free and unrestrained liberty of action 
 and scattered out. Not one of them had ever showed 
 up at the Garnett homestead since. Old Uncle Lige was 
 
A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 w6nt to make a good many comments on their departure, 
 but the Garnetts had taken it rather easy, as they were 
 well posted enough to know just what prompted the 
 exodus. But they never wearied of the faithful old 
 negro's Comments, as they afforded them not a little 
 satisfaction and amusement to listen to the uncouth 
 philosophy of Uncle L.'ge, whose woolly pate was not 
 entirely devoid of logic. 
 
 The fall work had been over with for a couple of days 
 and the old negro and his better half were enjoying a 
 visit to some of their relatives farther up the river, leav- 
 ing the two boys at home. The two boys were aged 
 respectively sixteen and thirteen, and were that age when 
 the sluggish animal nature in man seems to suck every 
 particle of enjoyment from life there is in it. Whether 
 they be white or black, red or yellow, rich or poor, high 
 or low, the happy pulsations of youtli are preferable to 
 the highest worldly success, and there are doubtless many 
 to-day that would give a goodly quantity of their worldly 
 goods for one more draught from the fountain of youth. 
 To drink once more from the old oaken bucket that hung 
 in the well, or the rusty tin cup that sat by the sparkling 
 fountain, and dream over once more with every nerve 
 and fibre of the system, every cockle of the heart pulsat- 
 ing with joy, is no doubt the longing desire of many 
 whose hearts are surfeited with worldly ambition. The 
 negro boys no doubt had their dreams of some future 
 worldly emolument this day as they dozed, one on one 
 
A LOVERS QUARREL. 153 
 
 side and one on the other side, of the fireplace on a 
 pallet of coarse woolen blankets and home-made com- 
 forts, with numerous grotesque blocks and figures of dif- 
 ferent hue. The fire I ad burned low, the door was shut 
 and bolted to keep out the cool, raw air and intruders, 
 while the old brass clock, elevated on a stout shelf in 
 the corner next the door, struck off the hours with its 
 ghostly clanging strokes, awakening the boys out of their 
 doze. 
 
 The hours passed and tha boys dozed, ever and anon 
 turning over from one side to the other. Some hogs in 
 quest of a change of diet, perhaps, strayed up in the 
 yard and rooted around the cabin, uttering their heavy 
 grunts and nearly shaking the building with an occasional 
 combined chorus. But the boysdozed on, unmindful of 
 anything as the hours passed and the sun crept steadily 
 toward the Western horizon. 
 
 Bye and bye the clock struck again. The two lads 
 awoke with a start. The sun was throwing a little 
 streak of light through a small rent in the wall, the old 
 clock closed its clang and the boys gave a tremendous 
 yawn and lay down again, after one of them had grabbed 
 the poker and stirred the fire. 
 
 But before they were again enveloped in slumber 
 their ears caught the sound of footsteps at the door, and 
 presently a thunderous knocking. 
 
 They rose hastily, and while one of them stirred the 
 
154 A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 fire a little more the other hastily gathered up the bed 
 clothes and piled them on the bed. 
 
 "Boys, wake up in there, I want you," they heard 
 some one say. They knew it was \ndy, and that is why 
 they were desirous of eliminating all signs of their in- 
 dulgence. "Come, tumble out, tumble out, you black, 
 lazy devils," came again in stentorian tones. " Open up, 
 quick ; I want to talk with you a little, and I'm in a 
 hurry." 
 
 "All right, Mistah Andy, weer heer, " answered the 
 younger lad, and opening the door he continued, "Come 
 in, Mistah Andy." 
 
 Andy stalked in unceremoniously and helped himself to 
 a seat, while the two boys stood in open mouthed won- 
 der at the expression on his face. Never before had they 
 seen Mistah Andy look so pleasant and sociable. 
 
 "Sit down, boys; I am in a hurry, and I want to talk 
 with you a little," he said, good naturedly. 
 
 The boys, still wondering, obeyed. 
 
 ' ' Now, boys, " he began in nervous haste, ' ' I want 
 to make a little bargain with you, if it suits you. I want 
 you to haul up a load or two of good dry wood here, and 
 cut it up, and when you have done with that, if you will 
 leave here and let us have the shanty to lodge a party of 
 men in next Wednesday night, I Vvill give you five dol- 
 lars. Do you agree ?" 
 
 The two lads gazed at bio 7 , in. awe struck silence for 
 
A LOVER'S QUARREL. 155 
 
 a moment, which tried Andy's patience. Presently the 
 elder lad replied : 
 
 ''What de mattah, anyhow, Mistah Andy?" 
 
 "Well, it is this," replied Andy, hoisting one of his 
 knees and bracing it with his hands, "we are forming 
 a wolf hunting party, and there will be so many of them 
 that we can't lodge all of them in the house and must 
 quarter them elsewhere. Do you agree?" he added, with 
 a little show of petulance. 
 
 Then the two boys began debating the question, while 
 Andy was revolving his thoughts in his mind and thinking 
 it queer that they did not jump at the chance of obtain- 
 ing the five dollars. He satisfied his conscience by 
 reasoning that the wolves they were going to hunt were 
 the two legged sort, and he had not lied on that point, 
 but he thought perhaps the boys would suspicion some- 
 thing wrong from the fact that white people did not 
 lodge in negro's quarters, and feared a string of ques- 
 tions that would bother and delay him. But the boys, 
 after an exchange of opinions on the subject, agreed, and 
 to his delight said no more. He was securing the shanty 
 for the purpose of holding a council of the regulators in, 
 where they could secretly map out their plans. 
 
 And he had mapped out a plan of action for himself, 
 which was as follows : After he had made the bargain 
 for the shanty, he would go back to the house and seek 
 Lottie West's society long enough to dare his fate and 
 tell her his love. For a long, long time he had been in 
 
156 A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 love with her, in fact ever since she had come there, a 
 girl of twelve summers, with short dark curls and lovely 
 innocent eyes. Lottie was something of a flirt though, 
 and played with the hearts of a great many lovers. Per- 
 haps it is an inborn instinct with all pretty girls, but 
 Lottie had other good qualities that more than counter- 
 acted for any bad ones she possessed. She had her weak 
 points in her nature like every one else, and one of these 
 was a spiteful, vengeful nature that was liable to cause 
 her t^puble at no distant day, and as events proved she 
 only escaped by the intervention of providence. 
 
 Andy had always been jealous of the other fellows 
 that paid their addresses to her, but they had one by one 
 discovered the hopelessness of their case and dropped off, 
 leaving the field to a young store clerk in Galena, and 
 young Garnett. Andy had accidentally discovered that 
 Lottie was in love with him, and laughed at the pre- 
 sumptuous manner assumed by Bob Willis, whom he 
 greatly disliked. However stubborn a girl may be, there 
 are times when love mounts the throne and sways the 
 sceptre, and cupid has many subtle ways of uniting two 
 hearts he has desired to unite. Lottie was an icicle at 
 times, but there were times when the fire of love burned 
 strongly. When alone she was wont to hum snatches of 
 love songs while at work, and one day she let the cat out 
 of the bag by singing a song of her own making. There 
 were other ears besides hers that heard it, a<nd Andy 
 knew well that he was the subject. So he bided his 
 
A LOVER'S QUARREL. 157 
 
 time, and as yet he had not screwed his courage to the 
 sticking point. 
 
 This very evening he had vowed to make the plunge, 
 and as soon as he had closed the bargain with the boys 
 his intention was to seek her. He was going away on a 
 dangerous expedition, and needed something to brace his 
 courage a little. A man may have all else the world 
 affords and yet lack the love of a good woman, and he 
 is not content. So, about half an hour from that time 
 he knocked on the door of Lottie's room and was ad- 
 mitted to her dazzling presence. 
 
 Andy, as he glanced at her face, plainly detected a 
 .triumphant expression thereon, and it puzzled him not a 
 little. Blinded as he was by his love for her, he had not 
 discovered her grand fault yet. That was her vengeful 
 nature. She was somewhat like the description given by 
 the little girl of her pet kitten awfully pretty, but had 
 briers in her paws. But the triumphant look soon 
 vanished, and she took a chair close to the window and 
 smilingly pointed him to another. 
 
 Andy tossed his hat on the carpet, and the first thing 
 Lottie knew he was seated close to her, looking with his 
 dark, mellow eyes into hers with a wistful expression in 
 them. 
 
 " Lottie, " he. began abruptly, 4< Iam going away on 
 a trip that will be full of danger, and I want you to tell 
 me something. I want to know something I have wanted 
 to know for a long time. Tell me, Lottie, is it me you 
 
1 58 A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 love or that young Willis that is coming to see you ? I 
 believe on my soul that you love one of us, but which ?" 
 
 "Oh, what a silly question, Andy," she replied, with 
 a nervous little laugh. "Why, what has got into you. 
 to come here making love to me now, after I have been 
 here year after year and you paid me not the slightest 
 attention, except going with me to entertainments when 
 there was no one else to go with." 
 
 "I'd like to know when I ever had a chance to pay 
 you any attention," he answered, encouraged to perse- 
 vere by the speech and manner of the girl. "You were 
 always in company with so- many admirers I had no 
 chance to get in a word edgewise. Besides that, Lottie, 
 I was afraid that if I were too familiar you might take it 
 for the attentions of a brother. You know you are my 
 foster sister, and I, as your senior by a number of years, 
 might have exercised the rights of a brother and forbid 
 the house to a few of your admirers who, to tell the 
 honest truth, were of ill repute. But I never meddled 
 with you in anything, did I ?" 
 
 "No," came the answer in a slightly tremulous tone. 
 The girl's eyes fell beneath his gaze. Some inner emotion 
 was evidently beginning to stir. 
 
 But one may live a long time with another beneath 
 the same roof and then not know the interior emotion of 
 the other by the exterior appearance. Andy was flattered 
 with the idea that the girl was capitulating, and con- 
 tinued : 
 
A LOVER*S QUARREL. 159 
 
 "Now, Lottie, do you remember the time you came 
 here ? Do you remember the time I came into the 
 kitchen and saw you there helping with the cooking when 
 we had an overflow of visitors that time. Well, I have 
 loved you ever since that time. And I have been odd 
 and distant to you ever since because I wanted to let you 
 grow up without looking upon me in the light of a brother. 
 Often when you were in a sociable mood I repelled you 
 on that account, and nothing else." 
 
 Andy broke off and waited for an answer, with an 
 effort to keep the raging fire within from melting off the 
 shell of his self composure. His eyes watched the girl's 
 face with a hungry eager light in them. Lottie sat with 
 averted eyes a moment, and her bosom was heaving with 
 passion. What man would not have been encouraged? 
 
 "What is it, Lottie?" he asked, tenderly, "you are 
 agitated. " 
 
 Lottie made a desperate effort at self contvol, but was 
 only partially successful, as she answered: "You made 
 a grand mistake there, Andy. By your cold neglect, which 
 I took to mean that you were proud, and shunned me 
 because I was only a poor girl, dependant on your father 
 for bread and a home, I have been all the time under the 
 impression that I was nothing to you. But let us end 
 this interview, Andy, for it can only bring pain and 
 trouble to us both." 
 
 "What do you mean, Lottie?" he asked abruptly. 
 
 "I mean," she replied, "that you have said enough 
 
160 A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 for this time. Your insinuations are quite unbearable.'' 
 
 1 ' My insinuations ?" he asked in a puzzled tone of 
 voice. <( Please tell me what you mean, Lottie. You 
 are nettled at something I have said." 
 
 The kitten was now ready to show the briars in her 
 paws. Woman like, she desired a complete and uncon- 
 ditional surrender, a thorough dissolution of her lover. 
 "I mean that you have insulted me by insinuations that 
 I kept company with men of ill repute. How can you 
 hope to be successful in love making by such ugly talk 
 as that ?" 
 
 "But you didn't know it as I did, Lottie," he replied 
 suavely. "I know you have a horror of that class of 
 people, but let me tell you what my old grandmother 
 used to say about men in general. She said if every- 
 thing men folks had done were found out on them not 
 many of them would be out of the penitentiary, and I 
 think she was a little more than half right, too. " 
 
 Lottie gave a ringing peal of laughter, and rose from 
 her seat and paced the room in a fit of nervous abstrac- 
 tion for a moment. She was evidently distressed. She 
 spoke not again, but paced up and down the room in 
 evident effort to control her feelings long enough to put 
 an end to the interview. What came out later was enough 
 to upset her, for she was engaged, to one man and loved 
 Another. 
 
 Finally the hopeful lover had his hopes dashed down. 
 
 'You believe all that rot then, do you, Andy?" came 
 
A LOVER'S QUARREL. 161 
 
 to his ears as he sat looking out of the window at the 
 picturesque outlines of the Bonton Range, watching the 
 light fade out over the landscape. Lottie continued in a 
 tantalizing tone, her vengeful desires not yet satisfied : 
 1 ' Why, what do you think is the matter with my be- 
 trothed husband ?" 
 
 Andy sprang up like he had been shot, and almost 
 shouted in wrathful tones : * ' Then you are engaged to 
 Bob Willis, are you ? Why couldn't you have told me 
 that and not kept me here making a fool out of myself." 
 
 He took up his hat from the carpet were he had 
 thrown it, and made as though he was going, but some 
 inward prompting stayed his feet, some spirit of good 
 seemed to whisper that all would come right in the end. 
 His ire had been aroused, and he thought how strange it 
 was that an object of love could by the subtle forces of 
 nature suddenly be turned into one of hate. If human 
 love was as strong again as it is it would not protect us 
 against the darts and stings of the unruly tongue which 
 is set on fire of hell, with a squad of satan's soldiers 
 intrenched behind. Andy loved the girl without a doubt, 
 but love rarely ever engulfs and destroys the other evil 
 propensities. 
 
 "I don't see for my part what you can fancy about 
 that little spindleshanked upstart," Andy continued merci- 
 lessly. "I have, I admit, been jealous of all the beaus 
 you ever had, but I have been doubly so of him. One 
 reason was because he was courting the girl I loved, an- 
 
1 62 A LOVER'S QUARREL. 
 
 other reason was that he had such a mean, snaky look, I 
 actually despised him. Then he seemed to take on so 
 many airs that one would think he was sole heir to old 
 Grandfather Alton's buried hoard." 
 
 His reference to this was a common one used by the 
 people who knew about it to denote great wealth. The 
 old Alton hoard, if ever found, would certainly make 
 some one very rich. 
 
 Lottie pointed to the door and said, not authorita- 
 tively but entreatingly : "Go, Andy; go and leave me 
 alone. I don't want to quarrel with you, but I certainly 
 will if you keep on like that." 
 
 Andy stood with his hand on the door knob trying to 
 invent some parting speech that would act as a balm to 
 his wounded feelings. 
 
 "Promise me, Lottie, one thing before I go," he 
 pleaded. 
 
 1 ' 1 will, if it is anything reasonable, " she calmly replied. 
 
 Andy now opened the door. Turning and looking her 
 square in the eyes, he asked this question, which was no 
 doubt reasonable enough : 
 
 "If anything should happen to separate you from 
 your betrothed, will you listen to me then and be my 
 dear little sweetheart ?" 
 
 She laughed another little nervous laugh. * ' I promise, " 
 she said, looking him steadily in the face. Then when 
 the door slammed shut Lottie went to the window and 
 sat down exclaiming : " God grant it may be so." 
 
But suppose it is found out on us, Bob ; then what?" 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 Now, while the regulators of Missouri and Kansas are 
 swarming and planning for the destruction of the thieving 
 hordes that preyed upon them, and the Fox valley 
 stranglers are hunting down and dispatching the villainous 
 hordes that robbed them of their possessions while they 
 were away in the army, we will describe the cherished 
 ambition of the young man who had become the be- 
 trothed husband of Captain Garnett's adopted daughter. 
 The regulators were dreaming of vengeance, the girls 
 dreamed of their beaus, the doctors of their fees, and 
 the merchant of his profits, but there were some whose 
 plans for self advancement would neither let them sleep 
 nor dream. Some of these plans were honest, some of 
 them dishonest, while some of them could hardly be 
 classed as either, but it seems a hard matter for people 
 to find a true standard of ideas on the subject of honesty. 
 The regulators believed they were honest in what they 
 were undertaking ; the officers of the law believed they 
 were honest in letting the freebooters go, and argued as 
 proof that the outlaws had been acquitted by false 
 evidence so much that they did no good in arresting 
 them, which was the truth. Convictions seemed a far- 
 
1 66 BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 distant thing, and the sheriffs and their deputies stood 
 aside helpless and let the resistless law of self-preserva- 
 tion have its' full sway. But while all this was engross- 
 ing the minds of men in general there were two men who 
 had in mind the idea of a bold stroke for wealth that 
 would outdo any of the merciless marauding methods 
 pursued by the followers of Tom Alton and Buck Pen- 
 dleton, the latter the chief of the Kansas horse thieves. 
 Now, then, we all know that we are filled with cer- 
 tain mysterious natural forces, spirits of good and evil 
 dominate us alternately, but certain ones are more 
 dominant than others. You may be an honest man as 
 long as you have nothing to bar you from obtaining cer- 
 tain things you crave, and yet you may not be able to 
 resist half the temptation that others had before they 
 fell. Now, what ? What is the dominant force of the 
 miser's nature? Love of money.' Well, did he get it 
 honest ? He did if he had not a sufficient quantity of 
 self control, of sterling honesty, he may go through life 
 hankering after money and coveting other's possessions, 
 and yet may have enough principle to prevent him from 
 obtaining a dishonest dollar. Yes, there are thousands 
 that have gone through life with keen, hungering desires^ 
 for certain objects but never yielded to the temptation to 
 get them by dishonest methods. And yet there are others 
 who are honest because the craved object is easily attained 
 or already in hand, and would give way to the tempter 
 before they hardly knew what they were doing. The 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 1 67 
 
 spirits that dominate the rich also dominate the poor, 
 and neither land, title, fame nor wealth is any safeguard 
 against them. 
 
 Bob Willis had certainly been well described by Andy 
 Garnett in regard to his mien. He was a little below 
 the average height, of slight build, but straight and wiry 
 in appearance. He had a small, round head, and hair of 
 a dark brown, bordering onto black, small nose, regular 
 features, and little, mean looking black eyes that always 
 had a hateful sort of a leer in them. He was somewhat 
 of a braggadocio, too, besides the other mean qualities 
 Andy had rehearsed, and was wont to brag much about 
 his charms for the young ladies to Miss West, but always 
 in an underhand way, in order to keep from giving 
 offense. He had worked himself into the good graces of 
 the young lady chiefly by the aid of falsehoods about his 
 exploits in different lines of action and the amount of his 
 salary he received as clerk in a store in Galena, which 
 was one of the leading ones, so he said. Lottie West, 
 despairing of ever winning the man she loved, had tried 
 to fill up the vacancy in her heart by an engagement to 
 him, which seemed to her something of a vague, unreal 
 circumstance at best. She did not dislike him, and 
 thought him clever and well posted and manly, but when 
 her eyes beheld the kingly form of Andy Garnett she was 
 enveloped in melancholy sadness at her loss of him, and 
 she endeavored with heroic fortitude to crush the love 
 that had come unbidden. So Bob Willis had worked on 
 
1 68 BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 the fancies of the girl with his bombastic talk till she was 
 led by thoughts of getting away from the man she loved, 
 whose presence was only a torture to her, into an en- 
 gagement with Willis, who painted glowing pictures of 
 the cozy home he would establish for them in the town 
 where he clerked. Added to all this, was another item 
 calculated to aid Willis in his suit. Lottie had lived in 
 the town of Galena with her widowed mother till her 
 mother's death, and at twelve years of age had become 
 an inmate of the Garnett home. But she always had a 
 longing desire to again live in the town of her birth, and 
 when she realized she had nothing to lose and everything 
 to gain, she consented to marry young Willis without 
 much urging. 
 
 On the same day that Captain Garnett received the 
 letter unfolding the plan outlined by the regulators, Bob 
 Willis was in Galena, but was not attending to his duties 
 as clerk in the littie,. one-horse establishment ensconced 
 on a corner backj^fem the business thoroughfare. The 
 store was of receclt^establishment, and those passing that 
 way could discern by the glaring inscription over the 
 door that Matiton Brightwood had for sale a various 
 assortment of dry goods, hats, caps, boots, shoes, and 
 groceries, which he would exchange for cash or produce. 
 The building was a small square frame, with a square 
 front and in need of a new coat of paint, but the door 
 Was of the double sort, and the porch in front was neat 
 a*id well kept, as no array of goods boxes was piled there- 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 169 
 
 on for loafers to whittle, and no nasty stains of tobacco 
 juice marked the floor. Whatever could be said against 
 Brightwood, he certainly was scrupulous in regard to 
 cleanliness. 
 
 An inspection of the interior of the store revealed a 
 conglomerated mass of the articles inscribed on the sign 
 piled up and stowed around in disordered masses, while 
 the windows were clean and well cared for, disclosing by 
 their light the hiding place of each article. But neither 
 the light of the windows nor the added light of the open- 
 ing door disclosed the form of the owner nor that of his 
 clerk on this particular day. Instead, there sat by the 
 stove in the back end of the room a soggy looking, fleshy, 
 weird visaged boy about sixteen years of age, whom any 
 one that ever saw Brightwood could easily tell was his 
 son. The boy was absorbed in the contents of a news- 
 paper, and his wooden countenance showed feint signs of 
 displeasure at whatever he was reading. 
 
 And where was the master and his clerk ? Why had 
 they turned over the management of the store to this 
 stupid, weird-visaged boy, who sat reading and placidly 
 smoking a cigar, with one foot cocked upon the stove 
 hearth, while all the signs of life he evinced were an 
 occasional movement of the third ringer of his left hand 
 in tipping the ashes from his cigar. Where were they 
 and what were they doing ? Follow us to the house of 
 Manton Brightwood, which was situated on the outskirts 
 of the town, and a medium sized frame building, the last 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 one on the street. It was an old fashioned dwelling, one 
 of the old landmarks of the village and county, with old 
 fashioned chimneys, and broad porches, and a spacious 
 hall, with a yard full of shrubbery, surrounded by a 
 dilapidated picket fence. From the cupola which adorned 
 the roof you could have a good view of the valley and 
 the bright silvery expanse of the James, which rolled be- 
 neath the towering cliffs some distance back from the 
 town. To this retreat had gone this day Bob Willis, in 
 company with Brightwood, to brood over a plan they had 
 developed for their advancement. Financial success was 
 too slow for them by the long, arduous struggle with 
 honest methods, and as their rascally methods of swind- 
 ling had cost them a great part of their trade they had 
 seized with avidity upon the chance thus opened to them 
 to obtain great wealth. 
 
 Something was in the air that made all those of 
 roguish tendencies evince a desire to keep out of the way. 
 The great throb and push and rapid business transactions 
 were at a standstill and a deadly calm seemed pervading 
 the atmosphere. It was like unto the calm of the sea 
 that fills the sailor with gloomy forebodings. The ring 
 of the woodman's ax and the blacksmith's anvil had 
 ceased, the busy hum hum of the streets and highways 
 were gone, and the ominous muffled roar of an approach- 
 ing conflict seemed borne on the wings of the November 
 wind that swept in subtle activity over the mountains 
 and prairies. The mighty forces of nature were gather- 
 ing to throw off that which was unpleasant. 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 And this day, at the third hour of the day, Bob Willis 
 and Manton Brightwood sat in the room that Manton had 
 set apart as his own private den, where he kept his own 
 personal accoutrements of clothing, arms, and trophies, 
 and talked in low, subdued tones. They had drawn their 
 chairs close together, and sat facing each other, and 
 occasionally they paused in their conversation to drink 
 from a bottle of branded Kentucky whisky that sat 
 on the little round table at their elbows. A pack of 
 cards also Jay on the table, which were clipped at the 
 corners and bore evidence of much hard usage. Hang- 
 ing on the wall in one corner was Manton's array of 
 wearing apparel. Suits of different color and degree, 
 shirts, some white, some striped, some blue and repre- 
 senting several varieties of styles and blends of color. 
 Suspended from a rack on the South wall were several 
 guns of different patterns. Underneath these there hung 
 suspended from a stout nail two huge revolvers, one of 
 them an old style cap and ball, the other a cartridge 
 pistol of the latest model. Trophies of the chase in the 
 shape of deer, antlers and a stuffed bear cub were other 
 noticeable features of the room. 
 
 Manton Brightwood was a man of gigantic stature, 
 with slightly stooped shoulders, and weighed not less than 
 two hundred. But he was not so bad looking as his 
 companion in general mien. His eyes were seemingly 
 small, and of that deceitful, changeable color that often 
 causes serious arguments between people of an emulative 
 
172 BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 temperament, and were steel blue, black, brown, or any 
 old color, accoiding to the light they were viewed in. 
 His forehead was high, his nose small and straight, and 
 his big, bushy mustache nearly concealed his mouth. 
 But on a close scrutiny the underlip was ascertained to 
 protrude somewhat, which the phrenologists say is a sure 
 sign of mercenary propensities. And in Brightwood's 
 case they had not erred, although Manton, to a casual 
 observer, had not the appearance of a rogue, as he had 
 a masterly affectation of honesty, keeping the rogue well 
 hidden. He tried to shift his dishonest acts onto various 
 deviations of fortune that fe!5 to the lot of all men, and 
 we find him here to-day with the dominant force in his 
 nature in full sway, in earnest consultation with another 
 as cunning and mercenary as himself. 
 
 " But I'm afraid it will be a bigger job than you bar- 
 gain for, Bob," said Manton, as he reached out his hand 
 and grasped the whisky bottle. He was hardly con- 
 vinced of the feasibility of Bob's plan. 
 
 "What is there to fear?" asked Bob, in a querilous 
 tone of voice that rose a little above *he pitch they had 
 been talking in. "You make me tired, Mont, by any 
 such flimsy assertions as that. Now, listen to me while 
 I serve you with a short lecture. Providence has placed 
 this secret in my hands that I may profit by the stupidity 
 and levity of others, and I, as a good friend of yours, 
 share the secret with you and offer you, on condition of 
 your aid and concommittance, a share of the spo'te, 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN, 
 
 half of which ought to satisfy you. Now, what do you 
 suppose any one else would do under like circumstances ? 
 Here is this old nig dying up here and sending for me, 
 who had befriended him in his illness, and pouring into 
 my ears the secret of the hiding place of old Alton's 
 buried wealth. What do you suppose is the reason it 
 hasn't been sought before now ? Because the secrets im- 
 parted to the old hard-headed Africans by their masters 
 were as secure in the black exterior of their anatomy as 
 the buried horde was secure from prying eyes under the 
 surface of the ground. But this old relic of anti-bellum 
 times, not wishing to die with a secret on his soul, dis- 
 closes it to the only person who happens to be with him, 
 and that lucky person is Bob Willis, eh ; what further 
 argument is necessary, Mont. We'll just make all nec- 
 essary preparations, and some of these nights we will go 
 up there and yank the rusty shekels from their hiding 
 place, and then Won't we have a jollification to cele- 
 brate the occasion, eh Mont ?" 
 
 Brightwood gave a sniffle of dissatisfaction that dis- 
 pleased his companion not a little, and let his eyes fall to 
 the floor in momentary reflection. Presently he raised 
 his eyes to Bob's anxious gaze, and replied in a still 
 doubtful tone : 
 
 "But suppose it is found out on us, Bob ; then what ? 
 We would be the same as thieves in the eyes of the 
 people." 
 
 "Oh, bother the people," answered Bob, petulantly; 
 
174 BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 then continued acrimoniously: " Damn the people, Mont; 
 we won't be swayed by popular opinion, besides that, you 
 know the relation we bear to the Alton gang may be found 
 out on us sooner or later, and I want to come out from 
 under cover, full handed, so to speak. Besides, we can 
 go off somewhere else, to Springfield, perhaps, where the 
 people are too polite to inquire into the antecedants of a 
 gentleman who has money, and bury ourselves in the 
 throb and throng of the little Western metropolis." 
 
 This little speech had a wonderful effect on the listen- 
 er, and Bob, watching eagerly for signs of concession, 
 was awaiting his answer. His ire was not a little aroused 
 at the opposition manifested, but he knew that Bright- 
 wood had a secret abhorence of the probable unmasking 
 of his rascally proclivities, and he also knew that Man- 
 ton's mercenary instincts were strong enough to over- 
 come any other scruples that might present their claims 
 in the beginning. Bob was as keen witted as he was 
 contemptible. 
 
 "Well, I don't know but you are right, Bob," assented 
 Brightwood presently, letting go of the whisky bottle 
 and shoving his chair back a little. "Come to think of 
 it, Bob, despite our strict attention to business and 
 various schemes for enlarging our profits, we are on the 
 verge of insolvency. Damn it," he broke out, acrimon- 
 iously, "the people are too hard to suit. They are as 
 unruly and as unthankful as a lot of boys that don't 
 realize nothing but their stomachs. But let us not harp 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 1/5 
 
 about that now, we've got something else to talk about 
 that's got a little more excitement in it and a heap more 
 money. Did the old dark say how much there was in 
 the buried fortune ?" 
 
 "Nope. He didn't know the amount in American 
 dollars, but said there was a box about four feet long and 
 a foot square that was actually so heavy that him and 
 the old planter could hardly carry it." 
 
 Manton rose to his feet and gave a prolonged whistle. 
 "Oh, go easy now, Bob," he exclaimed excitedly, again 
 letting his voice raise. "How did the old fool know that 
 it was money?" 
 
 "He knew by his logical reasoning that it was noth- 
 ing but money, silver and gold, that he helped to inter," 
 replied Willis. "His master had told him that it was 
 money, and the old dark, to make sure of it, took a few 
 mental notes to satisfy his doubts by examining the array 
 of family valuables, and found none of them missing. 
 The old man died, and when he was ready to depart this 
 life he suddenly bethought him that the lord would call 
 him to account for burying his talent, and he sent for his 
 better half to unload the secret on her comprehension. 
 But the good old Misses happened to be away at that 
 time, and the old pioneer planter and hunter had expired 
 before she reached him, taking his secret to the grave 
 with him." 
 
 Brightwood paced up and down the room in a reflec- 
 tive manner for a moment, evidently convinced. Bob's 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 arguments were not without logical force, and he was 
 becoming deeply interested in the story of the old pion- 
 eer's buried horde. Presently he sat down again, and 
 exclaimed as he did so : 
 
 - " All right, Bob, I'm with you. Now let's take a good 
 pull at this little bottle, and then when we're through 
 with that I want you to tell me something more about it. 
 Tell me the whole history of the Alton family, if you 
 know it." 
 
 " Very well," replied Bob, "I guess I ought to know 
 it if anybody does. You know I used to work up there 
 in that beat several years ago." 
 
 After emptying the contents of the bottle, Bob's 
 tongue was loosened up better than ever, and he began 
 the recitation without any hesitation in trying to recall it. 
 
 "Now, Mant, you see it's a long story and you must 
 have patience," lowering his voice to a low but distinct 
 key. "Old Grandfather Alton was the youngest son of 
 an old Virginia cavalier that had incurred the displeasure 
 of his father by a marriage beneath him, and as a conse- 
 quence had been cut off and cast out. But he cared 
 naught for that, and came West along back in the thirties, 
 when this country was still inhabited principally by wolves, 
 bears, wildcats and wild Indians. He settled up there in 
 that beat when the white people were few and far be- 
 tween, and your nearest neighbor was twenty miles away, 
 and began hunting and trapping and clearing out a farm. 
 Bye and bye the Mexican war came on, and the govern- 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 177 
 
 ment was paying high prices for horses. The old gent 
 had a mint of them for sale, and good ones too. From 
 the sale of horses, and deerskins, furs, and other articles 
 of pioneer production, and trading with the Indians, he 
 got together a great pile of money, which he was calcu- 
 lating to bless his posterity with, but the circumstance I 
 have related prevented it. Tom Alton's father was a 
 grown man when they dared the Western wilds, and a 
 few years after coming out here he fell in love with the 
 buxom daughter of another old pioneer that lived up be 
 tween here and there, and they were married, Then the 
 valleys began to settle up a little before the Mexican war, 
 and by the time it was over they were pretty near all 
 filled. The old pioneer then lived in that little stone 
 hut up there, and it was there that he died. A few years 
 after Tom Alton was born the wife of the old settler died, 
 knowing nothing at all about the whereabouts of the 
 buried money." 
 
 "But why didn't the old fool of a nigger divulge it, 
 it being that he was intrusted with the secret," inter- 
 rupted Brightwood. 
 
 11 Well, I reckon the old gentleman had instructed him 
 to keep the secret till he died, and he performed it to the 
 letter," replied Bob, leaning back in his chair and crossing 
 his arms over his stomach. "You know how indomitable 
 these old thick skulled, ebony skinned slaves are about 
 keeping secrets entrusted to them, and I suppose that this 
 old relic of slavery times would not have disgorged it if 
 
178 BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 you had skinned him alive. But to continue my story. 
 I think it was the intention of the old gentleman to set 
 up on the Missouri James the imitation of the old home 
 on the Virginia river of that name, but the incident I 
 have described delayed it and the old pioneer did not live 
 to perfect his plan. But Tom Alton's father, I believe, 
 did plan and had built that house now occupied by Hart 
 Emerson, a little while before he kicked the bucket, and 
 now the family is extinct in a manner, unless the scape- 
 goat for the sins of our chief succeeds in turning the tide 
 of public opinion. Darn my cats if I don't hate to im. 
 pose on a man like that, but this fellow that has squealed 
 on us will probably cause a breach in the ranks and a 
 rout and panic of the forces. It reminds me of the story 
 of Arnold Winkelried, at the battle of Sernpach, who 
 made a breach for his countrymen by rushing on the 
 phalanx of the enemy and gathering as many of their 
 spears as he could, fell over and formed an opening that 
 resulted in a great victory for the Swiss. I wish I could 
 do something great, Mant, that would make me a hero in 
 the eyes of the people. But I can't," he exclaimed with 
 a touch of sadness. " I have just been borne down by 
 force of circumstances till I sometimes think there is 
 nothing to live for." 
 
 * ' You seem to have an idea that your expectations of 
 getting possession of the buried hoard won't bring a 
 change," suggested Brightwood. 
 
 Bob did not reply at once, but was evidently absorbed 
 
BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 179 
 
 in some new thought. "No, I don't have much idea 
 that the wealth of Solomon could obliterate my past 
 record," resumed Bob presently. "If I had kept the 
 straight and narrow path I would not undertake this job 
 at all, Mant. I would seek. out the rightful heir and dis- 
 close it to him, and perhaps he would be generous enough 
 to divide with me, but as it is he knows the secrets of 
 my life too well, and I must avoid him. But excuse me 
 if I change the subject a little, Mont," he exclaimed, his 
 face lighting up with new thought. "Talking about us 
 burying ourselves in Springfield society, there is Hart 
 Emerson for instance. He is a social lion among the 
 elite up there, and the odd part of it is they have never 
 found out yet what a bad egg he is, but that may be 
 because nobody has ever offered a voluntary disclosure 
 of his true character. I wonder what Hart will think 
 when he finds out that the buried fortune has been found 
 and carried off ?" 
 
 "Can't tell you, for my part," replied Manton, as he 
 rose and began pacing the room in a transport of delight. 
 Bob's description of Hart Emerson successfully posing as 
 a society lion in Springfield society had removed the last 
 vestige of his opposition, and he was building an air 
 castle on that foundation which gave him a flow of 
 pleasant, airy feelings. He knew but little about Hart 
 Emerson, but was confident from Bob's talk about him 
 that the elite of the little mountain metropolis was being 
 grossly imposed on. Yet he felt a willingness to do the 
 
ISO BOB WILLIS UNFOLDS HIS PLAN. 
 
 same thing himself if he and Bob was successful in their 
 proposed undertaking. 
 
 "Well, I guess we'd better set the time, hadn't we, 
 Bob?" he suggested presently, pausing in his walk around 
 the room. 
 
 "I've already set the time, Mant," said Bob. "Hold 
 down here and I'll tell you in a whisper, for walls have 
 ears sometimes you know." 
 
 Brightwood obeyed, and when Bob had informed him 
 of the time he thought best to make the venture, they 
 left the house and went for a stroll around town and a 
 visit to the saloon. 
 
The campers beheld within the radius of the firelight a weirdly 
 clad figure, 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 Night on the prairie, night over the broad treeless 
 plains and vast elevations and peaks of the Rockies, 
 darkness over the Ozark Range, stretching away to the 
 Southwest to meet its big brother Range in the foothills 
 of the Southland a moonless night, at least the moon 
 would not appear for a great while the stars looked 
 down from the mighty dome of Heaven on the crawling 
 creatures of the earth and noted their doings this dark 
 November night. The great monotonous, flower-spangled 
 level plains stretched away under the canopy of Heaven 
 like a vast meadow, in the midst of which a campfire 
 had been started by a party of men by the side of a 
 fallen cottonwood in a little oasis of timber. The clump 
 was small and just scattering enough to afford a good 
 place to camp, while all around was Siberian blankness. 
 The men were sitting around in different attitudes, talk- 
 ing and smoking their pipes placidly, while the horses, 
 tethered on the succulent grass, were filling their stomachs 
 unmindful of the tribulations of man. The number of 
 the men was twelve, and their faces bespoke determina- 
 tion, while also depicted thereon was a sort of meditative 
 expression, as though each one had something on his 
 
1 84 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 mind that troubled him. Their accoutrements were piled 
 against the top end of the log in a confused heap, their 
 cooking utensils were piled in another heap on the 
 ground. Supper was over, and now was the time to 
 talk and plan for the operations of the morrow. 
 
 And who were they and what were they doing 
 there ? 
 
 Well, just listen to their talk and you will soon learn 
 who they are and what they had already done and were 
 going to do yet. There were stormy times indeed in the 
 regions lying between the Mississippi and the Rockies. 
 The time for action had come and the Kansas regulators 
 were no less energetic than their Missouri brethren. 
 
 George Latimer stood up before the fire smoking his 
 pipe and talking, while turning first one side then the 
 other to the fire, and occasionally stepping aside as the 
 wind blew the smoke in his face. The wind was not 
 blowing as rabid as it had been during the day, but 
 moaned and sighed around the camp like some lost spirit, 
 occasionally blowing a cutting blast which sent the smoke 
 cavorting around the circle of campers. The clump of 
 timber stood near the banks of the Neosho river, and the 
 camp was pitched in a lovely part of the country, where 
 it was some distance to any settlements, except now and 
 then an abandoned claim where some settler had thrown 
 up the sponge and sought other places more congenial 
 than the bleak, desert-like plains, 
 
 "I say, Sam," said George Latimer, as he again 
 
THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 185 
 
 turned his face to the fire. Sam Riley looked up at him 
 questioningly from his seat on the ground, with his back 
 braced against the log. "I say, what do you think we'd 
 better do, anyhow ?" 
 
 "Do?" reiterated Riley, "why, the best thing we 
 can do is to steer off a little Eastward and run the risk 
 of obtaining a little help. I don't want to run any great 
 risks with the force I have at my command, besides that 
 you know the Cheyennes are on the verge of another 
 outbreak, and no telling when the bolt may strike us. 
 My idea is if we don't get help we'd better not beard the 
 lion in his den." 
 
 "But where do you expect to get help, Sam," ex- 
 claimed a young man named Carver, who lay on the 
 ground with his saddle blanket for a pillow. "Who is 
 it that is interested enough in the case to join us in our 
 proposed attack on the ranch ?" 
 
 ' ' Those are hard sounding words, aren't they ?" re- 
 plied Riley. "We haven't got any particular grudge 
 against the ranch, it's the men who run it and the rotten 
 thieves who take shelter there. Now, you want to know 
 why I think we will receive reinforcements, do you?" 
 Sam now rose to his feet and continued, after the others 
 had signified their eagerness to learn his reasons for ex- 
 pecting reinforcements. "You see, its this way," he 
 said, crossing his hands in an explanatory manner, ' ' about 
 my idea of reinforcements. The Missouri regulators are 
 no doubt beginning operations by this time, and my 
 
1 86 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 reasons for thinking that they will pay a visit to Blanton 
 this time is this : Poor Tom Riley who got killed over 
 there on the Dalton ranch was a nephew of mine, and 
 he corresponded with my kids tolerably regular. We got 
 one letter from him a while back, stating that if there 
 was another foray committed over there the vigilantees 
 was surely going to pay a visit to Blanton's ranch. Well, 
 it strikes me that they will go, and go loaded for bear, 
 too, on account of the enormity of the depredation. 
 They are doubtless stronger than we are, and I have an 
 idea that Blanton and his crew will think they have been 
 struck by a doubled and twisted cyclone if we should 
 happen to meet up." 
 
 Sam had evidently convinced his audience of the 
 feasibility of his plan, for not one of them emitted a 
 dissenting word. These men were under the same in- 
 fluence that the Missouri Vigilance was in regard to deal- 
 ing with the border ruffian element that rode rough shod 
 over the settlers and boldly defied the laws of the land. 
 This sort of thing was a serious check to the growth and 
 development of the country, besides that many of the 
 settlers were murdered in cold blood who were thought 
 to have some hand in trying to convict them, and a man 
 was scarcely safe even in his own domicile. Many of 
 those living in the large cities who were of criminal ten- 
 dencies had become tired of having their footsteps dogged 
 by detectives, and longing for a freer atmosphere migrated 
 thither, and increased both the number and boldness of 
 
THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 1 87 
 
 the lawless element. The citizens of the Sunflower state 
 were thoroughly awakened to their danger, and the re- 
 ports of their operations against the thieving hordes were 
 becoming rife, and the vigilantees of other states were 
 following suit, as they realized that the law of self preser- 
 vation was now their last hope. But one thing was plain- 
 ly evident to the regulators of all the overridden sections: 
 Blanton was the central sun around which all the other 
 satellites of plunder revolved, instinctively fleeing to him 
 for shelter when the raids they had planned were executed, 
 and remaining there till the scouts they sent out brought 
 them the report that all was quiet and safe once more. 
 Then they would disperse and spend their ill-gotten 
 funds in riotous pleasure till the time appointed for an- 
 other expedition. Therefore it had entered the minds of 
 both the Missouri and Kansas regulators that the best 
 plan would be to strike their enemies while they were 
 sure to be in a body and save themselves the trouble of 
 hunting for them. 
 
 Sam Rileyhad called for volunteers to go to the ranch 
 but had not succeeded in getting as many as he calculated 
 to. Perhaps the remainder of his men were being smit- 
 ten by remorse when they thought of the graves of the 
 depredators now glaring up at the sunlight over the wild 
 cactus patches and flower spangled solitudes of the Sun- 
 flower state, and wanted no further blood stains on their 
 hands. But Riley, instigated perhaps by thoughts of 
 avenging the death of his nephew, had taken the eleven 
 
1 88 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 men that offered their services and departed for the sec- 
 tion where the ranch was located. This was just over 
 the state line in the Territory, and Blanton was the pro- 
 prietor of the land on which the ranch was situated, he 
 having married an Indian woman and two sons being the 
 fruits of their union. These two sons of the old des- 
 perado were named respectively Alf and Joe, and were 
 among the most desperate characters in the West. 
 
 Sam, having explained his reasons for expecting a 
 union with the Missouri men, the others sat in silence for 
 some time, evidently digesting the solid facts set forth. 
 What could they expect to do with such a small force as 
 that when the force at Blanton's was probably three or 
 four times as large, besides the danger of being attacked 
 by Indians who were showing signs of hostility. The 
 evident futility of their expedition was the cause of the 
 melancholy expression that had overspread their faces 
 before Sam had opened up his plan. 
 
 But it was not long ere they were destined to receive 
 at first a shock then a pleasant surprise, receiving some 
 news that put them at their ease in regard to fear of the 
 Indians. 
 
 Sam let the others think for a minute or two without 
 any extra flourishes to convince them. A silence had 
 fallen over the camp, the wind had, after a fierce gust or 
 two, subsided, and the faintly audible munching of the 
 horses was all that disturbed the quiet. Before any of 
 the others spoke again George Latimer, becoming tired 
 
THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. l8( 
 
 of standing, had gone to the pile of trappings to fish out 
 his saddle blanket for a pillow and lie down. Sam, who 
 was standing with a thoughtful expression before the fire, 
 suddenly felt a vigorous slap on the shoulder and these 
 startling words: 
 
 " Sam, I hear the tramp of horses as plain as day- 
 light. Listen, boys, and see if you don't hear it too." 
 
 At these words the whole force sprang for their rifles, 
 expecting an attack by the Indians. Their sinewy fingers 
 grasped the guns in nervous clutch, while the sound of 
 the hoof beats came nearer and nearer. They peered 
 furtively around the wall of darkness that encircled them, 
 looking eagerly for the dusky faces of redskins to pop 
 into the circle of light. They had not long to wait 
 for a termination of this state of affairs, for presently 
 they were aware that the hoof beats had ceased, and 
 they were not a little perplexed at the sudden turn of 
 affairs. 
 
 A moment later they heard the slow, muffled tread of 
 a single horse advancing in the direction of the camp- 
 fire. 
 
 "I wonder what that means," said Jim Carver, in a 
 low, guarded voice. 
 
 4 ' Guess we'll have to wait a little before we can be 
 enlightened on that point," replied Sam Riley, as he 
 craned his neck for a closer scrutiny of the wall of dark- 
 ness. Then he added cautiously, " Better watch your 
 
I9O THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 corners, boys ; they might be up to a ruse of attacking 
 us in the rear." 
 
 "Yes, and that is evidently a feint to attract our at- 
 tention while the main body creeps around behind us, 
 and " 
 
 " Ho, by the ghost of Pocahontas, there he is now," 
 ejaculated Jim Carver, as the eyes of the campers be- 
 held within the radius of the firelight a weirdly clad 
 figure on horseback. 
 
 " Humph !" exclaimed the Indian in an amused tone. 
 " Humph. Wah. What is the white brother alarmed 
 about ?" 
 
 ' * What is your errand here ?" sternly inquired Riley, 
 coming forward a few steps. 
 
 The Indian, who was a chief, as could be observed 
 by the gorgeous trappings of his august person, did not 
 seem to be at all discomposed at the hostile attitude of 
 Riley. 
 
 4 'Humph, white brother tink me enemy," replied the 
 chief, now vaulting from the pony's back and coming 
 forward to within a few steps of Riley. When he stopped 
 at last, evincing all the signs of friendship he knew, he 
 continued : " White brother small in numbers; no good; 
 what he do with the big band over yonder ?" pointing 
 Southward. 
 
 The others now came forward, eager to learn what 
 the mission of the Indian was to their camp. The chief 
 
THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 19! 
 
 scrutinized their faces with a friendly, earnest expression 
 on his own dusky visage, and lifting his hand in an 
 oratorical manner, he continued : 
 
 "Me know what the white brothers want. We Indi- 
 ans want someting. Now see, you be small and can't no 
 do much what you want. Me come to you, ask you join 
 us, then we be heap big strong like the big chief over 
 there," again pointing Southward. 
 
 What did the Indian mean, was the question upper- 
 most in the minds of the regulators. Were they at war 
 with another tribe and' desired to form an alliance with 
 them ? Sam revolved the matter in his mind a moment 
 and then asked : 
 
 ' ' What do you mean, anyhow ?" 
 
 " Mean big chief Blanton," replied the Indian. "Him 
 bad man, have big heap lot bad men around him place. 
 Steal much cattle and ponies from Indians. Steal much 
 horses, much cattle, from white brother. Me come see 
 white brother, join together, then we go give big bad 
 brother some fight !" 
 
 The regulators now understood. The facts of the 
 case stood out as clear as a sunbeam. The Indians were 
 becoming tired of the depredations of Blanton and his 
 satellites and were evincing signs of restlessness and 
 hostility to the ranchman and his crew. The Indians 
 understood the drift of things quite as well as the whites, 
 and were seeking an alliance with them in order to 
 
IQ2 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 avenge them all together. But Riley still hoped to meet 
 the Missouri regulators and form an alliance with them, 
 and he began talking about it to the others. The Indian 
 stood listening with a strange expression on his weird 
 visage, and evidently understood the drift of the regula- 
 tor's talk, as ever and anon he gave a low muttered 
 "Humph," which was evidence enough that he was 
 loaded for bear in the way of general information on 
 the subject in hand. 
 
 Presently Sam turned to the chief and said : ' * How 
 many men do you command ?" 
 
 11 Heap big lot, much about twenty, me guess, The 
 white brother he have eleven, that make how many ?" 
 asked the Indian, hesitatingly. 
 
 "Thirty-one," replied Sam. 
 
 The Indian's face lighted up with an enthusiastic glow, 
 and he went on: "Thirty-one. Humph, heap big num- 
 ber me and you got. Tother white brother have nearly 
 much as we. 
 
 "Tother white brother," ejaculated Riley, looking 
 askew at the others, and then facing the Indian : ' Who 
 is the other white brother you mention, may I ask ?" 
 
 The Indian stood for a moment with a grave expres- 
 sion on his dusky face, evincing no signs of emotion nor 
 life, but standing like a statue, evidently bent in deep, 
 earnest thought. The firelight flickered and waned, 
 making his weird, grotesque figure look more weird than 
 
THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 193 
 
 ever, while the sighing wind in the tree tops, and the 
 shadows cast by their trunks gave a ghostly aspect to the 
 scene. The Indian seemed preparing a final speech that 
 would end the interview to the satisfaction of all. 
 
 After the regulators had had their patience tried to 
 the limit by his silence, the Indian at last spoke, and his 
 words and manner of conveying them bespoke that he 
 was opposed to any idle parley. 
 
 " Go, saddle ponies, get ready, come with me. White 
 brother camped over yonder, not more five miles off. 
 Come." 
 
 And the Indian turned and mounted his pony without 
 another word, while the regulators stood nonplussed into 
 inaction by this blunt invitation. 
 
 But the Indian evinced no signs of any further talk 
 as he sat gravely in his saddle, his weird figure now bare- 
 ly discernible in the dull, flickering glow of the outer 
 wall of light. He cast first a questioning gaze at the 
 men, then his eyes began to roam the circle of the camp, 
 and finally alighted on the chaotic pile of accoutrements 
 that lay in the circle of the firelight against the top part 
 of the trunk of the fallen cottonwood, and he assumed 
 a lofty mien, as though mentally saying to himself, "What 
 a monstrous load of unnecessary equipage." 
 
 But Sam Riley was a man of quick and accurate 
 judgement, and never studied long about his course of 
 action. He knew the Indian character well enough to 
 
IQ4 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 satisfy him that the only course to pursue was to make 
 their preparations and follow the chief into the camp 
 where the white men were, little doubting but that they 
 were the very men he desired to meet. 
 
 * ' Well, let's get ready, boys, " he said, as he turned 
 and strode back to the log and leaned his rifle against it. 
 Sam had no fear of treachery now. 
 
 Five minutes, perhaps, elapsed till Rileyand his men 
 had completed their arrangements, during which time 
 three more dusky forms had appeared in the light of the 
 campfire and sat on their ponies in conversation with 
 their chief. Their demeanor in general bespoke satisfac- 
 tion and confidence. 
 
 And when all were ready the Indians, with many 
 exclamations of satisfaction, wheeled their ponies and 
 motioned the regulators to follow. They obeyed, and 
 the whole troop went flying down the trail at a rapid 
 rate, while the wind sighed a farewell in the treetops, 
 and the fire gradually sank to a bed of coals, and the 
 coyotes now sallying forth began their ominous wailing 
 far off over the prairie. 
 
 On went the cavalcade with tireless energy, paying 
 no heed to the wolves nor anything else save the dark- 
 ness of the night and dimness of the trail. 
 
 Nothing broke the monotony of the night but the 
 creak of the saddles and the dull thud of the hoofs on 
 the grassy surface. Scarcely visible was the trail to the 
 
THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 white men, but the keen practiced eyes of the Indians 
 did net lose it, and after what seemed to Riley and his 
 men a very short time, the Indians slackened their pace 
 rind the chief fell back, exclaiming : 
 
 " Yonder camp, white brother, chief. We camp 
 with them." 
 
 Riley and his men looked in the direction indicated 
 and saw the light of a camp fire plainly silhouetted in 
 the canopy of darkness and discerned also the forms of 
 men stirring around therein. 
 
 A moment later they had ridden up to the camp- 
 fire and were warmly greeted by the whites and Indians 
 left behind. 
 
 Riley soon learned to his satisfaction that the white 
 men were the Missouri regulators, and that the whole 
 concourse immediately set up a confused howl and dis- 
 cussion of the wrongs that they had suffered at the 
 hands of the ruffian element. 
 
 The force now numbered over fifty men all told, and 
 Sam Riley's prediction that Blanton and his crew would 
 think a cyclone had overtaken them seemed likely to be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 These were our friends, we have introduced to the 
 reader : Captain Garnett, who had been placed in 
 command of the whole Missouri detachment ; Dick 
 Plummer, Jack Dalton, Bill Nash, Andy Garnett and 
 Clayton Palliser, and before the latter named person had 
 
IQ6 THE MEETING OF THE FORCES. 
 
 been there long he decided that there was going to be a 
 stormy time, and he was thinking of the probability oi 
 him getting killed before he had found a clue to his 
 father's mysterious absence. 
 
 "But the darkest hours are just before dawn," sc 
 says the old adage, and Clayton soon had cause to 
 believe that the old chunk of crystalized wisdom had 
 not lost any of its essence with old age. 
 
The young man was just in the act of tethering his pony when 
 Clayton came up. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 The night finally wore away, and the band of aveng- 
 ers, camped on the prairie, rose in the gray light of the 
 morning and bestirred themselves in the performing of 
 the morning duties. Their eyes, when rubbed well and 
 cast about for a view of the surrounding landscape, be- 
 held to the Southwest the Little Wachata looming up 
 above the level of the grassy plains, while on all the 
 other sides the level, unbroken expanse of prairie met 
 the gaze. Several habitations were also to be seen, 
 which showed that the regulators had pitched their camp 
 near the settlements, which were more pronounced as 
 the progress Eastward proceeded. Over to the South- 
 west, at the foot of the Wachatas, lay the domain of the 
 Blantons, where the lawless hordes were wont to assem- 
 ble for shelter and pastime. 
 
 Clayton rose with the others and went out to care for 
 his steed, a faithful little pony, the one he had ridden 
 over the mountains that memorable night. His hopes of 
 bringing the mystery to light were somewhat dampened 
 by the thought of the murderous mission they were on, 
 and he felt a trifle pensive this morning when he thought 
 of the home he had shunned to come with this expedi- 
 
 (199) 
 
2OO CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 tion. He knew the opposition he would encounter if he 
 went home before starting, and he was desirous to avoid 
 any unpleasantness. He had left the money in the hands 
 of the Dalton's to insure its safety, as there was no 
 probability of any raid so soon after the preceding one, 
 and as he had been chosen as one of the picked men by 
 the leaders on account of his accurate judgment and un- 
 erring aim, he had no other choice than to accompany 
 the expedition. But he did not like the fierce declara- 
 tions of the regulators about destroying by force the 
 aggregation of villains and the place of their refuge, but 
 he had no intention of opposing it should the majority 
 declare for it. 
 
 This morning Clayton happened to pass on his way 
 back to camp a young man who had been eyeing him 
 curiously from the first time he had gotten sight of him, 
 looking at him in a wistful way, as though he longed for 
 his acquaintance. The young man was no less a per- 
 sonage than Jim Carver, who had come with the regu- 
 lators of Sam Riley, not because he had anything at 
 stake, but simply to gratify his restless longing for activ- 
 ity. His parents kept a hotel in the town he hailed from, 
 and Jim had taken a turn about at clerking, wood sawing, 
 and various other occupations about town till the dull 
 times accruing from the panic of the seventies set in and 
 work was scarce. Then Jim, having been idle a long 
 time and having learned through the newspapers and oral 
 reports of the atrocities committed, decided to make a 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 2OI 
 
 hero of himself in the war of extermination inaugurated 
 against the lawless desperadoes. That Jim was brave 
 no one could doubt when obtaining their first view of 
 him, for his visage bespoke a combination of manly 
 qualities even to those not versed in physiognomy. His 
 head was rather heavily molded, but his features were 
 smooth and regular, with large blue eyes and a nose 
 slightly Roman, and his complexion was a very dark, 
 ruddy color for one who was not wont to follow out door 
 pursuits. His demeanor was complacent though, and 
 Clayton, who was a keen judge of character by the 
 expression of countenance, always was ready to culti- 
 vate the acquaintance of a person with a good face. 
 
 Clayton, besides the pensive feeling that possessed 
 him, was also possessed of a strange presentiment of 
 some coming event that would change the course of 
 his life, and which he could not but believe that Jim 
 Carver had something to do with. Those of a highly 
 wrought temperament and intellectual development, and 
 especially those with burdens on their lives, are often 
 attracted thus at sight of certain people whom they 
 meet with. This was one thing that attracted Clayton 
 towards the cultivation of Jack Dalton's friendship. 
 
 These people of high perception are quick to recog- 
 nize those of a strongly sympathetic nature, and Clayton, 
 knowing that he could not be parading his sorrow before 
 the world all the time, desired some one to listen when- 
 ever he chose to make that the subject, and he had found 
 
202 CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 in Jack a true and sympathetic listener, a logical coun- 
 selor and faithful coadjutor. 
 
 The young man was just in the act of tethering his 
 pony when Clayton came up, and as Carver looked up 
 Clayton vouchsafed these words : 
 
 "Quite a crowd of us, don't you think?" 
 
 A look of pleasure lighted up Carver's ruddy face as 
 he replied, deliberately: "You know there's a crowd of 
 us, and I'm thinking from the drift of things that we will 
 be thinned out a little before long. " 
 
 Jim had spoken in that careless border strain as 
 though a man's life was of no more consequence than 
 that of a buffalo, and Clayton was slightly shocked for 
 an instant. But he was too shrewd to think the stranger 
 heartless and cruel because he was imbued with the 
 spirit of his section, and having decided that Jim was a 
 brave and manly fellow, with good intellect and wide 
 range of thought, he recovered his mental poise and 
 formed the idea of an interrogatory course to satisfy 
 himself that he was right. 
 
 " Then suppose you were one of the number destined 
 to fall, what would you think of that ?" he said, as Jim 
 was drawing the last knot in the riata, making it taut. 
 
 Jim did not reply till the task he was pursuing was 
 finished. Then he straightened himself to his full height, 
 with his hands resting on his hips, and said with undis- 
 guised nonchalance : 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 2O3 
 
 "Well, that is a hard question, pardner. If I get 
 perforated enough to be killed I won't think anything ; 
 if I gei badly hurt I'll, think of the people who will look 
 upon me as a hero ; but if I come out with a whole skin 
 I'll think I arn not born to be shot. That's all." 
 
 Clayton was charmed with the fellow's pithy reply, 
 and resolved upon another feeler. He had a strong 
 strain of sarcastic humor in his own composition, and 
 came near blurting out the words: "He that is born to 
 be hung will never be shot," as a sort of grim joke. But 
 he had the faculty of thinking twice before he spoke once 
 and refrained. 
 
 "What do you think of the proposed plan of action ?" 
 asked Clayton, instead of- the emission of the sarcastic 
 sentence. Then continued: "Don't you think we are laying 
 ourselves liable by invading the Indian country and killing 
 its inhabitants ?" 
 
 Jim glanced askew at the smoke curling up from the 
 camp and the concourse of Indian rangers and white 
 vigilantes, then replied as follows : 
 
 "Well, I don't know about that. If the rowdies can 
 cut such bold capers and go unpunished it stands to 
 reason that we can avenge ourselves in like manner and 
 not be molested. Don't you see how the reds are be- 
 having. They are just crazy for us to come into their 
 country and wipe out the viperous crew that's damaging 
 them as well as us. So what can we do but follow them ?" 
 Jim paused, and assuming an oratorical attitude, re- 
 
204 CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 sumed : " Now, you see, it's just this way to my notion: 
 If I have a relation who I am convinced is guilty of some 
 crime, and he comes into my house by accident and I go 
 to^you and ask you to help me arrest him, you see you 
 would be perfectly blameless if you did so, for if I in- 
 vited you therein to assist in his arrest, why, do you 
 think I would be mean enough to turn on you and con- 
 demn you for unlawful trespass. That's the way I look 
 at it, pardner ; besides that, you may not be as well 
 posted in Indian rudiments as I am. These rangers 
 know what they are doing, and have no scruples about 
 law on their minds. Perhaps the reds are a little ahead 
 of us in the making of criminal laws. You know they 
 don't have that horror of homicide that the white peo- 
 ple have, and when the order comes from headquarters 
 for action against those of criminal tendencies you can 
 put it down flat that they are worthy of death." 
 
 Clayton was well pleased with his experiment, and 
 resolved -upon cultivating the acquaintance of the inter- 
 esting stranger. 
 
 4 'You have made things a little clearer to my com- 
 prehension than they were," he explained. 4< You mean 
 that the Indian laws are constructed so as to take quicker 
 action than our laws by alloting to a vote of the council 
 who is worthy of death, and then the bolt strikes them 
 unawares. Well, we can't make white men out of 
 Indians, except by a gradual process, and if their laws 
 are modeled according to Indian rudiments perhaps it is 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 2O$ 
 
 a good thing for us at the present time. But what is 
 your name, pardner? I am enough interested in you to 
 cultivate further acquaintance." 
 
 " Ah ; my name is Carver," replied Jim, "James Car- 
 ver, called Jim for short. What is your name?" 
 
 "Clayton Palliser, " answered Clayton promptly. 
 
 Jim's big, blue eyes emitted a flash of mingled surprise 
 and intelligence which Clayton did not fail to notice when 
 he pronounced his name in full. Jim came a step nearer 
 and scanned his face in the gray morning light. Then 
 he stepped back and gazed at him earnestly for an instant, 
 after which he spoke and said : 
 
 " And your father's name was Jason Palliser, was it 
 not ?" 
 
 " Yes, that was my father's name," answered Clayton 
 with enthusiasm. " Did you ever have any acquaintance 
 with him ?" 
 
 Jim beat the grassy surface with the toe of his boot 
 in a reflective manner, evidently trying to frame a reply 
 that would convey in as few words as possible the sum 
 and substance of his acquaintance with Jason Palliser. 
 Like Clayton himself, Jim was fertile minded and ac- 
 curate, and required no great length of time to frame a 
 suitable answer to Clayton's question. Presently he 
 looked at Clayton and replied : 
 
 " Well, you see we used to live over there in Missouri 
 at a town called Qzark a few years back, and we kept a 
 
2O6 CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 hotel there as we keep one now up here in this state. I 
 remember the fall before we left therein the spring, there 
 was a man named Jason Palliser stopped with us who 
 was looking for a location. You reminded me of him 
 the instant I set eyes on you. " 
 
 Clayton felt a tinge of pensive sadness, mingled with 
 the pleasure accruing from this announcement, and his 
 mind reverted to the old, bright, happy days of his boy- 
 hood. It was like seeing and talking to his father, or the 
 next thing to it to see and talk with one who had seen 
 and known him just before he came up missing, and 
 Carver's words sounded to him like the echoes of distant 
 memories opening up the floodgates of memory and let- 
 ting in from the back chambers vivid pictures of the past. 
 But he realized that he would have to steer clear of the 
 melancholy reveries he was wont to indulge in till the 
 present crisis was passed over, and he shook off the spell 
 that bound him and was once more alert. 
 
 "But what else do you know about him?" he asked 
 presently. " Did you never know about his sudden and 
 mysterious disappearance ?" 
 
 Jim was speechless with astonishment, and for a 
 moment he stood staring at Clayton, his big blue eyes 
 very much resembling two big peeled onions. No matter 
 how well bred one may be he will often meet with cir- 
 cumstances that throw one off his guard. 
 
 Jim was not in the habit of staring thus at a stranger, 
 but it had flashed over his comprehension that a good 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 2O/ 
 
 honest stare would pave the way for a reception by Clay- 
 ton of a piece of information he could give now that he 
 knew what certain items of his recollection led to. 
 
 After a lapse of half a minute, or some fraction 
 thereof, Jim looked reflectively at the ground and said : 
 
 ' ' Now I come to think of it I believe from what you 
 have stated that I am the very man you ought to have 
 met with before. Let us take a seat here on the grass 
 and then I want you to tell me more about yourself and 
 the incident you have mentioned, and perhaps I can 
 help you to a clue. Your father is still missing, I sup- 
 pose ?" 
 
 * ' Yes ; I have not been able to obtain any clue as to 
 his whereabouts, or whether he is dead or alive," replied 
 Clayton. 
 
 A moment later they were seated on the grassy sur- 
 face of the ground, and Jim, after reflecting an instant, 
 said : 
 
 "Then you have not heard of him since the fall he 
 left home, have you ?" 
 
 "No; we only received one letter from him after he 
 left home, and that was mailed at Ozark, I think, during 
 the session of Circuit Court. But he wrote in a dismal 
 sort of a strain, and said he had a presentiment of coming 
 evil, and advised us to move out there if he should hap- 
 pen to miss writing, assuring us that if he wrote no more 
 we could look for foul play." 
 
2O8 CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 Jim nodded assent to this information, and replied : 
 "And you moved out there, and have been looking for 
 him or a clue to his disappearance ever since ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Is there any particular person you suspicion ?" asked 
 Jim. 
 
 This was a question that could not be answered all at 
 once in a few words. At least to Clayton's methodical 
 sense all the evidence he and Jack had collected would 
 have to be recited before the mention of the name. So 
 .he began and recited all the evidence he had in his 
 possession, at last giving the name to his questioner. 
 
 "Hart Emerson!" repeated Jim, with a nod and a 
 beam of intelligence. " That's all right, friend ; you're 
 on the right trail. Now I'll tell you what I know about 
 it if you'll give me time to reflect," and Jim ducked his 
 head in a reflective manner, while Clayton remained 
 silent and attentive. 
 
 "What puzzles me," said Jim presently, "is that it 
 is not probable that your father is dead if the evidence I 
 have has anything to do with his case. Still, I am at a 
 loss to know what Emerson could have meant by his 
 drunken confession there in Ozark the day of his acquit- 
 tal for the murder of Fannie Benton. You know about 
 that, I guess." 
 
 Clayton nodded assent, and Jim resumed : 
 
 "Well, you know Hart must have felt jubilant over 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 2OQ 
 
 his acquittal, and as a consequence he drank pretty 
 freely when the decision had been rendered. He was 
 actually drunk when I happened to come onto him, and 
 I heard him say to the crowd of friends that surrounded 
 him, that he was not guilty of the murder of Fannie 
 Bunton, but was guilty of something else that was worse 
 than murder. He said, though, that he could undo it 
 any time he chose to, but we all formed the conclusion 
 that he had reference to euchreing the Altons out of 
 their property, and passed it by as none of our business. 
 But I have often recalled the incident to mind, and have 
 also had serious doubts that he had reference to his 
 machinations of the Alton property. Now, by putting 
 this and that together, like the detectives do, we might 
 forge a strong chain of evidence against Hart, since the 
 recent evidence you and I have developed. Let us see 
 now what we can do. " 
 
 Jim paused again, and producing a notebook and 
 pencil from the inner pocket of his coat, he rapidly 
 jotted down a few notes in order to compare them to- 
 gether and see what effect they would have. Clayton 
 sat and watched him with as much interest as if Carver 
 was a detective in whose hands he had just placed the 
 case. After a minute or two had passed thus Jim was 
 ready, and he handed the book over to Clayton for his 
 inspection. 
 
 Clayton took the note book, and spreading the pages 
 out on his knee, read the notes. They were as follows : 
 
2IO CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 Last seen of Jason Palliser in company with Boyd 
 Emerson in town of Ozark. While at supper the same 
 evening he casually remarked that he was going out home 
 with Boyd Emerson to look at the place then owned by 
 Hart Emerson. Hart Emerson declared while drunk 
 that he be guilty of a crime worse than murder. He 
 cannot have had reference to the Alton property, for that 
 was willed to him by the mother of Tom Alton, whom 
 she threatened to disinherit. Hart Emerson says that 
 the crime he is guilty of he can undo whenever he 
 chooses. Hart expresses his belief that his step-brother 
 was killed in the battle of Pea Ridge. Chances are that 
 it was a mistake. Tom Alton may have returned and 
 threatened trouble for Hart. Hart plans some way of 
 putting him out of the way. 
 
 "Now, then," said Jim, as Clayton handed him back 
 his note book, "I will make a few more notes and see 
 what they will produce. How does that strike you ?" he 
 queried with an expectant look at Clayton. 
 
 " Your reason is not without logic," replied Clayton, 
 " but I can't see into it, that is I am still in the dark as 
 to how you will make those notes into a chain of evidence 
 in regard to my father. " 
 
 Jim moved over a little closer and resumed: "Now, 
 it is either one or the other of two ways, to my mind, 
 according to the evidence we have : That your father 
 must either be dead or imprisoned is a noteworthy fact, 
 or else he would have returned. Now you see these last 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. ;.rl 
 
 notes of mine here. It may be that Tom Alton and 
 Hart have formed some rascally plan of getting money 
 to satisfy Hart for the loss of the property, and as a re 
 suit have taken Boyd Emerson into the plot. Then 
 they have perhaps waylaid Mr. Palliser up there and 
 killed him, or else they have shut him up in that little 
 stone cabin there for safe keeping till they could dispose 
 of him some other way. Then Boyd Emerson agrees 
 to play the lunatic, and Hart makes the people believe 
 that it is Boyd that is shut up there, whom he asserts he 
 does not want to send to an asylum. Boyd takes his 
 share of the spoils and skips out, while Hart remains to 
 enjoy his part there on the old place." 
 
 " But what do you think became of Alton ?" inquired 
 Clayton. 
 
 ' 4 Well, you know he always had a strong hankering 
 after adventure," replied Jim, in a positive tone. "I'll 
 bet that he and Hart have agreed together for Hart to 
 stay on the place while he hies away to the mountains 
 and soon turns up as the leader of the Fox Valley 
 outfit." 
 
 " But that fellow they captured at the Girard bank 
 robbery says that the description of the chief is not that 
 of Tom Alton, " ventured Clayton. 
 
 Jim reflected a moment, while Clayton was begin- 
 ning to think his reasoning was a little flimsy, but he 
 was soon to change his opinion. 
 
212 CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 
 
 "What if he did," replied Jim. " Probably there 
 are two clever rascals that have got hold of them, and 
 one of them is the redoubtable Tom Alton. Look 
 yonder, I see three others coming this way. I wonder 
 who they can be." 
 
 Clayton cast his eyes in the direction of the camp 
 and saw three men approaching. 
 
 The young men had been so absorbed in their specu- 
 lations that they had not noticed the approach to camp 
 of another horseman, who rode up just as the sun was 
 appearing above the horizon. Whoever he was he had 
 satisfied the regulators as to his loyalty to their cause, 
 and in company with two more of them he was coming 
 toward Clayton and his companion. But neither Jim 
 nor Clayton could make out who they were, so dazzling 
 was the prairie sunlight. They concluded then that they 
 had better wait till the trio was in closer proximity. 
 
 When the three came nearer Clayton recognized Jack 
 Dalton as one ; the others were strangers, at least he 
 knew one as a member of the company, the other one 
 he had never seen before to his recollection. 
 
 In a moment Jack and his companions were in speak- 
 ing distance, and the first thing he did was to introduce 
 to Clayton the stranger. 
 
 "This is Mr. Thornton, Mr. Palliser," said Jack in a 
 very composed manner, and then when the two shook 
 hands and exchanged greetings, he continued : 
 
CLAYTON FINDS A CLUE. 21$ 
 
 "date, this feller here has come to our camp with 
 a startlin' piece of news, and one that will help us out a 
 lot, too. He says that Blanton and his men are going 
 to sack and burn a place over there that is owned by a 
 man named Barker, whom they believe is a secret enemy 
 of theirs and a spy on them. That's just the dodge we 
 want to catch them at, and if we can keep them from 
 finding out our nearness to them we will be all hunky. 
 He says they have been threatening to clean out the 
 shebang for some time, and now they are goin' to do 
 it!" 
 
 "Yes, and we'd better be up and doing, " assured 
 Thornton, "or we may be too late to nip them in the 
 act." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 
 
 While Clayton and Jim Carver were out there on the 
 grass discussing the evidence that they had, and endeavor- 
 ing to fit it to a reasonable basis of operation, Bill 
 Thornton had ridden up to camp in the first gleams of 
 the morning sun, and after satisfying the regulators that 
 his intentions were honest, had told to Charlie McKas- 
 son, a regulator from the White River country, and 
 whom he was acquainted with, the scheme he had in- 
 vented for the dissolution of the so-called Alton gang. 
 He explained that he was the sweetheart of Bessie Har- 
 per, who was the daughter of Ben Harper, the lieutenant 
 of the gang, and that Bessie was desirous of seeing the 
 band broken up in order to make an attempt to reform 
 her father. Bessie, he said, was one of the purest and 
 sweetest maidens that ever blessed a man with her love, 
 but she was always in deep distress about the wicked 
 career of her father. So she and Bill had concocted and 
 put into operation the following scheme for the downfall 
 of the organization : 
 
 Bill was to join them and learn their secrets, and bide 
 his time till another outbreak. By profound reasoning 
 they had calculated that the gang would seek redress on 
 
 (214) 
 
Bill Thornton bad ridden up to camp in the first gleam 
 of the morning sun. 
 
BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 217 
 
 the noted lights of the regulators the next foray, and 
 then would ensue a small war. The outlaws, they knew, 
 were hard to get at in their mountain retreat, and they 
 knew the regulators would need all the information they 
 could get in order to make a successful campaign against 
 them. Bill was to pretend extreme anger at the sup- 
 posed abuse his family heaped upon him on account of 
 his intimacy with Ben Harper's daughter, who was an 
 outlaw, and that she was not good enough for him was 
 the general opinion that was reported to have been cast 
 by the McKasson family. The plan had worked like a 
 charm. Tom Alton required no iron bound oath of 
 allegiance', but woe unto the man who was intrepid 
 enough to betray them. Bill wss duely initiated as a 
 member, and so rabid were his declarations against the 
 persecutions he had endured that they were blinded 
 enough to intrust him with important secrets and 
 errands. 
 
 He accompanied them on their raid at Dalton's ranch, 
 and had helped drive the cattle to the Territory, and in- 
 formed them that Joe Martin had told the exact truth 
 in his statement to Sheriff Wingfield. The bank rob- 
 bers were already there when they arrived, and the same 
 night the whole crew had indulged in an all-night carousal 
 of drinking, card playing, jig dancing, etc., and by morn- 
 ing were all dead drunk. 
 
 Bill informed them that the gang was smuggling 
 through the products of the illicit distillery, the manu- 
 
218 BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 
 
 facturing of which occupies part of their time, and sell- 
 ing it to the Indians at exorbitant prices. He said that 
 the Blantons and the Indians gathered there, set up a 
 shout of joy when the announcement was made that the 
 fiery mountain whisky was there in plentiful quantities. 
 The whisky venders were smart enough to let them go 
 without a season, well knowing that that would enhance 
 the price, and this department of the business firm of 
 Alton, Harper and company added greatly to their in- 
 come. 
 
 Along in the evening a general sobering up com- 
 menced, and one by one the crew rose from their drunken 
 slumber and walked about the place a while, finally 
 gathering at the house again for supper. After supper 
 they all attended a big dance given by a half breed who 
 lived over the way to the Westward, some five miles, 
 and the night was spent in wild bacchanalian revelry. 
 On the road home next morning they met up with the 
 man Barker, who was in company with two of his at- 
 tendants, and their suspicions were aroused to the highest 
 pitch. Barker was a quarter blood, who kept a tavern 
 just over the line in Kansas, and was regarded as a 
 United States marshal by the outlaws, which he really 
 was, and they were terribly afraid of him. 
 
 A plot was then instigated to kill Barker and burn 
 his place. Alf and Joe Blanton had been for a long 
 time impatient for the act, but the elder Blanton had 
 held out against it. On those days of high crimes and 
 
BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 219 
 
 misdemeanors it was not much trouble to shift the blame 
 on some one else, so they formed the plan of disguising 
 as Indians, so as to make believe that it had been the 
 Cheyennes that did the work in the beginning of the 
 threatened outbreak. Barker was duely warned by 
 Thornton, and he, having formed the idea that the regu- 
 lators were in close proximity, set out to find them, and 
 was highly elated at his success and the numerical 
 strength of the force. 
 
 Charlie McKasson, who was a son of one of the 
 members of the Fox Valley Stranglers, and who had 
 known Bill Thornton from infancy, vouched for him, and 
 every one felt jubilant at the prospect of a better excuse 
 than ever for throwing lead at the ruffianly cabal. Jeff 
 Carlton, to use a familiar Western phrase, was "spilin' 
 fer a fight, " and so were the others. Plans for action 
 were adopted while the cooks were preparing the morn- 
 ing repast, and all present felt as though the time had 
 arrived when they could fully glut their vengeance. 
 
 The attack was to be made at two o'clock that day, 
 which would give the regulators and Indian rangers 
 ample time to lay their plan to thwart the intended 
 stroke. The number they calculated on was twenty, as 
 some of them were not inclined to take such a risk as 
 that, but were secretly pleased with the prospect of 
 having Barker out of the way. Barker had no legal 
 authority over them as long as they were in the Terri- 
 tory, but they often feared that he would lay a trap for 
 
22O BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 
 
 them as soon as they ventured over on United States 
 soil. That he had not done so yet they concluded was 
 because he was not ready. 
 
 But he also informed them that the chief had gone 
 back to the mountains, and Harper and two others had 
 accompanied him, but the men who robbed the bank 
 were all there, and if they could succeed in capturing 
 them in detail they could obtain the reward offered for 
 them, which was a hundred dollars for each one of them. 
 The bank robbers were not all included in the detach- 
 ment that was going to raid Barker, but four of them 
 were, and that would make it much easier to discern and 
 separate them from the others for the purpose of cap- 
 ture. 
 
 ' ' But how can we tell them when they will all be 
 dyed up like Indians ?" asked Jeff Carlton. 
 
 Jeff, having lost his all at the hands of the raiders, 
 was anxious to reimburse himself if possible by the cap- 
 ture of some of the bank robbers, while the raiders that 
 killed the cowboys and destroyed his home were fore- 
 doomed to fall by the avenging bullets of the regulators. 
 
 Thornton assured them that he could distinguish the 
 bank robbers even in their Indian disguise. 
 
 So that settled the matter to the satisfaction of all, 
 and Jack, observing the two figures on the grass, has- 
 tened thither with TVprnton and Charlie McKasson to 
 communicate the n$w "o Clayton. 
 
BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 221 
 
 When Jack and Bill together in spasmodic, bickering 
 strains, had communicated the piece of information to 
 Clayton and Jim, Clayton, anxious to introduce his new 
 friend, said, when the opportunity presented itself : 
 
 "You don't know this fellow, do you, Jack?" 
 
 Jack eyed Jim with a look of doubtful recognition, 
 and Jim did likewise to Jack. 
 
 Jim was first to speak. 
 
 "You are Jack Dalton, aren't you ? I recollect you 
 very well." 
 
 "Yes, but I can't quite make up my mind who you 
 are," exclaimed Jack in a fretful tone. "Yet it seems 
 like I ought to pronounce your name easy." 
 
 "Then I will help you out a little," replied Jim. 
 "Don't you remember the hotel keeper's son, Jim Car- 
 ver ?" 
 
 "Oh, yes of course I do," exclaimed Jack, grasping 
 Carver's hand and shaking it heartily. " How are you 
 makin' it, Jim ?" he asked, in a transport of glee, as he 
 s?ill held to Jim's hand. "I guess ye ain't forgot the 
 scrape me and you got into that Fourth of July atOzark, 
 have you, Jim ?" 
 
 * "No, it would take a long time to efface the memory 
 of that little episode," replied Jim. "How is things 
 over there now, boys ? Pretty hot times you're having 
 now, I guess." 
 
 And with such small talk as this the five young men, 
 
222 BILL THORNTON'S SCHEME. 
 
 all known to each other, now walked back to the camp. 
 Clayton was wise enough to thrust his own private 
 affairs aside in the near approach of the crisis that had 
 been only a vague speculation so far. That he would 
 have these interested friends spared to him was another 
 vague speculation, and one that caused him no little 
 anxiety. The preponderance of numbers was no safe- 
 guard against that, but he finally quieted his fears with 
 the thoughts of the result of a single volley from the 
 rifles of the rangers, which would doubtless do the work 
 if they succeeded in getting the first fire. So the morn- 
 ing wore away at last, and the cavalcade, having made 
 their preparations, rode away slowly toward Barker's 
 Tavern. 
 
Sweeping down on the place, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 Barker's Tavern was another old landmark like that 
 of Hobson's, and situated on one of the old frontier 
 trails, a monument of the old pioneer days when the 
 plains were nothing but a vast uninhabited desert. The 
 principal object of Westward migration in those days 
 was gold, silver and furs, and the Western districts had 
 few inhabitants outside of the mining districts. Texas, 
 after the acquisition of independence, offered other 
 means of support in the way of grazing, farming, and 
 coal mining, and the route leading thither was well 
 traveled, affording numerous advantages to tavern keep- 
 ers. The old trail remained unchanged, while the con- 
 stantly increasing influx of emigrants made the hearts of 
 the tavern keepers glad by the generous fees they poured 
 into their coffers. 
 
 The tavern in question had changed hands several 
 times since its establishment. The present proprietor 
 had been in possession about two years, but the business 
 was not as profitable as it was in days gone by. It was 
 frequented constantly by those who loved excessive 
 drinking, and the barroom was the source of the largest 
 part of the owner's profits. In connection with the 
 
 (225) 
 
226 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 saloon and tavern Barker also kept a dry goods store in 
 another building just across the road from the one that 
 contained the other apartments of business and dwelling 
 rooms. The tavern was a long, two storied structure, 
 with three upper and three lower rooms, that stood 
 facing the road, and back of it were the garden, stables, 
 stock lots, and out houses. The old sign that stood at 
 the corner of the building was decayed and dim with 
 age and the rough usage of the elements, and served the 
 owners in announcing that the building was a tavern 
 where travelers could obtain lodging and refreshments. 
 
 The place was only about half a mile from the 
 Neosho, and stood on a small elevation of the road. 
 There was a scattered growth of walnut trees, planted 
 perhaps by the first owner of the place. A hedge fence 
 inclosed a field next to the river of perhaps fifty acres, 
 and the road ran from the river along the hedge fence. 
 
 The day was a fine one for the season, and the bar- 
 room at the tavern was in full blast. About seven or 
 eight men of the worthless barroom loafer class were 
 assembled there in hopes of a liberal treat from the 
 prosperous looking travelers that had stopped there for 
 the night, and showed no signs of being in a hurry to 
 leave. 
 
 Barker was a good violinist, and always kept the old 
 Paganini violin in the barroom to amuse his customers 
 with his playing, while his son, Walter Barker, a chuffy, 
 overgrown boy of fifteen, acted as bartender and dis- 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 22/ 
 
 bursed the drinks. The " no credit" sign, placed in a 
 prominent place overhead, did not seem to be obeyed 
 strictly by the frequenters of the place, for they assailed 
 Barker for credit for the drinks nearly every day, only to 
 be met with a stern refusal, which sometimes resulted in 
 a free for all fight, in which Barker was frequently pretty 
 well bruised. But he still held good the motto he had 
 taken pains to have illuminated and hung up where all 
 could see it, and as time passed and he still adhered to 
 it the barroom devotees gave up the point. 
 
 The two travelers seemed to have an unlimited sup- 
 ply of money, and the crowd for once was filled to their 
 heart's content. One of them, a small, wiry-looking 
 fellow, who often boasted how much he could drink 
 without getting drunk, and who was the champion jig 
 dancer of the community, was dancing a jig, while Bar- 
 ker, seated in his customary chair in the corner next the 
 front door was playing for him. The others, who were 
 not full enough to cause the loss of their senses, were 
 applauding him by a boisterous clapping of the hands 
 and shouting of ''Bravo" and various slang phrases, 
 while Walter Barker leaned with his back against the 
 bottle shelves behind the bar with a stolid grin on his fat 
 face. The two travelers seemed to enjoy the exhibition 
 very much, but the liquor they had absorbed did not 
 seem to have affected them. 
 
 The wall clock, fastened to the West wall of the 
 room, showed the time to be half-past nine. 
 
228 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 Outside there were no signs of life except the lazy 
 maneuvers of about half a dozen white goats, which 
 were nosing around aimlessly in search of some palatable 
 diet, while the big calvorte dog lay under the shade of 
 the two travelers' buggy, with his nose between his paws, 
 ever and anon raising his head and uttering a fierce 
 growl at one of the goats, who persisted in knowing the 
 contents of the buggy. 
 
 But despite the hilarity within and the quietude with- 
 out, the owner of the place was uneasy. A close ob- 
 server could have detected underneath the apparent 
 serenity of his visage a restless, quavering emotion. He 
 strove to master the agitation he felt, for he had not 
 communicated to any one the news that Bill Thornton. 
 had brought him. He decided to keep it to himself, 
 thinking perhaps the danger would pass, and he did not 
 wish to disturb the tranquility of his wife and two grown 
 daughters. But the fear that Thornton would fail in his 
 search for the vigilantes he expected to find near was 
 beginning to affect him, and he knew that unless the 
 search was successful his life and property would be in 
 jeopardy. He knew that the Blanton crew could not be 
 frustrated nor beaten off by himself and son, and he 
 knew also that it would be useless to ask any of the 
 devotees to assist. His eyes, every few seconds, sought 
 the face of the clock as though he feared it was too fast 
 or would probably jump a mark or two, bringing the 
 hands to the two o'clock mark and the warwhoop of the 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 22Q 
 
 attacking party to his ears. Then he would clinch the 
 fiddle bow with a tight grip and mechanically start an- 
 other tune, while the others resumed their hilarious 
 demonstrations. 
 
 In this manner the minutes which seemed like months 
 to Barker dragged slowly by, and the hour hand had 
 finally reached the ten o'clock mark. The saloon bums 
 had slunk away in the corners, some of them dead drunk ; 
 others had engaged in a game of cards with the two 
 travelers, and everything had become comparatively quiet 
 save the footfalls of Barker as he restlessly paced the 
 floor, every now and then going out and gazing up and 
 down the road. 
 
 The goats sauntered away up the road and the dog 
 had got up and stretched his full length in the road and 
 looked away toward the river as though he heard or saw 
 something stirring. 
 
 * ' They're surely coming now, " muttered Barker when, 
 on gazing out, he discovered the alert attitude of the 
 canine. But his endeavors to detect anything that would 
 confirm his words were futile. Nothing, only the road, 
 the hedge fence and the belt of timber that lined the 
 river bank met his gaze. 
 
 But he was confident that the dog scented the ap- 
 proach of the men that Thornton went in search of, and 
 his anxiety abated a little, although he still feared that 
 the raiders distrusted Thornton and had not given him 
 the correct time which they intended to make the attack 
 
230 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 in. He had been looking for something of that kind to 
 take place, and felt thankful that he had as slim a chance 
 as he did for a frustration. 
 
 " Forewarned is forearmed," he reasoned, and even 
 if the rangers did not put in an appearance he felt sure 
 that if he could enlist one or two of those in the saloon 
 that were not drunk he could prevent the raiders from 
 doing as much damage as they calculated. 
 
 Barker had gone back in the barroom and sat down, 
 with the intention of trying to calm his perturbed feel- 
 ings a little, when he heard the calvorte out in the road 
 give a low, short bark. His hopes rose rapidly as he 
 went out again and scanned the landscape in the same 
 direction. This time his eager gaze was rewarded by the 
 sight of a gigantic body of mounted men emerging from 
 the belt of timber that lined the river bank. At first, on 
 account of the vastness of the body, Barker was inclined 
 to believe that it must be a detachment of soldiers sent 
 out to quell the threatened outbreak. But he stood and 
 gazed at them long and earnestly, watching their ap- 
 proach, confident that whoever they might be they were 
 his protectors. 
 
 He now thought it time to acquaint the others with 
 the situation, and so he went to the kitchen where his 
 wife and youngest daughter were at work, having decided 
 to tell them first. He went in abruptly and sat down 
 heavily in a chair near the door. Mrs. Barker was peel- 
 ing potatoes, and when her husband entered she noticed 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 23! 
 
 his perturbed appearance, and as the threatened Indian 
 outbreak was constantly on the peoples' minds she at 
 once concluded that it must be some news relating to 
 that that her husband had heard and had dreaded telling 
 her and the others about. 
 
 She fixed her keen black eyes upon his visage with a 
 questioning gaze, and Barker, knowing that she sus- 
 picioned something, having framed his words of convey- 
 ance, spoke and asked : 
 
 4 'Sarah, did you see that young man that was here 
 this morning ?" 
 
 4 -Yes," she replied briefly, while the daughter who 
 was baking pies at the stove, looked around with a 
 startled expression. 
 
 4 'Well," replied Barker, 4< he brought me a little in- 
 telligence which I have held off telling you of till now, 
 thinking the danger might blow over." 
 
 44 My God, is it the Indians that's broke loose ?" ex- 
 claimed the two women in the same breath, interrupting 
 him. 
 
 Barker moved his hand in a downward sweep, com- 
 manding silence. 
 
 44 No, not exactly the Indians," he said, 4< but white 
 men in Indian disguise have laid a plan to raid this place 
 at two o'clock to-day. " 
 
 The two women were speechless with dismay and 
 astonishment, and it was quite a bit before they could 
 recover enough to speak. 
 
232 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 "You want to know who they are, I suppose. Well, 
 they are some of Blanton's crew that have concluded that 
 the neighborhood is not healthy for them as long as I am 
 here, and now that they have tried to kick up a muss 
 with the Indians they are going to disguise as Indians 
 and raid this place to-day.'" 
 
 "And what will we do ?" asked the two women in 
 wild accents of alarm. "Are you going to sit still and 
 let them destroy us?" continued Mrs. Barker. "It's not 
 very long till two o'clock." 
 
 Mrs. Barker and the youngest daughter always at- 
 tended to the cooking, while the eldest daughter always 
 tended to the store. The store did not require very 
 much attention, and the other girl just having dispatched 
 a couple of women customers, came over to the house 
 just as Mrs. Barker had spoken, and sauntering into the 
 kitchen she caught her mother's last words. When she 
 entered Barker seemed to be struck by a new and sudden 
 thought, rose quickly and said : 
 
 "I guess I might as well tell you all in a bunch now, 
 so that you will know what all this maneuvering means 
 here to-day. Just wait till I bring Walt in." 
 
 In a very short time Walter was in the kitchen with 
 the rest of the family, and Barker stood in'the middle of 
 the floor surrounded by his family and told them the 
 whole story as Bill Thornton had told it to him. The 
 others were greatly excited, and interrupted him with 
 many questions about the probability of Bill being sue- 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 233 
 
 cessful in his search. Barker replied that he did not 
 know whether he would be or not, but he had discovered 
 the approach of a body of men from the river which, if 
 it were not the Missouri and Kansas regulators, must be 
 soldiers. When he told them this they all went out in 
 the road in front of the tavern and gazed down in the 
 direction indicated. The dog was now barking furiously, 
 and Barker called him back in loud, threatening tones, 
 fearing lest he attack some of the approaching horsemen 
 that now had made their appearance at the top of the 
 little incline. 
 
 The Indians were in advance, then came the Missouri 
 men with Captain Garnett at their head, while Sam 
 Riley and his men brought up the rear. Barker and his 
 family were a little perplexed at the presence of the 
 Indians, and would have scouted the idea of their friend- 
 liness if Bill had not galloped out from among the caval- 
 cade and dashed up the road in the lead. At the rate he 
 was going it did not take him long to cover the distance 
 between the cavalcade and the tavern, and Barker was 
 highly elated at the sight of him. He came dashing up, 
 leaving a cloud of dust behind him, and, dismounting in 
 front of the astonished group, exclaimed : 
 
 "Well, I've found them, old man; cheer up now, 
 we've got about three to one against the raiders." 
 
 "But what's the reds doing with you?" asked 
 Barker. 
 
 ' * Indian rangers that are after Blanton and his crew," 
 
234 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 replied Bill hurriedly. " Now then, we must make haste 
 and lay the trap for them," he continued, taking out his 
 watch and examining it's face. "It's now half- past 
 eleven, and we've got just two hours and a half to get 
 ready." 
 
 Thus did Bill Thornton win the lasting gratitude of 
 Barker and his family, but before they were half through 
 with their expressions of the same the cavalcade had 
 reached them and checked up. Barker, who was ac- 
 quainted with the chief, went over to him and began 
 talking with him. After a little he bethought him that 
 he must welcome his guests and prepare for the 
 emergency. 
 
 Twelve o'clock came and the rangers, having eaten 
 a hearty repast at the sumptuous table of the tavern, 
 went out and bestirred themselves in making arrange- 
 ments for the frustration of the expected attack. The 
 horses were taken to the corral at the base of the knoll 
 in order to get them out of sight, the accoutrements were 
 stowed away in the barn where they would not attract 
 attention, and in a very short time there was nothing to 
 indicate the presence of the rangers there at the tavern 
 nor anywhere near. The saloon was closed, as was the 
 store, and Barker, with his family and the two travelers, 
 took their positions at the windows up stairs to v/atch for 
 the approach of the marauders. The rangers were, some 
 of them, ensconced within the barroom, while the Indians 
 with others of the regulators were hidden in the stables 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 2$ 5 
 
 as a reserve. The bums who had not sobered up and 
 left were locked in the smokehouse so as to be out of 
 the way. 
 
 The hours dragged slowly by, and the sun began its 
 downward descent. Two o'clock came at last, and the 
 watchers were breathless with apprehension, although 
 their eyes had not yet detected the approach of the 
 marauders. Those of the regulators who carried watches 
 consulted them and began to think that the marauders 
 were not going to put in an appearance. Some of them 
 desired it to be that way, while others, like Jeff Carlton, 
 who were spoiling for fight, felt disappointed at the delay, 
 and feared the non-appearance of the raiders as much as 
 Barker had feared their appearance. 
 
 Five minutes past two, and yet no sign of the raiders. 
 The sun dropped slowly toward the Western horizon, the 
 horses at the corral gamboled and stalked around, beat- 
 ing a lively tattoo with their hoofs and, with the excep- 
 tion of that, everything within and without the old 
 tavern was as quiet as the grave. 
 
 Suddenly a terrible whoop rent the air and startled 
 the watchers, who were off their guard. The whoop, 
 designed to imitate an Indian warwhoop, would doubt- 
 less have deceived every one present, with the possible 
 exception of Bill and the Indians, had they not known 
 it as it was. The watching group at the window looked 
 out to behold twenty-five armed warriors by accurate 
 count sweeping down on the place, leaving a long white 
 
236 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 cloud of dust behind them. At intervals of every hun- 
 dred yards the whoop was repeated, and it seemed as 
 though all the defiance in man's nature was emitted in 
 those prolonged imitations of an Indian warwhoop. 
 
 " Now for business, boys !" exclaimed Sam Riley.who 
 commanded the detachment in the saloon. Sam and his 
 men, with those who held the deepest grudge against the 
 freebooters, were to commence operations from the bar- 
 room windows. Captain Garnett and the men he com- 
 manded were to make a quick dash across the stable lot 
 and cut off the retreat in that direction, while the Indians 
 were to repair to the side next the river and cut off the 
 chances for escape there. 
 
 Clayton and Jim Carver were with the Captain, Jack 
 and Charlie McKassan were with Sam Riley. Bill had 
 paced to and fro from the barroom to the group of 
 watchers at the upstairs window, and was there when the 
 announcement of the approach was given in the wild 
 demoniacal chorus of yells emitted by the oncoming 
 raiders. He was beginning to fear that they had post- 
 poned the attack, and he wanted the affair to come off 
 while the place was guarded so well by such a strong 
 force. 
 
 Bill was off his guard, too, when the attacking party 
 gave their yell announcing their approach. He turned 
 and gazed with heartfelt satisfaction at the weird figures 
 dashing down like a hawk on a chicken with their per- 
 sons well disguised in their Indian pharaphernalia and 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 unconscious of the fact that they were riding straight 
 into the gaping jaws of a terrible doom. 
 
 'Tis ever thus with mortal man. Often it transpires 
 that the rose his natural eye beholds only hides the edge 
 of a yawning abyss. Danger and death, tragedy and 
 bloodshed pervaded the still November air. Not one of 
 the twenty-five armed and disguised marauders on venge- 
 ance bent dreamed that their enemies lurked there in 
 that quiet looking place with hearts full of murderous 
 hate and rifles and revolvers full of leaden messengers of 
 death ready to be hurled at them. Rifles were clinched 
 in stout, sinewy hands, and brave hearts beat high in 
 nervous apprehension, while the raiders told by their long 
 drawn yells that the distance between them and the 
 tavern was being rapidly diminished. 
 
 " Steady now, boys," cautioned Riley, as he gazed 
 out of the window and beheld the raiders not over fifty 
 yards away. The clatter of hoofs broke in on the 
 auricular senses of the men, and they nerved themselves 
 for the shock. 
 
 Suddenly the clatter of the hoofs ceased, and all 
 present knew that the time for action had come. The 
 warriors in true Indian fashion checked their horses, and 
 ten painted demons dismounted and stalked up to the 
 tavern. When they saw the doors all closed they hesi- 
 tated a moment, thinking perhaps that Barker and his 
 family were either prepared to resist or had been ap- 
 praised of their coming and taken flight. A council was 
 
238 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 held and an investigation decided upon, which they were 
 not long in putting into operation. The door was tried, 
 and when it was found to be fastened they sought means 
 to batter it down. After a short search they at last found 
 a stout billet of wood that had been cast out of the 
 woodpile on account of it being too knotty for gcod, easy 
 chopping, and when they had discovered it four of them 
 picked it up and carrying it on their shoulders made for 
 the door. While they were doing this the other five set 
 to work preparing fuel to pile against the building to 
 insure a quick and substantial blaze. 
 
 But when the raiders who bore the pole with the in- 
 tention of battering down the door got within twenty 
 feet of the door, the door was suddenly thrown open 
 and the sharp crack of a rifle rang out on the air. The 
 foremost raider, uttering a terrible shriek, fell forward, 
 jerking the others with him, and the pole being very 
 heavy crushed them to the ground into insensibility. 
 The door slammed shut again, and the raiders for a 
 moment were nonplussed and stood in open mouthed 
 astonishment. 
 
 Still they did not dream of the presence of so for- 
 midable a force, and the shot that brought down the four 
 bearing the pole only served to madden them after they 
 recovered from their surprise. Those who were gather- 
 ing the fuel now made haste to pile it against the build- 
 ing, but ere they had gotten within fifteen feet of the 
 house, a little closer than their fallen comrades, the door 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 239 
 
 opened again and five rifles cracked in chorus and the 
 five fuel bearers bit the dust. Another pause ensued 
 when the door slammed shut, and now the thoroughly 
 enraged pillagers dismounted and made a combined rush, 
 as though they would take the place by storm. Three 
 or four of them hastily grabbed up the fuel dropped by 
 their fallen comrades and piled it against the side of the 
 building, while the others tried all the doors. The doors 
 being all secure, the raiders, warned of the point where 
 the danger lay, now crowded in front of the kitchen 
 door awaiting the assimilation of the fuel. Pretty soon 
 the fuel was arranged and the match was applied, and 
 Bill Thornton, who saw the operation from a window 
 upstairs, hastily ran down and informed Riley that some- 
 thing must be done quickly if they would save the 
 building. 
 
 But Riley and his men had been taking note of things 
 also, and were prepared for immediate action. Opening 
 the door, Sam stuck his head out and called out 
 sternly : 
 
 * ' Put that fire out in an instant or you are, every one 
 of you, dead men !" 
 
 A wild cackle of derisive shouts greeted this com- 
 mand, and Riley's quick eye caught the upraised arm of 
 a raider and the gleam of a revolver, and drew in his 
 head just as the revolver cracked and a bullet whizzed 
 past the door and buried itself in the old sign post at the 
 corner. 
 
24O BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 "Very well," remarked Sam, laconically, "if they 
 aren't disposed to believe us let them take the conse- 
 quences. Hello, there goes Garnett and his warriors. 
 Now look out for a jubilee." 
 
 Swiftly but silently the figures of the Captain and his 
 men were discerned gliding across the lot toward the 
 road. According to the plan laid by Riley and his de- 
 tachment, they raised the back window and glided out 
 one by one into the back yard, and when all were out 
 they were to steal around and attack the raiders from 
 the rear, as they would naturally be looking toward the 
 point where they supposed the defenders were ensconced. 
 Suddenly they caught sight of the stealthy moving 
 figures of the Captain's detachment, and before they had 
 recovered from their surprise at this new discovery they 
 were startled anew by a ringing volley in the rear, which 
 brought down nine out of the nineteen that had not been 
 rendered hors du combat. 
 
 A chorus of yells and shrieks rent the air, and the 
 other ten, perceiving that they were cornered, hastily 
 drew their revolvers and fired a volley at Riley's men, 
 which killed three of them and wounded four more. 
 But Riley had not played his best trumps yet, and having 
 deployed ten of his men to watch their opportunity and 
 attack them again in the rear. When they turned at 
 the first attack the ten hastily ran around the building 
 and opened fire on the raiders again in the rear. This 
 fire brought down six more of the plucky raiders, and 
 
BORDER COMBAT. 24! 
 
 they, perceiving that resistance meant only annihilation, 
 threw up their hands in token of surrender. 
 
 All was now confusion. The Indians came running 
 in from their side and Garnett's men from the other; the 
 regulators were throwing and kicking the fire brands all 
 over the street ; ponies frightened at the spasmodic crack- 
 ing and flashing of the rifles, were galloping madly up 
 and down the road, while the groans of the wounded 
 were rising amid the din, and the Barkers were frantic- 
 ally endeavoring to stop the flames that had assumed 
 considerable proportions. Finally the flames were sub- 
 dued by the plentiful application of water, and the whole 
 force set to work diligently to learn the damage they had 
 incurred and repair it. Barker informed Riley and the 
 other leaders that they were to be his guests till the dead 
 and wounded of the battle were cared for, and all dam- 
 ages repaired, and expressed his fears of a similar attack 
 in revenge for the terrible excoriation that the raiders had 
 received, when the ruffians were confident that no resis- 
 tance would be offered. He knew that twenty-five was 
 not all the force Blanton could muster, and he said he 
 feared that he would not be as lucky in having such a 
 formidable force of defenders near him as he had this 
 time. 
 
 Greatly to Bill Thornton's elation, two of the four 
 men that had surrendered were members of the bank 
 robber gang, and they all voted that he should receive 
 the reward for them. The other two were members of 
 
242 BORDER COMBAT. 
 
 the Pendleton gang of horse thieves and were taken into 
 custody by Sam Riley and his men. 
 
 When the confusion was over and an examination of 
 the battlefield was inaugurated, sixteen of the raiders 
 and three of the rangers lay staring blankly at the No- 
 vember sunlight, while four of the regulators and five of 
 the raiders were seriously wounded and demanded quick 
 medical aid to be saved from death. Fortunately there 
 was a good surgeon in Riley's band, who had been an 
 army surgeon. A messenger was dispatched to the near- 
 est town for the necessary articles, and while he was gone 
 the men prepared the dead for burial. Barker donated 
 a spot of ground near the river for the burial of the 
 raiders and one in his own family lot for the regulators 
 who fell in defending his home. There was an influx of 
 curious neighbors there that evening, and many of them 
 offered their services and donated the use of wagons and 
 teams, while even the saloon bum?, who had sobered up 
 and learned what had transpired, expressed their willing- 
 ness to aid in interring the fallen heroes of that border 
 conflict. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE COMPACT. 
 
 Next day a solemn ceremony took place in two places 
 there on the broad sunlit prairie, attended by the regu- 
 lators who took part in the fight, by the Indian rangers, 
 the two travelers that happened to be there when the 
 conflict took place, and by the greater part of the set- 
 tlers in the surrounding country. Plenty of willing hands 
 lent their assistance in the task, and both ^remonies 
 were performed at the same time. Despite the solemnity 
 of the occasion numerous and idle jests were emitted by 
 the careless throng of idle curiosity seekers, and the 
 Barkers were nearly bored to death by numerous and 
 silly questions regarding the incident. A clergyman was 
 present from town and offered a prayer for the repose of 
 the souls of the dead men before they were taken away 
 for burial, and as some of the dead regulators had 
 friends and relatives with them, these acted as chief 
 mourners at the interment, while a great number of the 
 rangers attended the burial of the marauders that were 
 laid away in the spot donated by Barker between the 
 hedge fence and the river. The money found on the 
 persons of the raiders was sufficient to purchase their 
 coffins with and pay the other expenses, and the graves 
 
 (245) 
 
246 THE COMPACT. 
 
 were neatly rounded off after the fashion of all isolated 
 graves, and the spot left unmarked save by the sixteen 
 little white mounds that lay side by side in the open, 
 grass-covered plain. No tears of sorrow were shed for 
 them, no parting volley was fired over their graves when 
 the task was done. They were transgressors and re- 
 ceived the transgressor's treatment by an ignominious 
 death and a last resting place similar to that of their 
 brothers in crime whose graves already marked the end 
 of their earthly career over the grassy plains of Kansas 
 and the wild mountain gorges and deep tangled wild- 
 woods of Missouri. 
 
 But the regulators were not so vindictive as to be 
 exempt from an attack of melancholy when they were 
 performing their last duty to their fallen enemies. The 
 brave defenders of right are never exultant over the 
 downfall of a foe nor vindictive in spirit when the victory 
 is gained. These brave, hardy pioneers were the nucleus, 
 the subsoil of a future civilization, and the fact that they 
 were compelled to plunge into the slimy cesspool of 
 crime and cleanse it with blood was no argument against 
 their humanity and their worthiness. Now that the in- 
 famous horde was transformed into inanimate lumps of 
 clammy clay, with eyes blank with the extinction of life, 
 the regulators could not repress a feeling of repugnance 
 at the task they had set for themselves, and not one of 
 them present there at the interment of the dead free- 
 booters but what wished that this was the last action of 
 
THE COMPACT. 247 
 
 the campaign. But they had one consolation that would 
 eventually offset the remorseful melancholy that possessed 
 them. This action, in which so many of the marauding 
 desperadors were eliminated from the roll of active 
 operation, would doubtless be a warning to those that 
 had escaped to cease their misdeeds and turn from the 
 error of their ways. 
 
 The Indian rangers formed the plan of warning 
 Blanton that if he did not cease harboring the lawless 
 element of the surrounding states and cease stealing the 
 Indians' stock that his ranch would be burned and he 
 himself hanged. The Indians were no fools, and knew 
 enough to acquaint the military authorities with the cir- 
 cumstances, and Blanton would surely have sense enough 
 to heed the warning when he discovered the tightening 
 of the cords around him. 
 
 As the days were short at this season of the year the 
 task was not completed till a quarter past three o'clock, 
 and Barker insisted upon the regulators remaining there 
 over night. They complied and went back to the tavern, 
 satisfied that the disagreeable task tkey had undertaken 
 was over. 
 
 The Kansas men related the stirring incidents of their 
 campaign against the horse thieves that infested their 
 state, while the Missouri men doubtless told of the 
 termination of several earthly careers that took place 
 back in the rugged region of Southern Missouri and 
 Northern Kansas. 
 
248 THE COMPACT. 
 
 Alex. Dalton was desirous of regaining the cattle that 
 had been driven from his ranch, and had made up his 
 mind to go over to the ranch and have an interview with 
 Blanton with a view to that effect. Blanton had by this 
 time learned of the presence of the large force of rangers 
 in the vicinity and the fate that had overtaken the party 
 sent to destroy Barker, and would be apt to evince a 
 desire for conciliation. Viewing the matter in this light, 
 Dalton believed it would be no trouble to effect a^com- 
 promise. 
 
 As it happened that the four young men interested in 
 Clayton's affairs were thereat the interment, and himseH 
 included as a consequence, when the task was completed 
 Jim Carver sought Clayton out and suggested that they 
 take a stroll down to the river and perfect their plans for 
 a thorough investigation of the matter they had been 
 talking about. Clayton felt devoutly thankful that these 
 interested friends were spared him, and his mind had 
 formed a mental picture of the future operations and 
 outcome of their search. He felt sure that Carver had 
 struck a correct solution of the problem if the Emersons 
 had anything to do with it, and he was anxious to get 
 back home and carry out the programme. So he called 
 Jack and the other two .together, and while the others 
 were walking back to the tavern the five young men 
 strolled down to the river. 
 
 There was a nice greensward hidden by a high 
 sloping bank just at the verge of the timber, and it 
 
THE COMPACT. 249 
 
 was here that the young men repaired to formulate 
 their plan of operation. 
 
 Bill and the other two were informed of the knowl- 
 edge that Jim held of the case, and they all coincided 
 with his views, which they admitted were reasonable 
 enough if the suspicions they attached to the Emersons 
 were not groundless. They reasoned that the Emersons 
 had brought with them from their former place of abode 
 the reputation of being a cruel, mercenary set, and if 
 Jason Palliser had fallen into their hands he had certainly 
 parted with his money if he had not with his life, and 
 according to Jim's theory he had either parted with his 
 life or his liberty. 
 
 The probability of the missing man's being impris- 
 oned anywhere had not even entered the mind of Jack, 
 who was so fond of explaining his theory of the case 
 from the standpoint of his favorite author, the novelist. 
 Neither had it entered Clayton's mind in all his brain 
 racking, sleepless nights he had spent in a desperate en- 
 deavor to form a correct solution. 
 
 Jim had spoken right when he said that he was the 
 man Clayton ought to have met with before. 
 
 Clayton had often, in his meditations on the subject, 
 fancied the scene of an exhumation of some isolated 
 grave somewhere amid the woody dingles of the moun- 
 tains, and had resolved that should such a one be found 
 he would dig up the contents, although he always had a 
 natural repugnance for dead bodies, especially of human 
 
THE COMPACT. 
 
 beings. But he often vowed that he would leave no 
 stone unturned that would lead to the discovery of his 
 father's fate, and now that he had obtained through in- 
 heritance the necessary funds to enable him to devote 
 his whole time to the task, he resolved that as soon as he 
 had performed his duty as a member of the vigilantes 
 that he would from that time on seek diligently for a clue 
 till the mystery was solved. So he thought from the 
 way things were drifting now that his trip with the regu- 
 lators had been a very fruitful one. 
 
 Jack's theory of the isolated grave was also duly con- 
 sidered and thoroughly discussed. Carver suggested that 
 as it would be the easiest to sift the imprisonment theory 
 to reconnoitre the little stone hut first, and if that theory 
 was exploded by developed proof then to proceed with 
 the exhumation. And as Jim seemed to be the most 
 logical counselor, and the most accurate calculator, and 
 also possessed the most evidence, the other four readily 
 followed his lead and acquiesced in the plans he dis- 
 closed. 
 
 Clayton had been loth to believe that any of the ter- 
 rible and unnatural incidents described in Jack's favorite 
 books were ever enacted in real life, and many a lively 
 controversy had ensued between the two friends on the 
 subject. Of course this did not interfere with their 
 friendship, for it is a remarkable fact that if men were to 
 express themselves in actual words in regard to each 
 other's private opinions, or rather their own private 
 
THE COMPACT. 251 
 
 opinions of the other fellow's opinions in general, there 
 would be no end of trouble. It is a faulty and treach- 
 erous nature we possess, and surely there is no man nor 
 woman that would not welcome the advent of a better 
 one. Clayton drew his ideas of life from the master 
 minds of the age, but he was somewhat skeptical about 
 the incidents described in the highly wrought fiction that 
 Jack delighted in. In fact he was secretly amused at 
 Jack's consistency, and while he desired no friction nor 
 breach of their friendship, Clayton outwardly respected 
 Jack's opinions, while Jack, although he had no quarrel 
 with the practical side of life, still believed Clayton in 
 error in regard to the thorough debasement of some 
 human beings. He argued that there were people on 
 earth with not an atom of good in them, while Clayton 
 held to the opinion that there was good in all people if 
 the proper means for eliciting it were applied. 
 
 Then Jack would jocosely point to Milt Harper as an 
 example of illustration for his side of the question, and 
 Clayton would gravely admit that there were a few ex- 
 ceptional cases, and the argument would end till the next 
 time they met and were in the mood for renewing it. 
 
 Jim Carver was evidently a match for Clayton in 
 mental powers, and Clayton was quick to discover it, but 
 he was in no wise disconcerted nor jealous because Jim 
 assumed the leadership in the formation of the proposed 
 operations.in his behalf. 
 
 Egotism was not a strong feature of Clayton's char- 
 
252 THE COMPACT. 
 
 acter, and Jim's hearty interest and elucidation pleased 
 him exceedingly, while the others also realized his capac- 
 ity for quick and rapid planning, and they, one and all, 
 mentally voted him as the chosen leader. 
 
 There was a necessity for having a leader who could 
 form such quick plans of action, for the expedition was 
 doubtless fraught with much danger. 
 
 These were exckable times to go prowling around any 
 one's premises, and there was no telling what time they 
 might fall into a trap of some kind, for the ominous 
 reputation the Emersons bore caused the young men to 
 fear that they might meet the same fate that befell the 
 man they sought. 
 
 But the compact was formed, and Jim was to ac- 
 company them back to their homes and become Clayton's 
 guest for a season. 
 
 What the outcome would be none of them dared 
 venture an opinion about, but they all felt sure that if 
 Jim's prognostication was not fulfilled it stood to reason 
 that the Emersons were guiltless. 
 
 When they returned to the tavern they found Alex. 
 Dalton and a delegation of the regulators saddled up and 
 ready to depart for Blanton's ranch, with the intention 
 of persuading the old desperado, if they could, to re- 
 linquish all ar a part of the stolen cattle. 
 
 Jeff Carlton was one of the delegation, and he also 
 
THE COMPACT. 253 
 
 entertained some hopes of recovering his horses that the 
 raiders had taken when they fired his buildings. 
 
 Another council had been held, and an ultimatum 
 had been framed and signed by the whole force save by 
 the party that was absent at the river, and if it was not 
 complied with they would set fire to the ranch, which at 
 this season of the year would have been a more formid- 
 able foe than three times that number of armed men. 
 
 Barker also signed the ultimatum demanding the 
 restoration of the stolen stock, but it was only to be used 
 as a last resort. 
 
 It was also confirmed by the Indians, who desired to 
 put a stop to the depredations of Blanton and his crew, 
 if it were possible, but the whole force dreaded any 
 further bloodshed, and the plan of firing the ranch was 
 resorted to as a substitute. 
 
 Bill was requested to accompany the party as guide, 
 and was somewhat reluctant to do so. He did not want 
 to expose himself so readily as that, and only agreed 
 after Jack had formed the idea of going with them and 
 coming back with him when he had conducted them to 
 the ranch. 
 
 Twilight was fast dissolving into darkness when the 
 party rode up to the ranch house and beheld for the first 
 time the domicile of the man that had harbored their 
 enemies for so long. The house and other buildings lay 
 at the base of the little chain of hills called theWichata 
 mountains, whether by courtesy or jest we know not, and 
 
254 THE COMPACT. 
 
 a steep, grass-covered incline rose just back of it, fringed 
 at the crest by a dense growth of oak, birch and maple, 
 with a light sprinkling of ash and a few small cedars. 
 The grazing grounds stretched for miles along between 
 the hills, and a creek that wended its course towards the 
 Neosho in a tolerable straight line, and the eyes of the 
 regulators beheld an astonishing number of cattle and 
 horses dotting the grass covered plain that was inclosed 
 with barbed wire, and this strengthened their belief that 
 the stock that was stolen in the surrounding states all 
 found its way there. So when Alex, hallooed at the 
 front of the ranch house it was with much hopes of a 
 peaceable interview, for Blanton would scarcely relin- 
 quish such a magnificent display as that to the chances 
 of a prairie fire or the chances of armed hostility. 
 
 No signs of any men folks were visible about the 
 place, and Jeff suggested that it might be difficult to find 
 any of the male members of the place. But it was not 
 long before they were gratified by the sight of a man 
 approaching from the back yard with a lighted lantern 
 coming toward them at a slow leisurely pace. A pack 
 of dogs that were lying around the door of the kitchen, 
 which was in an el at the rear of the main building, be- 
 ing aroused by the shouting came bounding out with 
 furious barking, and the party was not a little nettled 
 when they noticed that the man, whoever he might be, 
 made no effort to recall or stop them. But a dog knows 
 when he is in danger as well as a man, and when the 
 
THE COMPACT. 255 
 
 pack reached the yard fence and saw the savage gleam 
 in the eyes of the men they concluded that they had 
 better stay inside. 
 
 " Why in h 1 don't you call them dogs off," shouted 
 Carlton, whose dominant element was beginning to assert 
 itself. 
 
 The man made no answer, but came striding on in 
 the same leisurely fashion till he got to the fence, which 
 was only a tumble down rail fence with a rickety old gate 
 for an entrance. In the dim light imparted by the de- 
 parting rays of the sun and the dim starlight they saw a 
 man whom they at once recognized by Bill's description 
 of him as the owner of the ranch. 
 
 For the first time since they had learned of him the 
 vigilantes beheld the man that had thwarted their efforts 
 at redress by harboring their foes. There were times 
 beforehand when they had threatened to pay him a visit, 
 but some way or other the threats were never consum- 
 mated as the years passed and the information they had 
 received at first was increased and confirmed. 
 
 When they beheld the vast number of animals that 
 dotted the grazing grounds of the ranch they had not a 
 doubt of the truthfulness of the reports they had heard 
 through various sources, and confirmed by Bill Thorn- 
 ton. 
 
 But when they beheld for the first time the face and 
 form of Blanton, the half breed desperado, they were 
 pretty well convinced that, if he had any backing, he 
 
256 THE COMPACT. 
 
 would in no wise comply with their request. The noted 
 prairie outlaw was before them, and they saw by the 
 wolfish leer in the dark eyes that peered out from the 
 mass of black hair and bushy black whiskers that he was 
 in no friendly mood, but they did not ascribe it to the 
 fact that the criminal class always h,ave that dangerous, 
 suspicious leer in their eyes. 
 
 That Blanton had been expecting a visit of this kind 
 since the news of the conflict at Barker's had reached 
 him was very likely, but this had not entered the minds 
 of the regulators either, who were in too excited a frame 
 of mind to do any deep thinking. They were working 
 on the force plan at present, and had a dim idea that 
 the prairie freebooter was too wary to be tripped by 
 strategy. 
 
 "What's wanted, gentlemen," he demanded in brisk, 
 abrupt tones, affecting indifference. 
 
 As he spoke the dogs renewed their barking, and he 
 uttered a sharp command to them which had an effect 
 that startled the party of regulators. The dogs instantly 
 turned tails and scampered back to the house, disclosing 
 the fact that the owner of this establishment was pos- 
 sessed of a dominant, forceful nature that commanded 
 strict obedience, and they knew that it would require a 
 pretty hot fire to melt him into subjection to the<r de- 
 mands. 
 
 All the force of character which he had been credited 
 with was evident to their ocular senses now that they 
 
THE COMPACT. 2 57 
 
 faced him in the fast dissolving twilight and on his own 
 premises. 
 
 "We have come here for the purpose of learning 
 the location of a certain number of stock that, we have 
 been informed, was sold to you by certain roving stock 
 dealers," was the opening speech performed by Alex. 
 Dalton. 
 
 ' ' Certain roving stock dealers, " reiterated the ranch- 
 man mockingly, while the leer in his eyes deepened. 
 ' ' Oh, come off now, what are you giving us, anyhow ?" 
 
 By the affronting manner of the old reprobate the 
 regulators conceived the idea that he was either trying to 
 bluff them or was prepared to resist. But Dalton, who 
 acted as spokesman for the party, not dismayed, con- 
 tinued his exhortation : 
 
 "We mean by certain roving stock dealers that you 
 have bought from a number of thieving raiders fifty head 
 of two-year-old steers which we want you to relinquish. 
 Don't squirm when we tell you the circumstances, Mr. 
 Blanton. We know your character well, and we have 
 concluded that the powerful number of cattle and horses 
 on your ranch is evidence that they do not all rightfully 
 belong to you. These fifty two-year-old steers were 
 stolen from my ranch up in Missouri by a number of 
 rustlers that you have been harboring and receiving the 
 stolen stock from. You needn't try to hide anything 
 from us, for we know the lay of the land as well as we 
 want to." 
 
258 THE COMPACT. 
 
 Blanton made no answer to this, but held up his 
 lantern for a close scrutiny by its light of the men. All 
 of them instinctively assumed their sternest expression 
 and remained silent while the furtive gaze of the ranch- 
 man was bent upon them, and a thrill of savage joy shot 
 through their sturdy frames as they saw by the convulsive 
 twitching of the grizzled visage that Dalton's enunciation 
 was beginning to tell. But the ranchman evidently 
 desired to keep from betraying his emotions to the gaze 
 of the party, for after a hasty and furtive scrutiny of their 
 countenances he lowered his lantern. 
 
 Pretty soon his gruff voice, no doubt the gruffness 
 assumed, broke the silence : 
 
 "What does it matter to me where the cattle came 
 from, I paid good money for them, and do you think I 
 am going to give them up without I receive their equival- 
 ent? Ah, gentlemen, why do you come here threatening 
 me thus ? If I gave up all the stock that was claimed 
 by parties coming here I would soon have none left. The 
 Indians have been running off some of our cattle, and 
 when we demand a restoration, or call on the govern- 
 ment for protection, we are hooted at and abused from 
 all sides. Now will you have the goodness to get away 
 and leave us in peace, or will we have to eject you ?" 
 
 4 'We!" hissed Dalton. "Whom do you mean by 
 'we'?" 
 
 ' ' I mean that I and my cowboys are getting tired of 
 listening to the complaints of parties in search of stolen 
 
THE COMPACT. 2 59 
 
 stock, and have concluded to eject them without cere- 
 mony," replied Blanton. 
 
 1 ' Then you have not heard of the fate that overtook 
 certain of your friends and supporters?" announced 
 Dalton. 
 
 " Yes, I have heard," replied Blanton suddenly, "but 
 that does not frighten me in the least." But his voice 
 quavered and his frame shook as he spoke. 
 
 4 'In short, you absolutely refuse to comply with our 
 demands.' 1 " answered Alex, sternly. 
 
 ".What are your demands?" came the reply quick 
 and acrimonious. 
 
 " That you relinquish the cattle I have described and 
 four head of horses, belonging to my friend here, that 
 were taken along with the cattle," answered Dalton 
 firmly. 
 
 ' ' How do you know I have the four horses you men- 
 tioned ?" replied the ranchman steadily. 
 
 "Because one, whom I will not mention, has been 
 here and has taken a few notes," assured Dalton. "Now 
 do you understand me ?" he continued, assuming a bellig- 
 erent tone and leaning forward in his saddle to note the 
 effect of his words. ' * We want those fifty head of 
 steers and the four head of horses, and we are going to 
 have them, too." 
 
 The ranchman stepped back a step or two, but sud- 
 denly retraced his steps and ejaculated furiously : * ' Then, 
 
260 THE COMPACT. 
 
 by all the gods in heaven and all the devils in hell, you'll 
 have to take them over our dead bodies if you want 
 them. Clear out now, or you might suddenly get your 
 hides perforated by a little shower of lead. Begone 
 with you, I say," he hissed in a high pitched voice. 
 "Out of my sight and off of my place and hie away 
 back to the states. Don't come nosing around here in 
 hopes of any profit, or by thunder you'll wish you had 
 stayed at home and not bearded the lion in his den. " 
 
 Alex, drew his revolver, and assuming a threatening 
 attitude, exclaimed: " Just let me have that lantern a 
 minute or two, Blantie. I'd advise you to be careful 
 how you swear. Don't swear by the gods lest they de- 
 stroy you, nor swear by the devils, who are no more 
 substantial than you are. Here Jeff, hold the lantern up 
 so I can read the proclamation," he added when Blanton 
 tremblingly obeyed his request. 
 
 Dalton drew out the paper and Jeff held the light so 
 the rays fell obliquely upon it, and Dalton, with a menac- 
 ing look at the ranchman, commenced to read the ulti- 
 matum : 
 
 <4 Resolved, by the undersigned, citizens of Missouri, 
 Kansas and Indian Territory, that, as they know certain 
 stock to be in the possession of William E. Blanton, and 
 as the said citizens desire said William E. Blanton to 
 restore the said stock to their former owners, be it 
 further resolved that, as it is clear to the comprehension 
 of said undersigned citizens that said William E. Blanton 
 
THE COMPACT. 26 1 
 
 is the friend and harborer of the criminal caste of the 
 surrounding states, that if he does not comply with the 
 request of said owners and restore the stolen stock we, 
 the undersigned citizens, will burn his ranch to the 
 ground and hang him to the nearest tree. " 
 
 Then Dalton proceeded to read off the names while 
 the others craned their necks to obtain a better view of 
 the ranchman's visage, to note the effect of the ulti- 
 matum. 
 
 But if Blanton felt any serious alarm at the docu- 
 ment itself it was augmented by the number of names 
 that backed it, and he stood as motionless as a Pagan 
 idol, his dark, wolfish eyes glowering and glinting like 
 the eyes of a panther. 
 
 Jeff, who was holding the light, looked at him, and 
 to his individual gaze he looked exactly like the pictures 
 of the old Italian brigands in one of Jack Dalton's story 
 books. 
 
 By this time it was pitch dark, and the party was 
 anxious to have the interview over and return to the 
 tavern. They wondered if the remainder of the Fox 
 Valley outfit had become alarmed and gone back to the 
 mountains when the news of the terrible doom of their 
 companions reached them. 
 
 It was very probable that they had gone away some- 
 where or Blanton would not have shown any signs of 
 wilting at all, with the knowledge of a substantial force 
 
262 THE COMPACT. 
 
 at his back, which would, of course, be under his sway 
 and fight on his side if it came to open hostilities. 
 
 But whatever Blanton knew about his ability to 
 frustrate their designs it was evident that he was thor- 
 oughly cowed when the ultimatum and the ponderous 
 backing it had attached to it was read to him. 
 
 When it was over and Dalton put away the paper 
 the party remained silent, letting the mind of the ranch- 
 man digest its contents. 
 
 However terrible the other words contained in the 
 ultimatum were to his comprehension, the words "hang 
 him to the nearest tree " were the most terrifying of them 
 all, and the old reprobate's mental vision formed a pic- 
 ture of his lifeless body swinging in the air and the 
 carrion birds picking at his sightless eyes. 
 
 Already the spectres of the past were crowding them- 
 selves into his terrified fancy, and the ghosts of his sins 
 and crimes were coming before him like a swarm of 
 mocking demons, and he roused himself from the lethargy 
 that enveloped him and paced to and fro about the yard 
 in a frantic endeavor to collect his senses. 
 
 The regulators watched him with anxious, furtive 
 glances, and when he succeeded in calming his perturbed 
 fancy he came back to the gate and again leaned his 
 body on the post. - 
 
 " Well, what do you say about it?" asked Dalton 
 quietly. 
 
THE COMPACT. 263 
 
 "Go back where you came from," answered the 
 ranchman in a submissive tone, "and to-morrow morn- 
 ing we will be there with the horses and cattle you men- 
 tioned. I yield to your demands because I believe it is 
 cheaper to lose that small amount than to lose the whole. 
 You are stopping at Barker's, aren't you ?" 
 
 ' Yes, we are stopping at Barker's, " replied Dalton, 
 much elated at the success of the interview. " We will 
 go back there to-night and expect your arrival there be- 
 fore noon to-morrow with the stock. If you fail us then 
 you must take the consequences. Now, let us be going, 
 boys ; its getting mighty dark to be out here in such a 
 place as this and not be acquainted with the country." 
 
 So the party rode back to Barker's, well satisfied with 
 the result of the trip, and found their companions still 
 up and awaiting their return. When they related in 
 detail the interview the others were satisfied that the 
 lawless element had received a flagellation that would 
 hold them in check for a long time. 
 
 Promptly at nine o'clock the next morning the wait- 
 ing regulators were gratified by hearing in the distance 
 the shouts of men and the twangs of cattle-whips, and 
 about a quarter of an hour from that time the drove was 
 driven into the corral at the foot of the knoll, and the 
 last obstacle in the way of the return trip was obliterated. 
 Blanton was not with the drove, but sent a message to 
 Barker which read thus : 
 
 "Use your influence in my behalf, and I promise 
 
264 THE COMPACT. 
 
 you I will do my best to reform and lead an honest life. 
 I am tired of harboring criminals and thieves that 
 threaten to bring down everlasting destruction on me 
 and mine." " W. BLANTON." 
 
 "That shows plainly that our campaign has not been 
 fruitless," remarked Dick Plummer philosophically. 
 
 So the work of reconstruction was over and the 
 regulators were longing once more to be at home witn 
 their loved ones. 
 
 When all preparations were made, they bade Barker 
 and his family good bye and rode away, driving the 
 cattle before them and leading Carlton's horses back to 
 the native heath they had been taken from. 
 
 The two bank robbers were turned over to the 
 authorities at Girard, and the reward of a hundred 
 dollars for each man was paid to Bill Thompson as a re- 
 ward for his services. 
 
 No one was disposed to look upon him in the light 
 of a traitor, for he had only acted the part of a detec- 
 tive in his operations, and was well satisfied with the 
 result. 
 
 He and Charlie McKasson were engaged by the 
 Dalton's to take the place of the two range riders that 
 had been killed while defending their charge, and Bill 
 was glad of the chance thus offered of being away from 
 the Fox Valley vicinity for a season. 
 
 Sam Riley and his men took charge of the two 
 
THE COMPACT. 26$ 
 
 horse thieves and transported them back to the scene of 
 their crime, where they were convicted and sentenced to 
 a short term in the penitentiary. 
 
 The results of the uprising were satisfactory to the 
 vigilantes, and also to the populace who had been 
 terrorized by the lawless element for so long, and the 
 storm of wrath was subsiding into a restful and quiet 
 calm all over the country, and business was resumed 
 without fear of molestation. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 While the incidents narrated in the last chapters were 
 happening we will relate the adventures of the two spies 
 that were sent into the Fox Valley neighborhood. The 
 regulators had decided upon this plan to ascertain how 
 soon tjie robbers tired of the protection of Blanton and 
 flew back to the wild, woody copses, the dark pine woods 
 and secret caves of the mountains. Some of them 
 argued that the freebooters never stayed long in the Ter- 
 ritory, but always came back by rail to Springfield, where 
 they would 6e safe from recognition, and from thence 
 back to the valley after they had had a glorious old time 
 seeing the sights of the city. Thus these two bold ad- 
 venturers were sent to headquarters to watch for their 
 return. 
 
 Sunday evening about five o'clock two men on horse- 
 back rode up to Hobson's Tavern and dismounted. The 
 old man, thinking perhaps they were some of the Alton 
 crew returning, went out and, closely scrutinizing their 
 faces for an instant, exclaimed : 
 
 4 'Hello Danny, yer back again, eh?" and the old 
 man's voice had a joyous tremor in it. 
 
 "Yes, Uncle Zack, I'm back again," replied Dan 
 
 (266) 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 269 
 
 Ferguson, extending his hand, which was grasped by 
 the old man in a hearty handshake. ' ' How are you 
 comin' on now, Uncle ?" 
 
 " About as pert as could be expected for an ole man," 
 responded Hobson, looking askance at the other man. 
 
 "Let me introduce my friend," said Dan. "Mr. 
 Hobson, Mr. Washburn:" 
 
 The two shook hands, and then the old man said : 
 
 " Wall, I guess yer back on the same kind o' busi- 
 ness, Dan, ain't ye ?" 
 
 "That's it, that's it, Uncle Zack," assured Ferguson, 
 with repeated nods of the head. " Now, what's the 
 chance for lodgin' here to-night ?" 
 
 " Welcome to Hobson's Tavern, my friends, but ye 
 see by the big sign yonder that the welcome don't perseed 
 altogether from philanthropic motives." 
 
 A hearty laugh was indulged in at this sally, which 
 was aided by the comical expression of the old man's 
 face, after which the trio entered the gate. 
 
 ' Set down here, Uncle Zack, I want to talk to you 
 a little," said Ferguson. 
 
 The three sat down in some rustic chairs under the 
 catawba trees. 
 
 Dan Ferguson had not been a circus clown for five 
 years not to have his impromptu manner improved. 
 Possessing a naturally fertile mind he had no trouble in 
 
27O A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 presenting in a respectable form any request. One of 
 his neighbors remarked that he saw more with the one 
 eye he possessed than a great many people did with two. 
 Dan was not at all vain, though, and his bold, frank and 
 unobtrusive manners made him scores of friends. Of 
 medium height, square build and muscular, he was as 
 strong as a horse, as active as a bird, and as fearless as 
 a lion. Circus life was very charming till he saw the 
 pretty face of Miss Washburn, a cousin of the man that 
 was with him, and then, in order to obtain her for a life 
 partner, he was forced to give up the circus business. 
 So he settled down on the Washburn ranch, where he 
 lived contented enough till the raiders began to tear 
 things up. He was deputy sheriff a year or two before 
 the war and helped break up an illicit distillery down in 
 the pine woods near the mouth of Fox Run. That was 
 how he made the acquaintance of Hobson. 
 
 " Now, Uncle Zack, don't you think it's about time 
 to put a stop to this business ? Ypu've heard of the last 
 exploit, I guess ?" 
 
 "Oh, you know I have," replied Hobson, in a tone 
 that left no doubt but what he knew all the facts of the 
 case. "I think it is about time, as you say, but how 
 the devil are you goin' to do it ?" and he laughed a little 
 contemptuous laugh that grated somewhat on Ferguson's 
 nerves. 
 
 "Where there's a will there's a way, Uncle Zack. 
 We haven't had the determination or we would have 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 2/1 
 
 squelched them before now. This time we're not going 
 to depend on the law." 
 
 "Wall, I reckon yer a leetle more than half right 
 thar," assented Hobson. " But what I can't see into is 
 how is yer a goin' ter ketch 'em." 
 
 4 ' Oh, we already have the most of them spotted, you 
 know. We are going to form an alliance with the 
 stranglers, now that we are in the same notion as they 
 are." 
 
 The stranglers knew nearly all of the gang, and as 
 they had never had any faith in getting justice through 
 the tedious routine of trial by law they had adopted the 
 rope as their chief article of execution, and whenever 
 they succeeded in capturing any of the raiders they were 
 quietly put out of the way. However, they were out- 
 numbered nearly three to one, and they had never 
 secured any outside help because outsiders did not 
 know the cruel wrongs they had undergone, and there- 
 fore had no sympathy with their course of action. 
 
 Hobson reflected a moment. 
 
 " Wall, go ahead then, Danny, I am with ye. Only 
 remember and don't have any trouble around my place 
 here." 
 
 So the matter was discussed until the sun sank behind 
 the mountain tops and the ponderous old bell warned 
 them that supper was waiting. 
 
 So it was settled tha^t the two should lodge there till 
 they had obtained the knowledge they sought. 
 
2/2 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 Uncle Zack and his two guests were quietly eating 
 their supper and engaged in talking over small topics. 
 The sun had disappeared, the moon peeped out of its 
 Eastern bed, while no signs of any approaching storm 
 was discerned. Everything was quiet about the place 
 with the exception of the two hostlers shouting mildly to 
 one another from the barn yard, where they were engaged 
 in doing their chores. The chill November air was not 
 at all enticing to night travelers, and the two hostlers 
 were jubilant at the lightness of their task. 
 
 11 We won't have much to do to-night," remarked one 
 of them. 
 
 " Better not count yer chickens afore the're hatched," 
 said the one that had been there longest. "I've knowed 
 them to come in here at midnight lots of times. " 
 
 "Wall, I reckon I am a leetle mistaken." 
 
 "Do. you hear that?" and he pointed down the road 
 from whence came the sound of hoof beats. 
 
 The other one nodded knowingly. Then he said, . 
 with an air of importance: "It might be that we'll 
 have trouble here." 
 
 "Why?" asked the other in an alarmed voice. 
 
 "Well, ye see they fight like everything here some- 
 times. " 
 
 "Who ?" asked the other. 
 
 "Tom Alton an' his men, and Nick Alton an' his 
 men. 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 273 
 
 The other looked astonished, then he said": 
 
 ' ' Are they enny kin ?" 
 
 ' Yes, cousins." 
 
 "Why the devil are they fightin' each other then ?" 
 
 " 'Cause one's an outlaw an' tother's a regulator." 
 
 4 ' Whew !" ejaculated the other, who was a tender- 
 foot from Eastern Virginia. ' ' Now I don't happen to 
 know what a reglator is. " 
 
 The other gave a contemptuous sniff and explained 
 the meaning of the word as he knew it. 
 
 By this time the two horsemen had made their ap- 
 pearance, and the two hostlers went to -the gate to 
 receive their horses. The one that had been there 
 longest recognized them as Andy Thomas and Jay Tal- 
 bott, two of the regulators. Before they took a step 
 toward the house they asked who was there. 
 
 1 ' Two men from over that way, " replied the hostler, 
 pointing West. 
 
 "Good," said one of the new arrivals with a nod. 
 He was a tall, powerful man with a long brown beard, 
 flashing blue eyes and regular features. A long blue 
 overcoat buttoned closely, and a wide-rimmed gray felt 
 hat was all that could be discerned in regard to his attire. 
 This was Andy Thomas, first lieutenant of the Fox 
 Valley stranglers. 
 
 The other man was tall but not of so powerful a build. 
 Smooth shaven, except a heavy black mustache, he was 
 
274 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 dark skinned and a pair of mournful black eyes seemed 
 to look one through and through. He wore a dark gray 
 overcoat and a hat like that of his companion, and was 
 not very talkative, as he let his companion do the most 
 of it, scarcely speaking unless addressed. This was Jay 
 Talbott, secooid lieutenant of the stranglers. 
 
 The two entered the house and were welcomed by 
 the old man, who introduced them to his other two 
 guests. Then they sat down to supper, never hinting 
 what their errand was there. 
 
 After supper Thomas sought out Hobson and asked 
 if he knew the errand of the other two. On being in- 
 formed entirely to his satisfaction, Thomas sought the 
 other two men, who were quietly enjoying a smoke in 
 the repository, which had formerly been the barroom. 
 
 44 1 want to speak with you two men in private," he 
 explained in a friendly way. 
 
 "All right/' said Dan. " I have an idea that you are 
 striking us square." 
 
 "I think so myself, " returned Thomas.. "You see 
 Uncle Zack told us of your errand and we thought it 
 might be a good thing for you if you were under our 
 protection." 
 
 " Under your protection ? Who are you, then ?" 
 
 "Well, we won't ask you to believe us. Will you 
 believe Uncle Zack ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 275 
 
 "Well, go to him and ask him what clan we belong 
 to," said Thomas with a good natured grin. 
 
 Dan did as requested. He came back with a satisfied 
 expression on his face. 
 
 "I see you are satisfied, " remarked Thomas, emit- 
 ting a keen puff of smoke from his cigar. "Sit down 
 and I will tell you something that will do you good. 
 
 " You see, it's this way, " he began. " There is a 
 fellow living over here in the valley named Martin who 
 was suspected by us of being a member of the gang. 
 He was also suspected of being a member of our party 
 by the outlaws, but as he lived among them he thought 
 perhaps they would do him harm if he did not join them. 
 You know that is generally the tactics of that sort to 
 force all the honest people they can beyond the pale of 
 the law so as to obtain a larger membership. Now, the 
 bank robbery at Girard, Kansas, would no doubt be laid 
 on the James gang if this Joe Martin had not had his 
 horse shot from under him and been captured." 
 
 "There's been a bank robbery lately then. I never 
 heard of it," exclaimed Dan excitedly. 
 
 "Yes, at Girard, Kansas. As I was saying, Martin 
 was captured and gave the whole shooting match away. 
 It's my opinion that he will come back here in a day or 
 two, and you know what will happen if they succeed in 
 effecting his capture." 
 
 "Exactly," replied Dan. " You are goin' to prevent 
 that if you can, I guess. " 
 
276 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 "If possible, yes. This man will be a trump card 
 in our hands if he knows he has plenty of backing." 
 
 "That's right," assented both Dan and Washburn 
 with pleased excitement. 
 
 Other minor details were talked over, and then Dan 
 asked Thomas how to conduct himself in order to escape 
 capture by the outlaws. 
 
 * ' If you are traveling after night and meet with any 
 one, just speak to them as though you were a total 
 stranger and knew nothing about the region or its in- 
 habitants. If they are any of the gang they won't molest 
 you nor challenge you unless you are around their dwell- 
 ings. If you happen to meet with any of our men they 
 will challenge you, and if that should happen I will pro- 
 vide you with a passport that will make things all right." 
 
 Thomas ceased speaking, and drew from his vest 
 pocket about half a dozen cards on which was printed in 
 large black letters ' ' O. H. " The cards were about two 
 inches wide by three in length. 
 
 Taking a pencil from his pocket he wrote something 
 beneath the big letters on one of the cards and handed 
 it to Dan. While Dan was looking at it he did likewise 
 to another card and passed it to Washburn. 
 
 "What is that? What does it mean?" exclaimed 
 Dan. 
 
 ' ' Can't you read it ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 * ' Well, if you aren't shrewd enough to guess I can'* 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 2/7 
 
 tell you," replied Thomas with a solemn shake of his 
 head. 
 
 Both Jim Washburn and Dan Ferguson were shrewd 
 men, but racking their brains as they might they could 
 not solve that puzzle. 
 
 Before retiring for the night it was agreed to scout 
 the country roundabout for each night during the follow- 
 ing week to prevent Martin from falling into the clutches 
 of the desperados. Thomas felt sure that he would return, 
 for he knew that he would not stay away from his family 
 any longer than he could help, as the villains might take 
 a notion to avenge themselves on them if they thought 
 he was afraid to come back there. 
 
 Monday night came and nothing of importance had 
 happened. It was the programme for the regulators to 
 go in pairs so as not to excite suspicion. Jim and Dan 
 saw no one that night, and they concluded that the out- 
 laws were not stirring out much at present. So they 
 came back and met Thomas there again and reported. 
 Thomas also reported things quiet, and stated his belief 
 that something would transpire before the middle of the 
 week. 
 
 Tuesday night came, and still no news of Martin's 
 approach. Perhaps that individual would have hastened 
 home with a lighter heart had he known the kindly in- 
 terest that was being taken in his welfare. Thomas still 
 clung to his belief, and Wednesday night dragged slowly 
 by till the arrival of the stage from the West. 
 
278 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 The postoffice was kept by Hobson, and when the 
 stage arrived Andy Thomas was there waiting the arrival 
 of Tabott 
 
 Now, Andy Thomas was as shrewd a detective as 
 ever lived. That is,* he was so by nature but not by 
 profession. He carried no badges to show his occupa- 
 tion, but he did carry a small magnifying glass with 
 which he had done considerable damage. 
 
 In about two minutes after the arrival of the stage a 
 man on horseback rode up to the gate. Thomas' knew 
 him at sight in spite of his disguise. It was Ben Har* 
 per, who dismounted with evident fear at sight of the 
 three men who were sitting in the rustic chairs. 
 
 The man went in and called for his mail. A letter 
 was handed him, which he received with evident signs of 
 pleasure. He tore it open at once and started out to his 
 horse, reading it. It was either very lengthy or very 
 hard to read, for he did not raise his head till he got to 
 the gate, at which he paused, lifted the latch, stepped 
 through and giving a quick glance at the three under the 
 trees shut the gate, turned his back to the others and 
 stood stock still reading. 
 
 With a warning nudge to the other two, Thomas 
 quickly produced his glass, after which he darted behind 
 one of the catawbas and threw his glass down on the 
 paper. No go. The paper was being held too slanting 
 for him to read, although it was otherwise all right. A 
 moment's delay and all would be lost. Stepping noise- 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 essly on the grass he approached nearer to the outlaw's 
 position, luckily without giving alarm. Harper only 
 stood about a yard from the fence and between the hitch- 
 rock and his horseo 
 
 Advancing with a catlike stealth, Thomas carne with- 
 in a few feet of the fence and again threw his glass 
 down on the pap^r. Harper stood with his elbow rest- 
 ing on the hitch rock, holding the paper just high enough 
 for Thomas to read the following, which was written in 
 a tolerably legible hand, although the spelling was 
 poor : 
 
 * ' Deer Paw : I wil endever to rite yu a few lines to 
 let you know how we ar getting along, We ar all well 
 at present and hope those few lines will find yu all the 
 saim. Well Paw I had bad luck tother day. I was up 
 to town and was passing the shooting field up thair when 
 I kcmmenced joking thee boys about practicing. Then 
 that sun uv a gun of a Jack Daltcn fired at me an shot 
 the ioer end ov my eer of. Damn him, I'll make it hot 
 fer him, see if I don't. 
 
 Well Paw, I hav bin scoutin' a little an' hav fownd 
 out that J. M. is cumming in. He will be thair about 
 Wednesday night. I think he will be apt to cum in of 
 a night so as not to be discovered. So no more at pres- 
 ent. Good by, from your sun MILT HARPER. " 
 
 These few lines were written on one side of a sheet 
 of foolscap which was clinched in the middle. The top 
 
28O A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 of it lopping over so as to be nearly unintelligible to 
 Thomas. However, he managed to read it before the 
 outlaw did and cautiously crept back to the other two 
 who were anxiously awaiting the termination. Jim and 
 Dan were aware that he had made an important dis- 
 covery by the expression of his countenance. 
 
 " Well, what is it ?" asked Dan in an undertone, when 
 Harper had gone a little distance. 
 
 " It's from Milt," explained Thomas, *' and he gives 
 us the information we desire." 
 
 " You don't say so," exclaimed Dan, rather more loud 
 then it was safe. 
 
 "Yes, he wrote that Martin was coming in, and would 
 be in to-night. " 
 
 "To-night?" 
 
 " Yes, and we must be on the lookout." 
 
 Just as the supper bell rang Talbott appeared and 
 was straightway informed of the lucky bit of news they 
 had captured. 
 
 After supper the regulators took their departure, feel- 
 ing sure that something would transpire. There was not 
 much chance of running across Martin after he struck 
 the highlands East of Brush Creek, a small tributary of 
 Fox Run, and emptying into that stream just a little 
 below where the pine woods set in. That was owing to 
 the fact that he knew all of the short cuts to his home 
 and would not follow the high road, which took a some- 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 28 1 
 
 what tortuous route, making many long detours in all 
 directions, till it began the descent toward Hobson's 
 Tavern. He certainly would know that the outlaws 
 would be out looking for him, but he also knew that the 
 regulators would be swarming like bees looking for the 
 return of the gang. The night came chilly, but no signs 
 of any approaching storm were yet visible except a light 
 plexiform strata of clouds that hung athwart the sky, 
 obscuring the moon, but it was still light enough to 
 recognize any one. Up the slope they went with rapid, 
 untiring speed. The road was in excellent shape, as that 
 time of year was about the only time they were anyways 
 smooth, but the sparks, knocked out of the small bould- 
 ers by the horses' feet, added somewhat to the unpleas- 
 ant part of the expedition. Finally, when the top of 
 the slope was reached, they halted and listened cautiously 
 for any suspicious sounds. 
 
 Five minutes elapsed and no sound reached their 
 listening ears. Everything was as quiet as the grave. 
 The moon was struggling frantically to break from the 
 cloud that enveloped it. At last Thomas gave the order 
 to move on. 
 
 The spurs flew to the horses' flanks and the heavy 
 thuds began once more to strike when Talbott suddenly 
 checked his horse. 
 
 44 Hist," he said with a warning gesture, and the 
 others also checked up. 4 'I hear a pack ol hounds 
 running." 
 
282 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 ' You do, " said Thomas. ' < Which direction ?" 
 
 "That way," replied Talbott, pointing Southward. 
 
 Sure enough, the faint yelping of a pack of hounds 
 was heard by all. Dan was at a loss to know what a 
 pack of hounds had to do with the case. So was Jim. 
 However, their good judgment told them not to concern 
 themselves, and it was not long ere they were enlight- 
 ened. 
 
 Nearer and nearer came the hounds and more audible 
 became the yelps. It was evident" that the hounds were 
 pressing their prey pretty close by "the incessant, long 
 drawn yelps that grew plainer and plainer to the ears of 
 the adventurers. * 
 
 Suddenly a terrific yell rent the night air, and the one 
 that emitted it could not have been over two hundred 
 yards distant. 
 
 " It's Mike and Ben," declared Thomas in an under- 
 tone. 
 
 "Mike who?" asked Dan. 
 
 " Mike Rains," replied Thomas. "Nobody but him 
 could yell like that." 
 
 Thomas dismounted and came up to the side of 
 Dan's horse. 
 
 "Now, boys," he said hurriedly, "we'd better dis- 
 mount and take the horses to the cover of the woods 
 where they won't be likely to be seen. Then one of us 
 will creep up on them and watch them, for they are 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 283 
 
 out after larger game than foxes and coons, its my 
 opinion." 
 
 Without a word of dissent, this was agreed to, and 
 in about three minutes Thomas had left his companions 
 and was cautiously wending his way toward the spot 
 from whence came the yelling. Advancing with a cat- 
 like step, he followed the road for about a hundred yards, 
 then struck down the head of a canyon where he be- 
 lieved the hunters were concealed. He found it a some- 
 what difficult task after he had gone about forty yards, 
 for numerous big boulders protruded themselves amid a 
 thicket of the scraggy dogwood brush that infest the 
 head of the Ozark canyons. Many rough scratches in 
 the face did he get and many a bad stumble also, but his 
 patient persistance at last got him over this place, al- 
 though he had been nearly on the point of venting his 
 feelings in a volley of oaths several times. But he was 
 disappointed in the thought that he would have good 
 walking when he had gone twenty yards further down, 
 for here one of the most awful looking box canyons that 
 ever mortal eyes beheld yawned up in front of him. 
 
 Turning briskly around he took a step forward on the 
 back track, when his ears caught the unmistakable sound 
 of voices. But he could not tell which direction the 
 sounds came from, and he stood with bated breath try- 
 ing to locate the speakers. He did not understand a 
 word that was said, but that was not of much import- 
 ance. The hounds had by this time lost the trail, as 
 
284 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 only a few faint yelps were audible. Still it was evident 
 that they were close at hand, for their yelping, although 
 feeble, was evidently not far off. Thomas stood for 
 about three minutes listening, and at the end of that 
 time the voices had ceased and the hounds again struck 
 the trail, letting out a chorus of yelps that made the 
 welkin ring, and from the closeness of the sounds they 
 had evidently jumped their prey only a few hundred 
 yards off. 
 
 Suddenly a rustle of the leaves that lay thickly em- 
 bedded on the bottom of the wide, flat drean startled 
 the listener. Casting a quick, furtive glance from whence 
 the sound came, he saw a large red fox. The animal 
 went on up the edge of the bush and disappeared, 
 seemingly without discovering him, but he had not been 
 long concealed from the sight of the man ere a shot 
 awoke the echoes of the gorge, and the hounds came 
 tearing up with long, bounding leaps and furious bark- 
 ings. 
 
 Thomas, fearing discovery, dropped quickly into the 
 thick carpet of leaves and listened to the noise going on 
 in the dogwood thicket. Where could the men have 
 been that fired the shot ? Had they discovered him ? 
 These were the thoughts that flitted through his brain 
 while waiting for the hunters to quiet the hounds and 
 depart, as he intended to follow them. But the heart of 
 the regulator did not quail at the ruffianly vociferations 
 that were emitted, and a few minutes later he was fol- 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 285 
 
 lowing the hunters with a stealthy step toward the high- 
 road. 
 
 On they went till they reached the road, then a con- 
 versation took place in a low, guarded tone. Thomas, 
 being concealed behind a tree within ten paces of them, 
 understood the most of it and satisfied himself that they 
 were out for no other purpose than the capture of Joe 
 Martin. 
 
 The two ruffians, spying a log by the roadside, went 
 to it and sat down thereon. A few minutes more dragged 
 slowly by, and the moon, struggling to break from be- 
 hind the clouds, emitted sudden, fitful flashes of light, 
 while the outlaws remained silent, and no sound save the 
 low spasmodic lolling of the hounds was heard. It was 
 while waiting thus that Thomas made up his mind to 
 pursue another course than the one he had formerly in- 
 tended to. Why not follow the two outlaws to their 
 abode, now that they had them spotted. Perhaps the 
 depredators were expecting the capture of Martin that 
 night, and had in waiting a council called together for 
 the purpose of condemning him to death, as that was 
 their method of punishing traitors. By a majority vote 
 they were either condemned or acquitted, but every one 
 knew there was a very slender chance of a traitor being 
 acquitted. Therefore Thomas was certain that if Mar- 
 tin was captured that night the dawn of the following 
 day would find his dead body left in some wild, lonely 
 spot, a prey for wild animals and carrion birds. 
 
286 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 The hounds having regained their needful recupera- 
 tion, were lying quietly around their masters, while the 
 hunters kept quiet, and Thomas, noting the fact that 
 they gazed frequently down the road, was now certain 
 that they were looking for the unfaithful member of their 
 unlawful, unholy and bloodthirsty brotherhood. 
 
 Hark ! Whose step was that, as fitful and varying 
 as the sudden flashes of moonlight ? Nearer and nearer 
 it approached, till at last the slow, measured tread of a 
 weary pedestrian startled the listeners into active wake- 
 fulness. Yes, sure enough there was Martin, unaware of 
 the presence of either friend or enemy, walking slowly 
 along with a weary, dragging step, his hands in his over- 
 coat pockets and an anxious expression on his pathetic 
 face. A few more steps and he was near the lurking 
 forms in the shadows. 
 
 At that instant the moon shot from behind the cloud 
 and Joe, as if by instinct of coming or present danger, 
 looked and saw the two raiders. In an instant two 
 rifles were thrown to two burly shoulders, two eyes ran 
 along two gun barrels, and a harsh voice cried out : 
 
 "Ah, you sneakin' dog, you made it in, have you? 
 Don't try to resist or it'll be worse fer ye. Go 'n disarm 
 him, Mike." 
 
 Joe was completely nonplused for a mgrnent, not a 
 word escaping his lips as visions of his sorrowing family 
 flashed through his fancy, sending a shiver of mixed fear 
 and self disgust through his frame. Rains came up and 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 287 
 
 demanded his weapons, and Joe felt beneath his over- 
 coat and drew forth his pistol and handed it over. 
 
 " Is that all ?" asked Rains sternly. 
 
 -Yes." 
 
 'Well, if you have any more you'd better not 
 attempt to use them on us. Let's see," he continued, 
 running his hand in his overcoat pocket. We'll fix you 
 so you will be powerless to use them if you had a dozen." 
 And pulling a small, stout cord about half a yard long 
 from his pocket he rudely seized Joe's hands as if to bind 
 them. 
 
 "Hold on, Mike, you can't do that," exclaimed Joe 
 in a forceful tone, and he jerked his hands loose. 
 
 4 'None of that," hissed the outlaw. "Hold them 
 hands or you're a dead man," and a huge hunting knife 
 glistened in the moonlight. 
 
 Joe obeyed, and all hopes of seeing his beloved ones 
 again left him. If they succeeded in bringing him before 
 the council he would certainly be voted a traitor and 
 condemned to be shot. Well, he had been a poor pro- 
 tector to his family anyhow, and he would not be much 
 of a loss to them, and they would never know what had 
 been his fate, and for that part he was thankful. 
 
 A few minutes later the two outlaws had started down 
 the road with their captive in 'front, while following with 
 his stealthy step came Andy Thomas. 
 
 Thomas had some difficulty in finding his comrades, 
 
288 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 and he greatly feared that the outlaws would escape with 
 their captive and plunge into some of the numerous by 
 roads that meandered up and down the mountain sides 
 and which Thomas was but meagerly acquainted with. 
 But at last he saw the dark form of the horses in the 
 shadow of a thick clump of hickory, and making his way 
 to them he said when he had got within a few yards of 
 them : 
 
 4 'Come, boys, be quick now." 
 4 'What's up ?" asked the others in chorus. 
 "They've got him and we must follow them, and I 
 will tell you more of my plan while we are going. Quick 
 now. " 
 
 A moment later, and the four were mounted and 
 riding down the road, while Thomas explained the plan 
 he had laid to prevent Joe from being killed and to cap- 
 ture those that were detailed to kill him. 
 
 Thomas knew that the first right hand road led to the 
 house of Ben Harper, but he was not certain that they 
 could follow it owing to the numerous roads that wound 
 up and down the slope, crossing and recrossing each 
 other, while no one but those accustomed to them could 
 tell which direction he was going without the aid of the 
 sun. The moon had again hid itself behind the strata 
 of clouds, and the darkness was more dense than ever 
 as the thick dark spots in the cloud now obscured the 
 moon, leaving it just light enough to see the road. It 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 289 
 
 was necessary to keep at a safe distance behind the cap- 
 tors and their prisoner, as the heavy tramp of the horses' 
 feet might excite suspicion. Thomas racked his brain 
 for a feasible plan, and ere they had reached the first 
 right hand road he had made up his mind that the best 
 way to do would be to leave two of them to guard the 
 horses while the other two followed the outlaws to their 
 lair on foot. He knew it was not over a mile to Harper's 
 cabin, which was situated in a steep, rocky hollow, or 
 gulch, that ran in a due Westerly course from the resi- 
 dence of the chief of the band, which was situated in 
 the main valley. And as it was generally the belief that 
 the still was located somewhere near Harper's cabin it 
 was also believed that all the dark deeds of vengeance, 
 such as that that was now about to be carried out, were 
 committed there in that wild, lonely spot. 
 
 The others not dissenting to the proposed plan, 
 Thomas chose Dan Ferguson as his companion, believ- 
 ing him to be the better fitted for a daring undertaking, 
 while Washburn and Talbott were to remain in charge 
 of the horses. 
 
 Riding on down the slope about a quarter of a mile, 
 they came to a cross road where there was a thick cluster 
 of pines forming a dense shadow. Here the two that 
 were to stay with the horses were instructed to remain 
 till one of the other two came back, which would be the 
 signal for immediate and prompt action. 
 
 But just as they were about to start they heard voices 
 
2QO A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 apparently in the direction of Hobson's, to which place 
 the eastern end of the road that crossed the one that led 
 to Harper's abode led to. And from the noise of falling 
 footsteps and the number of different voices it was 
 evident that there were a good many of the intruders, if 
 intruders they could be called, for Thomas seemed to 
 recognize some of the voices, as he held up his hand 
 with a pleased, excited expression on his face. 
 
 11 That's Nick and some of the boys," said he in a 
 half whisper, and, as he spoke the company hove in 
 sight. " Yes, that's who it is," he continued, and from 
 the clump of pine there emitted the bold hoot of an 
 owl. 
 
 The crowd in the road stopped suddenly ; there was 
 the low but audible growl of a wildcat, and again the 
 hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-ah of the owl resounded over the now 
 moon-bathed landscape. Then Jim and Dan were sur- 
 prised to see the company, which numbered about ten, 
 start for the clump of pines where they were concealed. 
 
 Thomas was in high glee at the unexpected appear- 
 ance of his comrades, and soon related to them what 
 had transpired. 
 
 All was excitement now. Their number being four- 
 teen they felt safe in that respect, but knew that no time 
 must be lost if they wanted to succeed in locating the 
 place of Martin's trial. Luck was with them, however, 
 for before they had started on their errand they were 
 surprised to see the forms of at least half a dozen men 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 201 
 
 walking rapidly down the road. Quick as thought 
 Thomas threw his glass down on them, and, aided by 
 the moon, which had again burst from behind the cloud, 
 he recognized the two captors, followed by three others, 
 with Martin, his head bowed and his eyes cast dejectedly 
 on the ground, walking in front. 
 
 With a warning gesture to his companions, and mo- 
 tioning to Dan to follow him, Thomas sped on after 
 them, while Jim and Talbott finished the explanation 
 that Thomas had begun. 
 
 ' ' That's his privilege, " explained Nick Alton. ' ' You 
 see it is our rule to let those who start a trail follow it 
 up, and as I have no objections to the proposed plan it- 
 would be folly for me to interfere now, as it might result 
 in a waterhaul. Well, I am glad you outsiders have at 
 last come to our rescue, and I have no doubt but what 
 we will make short work of them now." 
 
 On and on sped the outlaws with their captive, while 
 the two spies that were dogging their footsteps kept just 
 close enough to keep them in sight, for it would hardly 
 do to lose sight of therrl. Thomas concluded that it 
 would be a good thing to try Martin's grit and set him 
 more firmly against his villainous associates to let him 
 fall into their hands. 
 
 The outlaws had evidently been afraid of his 
 rescue by the regulators, and the two captors had 
 sought out the other three, who were probably in wait- 
 ing somewhere. This was evidently the cause of the 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 delay and of Thomas and his companion's getting in the 
 lead. 
 
 Ben Harper's cabin was situated about a mile from 
 that of Tom Alton, or the place where he made his home, 
 with a bachelor friend named Calvin. Calvin was little 
 known in the region, but it was learned that he was not 
 concerned in the lawless expeditions of his neighbors, 
 and as he stoutly denied that he was harboring any of 
 them he was not molested. The bandit chief had been 
 seen there shortly after the close of the war, but no one 
 suspected his presence at Calvin's house. It was gener- 
 ally the opinion that Alton had a hiding place somewhere 
 in which he was visited occasionally by Calvin, and it 
 was also rumored that the robber chief had bought Cal- 
 vin's place and that Calvin was only a renter. 
 
 Near Harper's cabin was a small bluff, from which 
 issued a spring of good, pure and cold water, and which, 
 being closed in by a springhouse of huge dimensions, 
 was always kept shielded from the rays of the sun. The 
 cabin stood on a low bench just at the termination of 
 the bluff and about twenty yards from the springhouse, 
 while in front of the cabin a tiny rill, issuing from the 
 spring, ran smoothly along through the grassy knolls and 
 occasional patches of hazel and wild plum sprouts that 
 spangled the bottom of the hollow. 
 
 The outlaws did not discover the two men behind 
 them, for they knew it was useless to try to prevent their 
 being followed, and they were afraid to look back lest 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 they should see the skulking forms of some of their 
 enemies. They knew that if they were once safe in the 
 valley they could elude pursuit and seek their hiding 
 place, .and as sentinels were posted out they could easily 
 detect any one that attempted pursuit. 
 
 But Thomas was well aware of this, and he was 
 revolving a plan of outwitting the sentinels in his mind. 
 By the time that the captors reached the cabin with their 
 prisoner those that were on the watch would be looking 
 for pursuers. Thomas determined to take a different 
 route than the captors and make his way across the 
 hollow to the top of the bluff. No one could be ex- 
 pected from that direction, and the sentinels would watch 
 in vain. 
 
 With some difficulty Thomas and his companion 
 reached the Western termination of the bluff, which was 
 only a couple of hundred yards from the cabin. Quickly 
 ascending to the crest of the bluff, they made their way 
 cautiously toward the cabin, keeping well back from the 
 edge of the bluff, and peering up and down the gravelly 
 slope that ascended gradually to the pine-clad crest of 
 the hill. A close observation disclosed two or three 
 large boulders near and above the cabin, and Thomas 
 concluded that there might be pickets posted there. If 
 this was true how could he and his companion avoid 
 them ? 
 
 Before he had settled this matter to his satisfaction 
 there came the sound of voices from the vicinity of the 
 
294 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 cabin, and the words were plainly understood by the two 
 adventurers, for they were spoken in a loud, boisterous 
 tone of voice. 
 
 ''Who's there ?" came the response to the loud Hello 
 that echoed against the bluff. 
 
 " Mike and Ben," came the answer in a loud ruffianly 
 voice. 
 
 Then for a few seconds there was silence, after which 
 the voice broke forth again : 
 
 " We've got a prisoner; come an' look at 'im," said 
 the first speaker. 
 
 f< Yas, we thought you'd git 'eem," said the other, 
 and there flitted across the valley a flash of light from 
 the opening of the door. 
 
 A moment more and a chorus of blood curdling yells 
 and barks of dogs awoke the echoes of the valley, which 
 Thomas interpreted as the outburst of joy at the capture 
 of the traitor. While this was going on the two adven- 
 turers spied two men poking their heads from behind 
 two of the rocks, and knew it would be useless to try to 
 approach in that direction. 
 
 But no sooner did the maudlin yells of the ruffians 
 cease and die away amid the dim echoes of the gulch 
 than the two pickets arose from their hiding places and 
 darted toward the cabin. Thomas realized that this was 
 the opportunity for them, and hastily whispering some- 
 thing to his companion, he moved rapidly toward the 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 rocks, followed closely by Dan. Reaching the boulders 
 safely, they ensconced themselves snugly behind them, 
 Dan taking the one farthest up the hill. The other 
 boulder lay close to the edge of the precipice and was 
 much too small to conceal a man's frame. 
 
 Here they waited in breathless apprehension for about 
 fifteen minutes, while the noise of shuffling feet was 
 going on in the cabin. Thomas' keen ears detected 
 several taunting remarks hurled at the prisoner, and he 
 wondered if the two pickets would return to their posts. 
 The moon was now shining brightly, and it would be no 
 trouble to detect their approach, and Andy, with a stern, 
 set face reached in his belt and drew forth his handsome 
 Bowie knife, and taking as comfortable a position as could 
 be had he awaited results. 
 
 Suddenly the door on the upper side flew open and a 
 man stepped out, advancing with rapid stride toward the 
 rock where Andy lay concealed. Andy was satisfied that 
 he would be alone, and resolved to dispatch him in short 
 order. This determination was strengthened when he 
 suddenly came face to face with Mike Rains, whose dark, 
 evil visage glowered in the moonlight like that of a painted 
 savage. 
 
 Andy rose swiftly to his feet, and before the ruffian 
 could recover from his surprise he sunk his knife into his 
 heart, and Rains, uttering a stifled yell of agony, sprang 
 upon him with the fury of a lion, and clutching his throat 
 nearly bore him to the earth. Andy staggered back a 
 
296 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 little from the force of his antagonist's attack, and 
 striking his heel against a small sharp rock, he suddenly 
 rallied and was about to clinch with the outlaw when 
 Rains received a stunning blow that sent him to the 
 ground with a dull, heavy thud. 
 
 Dan had come to his assistance. 
 
 Again the door flew open and a voice called out : 
 
 " What's the matter up there, Mike ?" 
 
 " Nothing, only I stumped my toe and fell," came 
 the answer. 
 
 " Are you hurt much ?" 
 
 " No, no. Go about your business, I'm all right," 
 now came the response, and the door closed. 
 
 The two regulators, with a feeling of relief, bent over 
 the prostrate form of the outlaw. The blood was spurt- 
 ing and gushing in a sickening torrent from the wound 
 and the desperado gave r?o evidence of recovery, for his 
 frame had ceased to quiver, the dark, blue eyes glistened 
 in the moonlight with the hideous death stare, while the 
 bold, restless spirit was about to leave the temple of clay 
 and wing its flight to the land of shadows. Mike Rains, 
 the boldest, most unscrupulous outlaw of the lot, the 
 dispoiler of many happy homes, had at last gone to 
 judgment, gone to join his companions in crime who 
 went before him that day at Barkers. 
 
 Leaving the body of the outlaw to stiffen in the cold 
 November night air, the two adventurers silently crept 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 down to the cabin. Creeping stealthily up to the win- 
 dow, they looked in at the assemblage gathered therein. 
 Ben Harper seemed to be the central figure, and clustered 
 around him the outlaws sat, listening to Martin, who was 
 making his defense in his own behalf. What surprised 
 them most was the absence of Tom Alton. 
 
 But Andy decided that it was high time that one of 
 them was getting back to their comrades, who would 
 doubtless be uneasy at their lengthy stay. If they de- 
 layed too long the raiders would no doubt make away 
 with their victim, for Andy knew by the satirical expres- 
 sions of the outlaws' faces that they were only playing 
 with the poor captive. 
 
 Cautiously making their way back to the rocks, Andy 
 instructed Dan to remain in hiding there and watch the 
 cabin closely so as to learn the direction they took if 
 they went off to execute the captive, and to follow them 
 if they did. This done, Andy proceeded to seek his 
 companions, whom he found anxiously awaiting his re- 
 turn, and in as few words as possible told them what had 
 happened. 
 
 The mock trial lasted till two o'clock, and all uncon- 
 scious of any approaching danger, the outcasts caroused, 
 smoked, played cards and cracked coarse, rude jokes. 
 Harper had managed to have his wife away, and fortun- 
 ately there was no one present but those of the mascu- 
 line persuasion to witness the terrible things that hap- 
 pened there that autumn night. 
 
298 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 A hushed silence ensued when the clock struck two, 
 and Ben Harper, standing before the fire, pronounced 
 the sentence. 
 
 " Now, boys, we have decided that Joe Martin, having 
 become a member of our brotherhood, has willingly be- 
 trayed us in order to save his own back. We, having 
 thus found him guilty of treason, have a right to punish 
 him. When the clock strikes three we will take him to 
 the big walnut tree down atween here and ihe mouth of 
 the holler an' put up a good swing fer him, so he can 
 take a good swing and rest from his trip. Yer perty 
 ti " 
 
 Here the cutthroat was interrupted by the loud hoot 
 of an owl by the side of the house, the door was sud- 
 denly burst open, the v button that fastened it was sent 
 spinning across the room, and as the muffled tread of the 
 regulators broke on the ears of the astonished outlaws 
 the tall, powerful form of Nick Alton appeared in the 
 doorway. Not a word escaped the outlaws, so astonished 
 were they, and no sooner did Nick make his appearance 
 than he sang out in a triumphant voice : 
 
 ' No, you won't, damn you." 
 
 Then, as the heavy lumbering footsteps were heard 
 circling the house Nick Alton threw his revolver on Ben 
 Harper, exclaiming : 
 
 t( Disciple of Jake McKandlas, die," and the weapon 
 flashed and cracked just as the door on the opposite side 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 2 99 
 
 opened and a half dozen regulators, headed by Andy 
 Thomas, entered with drawn revolvers. 
 
 With a wild yell of terror Harper, who had only been 
 slightly wounded, bounded to the door, giving the last 
 regulator that entered a shove that sent him reeling 
 against the bed in the corner, and springing from the 
 door he bounded off along the foot of the bluff and dis- 
 appeared. The regulators now swarmed in at both 
 doors, making escape impossible, and the outlaws real- 
 ized that they were in the hands of Nick Alton and his 
 stranglers. Knowing full well that the regulators would 
 not consign them to the law for punishment, but would 
 string them up, they resolved to sell their lives as dearly 
 as possible. Their number was only eight while that of 
 their enemies was fourteen. 
 
 In a jiffy the sign of resistance flew through the little 
 band of cornered lawbreakers, the light was shot out, 
 and the wretches, huddling together in the corner of the 
 room, sent forth a shout of defiance and opened fire. 
 
 Crack, crack, crack, went the revolvers, and the 
 regulators returned a scattering volley that silenced two 
 pistols, while their owners sank to the floor, their death 
 groans drowned by the hoarse shouts of the combatants 
 and by the incessant cracking of pistols. Joe Martin, 
 who sat in a chair in the center of the room, got up and 
 ran to Nick Alton as to a welcome deliverer, and Nick, 
 with a quick thrust of his knife, severed the cord that 
 bound Joe's hands, and motioning him to get out doors, 
 
3OO A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 he let him pass out, and stepping back in just as the 
 outlaws opened fire, he gave orders to fire at will, and 
 the savage cracks of the pistols resounded up and down 
 the valley, mingled with the yells and curses of the com- 
 batants. Two of the regulators were hit, and room was 
 made for them to pass out. One had been shot in the 
 hand, while the other's ribs had been glanced. The 
 firing, although rapid, was nearly harmless to the regu- 
 lators, but two more of the outlaws had received fatal 
 wounds. When the gap was made for the wounded 
 regulators to pass out one of the outlaws, with a bound, 
 cleared the distance between him and the door, while 
 the others followed suit. Four of their number were 
 hors du combat, while the regulators were scarcely aware 
 of it as yet, and the remaining ones saw in this move 
 their only chance of salvation. But Nick Alton, with 
 the quickness characteristic of him, hit one of the out- 
 laws a stunning blow with his pistol butt that sent him 
 reeling to the floor just as the others bounded up, and 
 before the regulators could act two of the outlaws had 
 shoved through, and, darting around the corner of the 
 house, made for the foot of the bluff, while the regulators 
 on the lower side sprang out and fired shot after shot 
 after them till they disappeared in the immense shadow 
 of the bluff. The remaining outlaw was seized by the 
 regulators and securely bound, but he made but slight 
 resistance. 
 
 " We're not going to hurt you, young man, providing 
 
A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 3OI 
 
 you'll do what we want you to," explained Nick, when 
 they had securely bound him and set him down in a chair 
 near the fire. 
 
 "What du yu want me to dew, then," queried the 
 outlaw in a subdued tone. 
 
 " Wait a minute and we'll tell you," said Nick, and 
 going to the door he called out : 
 
 "Come in now, Joe, and help us clear up." 
 
 Joe obeyed and came in. 
 
 4 'Thank God, Mr. Alton, you've saved me," he said 
 in a broken voice as he extended his hand. 
 
 Nick took the proffered hand and replied : 
 
 " We know you're all right, Martin." 
 
 " Yes, I'm powerfully glad jou believe me that way," 
 replied Joe. "I only joined them thinking that would 
 be the safest plan till I could get myself and family away 
 from here." 
 
 "Yes, we did wrong in suspecting you, but we did 
 not all agree, you see," responded Nick kindly. 
 
 The outlaw that Nick had knocked over had not yet 
 regained consciousness, so he was dragged up and laid 
 with the others. Nick decided not to stay any longer 
 than necessary, and after they had examined the two 
 wounded outlaws and found them in a critical condition, 
 they concluded to take them home, which place was only 
 a half mile or so up the gulch. These two were known 
 by the majority of the regulators to be brothers-in-law, 
 having married sisters and lived close together. 
 
3O2 A NIGHT IN FOX VALLEY. 
 
 Detailing six of his men to go on this errand, Nick 
 agreed to remain till they returned, after which they 
 would all repair to the house of Reub McKasson, who 
 lived some half a mile from Hobson's and who was a 
 faithful member of the stranglers. There they would 
 proceed to pump the prisoner, if possible. If he refused 
 to disclose what they asked of him he would be hanged. 
 That was explained to the outlaw before the return of 
 the detail, and when they returned preparations were 
 made for departure. 
 
 Joe Martin was so rejoiced at the lucky intervention 
 in his behalf that he then and there took the oath of 
 allegiance to the Fox Valley stranglers, and while they 
 pursued their way up the slope Andy related to him all 
 the important details of the discovery, the capture 
 the rescue they had planned. 
 
Waiting and watching for the quivering form to become 
 motionless. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 The first faint streaks of the coming chill Novembsr 
 dawn were visible in the Eastern sky and the cocks were 
 crowing to announce it when Nick and his band rode up 
 to the McKasson farm yard and saw by the flickering 
 light in the window that the family was astir. At least 
 the one who attended to the making of fires was astir, 
 for the light was that cast from the fire in the fireplace 
 now blazing from the hearth, while a column of vapory 
 smoke curled up against the gray light of the coming 
 dawn and floated away into the etherial regions. Being 
 chilled by their long exposure to the night air, the men 
 were soothed at the prospect of a good bath in the warm 
 cheerful blaze they knew was waiting for them, and as 
 the wounded men were suffering by the exposure of their 
 wounds to the night air they were anxious to get indoors. 
 Dismounting and carefully assisting the wounded men, 
 they secured the horses to the adjacent grove of saplings 
 trimmed out for the purpose, and went into the yard. 
 Nick started for the house to ask admittance, but before 
 he reached it the door was opened and the voice of a boy 
 called out : 
 
 Who's there?" 
 
 (305) 
 
306 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 It was Reub McKasson's youngest son and namesake 
 that Nick recognized by his voice, and he had evidently 
 discovered their presence, and in a fit of boyish bravado 
 had desired to know whether they were friends or 
 enemies. 
 
 "It's me, Nick and the boys," came the response. 
 "Can we come in, Reuby? We're chilled to the marrow 
 for we've been up all night." 
 
 The boy advanced to the edge of the porch, and 
 when Nick came up he exclaimed in a transport of friend- 
 liness : 
 
 "Hello, Nick, it is you sure enough. Where have 
 you been all night and what have you been doing ?" 
 
 " Wa-it till we get to the fire and I'll tell you," replied 
 Nick. 
 
 " All right, holler at the rest of them ard tell them 
 to come on in," answered the boy glancing at the group 
 in the yard. 
 
 Nick followed his instruction and the others were 
 soon with them. 
 
 "Come on into the fire," said Reuby leading the 
 way. " You must be chilled stiff if you've been up all 
 night in this air." 
 
 ' ' No, it has been warm all night till an hour or two 
 ago," explained Nick, as they filed into the room. "We 
 have been having a lively time of it to-night, Reuby, 
 and the cold isn't the 'only thing we've struck that's 
 hurt us. " 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 307 
 
 Reuby stood with his hand on the door latch, and 
 when the wounded men passed into the lighted room he 
 saw the blood stains on their clothing and exclaimed ex- 
 citedly : 
 
 " Jewhillikens ! I think you have from the looks of 
 things." 
 
 " Yes, we had an exciting time of it down at Ben's," 
 answered Nick, "but we done lots of good for all the 
 hurts we received. We've got some prisoners, Reuby." 
 
 ' * Where are they ? Over in the old cabin ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Ain't got Milt yet, have you?" asked the boy with 
 a knowing, manly air. 
 
 "No, but I think we will pretty soon," answered 
 Nick as he crowded his way to the fire, followed by 
 Reuby. Then when they had found an opening next to 
 the cheerful, blazing fire, he turned to the boy and asked : 
 
 " Has Reub made it in yet ?" 
 
 "Not yet," replied the boy," "but I look for him 
 this morning." 
 
 The McKasson family was one of the latest families 
 of settlers that had taken up their abode there in the 
 wilderness in the late '4O's, and, like the majority of their 
 neighbors, had shunned- the matted thickets and rocky 
 bottomed lowland in the craggy, steep-sided valleys, and 
 taken up their claim on one of the little rich prairies that 
 spangle the mountain sides. A little later on they had 
 
3O8 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 taken up another tract, a little higher up the mountain 
 side, and built a substantial double log house out of the 
 nice forest of timber which covered the latter claim, and 
 moved their habitation to the new place, leaving the old 
 cabin where they had first lived to the mercies of the 
 quadrupeds. It stood just at the corner of the prairie 
 where the road went up the hill, and was not used for 
 any purpose except the keeping of prisoners that the 
 vigilantes had captured and whom they were undecided 
 what to do with. Most of the ruffianly cabal were per- 
 sonally known to them, but a few of them, who were 
 new recruits, they hesitated about punishing till they had 
 evidence enough to satisfy them that the culprits deserved 
 death, which is the natural redress demanded by all such 
 organizations as the Fox Valley stranglers. Men who 
 have been harboring their wrongs for years are the most 
 dangerous and formidable of all banded fighters, and are 
 imbued with that puissant spirit that dominates men in 
 battle when they meet in the bloody grapple, but the 
 Fox Valley vigilantes were not barbarians, and as a con- 
 sequence they were loth to execute in their summary way 
 the recent recruits who were not too far gone to reform. 
 The old cabin had been the scene of several mock law- 
 suits, in which a number of the cutthroats had been con- 
 demned, but all of the former prisoners had been old 
 offenders and were taken away to some lonely spot and 
 hanged. This time they had captured some prisoners 
 that they had never seen before, and they felt certain 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 309 
 
 that they were only green recruits that had been lured 
 into the band by roseate descriptions of enormous profits 
 and a good time, also entire safety from justice. 
 
 Reub McKasson was the chief of the detective force 
 of the stranglers, and it was their business to ferret out 
 the crimes committed and trace them to their true per- 
 petrators. But at the present time it was agreed among 
 them that Milt Harper's case should be attended to be- 
 fore they the detectives turned their attention to any 
 other noted offender or any other crime that might occur. 
 Milt and his crony, a big, long legged, long armed, grue- 
 some looking fellow, the one who was with him when he 
 showed such a defiant spirit at the shooting match, had 
 been the ones suspicioned by the vigilantes of commit- 
 ting the wholesale thefts in the country between there 
 and Ozark, and if they could find evidence enough to 
 confirm their suspicions it would not be well with them. 
 Milt had always talked as though he belonged to the so- 
 called Alton gang, but his assertions to that effect were 
 only a source of amusement to the regulators. They 
 knew that Milt only did this in order to insure his safety, 
 while he preferred the less dangerous plan of night 
 pilfering to the bold methods pursued by the gang. That 
 he was the head of the sneak thieves that were raiding 
 the hog pens and corn cribs of the settlers was the gen- 
 eral opinion of all the denizens of the region. But the 
 plan he had pursued of claiming connection with the 
 powerful cabal of bold freebooters under the leadership 
 
310 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 of Tom Alton had been successful so far, and when the 
 stranglers began their operations the settlers who had 
 been robbed of their possessions hoped that they would 
 find and punish the thieves. 
 
 So Reub had been gone a day or two on a scout, and 
 they were awaiting his return, hoping that he would be 
 successful in tracing the thefts to the true perpetrators, 
 whether it be Milt and his followers or not. 
 
 The early morning hours glided by, and the wounded 
 men having been cared for with all the ability their com- 
 rades and Mrs. McKasson possessed, the good lady pro- 
 ceeded to prepare them a substantial breakfast. In those 
 days and that country food was not much trouble to 
 acquire. With plenty of fat cattle and an abundance of 
 hogs that were self supporting to a great extent, to which 
 was added the bountiful products of the woods in the 
 shape of wild game, and the fact that the produce of the 
 land was not bartered away in advance for necessaries 
 that were then home wrought, all combined to make the 
 acquisition of edibles an easy matter. The room that 
 served as kitchen and dining room was an addition on 
 the East side, constructed out of rough pine lumber and 
 ceiled with the same kind that formed the weather- 
 boarding. But the rough interior surface was ingenious- 
 ly covered with a chaotic assortment of newspapers, 
 wide leaved magazines and scraps of old worn-out 
 picture books. To one unused to this rustic mode of 
 beautifying the interior of the home it would naturally 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 occui that the inmates of the home were fond of gaudy 
 decorations, but such was not the case. The staring 
 pictures posted over the rough plank wall in profuse array 
 were thought by the matron to look better than the rough 
 spot that would be left, and they were only substituted 
 for b.ck of something better. When a person becomes 
 familiar with such interior decorations they were less in- 
 clined to think them gaudy. 
 
 Mrs. McKasson was a plump, yellow-haired, blue- 
 eyed little woman of five and thirty who was the ideal 
 wife of the average mountaineer in traits of character as 
 well as personal appearance. She was a neat house- 
 keeper, a pretty fair cook and withal a cheerful com- 
 panion, but was not naturally of a talkative disposition, 
 although not entirely taciturn, and had a certain rever- 
 ential awe and admiration for mankind in general, 
 especially those who were addicted to bombastic talk. 
 Of an impressionable nature and a rather dull percep- 
 tion, she was not much of a judge of human nature, but 
 this was doubtless the very secret of her charms. As 
 she was so willing to believe all men manly and com- 
 petent, as a consequence those who were already that 
 way strove to be more so, while those who were not 
 were far from being satisfied till they had effected some- 
 thing to confirm the little woman's belief in their manly 
 qualities. It is such women as that that make the world 
 better for their having been a part of it, and many a 
 mountain laggard was stirred into activity and usefulness 
 
312 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 by the sublime faith of the little matron in their efficiency. 
 But she had one strongly marked trait that she never 
 hesitated to display, not even to strangers. The men 
 she admired and believed in were those whose reputation 
 was not smeared with crime, but the low and vicious 
 class she especially detested. It never occurred to her 
 to class as men the ruffianly outlaws that infested the 
 country, but her mind vaguely construed them into un- 
 canny freaks of nature like the ogres and vampires of 
 fabled lore. In fact she had seen one or two of them 
 whose visages were well calculated to confirm the vague 
 ideas she had conceived, and the impression upon her 
 mind that the human forms were only the fleshy cover- 
 ings of devils was only augmented by the contact. 
 
 And it is not improbable that the little matron's ideas 
 were entirely destitute of reason, when the facts and 
 fancies of creation are sifted. 
 
 "We have two members of the O. H. with us to- 
 night, or rather this morning," remarked Nick Alton as 
 he passed his cup for another cup of coffee, and he looked 
 significantly at Washburn and Ferguson, who sat opposite 
 him at the breakfast table. 
 
 Mrs. McKasson followed his glance, and when her 
 gaze rested on the two men she replied before she pro- 
 ceeded to replenish Nick's cup: 
 
 (< Ah, ha ; I thought as* much when I saw them to be 
 strangers. Do you expect to get much help from that 
 quarter, Nick?" 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 313 
 
 "Yes, I think we will, "replied Nick in a positive tone. 
 "We have been informed by these two gentlemen that 
 the citizens of their part of the country have inaugurated 
 a war of extermination, and though it is a little late it 
 will have its effect." 
 
 Nick, who was fond of long speeches, here noting 
 the marked attention of the assembly, took the cup of 
 coffee proffered by the matron, and resumed, with his 
 fork clinching a piece of dried beef and his knife up- 
 raised : 
 
 "You know what Anna his wife has been assert- 
 ing all the time, don't you, Flora? Well," as she nodded, 
 "she still sticks to it, and all the arguments I can pro- 
 duce can't convince her to the contrary. Now, that looks 
 strange, don't it ? She seems to think that because the 
 Alton's were wild and indulged a great deal in gambling, 
 righting and horse racing that they have a natural ten- 
 dency for crime. But you know that is a natural failing 
 with these pedigreed people. They seem to think that 
 all people who are not of aristocratic lineage are indif- 
 ferent to their reputation, but I for one disagree with her. 
 If there is any of my kinsmen in this organization they 
 must be some that I know nothing about nor never heard 
 of, and as to her opinion in regard to it being my cousin 
 Tom that heads it I think I shall soon be able to con- 
 vim e her of her error." 
 
 " Why, Nick, do you still think that he was killed in 
 the battle of Pea Ridge ?" asked Mrs. McKasson with a 
 
314 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 look of pleasant anticipation at the prospect of Nick 
 being able to rid himself of the trouble between himself 
 and his wife. 
 
 Nick had been rather too enthusiastic in his talk and 
 spoken more than he aimed to, and as a consequence the 
 little matron's question had nonplused him. But it was 
 his ability to quickly extricate himself from sudden com- 
 plications which had been the cause of him being chosen 
 leader of the vigilantes, and he was not to be long con- 
 fused at this small matter. True, it was not his desire 
 to tell a falsehood about it, for he had a strict regard for 
 the truth. But as he had always asserted what he be- 
 lieved, it was very trying on him to still assert what he 
 now knew to be false, and which he still desired to have 
 other people believe. So he knew no other way out of 
 the difficulty than an evasive answer, and as soon as he 
 could frame one he gave it. 
 
 "My investigations have not been fruitless, Flora. 
 This seems to be a time of general retribution and clear- 
 ing up of mysteries, and, as I was saying, my attempts 
 to clear up this mystery have not been without results." 
 
 Now, in regard to the trouble between Nick and his 
 wife, who was the daughter of a poor, struggling lawyer 
 in Hartville, and was, to use a common phrase of 
 the region, a pedigreed Yankee, it was plain that his 
 better half was of a nagging and selfish disposition, and 
 had not married him out of pure love. Still there had 
 been no trouble between them till it was commonly re- 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 315 
 
 ported and generally believed that Nick's cousin, Tom 
 Alton, was the leader of the desperate band that terror- 
 ized the inhabitants of the Ozarks from one extremity to 
 the other. Nick was then surprised and pained at the 
 course his wife then began of persecuting and taunting 
 him instead of sympathizing and condoling with him in 
 the affair, which greatly chagrined him and which he at 
 once set to work to investigate. Nick could easily put 
 to flight her arguments by a plain, unvarnished revelation 
 of a secret he had kept from his wife and one which he 
 had resolved to use only as a last resort if necessity 
 required it. For reasons of his own, which we had bet- 
 ter describe for the readers' benefit, Nick had never told 
 her of his own lineage, which was equally as good as 
 hers if not better. If he had only told her of his con- 
 nection with the old cavalier family back in the old 
 Dominion she would have believed his assertions instead 
 of making his life miserable by her insinuations of bad 
 blood. He had pondered over the subject a great deal 
 and he suddenly bethought him that his cold, practical 
 and pedigreed New England wife did not understand 
 Southern natures as well as he did and could only see 
 the outside of complicated cases like this and judge 
 accordingly. 
 
 But Nick and his kinsmen were wise enough to know 
 that their lineage was practically of no service to them 
 there in that rugged wilderness of the Southwest, "where 
 men were njen and women were women and one person 
 
316 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 was as good as another so long as they minded their own 
 business. Then it was never a habit of these Southern 
 bred people to boast of their lirteage, nor even mention 
 it for that matter, and if they did happen to know that 
 they were superior to their neighbors in the matter of 
 birth, education or worldly emolument they kept it to 
 themselves. Nick and his clansmen, having realized 
 that they were needed to help subdue the wilderness, and 
 that money and property was of no more use than lineage 
 in that country where they had settled, strove to obtain 
 them without much thought of the source whence they 
 came from back in the remote East, and if their neighbors 
 found out the quality of the family it would be through 
 other people than themselves. And Nick was wise 
 enough to know that it would be public matter in a very 
 short time if he gave way to the temptation to inform 
 his spouse of this heretofore guarded secret, and that is 
 why he refrained. He was in hopes that he would strike 
 some clue to the mystery and clear it up before he was 
 compelled to impart the secret to his wife that he did 
 not want to. 
 
 " What has become of them other two men that have 
 been with you ?" asked Flora McKasson when, after 
 Nick's explanation, she concluded that he still believed 
 what he had before asserted, that his cousin was dead. 
 
 "Whom do you have reference to ?" asked Nick, who 
 now had commenced to eat, pausing in the act of lifting 
 a bite of the beefsteak to his mouth. 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 317 
 
 Flora looked puzzled. She could not recall the names 
 of the men. 
 
 "Perhaps she means the two we left to guard the 
 prisoners," suggested Dan Ferguson, noticing her em- 
 barrassment. 
 
 "Oh, yes," exclaimed Nick, brightening up. "You 
 mean Thomas and Talbott." 
 
 "I think they are the men I had in mind," said 
 Flora with a grave nod. "You left them to guard the 
 prisoners," with a little shudder "did you?" 
 
 "Yes, but you needn't shudder over their cases, 
 Flora," assured Nick. "I think there is room for re- 
 form." 
 
 Thomas and Talbott, by their own request, had been 
 left at the cabin in charge of the prisoners. Nick, who 
 was in a garrulous mood, came near asserting that it was 
 his belief that these two men were going under assumed 
 names and had some mysterious mission to fulfill, but he 
 checked himself when he thought that his intended 
 assertion might lead to other embarrassing questions. So 
 he refrained and said nothing more during the meal un- 
 less addressed. 
 
 'The two men left at the old cabin as guard were talk- 
 ing, and in order that we may pursue the thread of this 
 narrative we must leave the house and its assemblage 
 and for a while play the mouse in the wall in the old 
 cabin, used for a temporary jail for the prisoners that 
 fell into the hands of Nick and his men. 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 A fire was built in the massive, old fireplace, which 
 was quite large enough to take a five foot stick, and some 
 rude benches had been constructed to take the place of 
 chairs. The cabin did not present much signs of dilapi- 
 dation yet, but there were a couple of crevices in the 
 wall next to the floor and a hole in one corner of the 
 fireplace through which the rats were wont to have in- 
 gress and egress and the one window in the back wall of 
 the cabin was full of broken panes, this being the reason 
 it had not been removed. Just in front of the one door 
 the fence, which had been the first inclosure of the place, 
 was fast being enveloped in a rank growth of weeds and 
 brambles. 
 
 On the South side of the fireplace, sitting dejectedly 
 on one of the rude benches with berit forms and down- 
 cast eyes, were the men who had surrendered to the 
 regulators down at the Harper cabin when they saw that 
 their side was defeated. On the other side facing them 
 sat the two mysterious men who bore the titles of first 
 and second lieutenant of the Fox Valley stranglers. They 
 were engaged in conversation about something for a little 
 time, and talked in low, guarded tones, but finally they 
 gradually let their voices rise and the words could be 
 plainly distinguished by the two prisoners. 
 
 Talbott, who was sitting next to the fire, was the first 
 to raise his voice, and this was what he said : 
 
 "Yes, you and I have been having pretty tough treat- 
 ment by the world for the courage we manifested in the 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 cause we believed to be right. Our fortunes have been 
 similar, but the worst of my ill fortune I endured while 
 you were in happy ignorance of yours, while now you 
 are enduring the worst of yours, Andy. God grant that 
 we may both soon see the rift in the dark cloud and the 
 appearance of the glad sunlight shining through it." 
 
 Thomas was absorbed in deep thought, and gazed 
 steadily for a moment at the window that now shone 
 with the light of approaching day. Presently he turned 
 his gaze to the firelight again and replied : 
 
 " But I can't see that you have suffered on account 
 of the stand you took in the late strife, Talbott. Why 
 did you mention that ?" 
 
 " Oh, no ; I didn't mean that either of us had suffered 
 on that account," hastily explained Talbott. " I only 
 meant that we have not been partakers in the general 
 peace and prosperity that we helped to inaugurate, that's 
 all." 
 
 " In that you are not exactly correct either, Talbott. 
 While you suffered as you did I was enjoying myself im- 
 mensely partaking, as you said, in the general peace and 
 prosperity. Then, while you were bound and helpless 
 and unable to extricate yourself from your difficulty, I 
 was free and untrammeled to work as my fancy dictated. " 
 
 "And a fine thing it was for me that you were," 
 laughed Talbott. "Still I would hardly feel easy if I 
 had not been offered the chance of helping you out of 
 your difficulty." 
 
32O THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 Thomas did not reply. His ears had suddenly caught 
 the sound of hoof beats, and he jumped to his feet and 
 strode hastily to the window, exclaiming as he did so : 
 
 " There comes Reub now, I do believe." 
 
 There was an old road that skirted the upper side of 
 the prairie field that had once been the main road, but 
 had been abandoned when a more suitable route was 
 surveyed. This new route was the one that ran past the 
 dwelling of Reub McKasson, while the old route was 
 traveled only by horsemen and footmen desiring a short 
 cut. Thomas, when he reached the window, gazed out 
 and saw in the gray light of the morning a man riding a 
 coal black horse and swaddled from head to foot in an 
 old army cloak, with his big black slouch hat pulled 
 down over his forehead. His small black eyes had in 
 them a triumphant expression, his black whiskers shaved 
 down below the chin, were glistening with the night 
 moisture, and he had ridden up almost even with the 
 shanty before Thomas discovered that there was some 
 one riding behind him. 
 
 " Jumping Jehoshaphat," he exclaimed icudly, giving 
 his leg a vigorous slap with his hand to emphasize his 
 words, "It's Reub, and he's got Milt with him, or you 
 can shoot me for a fool." 
 
 "Milt," reiterated Talbott dubiously, "you must be 
 mistaken, Andy." 
 
 " Here, let's open the door," said Thomas, and suit- 
 ing the action to the word he opened the door wide and 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 321 
 
 looked out on the newcomers sitting on the horse in the 
 misty light of the dawn. 
 
 "It is Milt, sure enough," he said, and then shouted 
 to McKasson : " Light and look at your saddle." 
 
 " Hello, Andy, is that you ?" shouted back Reub, in a 
 pleased voice. " Come help me take my charge down." 
 
 Clearly forgetting the presence of their captives, the 
 two men closed the door and went out to the fence, 
 where Reub sat on his horse with his prisoner on behind 
 him. McKasson had him tied securely by a stout rope 
 tied around his feet and thrust under the belly of the 
 horse and the outlaw's hands were tied to the buckskin 
 thongs that protruded from the hind part of the saddle. 
 The outlaw looked more dead than alive as the two 
 regulators untied him and assisted him to the ground. 
 
 " Purty harsh treatment, ain't it ?" queried Reub, with 
 a half pitying look at the captive. '.' But it couldn't be 
 helped though, you see." 
 
 "Are you going on to the house, Reub ?" asked Andy. 
 "If you are tell the^ others to hurry back, for I'm as 
 hungry as a wolf ten clays in a steel trap." 
 
 "All right," replied Reub, "I'll go on and hurry 
 them up. Have you got some of the brotherhood in 
 there, Andy?" 
 
 " I guess we have or we wouldn't be down here while 
 the other boys are up there feasting," replied Thomas 
 gayly. 
 
322 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 Reub went on to the house and the other two marched 
 Milt Harper into the cabin for safe keeping. It was not 
 unlikely that they felt a little remorseful at the sight of 
 the dejected captive, wifh his auricular appendage half 
 gone from the marksmanship of Jack Dalton, and the 
 thoroughly submissive demeanor he displayed. His limbs 
 were numbed and sore with their long confinement in the 
 coils of the rope, and the men had to support him to the 
 cabin, but they spoke no word of triumphant banter to 
 him whom they knew was foredoomed to die, to have his 
 life choked out by the same rope that had done the work 
 for so many transgressors. 
 
 The sun was throwing its rays over the mountain 
 landscape, diffusing anew its light and warmth to all 
 living creatures, and the birds were flying from tree to 
 tree and from hill top to hill top singing a last farewell 
 chant to the departing summer season, when Nick Alton 
 and his followers made their appearance at the shanty 
 and relieved the guards they had left there. 
 
 Reub had told them his experience in the pursuit and 
 capture of Milt and had given them a satisfactory account 
 of the evidence he had acquired, and when he had done 
 so they all knew that Milt was doomed to hang, and the 
 sooner it was done the better. Mercy was a thing that 
 none of the doomed captives need ask for when once the 
 sentence was pronounced, and if others who were less 
 troublesome than Milt Harper had swung it was a settled 
 question that before the sun rose again and shed its 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 323 
 
 
 
 light over the weird mountain landscape as it was now 
 doing that Milt would be no longer in the land of the 
 living. 
 
 While Thomas and Talbott were up at the house 
 satisfying the inner man with the bountiful spread of 
 viands set before them by Flora McKasson, the balance 
 of the regulators made their arrangements and brought 
 the prisoners they had taken in the fight up for trial. 
 
 When they were requested to give an account of 
 themselves, they told a straightforward story about their 
 wanderings over the country in search of work, and their 
 inability to obtain it, when, after they had become dis- 
 couraged and desperate, they had joined the gang with 
 the hopes of making a raise of money, enough to take 
 them back home. 
 
 "\\fell, I believe what you say is all true enough," 
 said Nick, judicially, when they had told their story. 
 "You are in a bad place if you only knew it, and I 
 would advise you to get out of it without delay. You 
 were no doubt badly discouraged, but next time you get 
 in a tight fix go to honest people for aijj, and let that 
 stripe go. Do you know this other prisoner here ?" he 
 added, pointing to Milt. 
 
 They replied that they had seen him but once before 
 and knew that he was Ben Harper's son, but that was all. 
 This was another bit of evidence to the regulators that 
 they were floaters, and had not been with the gang long, 
 and after a short consultation they let them go, at the 
 
324 THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 
 
 same time warning them to clear out from that locality 
 and never be seen there again. 
 
 By and by Reub, Thomas and Talbott rejoined them 
 and the trial of Milt Harper was commenced. 
 
 Reub was the first witness to take the stand, and 
 although his evidence was quite sufficient, others who 
 knew far less than he added their testimony to his, and 
 the mock ceremony was soon over with. 
 
 The regulators had all made up their minds that Milt 
 was a disgrace and a nuisance that must be got rid of, as 
 well as a dangerous, undermining character that -threat- 
 ened the peace and prosperity of the country. 
 
 So the day dragged slowly by and night had once 
 more spread, its sombre mantle over the earth when 
 the detachment, sent out with the prisoner to execute 
 him, set out under cover of the darkness for the crest 
 of the mountains. There was a wild solitude near 
 the crest where a small glade was unbroken by anything 
 save a solitary oak that spread its stout branches out in 
 a wide radius, and it was an ideal place for such a deed. 
 Thomas and Talbott were to head the party, and they 
 made it known to the others that when it was over with 
 and they had sent the body home, that they would go from 
 there to Springfield, where they had important business 
 to attend to. 
 
 So at the midnight hour another one of the trouble- 
 some outlaws that infested the mountains paid the penalty 
 for his numerous misdeeds, and the detachment sent out 
 
THE MIDNIGHT EXECUTION. 32-5 
 
 *o perform the act was waiting and watching for the out- 
 law's life to ebb out and the quivering form become 
 motionless. 
 
 When at last they realized that life was extinct they 
 took him <Kown and made ready to take him home to the 
 wife that had stayed with him and harbored him and 
 taken him for better or worse, and yet had never com- 
 plained not reproached him for his criminal acts. And 
 believing that the dead outlaw's better half would feel 
 relieved at his death, they hastened to inform her of the 
 termination of his career, while Thomas and Talbott 
 went on their way to Springfield, glad to have an excuse 
 for being away from the blood-stained battle ground be- 
 tween supercilious wrong and oppressed, long-suffering 
 right. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 The appointed day that Clayton and his friends had 
 set on which to make the proposed expedition to the old 
 Alton homestead arrived at last, and the five young men 
 having secured the loan of Alex. Dalton's spring wagon, 
 and gotten together the required tools, set out for their 
 destination about nine o'clock in the morning and drove 
 rapidly along the road as though they were going to town 
 to have a good time. 
 
 The roads were in excellent condition, as there had 
 been a duration of spasmodic rains that settled the dust, 
 and as travel had smothered them down well they were 
 now at their best, and the impetuous young mountaineers 
 were under a strong spell of exhilaration, eminating from 
 the crisp ozonic mountain air, and the natural anticipa- 
 tions of success common to youth. Their plans had been 
 carefully laid and they were under no necessity of rack- 
 ing their brains over that part of it as they drove rapidly 
 along, engaged in an exhilarated babble of conversation. 
 The air was strongly impregnated with the icy breath of 
 winter, and the inhabitants along the road had either 
 prepared for cold weather or were preparing for it, while 
 the denizens of the forest the rabbit, the squirrel and 
 
 (326) 
 
She stepped out into the yard to get a better view of them. 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 329 
 
 thu other small animals were also preparing. The 
 terrapin was busy constructing his winter domicile under 
 the body of some fallen log, the squirrel was laying up 
 his winter store in the hollow of some solid, old oak, 
 while the little rabbit, with natural sagacity, no longer 
 hopped about in the road in plain view of the settlers, 
 seeming to know that his flesh was now a delectable 
 table viand. 
 
 The happy whoop of the schoolboy enjoying his holi- 
 day in hunting about the fields and woods mingled with 
 the ring of the woodman's axe and the yelping of the 
 hunters' dogs, and all these sounds of country life and 
 activity reminded Clayton Palliser of the days of his own 
 bright, happy boyhood, and despite the hilarity of his 
 friends he felt a trifle pensive as they rode along over the 
 tortuous mountain road toward the valley of the James. 
 
 The plan they had outlined was as follows : They 
 were to drive up the road past the house and stop near 
 the spot where Jack had found the grave and feide their 
 tools there, after which they were to drive on to town 
 and spend the day there, waiting for the cover of night 
 to perform their operations in. 
 
 That the task would require the whole night none of 
 them doubted, despite the shallowness they fancied that 
 all isolated grave's possessed, but Jim had high hopes that 
 the other theory would be fruitful of results enough to 
 warrant the abandonment of the exhumation, which was 
 distasteful to him. He told the others that if he was 
 
33O THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 going to have a choice of the two plans thrust upon him 
 he would pursue the first one and let the other one go, 
 but none of them save Bill seemed to have much confi- 
 dence in the supposition that Jason Palliser had been 
 imprisoned. Still it was a part of the programme to 
 investigate that theory first, and the others did not 
 demur in regard to it, although they felt that the task of 
 exhuming the contents of the grave would be imposed 
 upon them. 
 
 When they arrived at the Emerson house they saw 
 the old woman who kept house for Hart looking out of 
 the kitchen door at them, and they stopped the team 
 and Jack shouted to her and asked : 
 
 "Is Hart at home?" 
 
 The old woman was used of having that question 
 fired at her from passers, and showed no alarm. She 
 stepped out into the yard to obtain a better view of them, 
 and shading her eyes with her hand she answered and 
 said : 
 
 "No, he hasn't returned from Springfield yet. He 
 went up there the other day to take possession of the 
 property left him by his uncle, and I don't know when 
 he'll be back. Did you want to see him ?" 
 
 " Oh, not particular," replied Jack in his impromptu 
 manner. "We only wanted to know why he didn't 
 show up at the regulators' meetin' the other day," and as 
 he 'finished speaking he struck the horses a smart rap with 
 the whip and they jogged along up the hill. 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 331 
 
 "She seems like a good old soul," remarked Jack to 
 Clayton who sat in the seat with him. 
 
 " I like her very well, what little I know about her, 
 and I don't believe she knows what kind of a man she 
 is working for. I wonder if that tale about his uncle 
 dying and leaving him his estate is true or just a trumped 
 up tale to get out of attending the meeting at Wash~ 
 burn's." This was spoken by Clayton after a moment's 
 reflection on the subject started by Jack. 
 
 "Oh, I don't think he would dare to invent such a 
 big lie as that," laughed Jack, and then continued : " It's 
 true, I guess, or at least it's true about the old gent bein' 
 dead, but about him leaving all his money and property 
 to Hart, why that might be only his imagination." 
 
 "You are right, Jack," responded Clayton. 4< I 
 think the Emersons are a little too complicated and 
 gruesome to form much of an opinion that is correct. I 
 think I remember hearing something about this old fellow 
 when I was a small boy, and it was to the effect that he 
 had cheated his brothers out of their part of the in- 
 heritance and was forced to flee the country to avoid 
 losing it all, as the other heirs threatened him with 
 trouble. I shall ask mother when I see her again if my 
 memory of the incident is right. " 
 
 Jack was absorbed and made no reply except an 
 assenting grunt, and the team plodded along up the steep 
 incline. Jack was thinking about the grave he had 
 found, and he was enveloped in a maze of feelings that 
 
332 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 would be hard to describe. There was a vague sort of 
 reality that some act of romantic character described in 
 his story books was about to be enacted, and with that 
 a feeling of pleasure at the thought that his beloved 
 friend was to have his fetters broken by himself. Then a 
 wave of doubt and desolation would sweep over him 
 at the thought of the possibility of the contents of 
 the isolated grave being only a bony skeleton that was 
 beyond recognition, and it was very probable that it 
 could be no other way if the body had been thrown in 
 and covered up without any coffin or enclosure of any 
 kind. Jack still believed that the remains of Jason 
 Palliser lay under the bare looking spot in the thicket, 
 although when Jim had first advanced the theory of im- 
 prisonment he admitted that it was not devoid of logical 
 reasoning. 
 
 Ere the horses had drawn the wagon to- the level of 
 the bench where the operation was to be performed, the 
 others had become smitten with the same premonition in 
 regard to the exhumation revealing only a hideous skele- 
 ton that could not be recognized. 
 
 But they said nothing about their dismal feeling, for 
 they were not the ones to back down from any task, 
 however disagreeable, they had set themselves, and a 
 moment later they were sailing over the grass plot above 
 the ruins of the old cabin toward an opening in the C"pse 
 a little beyond. Jack had instinctively guessed that the- 
 opening was deep and intricate enough to shelter tha 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 333 
 
 team and wagon from the view of passers, and his sur- 
 mises were correct. There was a hedge of tall black- 
 berry bushes skirting the edge of the copse of oak saplings, 
 and by cutting down a few of the latter an opening could 
 be made through which they could drive the wagon and 
 let them out at the upper side of the opening. This 
 discovery put them all in good spirits once more, and as 
 there was room enough by driving over some of the 
 scattered bushes that intervened between the main copse 
 and the blackberry hedge to hide the rig from view from 
 the road, they all got out of the wagon and began to 
 look around for the best place to hide the tools. While 
 the other four were busy at that Jack took a hatchet they 
 had brought and proceeded to make the opening free 
 from incumbrances by cutting away the scattered growth 
 of bushes therein and throwing out of the way a number 
 of large rocks that also lay in the passage. Before he 
 had completed his task the others had found a good place 
 to hide the tools, and had taken them from the wagon 
 and stowed them safely aw r ay. When Jack at last had 
 finished and came back, he found his companions waiting 
 for him to come and pilot them to the scene of their 
 future operations the isolated grave in the copse near 
 by. 
 
 " Are you sure you can remember the exact location, 
 Jack ?" anxiously inquired Clayton, a few minutes later 
 when they were on their way to the old cabin site, which 
 was the landmark that located the spot. 
 
334 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 " I don't think I was excited enough that the place 
 looked to me any different than it would now," assured 
 Jack. " If it isn't there jist below the old chimney stack 
 it must have been moved or else I was under a spell of 
 illusion. Let's hurry and git into the brush agin before 
 we are discovered," he added, quickening his pace. 
 
 The others did likewise, and a moment later they had 
 passed the old chimney stack and plunged again into the 
 copse. Jack led the way through the narrow opening, 
 and very soon they were all standing before the cluster 
 of sumach sprouts that Jack had described as encircling 
 the spot. But there was no bare looking spot of gravelly 
 clay that met their anxious, furtive gaze. The bushes 
 that encircled the spot had caught and held a carpeting 
 of leaves that excluded from view the spot they supposed 
 to be a grave, and if it had been that way when Jack 
 was there alone he never would have made the discovery. 
 But Jack was in no wise disconcerted at this, and he set 
 to work with energetic determination to remove the car- 
 pet that nature had spread over the grave while the 
 others stood looking on with a touch of sad anticipa- 
 tion. 
 
 A moment passed thus in profound silence, except 
 the gentle swish of the leaves as they came in contact 
 with Jack's broad palms, and when he had completed 
 the operation he rose to his feet, exclaiming exultingly: 
 
 " Now, can you see anything, boys ?" 
 
 The other four ranged themselves in a semicircle 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 335 
 
 around the spot, and holding the sumachs out of the way 
 with their hands peered down at the spot. 
 
 Yes, there it was sure enough, just as Jack had de- 
 scribed it, only now partially obscured by the still cling- 
 ing leaves, but visible enough to warrant Jack's assertion 
 that he was under no excited illusion when he made the 
 discovery. And as they gazed earnestly at the gravelly 
 clay that spotted the grassy surface around the cluster of 
 sumachs, they one and all settled it in their minds that 
 whether it was the last resting place of Jason Palliser 
 or not, it was certainly the grave of some victim of 
 treachery. 
 
 "Well, what do you all think about it?" queried Jack 
 after the others had scrutinized in silence the spot for a 
 moment. Jack was now imbued with a keen desire for 
 the other theory to be fruitful, when he noticed the sad, 
 melancholy expression on the face of his friend, although 
 he feared it would not be. That they were now present 
 at the last place where Jason Palliser disappeared from 
 human sight was his strong conviction, and he involun- 
 tarily shuddered when he thought of the results that 
 would crown their night's labor. 
 
 Jim Carver noticed the dejection of Clayton also, 
 and he suddenly bethought him that it might be well to 
 speak a few words in support. of his theory. Jim was 
 continually haunted by the recollection of Hart Emer- 
 son's declaration about a crime that he could undo, and 
 \he more he reflected over it the more evident it was to 
 
336 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 his comprehension that his theory was not altogether 
 groundless. 
 
 " Did you ever hear the story of the old settler who 
 occupied .this old cabin ?" asked Jim as he examined his 
 watch. The others looked up with newly awakened 
 interest at his words. What if Jim was only forbearing 
 in explaining the situation out of respect for their judg- 
 ment, and knew who it was that lay buried under that 
 bare looking spot ? Was this sure enough the old 
 pioneer that had sold his claim to the old Virginian and 
 a few days afterward was killed by the Indians and 
 buried by old man Alton near the cabin that had been 
 his home ? It was strange that none of them had ever 
 thought of it before, and yet they all with one accord 
 mentally agreed that Jim had not unfolded to them all 
 he knew yet. 
 
 Why, Jim?" asked Jack, as he fixed his big, blue 
 eyes on Jim with a questioning gaze, "Why, what's 
 the matter now ? Do you actually believe that this is it 
 that is, I mean the old settler's grave," he finished 
 nervously as he took a step or two nearer Jim. 
 
 "Whether it is or not," replied Jim, "it is our duty 
 to investigate, the matter if the other theory is not pro- 
 ductive enough to warrant the abandonment of this one. 
 But it is getting late now, and we will have to be going 
 if we want to spend some time in town. It is now half 
 past twelve, and by the time we get to town and spend 
 an hour or two it will be time to start back. If the first 
 
THE EXHUMATfON. 337 
 
 plan is not fruitful it won't take long to see what is in 
 this grave, for I am certain that it must be a victim of 
 treachery that lies under that spot." 
 
 "We'll see how things are to-night, then," exclaimed 
 Jack. " But lead the way, Jim ; you are the captain of 
 this expedition." 
 
 Jim led the way to the wagon, followed by the others, 
 and in a short time they were out in the road again and 
 bowling along toward the distant town. Nothing much 
 was said on the way, as they were all absorbed in deep 
 thought about the event set for the night. Jim's query 
 about the old settler's place of burial had aroused a train 
 of serious speculation and doubt in the minds of the others 
 and they were half inclined to believe that the spot they 
 supposed was a grave was that of the old settler instead 
 of the last resting place of Jason Palliser, but whoever 
 it was that had been interred there they felt sure must 
 have been a victim of treachery. That was,, an evident 
 and undisputable fact. No one dying who had friends or 
 relatives, especially in those latter days of so-called 
 civilization, would have been interred in such a place as 
 that if some designing person had not been desirous of 
 keeping the decease of the victim a secret. Viewing the 
 matter in that light it was doubtless either the grave 
 of the old pioneer hunter that met his death at the 
 hands of the Indians or some person that the bush- 
 whackers had killed in time of the war, or, it still might 
 Se the grave of the man they were in search of they 
 
33$ THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 thought, when they were racking their brains in trying to 
 think of some feature of the case that would point to it, 
 and realized the close proximity to the dwelling of the 
 man they suspicioned. 
 
 Nothing of importance happened during their short 
 stay in town until about a. quarter of an hour before 
 they calculated to start back, when they were loafing 
 around the depot, to all appearances a light hearted lot 
 of young mountaineers striving to have a good time in 
 town. It had been agreed among them at the suggestion 
 of Jim, whom they had agreed to obey in every particu- 
 lar, to laugh and joke and put on an appearance of 
 gayety as though they had no weighty affairs on their 
 minds and had only come to town to do a little trading 
 and have a good time. And the shrewdest detective 
 would never have suspicioned that they were shamming 
 as they strode with apparent content around over the 
 platform engaged in friendly social banter. 
 
 Suddenly Bill cast his gaze down the street and be- 
 held a man coming at a brisk walk toward the depot. 
 The others, when they discovered his startled expression, 
 also looked, and when they again looked at Bill they 
 wondered what could be the matter with him, for his 
 visage had become strangely distorted and the expression 
 of his eyes was unmistakably one of terror, 
 
 But the man whose appearance had excited Bill very 
 soon covered the distance between them and the point 
 where they had discovered him, and the others soon 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 339 
 
 forgot Bill's agitation in the strange, uncanny sensation 
 they were undergoing themselves. The man was tall, 
 above the average height, and his frame was strongly 
 knit, a natural endowment of men above the average 
 height, and the overcoat he wore hung open at the front, 
 disclosing to view the pistol belt studded with cartridges, 
 but what caused the fearful mysterious sensation to sweep 
 over the young adventurers was the man's countenance. 
 His face was smooth shaven save a light stubby mus- 
 tache that graced his upper lip, his features were rugged, 
 his face slim, and his complexion dark red, but the eyes, 
 which were a dark color of some kind, were distorted 
 with a hideous light, which made their exact hue A mat- 
 ter of speculation. The great dark orbs seemed to 
 look clean through the object they rested upon, and 
 when one gazed into them they were instantly entranced 
 by the strange light that bespoke the demoniac looking 
 out through the temple of clay. 
 
 But the stranger was not entirely devoid of reason, 
 although it was evident that some demon or other had 
 long had possession of him. He saw the embarrassment 
 of the young men, and striving to assume a pleasant ex- 
 pression and tone of voice, he addressed Jack Dalton 
 and asked : 
 
 '"' Can you tell me where I can find Hart Emerson ?" 
 
 Jack, who was the least liable to be long confused or 
 suppressed at the demon-like expression of the man, re- 
 
34O THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 plied as he stole another look at the stranger's weird 
 countenance : 
 
 "Yes, you will find him in Springfield, I guess." 
 
 "What evidence can you produce in support of your 
 assertion ?" asked the stranger in as pacific a tone as he 
 could assume. 
 
 "Why, old Auntie Button, who keeps house for him, 
 said he was up there, and she didn't know when he would 
 be back," assured Jack nonchalently. 
 
 "Is he in the habit of making long visits i>p there ?" 
 
 "Yes, I think he is." 
 
 " When did he go ?" 
 
 " Oh, about a week ago, I guess," replied Jack, again 
 looking into the dark, furtive, ominous orbs of the tall 
 stranger. 
 
 "All right, I'll risk it," said the man as he started up 
 the platform to the waiting room. But ere he had gone 
 many steps he turned and surprised the young men by 
 exclaiming : 
 
 "I think I have forgot my manners a little,, gentle- 
 men. Thank you ever so much for your information." 
 
 This was a subject for discussion with our young ad- 
 venturers for fully half the distance back to the scene of 
 their intended operations. What could this ferocious 
 looking individual with the tone and manner of a gentle- 
 man be wanting with Hart Emerson was a theme, leav- 
 ing abundant room for speculation, and they all gave 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 34! 
 
 vent to their opinions concerning his errand, but could 
 not refrain from a recitation of the sensations they under- 
 went when they were in his presence. 
 
 Darkness had again covered our side of the earth 
 when the five young men, bent on such a strange errand 
 reached the scene of their intended operations and found 
 things just as they had left them. It did not take them 
 long to make ready for the performance. The horses 
 were tied to the wagon, which had been driven into the 
 opening near the isolated grave they were going to exca- 
 vate, and given a good feed of sheaf oats they had 
 brought with them ; the tools were brought from their 
 hiding place and rehidden near the spot of their intended 
 labors, and when all this was done they sat down on the 
 grass plot near the wagon to eat their lunch and to 
 further discuss the night's work. 
 
 The other four seemed to have a strong conviction 
 that Carver was going to reveal some new phase of the 
 subject that he had in mind from the nonchalant manner 
 he assumed and the silence he maintained. They thought 
 he was only trying to invent some way of telling what 
 he actually knew so that it would present the most 
 plausible aspect, and prevent any contrary suggestions, 
 but they had but a dim idea of the real subject that was 
 engrossing the mind of their leader. Jack, who was 
 restless to know what the revelation meant, now felt a 
 willingness to relinquish his pet plan if Jim could throw 
 any light on the subject that would warrant its abandon- 
 
342 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 ment, and, when a moment's silence had ensued, which 
 was becoming oppressive to his bold, restless spirit, he 
 asked Jim to divulge. 
 
 Jim, who was a shrewd observer, saw that the others 
 were expectant and was ready to enlighten them when 
 he was asked to do so. 
 
 "Well boys," he began, as he changed his position 
 on the grass so as to face them, "did you know this spot 
 was tabooed ?" 
 
 The others were too astonished to answer and sat 
 staring. 
 
 " What the devil do you mean by that, Jim ?" finally 
 blurted out Jack, who was not well versed in words that 
 were not of common, every-day use. 
 
 Jim laughed a light laugh at Jack's impetuous display 
 that always had been a source of secret amusement to 
 him, but he suddenly realized that time was precious, 
 and he would have to explain quickly so that the others 
 would have plenty of time to ruminate before they were 
 through eating. 
 
 "Now boys," he resumed presently, '-it is my belief 
 that this is the spot where the old settler was buried, and 
 as I am about the only one in the crowd that has had 
 the chance to know it, I will inform you that this place 
 has the reputation of being haunted. You see Charlie 
 here lived too far away and Jack and Bill were too young 
 to have heard anything about it, while Clayton has lived 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 343 
 
 here in this country but a short time. Now, all this goes 
 to prove that I am the best fitted for the capacity of 
 doing the head-work as I know the lay of the land, and 
 it is a part of the programme to make the excavation 
 we will do so when the time comes. But if it is actu- 
 ally so that Jason Palliser was murdered here and then 
 robbed, and afterward buried, it may be that he was 
 thrown in an excavation directly on top of the old set- 
 tler's grave in order to insure secrecy and make the dis- 
 covery of his place of interment just what it was, simply 
 an accident. For you all know that the colored people 
 have a genuine horror of anything supernatural, and their 
 belief in ghosts and spiritual manifestations is unshaken. 
 Added to that is a certain class of white people who are 
 possessed of the same hallucination. Then on top of 
 that ib another layer of logical facts which goes to prove 
 what f said a bit ago, that this place was tabooed, or 
 rather I should say haunted. Now you all know that 
 human beings, no matter what their degree of learning 
 be, have a certain amount of superstition, and even 
 though they may not believe in the return of departed 
 spirits to the sight of human eyes yet some of our best 
 educated people believe in spiritual manifestations. Then 
 I might give you a sample of others still, by the recita- 
 tion of my own experience, which is, I believe, about on 
 the same line with the rest of you, if I judge aright. It 
 is this, whether we believe in ghosts or spiritual mani- 
 festations or not we are it times brought into contact 
 
344 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 with circumstances that upset our disbelief in such things 
 for a brief spell, unless we have a thorough knowledge 
 of the earth and the machinations of all that is in it. 
 Therefore you see that the reputation this place got 
 hitched on to it was resorted to for a purpose. All I 
 have stated to you about people's superstitions I have 
 recited in order to make it plain to your comprehension 
 that this particular spot was not liable 'to be invaded by 
 either whites or blacks without they were ignorant of its 
 character or had something at stake. Do you grasp my 
 meaning?" he added, looking from one to the other of 
 the listening companions on the grass near him. 
 
 But none of them seemed to comprehend his meaning 
 and they sat in silence for a moment, a silence that was 
 ominous and ghostly to their excited state of mind, 
 wrought by Jim's long recitation of his knowledge on the 
 subject of human superstitions and spiritual manifesta- 
 tions. The lantern that had been hung up on a branch 
 of the scraggly plum tree nearby gave out a clear bright 
 stream of light around the spot, but for all that it seemed 
 to the other four adventurers as though the munching of 
 the horses and the soft, swishing sound they produced in 
 pulling and bandying the oats around in the wagon bed 
 was but the pitapat of ghostly feet on the green sward. 
 
 But the irrepressible Jack soon grew tired of the sup- 
 pressed silence and came back at Jim with this good 
 natured banter : 
 
 "Oh, come off now, Jim; we didn't come here to 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 345 
 
 listen to a discourse on the subject of ghosts. Come 
 right out now and talk plain English, or you'll have us 
 all skeered and ready to run, with your ghostly talk." 
 
 Jim laughed a hearty laugh despite the solemnity of 
 the occasion, but soon straightened up and continued : 
 
 " You are right, Jack ; what I mean is that whoever 
 it was that resorted to this place for the interment of 
 whatever the contents of your find may happen to be 
 it is ten chances to one that he put. it here with the firm 
 conviction that the reputation the place bore would in- 
 sure its secrecy; or speaking a little plainer, he was con- 
 fident that this ghost-guarded spot was the safest place 
 to bury something that he wanted secure from prying 
 mortal eyes." 
 
 "Oh yes, -I understand you now," came in a chorus 
 from the listening group, and Jim, when he realized that 
 they understood his meaning, remained silent and 
 thoughtful. 
 
 Presently he was roused by the voice of Clayton ex- 
 claiming : "Better eat some now, Jim; you've been 
 talking long enough, haven't you ?" 
 
 Jim helped himself to a handful of the cold vitals 
 they had brought with them and settled |iis solid form 
 against the spokes of the front wheel with the air of one 
 who had just completed a laborious tasl?, while the rest 
 of them remained silent and thoughtful as they occasion- 
 ally helped themselves to another morsel with which to 
 
346 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 satisfy the cravings of the inner man and brace them for 
 the arduous labors of the night. Jim's explanation had 
 allayed the ghostly sensations they had felt at first, and 
 while none of them believed in such things they admit- 
 ted to themselves that Jim was right when he asserted 
 that all people were liable to undergo such sensations 
 unless their minds were ready to grasp the true meaning 
 at once. 
 
 When they had all finished their lunch Jim rose ab- 
 ruptly to his feet arid explained to them hurriedly the 
 proposition he had been meditating : 
 
 ' * Now then, boys, I have a proposition to make which 
 I think would be wise to adopt if we would make the 
 most of our time. It is that I make the reconnoisance 
 of the old stone cabin alone. " 
 
 " Why, Jim?" asked Clayton in great surprise. 
 
 4 'Well, you see it won't take but one pair of eyes to 
 see into that part of it, and I propose to make it alone, 
 as the noise of our whole party might lead to our dis- 
 covery. Besides, if it is at all possible to find out any- 
 thing down there one man can find it out as good as a 
 dozen." 
 
 The others had hoped to share in this adventure, as 
 they had a vague idea of its daring excitement, although 
 none of them save Bill had any faith in it. Now that 
 Jim had spoken as he did on the subject it struck them 
 that in order to save time and trouble they had better 
 let him have his way. 
 
THE EXHUMATT- 347 
 
 " All right, Jim, go ahead then, "said Clayton, anxious 
 to begin operations. 
 
 "You are the only one that has any faith in that 
 plan, anyhow," ventured Charlie. 
 
 "No, you are mistaken, Charlie," assured Bill. "I 
 have faith in it myself, but it might be that Jim won't 
 find out anything to-night." 
 
 " I may be entirely wrong," said Jim, but the tone 
 he spoke in was not in accordance with the words, as the 
 enunciation of any doubt was belied by it. 
 
 "Then suppose we go to work with this job while 
 he's gone," suggested Jack. 
 
 " As a matter of course," replied -Jim. "Go ahead 
 with the excavation, and if this other theory is only a 
 bubble it won't take long to puncture it." 
 
 The night was warm for the time of year, as the sun- 
 shine of the day had dispelled the damp, chilly haze, 
 and the wind had ceased to blow about four o'clock, and 
 another warmr wave was inaugurated which told of more 
 rain. The Ozark climate is a fickle and changeable one, 
 and all kinds of weather will transpire in the short space 
 of twenty-four hours. The sky was clear and unbroken 
 by either cloud or weather lipiit, the moon, a little 
 gleaming horn, was visible in the Western sky, and, 
 barring the sepulchral hooting of a solitary owl far away 
 on the mountain side all was as quiet as the grave. Down 
 in the valley all was quiet, not even the bark of a dog 
 
34$ THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 or the twinkle of a cowbell disturbed the serenity, and 
 when the young men had become sensible of the stillness 
 it seemed to them as though the Great Ruler had sent a 
 detachment of just spirits to aid them in revealing this 
 long concealed crime against God and man. 
 
 Jim was getting restless to see what it would all 
 amount to, and when he had given the others a few 
 directions how to proceed, he stood and watched them 
 work for a moment. Jack and Charlie were to make the 
 commencement of the excavation, while Clayton and 
 Bill were to keep guard in the thicket nearby to watch 
 for intruders and relieve their companions after the first 
 hour, when they were to take turns of an hour's duration 
 in watching and digging. 
 
 When Jim was ready to go he spoke and said : 
 "Don't look for me back till you see me coming, boys, 
 for it may take me half of the night to penetrate the 
 place and find out anything of importance. As I said 
 before, I may be badly off of my base in this question, 
 but I can't feel satisfied till I have settled it. Now I will 
 be going, boys. Be careful and don't go to sleep on the 
 watch," he added jestingly as he turned to go. 
 
 So while Clayton and the other three were at work 
 exhuming the contents of the isolated grave we will go 
 with Jim Carver on his errand, to the little stone cabin 
 and see there what he saw, and hear what he heard. 
 
 The way he calculated to go in order to avoid dis- 
 covery was to force his way through the copse to the 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 349 
 
 fence that enclosed the stone structure, and which en- 
 closed ground was mostly covered with a scattered growth 
 of timber and thickets of hazel, wild plum and sumach 
 such as grew near the old cabin site on the bench. He 
 hoped that he would strike some opening, similar to the 
 one that led from the ruins of the cabin to the isolated 
 grave he left his companions excavating, and he was not 
 disappointed. After scrambling through the copse, re- 
 ceiving numerous scratches and bruises and whelts from 
 small, keen limbs and feeling out in the darkness his hand 
 came in contact with the fence, and he clambered upon 
 it to recover his equilibrium and look carefully for an 
 opening that he could follow in the darkness. The moon 
 cast but a weird, sickly light, and although one could see 
 objects it was hard to distinguish them. He could see 
 at first only a chaotic mass of weird mountain landscape 
 beneath the feeble rays of the moon, and he regretted he 
 could not carry a lantern with him, that being rather 
 risky, as it might lead to discovery. This was an item 
 he had taken particular pains to prevent, and he could 
 hardly do anything himself that he had cautioned his 
 companions not to do, and he was forced to content 
 himself with the reflection that his vision would be better 
 when he had been in the darkness a little while, as the 
 light ot the lantern would have a blinding effect on his 
 ocular powers. But he had not peered long at the near- 
 by landscape till he saw that he had struck the fence but 
 a few yards below the cross fence that encircled the grave- 
 
350 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 yard, and he saw plainly the white gravestones that 
 marked the graves of departed Altons and their kinsmen 
 and others, buried there whose purse was ample enough 
 to buy them this last earthly privilege. But Jim had no 
 time to reflect on the departed glories of the Altons nor 
 the means of the other dead that lay buried there. Their 
 wood, hay, and stubble they had heaped together during 
 their stay on earth were nothing to him, no more than 
 the monuments which marked the termination of their 
 earthly career. He turned his eyes once more to the 
 ground near the fence and saw to his delight that there 
 were no obstacles between him and the little stone hut 
 except a few scattered clumps of hazel and sumach, with 
 a few old trees and stumps. Taking a closer scrutiny 
 from bis perch on the fence he saw sparks emitting from 
 the chimney of the old hut, and a spasm of surprise and 
 anxiety convulsed him. What if the little old stone den 
 was the rendezvous of another gang of toughs, and Hart 
 Emerson was connected with it ! This thought flashed 
 into Jim's mind like a flash of lightning, and as he was 
 possessed of a bold, venturesome disposition it only had 
 the effect of hastening his footsteps toward the cabin in 
 a transport of fierce curiosity and expectancy. 
 
 His eyes had now thrown off the blinding effect of 
 the lantern, and Tie was able to proceed at a rapid rate 
 through the enclosure. But he was obliged to locate the 
 hut by the sparks that were spasmodically flitting out on 
 the dully illumined sky, and he met with a couple of bad 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 351 
 
 stumbles which he greatly feared would rouse the dogs 
 at the house and lead to a strict vigil for intruders. He 
 was greatly elated when his alert ears caught no disturb- 
 ing sounds, and he pursued his way more cautiously, as 
 he saw that the hut was in close proximity through an 
 opening between two clumps of yard poplars that had 
 spread out in a wild state at the upper Northwest corner. 
 Below these was the greensward on which the hut stood, 
 and it was evident that the building was occupied at 
 present by the stream of light that poured out against 
 the grassy hillside from the aperture at the side of the 
 chimney stack. 
 
 With the stealth of a panther he crept up to the hut, 
 and knowing that the little aperture was the only chance 
 of getting a peep at the interior, he stole softly thereto 
 and peered through. At first sight nothing met his gaze 
 but the bare, rocky wall of the Eastern side of the in- 
 terior, and the firelight glaring and flickering thereon 
 revealed nothing worthy of note but the corner post of an 
 old fashioned wooden bedsted. That was all he could see 
 from his position, and there was no other that could be 
 had except by opening the door. This he did not want 
 to venture, and he suddenly bethought him that, if he 
 could not learn anything by seeing perhaps he could by 
 hearing, for it was hardly possible that the hut did not 
 contain an inmate. 
 
 Possessing an excellent hearing, Jim settled himself 
 with his back in the corner of the chimney stack and 
 
352 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 waited for the advent of any sounds from within. While 
 he was waiting thus he revolved over in his mind the in- 
 cident he so well remembered at the close of Hart 
 Emerson's trial when Hart had boasted of a crime that 
 he had the power of undoing. That was certainly not 
 the crime of manslaughter, for that was a thing that no 
 man could undo. Then what could it be that he had 
 reference to without it was something of the nature he 
 was trying to penetrate. Try as he might Jim could not 
 rid himself of the conviction that Hart had a prisoner 
 confined in this little gloomy dungeon 'mid the copses 
 and boulders of the little hogback spur of the mountain, 
 but on further reflection he was struck by a new thought 
 in regard to his identity. Suppose that Hart had im- 
 prisoned his step brother herein in order to hold posses- 
 sion of his property. 
 
 Thus did the young man reflect and ponder as, with 
 his back braced in the corner and his hand grasping his 
 pistol butt, and eyes and ears alert, he was patiently 
 waiting for the emission of some sound from within. All 
 these new phases of the subject augmented the fever of 
 apprehension that he had been thrown into when the 
 flash of the sparks from the chimney top had flashed the 
 thoughts of a possibility of the hut being the rendezvous 
 of another gang of outlaws, counterfeiters, moonshiners 
 or something of the kind, whose methods were secret in- 
 stead of bold and intrepid, like that of the Alton gang. 
 This he now discarded as impractible of application, for 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 353 
 
 there was nothing to indicate the probability of Jim's 
 flighty fancy that he had yet discovered, and he reasoned 
 that the hut being most too small and gloomy for a lat- 
 ter day residence, if it was the rendezvous of lawless 
 operations the operators would certainly be at work to- 
 night or else the place would not be occupied. That 
 there was some one therein though was plain, or the fire 
 would hardly be blazing so vigorously as it was when he 
 peeped in, and he felt reasonably certain that no one had 
 emerged. 
 
 But patient as he was his alert ears had not yet caught 
 any suspicious sound. He was getting restless, but never- 
 theless he was firmly resolved to sift the matter to the 
 bottom if it lay in his power before he rejoined his com- 
 panions. He loosened his grasp on the revolver butt 
 and with the conviction that the sound of striking a 
 match could not be heard by the occupant within, he lit 
 one and examined his watch by its light to relieve his 
 mind of the strain. But he had no sooner thrust the 
 timepiece back and turned to resume his position again 
 than his quick ear caught a crackling, hissing sound from 
 the interior, and he started up with renewed apprehen- 
 sion and peered again through the aperture. 
 
 This time he was rewarded by the sight of a man, 
 which dispelled in an instant all his reckoning and threw 
 him into a stultified stupor of chagrined amazement. His 
 comprehension was dulled by the sudden revelation that 
 met his gaze, and he only was conscious of a dim feeling 
 
354 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 of a pleasant nature, and that was the thought that he 
 had let the others go ahead with the exhumation. That 
 seemed to be their only hope now, for if this theory was 
 not exploded then there was something too intricate about 
 it for mortal eyes to penetrate. The man confined in 
 that little rock dungeon was no other than Boyd Emer- 
 son. 
 
 The crackling sound had been made by the man rising 
 from the bed, and he now stood in the middle of the 
 floor like a stone statue, glaring blankly at the firelight. 
 Jim could see only his head and part of his body, and 
 he mentally remarked that that was all he wanted to see. 
 He had always had a natural repugnance for persons of 
 unsound mind, but the sight of that gruesome looking 
 figure, clad in a coarse, woolen shirt of a faded russet 
 hue, and his head and face nearly covered with a matted 
 growth of shaggy hair and beard, suddenly revealed to 
 him, caused an involuntary shudder of ghastly repulsive- 
 ness to inoculate itself into the dull, mechanical gloomi- 
 ness that convulsed him at the thought of the failure of 
 his theory. 
 
 But he was not satisfied yet that he had found out all 
 he could and he resolved to wait and see if the ravings 
 of the poor lunatic would enlighten him. That he was 
 on the point of an outburst Jim was fully confident, for 
 the expression of his face, or what could be seen of it, 
 plainly indicated this. 
 
 Sooner than he expected the outburst came. Raising 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 355 
 
 his right arm as if to ward off a spectre, the lunatic com- 
 menced a frantic appeal thus : 
 
 "Ah, here you. come again, curse you. Now what 
 do you want this time, your money ? Oh, go away, go 
 away and don't torment me. Don't torment me, I say," 
 he screamed, and the sound of his voice sent a thrill of 
 ghastly terror through the frame of the listener. "Go 
 away, and get the key to -this place and let me out, and 
 I will show you how to get your money." 
 
 Jim was in a perfect frenzy of distraction now, and 
 the dismal revelation of the last few minutes was enough 
 to unbalance any one. He seized at the idea that any 
 one else would and could not be blamed fordoing so, but 
 he was'only human after all and not devoid of a certain 
 amount of respect for his own opinions. To have his 
 theory of the case exploded in this rude manner almost 
 overcame him and made him almost wish he had not 
 been so keen to join the expedition. 
 
 Another outburst seized the inmate, and he pranced 
 wildly around for a moment in a spasm of excitement, 
 uttering a string of words that could not all be distin- 
 guished by the watcher at the aperture, but Jim managed 
 to catch a sentence that made his blood run cold and put 
 to flight all doubts of Jack's theory being the right one. 
 
 "Now he is gone," muttered the lunatic, "and I 
 must find and restore the money for him ere he returns." 
 This was plainly audible to the young adventurer, and he 
 drew back sick and faint with the overwrought feelings 
 
356 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 of the revelation and staggered against the chimney side 
 in sad dejection. The moon was drawing near the crest 
 of the mountain, and when Jim had sufficiently recovered 
 his equilibrium he felt a desire for something to center 
 his mind on for a moment to clear it of the repulsive 
 sensation, and bethought him that the moon was the only 
 object that would not have a gruesome appearance just 
 then. He stepped away from the slimy rock wall into 
 the grass plot, bathed in the pale light of the little gleam- 
 ing horn and gazed at it for a moment like some lost 
 spirit gazing at the light it has forfeited. 
 
 "Am I awake or dreaming?" he muttered aloud as 
 he saw the nearness of the little horn of light to the 
 horizon. " I didn't think I had been here that long, but 
 it must be ten o'clock by this time, and the moon won't 
 more than last long enough to guide me back to the boys. 
 But I am glad I let them go on with the digging, for it 
 is ten chances to one they'll find what they are looking 
 for." And with these words, muttered in a loud, dis- 
 tracted voice, he turned and walked rapidly up the slope 
 as though pursued by some spectre similar to that of the 
 lunatic's imagination. 
 
 Meanwhile the other four were making good progress 
 at the work of excavating the spot they thought was a 
 grave. They had acted as Jim had directed, and had been 
 greatly elated at the apparent softness of the earth they 
 were delving into, as it was evidence of the rapid solu- 
 tion of the problem, both in the ease of digging and the 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 357 
 
 unmistakable fact that it was a place of interment. They 
 had now reached the depth of twenty inches, as shown 
 by the last measurement, and Jack,and Charlie were just 
 commencing the third round, while Clayton and Bill were 
 on the watch. The night was still undisturbed by any 
 sounds except the faint strokes of the pick in the soft 
 earth and the dull, grating sound of the round cornered 
 shovel as Charlie rilled it, and the light thud of the dis- 
 charged dirt as it struck the pile near the rough sided 
 excavation. 
 
 Charlie had just thrown out the first digging and 
 leaped from the pit when there was a swishing sound in 
 the copse near by and the figure of a man emerged there- 
 from. The moon had not yet disappeared, as it had ap- 
 peared lower to Jim when he was at the hut than it would 
 to those higher up the elevation, but as it was he that 
 emerged from the thicket, with both inward and outward 
 feelings lacerated, it was not much comfort he got from 
 the following exclamation by Jack : 
 
 "Why, hello Jim, is that you? I clean forgot all 
 about you, I was so absorbed in this business." 
 
 Jim was taken aback at this outburst, but quickly be- 
 thought him that he had better explain matters to his 
 companions if he wanted their sympathy. 
 
 44 You're a Job's comforter, Jack, I declare you are," 
 he said, trying to assume a gay tone, but the note of 
 dejection in his voice betrayed his real feelings to the 
 others. 
 
358 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 " Why now, Jim, what's the matter ?" now exclaimed 
 Jack, who, despite his impromptu disposition, was of a 
 sympathetic nature and had no desire to inflict needless 
 pain upon his fellows. 
 
 "Why, I have found out something that makes me 
 feel awfully bad," he repeated. "Don't interrupt me, 
 boys, and I'll tell you all about it first, and then I want 
 to go to work and help out with the digging, for I've 
 been idle so long I've about lost my senses anyhow, and 
 if I ever stood in need of violent exercise it is now. I'll 
 tell you two about it, and then I'll take one of your places 
 and let him tell the others." 
 
 " But tell us the long and the short of it, Jim," ex- 
 claimed Jack so loud that his voice roused the dogs down 
 at the house and set them to howling and barking furi- 
 ously. 
 
 Jim waited for a pause in the excited chorus of yelps 
 which sounded strangely near to the young men for the 
 distance. The other two stood with breathless " appre- 
 hension awaiting his answer. 
 
 "Well, boys, I will have to admit that you were right 
 and I was wrong," he exclaimed quickly, for fear of the 
 renewal of the noise. "The long and the short of it is 
 that Jason Palliser is dead, and Boyd Emerson is his 
 murderer. " 
 
 For a brief moment there was a ghastly silence around 
 the spot, only broken by the spasmodic yelps of the pack 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 359 
 
 of dogs at the house in the valley. All the hopes and 
 fears of each member of the party were now either ful- 
 filled or dispelled, but it still seemed unreasonable to say 
 that the former applied to Jim's last sentence. Not 
 even Jack, who had been all the time convinced that 
 Jason Palliser was dead, had hoped that Jim's theory 
 would result as it did. And Jim, dejected as he was, 
 could not help but see that his dejection was now 
 shared by his two companions when he noticed the 
 sudden drop of their jaws, the relaxed attitudes of their 
 forms, and the convulsive twitching *of the sinewy 
 hands. 
 
 But as usual Jack became restless at the silence, and 
 broke out again with this question : 
 
 1 ' Then it is Boyd that is shut up in there after all, 
 is it ?" 
 
 Jim nodded assent, as the dogs at that moment set 
 up a furious howl. 
 
 " Well, is this the place ?" inquired Jack, pointing at 
 the excavation with great solemnity. 
 
 Jim came a little closer, and realizing that it would 
 not be amiss to speak loudly now, he exclaimed in a 
 shrill voice : 
 
 "If it is not, then I misunderstood the ravings of 
 the lunatic." 
 
 " YOU found that out by his ravings then ?" inquired 
 Charlie. 
 
 " Yes, I found it all by his ravings," replied Jim em- 
 
360 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 phatically. ''Now, boys, I guess you haven't got very 
 much more to do, if our calculations are correct, and if 
 one of you wants to give place to me you can go and tell 
 the others what I've discovered. I always had a repugn- 
 ance for people in that sort of a fix, but the sight of that 
 man, with his head and face covered with a matted growth 
 of hair and beard, so that he looked not unlike a lion in 
 a cage, and muttering something about a man whom he 
 imagined had come to him for his money, was enough to 
 take the composure out of any one in short order. If 
 you want to hear him, or to hear what I heard, you can 
 do so, but I don't want any more of it. If it did not 
 seem cold blooded to say it, I would rather look on Jason 
 Palliser's corpse than on the object I did to-nightt That 
 is, if I did not wish for Clayton's sake that his father 
 was alive, I Well, I guess we'd better get to work, 
 for I'm tired of talking and planning. All we can do 
 now is to finish this job and see what we can find." 
 
 "That's so, Jim," assented Jack, assuming a slower 
 and more serious tone than he was wont to. ' ' Take my 
 place and I'll break the news to the other boys if them 
 cussed dogs don't bring somebody down on us." 
 
 "That's what I'm afraid of, " said Charlie uneasily, 
 as he cast a furtive, sweeping glance at the copse around 
 them. 
 
 Jack thought he would tell Bill first, and lastly in- 
 form Clayton, so that he would have plenty of time to 
 condole with him if he took the news hardly. 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 361 
 
 But, although Clayton was surprised at the enuncia- 
 tion of Boyd Emerson being the murderer, he frankly 
 told Jack that he never expected to see his father alive 
 again, no matter whether the search of the night revealed 
 anything or not. Now that Jim had ocular proof that 
 his theory was incorrect, it was ten chances to one by 
 the evidence in hand that before the cocks crowed for 
 day the eyes of the party would behold the remains of 
 Jason Palliser. 
 
 Another hour dragged slowly by and the work went 
 on, while Jack and Clayton talked to keep themselves 
 awake, and the dogs had all quit barking but two of the 
 young small fellows, which continued their sharp spas- 
 modic yelping, greatly to the annoyance of Charlie, who, 
 despite the solemnity of the occasion, cursed them 
 soundly. The owls in the forest roundabout had now 
 set up a chorus of ominous hoots and screams as though 
 they were a legion of evil spirits collected to mock at the 
 young adventurers, but for all that as the hour was 
 drawing to a close Clayton and Jack were both over- 
 come with drowsiness and their conversation flagged. As 
 the last minutes of the hour glided by they succumbed to 
 the spell and slept, the sleep of the just as well as that 
 of the healthy. 
 
 How long they slept none of the party ever ascer- 
 tained, for something else of a startling nature had hap- 
 pened and they took no notice of the flight of time. The 
 owls and dogs still continued their night serenade. The 
 
362 THE EXHUMATION. 
 
 moon had gone down in the West and its disappearance 
 increased the darkness of the night. The two diggers 
 had completed their task and prepared the rude coffin 
 they had struck for hoisting before calling for their com- 
 panions to come: to their aid and lift it out. 
 
 But when they called and none of them save Bill 
 responded they instinctively guessed that Jack and Clay- 
 ton had gone to sleep on picket. 
 
 Suddenly an idea struck Bill, and he exclaimed : 
 
 " Say, boys, I make a motion that we get it out and 
 see what there is in it v*HJe Clayton is asleep. " 
 
 "That would be a good idea," assented Charlie. 
 " But I am afraid we can't hoist it." 
 
 "At any rate we can try," responded Bill, laying 
 hold of the rope. He ceased speaking and gave a pull, 
 with both hands grasping the end-? of the rope that had 
 been carefully laid under the box, ft mounted. Without 
 another dissenting word Charlie an<5 Jim took hold, and 
 although it was not light the cofRa aiid its contents were 
 soon hoisted. 
 
 "Walk round with your end, Bill," said Jim who, 
 with Charlie, had hoisted the other end. 
 
 "I can't, Jim, "replied Bill gaspmgriy. "The durn 
 thing is so heavy I can't hardly hold it up, boys, and it's 
 my idea that we won't find no dead man in there " 
 
 ' ' Then what do you think we will find, BiK 
 Charlie incredulously. 
 
THE EXHUMATION. 363 
 
 44 1 don't know what it is, but I've handled enough 
 dead people to know something about the weight of 
 them, and I feel certain that this box does not contain a 
 corpse. Hold over this way a little, and let my end rest 
 on the edge. I am clean puckered out." 
 
 In a couple of minutes the box was set safely on the 
 verge of the excavation. 
 
 Then they stood for a moment in complete bewilder- 
 ment. 
 
 44 What has it got in it, boys?" asked Jack in a loud, 
 excited voice. 
 
 "Gold and silver!" answered a voice near them, and 
 they started up more bewildered than ever. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 So complete was their confusion at this unexpected 
 turn of affairs that not one out of the three comprehended 
 the full meaning of the mystical utterance. They cast 
 hasty, furtive glances at the surrounding thicket, and 
 discerned the form of a man standing there on the oppo- 
 site side of the excavation, but that was all. They could 
 not see his face plain enough to recognize him. All the 
 old sensations of ghostliness came over them when they 
 first heard the voice, but it soon vanished when they saw 
 the man's form in such close proximity in the wall of 
 darkness beyond the light of 'the lantern. For a brief 
 moment it seemed to their bewildered comprehension 
 that the spot was surely enchanted, but as they glared 
 into the darkness and saw the figure silhouetted therein 
 they slowly regained their composure, while many erratic 
 thoughts flitted through their minds in regard to the 
 startling enunciation. , 
 
 But the seconds flew rapidly by and the noises of the 
 night, which had grown dim to their senses, so suddenly 
 enveloped in such a maze of bewildering circumstances, 
 seemed to increase as they recovered their equilibrium 
 and orie and all were making a desperate effort to form 
 
 (364) 
 
Well ic I look like a desperacc I" 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 367 
 
 a correct solution. But Jim, remembering his lecture on 
 the subject of superstitious fears, and also that he was 
 expected to act quickly and promptly in cases of 
 emergency like this, finally found his speech and spoke, 
 breaking the dread silence : 
 
 "Since you have told part of it come into the light 
 where we can see you and tell us the rest," he exclaimed, 
 and the figure in the dark answered back : 
 
 " But I'm afraid you would all be afraid of me if you 
 saw my face." 
 
 "Well, tell us who you are then," responded Jim. 
 
 But the voice did not reply at once, and that caused 
 a spasm of alarm, not unmixed with fear to sweep over 
 them. Jim turned to Bill and said in a loud whisper : 
 
 "Go wake the other boys, Bill. I'm afraid there is 
 mischief afoot." 
 
 Bill started to obey, and when he had gone about 
 ten paces he heard the voice in the dark say: 
 
 " If I tell you who I am perhaps you can guess the 
 rest. Shall I tell you ?" 
 
 " You mean us no harm, then ?" 
 
 "No, indeed. I would hardly harm anybody I con- 
 sider as friends." 
 
 " Then you may tell us what you are, for we are just 
 dying with curiosity." 
 
 On hearing the voice Bill, thinking he might strike a 
 clue to the mystery by listening, had stopped near the 
 
368 THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 wagon and stood listening. His herring was good, and 
 he caught the drift of the bandied confab between Jim 
 and the figure. He waited for the voice in the dark to 
 explain, and he did so with the idea that he would break 
 the news to Clayton abruptly and ward off any melan- 
 coly feelings that might possess him. 
 
 " Well, I don't think it will be any trouble for you to 
 guess who I am when I tell you what I am," said the 
 figure. "'Believe me, then, and I'll tell you. I am the 
 rightful heir to the contents of that box you have ex- 
 humed from the spot where it was buried many years 
 ago." 
 
 Like a flash of lightning from a clear sky it was now 
 plain to them that the long lost treasure was before them, 
 as well as its rightful owner, and both having a grue- 
 some, mysterious history, it was no wonder the young 
 men felt dazed and stupefied at such a stupendous reve- 
 lation, and could find no words in which to reply. Jirn 
 had a strong conviction that Tom Alton was alive yet, 
 but he fancied him either a victim of Hart Emerson's 
 treachery or a partner in his crimes, but which he neither 
 cared nor specified. And as it is natural for human com- 
 prehension to grasp at exterior appearances, Jim based 
 his conclusions upon Hart's drunken confession, and the 
 startling enunciation naturally caused him to recall his 
 own theory, now that Jack's was thoroughly dissected. 
 "Now, then," he thought, " whoever is right, or who- 
 ever is wrong, we'll soon learn," 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 369 
 
 "You are then Tom Alton, are you? Well, Tom, 
 I feel quite sure that if you do happen to be what you 
 are reported to be, you have not lost the chivalrous 
 nature of your race. Come out into the light and let us 
 see your face." 
 
 Jim Carver was acquitting the position he rilled 
 grandly. We have stated before that he was the equal 
 of Clayton in- intellectual and mental powers. But in a 
 position like the one he now occupied it is doubtful if 
 Clayton would have possessed as wide a range of thought 
 under such a startling, suddenly developed ordeal. Jim 
 had realized that as the noted Tom Alton was now in 
 their presence that his thoughtful appeal to the pride 
 and chivalry of his race was their only weapon of de- 
 fense if he had abandoned the straight and narrow paths 
 of honesty for the crooked and thorny paths of outlawry, 
 sin, and high crimes and misdemeanors. But the man 
 stepped out of the darkness and into the light, and when 
 Jim and Charlie had scanned his visage closely in the 
 bright light of the lantern they both mentally remarked 
 that this man with the gruesome history looked like any- 
 thing but the fierce, bloodthirsty bandit that he had been 
 painted. 
 
 A round face, with two flashing blue eyes that shone 
 clearly with a sane, beaming light of honesty and truth, 
 with a long, flowing brown beard that covered his 
 shirt front, and dressed in a heavy woolen suit of bluish 
 black clothes, with a broad brimmed slouch hat set 
 
37O THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 jauntily on the side of his head, gave the newcomer the 
 appearance of a rough backwoods preacher. 
 
 "Well, do I look like a desperado, young men?" he 
 asked presently with a mischievous twinkle in the big, 
 blue eyes. The two young adventurers were both in- 
 spired with confidence when they noted the genial ex- 
 pression of the intruder's visage. Yet they mentally 
 remarked that he was a man who looked as though he 
 would stand no trifling, and they knew that they would 
 either have to trust him wholly or not at all. That face, 
 so long hidden from the eyes of the inhabitants of its 
 native community, seemed to say as plainly as if it had 
 been engraved in glaring letters: "Trust me or not, just 
 as you please. I shall not beg you to trust me." 
 
 "You certainly do not," replied Jim in a tone that 
 corroborated his words. " Since you have turned up 
 alive don't you think it would be a good idea to give an 
 account of yourself and the cause of your long absence ?" 
 
 "I think it would, and I will do so when the time 
 comes. My name, you know, has been dragged down in 
 the mud by some unscrupulous adventurer, and it is 
 natural that people who once knew me should be a little 
 curious about me, as well as afraid. I think that there 
 are two of your party that can clear me in the eyes of 
 these, my neighbors, by telling what they know. Bill 
 Thornton is a brick, isn't he ? It is he that can tell you 
 that the description, that is in the hands of all the sheriffs 
 of the country, does not tally with the description of the 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 Fox Valley bandit chief. And Clayton Palliser can tell 
 you something about me too, but it won't hardly be re- 
 liable, as he only has my word for it." 
 
 Jim and Charlie looked at each other in utter aston- 
 ishment. How did he know Clayton ? Had Clayton 
 ever met with him ? Would revelation never cease? 
 
 Before any of them spoke again Bill and the other 
 two rejoined them. 
 
 Jim did not forget that he was master of ceremonies, 
 and quickly stepping up to Clayton he pointed to the 
 newcomer and said : 
 
 "Clayton, did you ever meet with that man before?" 
 
 With a look of pleased recognition, Clayton and the 
 intruder gazed at each other for a second, and then Clay- 
 ton answered in the affirmative. Jack was bursting with 
 curiosity, while the others were but little less apprehen- 
 sive than he. He forgot that his own pet idea had proven 
 incorrect, and stood like one just awakened from a dream 
 to find it a reality. All the romantic events recorded in 
 his books seemed tame in comparison to the unearthed 
 mysteries of the night. Then he thought, "there is still 
 a chance that Jason Palliser is alive, and I hope to God 
 that he is for Clayton's sake, but it seems like we have 
 all been fooled in our calculations. " 
 
 Clayton's thoughts were much the same as Jack's. 
 That both theories were void of results in their favor was 
 patent to him as well as the others, and when he recog- 
 
372 THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 nized in the man before him the first lieutenant of the 
 Fox Valley stranglers he felt a vague premonition of a 
 future solution of the puzzling mystery when he recalled 
 the incident of the night ride over the mountains, and 
 remembered hovv he had.'been startled at the strange 
 likeness of this man's companion to his grandfather. 
 Clayton had often asserted, and no one had any inclina- 
 tion to doubt that he meant it, that the money that had 
 been lost with the loss of his parent was a heavy loss, as 
 it involved nearly their all, but it was insignificant to the 
 loss of the loved member of the family. Gladly would 
 they have relinquished the money if they could once 
 more have seen Jason Palliser alive and well. 
 
 " Well, since you remember having seen me do you 
 remember anything I told you ?" asked the man, as he 
 produced from his coat pocket a pipe case and took there- 
 from a short briar pipe. 
 
 4 ' I remember all, " replied Clayton, ' * but particularly 
 that you told us that you were a member of the Fox 
 Valley stranglers/ 5 
 
 "That doesn't look much like I was a bandit chief, 
 does it ? But in order to save time I will be brief, and 
 explain all I can now in as few words as possible. My 
 full name is Andrew Thomas Alton at your service, and I 
 am at present Andy Thomas, first lieutenant of the 
 stranglers. You see I am not afraid to confide in you," 
 casting a sweeping glance around the group, indicating 
 them all, "for I know enough of you all to know thai 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 373 
 
 you have grand, generous natures, free from treachery 
 and deceit, and if I can succeed in convincing you that I 
 am an honest man and a victim of circumstances that no 
 man can foresee, I am confident that you will do all in 
 your power to aid me. Now then, you see I am a pretty 
 good judge of human nature. There lies at our feet the 
 long lost hoard of my grandfather, which is without 
 doubt a fortune in itself in pure round American dollars 
 that might have lain there for ages to come if you young 
 men had not discovered it by accident. I don't say that 
 you were under the impression that you would find it 
 here, for aside froni what I overheard, I know exactly 
 what you sought here something that has been too deep 
 for your penetration. Ah, my friends, you are wise men 
 in your day, but you little understand the deep, intricate 
 machinations that the human mind is capable of. I am, 
 so I believe, several years older than the oldest one of 
 you, and added years are bound to bring increased knowl- 
 edge. But I have been at work on this same case my- 
 self for the last eighteen months, and I have not yet 
 been able to enlighten myself* with a knowledge of the 
 whole mystery. Only a part of it have I succeeded in 
 unearthing. But I have forgotten what I was going to 
 say about the treasure there. Oh yes, I have it now. 
 I was going to say that a mean vulgar mind would have 
 jumped at the idea of seizing this recovered wealth and 
 bribing you to aid in the extrication of its owner, but 
 you see I know you better than that. I know you well 
 
374 THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 enough to refrain from any attempt of that kind, but 
 hope that you will be convinced of my innocence, and I 
 have no fears about obtaining your aid after that." 
 
 Alton ceased speaking and glanced around the group 
 to note the effect of his speech. He was gratified at the 
 beaming light of confident admiration in their eyes, and 
 proceeded to fill his pipe, but his gaze was riveted upon 
 Jack in a half amused expression, and his thoughts ran 
 like this: "Just like I used to be for the world, with 
 the same impatient, restless, active minded disposition ; 
 the same irrepressible spirit, and, by jove, there is the 
 same droop of the jaws that Bill Nash used to quiz me 
 about when I was under a spell of excitement. Well, I 
 always did argue that a soil that was strong enough to 
 grow rank weeds would produce cereals just as rank, and 
 his mind is the weed matted soil just now, just as mine 
 was. He'll get over that by and by, and then I believe 
 there will be no smarter man in the community than Jack 
 Dalton. Yet I am not opposed to letting young people 
 read fiction by no means, for I believe it enlarges their 
 minds and gives them a taste for all that is noble and 
 elevating. Those minds that are led astray by it are 
 only the weak and barren ones that are of no force in 
 the world's advance and had better be out of the way. 
 There is Hart, for instance, as a sample. He would not 
 read anything, much lest a novel. His whole mind was 
 engrossed with planning and scheming for his own ad- 
 vancement. Selfishness was a marked trait of his char- 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 375 
 
 acter, but I have found out that the cold blooded plotters 
 of the world do not spring from the reading class of 
 people. The devil enters the temple of clay and finds 
 no well laid bulwarks of enlightenment, takes complete 
 control and leads the victim on to an untimely end." 
 
 With this he ended his cogitations and lit hts pipe, 
 while the others stood in deep reflection. 
 
 ' * You must understand, Alton, " said Jim persuasively, 
 "that we have been through a great amount of excite- 
 ment to-night, and although we have no doubt of your 
 honesty, yet it is hard for us to adopt ourselves readily 
 to the conditions you mentioned. What else can you 
 say in your favor that would convince us of your worthi- 
 ness," 
 
 Alton removed his pipe from his mouth and gazed at 
 Jim reflectively. 
 
 ' Perhaps you don't know that there is a connecting 
 link between me and Clayton Palliser ? I have some one 
 who is my friend and companion that will gladly cor- 
 roberate any statement of mine, and he is the very man 
 you are in search of." 
 
 A thrill of joyful surprise convulsed the whole party, 
 but they made no answer. A silence, solemn and im- 
 pressive, ensued, which not even the dogs nor the owls 
 had the rudeness to break, as they had ceased their noise 
 and the night was again undisturbed by any rude sounds. 
 The maze of joyful feeling that enveloped them at the 
 welcome enunciation eliminated any vestige of doubt in 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 their minds as to the honesty of the long absent heir of 
 the old Alton homestead and the buried fortune they had 
 exhumed in search of the remains of the man this mys- 
 terious person had told them was yet alive. 
 
 "Then it was my father that looked into my face 
 that night we met, was it not ?" asked Clayton in a 
 tremulous, joyful tone. 
 
 " It was," replied Alton, with a serious, emphatic nod. 
 "Don't you remember how he rode away from yc~, for 
 fear you would recognize him ?" 
 
 "Ye-es," replied Clayton absently. "Was that 
 what made him ride on and give place to you ?" 
 
 "That was his motive," answered Alton, and then he 
 raised his hand with a warning gesture and continued : 
 "But mind you now, don't ask me any more just now, 
 for if you can trust me I would suggest that you aid me 
 first in getting this box to the house, and then spend the 
 night with me. Then when you are rested and refreshed 
 good I will tell you all I know about these puzzling 
 mysteries. " 
 
 "But where do you live?" blurted Jack, who had a 
 mind ever ready to tackle a mystery. 
 
 "Why," replied Alton with a merry twinkle in his 
 eye, "I live down here in the valley. Did you think I 
 lived in some of these caves around here ?" 
 
 "No, but I thought Hart Emerson lived there," re- 
 plied Jack a little slower. 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 377 
 
 "No, Hart lives at Springfield now," replied Alton. 
 " He has deeded me back my property, and if I can suc- 
 ceed in turning the tide of public opinion, I will be a 
 happy man once more. My first object now is to get 
 this money safely put away, and then, if you feel satisfied 
 with what I tell you, I feel sure that you will aid me. 
 My next object will be to capture and bring to justice 
 this daring freebooter who has assumed my name. 
 Thornton, I reckon you can tell them something that 
 will help me, can't you ?" 
 
 "I can tell them that you are not the chief of the 
 Fox Valley outlaws," said Bill. 
 
 Alton gave another emphatic nod and continued thus : 
 "Good. Now what else could be said that could aid me 
 more than that ? Joe Martin broke the ice for me and 
 got himself into trouble for it, which I got him out of, 
 but it is not likely that you young men run any risks 
 living over in this beat. But the night is passing and 
 time is precious, so let us get down to business. You 
 will understand me now, boys. I am first lieutenant of 
 the stranglers while Jason Palliser is second, but for 
 reasons best known to ourselves we prefer not to be 
 known to the people at large for a while longer. Only 
 a select few, selected by ourselves, shall know the secret 
 of our lives." 
 
 "But we must consult with each other a little before 
 we decide," cautiously replied Clayton. 
 
 "Very well," answered Alton as he replaced his pipe 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 in his mouth. He took a few strong whiffs and then 
 again took it from his lips and said : "I will stay here 
 and you can go off a piece and decide, but I don't want 
 you to think I am yearning because Jason Palliser is not 
 with me, for he is now in Fox Valley attending to his 
 duties, whither_I shall go myself very soon." 
 
 ' * Then why are you here now ?" asked Clayton. "Did 
 you know of this expedition we had planned and staid on 
 purpose to enlighten us ?" 
 
 44 1 did both," answered Torn, " but I had no idea 
 you would pay the old stone house a visit in quest of in- 
 formation." 
 
 All of thenf stared, but Jim stared a little harder than 
 the rest. As many startling points as they had struck 
 none of them guessed that he knew of Jim's visit to the 
 little stone hut. 
 
 "How did you find that out?" asked Jim. 
 
 "Because I was in there when you were there. No, 
 don't ask me any more now, as you'll have me pumped 
 the first thing I know. I will leave you to guess at the 
 rest, but for the present let us postpone the matter till 
 to-morrow. If you decide to stop over night I will be 
 proud to show to you that the hospitable reputation of 
 that old house is no more extinct than the family that 
 founded it." 
 
 This last sentence was spoken with great feeling, and 
 went far towards hastening the conclusion of the young 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 379 
 
 adventurers. Jim suggested that they comply and they 
 readily assented, feeling that perhaps this man had been 
 as deeply wronged as the one they were seeking. 
 
 While the rest of the party was sent to the house 
 after a conveyance Jack was left to guard the box. The 
 wagon could not be used for the purpose, as it would be 
 filled when they had stowed all of their things therein. 
 When they returned the wagon was to be reloaded and 
 they were to drive down and spend the night with the 
 returned master of the old Alton homestead. 
 
 Jack had abundant food for reflection while they were 
 gone, and he strove hard to form a more correct idea of 
 the secrets to be revealed on the morrow. He felt a 
 little chagrined at the futility of his theory, and owned 
 that Jim had beaten him after all in a correct solution, 
 but he still could not help feeling glad for his friend's 
 sake that it had resulted as it did. On further reflection 
 he reasoned that Jim had the advantage of him in know- 
 ing the history of the spot and also had heard Hart Emer- 
 son's drunken confession, which he Jack had con- 
 strued into meaning that Hart had hired some one to 
 murder Fannie Benton, and could if he chose squeal 
 on him and bring him to justice without danger to himself. 
 But what most puzzled Jack was the assertion by Tom 
 Alton that he was in the stone house when Jim was there. 
 Surely he would not be intrepid enough to enter there 
 with a madman for a host who would be apt to rend 
 him to pieces. No, that could hardly be possible. Then 
 
380 THE LURKING FOE. 
 
 how could it be ? Jack would have given a good sum to 
 have some plausible idea strike him. He- studied hard 
 for a moment, and presently a happy thought struck him, 
 and he jumped up from his seat on the grass and slapped 
 his leg with his broad palm like a newsboy that had 
 found a dollar. 
 
 14 Now I have it," he exclaimed excitedly. "This 
 Tom Alton is playing the lunatic for some purpose which 
 I will have to study further to make out. He certainly 
 was not fool enough to go in there with Boyd and him 
 ravin' mad. Why, they say a madman has the strength 
 of four sane ones, and Boyd, if they have got him in 
 there, could easily overpower him and get away. Bet a 
 hundred that Boyd has got out and they are shamming 
 that way to keep the people from bein' uneasy but no, 
 that won't do either. Maybe Jim was right when he 
 thought they had Clayton's pa shut up there after all, 
 since he has turned out to be alive. 
 
 Jack ceased his soliloquy and tumbled over on the 
 grass again, but as he did so there was a sharp report 
 near by, and Jack felt a bullet whiz past his head just as 
 he relaxed his poise. He turned his head quickly and 
 saw a little puff of smoke drifting away out of the 
 thicket, and it suddenly dawned upon him that there 
 must be treachery afoot. All the assertions of tjie new 
 ally he now .thought were false, and a terrible foreboding 
 swept over him. What if this same Tom Alton was only 
 a slick-tongued villain after all, and was planning to 
 
THE LURKING FOE. 381 
 
 divide the party and murder them separately ? All this 
 flashed through his mind in much less time than it takes 
 to record it, and he rose again to his feet with a bold 
 resolve. That was to sell his life as dearly as possible. 
 
 He was a dead shot and a quick one, as we have be- 
 fore recorded a specimen of his marksmanship. He took 
 aim at the puff of white smoke. It was now past mid- 
 night and the darkness was lessening. He did not re- 
 quire a great length of time to take sight. The revolver 
 was no more than leveled than there was a stunning 
 report, a long, slim blaze of fire, and the night air rang 
 with a blood-curdling yell as the echo of the big revolver 
 died away in the recesses of the valley. 
 
 Jack heard the clatter of horses' feet in the road and 
 the whir of wheels, while the dogs down at the house 
 again bounded forth with furious barking. He was be- 
 wildered almost out of his senses for a moment, but 
 finally recovered, and when he heard the familiar voice 
 of Clayton near by he tunned and confronted the party 
 he had feared was betrayed. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 "What on earth is the matter, Jack?" anxiously in- 
 quired Clayton as he stepped within the light and saw his 
 friend standing with his still smoking revolver in his hand. 
 Jack gave a gasp for mere joy when he tound himself 
 once more with his friends, and the terrible spasm of 
 horrible suspicion vanished from his mystified brain. 
 
 ' ' Oh, golly, Clate, " he answered, 4 'I've been enveloped 
 in a terrible nightmare of suspicion just now and have 
 killed somebody as sure as my name is Jack Daltori." 
 
 4 'Killed somebody ?" reiterated the others in chorus. 
 "What did you do it for?" continued Clayton. 
 
 "Because they tried to kill me," exclaimed Jack in- 
 dignantly. 
 
 Then when they pressed him for an explanation he 
 explained everything that had happened in their absence, 
 not omitting his cogitations on the subject of the little 
 stone asylum and its inmate. 
 
 "Well, we must look into the affair and see who it 
 was that tried to bushwhack you, " said Jim. ' ' We have 
 nothing to fear at the hands of our new ally, for Bill 
 Nash also recommends him, and you know Bill is square. 
 
 (382) " 
 
They beheld the stricken foe stretched out on his back 
 apparently lifeless. 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 385 
 
 I guess he is one of the select few he mentioned, and 
 for my part I believe he is square himself." 
 
 "Where is he ?" inquired Jack anxiously. He wanted 
 to tell them of the terrible suspicion that had swept over 
 him when the lurking enemy had fired at. him from the 
 copse, but did not wish it to reach the ears of Alton. 
 
 "He's coming with the wagon and the two blacks 
 that stay there," replied Charlie. "But I'm awfully 
 anxious to know who it was that attacked you, and what 
 his motive was. Let us look for him a little while they 
 are coming." 
 
 "Oh, he's turned up his toes, boys, and don't you 
 forget it," exclaimed Jack, as he pointed to the spot 
 where he had directed his shot, and drew a long breath 
 of relief. 
 
 "Well, let's see about it then," said Jim, as he led 
 the way to the place indicated, which was about ten feet 
 above the plum tree where the wagon stood. Here was 
 a thick growth of hazels, with a tall stump in the center, 
 which was large enough to shield a man from danger of 
 discovery or any shots directed at him if he was wise 
 enough to stay behind it. A small opening led from the 
 old stump directly toward the excavation where Jack was 
 stationed, which afforded a splendid opportunity for 
 taking aim at him from behind the stump. But it was 
 a lucky thing for Jack that the lurking enemy, who was 
 no other than Bob Willis, had thought that his shot had 
 removed the bar between him and the coveted prize, and 
 
386 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 ventured out from his hiding place. Strange coincidence 
 that Bob and his pal, Manton Brightwood, had set this 
 very night for their own expedition, and having arrived 
 on the scene to find that they were too late, they held a 
 hurried council, decided to wait for a chance to sneak off 
 with the treasure if it were possible. They had brought 
 with them tools with which to work, just as our friends 
 had, and a two-horse buggy strong enough to carry the 
 prize away in. Bob instructed Manton to stay with the 
 team and sought out the hiding place which afforded 
 him such a fair shot at the bar between him and fortune. 
 He waited patiently for the victim to get into a position 
 which would insure quick work, and when Jack rose to 
 his feet he took aim- at him, but hearing Jack's muttering 
 he desisted, thinking it might be some one else that he 
 was talking to. When at last he satisfied himself that 
 Jack was alone he fired, and Jack tumbled over, as he 
 thought, from his shot, and waiting a brief second he 
 moved out from his hiding place, but owing to the pow- 
 der smoke that shone white and dazzling in the rays of 
 the lantern he could not tell that his opponent was yet 
 alive and alert till he was startled by the report of Jack's 
 revolver and felt the ball strike him in the stomach, 
 uttering the loud screech of pain heard by Jack, he 
 tumbled over and stretched out on the ground and then 
 into oblivion. No one knew how the cowardly com- 
 panion awaiting results while sitting in the cushioned seat 
 of the buggy dreaming of the life of ease and luxury 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 387 
 
 that awaited him had suddenly been awakened from the 
 dream, and realizing that delay was dangerous had merci- 
 lessly applied the whip to the horses' backs and sped 
 away up the mountain. 
 
 Jack had stepped in front of Jim and reached the 
 border of the thicket before the others did, and cautious- 
 ly peering through the opening saw in the dim starlight 
 the old stump, and his excited fancy at once construed it 
 into the form of a man. 
 
 "Here, Bill, give me the lantern a minute," he ex- 
 claimed excitedly. "I see something that looks like a 
 man in there." 
 
 His companions laughed at his imagination. 
 
 "Oh, no joke, I guess not," laughingly exclaimed 
 Bill, as he came forward and handed Jack the lantern. 
 "I guess if there was anymore of them here they would 
 have fled when they heard you begin to shoot. But I'm 
 curious to know what the fellow is after anyhow. " 
 
 "It couldn't have been Milt," remarked Jack, as he 
 held the lantern so that its rays shone upon the object of 
 his fears. "He went out of the world through the hemp 
 route at the hands of the stranglers a little while back, 
 and they are the last men in the world to hang anybody 
 by mistake. Why, Milt was marked with a smooth crop 
 off of the right ear, and they would have kno'ed him by 
 that. No, it's only a stump, boys; but what is that piled 
 up there ir the leaves if it ain't a dead man ? My, but 
 
388 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 I'd hate it if I'd killed a man, but it was either kill or 
 be killed, you see." 
 
 "Of course, Jack." assured Clayton, as he scrambled 
 in behind, closely followed by the others. Jack held the 
 lantern up and pushed back the overhanging brush, then 
 held the lantern so its rays fell obliquely upon the form 
 at their feet. They beheld the stricken foe stretched out 
 on his back apparently lifeless. 
 
 A spasm of commingled emotions convulsed Jack 
 Dalton when he recognized in the assassin the lover of 
 the girl that made her home with his kinsman. A thou- 
 sand wild thoughts flashed through his mind, already 
 overwrought with the exciting revelations of the night, 
 and he stood like one turned to stone, while the voices 
 of his companions sounded ghostly and muffled in his 
 ears. How could he tell his relatives that it was Lottie's 
 lover that he had killed in self defense. Could he ever 
 look into her pretty face again without a feeling of re- 
 morse that she had been bereft of her lover at his hands. 
 His knowledge of woman's nature told him that she 
 would be prone to believe her lover a villain, and if she 
 loved him truly the knowledge that he was a villain would 
 make but scant difference as women love. He thought 
 of all the unfolded mysteries of the night, and wondered 
 what would be next, but he heartily wished that he was 
 at home now, where he could have a good talk with his 
 mother, who had often soothed his perturbed spirit by 
 her motherly recital of the intricate machinations of the 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 389 
 
 world and its contents. Even now, while his perturbed, 
 overwrought mind was picturing gloomy events of the 
 future things were not so dark as they seemed. 
 
 4 'Hello there, boys, what's up now?" called a familiar 
 voice from the border of the thicket. The rattle of a 
 vehicle was also heard near by, and as Bill Nash scrambled 
 into the opening where they stood over the dead body of 
 Bob Willis, as they supposed, Tom Alton drove up with 
 the two negroes in the wagon and leaped out. 
 
 Bill was allowed room to examine the prostrate form, 
 and when he descried the features of the man he ex- 
 claimed excitedly: 
 
 " Bob Willis, as sure as shooting. What in the name 
 of all that's holy do you think brought him here to- 
 night ?" 
 
 "Is it Bob Willis, Bill?" inquired Tom Alton from 
 the edge of the thicket. "What's up, anyhow, boys?" 
 
 "Let's carry him out of here," said Jim authoritative- 
 ly. " We can't all get around him in here." Then he 
 answered Alton's query thus : "Yes, it is Bob Willis, 
 and he tried to kill Jack and Jack turned the tables t>n 
 him. He didn't hit you, did he, Jack? I never thought 
 to ask you." 
 
 "No, he didn't hit me, but he came awfully close to 
 it," replied Jack. "I guess I was too badly excited to 
 give you a clear account of every detail of the case, and 
 may have omitted to tell you how I dropped suddenly 
 
390 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 down on the grass and the bullet whizzed past my head 
 just as I relaxed balance. " 
 
 Tom Alton gazed at the face of the stricken man 
 with a strange expression when they had lugged him out 
 of the thicket and laid him on the greensward. He 
 knelt on the grass beside him and scrutinized him closely 
 for any sign of remaining life. He examined the pulsa- 
 tion of the temples, the heart and the wrists and shook 
 his head meaningly. The others looked on in silence, 
 and Jack was for the first time in his life sorrowful and 
 gloomy when he found that life was extinct in the body 
 of his stricken assailant. 
 
 Alton rose from his kneeling position. " We will 
 take him to the stone cabin down there until to-morrow, 
 and then we will give hirn a Christian burial," he enuncU 
 ated. "But, my friends, you may not believe me, but 
 Bob was a bad egg and no doubt deserved what he got. 
 I know his history as well as he himself, and to-morrow 
 when we have given him a decent burial, and I have re- 
 lated my own experience and the cause of my long 
 absence from this my native community, I want to lay 
 before you in black and white something that will en- 
 lighten you in regard to the career of Hart Emerson and 
 this fellow that has met his death here to-night." 
 
 "But do you have any idea what he was doing here 
 to-night, and why he tried to kill Jack ?" asked Bill, who 
 had an idea that he held the key to all of the mysteries 
 that had engrossed the minds of the people for so long. 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 391 
 
 "Yes, I have an idea," replied Alton, in a slow, 
 cautious tone. ''But we won't talk of it now. Let us 
 make haste now and get him and the box into the little 
 rock house, and to-morrow I will tell you all I know 
 about everything." 
 
 The others were getting drowsy, and now showed a 
 desire to bring operations to a close for the night, and as 
 they were now on the premises of Tom Alton they acted 
 under his orders. Everything, including the dead man 
 and all, were loaded in the vehicles and conveyed to the 
 house. When they arrived there Alton instructed Jack 
 and one of the negroes to put up their team while him- 
 self and the others conveyed the dead man and the box 
 of money to the stone cabin, where they would be locked 
 up for safe keeping. He opened the gate near the barn 
 where a road ran along the lot fence and meandered up 
 the point in the direction of the hut, and the negro that 
 answered to the name of Monroe, being the trusted con- 
 fident of both the old and new masters, drove the two 
 strange objects in the wagon on toward the place, fol- 
 lowed by the party on foot. 
 
 This road was one used as a wood road, a road over 
 which wood for general use at the house was conveyed 
 from the forest that lay back of the stone cabin on the 
 slope of the spur. Its course ran within about fifty 
 yards of the cabin, just below it, skirting an old worm- 
 eaten fence that the brush had nearly hidden from view, 
 and in order to get to the cabin it was necessary to make 
 
392 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 an opening through it. This was quickly accomplished 
 by able and willing hands, and the vehicle with its strange 
 load drew up before the door of the little stone prison 
 that was wrapped in so much mystery. 
 
 It was not to be disputed that Jim was all the time 
 under a spell of gruesome curiosity when he remembered 
 all that had happened and heard Alton's mysterious talk 
 about this little structure, where he had undergone such 
 unpleasant . sensations a few hours back. Curiosity is 
 much the same in all people, and neither Jim nor his 
 companions could help but wonder whether the hut con- 
 tained the insane person of Boyd Emerson or whether it 
 was only a magician's spell that Jim was under when he 
 visited here. 
 
 When Alton unlocked and threw open the door they 
 all gazed furtively in with feelings better imagined than 
 described. But they saw nothing, only an old chair in 
 the dull light of the fire, now subsided into a bed of 
 glowing embers. More mystified than ever, they aided 
 in carrying first the box and then the body into the 
 room, and when they had cast hasty, furtive glances 
 around they saw nothing more, only the old red wooden 
 bedstead, made after the clumsy fashion of the time, 
 with massive corner posts, the tops decorated with round 
 balls and painted a different color than the bodies, 
 though what the color of these globes originally had been 
 was hard to tell a small home-wrought table piled with 
 books, papers and magazines, and the old chair they had 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 393 
 
 first seen when they looked in this constituted the sole 
 furniture of the room, but no sign of a human being 
 save those that had entered with them could any of them 
 detect. Jim felt very much as though he had been under 
 a magician's spell or had been dreaming, but Alton 
 noticed the agitated state of his companions, particularly 
 Jim's, and when they had arranged the two objects to his 
 satisfaction he remarked : 
 
 "Strange, isn't it, that the lunatic should have dis- 
 appeared so quickly?" 
 
 But they did not press him for an explanation, and 
 they took their departure for the house in a short time. 
 In less than an hour from that time our young adventur- 
 ers were under the roof of the man they supposed to be 
 a desperate outlaw with a price on his head, and wrapped 
 in a pleasant maze of wonder at the interior splendor of 
 the old house, noted so much for its profuse Southern 
 hospitality. 
 
 The morning sun was throwing a flood of golden 
 light over the landscape, and the stillness was unbroken 
 by any sounds when the young men, to whom had been 
 allotted a room to themselves where they at last slum- 
 bered, were awakened by a vigorous knock on their door. 
 Clayton, who had become a light sleeper by lying awake 
 nights studying over the mystery of his father's disap- 
 pearance and easily wakened, started up, and when he 
 recovered his senses, invited the knocker, whom he 
 thought was Alton, to come in. The other boys still lay 
 
394 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 in a torpor, although they were awake, and Alton opened 
 the door and stepped in. 
 
 He made no remark till he closed the door, and then 
 he sat down in one of the chairs and exclaimed : 
 
 "Ah ha, you're awake, are you, or did I wake you 
 when I knocked ? I can easily guess why you are a light 
 sleeper, but I see the other boys have slept well in spite 
 of the excitement they underwent last night. I must 
 urge you to hurry up and dress and get ready for break- 
 fast, as it will soon be ready." 
 
 The other boys, remembering that they were to hear 
 the unraveling of the things they did not understand, 
 shook off the torpid spell and rose and dressed as quickly 
 as they could. Their, senses were somewhat benumbed 
 by the long contact with the. night air, the labor of ex- 
 huming and the magic revelations of the night, and by 
 the time they were dressed they heard the jingle of the 
 first bell from the dining room and hurried out. 
 
 The meal passed with only an occasional remark, and 
 when it was over they all went into the sitting room, 
 where a fire had been kindled and was now blazing 
 brightly. Clayton was thinking that this splendid home 
 would have been his if it had not been for somebody's 
 treachery as they seated themselves around the fire. 
 Alton produced a box of pipes and offered them one, 
 which they politely refused, as none of them smoked. 
 
 1 'So much the better for you," he said. "I learnl 
 that while in the army, but if it bothers any of you t( 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 395 
 
 smell tobacco smoke I will desist. I can collect my mind 
 much better, though, if I smoke." 
 
 All of them assured him that his smoking would not 
 inconvenience them, as they were all used to it, some 
 members of their families being inveterate smokers. 
 
 4 ' I have concluded to chang'e the programme a little, " 
 explained Tom, as he filled his pipe. "I have instructed 
 Nash to take charge of the digging and prepare to bury 
 the poor wretch who lost his life last night while I ex- 
 plain to you some of these mystic affairs. I will tell you 
 what I have already told Bill and old man Benton, who 
 will aid the negroes in the digging. Then by that time 
 they will be nearly done and we will help in the inter- 
 ment." 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Alton,"' answered Clayton. 
 
 Alton filled and lit his pipe, sat down in a chair near 
 the bookstand in the corner and faced his audience like 
 an orator beginning his maiden speech. He smoked on 
 in silence for a moment while the boys all remained silent, 
 knowing that he was collecting the events of the last few 
 years of his life for reciting to them. 
 
 Presently Alton laid down his pipe and a wave of ap- 
 prehension swept over the attentive audience. 
 
 "I might as well commence now and begin at the 
 beginning and smoke afterward," he enunciated. "Now 
 listen closely and don't let your minds stray off on some- 
 thing else while I am talking. You all know part of my 
 
396 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 history, but I am only going to relate what transpired 
 from the time I left home for the army up to the present. 
 Now, I guess you all know how my mother, my sweet- 
 heart, and a great many of my neighbors kicked when 
 they found out my intention of joining the Union army. 
 When it transpired that i had done so their rage at me 
 was complete, and instead of leaving home with friends 
 and relatives bidding me good speed I rode away 'mid their 
 anathemas, feeling somewhat dejected, but nevertheless 
 sternly resolved to uphold my cause to my utmost ability. 
 I had a few of my neighbors with me, however, and 
 derived much comfort from that, but still I could have 
 gone away much better nerved for the trying ordeal if it 
 had not been as it was. I think I learned much by my 
 misfortunes though, and among other things I have found 
 out that those who are rich and high mettled are just as 
 liable to unhappiness as those of humble degree. Pride 
 and vanity never fail to inflict austere punishment upon 
 those who by their worldly-mindedness allow them to 
 have their full sway, and it is the proud and high mettled 
 that manufacture so much sorrow for themselves and 
 others. If I had been a poor man, surrounded by a 
 blooming family, knit together in strong bonds of affec- 
 tion, I would have been monarch of all I surveyed, like 
 Selkirk in his island home, and would have returned home 
 like rny companions and settled down again to content 
 and happiness. But no, I wanted to travel and see the 
 world, and absent myself from those I had loved for a 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 397 
 
 time until they should forget their animosity and long for 
 my return. I never knew that I had been reported 
 killed in the battle of Pea Ridge till about eighteen 
 months ago, when I happened to write to my cousin Nick, 
 and he replied as soon as he received the letter and told 
 me all." 
 
 Alton ceased talking and drew from his inner coat 
 pocket a letter. * ' Here, " he said, ' * is the letter he wrote 
 to me which brought me home. You see it is directed 
 to A. T. Alton, New Orleans." Tom handed the letter 
 to Jim, who was sitting near him, and Jim asked him if 
 he should read it to the others. Tom replied that of 
 course he should, and Jim assumed a clerical mien and 
 read the letter, which was short and to the point : 
 
 "DEAR TOM : I am more than glad to find that you 
 are alive yet, but I have much to tell you when you come 
 home. Have you never been apprised of the fact that 
 Tom Alton is the desperate leader of a gang of outlaws 
 that have been tearing things up pretty livaly here for the 
 last five years or more ? Then we heard that you were 
 killed in the battle of Pea Ridge, and we have believed 
 it till now. Your name is a terror to the inhabitants of 
 the country, and as you know you were , somewhat wild 
 when a young man, it is easy for them to believe the 
 story. Now, Tom, writing always was a bugbear to me, 
 and I can't think of anything that would interest a high 
 minded person like you, with a head chock full of knowl- 
 edge. You say you have been to South America. Well, 
 
398 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 then you will have lots to tell when you come home. 
 But I would advise you to be careful and not expose 
 yourself, for there are people who are so enraged that 
 they would show you no mercy, Come to my house first 
 and I will instruct you still more on the subject before 
 you venture out much. 
 
 Yours in haste, NICK." 
 
 Jim looked at his companions meaningly, and re- 
 placed the letter in the envelope and handed it back to 
 Tom, who sat staring with a wistful light in his big, hon- 
 est eyes. Jack, who was trying desperately to curb his 
 curiosity and keep from asking questions, shifted uneasily 
 in his seat, while Bill was gazing absently out of the 
 window with a strange expression in his fine dark eyes. 
 Jim had noticed this when he glanced around at his com- 
 panions, and a new thought struck him. He turned once 
 more and gazed at Bill, who seemed to wait for a chance 
 to say something and yet half afraid to say it, whatever 
 it was. 
 
 He finally seemed to feel that every eye in the room 
 was looking him through and through and penetrating 
 the secret he had been loth to divulge, and turning his 
 head he faced them with a half guilty expression. But 
 they all instinctively felt that he was going to throw some 
 new light on the subject and remained silent. 
 
 Bill did not hesitate when he saw their apprehension. 
 
 "Boys, "he said, glancing around the circle with a 
 half sheepish expression, "did you ever hear that the 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 399 
 
 leader of the Fox Valley gang was possessed of a strange 
 hypnotic power over those that come in contact with 
 him?" 
 
 A chorus of "Nos" was the reply, and Bill continued 
 hurriedly : 
 
 4 'Well, he has for a fact, and you will find it so too 
 if you ever run across him and he knows you intend him 
 harm. But you have already seen him if you only 
 knew it." 
 
 ' Already seen him," reiterated the others in a spas- 
 modic chorus. Then Jim abruptly interrupted any ques- 
 tions the rest of them might have asked by this 
 interrogation : 
 
 "Say, Bill, since you have broken this spell then tell 
 us if my suspicion was true, was not the tall stranger 
 we saw at the depot yesterday the chief of the Fox 
 Valley bandits ?" 
 
 "Yes, you are right there, Jim," assented Bill ex- 
 citedly. "That was the man that goes by the name of 
 Tom Alton and leads the outlaws of the valley. I con- 
 fess that it has been a struggle with me to break the 
 ominous spell, for he knows that I have betrayed them. 
 But I don't think any of the honest people of the coun- 
 try are inclined to look down on myself and Martin for 
 the part we have played, for we did no more than is 
 being done every day by detectives. But I thought it 
 would aid this man in clearing his name from the stigma. 
 His brother-in-law, Pete Calvin, is not connected with 
 
4OO TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 the gang and is, I believe, an honest man, but he shields 
 him all the same, though from what motives I can't 
 imagine. " 
 
 Alton seemed greatly pleased at Bill's information, 
 and with a gesture of the hand commanding silence, he 
 resumed his narrative. 
 
 "That is the very man that could do more than any 
 one else for me if he chose to, but I fear he will never 
 choose as long as the desperado is alive," he enunciated, 
 as a start to the resumption of his story. "I know 
 him personally, and believe him honest too. I saved 
 him from going to jail several years ago^when he was 
 under arrest for burning a settler's house over there on 
 Swan Creek by going his bail, and I fully believe that 
 Calvin is anxious to do me a good turn, but I'm afraid he 
 never will as long as the leader is at large. That is why 
 I am anxious to effect his capture, for, you know it will 
 be a hard matter to overcome a long standing prejudice. 
 But to resume my narrative. I lost no time in coming 
 to Nick's when I got his letter. The fellow was so over- 
 joyed at seeing me alive again that he nearly wrung my 
 arm off in a transport of gleeful welcome, and then, when 
 we had talked awhile, and he had scolded me for absent- 
 ing myself so long without writing home, he suggested 
 that I assume another name until he could succeed in 
 turning the tide of public opinion. I agreed to do so, 
 and felt quite safe in assuming the name of Andy Thomas, 
 for not many even of my own clansmen know my full 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 40 1 
 
 name. The organization of the stranglers was already 
 operating, although they fancied themselves greatly out- 
 numbered. From the time that part of the country was 
 first settled it transpired that there was already a certain 
 class of settlers who were not then, nor perhaps ever will 
 be, any force toward civilizing the country. These were 
 somewhat scattered settlements, ensconced in the very 
 wildest solitudes of the mountains, where human beasts 
 of prey abode ; outcasts from all parts of the country, 
 conglomerating there in the wild mountain solitudes 
 where they lived like Indians, by the chase and the oc- 
 casional ensnaring and murdering of some unlucky trav- 
 eler, which they proceeded to divest of his cash, if he had 
 any, and then buried him in some isolated spot like that 
 you were operating in last night. They looked upon the 
 coming of the new class of settlers as the coming of a 
 new source of livelihood for them, and ever since that 
 they have kept the country over there in an uproar. 
 They were vicious to a degree that would have justified 
 the honest settlers in exterminating them, and as the war 
 took away nearly all of the new settlers for one or the 
 other of the two armies, these mountain vandals had an 
 era of undisputed sway while the war was in progress. 
 They stole, they robbed, and they murdered iacold blood 
 and desolated many homes, and as a consequence, when 
 the war ended, the better class of settlers reinforced 
 shortly after the close of the struggle, as quite a number 
 of the new settlers had a bitter score to settle with Mike 
 
402 
 
 Rains, Ben Harper, and their followers. So about 
 eighteen months ago the Fox Valley stranglers became 
 known, and Nick Alton was captain, while Andy Thomas 
 was first lieutenant, and Jay Talbott second lieutenant. 
 None but a select few knew who Andy Thomas and Jay 
 Talbott were, or knew any of their history, as they were 
 supposed to be new settlers whose actual place of resi- 
 dence no ong cared much about. I have often thought 
 what a pity it was the pretty and innocent daughter of 
 Harper could not succeed in her efforts toward his recla- 
 mation, which she bent all of her energies to accomplish 
 without success. These half illiterate children of nature 
 could have been redeemed from their criminal state and 
 taught to live honest and useful lives if they had not been 
 continually dragged into a succession of crimes by edu- 
 cated criminals, who made a catspaw out of them for 
 their own personal advancement. There is that Bright- 
 wood outfit for instance, as a sample. They are as 
 cunning a set of serpents as ever ruined an Eden. I 
 think from what I can learn that Bart Brightwood had 
 nearly succeeded in installing himself as commander in 
 chief when the present sachem of the tribe made his 
 appearance and wrested it away from him, perhaps by 
 his hypnotic power. But despairing of ever reforming 
 them, the stranglers determined to rid their community 
 of the worst of them, taking care to spot those who were 
 susceptible of reformation. So far everything has worked 
 smoothly, as we have com_e out victorious in every en- 
 
TOM ALTON 7 'S STORY. 403 
 
 counter, and many necks have cracked, while many 
 others have went out through the lead passage. " 
 
 Tom paused for breath and reflection, glanced at the 
 clock and then out of the window at the now sun-swathed 
 landscape while his audience looked impatiently at his 
 delay in getting to the main point of interest. They felt 
 confident that when he was through there would be little 
 left to tell, but wondered what particular item he was 
 ignorant of. 
 
 Presently Torn turned and looked at his audience with 
 a broad smile, and then they noticed for the first time 
 the tan of the tropics on his visage, which was evidence 
 enough that he had been to South America. Little by 
 little he was convincing his new allies of his entire inno- 
 cence of any crime, but it would doubtless have been 
 uphill work for him if he had not had Bill Thornton's 
 testimony. 
 
 4 ' Now you will want to know next how the fortunes 
 of Andy Thomas and Jay Talbott came to be linked," he 
 resumed, taking up a small dictionary and fumbling with 
 it on the stand as he talked. "We had a pretty lively 
 time over there for a while, and then I concluded to pay 
 a visit to my old home here, and under cover of a dark 
 night I slipped in here and lay around, watching for Hart 
 to leave so I could investigate matters a little. I was 
 rewarded at last by seeing him ride away, I knew not 
 where and cared less, but felt sure that he would be gone 
 for sK>me time, as it was his custom to make long visits 
 
404 TOM ALTON S STORY. 
 
 in the old days when we were here together. I always 
 had felt rather lonely, not having any brothers of my 
 own, and Hart and I got along very well together, and I 
 seemed to have a sort of brotherly affection for him for 
 all I knew his selfish nature. Selfishness is not such a 
 great crime, but I had no idea what a cold blooded 
 schemer he was till I had succeeded in warming myself 
 into the good graces of the old couple here and under the 
 name of Captain Thomas, land buyer, had one night 
 lodged here, and knowing where the duplicate, keys of 
 the place were I went through the whole house and found 
 among Hart's papers locked up in the old iron chest a 
 written confession. This written confession was sealed 
 in a large envelope and directed to Clayton Palliser. " 
 
 Alton paused again to note the effect of this announce- 
 ment. He came near laughing outright when he saw the 
 five young adventurers sitting as motionless as so many 
 stuffed owls staring in wide-eyed amazement. But they 
 spoke no word in response, and Alton resumed : 
 
 "All of you had your own private opinions, I sup- 
 pose, in regard to the fate that had overtaken Jason 
 Palliser. Now, then, how many of you believed that he 
 was yet alive ?" 
 
 " I did, for one," answered Jim promptly, "but the 
 other boys here seemed set in the belief that he was 
 dead and that we were exhuming his remains last night. 
 As for me, I was continually haunted by a confession 
 made by Hart just after the termination of his trial, 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 405 
 
 while he was under the influence of liquor, in which he 
 boasted that he was not guilty of the murder of the 
 Benton girl but was guilty of another crime that he had 
 the power of undoing. This led me to believe that in- 
 stead of murdering Palliser he had imprisoned him." 
 
 "Ah ha," said Alton, evincing great surprise at this 
 information. The word was long drawn and slowly 
 emitted, which was evidence that his surprise was not 
 assumed, then he continued. "Then you had better 
 evidence than the other boys, and that was the reason 
 why you had no faith in the other theory. Well, you 
 would make a fine detective, Carver. You see I know 
 the names of all of you, for I and Palliser have been 
 keeping watch on Clayton and his movements all the 
 time. But you will want to know what I did after I 
 found this written confession, which I broke open and 
 read, and as I had heard of the mysterious disappear- 
 ance of Palliser I was in a transport of joy to find that I 
 who was struggling to lift my name out of the mire where 
 it had been dragged by this unscrupulous adventurer, 
 had suddenly been the fortunate finder of the keynote to 
 the mystery, with power to restore the long lost man to 
 his bereaved relatives. This I believed would be a step- 
 ping stone toward reinstating myself in the favor of the 
 people, for you know it takes pretty strong argument to 
 overcome long-standing prejudice, and my story would 
 not be swallowed by everybody that came along. It is 
 probable there will be people who will believe it was me 
 
406 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 that headed the freebooters till their dying day. Now, 
 when I had sat and pondered a while I got up and went 
 straight to the stone cabin over there and without hesi- 
 tating I unlocked and threw open the door. But there 
 was no greeting of welcome awaiting me when I entered 
 and cast my eyes around the room. Jason Palliser lay 
 sleeping as peacefully as a child, looking just like you 
 saw him that night, more like a ghost than a human 
 being. I left the door standing open and sat down in 
 the old chair, thinking I would let him waken and see 
 the outside world through the open door when he did so. 
 For hours I sat thus, and just as the light of dawn was 
 beginning to break he awoke, and as his fate was turned 
 toward the open door the light was plainly visible to him. 
 He started up and looked around, finally resting his eyes 
 on me. I shall never forget that look as long as I live. 
 It was only a polite stare of inquiry, but I confess that 
 my emotion was so intense I could not speak, and for a 
 brief spell we sat as motionless as a couple of Pagan gods 
 staring into each other's faces." 
 
 As if to let the minds of his audience digest the in- 
 formation, Tom paused again and fumbled with the book 
 while the boys were submerged in a maze of joyful won- 
 der. To Jack this was ahead of anything recorded in 
 his story books, but Clayton was beginning to feel greater 
 respect for the opinions of his friend, while Jim was 
 slowly forgetting the unpleasant features of the affair of 
 the night in a maze of mingled self adulation and joyful 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 4O/ 
 
 wonder, for it was just as he had expected, only his own 
 eyes had not beheld the woeful figure his imagination had 
 pictured. His mind revolving on the subject, he finally 
 fell to musing over the sad situation of the prisoner, and 
 the thoughts of his companions were much the same as 
 his own. What days and nights of anguish and solitude 
 had he endured. Had he been like a caged bird, beating 
 its wings off against the bars of its cage ? What depths 
 of deep despair, bitter regret, and desolate emptiness of 
 soul had he undergone during the long years of solitary 
 confinement, while the hard hearted wretch who impris- 
 oned him- was squandering his money in riotous living. 
 Had he prayed to God for release when he remembered 
 how the angels of heaven had thrown open the prison 
 doors of Paul and Silas and loosened their shackles ? But 
 what a surprise awaited him when he found that the 
 angel that opened his prison door was the redoubtable 
 Tom Alton whose name was a terror to the denizens of 
 the surrounding region. 
 
 Alton glanced at the clock again. "Half past eight," 
 he said, "and I must hurry or I won't get through. 
 When I have related what took place from the time I 
 came home or to Nick's, I mean, which was to be my 
 home for a time I will tell you a little of what happened 
 to me while I was away. Beginning where I left off 
 Palliser at last broke the silence, and his voice sounded 
 as ghostly as he looked. 'Have you come to release 
 me ?' he asked, and his voice sounded hoarse and pitiful, 
 
408 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 causing another quaver of emotion to tug at my heart. 
 I drew my chair close to him and looked him squarely in 
 the face for a second, then replied thus : * Yes, I have 
 come to release you, have no fears on that score.' He 
 seemed very weak and could hardly sit up at first, but 
 my enunciation seemed to put new life into him at once. 
 * Who are you ?' he asked, looking at me with an expres- 
 sion of uncertain recognition. I replied : ' I think you 
 have a pretty good idea who I am, but that does not 
 make so much difference as what I am just at present. 
 Guess once what my name is before I tell you.' 'Ah,' 
 he replied without hesitation, ' I know you by the picture 
 of you that I have seen down there at the house. This 
 place used to be yours once, did it not ?' ' Yes, you are 
 right in both suppositions, ' I replied, * but you must not 
 form any hasty conclusions about me, my friend. I see 
 that your jailer has kept you supplied with the news, and 
 you are no doubt as well -acquainted with circumstances 
 as I am. Better so, if anything. ' ' Why, what do you 
 mean by that ?' he answered. ' I mean that you have 
 been reading of the operations of the desperate free- 
 booter, Tom Alton, for several years now, while I have 
 but lately got acquainted with him and his doings.' He 
 stared hard. * Then you are not Tom Alton ?' he ven- 
 tured. I replied that that was the name I bore. 'Then 
 you are not the one that heads this lawless organization ?' 
 he interrogated. ' 'No, that is another man altogether,' 
 I answered, and then I showed him Nick's letter. He 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 409 
 
 seemed convinced of the plausibility of my assertion, and 
 I suddenly remembered that I had better be getting back 
 to the house or I might be discovered. Daylight was 
 fast approaching. 'Stay here till to-night,' I said, rising 
 from my seat. * I am a stranger in my own house, and 
 must be getting back or I may be discovered. To-night 
 I will pay you another visit while the inmates are asleep, 
 and then we will relate our experiences.' 
 
 Next night I went earlier, and we talked nearly all 
 night. We both realized that our fortunes were linked 
 for a time at least, and we talked over the war and our 
 adventures therein and I related to him some of the in- 
 cidents of my travels. We were both deprived of our 
 just rights by the same man, and it was necessary that 
 we worked together in recovering what rightly belonged 
 to us. He said that he had sworn never to return to his 
 family till he had satisfied himself that his money could 
 never be recovered or he had recovered it, and seemed 
 to entertain great hopes of recovering it when he learned 
 that the old bachelor uncle of Hart's had died and left 
 all to Hart in his will. I told him that it was a forgone 
 conclusion now as we had the whip hand of him, and if 
 he did not restore us our belongings we could expose this 
 crime of his and bring him to justice. Then I unfolded 
 to him the operations of the stranglers, and showed him 
 the cards we had engraved with the letters O. H., and 
 explained to him their meaning. This was a precaution 
 we had adopted to keep from molesting any of the 
 
4i o TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 settlers from surrounding regions who might be traveling 
 about that part of the country on the same errand as we 
 were, and when we found out any other members of the 
 vigilantes spying around there we gave them one of these 
 cards as a passport in case they should fall into the hands 
 of our men. Thus, when we discovered any outside 
 regulators in there we described them as members of the 
 O. H., which being interpreted meant "outside help," a 
 thing that had been longed for a good while. Finally 
 the gang overstepped the bounds and went a little too 
 far in their last foray, and the first thing we knew the 
 O. H.'s began to pour in with a business like movement, 
 and the number of encounters became more frequent and 
 fiercer than ever. At last we caught and strung Milt 
 Harper, and then I and Palliser went to Springfield in 
 search of Hart. We found him and sprung the rattle on 
 him and he wilted immediately. He is going to sell his 
 inheritance on the twenty-fifth and restore to Palliser the 
 money he took from him. 
 
 "Now I will go back a little and relate some of the 
 incidents of my travels after I started out at the close of 
 the war. First, I visited New Orleans, and while I was 
 there I met and got acquainted with a young planter who 
 lived up the river about twenty miles, and when we were 
 through seeing the sights he pressed me to go home with 
 him, which I did without demurring. I stayed with him 
 about two months, and then he fell sick with a fever, 
 during which I staid with him and directed his affairs, 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 411 
 
 His sickness finally resulted in his death, and then I 
 stayed a week for recuperation and left more travel hun- 
 gry than ever. This all consumed the first year after the 
 close of the war, and I spent another year in rambling 
 in Old Mexico viewing the grand scenery and tropical 
 luxuriancy of the land of the Montezuma's. From there 
 I took passage for Brazil, and landed in Rio Janeiro one 
 evening feeling as though I was going down into the 
 infernal regions it was so hot to me, who was unused to 
 the tropical climate. The sun looked like a big, red ball 
 of fire, disbursing its hot, scorching rays over the land 
 and the ocean, and the seething, boiling water and roar- 
 ing atmosphere had a terrible effect on my senses as we 
 landed, but the nights are cool in those Southern climes, 
 and I regained my composure after I had found lodgings, 
 and by morning I felt refreshed and ready for any new 
 emergency that offered exciting adventure. I spent the 
 day in seeing the sights of this tropical city of our sister 
 of the South, which, according to the observations I 
 made, will eventually become a republic. At least the 
 populace is republican, and it is no telling what time a 
 political earthquake so common in South America will 
 change the form of government from monarchical to one 
 similar to our own. Next day I joined a band of soldiers 
 who were going out to the diamond mines, and when we 
 arrived at the mines there was much talk of a band of 
 mountain brigands who contemplated an attack upon us 
 when we made the return trip. This turned out to be no 
 
412 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 false report, for, when -we reached a certain wild pass in 
 the mountains we were startled by the sudden report of 
 firearms, and the battle was on. These soldiers are not 
 as well trained in guerilla warfare as we Americans are, 
 and I confess I was vexed not a little at their mode of 
 repelling the attack. The pack mules loaded with the 
 diamonds and supplies were all driven into a huddle and 
 the way cleared for action, but what kind of action do 
 you suppose they could oppose their opponents with. 
 The prize was a rich one and well worth fighting for, 
 but when an army of brigands is sheltered behind an 
 impossible barrier of rocks and no way to dislodge them 
 it is folly to stand and be shot down like sheep. The 
 soldiers, however, seemed content in shooting at an oc- 
 casional head that appeared above the crest of the 
 rugged wall, and this finally played out. It was evident 
 that the brigands had some undescernable loophole 
 through which they could fire without sticking their heads 
 over the crest of the barricade. I was suddenly envel- 
 oped in a maze of patriotic pride of onr American 
 capacity for meeting cases of this kind, and I gave a 
 hurried glance around to see if there was anything I could 
 do to extricate our force from their difficult and danger- 
 ous position. Spying a large boulder a little to our right 
 I hastily ran to it, and taking out my glass I sheltered 
 myself behind the rock and took a hasty observation. I 
 was rewarded by the sight of another rocky barrier of 
 big, rough boulders further up, and now I recollected that 
 
413 
 
 the road had been made over this rugged peak by remov- 
 ing the boulders out of the way. They had been tum- 
 bled off down the steep ascent by great labor, leaving a 
 passage about ten yards wide, and there were two trails 
 leading through it. We had taken the lower one, and I 
 saw that the brigands had formed the barricade with 
 their own hands, thus enabling them to fire through the 
 crevices. I ran back to the command and told the com- 
 mander what I had discovered. This proved our salva- 
 tion and saved us from a disastrous route. We sought 
 for the weak spot in the barricade and found that there 
 was one place where the rocks were small enough to be 
 removed. It was then pretty tough work, but we finally 
 got enough of them out to enable us to get behind the 
 wall. But the robbers, when they realized that we were 
 going to get to them, and that our great preponderance 
 in numbers would soon overwhelm them, scampered away 
 and were soon lost to view 'mid the crags." 
 
 Tom paused again and glanced at the clock to see 
 whether he would have time to relate all he wanted, but 
 he had noticed that the young men's interest in his ad- 
 ventures was not as great as he expected, which was 
 evidence that they 'were already convinced of his sincer- 
 ity and honesty of purpose. But they remained silent 
 and attentive, and he saw from their expression of coun- 
 tenance that they would rather hear more of his adven- 
 tures in the home region and less of his adventures while 
 abroad. 
 
4 1,4 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 4 ' I believe it is not necessary to dwell on my adven- 
 tures while abroad," he remarked, " because I believe 
 you are now thoroughly convinced that I am just what I 
 represent myself to be. But it is a romantic event, is it 
 not ? While I was playing Brazilian soldier and hugely 
 enjoying myself in that tropical climate, another man 
 who either bore the same name or had accidentally 
 assumed it was building up a hard reputation for me 
 aided by circumstances which perhaps he himself was 
 ignorant of. Now that is one reason why I am anxious 
 to get hold of Calvin to see if he won't inform me a 
 little about this mysterious man who is the head sachem 
 of the bandit hordes who infest these mountains. All 
 my efforts to effect a meeting with him have proved 
 futile, as it seems like he is never with his followers 
 except when leading them on a raid. Yet I have a pre- 
 monition that this mystery as well as all the others will 
 yet come to light. I have the key to some of them my- 
 self, but there are others yet that ought to be unraveled 
 in order to make things clear to the populace. It is my 
 belief that Calvin holds the key to those I do not." 
 
 Tom again paused, and the others thought they would 
 now question him a little on certain points they were 
 particularly interested in. 
 
 Jim was first to speak. 
 
 "And what are the particular points of this tangled 
 web of mysteries that you are yet ignorant of ?" he inter- 
 rogated, thinking that he was speaking for all. Different 
 
TOM ALTON'S STORY. 415 
 
 questions had been framed by the others, but Jim's sud- 
 den interrogation reminded them that they had agreed to 
 let him do the thinking, and it suddenly struck them 
 they had best let him alone. So they remained silent 
 and listened to Alton's reply. 
 
 " The particular points I have not yet ascertained are 
 these : First, who is this man that goes by the name of 
 Tom Alton, and where did he come from. Second, 
 what motive could Milt Harper have in giving the 
 description he did, which you will observe is my own, 
 and which makes it more difficult for me to prove my 
 innocence than it would otherwise have been. Third, 
 the people being under the impression that Boyd Emer- 
 son was a lunatic, incarcerated over there was only a 
 blind, invented by Hart to ward off intruders who might 
 have discovered the identity of the inmate and made 
 him trouble. It puzzles me to think what actually has 
 become of Boyd, as it was not he Hart had imprisoned. 
 Thus, the real name and history of the noted outlaw, 
 the object of Milt Harper in giving my description, the 
 fate of Boyd Emerson are, so I believe, in the keeping 
 of Pete Calvin." 
 
 A new thought struck Jim. Perhaps the others 
 wanted to know when Jason Palliser would return to his 
 family. He asked the question, and saw by the expres- 
 sion of his companions' faces he had struck the right 
 cord. 
 
 Alton answered promptly. "Before long, I think. 
 
416 TOM ALTON'S STORY. 
 
 At least not until the sale takes place and he has recov- 
 ered the money. I'd advise you not to try and seek 
 him, as it might agitate him and cause him to lose the 
 firmness of determination he has now and give his 
 opponent an advantage. Hart, when he discovered that 
 he was de trop and helplessly exposed, begged me to 
 assume the disgaise you saw to-night looking straight 
 at Jim and play the confined lunatic for a while till he 
 could dispose of his effects and settle his affairs and get 
 away. But I think he will be about ,as well off here as 
 anywhere, for wherever he goes he will get into mischief, 
 and it is ten chances to one he won't get off as easy 
 anywhere else, and may have to pay the penalty with 
 his life." 
 
 "But do you think it impossible to effect the capture 
 of the chief ?" asked Jim. 
 
 "It is my honest opinion that it will be a. miracle if 
 he is," replied Tom. "But we will try our best to do 
 so, and whoever is the lucky man he will get the reward 
 for him, dead or alive. Suppose he should turn out to 
 be that noted sheriff slayer who, it is superstitiously sup- 
 posed, has killed so many men that the blood drips from 
 his revolver barrel every time it fires. If it is he it will 
 be a dangerous task to undertake I'm thinking, but then 
 again if Joe Martin knew this to be the case I wonder 
 how he plucked up courage enough to expose him. Per- 
 haps the fellow does not care a straw for the feeling that 
 his gruesome record is his best safeguard. Whatever 
 
TOM ALTON S STORY. 417 
 
 caused Milt to give that description I feel certain the 
 chief himself was not responsible for it." 
 
 4 'Then who do you think was ?" queried Jim. 
 
 "I have no idea myself, but feel certain Calvin can 
 enlighten us on the point too, if he could be persuaded 
 to. But we must effect his capture, that is I mean the 
 chief's capture, if it is possible. When we have per- 
 formed our duty to the dead I will unfold to you my plan 
 for accomplishing it." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 
 
 Alton took up his pipe when he had finished speak- 
 ing and, taking out his match case, took therefrom a 
 match, and when he had replaced the match case in his 
 pocket he said : 
 
 " Now, then, the next thing in order will be the read- 
 ing of Hart's written confession, which also throws light 
 on the murder of Fannie Benton as well as the disap- 
 pearance of Jason Palliser. Bad as Hart was, he was 
 not bad enough for manslaughter, and was no murderer 
 after all, or was wise enough to know that he could not 
 enjoy his ill-gotten gains with his conscience smeared 
 with murder, and cunningly sought to avoid it." 
 
 "Perhaps that was why he persistently failed to ap- 
 pear at the appointed meetings of the regulators," sug- 
 gested Bill. 
 
 "Undoubtedly that was his chief reason, but it is my 
 opinion he was on the point of winning the hand of a 
 young lady up at Springfield and did not want to run any 
 risks of getting his hide perforated with the bullets of 
 Tom Alton and his unerring marksmen." 
 
 "And who was the young lady?" inquired Clayton, a 
 spasm of alarm sweeping over him. If there was a girl 
 
He grabbed her by the throat and choked her to death. 
 
THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 421 
 
 he thought in Springfield liable to penetrate the heart of 
 a selfish, scheming villain like Hart it was Elsie Britman, 
 and knowing her romantic nature he also believed she 
 would be an easy prey for a crafty schemer like Hart, 
 with his dark brigand-like beauty and power of assump- 
 tion. No man ever yet found a woman he wholly 
 trusted, and Clayton, if he had actually known that Hart 
 was courting Miss Britman, would have had serious 
 doubts of his power over her, and believed that it was 
 a case of "out of sight out of mind" with the girl in 
 regard to himself. 
 
 "-She is, I believe, a niece of your country store- 
 keeper over there, " replied Alton with a sly wink at Jack, 
 who was regarding him with a tinge of suspicion. 
 
 But Alton's words failed to produce any visible effects 
 upon Clayton, for he was a man whose nature was so 
 evenly divided that he was abundantly able to throw off 
 an unreciprocated affection. He was used to the homage 
 of the fair sex and had unconsciously broken many hearts 
 by neglect because he was not mean enough to flatter 
 them with the belief that he cared for them when he did 
 not. Perhaps any one but he would have kept up a 
 regular correspondence with the city belle, he some- 
 times owned to himself he loved passionately and then 
 his heart would fill with bitterness at the cruel misfortune 
 which prevented him from entering her own world and 
 courting her as an equal. These clandestine chats he 
 had stolen with her while she was visiting her uncle's 
 
422 THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 
 
 family were distasteful to him, and yet he knew they were 
 the very foundation upon which he rested his hopes, 
 which, to speak the truth, were very vague and uncertain 
 to say the least. If he were only a poor young farmer 
 with a story, and she a city sybarite and heiress to a large 
 fortune, what practical use could she be to him or he to 
 her when she was in no way fitted for a farmer's wife, 
 and he was hardly capable of managing a city business, 
 owing to the fact that he had never been trained to it, 
 and he disliked city life and could hardly thrive in a city 
 even as a gentleman of leisure. Then lie knew others 
 would not look upon him in the same light as the girl 
 did, and would fancy she was throwing herself away to 
 marry a poor, insignificant mountaineer, be he ever so 
 handsome and clever. But the girl did not allow any- 
 thing of this kind to mar her dream of love, for she did 
 not have the practical nature that her lover had, who 
 was not so enveloped in the maze that he could not see 
 the hard, cruel points of reality. He had neglected her 
 just as if she was only a pleasant companion of his dull 
 hours and had done so with a vague idea of some speedy 
 solution of the mystery he had been trying to unravel. 
 A second and perhaps a not less important cause of his 
 neglect was a desire to test her and see how deep an 
 affection she was capable of. He admitted his heart was 
 a lake of fire when in her presence, but he was one of 
 those who wanted the rose without the irritation of the 
 prick of the thorns, and now, since he realized himself 
 
THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 423 
 
 master of the perplexing mystery, with his own inherit- 
 ance added to the little property he had eked together by 
 his own efforts, and a fair prospect of recovering the lost 
 money, with perhaps as much more as damage all 
 jaused Clayton to feel that as far as financial matters were 
 concerned Elsie Britman's friends and rich relatives could 
 have no reason for complaint against him as a suitor for 
 the girl's hand in marriage. 
 
 4 ' Don't you believe Hart was a coward ?" asked Clay- 
 ton, suddenly assuming an austere expression, 
 
 Alton laughed a short mirthful laugh. 
 
 "I never saw one of his class who wasn't," he re- 
 plied. "It is only the bold brigands like Tom Alton 
 and his followers who have the grit to back their mis- 
 deeds and don't care who knows it. But let us see now 
 what he tells you in his written confession." 
 
 As he spoke Tom produced a large envelope from his 
 inside coat pocket and drew out the written sheets of 
 paper containing Hart Emerson's written confession. 
 
 "You can all read it if you desire to," he said, "but 
 as it was addressed to Clayton he has the right to read 
 it first." 
 
 But Clayton said that as the astonishment had all 
 worn away, and he knew the particulars of the case, he 
 would, if they desired, read it to them so as to save time. 
 They acquiesced, and he took the sheets and turned so 
 as to have the light of the window to read by. 
 
424 THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 
 
 "date is a scientific reader," explained Jack, with an 
 admiring glance at his friend. 
 
 "Well, he'll now have a chance to prove his capac- 
 ity," replied Tom as he lit his pipe. 
 
 While he smoked Clayton read the document, which 
 was as follows : 
 
 . "CLAYTON PALLISER : It is very probable that when 
 your eyes rest upon these lines I Hart Emerson will 
 be numbered with the silent dead. I have been a selfish, 
 scheming villain, and may meet with sudden death, and 
 I will instruct these lines to be sent to you if I should, so 
 you will koow what I have been guilty of. Even in your 
 distress at the long, unexplained absence of your parent 
 I would gladly change places with you now were it not 
 for the principal object that has been heretofore a bar to 
 you in finding a clue or penetrating the mystery, for if it 
 were not that I thought you -were possessed of the same 
 indomitable spirit that he was, and I could neither bribe 
 nor beg you to refrain from prosecuting me I would if 
 it transpired that I could have the matter kept secret till 
 I could win the hand of a certain young lady, tell you 
 all verbally. 
 
 But I recall a certain September night a few years 
 back when I was hard pushed for money and the gallows 
 was yawning for me, and I lay awake studying a plan for 
 raising money to spend for lawyer fees on the approach 
 of my trial for the murder of my sweetheart, Fannie 
 Benton. We had then in the house as a prospective 
 
THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 425 
 
 purchaser of the place, Jason Palliser, whom I knew had 
 cash enough to buy it, But I desired to keep the place, 
 and yet I felt I must have money and plenty of it to save 
 myself. As I lay awake that September night the devil 
 suggested that I form a plan to get half of the money 
 and keep the place too, which I lost no time in N doing, 
 quieting conscience with the admonition that it was a 
 desperate case and required desperate means. But when 
 one does one desperate thing it is ten to one he will 
 afterward be compelled to do another to cover up that 
 one, and I found this to be the case. To make this 
 article as brief as possible, I enticed Jason Palliser into 
 the little stone cabin, back of the spur here, and drugged 
 some whisky which I gave him, and then when he sank 
 into insensibility I robbed him, after which I shut him up 
 as a prisoner. 
 
 I came clear by an unexpected flaw in the evidence 
 and did not require the money after all, a token it would 
 have occurred to others, perhaps, that it were better to 
 travel in the power of heaven for protection than blind 
 instinct. But not so with myself. I got on a big spree 
 to celebrate the occasion of my acquittal, and felt jubi- 
 lant and garrilous while others would have been silent 
 and prayerful. But now that I had the money why not 
 keep and enjoy it. This I decided to do at first, but 
 when I had spent about half of it I relented and tried to 
 effect a compromise with him, and offered to let him out 
 if he would take a heavy oath not to prosecute me, and 
 
426 THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 
 
 I also offered to give him back the balance of the money, 
 He refused to accede to these terms, and demanded the 
 full amount or nothing. It would seem like a man would 
 be glad to compromise on any terms to get out of a 
 gloomy little dungeon like that, and his refusal had the 
 effect of hardening me against him. I told him I would 
 give him a month to study the matter and left him. 
 
 When the month was up I found on inquiry that he 
 was still unsubdued, and I flew into a rage and told him 
 he could stay there till he rotted for all I cared, and left 
 him again. There he stayed till you came into the 
 region and began searching for a clue and there he is 
 yet. If these lines reach you, know by them that he is 
 yet alive and release him, for it is probable that neither 
 you nor he can harm me after you read these lines. 
 
 Now, as to the murder of the Benton girl, I will also 
 confide that to you, thus making you a confident of all 
 my secrets. It was not I that did that, but still I was 
 an eye witness to it, saw the whole performance from 
 beginning to end. and yet stood by in cold blooded, silent 
 inaction. What caused me to do that, you ask. I surely 
 had an object in wanting the girl out of the way. It was 
 this : I was engaged to her, and had found I loved an- 
 other a girl I have schemed and planned unmercifully 
 ever since to win the affections of. 
 
 She was then but a young girl, just about the age to 
 begin to want a beau. I believe she lacked four months 
 yet of being fifteen. She is now nearly twenty, and I 
 
THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 427 
 
 have not married her yet. But I was her first beau, and 
 I have always seemed to entertain the idea that it would 
 be best to let her grow to maturity before asking her to 
 marry me, and have had little cause for being jealous. I 
 don't think she has any other lover, except Charley Jen- 
 kins, a young fop of a doctor, who is so dreadfully un- 
 romantic that he does not stand the ghost of a show. 
 
 But, as I was saying, I wanted the Benton girl out of 
 the way, and one day I was returning from Springfield 
 and took a short cut that led over the spur where the 
 girl's body was found. When I got to the spur I saw 
 walking ahead of me a man and a woman, and the 
 shuffling of the leaves under their feet perhaps prevented 
 them from hearing my approach behind them. But I 
 knew they were excited and quarreling about something, 
 and heard the girl, whom I knew to be the Benton girl 
 by her voice, exclaim angrily : * I want to know how 
 many more times you are going to ask me to marry you, 
 Bob Willis.' 'What do you want to know that for?' 
 asked Bob, for it was he. ' Because you can ask them 
 all now, and I can say no to all of them,' she screamed, 
 her voice ringing with passionate detestation. 'But you 
 needn't bank on your engagement to Hart Emerson,' re- 
 plied Bob coolly, 'for there is a young lady up at the city 
 that has cut you out smack and smooth. Hart may even 
 now be hatching some plan for ridding himself of you.' 
 Then the girl flew into a rage and went for him soundly, 
 called him a black scheming liar, and all sorts of hard 
 
428 THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 
 
 names. Bob was not the man to take any abuse, even 
 from a woman he was in love with, and the result was 
 that he grabbed her by the throat and choked her to 
 death while I sat on my horse and witnessed it all. 
 
 I have often wondered whether the girl would not 
 have thought about as much of Bob as she did of me if 
 she knew that I, her betrothed husband, witnessed her 
 murder and made no effort to prevent it. But to resume. 
 Bob presently came to his senses, and looked hastily 
 around to see if there had been any witnesses to his act. 
 When he saw me for I had now ridden up sitting on 
 my horse with a look of sardonic satisfaction on my face 
 so he told me he nearly fell down in a fit. 
 
 'Well Bob, you've done-it now/ I exclaimed. 
 
 'And so have you,' he answered reproachfully, coming 
 up to me. 
 
 'Why, what have I done' I asked, assuming an in- 
 nocent mien. 
 
 'You could have prevented it if you wanted to,' he 
 replied as he caught at my horses' mane to steady him- 
 self. 
 
 Well, I tried to make him believe I had come too 
 late to interfere, but I think he knew me about as well 
 as I did myself, and he was steadfast in his belief that I 
 witnessed it all. When I found I could not make him 
 believe my assertion I confessed to him that I had been 
 a witness to it all, and I knew she would never break her 
 engagement with me till she was dead. Then we agreed 
 
THE WRITTEN CONFESSION. 429 
 
 to keep the matter a secret if possible, and I admon- 
 ished him to leave the country, and if anybody had to 
 stand trial for it I would. I did not believe they could 
 produce evidence enough to bind me over to court, even 
 then, but I was mistaken. Things looked pretty dark 
 for me about the time Jason Palliser arrived on the scene, 
 and I had spent money pretty freely to show out among 
 the Springfield elite, I was in bad financial shape at the 
 time, and did not know what time my step brother might 
 turn up alive and want his property. You know the rest 
 as I have stated it. Try and believe it the truth, and 
 remember me as a misguided man but never as an 
 enemy. HART EMERSON." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 
 
 "What a heartless man," exclaimed Bill when Clay- 
 ton signified that he was through by pronouncing the 
 name signed to the article. "How could he stand and 
 idly witness the killing of that girl." 
 
 "It looks like a man who could do that could commit 
 murder, " asserted Charlie. 
 
 "Hart reminds me of .an octopus," mirthfully ex- 
 claimed Tom Alton as he laid down his pipe, "in being 
 cold blooded and crushing everything he could get his 
 manacles on, he was a human octopus so to speak." 
 
 ' ' I see he makes no reference to the fate of Boyd 
 Emerson," remarked Jim. 
 
 "No, that is yet to be revealed," answered Tom. 
 "But, as I asserted before, I believe Pete Calvin can 
 enlighten us." 
 
 A silence of a few minutes' duration then followed, 
 each one busy with his own thoughts, but Clayton, who 
 now felt as light hearted as a schoolboy, was not think- 
 ing of any of the events we have written so much about, 
 for his mind was naturally forming bright fancies of the 
 future. Now that nothing stood in his way he would do 
 his best to win the young lady for his wife, but he knew 
 
 (430) 
 
Nick Alton, standing with his back to the fire. 
 
NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 433 
 
 it would have to be done quickly if Hart P.merson coveted 
 the same object, or this scoundrel would be apt to use 
 some cunning intrigue against him to beat him if he once 
 found he had a dangerous rival. But he had never en- 
 tertained any ideas the girl only considered him as a green 
 country dupe she was merely playing with, and yet, this 
 being the case, she would have been far from being 
 flattered, for his attentions, though courteous while en- 
 joying the stolen chats, betrayed no sign of love. Never- 
 theless, he felt himself at a disadvantage with his rival, 
 with the black .record, who had been the chief cause of 
 his sorrow and long period of doubt and darkness, near 
 the girl and striving to wia her. He wondered if Hart 
 would have the impudence to offer himself as a prospec- 
 tive husband to the girl now that his dark misdeeds were 
 uncovered, and then decided after a mental soliloquy of 
 some length that he would perhaps try to persuade her 
 into an elopement. 
 
 Presently Bill broke the silence again. "Do you 
 think that Calvin could tell us what Bob Willis was here 
 after last night, and why he tried to kill Jack ?" 
 
 The question was addressed to Tom, and he looked 
 up and replied without hesitation : "I don't know that 
 he can, but I was just meditating upon that point a little 
 and have drawn my conclusion, which is this : Bob had 
 probably discovered the same spot that you others had 
 and believed it to be the place where the money was 
 buried. It may have been he had set this night in which 
 
434 NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 
 
 to exhume it, and when he found us already there he 
 bided his chance to sneak off with it. When he saw 
 Jack was the only bar between him and the coveted ob- 
 ject he tried to remove him as he did." 
 
 Jack now brightened up and replied, not with the 
 same old blunt excitement, but calmly, slowly and 
 cautiously: "I believe then, if that was the case, he 
 had a partner with him, for I remember now I heard the 
 clatter of horses' feet and the rattle of a buggy just after 
 I shot. He must have been a pretty pard to run off and 
 leave a feller like that." 
 
 All of them acquiesced in Jack's assertion. 
 
 But Jack was not now as fond of adulation as he had 
 been formerly. The knowledge that he was a murderer, 
 even though he had killed a bloodthirsty villain to save 
 his own life, who, perhaps, deserved death, was not at 
 all pleasant, and he now realized it was far more pleasant 
 to read of such things in the cheerful solitude of his own 
 room at home than to experience them in reality. Already 
 he had made up his mind to turn from his wild ways to 
 seek knowledge and become a cultured, gentlemanly man 
 like Clayton, whom he regarded as a model of excellence. 
 He never thought of being arrested for what he had done. 
 These were times when it required a great deal of nerve 
 to arrest a man for defending his own life, or anything 
 else for that matter. Jack was being made a subject for 
 study by Alton already, and the latt T shrewdly guessed 
 what was actually the truth : Jack's wild thirst for ad- 
 
NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 435 
 
 venture and excitement was thoroughly effaced by the 
 night's awful happenings. 
 
 The noon hour was close at hand, and by the time 
 Alton and his new allies had explained and talked over 
 everything to their satisfaction the two colored servants 
 and Bill Nash came to the house and announced that the 
 grave was dug. Benton had been dispatched for the 
 coffin and would probably return by two o'clock. Then 
 they would proceed to inter the remains of the unlucky 
 fortune hunter who had the tables turned on him and 
 lost his life, having staked to win the rich prize he so 
 coveted. 
 
 It was a quarter past two when Benton made his ap- 
 pearance, and when he had been given his dinner they 
 drove over to the little stone domicile where so many 
 deep mysteries had been unraveled, where so many lives 
 had been blighted, and where the dead fortune hunter 
 lay side by side with the same worldly alurement that 
 has lured many thousands of others to an untimely end 
 and an unhonored grave. Bob Willis, the murderer of 
 Fannie Benton, the trusted spy of the cabal of free- 
 booters, and betrothed husband of Lottie West, lay dead 
 in close proximity to the object he had sinned to gain 
 possession of deserted by his companion, whom he let 
 into the secret and agreed to share equally with, and who 
 was willing to share the buried hoard with him but not 
 the danger. 
 
 We need not dwell on the scene of the interment, as 
 
436 NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 
 
 it had nothing of uncommon interest except the crowd 
 of onlookers was limited at this burial, which took place 
 in the old Alton graveyard, the first one since the inter- 
 ment of Tom Alton's mother. When it was over, and 
 the grave rounded off in a neat heap and marked like all 
 the graves in the strangers' lot with a flat stone at the 
 head and foot, they took a stroll around the family lot 
 examining the condition of all the graves there. They 
 were all in a sadly neglected condition. Hart Emerson 
 had taken no pains to keep the graves of the Alton's in 
 good condition any more than he had their home. 
 
 Tom found his mother's grave at last, and stood view- 
 ing it for some time while wrapt in a maze of tender 
 memories. His mind reverted back to happy days past 
 and gone, when he had never yet thought of the time 
 when he would be left alone, when his dear old mother 
 would be called away, and he would be a full-fledged 
 man with a sin-hardened heart like every matured per- 
 son, wise as a serpent, if not harmless as a dove and 
 plenty able to exist without the directions of parent or 
 guardian. Look at him now, what a worldly-wise man 
 he is. See how, step by step, he is lifting the foul stigma 
 from the honored name successfully because he had in- 
 herited sound physical and mental ability, which he had 
 improved. Yet it seems that nothing on earth can make 
 the calous heart of maturity pulsate like the memory of 
 their days of happy childhood when their hearts are soft 
 
NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 437 
 
 I. id tender and their minds untrammeled by worldly 
 
 '.ares. 
 
 "I must have them repaired," said Tom at last. "I 
 
 vent away from home without her blessing, with her 
 rhreat of disinheritance hanging over me, but I can't 
 forget that she was my mother, and a good, kind one 
 too. But you see what I had reference to now, don't 
 you? I mean about the rich and high mettled. 9 They 
 are always used to have things pretty much as they want 
 <ihem, and when they are balked on some cherished am- 
 bition their haughty spirit entails affliction upon them 
 that people of humbler degree would pass. Not that I 
 boast of being better than my neighbors, but you know 
 riches are bound to breed pride and haughtiness, and the 
 more of the former the more of the latter. Poor peo- 
 ple, knowing that their loved ones are all they have, are 
 tiot so self sufficient, and if I had been poor I would 
 doubtless have returned home and found peace and for- 
 giveness instead of doing what I am now, looking upon 
 my mother's grave and recalling past memories." 
 
 The sun was just throwing its last beaming rays from 
 the crest of the mountains when the party, returning to 
 the house and having come down into the bottom from 
 the hills, a little way out of the road toward the stables 
 saw a horse standing at the rack in front of the house. 
 They fell to speculating on whom it belonged to, as they 
 walked along, but when they reached the gate next the 
 
438 NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 
 
 road Jerry met them and explained that Massa Nick was 
 at the house and wanted to see Tom. 
 
 "It's Nick, then," exclaimed Tom jubilantly. "He 
 must have some news or he wouldn't take the trouble to 
 come clear over here, but I wonder whether it is good 
 or bad. 
 
 In a moment more they were in the house and Nick 
 Alton, standing with his back to the fire, his overcoat 
 still on and his big Mexican spurs still strapped to his 
 booted feet, betrayed a suppressed excitement to the 
 party as they filed into the room. 
 
 "What is it, Nick?" anxiously inquired Tom without 
 any greeting. Nick, realizing that Tom was excited and 
 anxious, replied quickly : 
 
 "Oh, hang it, Tom, why can't you introduce me to 
 your friends before you go to firing questions at me? 
 Some of the news are bad, but they'll keep. Now tell 
 me what's up here." 
 
 "Well, take off your overcoat and big spurs then, 
 you rowdy, " said Tom with good natured banter. ' * Don't 
 you know better than to come into a gentleman's house 
 in that cowboy style. But before you do that let me 
 introduce you to, first," pointing to Clayton, "the faith- 
 ful son of that long lost man who is your faithful second 
 lieutenant, Clayton Palliser. Then next in order comes 
 Mr. Carver, a young gentleman who cast in his fortunes 
 with these other young fellows in an exhumation of an 
 isolated grave up here on the bench last night, thinking 
 
NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 439 
 
 they were exhuming the remains of Jason Palliser. Then 
 last, but not least of the interesting group, is Mr. Jack 
 Dalton, who was the discoverer of the grave which turned 
 out to be the grave of the old Alton hoard, which now 
 lies over there in the humble pioneer residence of its 
 former owner. These two you know, don't you ? They 
 are your neighbors." 
 
 " Great scott, Tom, what are you giving us now,', 
 ejaculated Nick Alton, in a maze of incredulous bewilder- 
 ment. "Have you turned into a wizard or have the 
 Arabian knights proved to be the reality of life ?" 
 
 "Nothing but the truth, Nick," replied Tom, assum- 
 ing a serious tone. "But take off your trappings and 
 make yourself comfortable now, and I'll go and have 
 your horse put up. When I return I'll tell you what 
 happened last night." 
 
 "Yes," replied Nick absently. His mind was wan- 
 dering on the strange events of the past two years, and 
 as he was no novel reader, his mind being occupied in 
 the overseeing of his ranch and farm in the Fox valley 
 country, he was easily upset by contact with sudden, 
 strange revelations. 
 
 When Tom returned, Nick insisted that he at once 
 proceed with his recitation. But as we are already 
 acquainted with all the details it is not necessary to 
 repeat it. 
 
44O NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 
 
 "Now then, it's your turn to spin us out," said Tom 
 as he finished and went to the mantel in search of his 
 favorite pipe. " Don't this remind you of old times, 
 Nick, when we were boys and a great deal lighter hearted 
 than now ?" 
 
 1 ' Yes, it does, " answered Nick, who was endeavoring 
 to collect what he had to tell so that he could rival Tom's 
 explicit gentlemanly style of recitation. Tom found his 
 pipe and lit it while Nick was cross questioning the 
 others, and when he resumed his seat Nick began thus : 
 
 "I don't know as my revelation is as startling and 
 strange as yours, but I have discovered and talked with 
 Calvin at last, which is something of importance if not 
 startling. You were expecting it, and I have come to 
 tell you he is all right. He says you can give yourself 
 up if you want to and he will clear you. But we 'have 
 been having war over there lately, war to the knife, and 
 the knife to the hilt. Only night before last they got 
 even with Joe Martin by surrounding him in his cabin 
 and riddling him with bullets so that his own mother 
 wouldn't know him." 
 
 Tom rose in frantic excitement. 
 
 "They shot him to death then, did they? The bar- 
 barous hellhounds, I'll raise an army and go in there and 
 annihilate them. I won't leave enough of them to stand 
 up and be counted," roared Tom, prancing around the 
 room excitedly. 
 
NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 441 
 
 Presently he calmed himself and again took his 
 seat. 
 
 "Well, what else, Nick?" he exclaimed with a ques- 
 tioning gaze at his tall cousin. "Pardon me for inter- 
 rupting you." 
 
 "We've discovered a plot," resumed Nick with a 
 piqued expression, "to take summary vengeance on us, 
 and as we know the time set for the sortie, we must nip 
 it in the bud. They have enticed a lot of Indians up 
 there, and are going to fill them up with firewater and 
 turn them loose on the settlers a certain night not far 
 distant. We must raise every man we can, and make a 
 clean sweep this time." 
 
 Then he turned to the boys and continued addressing 
 them : 
 
 "You are all members of the vigilantes, I suppose. 
 No vigilantes ever had as tough a set to deal with as we 
 Missouri regulators, especially here in these mountains. 
 How many of your men do you think we can get ?" 
 
 But these particular members of the regulator clan 
 were getting tired of this outlaw hunting and did not 
 show much inclination to join the expedition. Not that 
 they were cowards, but they were young and unspotted 
 with much manslaughter, and they were greatly de- 
 lighted when Tom said as much, and added that they be 
 let alone and let some of those thirsting for vengeance 
 have their chance. 
 
442 NEWS FROM FOX VALLEY. 
 
 That night when our young friends went to bed Jack 
 told the others that he expected they would have a 
 lively time, and added as he drew the cover over 
 him : 
 
 "Boys, I'm glad Fm not in it now." 
 

 Elsie Britman looking out of the window at the ^parting day. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 Springfield, the metropolis of the Ozark region, 
 perched on the summit thereof, the nucleus of art, com- 
 merce, wealth and culture, standing for years 'mid the 
 billows of frontier turmoil that rolled and dashed around 
 it, as firm as the rock of Gibraltar, was never more 
 busy, nor more gay, nor more crowded than on that day 
 when the ominous looking stranger of Republic inquired 
 of the young men the whereabouts of Hart Emerson. 
 The sun was setting in a flood of crimson light, fringing 
 the horizon by contact with a plexiform cloud; the moon, 
 the same littfe gleaming horn that Jim Carver looked up 
 at that night to break the gruesome sensation, was visible, 
 but its feeble light only added to the gruesome illumina- 
 tion that overspread the little mountain city. It was 
 train time at the depot and the usual crowd had as- 
 sembled, some of them to meet friends or relatives, some 
 through idle curiosity. Hotel keepers were there seek- 
 ing customers, gamblers, sportsmen, travelers and vari- 
 ous ether people too numerous to mention, all assembled 
 there to await the coming of the evening passenger from 
 the West. The crowd increased; the jostle and jar also 
 increased as the minutes flew by. Presently the whistle 
 
 (445) 
 
446 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 of the coming train was heard despite the uproar, and 
 the crowd lined up along the long platform like soldiers 
 forming a line of battle; the train drew up with its usual 
 roar and hiss and screech of breaks against the wheels, 
 the conductor and breakmen alighted with business like 
 promptness, and as the locomotive halted with its load 
 of human freight the egress and ingress began. For a 
 few minutes all was confusion. Then, like the bursting 
 of a summer cloud by a clap of thunder, the crowd be- 
 gan to disperse, and in a few minutes no one remained 
 excepting one man, a tall, ominous looking man who 
 looked as though he had come to town to give the grand 
 marshal a drubbing, as such occasions often took place 
 by such looking men as he. 
 
 But the savage expression his face at first worn soon 
 changed into one wistful, almost sad, and*he went into 
 the waiting room and sat down in one of the seats, un- 
 mindful of all that was passing around him. He leaned 
 one elbow on the partition of the seat, and bracing his 
 head he leaned over on his elbow and remained for some 
 minutes absorbed in a sad reverie, while the noise and 
 clatter of the departing hosts outside gradually subsided, 
 and he was finally left alone. Ah, was he the only one 
 in that mighty, surging throng of a few minutes ago who 
 was sad ? Who was he and what was his mission here ? 
 Was his mind reverting back to happier days, when he 
 would have been met with smiling, glad faces of relatives 
 or friends, instead of the curious stares bestowed upon 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 447 
 
 him as he elbowed his way through the crowd a few 
 minutes ago ? A last beaming ray of the sun emitting 
 through a rift in the cloud, stole through the open door 
 and danced across his face like some entreating angel 
 making a last appeal to redeem him from the pit he was 
 sinking into, or the last message of mercy flashed from 
 the throne. He started up, and a wild, despairing look 
 instantly transformed his countenance as though he un- 
 derstood. But the evil spirits were on the alert, and, 
 after a short, sharp struggle the fiendish expression was 
 resumed, and he rose from the seat and stalked out on 
 the platform and hurried away toward the main city. 
 
 And this was the man that Bill Thornton declared to 
 be the leader of the Ozark bandit league, but who was 
 he and what was he doing here ? Was he hunting up 
 some one of his band who had turned traitor to dispatch 
 him ? No, for the only two that had the courage to do 
 that were not here. Then what was he doing here ? 
 Seeking Hart Emerson. What for ? We shall soon 
 see. 
 
 But let us leave him seeking for Hart Emerson and 
 see what Hart was doing himself. We have not followed 
 any of his movements since we left him riding away from 
 home toward the city, little dreaming that the written 
 confession he had locked up and left behind would be un- 
 earthed before he returned. 
 
 Night had again spread her sombre mantle over the 
 little mountain metropolis, and the street lamps were 
 
448 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 throwing their fitful glare over the streets and pavements 
 of the city, while the moon overhead shed its pale light 
 in addition thereto. The pavements were thronged with 
 people of all sizes, sexes and colors hurrying to and fro. 
 All the wealth and fashion of the city seemed on parade. 
 A grand entertainment was to come off at one of the 
 popular halls, and the elite was swarming thither. 
 
 Hart Emerson was jubilant to-night in spite of the 
 loss of his fortune. For the first time in his life perhaps 
 he felt a sentimental emotion in his soul. What if he 
 had lost his money, he would put his lady love to the 
 severest test then by telling her, and then if she loved 
 him she would surely flee with him and help him to build 
 up another competence. Oh, if he only had her for his 
 wife Hart believed he would develop into a noble man if 
 he could bury in one grave all the miserable recollections 
 of the past so they would not appear again to torment 
 him. Vain hope ! Even now as he walked along with 
 the fair Elsie Britman clinging to his arm toward the hall 
 where the entertainment was to be, the lurking shadows 
 of past sins were staring at him from out the dark re- 
 cesses, and a pair of furtive dark eyes was watching him 
 with a deadly gleam. 
 
 But the days passed slowly by and nothing definite 
 had been arrived at yet by either Hart or the man that 
 was watching him. It was not nntil he had at last dared 
 his fate and been rejected that Hart discovered the pres- 
 ence of his shadower. 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 449 
 
 Then, as a natural consequence, he believed he had 
 discovered the source from which eminated the cause of 
 his rejection. All the old evil of the past returned with 
 twofold energy to his comprehension; all the bright 
 future he had pictured in his imagination had vanished, 
 and the ghosts of his past deeds appeared now in their 
 place. All the old temptations again tugged at him, and 
 like all evil doers in the depths the promptings of the 
 better nature were soon silenced. Much as he had 
 sinned to gain other coveted objects Hart told himself 
 that he would stop at nothing not even murder, which 
 he had hitherto shunned to gain the hand of Elsie 
 Britman in marriage. 
 
 The third day after the appearance of the ominous 
 looking stranger was drawing to a close. The November 
 sun was gliding toward the Western horizon, the light of 
 it filtering through the orchards and shrubbery of the 
 grounds around the residence of the retired set that 
 fringed the Eastern limits of the city. The day had 
 been quiet, the croquet grounds deserted and empty, and 
 the fashionable idlers who had chosen for their perman- 
 ent residence this charming spot, having grown* tired of 
 the round of gayeties, were endeavoring to pass the time 
 in some indoor amusement, or enjoying a season of rest 
 and quiet. The park, which was the pride of the city, 
 was also deserted and quiet. It lay just between the re- 
 tired peoples' cluster of residences and the old part of 
 the town. The house of the old bachelor uucle who 
 
45O THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 had left his property to Hart was the last one inside the 
 limits, and was unlike the rest of the houses in the neigh- 
 borhood, as it was an old fashioned one, large and roomy 
 like the old patrician dwellings of Southern gentlemen, 
 surrounded with the usual plank fence, fringed with tall, 
 stately poplars, and the yard studded with neat cedars 
 and shrubbery, and the tall chimney stacks looming up 
 in their majestic splendor silhouetted against the fresh, 
 white paint of the walls by the sun, deepening the hue 
 of the red bricks that composed them, the mansion 
 seemed a monument of old fashioned splendor and a 
 rebuke to the oddly fashioned, glass doored, porticoed 
 residences around it, with their close, stuffy rooms and 
 bare looking yards. It was here in this old house the 
 third day that Hart sat in the West room with his feet 
 carelessly braced against the wall next to the black 
 polished frame of the fireplace reading a note, while a 
 smile of grim satisfaction slowly settled over his weird, 
 brigand-like countenance. The note was from Elsie 
 Britman and was a reply to one he had sent her begging 
 for one more meeting, in the park that night. The reply 
 was satisfactory, as she promised to meet him and listen 
 to what he had to say. 
 
 " Humph," he muttered to himself as a grim smile of 
 satisfaction deepened, "I wonder if I am to be baffled 
 after all these years of wretched scheming ? I'll have to 
 tell some pretty stiff yarns, I reckon. Curse him, I say. 
 He's followed me like a bloodhound all this time, and I 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 451 
 
 must not let him get the drop on me. I might have 
 known it was he. Tom would have come up like a man 
 and told me what he wanted. I think he has acted the 
 gentleman in not unfolding my history to her, but Jack 
 is a bloody ogre that would stop at nothing to make me 
 trouble." 
 
 Hart almost shook with fear as the name of his evil 
 genius escaped his lips. 
 
 Then his mind reverted to the days when the Marston 
 and Emerson clans had strove in bloody conflict over the 
 hills and dales of Eastern Kentucky. And he was the 
 last of the Emerson's. Was he, too, destined to fall at 
 the hands of this mad member of the opposing clan ? 
 He shuddered at the thoughts of it, and desperately tried 
 to rally his courage. Nothing is better calculated to in- 
 spire a man with bravery than the knowledge that a 
 romantic young lady is the prize. He would be cool and 
 collected, ready for the emergency. 
 
 But when he had started on his way he felt better 
 and more courageous, as he fumbled with the handsome 
 silver mounted pistol in his overcoat pocket. It was not 
 the custom for fashionable gentlemen to go about the 
 city with a big Colt's revolver strapped around him like 
 the shadower. Hart, who was a great hand for outside 
 appearance, and would rather be a fashionable villain 
 and a genteel rogue than to be a member of Congress 
 and be dressed in the outlandish style as some of the 
 country rowdies were, felt himself superior to his enemy 
 
452 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 in his small minded way. Then a train of rosy fancies 
 followed, in which he imagined his success in the scheme 
 and recalled certain items of importance in regard to the 
 girl's manner, which led him to believe she loved him 
 and was longing for him to prove his innocence of the 
 charge. The selfish misconstrue the actions of others in 
 their favor, the unselfish, when they misconstrue, do so 
 against themselves. Conceit and selfishness always go 
 hand in hand, modesty and unselfishness the same. 
 Hart believed he was on the point of success, and his 
 mind again began to form pictures of the future, in which 
 he fancied a snug little cottage in some faraway spot 
 with the girl he was going out to meet installed as mis- 
 tress, while he strove in honest, manful toil for a living. 
 But what a pity that these reflections of an honest life 
 came too late. With these rosy fancies engrossing his 
 mind Hart Emerson went out to meet his doom. 
 
 A little later he was in the park seated in one of the 
 rustic seats awaiting her coming. The chance for an 
 unmolested interview was excellent. The park was as 
 empty of living objects except himself as a cemetery. 
 The wind stirred the half withered leaves overhead, but 
 their feint rustle only seemed like so many encouraging 
 whispers to the waiting man. Would she come ? Yes, 
 he persuaded himself, she was not the girl to promise 
 anything she did not intend to fulfill. According to his 
 reasoning she had not been holding out false hopes to 
 him, but had suddenly been informed that he was a wolf 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 453 
 
 in sheep's clothing, a serpent with a gruesome record, 
 and was only putting him off to see if he could prove to 
 the contrary, see if he could prove her informant a base 
 slanderer. That he believed it would be no trouble to 
 accomplish. Was not the mad member of the opposing 
 clan his sworn enemy, and could he not prove it. Then, 
 having proved that, he could easily invent some artful 
 story that would reinstate him in the girl's favor, and 
 then all would be well. The rustling leaves overhead 
 seemed to repeat his thoughts in words ending with an 
 emphasized "All will be well," while the distant roar 
 and din of the city seemed like the receding tumult of 
 the host of mocking demons that had but lately attacked 
 him, and the ghosts of the past tumbling into the abyss 
 of oblivion. It was the yawning precipice fringed with 
 the rose thicket of imagination, and Hart Emerson's 
 sudden craving for an honest life was only the crucified 
 better nature resurrected by the volcanic convulsions 
 of evil, but was too late to save him from the doom that 
 awaited him. 
 
 But we must go back a little and describe another 
 scene before we do the one that took place in the park. 
 Hart did not know the girl had a favored lover who had 
 the proofs of his guilt in black and white recorded by his 
 own hand. 
 
 Clayton Palliser, believing Hart had a strong hold, 
 had determined to break it with one destructive blow. 
 
 Being pretty well versed in the etiquette of high 
 
454 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 society, he knew it would be a breach thereof to mention 
 her name in connection with Hart's, or to even hint that 
 he knew of Hart's attentions to her. 
 
 The afternoon was waning. Shortly after dispatch- 
 ing the note to Hart Elsie Britman stood in the reception 
 room of the Britman mansion looking out of the window 
 at the departing day, her mind absorbed in serious but 
 calm reflection. Her solemn gray eyes had a faraway 
 expression, as though she was dwelling on some past 
 scene that haunted her yet. No one could believe this 
 queenly girl would be capable of anything that had the 
 least taint of baseness or could entertain any other 
 thoughts but those that were grand and noble. Stand- 
 ing in the light of the window, silent and thoughtful, 
 attired in a neat winter costume of a dark green color 
 and her yellow hair arranged in the style of the day, she 
 looked as though she was a prize well worth striving for. 
 
 The eyes are the windows of the soul and have more 
 influence over people than any other feature. The com- 
 plexion may be ever so perfect, the ears small and well 
 shaped, with the delicate tint of the sea shell, the features 
 may be ever so regular and smooth, the hair ever so 
 silken, if the eyes bespeak something of the soul that is 
 not to the liking of the observer there is an inward re- 
 vulsion. Nobility of character is no material attraction 
 for all people, but when it looks at you out of the win- 
 dows, colored in different hues, it is an attraction that 
 inspires everybody with pleasant sensations. The evil 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 455 
 
 minded see there mercy, enticing them to reform, the 
 worldly minded see a warning to avoid the same pit that 
 was yawning for the man who awaited the coming of 
 this fair girl, while those whose minds were like Clayton 
 Palliser's had been, burdened with great trouble, saw 
 sympathy, and altogether these consolidated jewels of 
 heaven when unallayed, as in the case of Elsie Britman, 
 wielded an influence which the possessor was unconscious 
 of. It was her sympathetic nature that first had induced 
 her to take any interest in Clayton Palliser, whom she 
 then regarded as an ordinary rustic, a young moun- 
 taineer, handsome of course, no one could gainsay that 
 whose bodily vigor was well employed in battling with 
 the rough mountain soil. But at last she heard the story 
 of his bereavement, and a chance colloquy with him 
 revealed to her what a grand mind he possessed. Then 
 a little later she saw him as Jack would have expressed 
 it, ' ' dyked up, " that is he seemed like another man when, 
 having cast off the every-day garb and donned his Sun- 
 day suit, Elsie Britman realized that the ideal hero she 
 had dreamed of had been found. She was at first at- 
 tracted to him because she thought him an object of pity, 
 needing her sympathy; now she was gazing out of the 
 window with a vague sort of hope that the prince of her 
 heart would appear, and wondering why he was so neg- 
 lectful of her. Clayton had' forecasted the result even 
 better than he imagined, If he had made the impres- 
 sion he desired his neglect would deepen it; if she only 
 
456 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 considered him a dupe she would respect him for dis- 
 cerning it. Although she was endowed with so many 
 noble qualities, Else was not the woman to fall in love 
 with a weak man, only a man full of mental and bodily 
 power could ever call her wife. Perhaps that was where 
 Hart Emerson was lacking in. True, he was handsome 
 enough in a way, as far as personal appearance was con- 
 cerned, and was possessed of an easy, graceful manner, 
 but the girl had long ago decided that his mind was a 
 weak, self absorbed one, destitute of any grand, noble 
 thoughts or ambitions. Yet, as far as a society figure 
 was concerned, he was well enough, and she had kept 
 him as an agreeable companion and escort, thinking he 
 was doing the same by her, as no word of love had been 
 spoken during their five years of acquaintance. Now she 
 was pained to discover it was a crucial test for him to 
 part with her, and that he loved her. She would meet 
 him to-night and try to console him, and yei there was a 
 vague comprehension that she would like to see Clayton 
 before, she went. She was in a distressed frame of mind 
 and tried to wear it away by thinking of Clayton and 
 wishing he would appear. She seemed to have a pre- 
 monition that he would, however absurd it might seem v 
 as there was nothing, positively nothing^ but his own will 
 could prevent it or make it come about. 
 
 John Britman, to be brief, was exceedingly demo- 
 cratic. He would far rather have a respectable rustic in 
 his house as a guest than a millionaire with a smutty 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 457 
 
 reputation. He argued that the harder the upper crust 
 of society was the more demoralizing the effect would be 
 upon society in general, as it had the tendency of de- 
 veloping all the worst qualities of the struggling masses 
 beneath. He pointed to the numerous crimes that 
 teemed in the columns of the newspapers as the struggles 
 of certain misguided people to obtain the key that un- 
 locked the door of society money which, he said, was 
 radically wrong and would disappear when a social fabric, 
 founded on principle was reared. "If we are to bear 
 the name of Christians and a Christian nation," he in- 
 sisted, "we must follow the teachings of the Master and 
 not consider ourselves better than other people because 
 we have better houses, better clothes, better food and 
 better means of conveyance. Why should I associate 
 with a man on the street that I would not invite into my 
 house in order to manipulate a few dollars out of his 
 pocket into mine ? I tell you our social fabric is decayed 
 and must be torn down and remodeled. It is built upon 
 a shifting, sandy foundation." 
 
 Knowing this all, Clayton Palliser had no hesitation 
 in visiting the Britmans at their palatial home. 
 
 Elsie was thinking, and her thoughts, if they could 
 have taken the form of words, would have been thus : 
 
 " How strange a circumstance I should bethinking 
 of him; a poor young mountaineer with a sad story, and 
 his life shadowed like that, when I have had the cream 
 of the elite at my feet ever since I made my debut," 
 
45$ THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 with a nervous little chuckle she remembered that Hart 
 was ignorant of all this but another musical chuckle 
 at the junction of the two buts, 4< I long to comfort 
 him. I love him, yes I love him, and if I am an excep- 
 tional type of woman, one that all men desire to wed, it 
 is he that needs me. I wonder why he does not write. 
 Did he ask permission to write just~to gratify his vanity, 
 knowing I would give him permission ? No, I cannot be- 
 lieve that. Perhaps he thinks I am no fit wife for a man 
 like him, and is trying to forget me. Yet how I have 
 trembled at the announcement of these terrible conflicts 
 for. fear his name would be among the killecl. Yet if I 
 only knew that he loved me as I do him, and if he were 
 my betrothed husband, I could give him up willingly to 
 see this half barbarous country thoroughly civilized. But 
 I know now the depressing influence of uncertainty. Has 
 he not endured it for a long time and made no complaint? 
 Why should I not do the same ? Yet I would like to see 
 him before I go to meet that poor, deluded wretch who 
 has been such a pet among the small minded, fashionable 
 people who look at the exterior and" are content with it 
 if it is showy. Some girls would go to pieces on that 
 rock, but not I. Clayton Palliser is a man; Hart Emer- 
 son a costly imitation, that's all." 
 
 She turned from the window with a sigh. ' 4 Ah, what 
 is life without love," she said aloud as she viewed the 
 elegant interior, the pretty bric-a-brac, the elegant 
 cushioned chairs, the costly pictures that adorned the 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 459 
 
 wall and compared them to what she imagined the hum- 
 ble furniture in the little mountain home of her lover. 
 "It is all very well to possess these things that belong to 
 art, but without one of nature's noblenren to love me, I, 
 for one, will be neither satisfied nor happy." 
 
 Then she drew a chair near the window a-ud sat down 
 and commenced to muse again, ending, in a mental pic- 
 ture in which she fancied herself an old maid, reigning 
 alone in this great house and longing for seme on^ to 
 love her, shield her, confide in her. 
 
 " Better the life of a poor farmer's wife than that," 
 she murmured. 
 
 "But suppose the farmer made a drudge and a slave 
 out of you and you died of overwork," said a voice be- 
 hind her, startling her from her reverie. 
 
 She rose quickly, and not forgetting her training, 
 bowed and spoke, but did not at first recognize the man 
 who had thus interrupted her train of thoughts. Strange 
 thing that she did not recognize the object cf her 
 thoughts, for it was Clayton Palliser who now stood be- 
 fore her. 
 
 He returned her greeting in a puzzled sort of manner, 
 while he hardly knew what to make out of the greeting 
 accorded him. She returned his gaze steadHy for a sec- 
 ond, and then bursting into a merry peal of laughter ex- 
 tended her hand cordially while she overwhelmed him 
 with apologies like this : 
 
460 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 "Why, how do you do, Mr. Palliser, pray excuse me, 
 I did not recognize you. In fact, I hadn't seen or heard 
 from you for so long that our past acquaintance seems 
 more like a pleasant dream than reality. " 
 
 Now if Clayton had loved her much before he loved 
 her a hundred times better for this little speech, so full 
 of artless yet powerful meaning. The Pallisers were 
 always noted for hard and fast love making, but they 
 knew also just how far to go and did not believe in rush- 
 ing things. It is hard to keep one's love pent up at all, 
 but when a man is in the presence of a woman he wor- 
 ships and has heard her soliloquizing about him, and has 
 been as good as told he is preferred to all others, then he 
 surely has hard work to curb the passionate words that 
 struggle for escape. 
 
 She motioned him to a seat, but he did not take it 
 then. He was not ready. He was one of those per- 
 sons who, when they set out to enjoy themselves do so 
 thoroughly, and if they cannot do that, find better satis- 
 faction in work. 
 
 "But I shall not sit down, Miss Elsie, till I am satis- 
 fied my company is agreeable," he said in a tone calcu- 
 lated to make her believe her failure to recognize him at 
 first made him doubtful of the truthfulness of her cordial 
 greeting. This sally had the effect of nettling the girl a 
 little, and she replied quietly but forcefully: 
 
 "Did I not tell you that already? What need to 
 repeat it. Do you think me a coquette, who would not 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 461 
 
 treat you the same here in my own social circle as I did 
 out in the country ?" 
 
 He held up his hand with a warning gesture, for he 
 saw she was waxing warm. "Stop, Miss Elsie," he said 
 suavely. ''Don't go any further, please. I have acted 
 very foolish I believe, for to tell the truth your greeting 
 satisfied me on that point. Yet I know you women 
 folks have an entirely different nature than we of the 
 sterner sex, and I had an idea I had forfeited the privi- 
 lege you granted me formerly, and I could not feel satis- 
 fied till I was reassured. But I beg pardon if I have 
 unintentionally aroused your feelings, for if there is a 
 person on earth I want to please more than any one else, 
 it is you." 
 
 She gazed at him with those soulful orbs burning 
 with the bright fire of love, that mysterious, heavenly 
 feeling that consumes for a time at least all inferior 
 thoughts, and then she realized that this strong minded 
 handsome man was her lord and king whether he lived 
 in a palace and fared sumptuously every day or in a 
 hovel, and shoveled dirt or earned his daily bread by his 
 daily toil. 
 
 "Since you were careless enough to forfeit it, you 
 could not have valued it much." 
 
 This came from her warm, red lips as she raised her 
 eyes seeirmgly in an appeal to the powers of the air. 
 The light of the opposite window shining in her face 
 made her appearance so angelic that Clayton would not 
 
462 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 have been surprised to see her vanish through the walls 
 of the room. 
 
 " Oh, I see what you have reference to now," he ex- 
 claimed, and he could hardly refrain from a sheepish 
 expression of countenance as he spoke. "You make 
 me feel so mean, Miss Elsie, I don't know how I can 
 ever atone for my neglect. You had reference to me not 
 writing, did you not ?" 
 
 She nodded assent. 
 
 "Well, since you have been so kind as to reinstate 
 me in your favor I will tell you the plain truth about 
 that, -and then I know you will like me better than if I 
 had told you something else you could not quite believe. 
 To begin with, you know my mind was much burdened 
 with my father's strange fate, and the hours I spent in 
 your company were the only gleam of real sunshine that 
 has relieved me from the terrible strain and burden that 
 has been on me for the last few years. When I was 
 with you I forgot to think about him, whether his body 
 had been cast in some secluded spot, a prey for carrion 
 birds, or thrown into some rude, rough, hastily dug hole 
 to be torn out by wild beasts and devoured, and his 
 bones left to bleach under the action of the elements. 
 Then it was my fancy did not see some murderous villain 
 with upraised ar,m to strike the fatal blow, or raising one 
 of those murderous revolvers carried by these rough 
 mountaineers and well, I knew the Palliser grit well 
 enough to know that no matter how much advantage his 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 463 
 
 opponent might have he would not give up without a 
 struggle. But why should I worry you with such grue- 
 some talk as this," he interrupted himself apologetically, 
 " I was only explaining to you what horrible imagina- 
 tions burdened my mind, which were only alienated when 
 I was with you. But the reason I did not write was 
 because I did not then know you were old enough to en- 
 tirely overlook the difference in our social position, and 
 I took you to be much younger than you are. That is, 
 I took you to be sixteen or thereabouts when you are 
 twenty, which I found out quite by accident along with 
 other things which entirely change my affairs in every 
 imaginable way. I know girls of sixteen and seventeen 
 are very shifting and changeable, and hard to suit, and 
 thought perhaps your fine friends might plague you about 
 your country admirer, and feared I would not meet with 
 the success I would like to have." 
 
 Elsie stood as motionless as a statue, with her great, 
 burning eyes fixed intently upon him, while Clayton, as 
 he was speaking, occasionally let his eyes fall to the floor, 
 for he could scarcely collect his thoughts with that queenly 
 girl standing there facing him, and his heart bounding 
 joyously with all the blessings that had been but recently 
 poured out for him, and longing to take her in his arms 
 and kiss his heart out on those ruby lips. 
 
 Elsie realized that it was time to call a halt, and a 
 moment later they were seated near the window engaged 
 in an animated conversation. No ancient story teller 
 
464 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 was ever listened to with better attention than Clayton 
 was while he related all of his adventures, which we have 
 already recorded. 
 
 The evening wore away at last, and night again fell 
 over the city. Clayton remained till dark, and then took 
 his departure, well satisfied with his success. He had no 
 fear of Hart Emerson now, and his naturally sympathetic 
 nature caused him to feel somewhat sorrowful for the 
 man who had wronged him and who, he believed, was 
 now reaping the fruits of his sowing, and loved the girl 
 as much as he did himself. 
 
 "I can feel sorry for any one who loves Elsie Brit- 
 man and is not loved in return," he soliloquized as he 
 wended his way back to his hotel in the modern quarter 
 of the town. 
 
 But what would he have thought had he been in the 
 park a little later and witnessed his adored one walk- 
 ing briskly toward a man sitting on one of the rustic 
 benches and watching her approach with eager eyes, 
 having a strange hungry light in them, while the quieted 
 tumult in his soul, as seen by Omniscent eyes, was only 
 like a lull in a storm, the powers of darkness were 
 hovering near, ready to pounce upon him again. 
 
 She came up smiling, and her face had in its expres- 
 sion all the encouragement the poor deluded wretch 
 needed, but the smile was not on account of her pleasure 
 at meeting with him, it was on account of her love for 
 the man Hart Emerson had wronged, and had Hart been 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 465 
 
 aware of the truth it would have been like a red hot knike 
 thrust into his heart. But he did not know, and he 
 never dreamed the time he spent in parleying with this 
 girl he had courted so long and felt sure of winning, had 
 better be spent on his knees asking pardon from his 
 Maker for his gigantic misdeeds. 
 
 "Ah, darling Elsie," he exclaimed as he aroce and 
 came to meet her, "you have come, I see. I was a brute 
 to doubt you." 
 
 He tried to take her hands in his, but she drew away 
 from him and sat down on the seat, exclaiming : 
 
 "No, no, Hart, you are wrong if you think I came 
 here to be made love to. I have come to meet you and 
 comfort you if it is as you said that you are in trouble." 
 
 "Trouble?" he reiterated. "Why, I should say so. 
 Why, Elsie, I never had much of anything else in my 
 life." 
 
 " But you never kept any of it long enough to worry 
 you," exclaimed a voice near by. 
 
 Hart had seated himself at the girl's side as he spoke, 
 and so close upon his last word was the first word of the 
 other speaker that they both started up and looked fur- 
 tively around for the intruder. But although Hart did 
 not see him he knew the voice, and a. spasm of deadly 
 fear convulsed him. His eyes assumed the expression of 
 the unlucky frog in the deadly fangs of the snake, and 
 the girl, noticing it, was quite overwhelmed with a grue- 
 
466 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 some sensation for a brief moment. While she was thus 
 overcome Hart was endeavoring to rally his courage for 
 the encounter which he knew was bound to take place. 
 
 Presently he spoke to Elsie, and perhaps for once In 
 his life he told the exact truth. 
 
 "Elsie," he said, and in spite of his best efforts his 
 voice shook. "Elsie, I have never told you there was 
 once a deadly feud between our family and the Marstons 
 back there in Kentucky. Well, this man who is eaves^ 
 dropping is a mad member of the other clan who was 
 sent to state prison for the murder of an uncle of mine. 
 He has served out his time, and, like the madman he is, 
 he is hunting down and killing us Emersons as if we were 
 so many rabbits. I don't want you to be a witness to a 
 tragedy, but I am going to put a stop to his career. This 
 is no place for you, but I cannot escort you home for ii 
 I start off he will shoot me from behind, and likely 
 enough wound or kill you." 
 
 "No fear of that, young lady," said a voice, which 
 made them both start again. 
 
 Turning, they beheld in front of them a tall, danger- 
 ous looking man, and the gruesome sensations that had 
 enveloped the girl were renewed. 
 
 A sardonic smile illumined the face of the stranger, 
 and he spoke thus : 
 
 "Well, you managed to make one little speech in 
 your life with a little grain of truth in it, Hart. I con- 
 
THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE, 467 
 
 gratulate you, but it came near not being in your life after 
 all, for that will be cut short. Young lady, go home and 
 be happy with the lover that is worthy *>f you. This one 
 is not fit to scrub your dinner pot. His heart is blacker 
 than the soot in the flue of your house. He swore a lie 
 against me and caused me to drag out a term at hard 
 labor in the penitentiary, and I have taken an oath to 
 exterminate his race, who never have been anything but 
 a set of natural born devils. Here are you now being 
 tormented with one of these devils, but I have come to 
 cast him out. I have told you " 
 
 4 'Stop, Jack," shouted Hart hoarsely. "Tell me 
 who that other lover is. You never did me a good turn 
 in your life, and I don't blame you either. It is natural 
 for you to believe us all devils, just as we did you, but 
 tell me if you know who that other lover of this girl is." 
 
 "She has one that is worthy of her, and you love 
 him, too, don't you young lady?" 
 
 Elsie nodded assent. She was too frightened to 
 speak. 
 
 "That is all I will {ell you, Hart, and now let us get 
 to business," exclaimed the man as he drew a big pistol 
 and stepped back. 
 
 Elsie made a motion to expostulate, but Hart cut her 
 short with the ringing command, which perhaps was the 
 first one of the kind she had ever received : 
 
 "Get out of here arid go home, quick. No use to 
 
468 THE ROSE CROWNED PRECIPICE. 
 
 expostulate with him. Not a bit of it,- He will kill 
 me, Elsie, but you will be my murderer as well as he, 
 because I shall not defend myself since I have found out 
 you have a more favored lover than me. " 
 
 Bang whiz went the forty- five calibre revolver, 
 and the echo had no sooner died away mid the labyrinth 
 of streets, buildings and groves of the city's outskirts 
 than the girl took flight as fast as her feet could carry 
 her, the deafening report of the pistol drowning the thud 
 of her old lover's body as it fell, and the smothered groan 
 that followed. 
 
Clayton was left alone with the man that had been the foundation 
 ol his troubles. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 Clayton went back to his hotel with a lighter heart 
 than he had known for many a day. Things seemed to 
 come his way at last, and the heart that had been weighed 
 down with depressing circumstances is much more joyous 
 than the one that is surfeited when at last the long, 
 steady and patient exertions bear fruit, and the bands of 
 fate are broken. Every wish of his had been granted. 
 He could not feel the old joyous impulses of youth when 
 his mind was filled with youthful fancies, but he felt the 
 impulses of a man who had conquered after a hard 
 struggle. 
 
 Arriving at the hotel, he found his way to his room 
 at once. Supper was always served by lamp light in the 
 winter season, and he would have plenty of time to think 
 before the assembling of the guests for tfie evening meal. 
 He felt like a gentleman of leisure for the first rime in 
 his life. 
 
 He pushed open the door. Some one was there. 
 The next instant he recognized Bill Thornton. 
 
 " Hello Clate, where have you been ?" exclaimed Bill, 
 who was reading a newspaper and marked the place with 
 
 (470 
 
472 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 his thumb when he looked up. A glad light came into 
 Clayton's countenance. 
 
 "What luck, Bill?" he exclaimed excitedly. "What 
 have you found now ?" 
 
 "They've been at it again over in the valley," ejacu- 
 lated Bill. "See here, date," he continued, jumping 
 up and placing the paper before Clayton's eyes. 
 
 "I've seen that, Bill, or heard of it," he exclaimed 
 indifferently. "I asked you what luck?" 
 
 "He's there," exclaimed Bill, throwing down the 
 paper. 
 
 "What is he doing ?" asked Clayton. "Does he ever 
 go out ?" 
 
 44 Yes, but I'll be hanged if I can follow him to save 
 my life. He hasn't gone out but twice, but he gives me 
 the dodge all the time." 
 
 'Does he know you?" Clayton asked abruptly. 
 
 "No, I think not. At least if he does he does not 
 let on. He must have a charmed life. " 
 
 "Why?" asked Clayton. 
 
 "Because, with all my caution to get him in the toils 
 he slips out every time." 
 
 "Well, we must watch our corners and maybe we'll 
 get him yet," was Clayton's^ response. 
 
 Bill and Clayton had been sent up to Springfield for 
 the purpose of effecting the arrest of the outlaw chief, 
 but neither of them ever dreamed of the difficulty attend- 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 473 
 
 ing the task. Now that the chief was spotted and some 
 one on the side of the law knew him it was supposed to 
 be a very easy task. Tom Alton had been the instigator 
 of the plot, for he was anxious to show the people who 
 and what the outlaw chief was, for he believed when 
 that was once effected he would once more be in posses- 
 sion of the confidence and good will of the people. He 
 was possessed of a longing to settle down to a quiet life 
 again, but how could that be done with such a foul 
 stigma upon his name. Every hand was against Tom 
 Alton, the terrible freebooter, and many people perhaps 
 would not hesitate to shoot him on sight. He knew 
 the white portion of the population would not swallow 
 his declarations of innocence as readily as the two faith- 
 ful darkies that loved the old name and who had been 
 born on the plantation. Therefore he was not only in- 
 stigated by a desire to clear himself but a desire to 
 avenge himself upon the person who had thrown such an 
 everlasting stigma over his own name. 
 
 So, while Tom and Nick were riding in the direction 
 of the valley where so many dark deeds had been enacted, 
 Clayton and Bill were pursuing their way to the city to 
 see if they could find any way to effect the capture of the 
 bandit chief. 
 
 Clayton had come with a threefold purpose. One 
 was the object we have mentioned, another was to see 
 the girl he loved so well, while still another was to attend 
 the sale of the Emerson estate, which would take place 
 
474 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 in a week from that day. He had taken lodgings at a 
 hotel, while Bill, who could not be expected to stay long 
 in one place, roosted wherever night overtook him. Bill 
 had been dodging about a great deal in pursuit of the 
 chief, but he was careful to disguise himself so he would 
 not be recognized, for it was not .safe for the chief to get 
 the upper hand of any one he knew to be a traitor. Now 
 that the gang was fast going to pieces, it was more than 
 probable traitors would be shown no mercy. 
 
 But so far Bill had been unable to secure his game, 
 and he had sought out Clayton with the intention of 
 asking his advice as to whether it would be of any use 
 to pursue the matter. 
 
 "Watch our corners be hanged," snorted Bill. 
 1 'Haven't I done everything a man could do to get him? 
 I'll bet a month's wages he knows of our presence here, 
 and knows what we're after. " 
 
 Clayton looked surprised, but only for an instant. 
 That was, of course, a most natural thing for one of that 
 stripe to expect his footsteps to be dogged by spies and 
 detectives. Was there not already a large reward offered 
 for the breaking up of the illicit distillery stowed away 
 so snugly in the wild solitudes of Fox Valley ? Of course 
 the false description would aid the chief in going boldly 
 about in the haunts of civilized people, but for aught he 
 knew that which had aided him in escaping the clutches 
 of the law so long had been found out, and as he knew 
 there had been traitors who had turned against them, he 
 
HART EMERSON S REPARATION. 475 
 
 would now naturally expect the officers of the law to be 
 on his track. 
 
 "Well, I wouldn't give up till I was forced to, Bill," 
 said Clayton. "I think he must have some object up 
 here, and he may effect his purpose and be gone before 
 we know it." 
 
 "Quite right, Clate s " assented Bill. "But I would 
 give a great deal to know exactly what his object is." 
 
 The supper bell sounded at that moment, and the 
 noise and bustle of assembling guests began. The pair 
 at once doffed their overcoats and hats and went into the 
 dining room, where a variety of people were seating 
 themselves around the table, which was loaded with 
 delicious viands and gleaming table ware. This was one 
 of the leading hotels, and although the table was very 
 attractive^ and aristocratic, all the other surroundings 
 calculated to suit all classes of people and were 
 very homelike and comfortable. 
 
 The two young men sat down together where they 
 could have a square look at all who entered. Bill had 
 taken off his disguise and never dreamed of the object 
 of his pursuit entering such a crowded place as that. 
 The click of the tableware, the rattle of knives on the 
 plates and general noise of eating began, with an occa- 
 sional remark from the guests, and the meal had fairly 
 begun. 
 
 The noise of footsteps were heard at the door, and 
 
476 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 Clayton and Bill cast quick glances in that direction. 
 Both dropped their eyes immediately, for there was the 
 bandit chief coming into the dining room looking like a 
 PatagOnian, with his tall form swaying carelessly around 
 to avoid any collision with the waitresses, who hustled 
 hurriedly around waiting on the table. 
 
 There were several vacant places, and they were all 
 of them opposite to where Clayton and Bill sat. The 
 bandit chief, casting a furtive glance around the table, 
 coolly seated himself without noticing any one in par- 
 ticular. Both of our friends were too wise to give any 
 signs of recognition, although they felt as though they 
 would like to wash their hands of the job. They stole 
 occasional glances at him, but the watchful, furtive dark 
 orbs seemed to pierce them through whenever he vouch- 
 safed them a look, which he occasionally did. 
 
 It seemed as though that fierce countenance could 
 quail the stoutest heart by even a casual glance at it, 
 and Clayton and Bill noticed the other guests also gazing 
 at him as though they deemed him a most remarkable 
 man, but they also did not dare gaze for long at a time, 
 for the sharp eyes shot around as though they were two 
 sentinels armed to keep off meddlers. 
 
 And in this way the meal was finished. The stranger 
 ate hurriedly, as though he was afraid of missing his 
 train, and when he arose from the table Clayton and his 
 companion gave each other a warning nudge, and one 
 after another the guests rose and went out. In the jum- 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 477 
 
 ble of rushing guests the chief went out, closely followed 
 by our two friends. 
 
 "Quick, Bill, for our hats, and I'll follow him," whis- 
 pered Clayton. 
 
 Bill obeyed, and while Clayton followed the chief up 
 and saw him enter the cloak room, Bill darted quickly 
 into their room for their hats. No time for donning 
 overcoats now. The night, although cool, was such 
 that they would not suffer without their overcoats. 
 
 The chief walked out of the cloakroom and to the 
 entrance doer of the hotel, and our two friends closely 
 followed. Keeping him well in sight, they followed him 
 in hopes of striking a policeman or marshal. 
 
 But before they had gone three blocks they struck a 
 crowd of sidewalk loafers in front of another hotel, and 
 when the chief passed through them they lost him. 
 
 Bill could scarcely repress a volley of expletives at 
 this unexpected turn of affairs, and resolved not to be 
 outwitted. 
 
 ' 'Where did that man go?" he inquired of the fellows 
 who stood talking and smoking their cigars. 
 
 "Into that little alley there," answered one of them. 
 1 ' Don't you see that little gate there ?" 
 
 Bill looked up the walk and discovered a little gate at 
 the mouth of a narrow alley by the light of the street 
 lamp, and wondered if that had not been the reason he 
 had been outwitted so many times, and the chief might 
 
478 HART EMERSON'S- REPARATION. 
 
 have entered just such places as that before when he so 
 suddenly disappeared. 
 
 "Does he ever come out after he enters there before 
 morning ?" 
 
 "Naw, I don't think he does," replied the fellow. 
 "At least I never saw him do it." 
 
 A brief interval of silence followed, during which our 
 two friends were both debating the same thing in their 
 minds. That was whether they had better take any of 
 the loungers into their confidence or not. Clayton was 
 first to make up his mind, and bending over he whispered 
 in Bill's ear: 
 
 "Say, Bill, what do you think of taking these fellows 
 into our confidence ?" 
 
 Bill, seeing that Clayton had decided to do so, made 
 no objection to the proposition. The other fellows were 
 whispering among themselves, wondering what they 
 wanted of the dark, ominous looking stranger. One of 
 them spoke up and asked : 
 
 "What the devil do you want of him anyhow?" 
 
 The ice being now broken, Bill gave Clayton a nudge 
 and exclaimed aloud : 
 
 "Tell him, date." 
 
 Clayton moved over and scanned the face's of the 
 young men by the light of the hotel windows. He wanted 
 to pick out the one that would be most likely to be in- 
 terested and the most faithful and willing to aid. Finally 
 he settled on an earnest looking young fellow about the 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 479 
 
 age of twenty-five, and going up to him he said in a low 
 voice : 
 
 "I must tell you in a whisper, for it won't do to tell 
 it aloud. You will be greatly surprised at what I tell 
 you, but if you are faithful to us perhaps you will be 
 financially better off when we are through with you." 
 
 The fellow looked as though he would not be opposed 
 to financial aid, and replied as his face lighted up with 
 pleasant anticipation : 
 
 "All right, pard, go on." 
 
 Clayton bent over and whispered : "That man is 
 the leader of the Fox Valley outlaws, and if you help 
 us capture him you will get part of the reward." 
 
 The fellow opened his eyes wide with astonishment 
 and gave a prolonged whistle. 
 
 "Whew, pardner, but ain't you on a false trail? He 
 doesn't suit the description," he remarked in a low, 
 guarded tone. 
 
 "Bill overheard this remark, and came close up to 
 the fellow, and putting his hand on his shoulder said in 
 a low voice : 
 
 "That don't make any difference, pardner. This 
 man is the right man, and the real Tom Alton is as in- 
 nocent as you are." 
 
 "You don't say so," replied the fellow slowly. " Je- 
 whjllikins," he ejaculated loudly, as though giving vent 
 to his feelings. ' I'm a good deal wiser than I was a 
 
480 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 minute ago. But I promise you my aid, pards, providing 
 you are willing to divide the reward with me." 
 
 The others became interested now, and came crowd- 
 ing around eager to learn what the two intruders had 
 imparted to their companion. Clayton, seeing their 
 curiosity, seized the young man by the arm and said : 
 
 "Come over here a minute, chum. I want to speak 
 further with you." 
 
 Turning to Bill he said: " Keep silent, Bill, and I 
 will be back pretty soon." 
 
 Clayton took the young man up the walk about thirty 
 or forty feet, and when they stopped Clayton again whis- 
 pered to him: "That other fellow knows him. He 
 joined the gang for the purpose of breaking it up." 
 
 "Who is he?" asked the other, beginning to feel very 
 important to have a hand in some of the strange events 
 transpiring. 
 
 "Bill Thornton," replied Clayton. 
 
 "And who are. yon?" asked the other, his cariosity 
 greatly increased. 
 
 "Clayton Palliser," replied Clayton promptly. "If 
 you are faithful to us and effect or help to effect the cap- 
 ture of the robber chief you are welcome to my part of 
 the reward. As for Bill, I don't think he would give up 
 his share. He is poor and needs it. I am poor myself 
 but I don't want any blood money in mine." 
 
 "All right, pard," replied the other enthusiastically. 
 "What do you want me to do?" 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 481 
 
 "Watch here till midnight," replied Clayton. "If 
 he comes out be sure and have an officer here to arrest 
 him if you can find one that is willing to undertake the 
 task. You are doubtless acquainted with some of the 
 police force, and you can set your trap for him. As for 
 myself, I am willing to do all I can to rid the country of 
 him, partly as I see it as my duty and partly to oblige 
 the real man who bears all the blame for the wrongdoing 
 of this terrible man. We probably would never have 
 known the truth of the matter if it had not been for my 
 friend Thornton. Now, do as I tell you to and we will 
 go back to our hotel, and good luck go with you. If you 
 effect the capture you will be both rich and famous. 
 Good night." 
 
 And Clayton started briskly down the walk where he 
 had left Bill and the others, thinking it would do no good 
 for them to remain there, as the young man would cer- 
 tainly let his companions into the secret and they would 
 keep watch till midnight themselves. 
 
 "Let's go, Bill," he said as he came up, and the two 
 started back up the walk, casting furtive glances into the 
 little alley as they passed it. 
 
 Both remained silent and thoughtful as they passed 
 along, and when they got within a block of the hotel 
 Bill paused suddenly before a similar small alley and 
 peered therein. Clayton's curiosity was excited at once 
 and he questioned him thus : 
 
 "What's the matter now, Bill?" 
 
482 HAjn* EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 Bill did not reply at once, but after a momentary 
 hesitation said : * ' I was thinking how familiar this place 
 looks. By George," he exclaimed later, "this is the 
 very place where I lost him once before." 
 
 This was the outskirt of the city and places were 
 more recognizable to one unused to the city than in the 
 thickly settled portion where everything looked just the 
 same. Different houses of different materials and dif- 
 ferent construction, with other noticeable features, aided 
 the countryman in knowing his whereabouts, and Bill at 
 once recognized the place where he had lost sight of his 
 game the second time. 
 
 "Are you sure of it, Bill ?" inquired Clayton. 
 
 "Sure of it? Of course I am sure of it, date. 
 What do you think of the case ? Are you of the opinion 
 it was the other alley instead of this one that I lost sight 
 of him the second time ?" 
 
 "Hanged if I know," replied Clayton. "Let's go 
 home and go to bed. I'm getting sleepy." 
 
 When they reached the hotel and entered their room 
 Bill let himself fall down into a chair without even taking 
 off his hat, and, looking up at his companion, said : 
 
 "date." 
 
 Clayton, who had been in a brown study, turned 
 the lamp screw up and replied : 
 
 "Well Bill, what is it? You have thought of some- 
 thing new, I suppose." 
 
 "Not entirely new," replied Bill nervously, raking his 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 483 
 
 feet on the hard pine floor. "Did it ever strike you he 
 had any purpose in coming here for his supper ?" 
 
 "Are you sure he had not been here before?" 
 
 " Yes, quite sure." 
 
 "Well, do you think it was a pure accident he came 
 here to-night !" 
 
 "I'm sure I hadn't thought of that part of it," said 
 Clayton, seating himself in the other chair. 
 
 "Well, I'll bet anything I possess he knew of our 
 presence and came here on purpose to give us a dare," 
 exclaimed Bill in a positive tone. 
 
 "Or to lure us into a trap and murder us," responded 
 Clayton in an impromptu manner like that of Jack. "I 
 think it wouldn't come amiss for us to be a little 
 cautious," he added. "By George, that fellow must be 
 a first cousin to Old Nick himself, he looks so much like 
 him." 
 
 Bill laughed a short laugh at this sally and replied : 
 "Pretty good, Clate ; but I think myself he must be some 
 kin to him. Why, I don't believe there's anything on 
 earth he's afraid of." 
 
 "Unless it be his own reflection in the glass," re- 
 sponded Clayton. 
 
 Again Bill laughed a loud, hearty laugh. Clayton 
 could hardly be excelled for humorous sayings when he 
 was in that sort of a mood. 
 
 ' ' I would give a good sum to know how this thing is 
 going to turn ;>ut," he remarked when Bill ceased laughing. 
 
484 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 "So would I," replied Bill. "But as we don't know 
 and have no prophetic powers all we can do is to wait 
 and see." 
 
 Morning dawned over the city, and gradually the 
 usual din and clatter came on. The people of a city like 
 Springfield cannot afford to indulge in late hours like 
 those of large towns and trading posts, and must be astir 
 at an early hour to transact business during the season of 
 short days. . The noise of rushing trains, of hacks and 
 livery rigs added to the scream of whistles and clatter of 
 feet on the sidewalks increased as the morning star gradu- 
 ally paled and grew dim before the approaching rays of 
 the sun, while the wind, seeming to be loosed by the 
 sun's rays, began cavorting around through the streets, 
 with its muffled roar, sweeping through alleys and streets 
 as though on a warning errand of winter's near approach. 
 The sun rose gradually out of its eastern bed, as though 
 in opposition to the chilly wind its rays would diffuse 
 warmth and life to all living things, and as it rose higher 
 and higher in the vault of heaven .the city had started 
 upon another day of its career. The moon, like a 
 departing watchman of the night, hung in the western 
 sky, dim but discernible. What deeds, both good and 
 bad, had it been witness of that November night ? Did 
 the good or bad deeds predominate ? Who can tell till 
 all things hidden shall be revealed. 
 
 Our two friends had not lost any sleep over the mat- 
 ter uppermost in their minds, but slept soundly despite 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 485 
 
 the fact of their being unused to so much noise. And it 
 is probable that both of them had for their last waking 
 thoughts the object of their affections, the one a city 
 sybarite, the other a simple, sweet daughter of nature, 
 the daughter of an outlaw. The one living in the midst 
 of the splendor and glitter of a commercial metropolis, 
 the other in the wilds of Fox Valley, surrounded by 
 nothing but the wild, desolate solitudes of nature and 
 rough and desperate lawbreakers. Whatjja contrast in- 
 deed. And yet it is these lovely, innocent creatures, in 
 whatever walk of life they may be in, can tame the 
 savage heart of man, and by a bestowal of their love 
 make it as soft, tender and full of gentle compassion as 
 their own. 
 
 Bill was first to wake, and after lying with his hands 
 locked over his head a few minutes, he suddenly gave his 
 companion a vigorous shake and ejaculated : 
 
 "Hey, date, ain't you slept enough yet? Let's get 
 out and see how the thing turned out last night." 
 
 Clayton opened his eyes and, turning over in bed, gave 
 a tremendous yawn and exclaimed : "Yes, I guess it's 
 time we were crawling out, but it makes a fellow feel as 
 though he could stay forever in such a bed as this after 
 being stiffened up on such an expedition we took to the 
 Territory. I wonder what new and strange things we 
 will hear about to-day that will increase our knowledge 
 and fortunes. It seems as though fortunes and misfor- 
 tunes always come in a bunch." 
 
HART EMERSONS REPARATION. 
 
 "That's right," assented Bill as he rose up in bed and 
 reached for his trousers. "I've taken notice of that on 
 a small scale, for I never had any very large ones of 
 either kind. I think my biggest misfortune, though, was 
 being born and raised in that devil's hole over there." 
 
 Clayton jumped out of bed and grabbed his pants as 
 though he had been a doctor summoned to the bedside of 
 some one that was dying. 
 
 "Well that won't hurt you any, Bill," he exclaimed a 
 little absently. "Let's hurry and dress now or the bell 
 may ring. I feel sort of queer this morning as though 
 something was going to happen that concerned me deeply. 
 What do you reckon it'll be, Bill ?" 
 
 "Dogged if I'll tell you, date," replied Bill as he 
 slipped one of his shoes on his foot and began lacing it. 
 "It might be that our friend, the terrible, is in the toils," 
 he added. 
 
 "Well, I'm eager to get out and see," responded 
 Clayton in a laughing tone. Bill looked up from his 
 lacing and said in a half puzzled tone : 
 
 4 ' What's the matter with you, Clate ? I never saw 
 you so frolicsome since I became acquainted with you." 
 
 Clayton looked around at his friend and, fixing those 
 melting dark orbs of his on him in searching gaze, hesi- 
 tated a moment and replied : 
 
 "Why, Bill, I didn't think you were so stupid not to 
 know how I feel since things have assumed a brighter 
 aspect. But let that go for the present, we haven't time 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 487 
 
 to discuss it. It's natural for people to think that every 
 one else feels like they themselves do." 
 
 "Oh, yes, that's so," replied Bill slowly, as he began 
 his lacing again. "I'll bet a dozen coonskins and a 
 bushel of dried pumpkin you've got a sweetheart here in 
 town, and she's been smiling on you heavy since you've 
 been up. Come now, own up to it old man," and Bill 
 shot his companion a roguish glance, which brought a 
 smile into the latter's countenance. 
 
 "You're a pretty good guesser, William," he replied 
 earnestly, "but who do you think was my honorable 
 opponent ?" 
 
 Bill again looked puzzled. "Another mystery about 
 to come to light," he replied. "Please inform me." 
 
 "Well, it is our friend, Mr. Hart Emerson," replied 
 Clayton without hesitating. 
 
 "Oh pshaw," responded Bill, opening wide his big 
 black eyes and dropping both ends of the shoe string. 
 "Then it is Miss Britman that has taken you captive, 
 is it ?" 
 
 Clayton replied in the affirmative, and as he finished 
 speaking the breakfast bell rang. 
 
 "Come on, Bill," he exclaimed, "we haven't got 
 time just now, but I'll tell you more about it later on," 
 and the two left the room and proceeded to the dining 
 room, where the guests were assembling. 
 
 Nothing of importance happened during the meal, 
 
488 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 and when it was over our two friends buttoned their over 
 coats tightly, as the morning was very cool, and went 
 out, intent on seeing what had been accomplished. It 
 was early yet and not much stir was going on, but the 
 business places were all open, witLthe clerks behind the 
 counters, like spiders in their dens, waiting for flies to be 
 caught in their nets, while the occasional and spasmodic 
 noise of passing trains thundering through the city broke 
 on their ears as though in a determined effort to be heard 
 above the wind, which was beginning to rise in sharp 
 spasmodic blasts. The smoke of the former day and 
 night still hung in a damp haze over the city, nearly 
 obscuring the sun, which was rising slowly up above the 
 conglomerated mass, dispensing a murky halo of light 
 over the city and landscape. But our two adventurers 
 took but small notice of anything, but wended their way 
 down the main street leading out of the city, wondering 
 where they would find their confident. 
 
 " There he is now, " exclaimed Bill. ''He's coming 
 to look for us, and I'll bet something's happened. Let's 
 hurry and meet him." 
 
 Bill was not mistaken. A moment more and they 
 stood face to face with their confident. 
 
 "Good morning Mr. Palliser, good morning Mr. 
 Thornton." The young man was first to speak as he 
 came up. 
 
 A moment's repressed curiosity upon the part of our 
 two friends, and Clayton answered him thus : 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 489 
 
 " Good morning Mr. , I don't believe I know your 
 name," he added hesitatingly. "What's the news?" 
 
 The fellow let his eyes fall upon the walk as though 
 he felt guilty in their sight for not having performed the 
 task they had set for him, and replied after a second's 
 hesitation : 
 
 4 'Oh, nothing in regard to the matter we were talking 
 about last night. We did as you told us to, and watched 
 till midnight, but our game never came out." 
 
 These were dejecting news to our two friends, but 
 especially to Bill, who was thinking more about the 
 financial part than any other. He longed earnestly to 
 secure a home for himself so he could ask Bessie Harper 
 to share it, and as it had been his object to break up the 
 gang when he joined bethought that when the. leader 
 of them was once in the toils the task would be much 
 easier. But he was still more dejected when he learned 
 what had transpired that night. 
 
 The young man evidently had something to tell them 
 by his manner, and Clayton loosed his tongue by asking 
 him if that was all he had to tell. 
 
 "No, not all the news exactly," he went on slowly." 
 "A man was shot in the park last night. But he did not 
 die, although he never regained consciousness till about 
 sunrise this morning." 
 
 "Who was it? Did he give his name?" said Clayton 
 and Bill in the same breath. "Who did the shooting?" 
 continued Bill. 
 
49O HART EMERSON S REPARATION. 
 
 "I don't think I can remember the name the man 
 gave. A friend of mine told me about it early this 
 morning. Anyway he's the man that has lately fallen 
 heir to that big place out there," pointing eastward. 
 
 Clayton and Bill both exchanged startled glances, 
 and the young man noticing it exclaimed : 
 
 "You gentlemen seem to know who it was by that," 
 letting out a broad grin. 
 
 "Was it Emerson?" inquired Clayton anxiously. 
 
 "Yes, that's the name," answered the fellow with a 
 sudden beam of intelligence. "Are you acquainted with 
 him ?" 
 
 'Yes, slightly," replied Clayton, and then continued: 
 "Will you escort us to the hospital? We must see the 
 man that was shot as quick as possible." 
 
 "Ah, is that so ?" exclaimed the young man. * May 
 I ask why you wish to see him ?" 
 
 "Come along then, I'll tell you on the way," said 
 Bill with an impatient gesture. ' ' Lead the way if you 
 know it." 
 
 A minute later the trio were walking toward the hos- 
 pital as fast as their legs could carry them. Their con- 
 fident told them a few minor details concerning the night 
 watch and then remained silent, every now and then be- 
 stowing a questioning look upon them. Bill had forgot- 
 ten his promise he made about informing the fellow why 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 491 
 
 they were so anxious to see Hart Emerson, and Clayton, 
 after waiting till they had gone several blocks, reminded 
 him of it. 
 
 Bill Thornton did not possess a very good memory in 
 regard to small matters, but his mind was tolerably well 
 stored with knowledge, considering the place he had 
 been reared in. Like Jack Dalton, he considered Clay- 
 ton a fine model of a man and never had been so con- 
 scious of his own defects in his whole life before he 
 became acquainted- with him. He turned his head when 
 Clayton spoke and said to their confident in a low but 
 distinct voice : 
 
 "The reason we wish to see the man that was shot 
 last night is because the chances are about forty to one 
 that the fellow we set you to watch is the one that shot 
 him." 
 
 To say that the man was surprised at this announce- 
 ment would be to express it mildly. He blubbered and 
 emitted a string of oaths as long as the thoroughfare; he 
 wanted to know all the whys and wherefores of the case, 
 and gave evidence of being unduly excited for the dis- 
 tance of a block, till at last Bill cut him short by saying: 
 
 "Oh, nevermind about knowing it all now, chum. 
 We're in the hurry of our lives now to get there and see. 
 I'll bet a hundred dollars," he added, turning to Clayton, 
 "that it's been old Telegraph Pole that did the work. 
 You know what we were talking about over there the 
 other day ?" 
 
492 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 " I don't see any reason for disputing your opinion, 
 Bill," assured Clayton, "If it is really the case you 
 might as well give up the chase for this time." 
 
 " That's just what I was thinking about," responded 
 Bill in a worried voice. "If it was him did the shoot- 
 ing you won't see any more of him around here very soon 
 I'm thinking. " 
 
 "But how the devil do you reckon he got away with- 
 out us seeing him ?" put in the young man. " I can't 
 see for my part how he ever got out of there without us 
 seeing him. " 
 
 "Well, it's my opinion we'd as well give it up and 
 wait till we are better enlightened," remarked Clayton, 
 as he checked up to let a livery rig cross the pavement. 
 "I see it all now as plain as the nose on your face," he 
 added with a sudden beam of intelligence after the buggy 
 had passed and they started on. 
 
 "What is it, Clate ?" remarked Bill, looking around 
 at his companion with eager expectancy. 
 
 "Why, Bill, how stupid we are not to think of it 
 before," replied Clayton. "Don't you remember a tall, 
 dark stranger inquiring for Hart Emerson at the depot 
 down at Republic the other day ?" 
 
 Bill gave his head a sudden jerk of surprise and 
 replied : " That's so. I wonder why we didn't think of 
 it before. Yes, you are right, Clate, we're in the soup 
 now, for I see it all as plain as you do." 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 493 
 
 The other fellow listened intently to all that was 
 said and remarked shrewdly : "Then I guess it's some- 
 thing about the settlement of an old grudge, isn't it ? 
 Maybe it was that man's object in going into outlawry to 
 avenge himself on some of his enemies." 
 
 The young man was duly informed in regard to the 
 matter before they reached the hospital, and gave evidence 
 of being greatly excited. He made all sorts of depre- 
 cating remarks about having performed his task that 
 night till they told him there was no use blaming him- 
 self for the failure, as he had carried out their instruc- 
 tions. When they arrived there he excused himself and 
 left them, wishing them all manner of good luck. 
 
 Clayton's heart experienced some new and strange 
 sensations as they stood at the hospital door, waiting for 
 the answer to their ring. He seemed to live over in 
 those few minutes all the long, dreary stretch of years 
 since the joyous sensations of his boyhood faded out 
 when that memorable morning he saw his father march- 
 ing away to the war, and the strange events that had 
 lately transpired to dispel the cloud that hung over his 
 life, seemed but fantastic dreams that would only increase 
 his depression. It seemed hard to believe they were real, 
 and as they struggled to impress themselves upon his com- 
 prehension he felt very much as though he had awakened 
 from a conglomerated mass of dreams, in which he 
 scarcely knew what sensation to give way to. The wind 
 howled dismally around the stately building that was one 
 
494 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 of the objects of pride of the city, and its roar seemed 
 to be full of voices that spoke to him in spasmodic 
 strains out of the vista of dead years that so suddenly 
 rushed from the back chamber of his memory. But the 
 thought of how he would feel when he stood in the pres- 
 ence of the man who had been the cause of all his troubles 
 came to him before the summons to the door was ans- 
 wered, and he nerved himself for the meeting which was 
 about to take place. And the man had been shot and 
 probably was dying. He who had wronged so many had 
 at last been laid low by the very individual against whom 
 every man's hand was lifted, against whom even now 
 many heads were plotting. All these thoughts rushed 
 through Clayton's mind like a whirlwind during the brief 
 interval between the ringing and answering of the door- 
 bell. 
 
 A prim looking usher came at last and opening the 
 door asked what was wanted. 
 
 "We wish to see the man that was shot in the park 
 last night," answered Bill, for Clayton was endeavoring 
 to shake off the spell that bound him and tone his feel- 
 ings down for the meeting. 
 
 "Walk in," said the girl in the fine twang of the 
 townspeople, and Clayton and Bill rushed up the steps 
 with rather more haste than elegance. 
 
 1 1 What ward is the man in ?" asked Clayton. 
 
 "No. two, please," answered the girl. "This way, 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 495 
 
 please, " and she opened a door leading from the entrance 
 hallway to the right. 
 
 ' ' How is the man progressing ?" inquired Clayton as 
 they followed the usher through the long passage way 
 leading to ward two. 
 
 4 'Ask the doctor, sir," she replied tartly, without 
 turning her head, and a moment more they stood at the 
 door of ward number two. 
 
 The girl opened the door and stood aside. Bill took 
 a peep into the room and saw on the bed opposite the 
 door a man over whom two of the physicians were bend- 
 ing at the same time talking in low, muffled tones. 
 
 "Here's two gentlemen who want to see that man,'' 
 sang out the usher, and the doctors looked up, and after 
 a brief second's hesitation one of them answered : 
 
 "Walk in, gentlemen; it may be that one of you is 
 the man he's been calling for." 
 
 "Be seated, please," exclaimed the same speaker 
 when they had entered. 
 
 Both of them felt a little awkward in such a place as 
 a matter of course, but they strove hard to master their 
 feelings and give sensible replies to any questions that 
 might be asked. 
 
 ' ' Is he in much danger of dying ?" asked Bill suddenly. 
 Bill felt as though he wanted to get through with the 
 business and get out, for he did not relish the sounds 
 that came from the long string of cots that were filled 
 with suffering humanity. 
 
496 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 The doctor that acted as spokesman sh'ook his head. 
 "Not at present," he replied. "But he is in a critical 
 condition and may give us a world of trouble to pull him 
 through." 
 
 A low moan of pain from the wounded man attracted 
 the attention of our two friends for the first time, and as 
 the awkward sensations were beginning to wear off they 
 cast a glance at the face of the man, and as they did so 
 he opened his eyes and they fell upon Clayton and Bill. 
 A sickening stench of blood and decaying flesh emitted 
 from the cot, and they both turned their faces away as 
 the dark eyes of Hart Emerson rested upon them for a 
 moment. The ghastly pallor of his face, with those dark, 
 ominous looking eyes resting therein was a sight which 
 Clayton ever afterward vainly strove to eradicate from 
 his memory. What a savage and wicked sensation came 
 over him to gloat over the misery of this man, who 
 wronged not only himself but others as well. He who 
 had been looked up to and revered as one of the leading 
 citizens possessed a soul as black as Satan could paint it. 
 
 But Bill, as we have stated, was in a hurry to get 
 through and leave the place, for he felt like a bird that 
 had been caged and longed to spread his wings and fly 
 once more. For a moment he debated with himself as 
 to whether it would be proper to ask any questions, and 
 when he finally settled the matter in his mind he ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 "Doctor, is he in any shape to talk now? We 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 497 
 
 have something to ask him that not only concerns us, but 
 the welfare of the whole country." 
 
 The doctor looked very much surprised at this out- 
 break on Bill's part, and with his city bred ease he replied 
 in the affirmative. 
 
 Bill gave the wounded man a second glance and their 
 eyes met, although Hart was instantly taken with an- 
 other spasm and for a few seconds closed his eyes, utter- 
 ing such heartrending moans that Clayton, knowing the 
 wrong he had suffered at the man's hands, actually felt a 
 strong touch of pity for him. What were the odds any- 
 how ? If this man had not wronged him some one else 
 would, and now was it not his duty to forgive him ? Now 
 was the time for Clayton's teachings that had been in- 
 stilled into him by his mother to be tested, and a great 
 wave of compassion swept over hiin when the still, small 
 and wonderfully mysterious voice whispered : 
 
 "If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will 
 your Heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses." 
 
 Clayton's eyes again sought the face of the wounded 
 man, and there was a world of pity in his face as he did 
 so. Hart's face, although pallid and distorted with pain, 
 now showed signs of recognition. The spasm of p iin had 
 passed, and the doctors administered another bracing 
 potion at the whispered request of Hart, who also told 
 them he wished to speak with the two visitors. Then, 
 after the potion had taken effect, Hart beckoned to Clay- 
 ton to come closer. 
 
498 HART EMERSON'S REPARATJPN. 
 
 Clayton obeyed, thinking Emerson was going to tell 
 him what he already knew, and the tv 7 o physicians 
 moved back. One of them set the chair close to the 
 bedside, exclaiming: 
 
 "You will have to sit close to him if you want to 
 understand what he says," and Clayton sat down in the 
 chair. 
 
 Hart motioned to the physician who had acted as 
 spokesman. The doctor came and bent over him and 
 asked him what he wanted. 
 
 ' 'Leave the room please, you and tne others please," 
 exclaimed Hart in a weak voice. "But I may need you 
 a little later. " 
 
 Clayton was at last left alone with the man that had 
 been the foundation of his troubles, and his feelings can 
 better be imagined than described. But he realized that 
 it would be no time for letting his feelings run riot, and 
 he began talking at once, as he thought perhaps the 
 invalid would have a deal of trouble in commencing what 
 he had to say. 
 
 "Mr. Emerson, I regret seeing your sad condition." 
 he began, "but tell us the truth about it, won't you, 
 please ? Was it not the man that is supposed to be the 
 leader of the Fox Valley outlaws that assassinated you?" 
 
 "That is a question I can't answer, not knowing," 
 replied Emerson in a- clear voice, as his eyes roved rest- 
 lessly around the room. "I know who it was, but 
 
HART EMERSON S REPARATION. 499 
 
 whether he deserves the appellation of the chief of that 
 organization I don't know." 
 
 "Who was it then?" inquired Clayton in an anxious 
 voice. "Was it not some of the family you were at war 
 with back there in the Cumberlands ?" 
 
 Hart gave a start of surprise, and replied after a mo- 
 ment's hesitation : 
 
 "Yes, it was Jack Marston that did it, but what do 
 you know about it, Clayton Palliser ?" 
 
 "Ah, I have lately come into possession of some of 
 your secrets, Mr. Emerson," replied Clayton with an 
 ironical ring to his voice which he was probably uncon- 
 scious of. "Perhaps I know more about it than you do, 
 Hart, but tell me truthfully, did you not know that your 
 step brother was not the leader, and did you not know 
 who it actually was?" 
 
 The invalid stared hard at Clayton for a moment, and 
 then replied in a mellow, subdued voice : 
 
 "You know then what I have done to cloud your 
 life, eh ?" 
 
 "I do, but I forgive you, Hart, now that death is 
 staring you in the face," replied Clayton. " I and others 
 that are interested in these dark mysteries have at last 
 dug them up, and now, while we are shocked and pained 
 at the debasement of human nature, we are going to set 
 things to rights." 
 
 The invalid remained silent and thoughtful for about 
 a minute, staring in a vacant sort of way at the window, 
 
500 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 and Clayton still wondering absently in his mind whom 
 Hart could have meant if it was not Elsie Britman. The 
 ball had creased the left arm about three inches above 
 the left elbow and passed dangerously near the heart. 
 Hart explained the whole affair to Clayton in as few 
 words as possible; how he had met Miss Britman there 
 and her cold treatment of him, how the assassin had 
 suddenly emerged from behind the tree and without a 
 word of warning shot him. After that, he said, all was 
 blank till he opened his eyes early that morning to find 
 himself where he lay now, and the hospital staff around 
 the cot in anxious whispered consultation. 
 
 "But we have no time for discussing unnecessary 
 topics now, Clayton," he went on presently after a brief 
 pause, while collecting his shattered mind for a concen- 
 trated effort. 
 
 "I told you it was my belief that I would not live 
 long, perhaps not to see the light of another day. I 
 want to restore to you the property that is rightfully 
 yours. I could not face Jason Palliser, but I want you 
 to set things to rights for me, Will you promise me to 
 give him his share if I make it all over to you ?" 
 
 Clayton had been much agitated at the announce- 
 ment of the meeting between the invalid and the girl he 
 was beginning to love or already imagined he loved. 
 What was her object in meeting Emerson there ? Had 
 she done it simply through compassion ? Or had she 
 been holding out false hopes to him, even after her 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 501 
 
 declaration that she would not do such a thing ? Clay- 
 ton had passed through so many trying ordeals he was 
 beginning to school himself for emergencies of a strange 
 character, for he told himself it was probable he would 
 be no happier under the new order of things if he could 
 not find some one that possessed a pure and innocent 
 heart whom he could love. He was struggling now with 
 the fear ot falsity on the part of the object of his affec- 
 tions, whom he believed to be just what he had longed 
 for. A woman with a pure heart and a mind with high 
 ideals, in short a. clever but innocent woman, whose sou 
 was as beautiful as her face and form. His voice sounded 
 hollow and distant as he answered : 
 
 " I promise." 
 
 "Then go, bring the necessary officials and we will 
 proceed," answered Hart, and Clayton, who was strug- 
 gling manfully to concentrate his mind on the business 
 at hand, answered rather abruptly: 
 
 "But I want only what is rightfully mine, Hart Mr. 
 Emerson. I understand you were to pay over as dam- 
 ages the sum of four thousand dollars along with the 
 other /'catching himself in time to present it in a 
 respectable manner. "I don't know why you should 
 want to restore more than we asked." 
 
 "Ah, you .don't know the whole particulars," re- 
 sponded Hart, again letting his gaze rest on the window, 
 as though he believed it would be the last time he saw 
 the light of day. 
 
5O2 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 "It was to save myself from the gallows that I took 
 your father's money, but there is no time for discussing 
 that either. I only wanted to show you that I did not 
 do it altogether through love of gain. I've been a base, 
 wicked schemer, but I have a little humanity in me yet. 
 It was all to secure possession of that fanciful allurement 
 we call wealth and the gew gaws of the world, the flesh 
 and the devil, that I bartered away my soul's salvation. 
 Better had I remained poor and plodded through life with 
 a good conscience than to have done as I have done, but 
 it seems as though it has been the curse of my family 
 from time immemorial. I refer to the greedy lust for 
 wealth which they all were determined to possess, no 
 matter whether they obtained it by honest means or not. 
 But I am the last of the Emerson's. The others that 
 were not killed in the vendetta with the Marston's have 
 all died in various manners, and perhaps it is a good 
 thing. This country can get along without us, for the 
 one idea of our family was to obtain wealth, no matter 
 how. The country can well spare me, Clayton, but it 
 needs such men as you. Take the property that is right- 
 fully yours, for the estate will just about cover it. In 
 addition to that I took from Jason Palliser, there is two 
 thousand dollars I made with your capital, and I have 
 used enough of that to pay me for my trouble. Now, 
 remember me not as an enemy but as a misguided man 
 who has done like hundreds of others and refused to 
 
HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 503 
 
 listen to the warning voice of conscience. Go quickly 
 now, or you may be too late." 
 
 Clayton rose and cast a last glance at the pallid face 
 of Emerson, but not a word escaped him. How could 
 he offer any condolence to this man that had shrouded so 
 many years of his life in gloom and doubt and vexation, 
 dragging himself and family down into the tortuou s 
 depths of poverty, keeping his beloved parent in a living 
 tomb and they living near him all the time. So many 
 strange sensations crowded in upon the comprehension 
 of our hero as he passed out that he was scarcely con- 
 scious of any resentment in his heart for the dying man, 
 but nevertheless it was there. You may think it strange 
 for Clayton, but if there was one class of people he 
 detested above all others it were the people who sell 
 their honor, their reputation, even their soul's redemp- 
 tion for wealth. All other sinners he could forgive, but 
 not them who are beastly enough to prize money above 
 all else. 
 
 When he reached the entrance door he was both 
 pleased and surprised to meet John Britman. John, who 
 was always on the lookout lor strange coincidences, 
 readily understood Clayton, who told him in as few words 
 as possible what had transpired, and he straightway 
 secured the necessary officials for Clayton. 
 
 Hart Emerson felt that his life was fast ebbing when 
 they returned, but the work was quickly done, and he sat 
 up and signed it in a clear, legible hand. The lawyer 
 handed it to Clayton, and Hart sank back on the bed in 
 
504 HART EMERSON'S REPARATION. 
 
 another spasm, uttering such pitiful moans that it tore 
 the hearts of all present, Clayton not excepted. The 
 doctor told Clayton and the others that it would be better 
 for the patient if they left the room, and all of them, 
 realizing that they could be of no use there, were glad to 
 escape. So they went out, the officials little dreaming 
 they had witnessed the last act of a dark tragedy. 
 
 John Britman invited Clayton and Bill to spend the 
 day with him, and they consented, for Bill no f 'Vit\ n a 
 bit coy was not averse of spending a day among the elite 
 of the city, and Clayton was again longing to bask in the 
 sunshiny presence of his pretty sweetheart. John frankly 
 told Clayton that he wanted a more lengthy description, 
 and Clayton promised to give it. So they pursued their 
 way toward the Britman mansion, their thoughts keeping 
 pace with their feet, Clayton and Bill anticipating a 
 pleasant day. 
 
It required every grain of the Palliser grit to stand that long 
 tortuous ride over the mountains. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 
 
 Charlie McKasson had often spoken to Jasie 
 about his young brother Reuby, who he said was equally 
 as fond of hunting as he, and far more skillful, as he had 
 had more experience. This assertion naturally roused in 
 the boy a keen desire to show Charlie that he was mis- 
 taken and that the Palliser's were a race of pioneers and 
 born hunters that could hold their own with anybody. As 
 a result the boy, who considered himself a pretty good 
 substitute for a man, if not a real one, began to devise 
 some way to meet the McKasson boy in a trial of their 
 skill in woodcraft and hunting the larger game. The 
 way was shortly opened to him. A party was forming to 
 go to Fox Valley to help avert the threatened catastrophe, 
 and Charlie and Bill, having the interests of the home 
 community at heart, had joined it. Jasie discovered 
 this and begged to be allowed to form one of the party. 
 
 ''Does your mother consent to it?" asked Charlie. 
 
 "No, I have not asked her," said Jasie, who had 
 been raised to tell the truth, but was never more tempted 
 to lie th^n now. 
 
 "Well, I don't know about letting you go then," 
 
 (507) 
 
508 THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 
 
 replied Charlie, who was shoeing a horse at the shop. 
 Two or three urchins stood around eyeing him. 
 
 '*Go and ask her, Jasie," said one of the little boys. 
 
 Jasie shook his head. "Wouldn't be any use, " he 
 explained, but he looked toward the house as if he had 
 a mind to try anyhow. 
 
 "Yes she would too," exclaimed the largest of the 
 urchins, who was one of Jeff Carlton's children. 
 
 ' ' Why, Dan ? How do you know she would ?" ques- 
 tioned Jasie, brightening up. He knew the urchin was 
 truthful, and if the information he gave wa not true it 
 was a misunderstanding on his part. 
 
 "Because I heard her say so," replied Dannie 
 Carlton. 
 
 "Then I'll go and ask her," said the boy, and off he 
 sped to see whether the little fellow had misunderstood. 
 
 The recent unfolding of the mysterious puzzling 
 crimes had brought to the ranch house a number of girls 
 and married women who desired to know more about 
 them. Mrs. Palliser was among them. She had learned 
 of her husband's cruel treatment, and when she was 
 informed of his whereabouts she expressed a desire that 
 some of the family go to him. As Clayton was not at 
 home, and Dick was not old enough to be trusted on 
 such an important errand, there was no one but Jasie to 
 go as a natural consequence, and so the urchin was not 
 misinformed. Jasie was delighted when he found that 
 his mother really wanted him to go and proud that he 
 
THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 509 
 
 was to be the first of the family to see and talk with the 
 lost one. Jasie really was beginning to discard his boyish 
 ideas and assertions, and trying to form ideas which he 
 thought were more manlike. His old boyish assertion 
 about the identity of the Fox Valley bandit chief was 
 forgotten amidst the aggregated collection of strange 
 events of recent occurrence, and when he rode away 
 from the Dalton ranch in company with the party, bound 
 for the valley, he little dreamed that his boyish prognos- 
 tication was to be realized in every detail. 
 
 But the boy was not used to so much hard riding, 
 and it required every grain of the Palliser grit to stand 
 that long tortuous ride over the mountains. Often he 
 felt so numb and sore that he reeled in his saddle, but 
 the rough banter of his companions fired him with re- 
 newed effort, and the wiry mountain steeds bore them on 
 with resisting energy over the fifty mile stretch of rough 
 mountain road which lay between the ranch and Hob- 
 son's Tavern. It was but a day's ride for them, and 
 they knew there was no time to fool away if they reached 
 the valley in time to take part in the expected sortie. 
 
 The sun was setting in a flood of golden light, which 
 indicated the near approach of a storm, and the old 
 tavern lay basking in the weird light of that and the 
 waxing moon when the party came in sight of the place 
 and halted. 
 
 Nick Alton turned his horse square across the road 
 and pointed toward the tavern exclaiming : 
 
5io THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 
 
 4 : Look there what a crowd has assembled, boys. I 
 wonder what has happened." 
 
 The others did look and saw a boisterous, hustling 
 crowd in the road in front of the tavern. 
 
 "It's a sale, maybe," suggested Charlie McKasson. 
 
 "The best way to find out is to go and see," said 
 Nick abruptly, as he wheeled his horse and signalled for 
 the others to follow. 
 
 The party consisted of Nick and Tom Alton, Charlie 
 McKasson, Bill Thornton, Jeff Carlton, Alex Dalton, 
 Andy Garnett, Dan Ferguson, and two young men of the 
 neighborhood who, likejasie, were athirst for adventure. 
 
 It did not require any great length of time to cover 
 the distance between there and the tavern, although the 
 horses were beginning to flag, and the party soon halted 
 in front of the tavern, and when they did so they soon 
 learned what the assemblage, meant. 
 
 Jason Palliser came toward them to explain. As 
 Tom and Nick were both absent, the command of the 
 regulators had of course devolved upon him, and they 
 saw by the expression of his countenance that some- 
 thing had happened and" that the probability was that 
 they had come too late. 
 
 Tom had discovered the close proximity of the boy 
 to him and addressed him with this question when he 
 saw PalHser approaching : 
 
 "Do you know that man, Jasie?" 
 
THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 511 
 
 It was evident he did, for at sight of his father the 
 boy's stiffened limbs and benumbed senses were suddenly 
 inoculated with new life. He made no reply to Tom's 
 question, but slid off of his horse and ran toward his 
 father in a dazed state of gladness. His parent saw him 
 and stopped. In a moment father and son were clasped 
 in each other's arms uttering joyful, excited remarks and 
 interrogations, while those who knew their story looked 
 on in joyful silence. 
 
 But Jason had to make his report to his superior, 
 and while he did so Charlie sought o'lt his brother and 
 introduced the two young Nimrods in a careless fashion, 
 knowing that they would not be long in getting acquainted. 
 Then he hustled around in the crowd trying to learn 
 what had happened. 
 
 Great excitement prevailed. When they learned what 
 had transpired they knew they had come too late to take 
 part, in the conflict which everybody expected would be 
 the final one, and decide whether the law abiding or law 
 defying element ruled. 
 
 The preceding night Palliser had mustered his men 
 and attacked the marauders congregated at Ben Harper's 
 at a big dance. Bloody work ensued, but the regulators 
 escaped with only one man killed and three wounded, one 
 slightly, two seriously. They had waited till there was 
 a large group of them out of doors and then opened fire 
 on them. A number of them was killed and a number 
 wounded, the balance of the assembled freebooters had 
 
512 THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 
 
 fled up the rocky slope behind the cabin, and the regu- 
 lators advanced on the cabin to find it empty. 
 
 One of the regulators who was describing it to Charlie 
 said, between outbursts of laughter: "And I'll bet 
 everything I've got they're runnin' yit, if they ain't tum- 
 bled off of some bluff and killed themselves." 
 
 " Did you get Ben ?" asked Charlie. 
 
 "No, we didn't," replied the regulator. "I don't 
 believe he'll ever show up in these /parts enny more, and 
 I for one will be glad of it for Bess' and Bill's sake." 
 
 "That's the way I feel about it too," replied Charlie. 
 "Bill has got a chance to get a start now, and if the 
 Lord answers the prayer of this sinner he'll crown him 
 and Bess with his richest blessings." 
 
 " Do you think Bill will get the reward for the sachem 
 of the freebooters ?" asked the regulator. 
 
 "Don't know. He failed to bag him at Springfield, 
 and I think he has about given it up." 
 
 The regulator was silent and thoughtful for a moment 
 and then said : "It would be jist like the ole cuss to go 
 and commit suicide or be killed by some of his men, or 
 get shot for a deer, or more likely a black bear from the 
 description I've heard of him." 
 
 The force, which had been greatly swelled by the 
 O. H.'s had just returned from burying the dead, a scene 
 that perhaps the reader is tired of, so we will not 
 describe it. 
 
 The concourse dispersed about dark and none re- 
 
THE SERPENTS LAST WRIGGLE. 513 
 
 mained at the tavern except the men from far off regions. 
 Nothing more remained to be done except to capture the 
 mysterious leader of the bandit cabal which was to be an 
 event of something like a fox chase by the programme 
 outlined, and the cruel zest the mountaineers manifested 
 in it. 
 
 About nine o'clock the next morning the sky was sud- 
 denly overcast with a smooth rainy cloud, arid the rain 
 began to descend in torrents. There were men there 
 who hoped to be the lucky one to capture the noted out- 
 law, believing that fame and fortune would be theirs, arid 
 the rain caused some of them great anxiety. They 
 thought perhaps it would enable the chief to get out of 
 the community and put a great distance between himself 
 and his pursuers. They knew he was in the community 
 and believed him -at Calvin's, where he was wont to hide 
 and recuperate after returning from an expedition, and 
 the news brought from Springfield by Bill Thornton had 
 revealed his identity, and they understood now that he 
 was a bloodthirsty member of a Kentucky feudal clan 
 and had come into the region to hunt down and slay the 
 remnant of his enemies. 
 
 Perhaps he would now leave the region, as the last 
 member of the opposing clan had gone down by his 
 avenging bullet. 
 
 All day long the rain descended in blinding torrents, 
 the wind had risen in a strong spasmodic gale and dashed 
 the descending rain against the windows of the old tavern, 
 
514 THE SERPENT'S LAST WRIGGLE. 
 
 rattling the sashes and shaking the old building from 
 cellar to garret. The limbs of the trees in the surround- 
 ing forest were ruthlessly torn from the trunks, and the 
 crash of their falling could be distinctly heard by the 
 inmates above the roar of the tempest. A dismal day 
 to the active, mettlesome mountaineers who were used 
 to outdoor pursuits and chafed at their confinement to 
 the house, as well as their inability to go in pursuit of the 
 robber chief. But while they were undergoing all this 
 restraint they did not know that the object of their 
 thoughts was preparing to depart the country and sur 
 render his title of grand sachem of the freebooters. 
 
As Jack fired his horse shied at the dogs. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 Next morning the sun rose up out of its Eastern bed, 
 and finding the way clear began to send forth its life 
 giving rays once more, driving the dampness out of the 
 air and drying up the roads and fields. The assembled 
 guests, when they had dispatched their breakfast, sallied 
 forth and formed into a group in the road, talked and 
 debated about the intended expedition, and wondered 
 whether it would be successful, wondered if it would 
 transpire at all. The cool, bracing, ozonic air made 
 them feel as though they would welcome most any kind 
 of an expedition now that would give them ample 
 exercise. This sort of excitement was the life of a great 
 many, and there were no doubt some of them that were 
 actually sorry the warfare had terminated, and like Alex- 
 ander the Great wanted more worlds to conquer. 
 
 The sun ascended higher and higher above the rugged 
 mountain landscape, and the higher it got the warmer its 
 rays became until at last it seemed to have made amends 
 for the conduct of wind and rain in drying the earth, 
 expelling the damp haze and warming the air up to its 
 regular temperature. By two o'clock nothing was left to 
 
 (5-7) 
 
5l8 A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 indicate the storm's passage but the fallen limbs in the 
 forest around. 
 
 None of the strangiers had appeared yet when noon 
 came, but shortly after dinner they began to pour in in 
 a steady stream, in eager anticipation of the sport. 
 Their faces wore a hilarious, triumphant expression, they 
 laughed and joked about the intended expedition as 
 though they were going to a horse race or on a fox hunt 
 
 Jasie Palliser had been invited to spend the night at 
 the McKasson home, and his father had urged him to do 
 so, as he himself would be busy for awhile. Then he 
 said they would go home and be happy together once 
 more. The McKasson boy told him they would take a 
 round trip the next day, but the rain prevented it. But 
 the following day was an excellent day for large game, 
 and the two lads sallied forth bright and early, little 
 dreaming of the tragedy that would transpire before they 
 returned. 
 
 Three o'clock came, and with it an increase of the 
 concourse at the tavern. But while a few of them were 
 anxious to go in pursuit of the game, and believed it still 
 in the neighborhood, the majority, knowing what they 
 did, now believed the noted individual having fulfilled 
 his mission of revenge would skip the country. They 
 knew that it was usele'ss to interview Pete Calvin on the 
 subject, but they felt confident that as soon as the chief 
 was out of danger he would come out of his seclusion 
 and explain matters. 
 
A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 519 
 
 While they were thus speculating on the subject some 
 of them who happened to be looking that way saw a man 
 riding slowly up the road from the East 
 
 The keen-sighted mountaineers required no second 
 glance to tell he was not one of their number not one 
 of the regulators who were conspiring for the downfall 
 of the chief of the Fox Valley outlaws. The man was 
 not over eighty yards off, and they could tell what sort 
 of a looking man he was and tell from the expression of 
 his countenance what his mission was there. 
 
 "It's Calvin," said Nick, with an eager, apprehen- 
 sive look. 
 
 "So it is," said Reub McKasson. "Wonder what's 
 up now?" 
 
 A wild orgie of speculating ejaculations ensued, which 
 subsided into a subdued undertone of low spoken guesses 
 as the man drew nigh. He rode up and jnotioned to 
 Tom Alton to come to him. 
 
 Tom obeyed with alacrity, wondering what was the 
 matter, wondering if Calvin was going to reveal another 
 startling piece of news. 
 
 Calvin was a man with a large, awkward, bony frame, 
 but straight as an arrow, and his features were rugged, 
 what could be seen of them for his big yellow whiskers. 
 His nose was large and red like a whiskey bloke's, his 
 eyes were a small, keen gray, with a pathetic expression 
 in them, and altogether he looked like a man who had 
 seen a- world of trouble. He was dressed in a gray 
 
52O A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 homespun suit and red flannel shirt, with heavy cowhide 
 boots, and a cap that looked like an old family heirloom 
 surmounted his bushy head. Yet for all his uncouth 
 appearance he looked like a man with a reserve force of 
 mental power and a rugged adherence to principle. A 
 man like Clayton Palliser would have taken him for a 
 martyr who had suffered for the truth's sake. 
 
 Nick was first to speak. " Hello, Pete," he said good 
 naturedly as he carne up. " What's the matter now? I 
 thought groundhog day was in February instead of 
 November." 
 
 Calvin's face lit up with sudden, humorous enthusiasm. 
 "But the groundhog doesn't hole up till cold weather, 
 Nick, not any more than the blacksnake." 
 
 This was said with a significant look, which caused a 
 roar of applauding laughter from the crowd as well as 
 Nick. Nick's long, lithe body certainly did resemble a 
 shake more than any other member of the animal king- 
 dom. 
 
 "I've come to tell you that the chief of the Fox 
 Valley outlaws is no more, Nick," exclaimed Calvin as 
 he released Nick's hand after shaking with him. 
 
 "The devil you say," ejaculated Nick. "How did 
 that happen ?" 
 
 "Got killed for a deer," replied Calvin with the half 
 humorous expression still lingering on his countenance. 
 
 "Got killed for a deer," reiterated Nick, a sudden 
 light beaming on his face. He had been struck with the 
 
A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. , $21 
 
 tdea that it had been the two young Nimrods we are 
 interested in who had made the mistake. 
 
 "Yes, he's dead," explained Calvin in about the same 
 tone he would assume if he "had been telling them about 
 the death of some mountain buck the settlers had been 
 trying to kill for a long period. 
 
 Nick motioned for the others to come up if they 
 wanted to, and when they all clustered around the man 
 he explained the incident to them in his slow spasmodic 
 way. 
 
 When they realized that all was over now they pressed 
 Calvin to tell them the history of the great Kentucky 
 feud from beginning to end. He told them as there was 
 nothing in the way of it he would do so. 
 
 "All right, Pete, let us go into the house and get 
 comfortable seats," said Nick. "Then you can tell us 
 the points of the case we don't know." 
 
 " Uncle Rack, who was among the crowd, acquiesced 
 to this, and was wild with apprehension. 
 
 A few minutes later they were all seated in the large, 
 roomy reception room ready to listen to Calvin's story. 
 
 "The first thing I will have to mention," said Calvin 
 as he gave a sweeping glance at his audience, "is that I 
 was arrested and tried several years ago for burning a 
 settler's buildings over on Swan Creek. If it had not 
 been for the interference of a certain man who is now in 
 this audience I would have had to go to jail." 
 
 A steady, incredulous stare, and a furtive exchange 
 
522 A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 of questioning glances followed this announcement, but 
 Calvin appeared not to notice it and continued : 
 
 "But I was fortunate enough to prove my innocence 
 of the crime, and when I was free once more from the 
 clutches of the law I resolved from that day on to appoint 
 myself a detective to ferret out these mysterious crimes 
 and fasten them on the true perpetrator. But I knew it 
 would be a great while yet before any of them could be 
 convicted because there were numberless unscrupulous 
 persons ready to swear a lie for a financial considera- 
 tion." 
 
 Cries of , 4 Right ! Right ! You are right !" 
 
 "So I just wrote them down and stuck them away 
 for future use. Now, then, there is another man in this 
 audience who was in the same business as I was, and a 
 short time ago I found out he was working on a case I 
 had already cinched." 
 
 Reub McKasson rose and asked : * ' Shall I tell them 
 now, Pete?" 
 
 "Yes, you may, and all of you can ask all the ques- 
 tions you like, and he will tell you all he knows, so as to 
 let me have an occasional pause for breath," returned 
 Calvin. 
 
 "Then brothers," said Reub, turning and facing the 
 audience, ' ' it was Pete gave me the information I wanted, 
 and he also told me something else." 
 
 "What was it ?" from Nick, who motioned the others 
 to keep silent and let him act as spokesman. 
 
A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 523 
 
 * * We hung the perpetrator of the crime that Pete 
 Calvin was tried for when we hung Milt Harper." 
 
 A chorus of excited ejaculations greeted this, and 
 Reub, having said his say, resumed his seat. 
 
 "I wonder how a man like him could have stayed 
 sane," he remarked as he settled himself in his seat. 
 
 Calvin went on: "Now, then, in order to give you 
 an insight into the character of another case I have been 
 working on I will first have to recite the story of the 
 great Kentucky feud." 
 
 A pin could have been heard fall so intense was the 
 silence. 
 
 "The starting point of that memorable struggle was 
 the killing of Dodd Emerson by a Marston, who went by 
 the name of Jack, but whose real name was in full 
 Thomas Alton Marston. Jack was only a nickname. 
 This same man was a descendant, an Alton, just as the 
 Tom Alton who was killed in. the battle of Pea Ridge 
 was." ftauauc JLabim.fr 
 
 1 ' And was he sure enough killed ?" asked a dozen 
 voices. 
 
 "He can best answer that question himself," replied 
 Calvin, assuming the grim humorous expression again. 
 
 Tom Was on his feet in an instant and explained as 
 briefly as possible the same story he had told to others. 
 Another death like silence ensued: It was too much for 
 them to grasp all at once. 
 
 ' ' Thus you see," resumed Calvin, "that while Tom 
 
524 ASELF-APP01NTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 Alton was abroad enjoying himself, Jack Marston, who 
 had served out his term in the Kentucky state prison, 
 had come into this region in search of the remnant of 
 the opposing clan. He assumed the name of Tom Alton 
 and was known by no other name. He turned up at my 
 house unexpectedly one day, and as I had married his 
 sister, Dodd Emerson's widow, I offered him the shelter of 
 my home. I don't know but what Dora, that is my wife, 
 could have persuaded him out of the notion of finishing 
 the Emerson's if it had not been that he ran across one 
 of them down near the state line at a horse race, and as 
 the Emerson was to defiant too suit him he- shot him 
 dead. For this he had to keep dark for awhile. He 
 stayed here for a time' and then went away one day, and 
 I thought he would never come back. He said he had 
 nothing to live for, only revenge, and that he was going 
 to wipe the last Emerson off the face of the earth. His 
 wife had married again, and he seemed to think I and 
 Dora were the only two of his relatives who had not for- 
 saken him. But one day he suddenly turned up again 
 and told us that there was one less Emerson in the world 
 than there had been when he went away. 
 
 Now then, my friends, in order that you may under- 
 stand another incident connected with this one I have 
 mentioned, I will go back and relate the adventure of 
 another man who is one of this audience. This man 
 came into this" region shortly after Jack, looking for a 
 location, and one day he landed up at the old Alton 
 
A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 525 
 
 plantation, on a little creek near the James, and the 
 childhood's home of Tom Alton. The place was then 
 owned by Tom Alton's step brother, as his mother had 
 threatened to disinherit him if he did not relinquish his 
 political views, and had carried out her threat by leaving 
 the property to Hart Emerson, who was her stepson and 
 the nephew of Dodd Emerson. Hart was very reckless, 
 and like all easy going people who get a fortune in an 
 easy way he soon spent what money he had, and when 
 he was arrested for the murder of his sweetheart he was 
 in a bad financial shape. The man who was looking for 
 a location was spotted by Hart, and he knew he must 
 have a large sum on his person. But Hart was averse 
 to murder, and was trying to invent some easy plan of 
 getting the man out of the way and securing his money." 
 
 "And that man is the one who is the second lieuten- 
 ant of the stranglers, is he not?" asked Reub McKasson. 
 
 "I have been suspicious of {hat for some time, and 
 when I saw his boy meet with him the other day I was 
 sure of it." 
 
 Palliser rose when Reub seated himself. 
 
 ' ' Gentlemen ," he said, looking around the assemblage, 
 "I am Jason Palliser, the man whom Hart Emerson so 
 cruelly imprisoned in a little stone cabin that was the 
 pioneer residence of the Alton's who settled the place. I 
 remained there till a short time ago, when the man who 
 was supposed to be the leader of these desperate outlaws 
 sought the cabin for some reason, found me there and 
 
526 A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 released me. I swore that I would not seek my famil} 
 till I recovered the money, and I have kept my word. I 
 have enjoyed this outing of adventure well, for that was 
 my object in seeking a home in the West. I was opposed 
 by my wife in the project, but. overruled her, and came 
 in here seeking for a good location. But I think our 
 friend Calvin can tell you the rest better than I can, so 
 I will sit down." 
 
 Like the audience at the Pentacostal sermon, the 
 assemblage was spellbound with wonder. Calvin paused 
 a short time before beginning again, and then continued. 
 
 "One night while Jason Palliser was there Boyd 
 Emerson was returning from town, and when he arrived 
 at a certain point on the mountain side, an old cabin 
 site just on top of a bench above the house, he saw a 
 man riding up the hill in the opposite direction. He 
 suspected nothing till the man had approached him, and 
 then, as the moon was shining brightly, Boyd recognized 
 Jack Marston as the intruder, and his hand suddenly 
 clutched at his pistol butt. Jack also recognized him 
 and both of them stopped. No word was spoken, but 
 they glared their hatred of each other in a deadly silence. 
 But Jack was determined and drew his pistol, and Boyd 
 did likewise. But for a lucky incident Jack would no 
 doubt have gone under too, when they fired, for even if 
 Boyd had been shaking with fear he could hardly have 
 missed at that short distance. They fired simultaneously, 
 but at that instant a dog came trotting swiftly down the 
 
A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 road, and as Jack fired his horse shied at the dog, and 
 while Boyd was hit hard Jack escaped with a hole through 
 his hat rim. Boyd was gritty, and reeling in his saddle 
 tried to fire again, but Jack spurred his horse up, and, 
 knocking the pistol from Boyd's hand, he put a hole 
 through his head and Boyd fell off his horse and lay like 
 a log. 
 
 While all this was going on, Hart was lying in bed 
 awake at the house, trying to invent some way to get 
 Palliser's money and yet secure himself from danger. He 
 heard the firing and rose hastily and donned his clothes. 
 Then he went out softly and up the hill, looking cautious- 
 ly at each side of the road as he went. He came to the 
 top at last and found Boyd lying in a ghastly pool of 
 blood, and when he was satisfied he was beyond aid he 
 knew he would have to guess who killed him. 
 
 The truth of the matter was Boyd and Hart were the 
 chief witnesses against Jack when he had his trial, and 
 I verily believe they swore lies against him, believing he 
 was just tiger enough to slay the last one of them if they 
 didn't get him out of the way. As I said, the trouble 
 started over the killing of Dodd, but I did not mention 
 the fact that it was Dodd's mistreatment of Dora that 
 caused Jack to kill him. He told him if he did not stop 
 it and reform he would kill him just like he would a mad 
 dog. But Jack had a strong case of self defense, and I 
 believe he would have pulled through if Boyd and Hart 
 had not sworn falsely against him. This was the real 
 
528 A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 cause of the trouble between the two warlike clans, and 
 the result was another one of those terrible feuds that 
 occur back in that part of the country. Long, bloody, 
 and furious was the war, and every one knew the Emer- 
 son's, to escape entire annihilation, would have to leave 
 the country. They were a selfish, cruel set, and no one 
 cared much if they were all wiped out. The result was 
 the remnant of them scattered out over these mountains 
 and fell at the hands of my brother-in-law. 
 
 But to resume what I was talking about before. Hart 
 had been studying hard for a plan, but had not struck 
 any that suited him till he arrived on the scene and saw 
 his father lying dead. He bent over him a moment, but 
 I can't say whether he was convulsed with grief or not. 
 Doubtless he was not, when the devil suggested the plan 
 which he put into operation at once. Boyd was dead 
 and he would use him to good purpose I guess he" 
 thought to save his own neck. He would entice Palliser 
 into the little stone hut and drug him, rob him and then 
 shut him up. But before that he must bury the body in 
 some secluded spot where it would not be discovered, 
 and then he would create the impression that Boyd had 
 become violently insane so as to prevent anybody from 
 prying around the hut where his prisoner was confined. 
 He went back to the house, and securing some plank 
 with the necessary nails and a hatchet, he constructed a 
 rude coffin. Then he carried it up the hill and enclosed 
 the body in it, and hiding it in the thicket he sought a 
 
A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 52Q 
 
 place which he thought would be safe, and then he 
 dragged the coffin and its contents to it. By chicken 
 crow he had finished the task of interment and went 
 back to the house, taking care to eliminate all signs of 
 the night's work. 
 
 Next morning he enticed Palliser into the little hut, 
 gave him some drugged whiskey to drink and then when 
 he had lost his senses he robbed him and shut him up." 
 
 "And was Milt Harper under Hart's influence ?" asked 
 Alex. Dalton. 
 
 "He was," replied Calvin emphatically. "It was he 
 who hired Milt to burn Jeff Carlton's buildings, thinking 
 by that it would result either in the capture and execu- 
 tion of the chief of this fierce band or his decease at 
 Carlton's hands. 
 
 " But what grudge did he have against him ?" asked 
 Jeff Carlton. 
 
 "He believed that it was either Jack or his step 
 brother that was the leader and the murderer of Boyd, 
 but was not sure which one. He believed, though, that 
 either of them was his enemy, and sought to get him 
 out of the way." 
 
 "Now then, Calvin, since you seem to know every- 
 thing, can you tell us what the errand of Bob Willis and 
 Manton Brightwood was at the exhumation of the old 
 Alton hoard the other night ?" 
 
 "I can. It was to dig up the hoard and run off with 
 it and divide it." 
 
53O A SELF-APPOINTED DETECTIVE. 
 
 1 'But what made Manton run away so sudden." 
 
 "Well, Mant isn't no fool," replied Pete with a 
 humorous twinkle. ' ' He could tell the difference in the 
 report of Jack Dalton's forty-five and Bob's thirty-two, 
 and when he heard Bob screech he thought it was time 
 to be gone." 
 
 A moment's silence then ensued, which was broken 
 by Nick rising and saying : 
 
 "And now, Calvin, if you are through don't you 
 think we'd better attend to the burying of your brother- 
 in-law ?" 
 
 "The burying of my brother-in-law?" reiterated 
 Calvin. "Why, his folks were here on a visit and left 
 just as I started, taking the body along with them." 
 
 And now, dear reader, we have finished our narrative 
 and will only say as a parting that there was a grand 
 wedding at the old Alton place on Christmas day, in 
 which four happy couples were united in the bonds of 
 wedlock. First, the host, Tom Alton and Emily Nash, 
 then Clayton Palliser and the beautiful Elsie Britman. 
 Andy Garnett and Lottie West then followed, after 
 which Bill Thornton and Bessie Harper were married, 
 and truly happy at the success of the plan they had in- 
 augurated for -the downfall of the lawless cabal. But 
 when Tom offered Bill the loan of enough of the exhumed 
 hoard to buy him a snug little farm they were made still 
 happier by the generosity of the owner of the Pioneer's 
 Hoard. 
 
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THOS. W. JACKSON PUB. CO. 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 All Handsomely Bound in the Best American and English 
 
 Cloth, Uniform in Style of Binding Together 
 
 They Make a Handsome LibrarySeparately, 
 
 They Make Handsome Center-Table 
 
 Volumes. 
 
 PRICE, SENT POST-PAID, $1.50 EACH. 
 
 Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Moun- 
 tains; or, The Last Voice from the Plains An 
 authentic record of a life time of hunting, trap- 
 ping-, scouting and Indian fighting in the Far 
 West. Copiously illustrated by H. S. De Lay and 
 by many reproductions from photographs. By 
 Capt. W. F. Drannan, who_went on to The Plains 
 when fifteen years old. 
 
 Bough Life on the Frontier. A True and Graphic 
 tale of the Doing and Daring of the Men who 
 pushed Westward in the early days of our coun- 
 try's life; told by a man who was one of them, 
 and shared their struggles, hardships and final 
 success. Copiously illustrated with 23 full page 
 engravings from original drawings by H. S. De 
 Lay. 530 pages. 
 
 Life in the Mines; or, Crime Avenged. Including 
 thrilling adventures among miners and outlaws, 
 the mystery of the Phantom Horseman and the 
 dark concoctions of One-Eyed Riley. By C. H. 
 Simpson, author of " Wild Life in the Far West," 
 "A Yankee's Adventures in South Africa," etc. 
 Copiously illustrated by H. S. De Lay. 
 
Elegantly Cloth Bound Books, $1.50 per Copy 
 
 Ten Years a Cow Boy. A full and vivid description 
 of frontier life, including romance, adventure and 
 all the varied experiences incident to a life on The 
 Plains as cow boy, stock owner, rancher, etc., to- 
 gether with articles on cattle and sheep raising, 
 how to make money, description of The Plains, 
 etc. Illustrated with 100 full page engravings. 
 Contains of reading matter 471 pages. 
 
 Wild Life in the Far West. By C. H. Simpson, a 
 resident detective, living in this country. Giving 
 a full and graphic account of his thrilling ad- 
 ventures among the Indians and outlaws of Mon- 
 tana, including hunting, hair-breadth escapes, 
 captivity, punishment and difficulties of all kinds 
 met with in this wild country. Illustrated with 
 30 full-page engravings by G. S. Littlejohn. Read- 
 ing matter, 264 pages. 
 
 Captain W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, as Pilot 
 to Emigrant and Government Trains Across the 
 Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years Ago. 
 This book, being a sequel to the famous " Thirty- 
 one Years on the Plains and in the Mountains," 
 of which over 100 editions have been printed in 
 less than ten years, does not need any recommen- 
 dation; the author being an abundant warrant as 
 to its value. The book contains over 400 pages of 
 reading matter, and many illustrations. 
 
Elegantly Cloth Bound Books, $1.50 per Copy 
 
 Pearls from Many Seas, A collation of the best 
 thoughts of 400 writers of wide repute. Selected 
 and classified by Rev. J. B. McClure. Illustrated 
 with 50 full-page engravings selected especially 
 for this work from the great art galleries of the 
 world. A volume of rare value and interest to all 
 lovers of good literature. Reading matter, 528 
 pages. 
 
 Evils of the Cities. By T. De Witt Talmage, D. D. 
 The author, in company with the proper detec- 
 tives, visited many of the most vile and wicked 
 places in New York City and Brooklyn, ostensibly 
 looking for a thief, but in reality taking notes for 
 a series of discourses, published in this volume, 
 which contains a full and graphic description of 
 what he saw and the lessons drawn therefrom. 
 The Doctor has also extended his observations to 
 the ' 'Summer Resorts, " the " Watering Places," 
 the "Races," etc., all of which are popularized 
 from his standpoint in this volume. Reading mat- 
 ter, 397 pages. 
 
 A Yankee's Adventures in South America. (In the 
 diamond country.) By C. H. Simpson. Giving 
 the varied experiences, adventures, dangers and 
 narrow escapes of a Yankee seeking his fortune 
 in this wild country, who, by undaunted courage, 
 perseverance, suffering, fighting and adventures 
 of various sorts, is requited at last by the owner- 
 ship of the largest diamond taken out of the Kim- 
 berly mines up to that time and with the heart 
 and hand of the fairest daughter of a diamond 
 king. Containing 30 full-page illustrations by 
 H. S. De Lay. Reading matter, 234 pages. 
 
Elegantly Cloth Bound Books, $1.50 per Copy 
 
 Bible Characters. A collection of Sermons by the most 
 renowned divines of their times on these subjects; a 
 beautiful and inspiring book that ought to find its place 
 into every home where good and elevating literature is 
 sought after. Dwight Lyman Moody, Dr. Talmage, 
 Joseph Parker, etc. ; illustrations from the famous paint- 
 ings by Gustave Dore. 477 pages reading matter. 
 
 The First Mortgage. A truthful, instructive, pleasing 
 and poetical presentation of Biblical Stories, History 
 and Gospel Truth. By E. U. Cook. Fully and hand- 
 somely illustrated from the world-renowned artist, Gus- 
 tave Dore, the whole forming an exceedingly interesting 
 and entertaining Poetical Bible. One of the most hand- 
 some volumes ever issued in Chicago. 288 pages. 
 
 Helen Blair. A novel by Nina Miller Elliott. It is a well 
 written and decidedly interesting story and holds the 
 reader from the first page to the last. 
 
 When the Heart Is Young. By Nina Miller Elliott. Every- 
 one who has read " Helen Blair" Avill want to read 
 "When the Heart Is Young." It is one of the best 
 works of fiction brought out in recent years. 
 
 Every Woman's Right. An exceptionally interesting 
 story by Nina Miller Elliot. A story full of love and 
 true to life, and every woman will enjoy reading it. 
 
 Peggy Kip. Nina Miller Elliot's latest book. A novel 
 that every one will read and remember with apprecia- 
 tion.