THE OUTLAWS 
 
A STORY OF THE BUILDING OF THE WEST 
 
 BY 
 LE ROY ARMSTRONG 
 
 atjppleton ana Company 
 1902 
 
 w 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1902 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published April, 1902 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE "RAISING" 1 
 
 II. THE CLEARING 18 
 
 III. THE COLTS 33 
 
 IV. TRIUMPHANT IN TOWN 54 
 
 V. ACCUSED 61 
 
 VI. AT THE STILE. . . . . . .75 
 
 VII. THE DOOR OF DESTINY 90 
 
 VIII. A DINNER OF DREAMS * . 98 
 
 IX. JARED COMES HOME 110 
 
 X. STOCKING'S TIMELY STRATEGY . . .115 
 
 XL JARED'S SADDLE FOUND 180 
 
 XII. DAN COMES TO COMMAND .... 156 
 
 XIII. TRICKING THE POSSE 169 
 
 XIV. STOCKING AND HALEY . . . . .174 
 XV. DAN'S " BAD DREAM " . . . . .186 
 
 XVI. SELIM WINS A RACE 201 
 
 XVII. " I WILL GET PRUDY . . . . .212 
 
 XVIII. LITTLE PRUDY'S NEW HOME . . . .221 
 
 XIX. THE SHERIFF CAPTURED . . . .244 
 
 XX. THE FIRST SHADOW . . . . .271 
 
 XXI. THE CHOLERA! . . . . . .292 
 
 XXII. THE BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS . . . 300 
 
 XXIII. THE RETURN OF JARED 304 
 
 XXIV. THE CANAL COMPLETED 313 
 
 XXV. JARED ACQUITTED 316 
 
 XXVI. CONCLUSION 320 
 
 v 
 
 M667749 
 
THE OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE "RAISING" 
 
 " JARED CARUTH, ain't you going to the 
 raisin' 1 " asked Absalom Bank, as he and 
 his strapping son Dan paused before the 
 cabin of the neighborhood trapper, fiddler, 
 and ne'er-do-well. 
 
 "I clean forgot," cried Jared. "It 
 wouldn't be neighborly to stay away from 
 Seth Eeed's house-raisin', even if he is an 
 old bachelor. Yes, I'm going. Prudence, 
 is this enough wood to last you? " 
 
 He had hurriedly gathered up the fuel, 
 reduced to the required length for the fire- 
 place, and stamped with an amusing, nerv- 
 ous haste to the door. 
 1 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 The girl met Mm, bowed smiling to the 
 two men in the road, and accepted without 
 complaint the slender provision. 
 
 He carried his burden so as to force her 
 back into the house, glancing over his 
 shoulder at Dan Rank, and swinging the 
 door shut with his heel. Then he was all 
 smiles for the girl. 
 
 " You stay at home, Prudy," he said in 
 the gentlest of tones. " You needn't get 
 dinner for me. I'll be back along in the 
 evening. Are you comfortable now, Pru- 
 dy? And you needn't pay any attention to 
 Dan Eank. He's He don't use me right. 
 Now, is there anything more that you 
 need!" 
 
 " Nothing. Good-by, father." 
 
 And she was left alone. She knew if 
 the wood were exhausted, she could find 
 more in the forest ; and if need be, she could 
 do as she had done on other occasions, 
 slight as she was chop for herself. 
 
 " I don't know how I forgot that rais- 
 in'," said Jared volubly, as he joined his 
 2 
 
The "Raising 
 
 friends. He did not bring an ax, as they 
 had done. 
 
 " No, you generally go," said the elder 
 Bank. 
 
 "I've never missed one yet," chir- 
 ruped the fiddler. "I never missed a 
 raisin', nor rolled a log," and he laughed 
 lightly. 
 
 Little Bill Anderson and Abe Rhine- 
 hart joined them at the corner. The for- 
 mer was local preacher, singing-master, 
 and occasionally auctioneer. Rhinehart's 
 ax was on his shoulder, a bit of leather 
 about the blade, to keep it bright. He was 
 a famous chopper, and cared for his 
 tools. 
 
 "Dan Bank," said he, "what are you 
 goin' to this raisin' for ! Young fellow like 
 you it looks suspicious." 
 
 " Dan's goin' for the cider." Jared 
 Caruth flung the words back over his shoul- 
 der. He was walking rapidly along at the 
 side of the elder Bank. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," retorted little Bill 
 3 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Anderson banteringly. " Dan will be bid- 
 ding us to his house-raising one of these 
 days. I saw him shining around Prudence 
 Caruth the other night at the spelling 
 school." 
 
 He laughed mischievously. Dan smiled, 
 and glanced at the father of Prudence, 
 plodding ahead of him. But the elder man 
 pretended not to have heard. 
 
 " When you going to have a log-rolling, 
 Anderson! " asked Absalom Kank, prob- 
 ably with the purpose of diverting attack 
 from his son. 
 
 " Oh, the old house is good enough for 
 me," replied the preacher. "Bachelors 
 don't need palaces." 
 
 " Why, Seth Reed is a bachelor," cried 
 Caruth, nervously protesting against ex- 
 clusion from conversation. 
 
 " Yes, and what he wants with this new 
 house is more than I can see. They'll joke 
 him to-day about building a cage before he 
 gets a bird to put in it." 
 
 "They won't joke Seth Eeed very 
 
The " Raising 
 
 much," said young Dan Rank. " He'll take 
 them down." 
 
 "If I felt as good as I did ten years 
 ago," responded Abe, " lie wouldn't take 
 me down. I used to rastle them all. 
 Didn't I, Bank? " 
 
 "You used to be the best, Abe," cor- 
 roborated the farmer. 
 
 " And I ain't clean over it yet. I've seen 
 the time when I could throw a man like 
 Seth Reed every hour all day, and never 
 feel it." 
 
 "Can't any of them do it now?" re- 
 joined Jared, hopeful of contradiction. 
 
 They went on across the corduroys a 
 roadway made by laying a succession of 
 logs side by side on a marshy soil. It was 
 easy enough passage for footmen, but full 
 of jolts for wheels. 
 
 Just beyond was the higher ground, 
 where Seth Reed had " made a farm." He 
 had chosen a bit of wooded land for the 
 site of his new house; and the trees that 
 
 had sheltered it were now lying prone on 
 5 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 the land that had produced them, destined 
 to be timbers that would make a differ- 
 ent shelter. 
 
 A dozen neighbors, perhaps, were pres- 
 ent. A house-raising was a social event 
 wholly lost to later generations. 
 
 "Who done your hewing, Seth? " de- 
 manded Jared Caruth slender, nervous, 
 voluble, and inquisitive. 
 
 " I did every log." 
 
 "It'll make a fine, even floor." 
 
 " Then let's get ready to lay it. Come 
 on, men. Who'll cut the ground? " 
 
 " Absalom Rank," cried Abe Rhinehart. 
 " He's the oldest man." 
 
 "Judge Evans ought to do it," pro- 
 tested Rank. 
 
 " But the judge ain't here. Go on." 
 
 So the farmer took the spade, found the 
 spot which Seth Reed had selected, and dug 
 away the soil for the planting of the cor- 
 ner-stone. They all stood silent while he 
 worked, for the ceremony impressed them. 
 
 The great stone was rolled into its place, 
 6 
 
"The Raising' 
 
 was jostled and turned, and finally fixed 
 immovable. 
 
 The domicile was begun. 
 
 "Now, Bill Anderson, you ask the 
 blessing," said the proprietor. 
 
 And the little preacher stepped from 
 the group that had been watching, and took 
 off his cap. He stood by the stone, his eyes 
 closed, trying to assume in the unconven- 
 tional environment the solemn bearing of 
 the Sunday service. 
 
 " Our Father in heaven," he said, " we 
 are beginning to build a house. We don't 
 know who will live here." That provoked 
 a grin from his earthly auditors, and he 
 seemed to realize as the words were spoken 
 the construction they might receive. But 
 he extricated himself cleverly. " But thou 
 knowest, Lord." And the faces were se- 
 rious again. " Bless this foundation-stone. 
 Bless the walls. Make love and happiness 
 to come and live here. May the people 
 who come here to live be thy children ; and 
 as the roof shelters them from the rain and 
 7 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 the snow, may thy strong arm shelter them 
 from the tempest of death. Save them 
 from the unquenchable fires of destruction. 
 And bring us all to the hearthstone of the 
 saved in thy kingdom. Amen." 
 
 " Pretty prayer," said the impression- 
 able Jared ; and the eyes that greeted Bill 
 Anderson, local preacher, bore testimony 
 to his possession of " the gift." 
 
 But the spell of solemnity was gone in 
 a moment. The men hurried to fix the 
 stones at the three remaining corners, to 
 roll up the largest logs for the sills and the 
 sleepers, to lay the floor of other logs 
 hewed flat on the upper surface, and scored 
 away along the sides until they joined 
 neatly. 
 
 And then the work of the day began 
 the placing of timbers one upon another 
 for the walls ; the laying of skids, or strong 
 poles, slanted, with one end on the ground, 
 the other on the topmost log of the rising 
 wall strong poles from which the bark 
 
 was stripped, and up which the timbers 
 
 8 
 
The "Raising" 
 
 were hustled with much jubilation, with 
 rivalry of strength and cleverness. 
 
 Jared Caruth, self-appointed, uncon- 
 tested, became prompter in the drama they 
 were unconsciously playing. And when he 
 called out, "He-o!" they grasped their 
 levers, or bent in readiness for the cue. 
 And then, at his explosive "He!" the 
 united strength of many men was ex- 
 erted. 
 
 " He-o-he ! " and the log shot up half a 
 dozen feet on the skids. " He-o-he ! " again, 
 the last short and sharp, and Abe Rhine- 
 hart, corner man, with a partner at the op- 
 posite end, received the logs, and, clinging 
 uncomfortably, chopped the " saddles," 
 and fitted the timbers at the angles. 
 
 There had been something of an archi- 
 tect's calculation in preparing the material ; 
 for doors and windows appeared as the 
 framework rose. 
 
 The men were hot and tired at noon, but 
 jubilant with the tonic of rare association, 
 
 of bodily exercise, and maybe with the 
 9 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 blessing of helping to rear one more home 
 in the land of the living. 
 
 " It's time for dinner," cried Seth Heed. 
 " I hear sleigh-bells. Now we can eat." 
 
 Seth heard the bells; but both he and 
 his friends quickly heard an even more 
 musical note the voices and laughter of 
 women. Judge Evans's hired man, Phil 
 Whitesell, rueful of countenance, speaking 
 always with bated breath, deeply and dark- 
 ly mysterious, drove the matched four- 
 year-olds, bringing the low bob-sleds on the 
 thin, late snow, freighted with dinner and 
 the daughters of men. 
 
 There was a great fire builded of chips 
 and fed with the hewings of timbers. It 
 had roared unnoted all morning, but it was 
 the center about which they gathered now. 
 
 Jane Evans, daughter of the neighbor- 
 hood magnate ; the Widow Bacon, broad of 
 body, and justly important because she had 
 paid off the mortgage which was her chief 
 inheritance, and had saved the farm; and 
 
 the two grown daughters of Absalom Rank, 
 10 
 
The "Raising" 
 
 ruddy and healthy, and helpful in the pre- 
 paring of feasts these were the passen- 
 gers of Phil Whitesell's bringing. 
 
 " Is it dinner-time f " exclaimed Jared 
 Caruth, in a tone of simulated surprise. 
 " I wouldn't have thought the sun was over 
 two hours high." 
 
 " Jared, you old sham, come on to din- 
 ner," called Bhinehart. " I'll be bound you 
 haven't touched a handspike to-day." 
 
 "I did," retorted the fiddler. "You 
 dropped one on my foot, and I had to touch 
 it. What's this?" 
 
 " That's a jug, Jared. Try what's in 
 it." 
 
 Seth Beed removed the cob stopper, 
 and tendered the earthenware vessel. Ja- 
 red took off his hat, caught the jug by the 
 handle, and swung it to the hollow of his 
 elbow, then elevated his bended arm till his 
 lips and the lips of the jug were together. 
 
 " Ah-h," he breathed as he set it down, 
 " if I had that all the morning, I could have 
 
 rolled more logs than anybody." 
 2 11 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Willing hands lifted down the baskets 
 of food. The women became hostesses, 
 and distributed the dinner. They gave 
 choice bits to Abe Ehinehart and the men 
 who had bestridden the corners. They be- 
 rated old Jared for ordering Prudence 
 to stay at home ; and they mingled laugh- 
 ter and good cheer with the primitive 
 dining. 
 
 Rough sports attended these raisings, 
 and there was scuffling continually. Stand- 
 ing about as they ate, each man watched 
 warily, or some passing neighbor would 
 trip him from behind. Their spirits rose 
 as they finished the repast. They had 
 worked famously, and the walls lacked but 
 the " gable-enders " and the roof-poles. 
 
 The jostling and scuffling led to sharper 
 rivalries, to the verge of matching here and 
 there, and then to the great event of the 
 day. 
 
 "Who'll rastle on the new floor?" 
 
 Jared Caruth still held the mastey-of- 
 
 ceremonies' place. 
 
 12 
 
The "Raising 
 
 " If I was ten years younger " began 
 Abe Rhinehart. 
 
 " Let Phil Whitesell and Bill Anderson 
 get at it." 
 
 But there was avoidance of formal 
 trial. 
 
 Dan Eank watched them, alert for at- 
 tack from behind, eager for the sight of 
 men matched. 
 
 They had all moved to the interior of 
 the house, women and men treading the 
 new floor with a sense of testing its solid- 
 ity. Each man was nervously urgent for 
 others to make challenge; each shy of 
 assuming. For these conflicts were no- 
 table feats ; and he who was thrown on that 
 new floor, and he who threw him, would 
 be remembered till the walls should 
 fall. 
 
 "Til rastle any one of you," said Seth 
 Eeed presently. 
 
 He would have issued his challenge ear- 
 lier, but for a host's considerateness. Of 
 
 course he was champion. 
 13 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " That wouldn't be fair," protested Bill 
 Anderson. " You know you can throw any 
 of us." 
 
 " I'll rastle any two, barring Abe Rhine- 
 hart," for the prowess of the veteran was 
 remembered. 
 
 " I believe Whitesell and Dan Eank can 
 tackle you," cried Jared. 
 
 He rather hoped he might see this 
 strapping young fellow discredited. 
 
 Phil made no objection. 
 
 " Dan, will you and Phil try him? " 
 
 " I'll try him alone," said Dan. 
 
 That startled them. The men shouted. 
 The women were silent, excited, engrossed. 
 The young fellow, man-grown, yet junior 
 to his companions of the day, had achieved 
 no great fame as a wrestler; but he was 
 strong and likely. He had borne himself 
 the equal of any in the tests of log-rolling 
 all the morning, and they knew with a 
 sportsman's instinct that it would be a 
 match worth witnessing, however it might 
 
 end. 
 
 14 
 
The "Raising 
 
 "You'll rastle me alone, Dan?" asked 
 Seth Beed. 
 
 " Yes, if you don't mind." 
 
 " Well, get ready." 
 
 Space was surrendered to them. A few 
 backed into the corners. Some crowded 
 at the doors and windows, sharing vantage- 
 points in rough human equality with the 
 women. Jared ran nimbly up a ladder, and 
 looked down from the topmost log, com- 
 manding the whole arena. 
 
 "Side holts?" asked Seth. 
 
 " Side holts," was the reply. 
 
 They grappled in what had grown to be 
 known in more formal meetings, with slight 
 variations, as the Greco-Boman style. 
 They bent to the struggle. They were not 
 so unevenly matched. Beed was the taller 
 and heavier, but the boy was quick of foot, 
 and fresh from the rough conflicts with 
 schoolmate and rival. It was side touching 
 side. It was knee touching knee in the 
 nervous searching for an advantage, either 
 
 before or behind. Eeed wrestled lower, and 
 15 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 finally, after a season of mighty but futile 
 swinging of the contestants here and there, 
 after an interval of tense watching by ex- 
 cited spectators, he caught his chance, 
 thrust his knee to the rear of his opponent's 
 leg, loosing for the fall that should bring 
 him whirling down. 
 
 But Dan knew that trick very well ; and 
 the instant he felt Seth was committed to 
 the break at the knee, he slipped far for- 
 ward and met the backward haul with a 
 forward heave his hip the fulcrum, his 
 body the lever. And the owner of the 
 house fell on his excellent floor, the first 
 man vanquished there. 
 
 The crowd cheered wildly, impar- 
 tially. The applause would have been 
 as resounding if the other man, having 
 fought a good fight, had lost in a close 
 encounter. 
 
 Yet there was a certain zest in the re- 
 flection that the master was mastered at his 
 own house-raising. 
 
 " Try one rough-and-tumble," suggest- 
 16 
 
The "Raising 
 
 ed Reed, panting, but not wholly discom- 
 fited. 
 
 "All right." 
 
 It was the catch-as-catch-can, which 
 later gladiators developed then disgraced 
 with sham trials in a splendid sport. 
 
 But it ended as before only that the 
 two went down together, and Dan Bank's 
 body, descending with momentum on that 
 of his rival, drove the breath from the 
 larger man, so that the slighter rose un- 
 challenged, and " the champion." 
 
 Yet he was a generous victor, and he 
 lifted the vanquished, helping the minister- 
 ing women ; and after that he led every one 
 in the finishing work. 
 
 And when the ridge-pole was in place, 
 he walked home with his father with his 
 father whose eyes were brighter and whose 
 heart was prouder than ever before. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CLEARING 
 
 DAN RANK and his father were at work 
 in " the clearing." 
 
 The young man was conscious of a com- 
 fortable sense of warmth in the air as he 
 swung his ax. He was thrilled with a vigor 
 and strength about which he did not think 
 at all. The steel blade sunk deeply into 
 the oak, and he exulted as a mighty blow 
 loosed a great chip and sent it flying clear ; 
 exulted, and struck deeper if possible next 
 time, delighting to know that the strokes of 
 his father on the opposite side of the bole 
 were not so effective as his own. 
 
 There is a tonic in exercise when one is 
 strong, when healthy blood hurries in the 
 veins, when youth is here, and the days are 
 fine. 
 
 And this day was very fair indeed. It 
 18 
 
The Clearing 
 
 was yet March, and the air was crisp with 
 the memory of winter. But the sun shone, 
 and there was promise of color in the 
 masses of the distant woods. The temper 
 of the day was moderated in the clear- 
 ing because fires were there. Great heaps 
 of logs fine timber of walnut and pop- 
 lar that would be almost priceless now 
 were burning on the ground the men had 
 passed with their chopping. And as the 
 wind swung lazily from point to point of 
 the compass, it carried currents of warmth 
 to the farmer and his son; and on beyond 
 them to the surface of the lazy river; or, 
 veering about, to the narrow canal that cut 
 like a gash diagonally across Indiana. 
 
 Cattle were browsing about in the edge 
 of the forest, or standing quietly where the 
 waves of softer air could warm them. Se- 
 lim was near them : Selim, the colt, Dan's 
 especial property from the beginning; 
 strong enough to bear the saddle, and fly 
 with his master where roads were level. 
 
 The oak, which had answered ax strokes 
 19 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 with dull defiance at first, had lifted its 
 bass notes to a piping treble as the blades 
 on the opposite sides approached its heart ; 
 and before the final citadel was taken, the 
 great tree shivered, then slowly turned, 
 and, surrendering, swept with a mighty 
 sound of branches rushing through the air, 
 of timber rending, and a sullen impact on 
 the stubborn ground. 
 
 They stood at rest for a moment, these 
 two men the one mature, sedate; the 
 other young, and rich with unguessed pow- 
 ers. And then they attacked the branches, 
 and lopped them off, preparing this mon- 
 arch of the forest for his funeral pyre. 
 
 That necessitated hauling, and the use 
 of oxen ; and the log-chain was at the home 
 of a borrowing farmer, a mile away. It 
 was a relief for Dan Rank to know that he 
 must go for it. He swung his ax for a 
 mighty stroke, and sunk it deep in the 
 fresh-cut stump. Then he strode off across 
 the field toward the foot-bridge that 
 
 spanned the canal. Selim saw him start, 
 20 
 
The Clearing 
 
 and followed, with a whinnying call from 
 his colthood to the boyhood that still lin- 
 gered in the heart of this creature man- 
 grown. The colt stopped at the strong rail 
 fence, and put his head across for the 
 caress his master never denied him. Then 
 he galloped back to the clearing, and drove 
 the cattle from their warm places in the 
 zone of milder air. 
 
 Dan Eank was whistling as he passed 
 the cabin of Jared Caruth* He saw the old 
 man mending a saddle at the sunny side of 
 the little house, and nodded to him. He 
 saw young Prudence at the window, and 
 laughed as he saluted her with a wave of 
 the hand. And then he trudged along till 
 the corner of the cabin hid him from the 
 settler. But, once concealed from that for- 
 bidding eye, he touched the tips of his fin- 
 gers to his lips, and tossed a kiss to the 
 girl at the window. 
 
 It was not easy to continue the whist- 
 ling as he did so, but he knew old Jared 
 
 was alert ; and his difficulty became greater 
 21 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 when his daring drove fair Prudence from 
 the window not smiling upon his bold- 
 ness, yet not rebuking him. 
 
 He wanted to laugh, for the spirit of 
 mischief was stirred by the fact that he 
 knew the girl's father kept all young men 
 from that Quaker maiden that daughter 
 of a Quaker mother long since gathered 
 to the silent company of Friends. 
 
 It was a vigorous figure old Jared saw 
 as he left the saddle and stepped to the 
 corner of the cabin, for the old man took 
 nothing for granted ; a vigorous figure that 
 swung strongly along the country road, 
 careless, venturesome, and too full of life 
 to dream of the limits of living. And he 
 turned his gaze from there to the colt, still 
 troubling the cows, or stopping to browse 
 at the softening twigs. 
 
 "If the outlaws should ketch Selim 
 some night " mused Jared; and then he 
 returned to the saddle. 
 
 Dan Rank thought, as he heard his 
 
 colt's hoofs drumming over the turf of 
 
 22 
 
The Clearing 
 
 the clearing, how quickly lie might have 
 made the errand if mounted. But he could 
 not use that steed for such labor. Horse- 
 flesh was precious in those days, and the 
 youth with a colt was favored among mor- 
 tals. But he was not capable of sacrilege. 
 
 Where the bridge lifted from the high- 
 road to the crossing of the canal, he 
 stopped ; for he heard far back through the 
 woods the horn that told him a packet 
 was coming. In those days the transporta- 
 tion companies were modest, and not above 
 stopping wherever business called them. 
 And a steersman was poor indeed if he 
 could not own a horn and very stolid if 
 he failed to blow it lustily when approach- 
 ing a landing however humble. 
 
 "Leaving letters for Judge Evans," 
 said Dan Bank, gaging the place where 
 the packet had touched, and arguing the 
 rest as detectives unravel mysteries. " Pll 
 bet Phil Whitesell is there to get them, and 
 pretending they are from ghosts." 
 
 He stood at the crown of the wooden 
 28 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 structure, and waited till the boat rounded 
 a curve in the canal, and came into the 
 straightaway course that held almost to 
 Lafayette. 
 
 " It's the Lewis Cass," said Dan to him- 
 self, for the packets were known by name. 
 And this differed from most, for it had a 
 great deck, reaching some yards forward 
 of the cabin. It had been designed for the 
 bearing, on its initial trip, of the man 
 whose name was bestowed upon it, when 
 he came large with political importance 
 to the "West, and formally " opened " the 
 canal. 
 
 And an odd thing had happened on that 
 distant day. Fort Wayne, first station 
 west of the " portage," over which French 
 and Saxon and Indian allies had dragged 
 their canoes, made a great event of the 
 " opening." They set apart the Fourth of 
 July for the celebrating. General Cass, 
 the best known figure in the West, came 
 pompously to mark the occasion with a 
 
 speech, and to build even higher his polit- 
 24 
 
The Clearing 
 
 ical fences. The boat wearing his name 
 bore him and his party as well. They 
 came to the landing where the crowd was 
 gathered, where the Northwest Terri- 
 tory was reaching to clasp the hand of 
 the East. The bands were playing, and 
 the militia was drawn up in training-day 
 formation. The great man stood a little 
 in advance of his notable friends on that 
 extended forward deck, his right hand in 
 the breast of his splendid coat, his tower- 
 ing form notable among ten thousand. He 
 waited there the signal to land for a 
 local poet was reciting his glorious deeds, 
 and at the same time painting in heroic 
 verse the mission of the canal. At the 
 conclusion of the poem the general passed 
 pompously up the plank just as some imp 
 of chance moved the boat to drift from 
 shore. The plank fell short, and the gen- 
 eral, primed for periods, threw up his arms 
 like a common yokel, and fell into the mud- 
 dy waters of the new canal. 
 
 He came up moist but fervid. He was 
 
 25 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 lifted out by friendly hands, and delivered 
 an oration that held Indiana for him in 
 the next convention. And his boat, having 
 borne a deity, fell to the uses of a common 
 packet, and pushed its curiously long nose 
 up and own the channel for many a useful 
 year. 
 
 But Dan Eank knew nothing of all this. 
 He saw only a boat with a long deck for- 
 ward, and some gilding on lintel and sash. 
 
 The fair day had drawn most of the pas- 
 sengers to the outer air, and Dan watched 
 them loitering about, and chatting. One 
 seemed to attract general attention. He 
 was telling a story. A number listened, 
 some strolling near ; others in the blessed 
 silence of an old-time means of travel 
 gave audience from a distance. And then 
 there was a burst of laughter, a dissolving 
 of groups, and a new aimlessness in the 
 loitering. 
 
 Dan marked this man, followed his 
 lithe tread about the deck, and noted his 
 curious separation from the others. When 
 26 
 
The Clearing 
 
 two women appeared, wrapped for quitting 
 the vessel, clearly enticed by the nearness 
 of their journey's end, Dan Bank found it 
 quite to be expected that this affable man 
 should pause before them, addressing 
 them, and that they should favor him with 
 their attention, should give smiling reply, 
 should laugh at some sally, and laugh still 
 more heartily as he swept a graceful arm 
 in a gesture that comprehended the re- 
 gion about them. He was declaiming, sa- 
 tiric, and impressive. 
 
 He was better dressed than were the 
 other men, was this stranger. Those were 
 merchants returning from Buffalo, or, by 
 chance, from far New York. Their garb 
 was the garb of the best in the new land. 
 Their manner was the sincerer and fear- 
 less, though unpolished, habit of a genera- 
 tion not advanced to subterfuge. They 
 were hearty, big-lived and big-limbed ; con- 
 scious of the battle before them, and equal- 
 ly conscious of their ability to conquer. 
 They were men of small pleasures rarely 
 3 27 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 indulged, yet capable by that economy of 
 such excesses on occasion as would wear 
 and wilt the prodigal sons of an older so- 
 ciety. 
 
 As the boat came nearer, the tandem 
 mules on the tow-path keeping the steady 
 trot that consumes many miles, Dan Hank 
 could hear fragments of speech. His hero 
 there on the deck became to him not the 
 central figure only, but the sole figure. 
 Tall and slender, yet graceful, this traveler 
 seemed a nervous organism with plenty of 
 strength, but with alertness, activity, and 
 dexterousness that makes superior crea- 
 tures. The young fellow clothed his 
 stranger with ideal attributes in those 
 rapid moments as the boat came on. This 
 was a leader somewhere in that dim, half- 
 mythical East to which the canal was to 
 link the Western country. He was unlike 
 the plodder. He was, of course, already 
 possessed of the means for which they 
 toiled and labored, prayed and calculated. 
 
 He was above the necessities of work and 
 
 28 
 
The Clearing 
 
 of worry. He was safe in the citadel of 
 happiness. And the thought was an elixir 
 to the young man, though he had never 
 known a task too heavy. He was too 
 healthy, too nearly normal, to complain; 
 yet there was an irksomeness in the snail- 
 like pace with which reward approached; 
 and his eyes grew large as he took stock 
 of his hero. 
 
 The canal-boat was near. The figure of 
 the young man there on the bridge caught 
 the quick eye of the stranger, and he di- 
 rected the attention of the women. Dan 
 Rank forgot his own prominence in noting 
 that this hero needed but to glance, and 
 the eyes of all present followed. But he 
 was startled to hear that hero say, in a 
 tone quite level and unexcited: 
 
 " I bet he jumps." 
 
 " I bet he don't," said a passenger 
 standing near. 
 
 "Two bits?" 
 
 " Two bits." 
 
 Dan Rank felt a thrill of loyalty to a 
 29 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 friend. The stake was small. He knew 
 the amount was unconsidered by that 
 Apollo from the East, but he knew the 
 committal of judgment was everything, 
 and he turned from the rail with an im- 
 pulse of enfranchisement from all habit, 
 of release from all obligation, the ichor of 
 loftier spheres in his veins, and his resolu- 
 tion roused to justify the confidence of that 
 man. 
 
 He walked to the farther side of the 
 bridge, laid his hand on the rail as the 
 prow of the boat pushed into view, waited 
 an instant till the space he remembered in 
 the grouping came below, and then he 
 vaulted lightly over. 
 
 Down through the air he went till his 
 feet struck the deck. He regained his bal- 
 ance, shaken by the fall and the movement 
 of the vessel, and looked smiling at the 
 man. That controlling creature stepped 
 forward beaming, and extended his hand. 
 From the women came little screams of 
 
 surprise. From the men unspoken aston- 
 30 
 
The Clearing 
 
 ishment. They were startled ; but this man 
 wore the air of one who had seen the ex- 
 pected. 
 
 " My name is Stocking," he said. " You 
 are " 
 
 " Dan Eank." 
 
 "Glad to see you. Going to Lafay- 
 ette?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " After a log-chain." 
 
 "Where is it?" 
 
 Dan Bank indicated with a nod of his 
 head a direction quite different from the 
 one the boat was taking. 
 
 " You are going out of your way." 
 
 " I know it." 
 
 " Why did you jump ! " 
 
 " I heard you bet I would." 
 
 It was a bright light that came into 
 the eyes of David Stocking. He appre- 
 ciated this. A traveler touched his elbow. 
 
 " You won my two bits." 
 
 Stocking accepted the sum, a small rec- 
 31 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 tangular paper of money, and thrust it 
 into Ms waistcoat pocket. He did not fur- 
 ther notice the loser. He looked at Dan 
 Bank from head to foot, at the long limbs, 
 large hands and feet, the broad shoulders 
 and flat breast, at the heavy hips and the 
 head tilted forward slightly a type of the 
 strong men who develop late, and last a 
 century. 
 
 And they passed on to the town to- 
 gether. 
 
 32 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE COLTS 
 
 JUST to the east of Absalom Bank's 
 farm, and lying on both sides of the canal, 
 lay the estate of Johnson Evans Judge 
 Evans, they called him, for he had once 
 served a term on the probate bench, and 
 was more than an ordinary mortal ever 
 afterward. 
 
 And Judge Evans was ill. 
 
 When the news of that went over the 
 neighborhood, public interest was awak- 
 ened, and public sympathy was roused. 
 
 A man of excesses, of violent bursts of 
 passion that his rank as well as the times 
 could excuse, a man of brawling morality 
 and tempestuous justice, his malady was 
 understood. More than once he had top- 
 pled from the angry heights of habit to the 
 33 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 strange stillness of a death-impending col- 
 lapse. 
 
 And so in the evening the neighbors 
 gathered, without summoning, at his home. 
 They sat in the big west room of the great 
 farmhouse in a semicircle about the fire- 
 place, the patient in the twin apartment 
 across the hall to the east. They talked in 
 low tones. Mrs. Evans and Jane flitted in 
 and out of his sick-room, or entered and 
 spoke to the men who waited. Maria, the 
 serving-woman gaunt and constitutional- 
 ly self -defensive stewed potions in the 
 kitchen, heated herbs and flannel cloths, 
 and waited on the invalid with that profes- 
 sional directness that is beyond acquiring 
 as it is beyond reward. 
 
 From time to time the patient would 
 groan in a hopeless tone, appallingly un- 
 like his natural habit, and the farmers 
 would exchange glances that showed their 
 appreciation of how the mighty had fallen. 
 Then they would relapse again into the 
 
 chatting that made up their social converse. 
 34 
 
The Colts 
 
 " The sheriff is back from Toledo," said 
 Jared Caruth. " He's got a new f awnskin 
 westco't, all spotted. He came down this 
 afternoon on the Lewis Cass." 
 
 " That'll be news for Jane," responded 
 little Bill Anderson, the preacher. The 
 girl had just come up laden from the cellar, 
 and the mention was timely. 
 
 " Set down your cider pitcher right 
 here, Jane," called Seth Eeed in that 
 loud undertone that becomes a shout when 
 men are hushed by nearness of suffering. 
 
 " And give me the pan of apples," com- 
 manded Abe Ehinehart, as he made a mo- 
 tion to relieve the girl of her burden. 
 
 "I can't give you walnuts," she said 
 quietly. " Father couldn't stand the noise 
 of cracking them. And look out for that 
 cider." 
 
 There was bantering in the tone, in 
 spite of her father's peril ; and there was 
 light in her eyes. 
 
 "Did you hear that Clark Thompson 
 
 was back, Jane! " asked Absalom Eank. 
 35 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Jane gave no evidence of having heard 
 even him ; and the farmers chuckled. 
 
 " He'll be out here soon enough, and tell 
 her about it himself," interjected solemn 
 Phil Whitesell, the hired man. 
 
 " Old news why, that's no news," re- 
 torted Jane, finding place for pitcher and 
 pan. " Help yourselves." And she hurried 
 away. 
 
 "Oh old news," chuckled little Bill 
 Anderson, belying his cloth with a tend- 
 ency to levity. " He got off the boat here, 
 and she's seen him." 
 
 " She's seen his ghost," suggested Phil. 
 " I knowed a woman once could see ghosts 
 in daylight. Couldn't hide anything from 
 her." 
 
 Jared Caruth had poured out a second 
 dipperful of the beverage, and plainly 
 wanted to consume it. He swung the bowl 
 toward his body, and caressed the long 
 neck of it as if it were a violin, sweeping 
 his right arm back and forth as if it were a 
 
 bow, and beating time to a backwoods tune 
 36 
 
The Colts 
 
 with his foot. He was very merry. But 
 he listened to reason, and passed the cider 
 to his nearest neighbor. 
 
 " Well, any one that can see ghosts 
 ought to see horse-thieves," drawled Abe 
 Bhinehart. " Could she do that, Phil? " 
 
 " Everybody can see them but the 
 sheriff," rejoined Bank. 
 
 " Maybe the sheriff don't want to see 
 them," twittered Caruth lightly. 
 
 "Oh, the sheriff wouldn't shut his 
 eyes," protested Seth Beed. " This Clark 
 Thompson is nervy, and he kind-a takes a 
 pride in arresting people." 
 
 "Well, there's worse men than horse- 
 thieves," was Jared's rejoinder. " They 
 don't bother me none." 
 
 "You hain't nothing that looks like a 
 horse exceptin' an old saddle," suggested 
 Bhinehart slowly. 
 
 "A man rode down back of my place 
 one time last fall," resumed Jared, " and 
 asked the road to Vincennes, and bought a 
 
 feed of corn, and give me a dollar in silver ; 
 3? 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 and says he : * If any one asks if you have 
 seen me I reckon you could forget it, 
 couldn't you? ' And I says : ' I have forgot 
 a'ready.' And he give me another dollar 
 in silver, and rode off." 
 
 There was a nod and a smile of appre- 
 ciation about the fire. Even strict Absa- 
 lom Eank, and little Bill Anderson, the 
 preacher, left condemnation unspoken. 
 
 " I'll bet," said Seth Eeed, " that was 
 the man the canal people was after. He 
 stole their horses right off the tow-path." 
 
 " Might be," assented Jared cheerfully. 
 
 Bill Anderson made no comment. He 
 was watching Jane Evans as she moved 
 swiftly and silently to and from the sick- 
 room. She was big and strong, and yet 
 wonderfully dexterous. Light on her feet 
 as the smallest of women, " handy with her 
 hands," the neighbors had always said, she 
 united the nervous facility of her father 
 with the Teuton solidity of her mother. 
 Then he returned to the refreshment of ci- 
 der, and made penance for admiring wom- 
 38 
 
The Colts 
 
 en by passing the pitcher to Phil White- 
 sell, the hired man. He realized in a mo- 
 ment how severe self -punishment may be, 
 for Whitesell drained the pitcher, and sat 
 with great complacency, drinking slowly 
 from the dipper, and smacking his lips, 
 while the little preacher suffered in si- 
 lence. 
 
 " How you gettin* on with your clear- 
 ing, Rank? " asked one of the men. 
 
 " Oh, pretty well. Danny went after 
 the log-chain this afternoon, and he didn't 
 come back." 
 
 "I seen him jump on to the General 
 Cass from the bridge," said Phil, between 
 the slow sips which the last drinker was 
 privileged to take. He did not move his 
 eyes from the blaze in the fireplace. They 
 looked at him dubiously. It was an im- 
 probable thing. Grim Abe Ehinehart ac- 
 cused him with unbelieving eyes. Seth 
 Eeed smiled. He lived in hope that fate 
 would punish that wrestler, and here was 
 
 a report of departure from neighborhood 
 39 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 convention that promised the hope might 
 be gratified. 
 
 " No, you didn't," protested Absalom 
 Eank, but there was fear in his voice. 
 
 " Then I seen his ghost," was Phil's in- 
 stant and unmoved rejoinder. 
 
 They were silent a moment, and the 
 hired man continued, careless of the irrele- 
 vance : 
 
 " Seen a ghost go through the woods 
 here one time as high as the house, and it 
 run like the wind only it wasn't running, 
 'cause it didn't touch the ground. And it 
 went northwest." 
 
 Then he sipped again, his eyes still 
 fixed on the fire. 
 
 " Next night Jeff Bacon died," he add- 
 ed presently. 
 
 The time was well chosen. Something 
 about his ghost stories always silenced 
 them. They knew there were no ghosts, 
 and would have held to that contention 
 stoutly anywhere. But they always lis- 
 tened. And Phil picked the moment of 
 40 
 
The Colts 
 
 their reviving assurance to add the arrow 
 that impaled with a mysterious fact. 
 
 "Bacon did live northwest of here," 
 commented Reed, a little lower in tone than 
 even the nearness of a sick-room had made 
 him. 
 
 They all nodded. In the pause came a 
 groan from Judge Evans ; and they heard 
 Maria hurry from the kitchen with fresh 
 applications. Little Bill Anderson was 
 first to recover the level of custom. 
 
 " Phil, you've drunk all the cider, and 
 I hain't had none." 
 
 " Neither have I," added Jared Caruth 
 unblushingly. 
 
 Phil searched for a swallow in the deeps 
 of the dipper, and then looked about for 
 Jane and Maria. But the women were 
 busy in the room across the hall, and he 
 went unwillingly to the cellar, lighting a 
 candle, and leaving the doors ajar. 
 
 Cider in April has attained the quality 
 called "hard." The ingenuity of those 
 early years was engaged with the problem 
 41 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 of finding some treatment which would 
 keep it sweet as at the making ; just as the 
 inventive genius of other times gave itself 
 to devising a machine of perpetual motion, 
 or an apparatus that could wing its way in 
 the upper air, and fly like a bird. And the 
 native spirit of the earlier age was troubled 
 lest the inventor should succeed in taming 
 fermentation, and make hard cider a thing 
 unknown. 
 
 " I heerd a strange noise," said Phil, as 
 he emerged from the darkness below stairs, 
 and closed the door nervously. But he 
 brought both a pitcher and a pail of cider, 
 and the latter, set close to the blaze of logs 
 till it warmed, was doubled in strength. 
 
 Ten o'clock came. Little Bill Anderson 
 and Absalom Bank were arguing Scrip- 
 ture, and the rest were listening, kept 
 awake to unusual hours by cider and sole- 
 cisms. Anderson was a champion of im- 
 mersion as a means of baptism, and a fa- 
 mous debater of this always engrossing 
 topic. The other knew a score of texts 
 42 
 
The Colts 
 
 which led him to different conclusions, 
 though he could not present them with An- 
 derson's skill in argument. The groans 
 from the farther room had ceased to effect 
 a silence. They talked in lower voices than 
 common, but still in tones which proved 
 they had almost forgotten the house of 
 pain. 
 
 Presently, through their cross-fire of 
 text and retort came the sound of wheels. 
 Farmers' ears are acute for these things, 
 and they waited even salutation suspend- 
 ed till the wanderer should be known. 
 
 " Somebody go out and see who it is," 
 said Abe Rhinehart, grimmer and more im- 
 perious with the fumes of the cider. " Ja- 
 red, you go." 
 
 But the fiddler's chair was vacant. 
 
 " Where's Jared? " demanded Eank. 
 
 "He slipped away after the second 
 pitcher," said Maria, the serving woman, 
 redolent of medicinal herbs. 
 
 "Mebby it's a ghost," mused Phil 
 Whitesell, half audibly. But the sugges- 
 4 43 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 tion fell on attentive ears, and a deeper 
 quality of silence pervaded the room. 
 They sat there and judged the identity of 
 those approaching. Ten o'clock was late 
 for man and beast in early Indiana. Their 
 practised ears took note of the indications. 
 
 " Two horses," said Absalom Rank; and 
 the rest nodded. 
 
 " Four wheels," added Seth Reed pres- 
 ently, and the glances turned toward him 
 indorsed the statement. 
 
 "It's two rigs," declared Abe Rhine- 
 hart positively. He looked about, as if 
 challenging contradiction. 
 
 " Two rigs, or a ghost," rejoined Phil 
 Whitesell. His eyes had returned to the 
 fire, and something about him affected his 
 hearers uncannily. 
 
 The supernatural is nearest those who 
 live with Nature, and know her most inti- 
 mately. Skepticism and courage in the 
 dark come with colleges and the valet. 
 These men sat very still. The room was 
 void of sound. There was a tense effect in 
 44 
 
The Colts 
 
 the very atmosphere; for the mysterious 
 hoofs and wheels had turned from the hard 
 highway, and were muffled on the sodded 
 area between the hitching-rack and the 
 road. 
 
 " They're coming here." 
 
 A voice spoke out there in the darkness, 
 and another replied. 
 
 " It's Doc Borton," said Jane, quietly, 
 from the hallway. 
 
 "And the sheriff," added her mother, 
 standing at her elbow. 
 
 The spell had vanished. 
 
 Little Bill Anderson and big Absalom 
 Bank, forgetting each the everlasting error 
 in the other's creed, prepared to greet the 
 newcomers. The others speculated on the 
 unseasonable visit. For those who came 
 were notable. 
 
 When Jane Evans passed through the 
 room from the hall, they noticed she wore 
 a white collar the knitted linen laces 
 which have vanished now, except from 
 daguerreotypes. 
 
 45 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Before she could reach the door it was 
 flung open, and Doctor Borton entered, 
 peered at the group about the fireplace, 
 and drew off his bearskin mittens. He 
 kept from the blaze, walking up and down 
 the farther side of the room, talking in a 
 perfectly natural tone, stammering as was 
 his habit, but employing no bated breath 
 and confessing no impending doom. 
 
 They forgot they had been speaking 
 without reserve in their debate on baptism. 
 The sound of wheels had led them to re- 
 cross that Jordan of repression, and they 
 had tarried in the uncanny wilderness of 
 sighs till the healthy doctor came. And 
 even now they could not quite adjust them- 
 selves. 
 
 Clark Thompson, the sheriff, shook 
 hands with all the men, calling them by 
 their " given names," looked into their 
 eyes with the assurance and command 
 of a politician, and then tilted the cider 
 pitcher, and laughed silently at its dried 
 interior. 
 
 46 
 
The Colts 
 
 He turned to the daughter of the house. 
 
 " Jane, is there any more cider where 
 this came from I " 
 
 " I'll see." 
 
 " Til help you see." 
 
 She turned back at that, and took up 
 the candle. He held open the door, his big 
 frame towering above even her generous 
 proportions, and closed it behind him. The 
 cellar was warm and odorous, as winter 
 cellars, well-kept, must be, with a tempera- 
 ture different from that of other places, 
 and a smell as wholesome as a dinner, 
 and unmatched in all the aroma of the 
 world. 
 
 " Not that barrel," said Jane ; for her 
 escort had planted his pitcher at the faucet 
 of a dusty, bulging cask. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Sour as vinegar." 
 
 She found a better beverage, and they 
 filled the vessel. 
 
 "Sit down here," said the sheriff, as 
 they reached the dining-room. 
 47 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "But they'll want their cider," pro- 
 tested Jane. 
 
 He put the brimming pitcher on the 
 table. " The cider will keep. It will keep 
 a lot longer here than if they had it." 
 
 And they waited there alone, and to- 
 gether. 
 
 Doctor Borton walked without sum- 
 mons or announcement across the hall, and 
 approached the bedside as soon as the chill 
 of his ride was taken away. He counted 
 the pulse and passed his hand over the face 
 and the breast, sensitive to the dryness or 
 the moisture of the patient's skin. He bent 
 his head, and listened to heart-beats, his 
 trained ear, unaided by the instruments 
 later physicians have devised. And he 
 pressed open the closed eyelids, to peep at 
 the hooded pupils. 
 
 He took a chair, and sat by the bed, 
 something more than professional solici- 
 tude in his manner; something even more 
 than the solicitude a rich patient can in- 
 spire. 
 
 48 
 
The Colts 
 
 He leaned forward, his face above the 
 bed, his elbows on his knees, and his hands 
 clasped. He was studying his patient, as 
 he had studied him at other times and left 
 the problem unsolved. 
 
 There was unconscious pathos in the 
 practise of those old doctors. They groped 
 in the jungle of a profession where science 
 could shine but with occasional rays, each 
 one a student at the bedside, each one puz- 
 zling over his problems in those long night 
 rides those rides in calm or storm, on for- 
 est road or level highway ; each one strug- 
 gling for an answer to the questions that 
 were forever new the questions that 
 eluded answering by a wholly confusing 
 change just in the moment of conclusion. 
 Above all men these were the public serv- 
 ants, subject in any hour of dark or day- 
 light to any call, from any distance ; rous- 
 ing from needed sleep in blessed bed to 
 such exposure as can not now be estimated, 
 driving or riding unmeasured miles, and 
 fighting death in many forms, with weapons 
 49 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 simple and inadequate, with shrewd guess- 
 ing instead of demonstration, with careful 
 estimating of remedy instead of well-estab- 
 lished formulas or ready preparation ; with 
 little education not much the worse for 
 the lack these were the doctors in that 
 early day. 
 
 They opened the eyes of the newly born, 
 they cared for them through the beset- 
 ments of infancy, and healed their hurts in 
 the accidents of youth. They knew these 
 patients, the maladies that lay in wait for 
 each, their power of resistance, and the 
 medications to which each would respond. 
 And they died just as they had established 
 a sound generation, and went to their rest 
 forgiving a myriad debts that money could 
 pay but did not, and a legion of obliga- 
 tions that no cash could cover. And they 
 sleep under sod as silent as the sons and 
 daughters whose health was in their keep- 
 ing. 
 
 Heaven rest them, for they earned it 
 when the land was young ! 
 50 
 
The Colts 
 
 Outside the watch-dog was running from 
 corner to corner of the house, barking 
 fiercely, and making occasional brief ex- 
 cursions to the barnyard gate. Maria 
 opened the side door of the west room, and 
 stepped out, banging it shut behind her. 
 After a moment she plucked it open again 
 quickly, and left it wide, flying into the 
 room and staring speechless, with fright- 
 ened eyes. The air in the big house was 
 filled with an electric quality before a word 
 had been said. 
 
 Then Maria's tongue was loosed, and 
 she uttered the one cry : 
 
 " Outlaws ! " 
 
 " Where 1 " from a number of startled 
 men who hurried to their feet. 
 
 "They're going through the big gate, 
 and they're leading the colts away." 
 
 There was lack of purpose, of direction 
 in the group. Each man looked at the 
 others, their faces white, their eyes star- 
 ing. Absalom Bank reached up for the rifle 
 that hung above the mantel. He lifted the 
 51 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 hammer, and inspected the cap, finding it 
 bright, and arguing from that the gun was 
 loaded and ready. 
 
 As they puzzled, uncertain which door 
 to choose, Clark Thompson dashed in from 
 the dining-room, seized his hat, and 
 plunged into the night three men at his 
 heels. 
 
 Jane Evans followed, excited but silent, 
 till the shadows swallowed them up, then 
 softly closed the door to her father's sick- 
 room, and gazed from the window in the 
 darkened hall. 
 
 Little Bill Anderson, overlooking the 
 general exit, peeped into the dining-room, 
 and saw that pitcher of cider on the table. 
 
 " They didn't even take a drink of it," 
 he observed. And in the absence of dipper 
 to measure he tilted the brown earthenware 
 pitcher over his lips. It was better so. 
 There was nothing but sated appetite to 
 tell him when to cease ; and so strengthened, 
 he bethought him of clerical exemptions, 
 and went home. 
 
 52 
 
The Colts 
 
 Across the hall the judge raised up in 
 bed, and flung the quilts from him. 
 
 " They've stolen my colts ! Give me my 
 boots and stick," he cried. " Let me " 
 
 " Lie down," said Doctor Borton, smil- 
 ing happily. " You'll g-get well." 
 
 53 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 TRIUMPHANT IN TOWN 
 
 THE Lewis Cass pushed down through 
 the Widewater, where freight-boats lay 
 close crowded, and waiting their turn at the 
 docks. It went gaily on the straightaway 
 course, the helmsman's horn summoning 
 echoes and publishing approach, the rising 
 city to the left, the river fathoms below on 
 the right; and Dan Eank saw the crowds 
 that waited there at the landing. 
 
 It was very new and curious to him. 
 The meeting of arrivals with thrilled and 
 excited friends on the wharf, the calling 
 from deck-men to laborers on shore, the 
 contrasted sentiment and stoicism; the 
 smell of the cargo as the big doors were 
 opened amidships ; the smell of the wharf 
 in the sunshine; the bluster of a busy 
 town's reception ; the noises of crowds that 
 54 
 
Triumphant in Town 
 
 had a quite unrelated interest; the impe- 
 rial authority of the agent at the landing, 
 and the declaration of independence that 
 ran from the very verge of his small do- 
 main. The brief moment which fled away 
 carrying the sense of sensation with it, and 
 leaving the even pulse of the city undis- 
 turbed by a canal-boat's coming or going 
 these were the broad impressions that 
 came to Dan Rank. 
 
 And then came another reflection. He 
 was in the city. 
 
 What now? 
 
 The people all swept away from him. 
 They were going to some place. They 
 had errands, enjoyments, purpose. He 
 had no business here. Besides, he was 
 alone. It was a very uncomfortable feel- 
 ing. 
 
 Down at the right, at the foot of the 
 slope, was a steamboat, unloading. While 
 he looked at the strange costumes, at the 
 negro roustabouts then rare in the North 
 at the curious goods that hinted of dis- 
 55 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 tant climes, lie was half thrown from his 
 feet by; some one passing. 
 
 Eegaining his balance, inclined to self- 
 accusing for that his lack of purpose left 
 him undefended, he dodged half guiltily out 
 of the way of a big man who carried a small 
 trunk on his shoulder, and bore a well-filled 
 carpetbag in his hand. 
 
 Dan Eank was in an attitude of apology. 
 His humility was increased as he noted this 
 giant bearer of burdens was taking the lug- 
 gage of David Stocking from the boat to 
 the tavern, where waited entertainment for 
 man and beast. His face lighted as he saw 
 the polished Easterner. It was a leaven of 
 comfort in his rising self-accusing. But 
 the hero of his fancy passed without 
 noticing. The Adonis of the deck was a 
 stranger on the dock. The porter turned 
 far enough to swear at Dan Eank, to 
 frown upon him as an offender for getting 
 in the way. 
 
 " Come on, Tim," said Stocking care- 
 lessly. 
 
 56 
 
Triumphant in Town 
 
 And then Dan's healing resentment 
 rose. 
 
 The way was wide enough. There had 
 been room for the giant and his load and 
 his elegant patron to pass without touching. 
 
 " He came out of his way to bump me," 
 said the countryman to himself, the anger 
 growing; and the eyes of the two of them 
 met in mutual challenging. 
 
 Then the street was before him. David 
 Stocking had gone. The votary was with- 
 out an errand in town. He was stripped 
 even of the vicarious excitement of men 
 and women at the landing. It was nearly 
 sundown, and he was fully ten miles from 
 home without permission. 
 
 Far down the valley he could see men 
 working on the canal. Travel for the pres- 
 ent ended at Lafayette; but there was a 
 nervous hurry in extending the waterway. 
 He strolled down there, passing the big 
 warehouses and the busy stores, passing 
 the procession of wagons that brought 
 produce from the south and the west, or 
 57 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 took away supplies for the settlements far- 
 ther on. 
 
 A tall fellow in the coat militiamen 
 wore on training day was talking loud and 
 boastfully. Men a block distant turned to 
 hear his proffers to " outrun, outjump, or 
 throw down any man in this town." 
 
 A crowd began to collect about him 
 a speculative crowd out of which present- 
 ly came Tim, the big deck-hand. And Dan 
 Eank, who had been estimating the chal- 
 lenger's probable powers, immediately 
 transferred his antipathy from militiaman 
 to boatman. 
 
 "Get out here. I'll rastle you," said 
 Tim. " I've throwed everything from here 
 to Toledo." 
 
 The challenger looked him over, and lost 
 courage. He lost voice. He became placid 
 while the gathering crowd urged Tim to 
 more impetuous demands, to more vocifer- 
 ous declaration of that triumphal progress 
 " from here to Toledo." 
 
 But the man in the coat of Mars had 
 58 
 
Triumphant in Town 
 
 lost his taste for war, and the arrogance 
 which had clothed him uniform and all 
 was usurped by the man who extinguished 
 him. 
 
 Maybe it was because of hatred in his 
 heart that Dan Rank walked close and met 
 the roving eye of that giant of canal boat- 
 men. Maybe it was because of the unrest 
 which was punishing him for wasting his 
 time on a purposeless errand. Maybe it 
 was the primitive manhood in him resent- 
 ing the pretensions of a boaster. 
 
 Anyway he suddenly fronted the new 
 challenger, and said: 
 
 " I'll try you once or twice." 
 
 Formative periods hark back for their 
 plays. Schools, dress, convention are all 
 forgotten in the rush that thrills old hearts, 
 and will continue to stir them till all hearts 
 are still. These townsmen who suspended 
 business while they watched two vigorous 
 youths wrestle gave rein to the sense which 
 forgotten ancestors knew when the race 
 was young. 
 
 5 59 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 And when it was over, and Dan Rank 
 had found in victory the content which con- 
 science had banished, they went back to 
 their civilization as from a draught of 
 strong waters. 
 
 David Stocking came to him, and bore 
 him away in triumph. He won back the 
 place of honor, the pedestal of ideals, in 
 Dan Rank's thought; and they ranged the 
 town triumphant for many an hour. 
 
 60 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ACCUSED 
 
 WHEN Dan Bank leaped to the deck of 
 the packet, he had absolutely no purpose 
 in view. He had accepted an impulse, and 
 had acted. 
 
 When he walked up the tow-path bound 
 for home that night, with the white shafts 
 of the sycamores gleaming from the river 
 bank, and the March stars peering down 
 from the everlasting mystery of the skies, 
 it was well toward morning, and he had 
 seen a new world. 
 
 His friend David Stocking had proved 
 a capital entertainer, and had found enter- 
 tainment in his protege, as well. Dan re- 
 membered one of the songs that stranger- 
 friend had sung in the tavern, and amused 
 himself by humming, though it bore the 
 doubtful title of "The Outlaw's Serenade" : 
 61 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "A winding road, and a dark, dark night 
 Sing ho! 
 
 A farmer waked from his sleep in fright- 
 Sing ho! 
 
 And what cares the horse who his master be ? 
 
 There's a rope for your neck on the red-oak tree, 
 
 And a drink and a girl and some gold for me 
 Sing ho 1 " 
 
 He did not care to sing it, but he did 
 not want to forget it. 
 
 He had had his frolic, and now he was 
 down to realities again. He made a detour, 
 and brought the log-chain from the neigh- 
 bor's without notifying that neighbor of the 
 recall of the loan. And he went straight to 
 the stable for a season of chill and comfort- 
 less sleep, and then as straight to the clear- 
 ing and was rather glad to be there. 
 
 Early as was the beginning of a farm- 
 er's day, Absalom Eank was not yet 
 breakfasted when he heard the ax of his 
 son ringing in the woodland where they 
 had worked together yesterday. 
 
 He came down with a fear at his heart 
 which locked his lips to the lighter ques- 
 
Accused 
 
 tion, and Ban was surprised at not being 
 called to account for his absence. 
 
 The young fellow grew weary and faint 
 before noon, but the stubborn strength of 
 self-punishment was upon him, and he 
 called up those reserves of force he had 
 never before needed, and accomplished 
 more in that hour which the dinner-bell 
 ended than in the best on his previous 
 days. 
 
 But the dinner he ate was confession. In 
 the stress of appetite he did not comment 
 on the fact that his mother was silent, and 
 that his sisters wore the tint of tears about 
 their eyes. He overlooked the evidence 
 that he was the occasion of a certain re- 
 straint in the home. Of course there was 
 reason enough for it. Dan Rank knew 
 that. Who could go from home and be 
 gone all night without explanation ! It was 
 beyond precedent. 
 
 He was at first quite too clever to stum- 
 ble, and by any speech provoke a comment 
 which should loose the floodgates of in- 
 63 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 quiry. But, as the coarse, abundant food 
 replenished the fires of his energy, that 
 spirit of mischief wakened again, and he 
 felt a longing to break their reserve, what- 
 ever the penalty. 
 
 Besides, had it not been a time of won- 
 ders ? He wanted to tell of his adventures. 
 Once or twice he purposely opened the 
 way, tingling with the enjoyment of mem- 
 ory. But there was no response. They 
 were not disposed to discuss it ; and he fin- 
 ished his meal a little baffled, rose with a 
 smaller opinion of his importance, and out 
 of that gathering a half-resentful mood, re- 
 turned to the clearing. 
 
 Men newly arrived at full stature, and 
 learning little from books, may still be 
 reasoners ; but when the ambitions of youth 
 have been physical rather than mental, 
 when the stroke of an ax, the lift at a hand- 
 spike, prowess in wrestling or the speed of 
 a horse on the straightaway course are the 
 chiefest things, he is likely to leave reflec- 
 tion to those whose blood flows timidly. 
 
Accused 
 
 He is likely to toss the whole matter one 
 side, and hope again. 
 
 So Dan Bank was hoping and dreaming 
 while he worked that afternoon, piling the 
 brush, and flinging the branches on the 
 fires. He was reviving the incidents of his 
 one wonderful night, and heaving harder 
 on the lever which rolled the logs of oak 
 together, heaving the more mightily for the 
 very rush of that memory. 
 
 "How old are you, Dan!" asked his 
 father, when the afternoon was half gone. 
 
 " I'm twenty-one past." 
 
 The boy for he is still a boy at twenty- 
 one was not yet mollified. You know we 
 entertain the least kindly feelings for those 
 we have wounded. His family was offend- 
 ed because he had broken a rule. 
 
 " Yes, twenty-one." The old man mused 
 a little. Then : " Mebby you git tired work- 
 in' here on the farm all the time." 
 
 Dan Eank was startled. The level gen- 
 tleness of tone, the unused deference sur- 
 prised him. Then it nettled him. 
 65 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "Ain't I doing enough on the farm? " 
 
 The tone might have been provocative 
 of anger, but there was a father-note in the 
 reply the most remote possible from re- 
 buking. 
 
 " No boy has ever done more. But 
 you're of age now. I ain't got no claim on 
 you, and no right to your work. I ought to 
 give you a horse and a hundred dollars, and 
 a suit of clothes." 
 
 Dan Eank stopped, and looked at the 
 elder man in open-mouthed wonder. Every 
 vestige of reasonable warrant for such an 
 attitude eluded him. 
 
 " And I can give them to you. I ought 
 to give you a few books, but ours was 
 burnt up with the old house, and there 
 ain't much but Pilgrim's Progress and the 
 Bible." 
 
 If he paused a moment till that wave 
 of emotion went over him, his seamed and 
 weather-beaten face gave no sign ; and the 
 harsh voice was steady again when he 
 spoke. 
 
 66 
 
Accused 
 
 " But you might take the Bible." 
 
 " He thinks I need it running off. that 
 way," reflected Dan Bank. Yet he worked 
 on aimlessly now, and his father pro- 
 ceeded : 
 
 " Your mother could put up your things 
 'most any time. I reckon you'd like to visit 
 her folks back about Tiffin. Or, mebby, 
 you'd better go down to Texas, or out to 
 California." 
 
 The young fellow suspended his per- 
 functory effort, and sat down on a stump, 
 looking with puzzled eyes at his father. 
 
 " 'Tain't more than reasonable. A young 
 fellow gets tired working along always 
 with nothing but his board and keep. You 
 ain't never even had no sickness. And you 
 might go swift out West, and see the coun- 
 try. And after a couple of years mebby 
 you'd come back and visit with us; and 
 mebby you'd settle down here, and live. 
 I'll have a farm for every one of my chil- 
 dren, cleared and fenced, and with plenty 
 of stock." 
 
 67 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "Go swift out West?" gasped Dan 
 Bank, wholly at sea. 
 
 " Yes you'd better. And then you 
 needn't bother to write for a while. .They 
 say men are gettin' awful rich in the gold- 
 mines. You've been lots of help to me 
 done more than I could these last three 
 years." 
 
 " No, I ain't." 
 
 " And I got no objection to givin' you 
 your liberty. If you have any reason to 
 go I reckon it's all right, and I won't stop 
 you." 
 
 " I ain't got no reason to go." 
 
 " Well, you needn't say anything about 
 it. I'm your father, and I'll tell them any- 
 thing except the way you went." 
 
 " Say, father, do you want me to go ? " 
 
 " I expect you better for a while." 
 
 "Well, what for?" 
 
 " You can pick out any horse you like, 
 but Selim's the best, 'cause he'll run faster 
 and furder than any of them. And he'll 
 sell better, if it comes to that." 
 68 
 
Accused 
 
 Over the fields of his healthy life blew 
 the winds of reality. To Dan Bank all this 
 seemed a dream a something he had 
 known dimly once before. He could not 
 quite remember the details, but they were 
 so near to recollection that their shadows 
 were in his consciousness even before his 
 ears caught the uttered words. It was time 
 to awaken. 
 
 " Father," he warned, " you are stand- 
 ing in hot ashes there, and they'll burn 
 your boots." 
 
 The elder man's rousing to present 
 things was made with a leap rather more 
 clumsy than graceful; and the ludicrous 
 figure, with flinging arms and hurried 
 stamping to dislodge the coals for boot- 
 leather was precious broke the spell, and 
 the young man laughed. 
 
 " I don't know what you mean about my 
 going away. I went away yesterday, but I 
 didn't mean to a minute before I started." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 "And I ain't goin' again not a step. 
 69 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 About Selim : We have always said he was 
 mine, and I'd like him for my own. But I 
 never thought of leaving you." 
 
 " Supposing there was some reason why 
 you better go?" 
 
 " Well, there ain't no reason. I'm go- 
 ing to live right here." Then, after a mo- 
 ment, in a less forceful, more reminiscent 
 tone : " I was with a man that had been a 
 sailor." 
 
 "Where was he?" 
 
 " On the canal-boat. He's going to live 
 in Lafayette." 
 
 The boy had returned to natural 
 speech. He had returned to habitual con- 
 ditions. He took up a torch from the near- 
 est heap of burning logs, and thrust it into 
 the nest of twigs prepared for it in the 
 newly piled pyramid of timber. 
 
 " Mother told me something at noon," 
 resumed the father, retreating toward hap- 
 piness, but not forgetting misery, " that 
 made me think that Well, they say " 
 
 He stopped. 
 
 70 
 
Accused 
 
 Dan Bank turned from the crackling 
 flames that roared up through the larger 
 material, and came straight to the elder 
 man. He had never before noticed that his 
 father looked old. 
 
 " Now, I don't know what any one told 
 her, nor what any one thinks. But I tell 
 you that if they said I'd ever done any- 
 thing that I'd better run away from, they 
 lied. I just went into town on a packet, 
 and this fellow they call David Stocking 
 he took a liking to me because I jumped 
 from the bridge to the deck, and because I 
 rastled with a big man, and threw him." 
 He grinned a little at the recollection, and 
 his blue eyes flashed; for it had been a 
 Titan encounter. " And he set there and 
 told me stories me and the others, and 
 the feller I throwed, as soon as he could 
 get up and he drank some liquor, and I 
 drank some cider, and I smoked one cigar 
 till it made me sick. And then he showed 
 us some tricks with cards, and sung some 
 sailor songs mighty good ones and I lit 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 out, and walked home. And that's all there 
 is to it. And I don't want to leave the 
 place and go away, and " There was a 
 break in the voice that had been so ring- 
 ing. " And I won't." 
 
 " I don't want you to. I understand." 
 Then, after a moment: "What time did 
 you leave town?" 
 
 " About midnight." 
 
 A load rolled from the old man's heart 
 at that. The story might not satisfy com- 
 pletely, but it was acquittal in his heart, as 
 it must be in the law. It would not do to 
 cry out, as his comforted soul commanded : 
 " Thank God ! " They were too stoical for 
 that. So he cloaked his jubilation with 
 common questioning. 
 
 " Didn't you have any supper, or break- 
 fast?" 
 
 " Supper yes, at the tavern. He got 
 the best there was in the house." 
 
 That was all for hours. They worked 
 as they had worked on other days, though 
 the farmer's eyes roved a bit, and turned 
 72 
 
Accused 
 
 with a startled light toward the bridge 
 whenever strange sounds came. 
 
 When the supper-bell rang in the dusk 
 of the evening, they shouldered their axes, 
 and started back to the house. Far away 
 they heard the jolt of wheels. Dan Rank 
 went on. The father stood and waited. 
 Presently the sound of a trotting-horse 
 came to them. It trotted without pausing 
 over the corduroys, trotted across the muf- 
 fling bridge which spanned a creek, and 
 continued that unvarying trot down the 
 level road. 
 
 " Doc Borton." 
 
 The father spoke the words as if breath 
 till then had been denied him. It was no 
 officer with warrant for Dan. Then he 
 called to the unseen figure passing in the 
 gathering darkness of the shadowy road. 
 
 "Hello!" 
 
 " Hello ! " came back, though the trot- 
 ting continued. 
 
 " Is Judge Evans worse ? " 
 
 " I can tell you b-better when I come 
 73 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 b-back." And the good physician passed 
 on. 
 
 " I was over there last night," said the 
 elder Eank, as he regained the side of his 
 son. If the boy had looked, even the night 
 would have shown him that the agony of 
 age had departed from the weather-beaten 
 face. 
 
 "Is he bad?" 
 
 " Somebody stole his colts while we 
 were there." 
 
 It was irrelevant, but amazing ; and Dan 
 Eank must have walked a hundred yards, 
 speaking of that great incident, asking 
 questions about it where the thieves prob- 
 ably came from, which way they had gone, 
 what had been done for their capture ; and 
 then he suddenly stopped, set his ax on the 
 ground, gazed in the steadfast eyes of his 
 father, and gave utterance to the one word : 
 
 "Oh-h!" 
 
 He had comprehended. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 AT THE STILE 
 
 SUPPER came late at the farmhouse. 
 The bell was summons to a closing of labor 
 in the woods, but not to the ending of ac- 
 tivity about the barns; and the stars had 
 been shining for an hour when the family 
 gathered about the big table in the kitchen. 
 
 Dan's first view of the faces of mother 
 and sisters showed him that the load which 
 had rested at noontime was now lifted. 
 His father must have found opportunity to 
 make known to them that the boy had no 
 reason to run. It would have been too much 
 to ask a pause in his work, and an explana- 
 tion in the afternoon. Consideration rises 
 as means of communication develop; and 
 even now nothing was said on the subject 
 that was nearest all their hearts. Vivisec- 
 tion, too, is a later science. But as the 
 6 75 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 meal progressed a purpose rose in Dan 
 Bank's mind; and by the time he had 
 drained his big cup of milk, he was resolved 
 to do what the occasion demanded. He was 
 very tired and very sleepy, and the big 
 supper added to his drowsiness. But he 
 must be set right in the house of Judge 
 Evans. 
 
 Ordinarily, after the evening meal, the 
 men folks disposed themselves for rest till 
 the deeper repose of bedtime, watching the 
 women project their labors an hour far- 
 ther, as their morning's labors antedated 
 by a like season the men's engagement. 
 But to-night the young fellow pulled off 
 his heavy boots, drew on those reserved "for 
 dress occasion, slipped into the coat which 
 served him for Sunday, and put on a wool 
 hat, discarding the coonskin cap of daily 
 use. His father watched him with troubled 
 eyes. He feared that attraction of gravity 
 of which " town " is the center. 
 
 " You are going " he began. 
 
 " To Judge Evans's house." 
 76 
 
At the Stile 
 
 That was consolation. Dan would not 
 rest beneath a cloud. 
 
 Selim heard his master, and whinnied 
 from the security of his stall. Dan Bank 
 called to the colt, and then swung strongly 
 down the road, whistling as he went. 
 
 Some one was standing at the stile be- 
 fore Jared Caruth's cabin ; and he whistled 
 the more merrily, for it was common 
 enough to see old Jared there. Strife was 
 constant between himself and the father of 
 Prudence, and Dan Rank knew that if any 
 one had heard that suspicion of sin, it 
 would be this unthrifty resident this wid- 
 ower who mourned but little the Quaker 
 woman who had loved him, and suffered, 
 and gone home. 
 
 But as he came nearer he saw it was not 
 Jared. Indeed, it was not a man at all, but 
 the slim figure of a woman ; and she slipped 
 about behind the post at the end of the 
 stile, as if to conceal herself from the 
 passer. 
 
 Doubtless old Jared was waiting there 
 77 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 in the house, but the risk of encounter at- 
 tracted him. He ceased his revoicing of 
 tunes to call out boldly : 
 
 "Hello, Prudence. Waiting for some 
 one?" 
 
 The girl came more clearly into outline, 
 and after a moment of hesitation, an- 
 swered : 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Who-- me f " 
 
 " No." Then, after a pause : " For my 
 father." 
 
 " I'll help you wait." And he came over 
 to the rough wooden steps and sat down. 
 
 " I don't want you to," said the girl. 
 
 "But why?" 
 
 There was a longer hesitation ; then she 
 answered with a woman's reason: "Be- 
 cause." 
 
 " That's good. He'll be glad to find me 
 here keeping you company till he gets 
 back." 
 
 "I don't think he will come back to- 
 night." 
 
 Y8 
 
At the Stile 
 
 There was the suggestion of a sob in 
 the tone. 
 
 "And you all alone? Well, one of the 
 girls will come over, and " 
 
 "No no. You must not tell any one 
 he is gone not any one." 
 
 Dan Rank looked at her a moment. Dim 
 as was the light, her face showed him all 
 her troubles, even if the voice had con- 
 cealed them. And he thought rapidly. 
 The blow that came to him in the earlier 
 hours had made him wiser had made 
 him keener of mind, and broader of sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 "When did your father go away?" 
 
 " Last night." 
 
 "Have you been alone since?" 
 
 She nodded. Presently she added: 
 " He went over to see how Judge Evans 
 was in the evening, and then he came back, 
 and then he went away again." 
 
 That was puzzling. Dan Bank can- 
 vassed the matter busily. Presently light 
 came to him, and he asked, this time look- 
 79 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 ing across at the grim woods beyond the 
 clearing : 
 
 " Did he take his saddle with him? " 
 
 Dark as it was, even without seeing her, 
 he knew she had nodded an affirmative re- 
 ply knew she was weeping silently. 
 
 He put out his hand toward her, still 
 without turning his head, put out his hand 
 and touched her then gathered her swift- 
 ly to him, and folded her close in the strong, 
 young arms. 
 
 " Don't cry," he said simply, caressing- 
 ly; and half her burden was lifted in the 
 blessing of sympathy. Then she drew 
 away and stood alone within the yard, and 
 the strength that she rarely lacked came 
 back to her. 
 
 "I must go in," she said simply. 
 " Good night." 
 
 " Good night but don't you worry any 
 more, Prudy. It will come out all right." 
 
 " I won't cry any more now." There 
 was a conclusiveness about it, an effect of 
 bearing fact and reason both in one, which 
 80 
 
At the Stile 
 
 made all the earth seem different as he 
 journeyed on. He came into the belt of 
 warmer air that blew from the great heaps 
 of burning logs, and wished the breadth of 
 that zone could take in the cabin of Jared 
 Caruth ; for he felt the girl waiting there 
 in such lonely vigil was strangely cold. 
 
 " Took his saddle with him," mused Dan 
 Eank as he stepped across the canal bridge. 
 " Took his saddle and yet he never had a 
 horse or a cow in that ramshackle stable 
 since he came to the neighborhood; never 
 had anything but a gun and a fiddle and a 
 trap besides that fancy saddle. But he 
 takes good care of them better than he is 
 taking of Prudy to-night." 
 
 So full were his thoughts of the girl and 
 her tribulations, of Jared and his probable 
 connection with the taking of the horses, 
 that he never once paused to think of his 
 leap over the rail to the deck of the packet. 
 Somehow, there had come to be less 
 thought of his own case, less of an indi- 
 vidual view of life more of the considera- 
 81 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 tion which included others : which particu- 
 larly included one little woman whom his 
 arm had enfolded. 
 
 He knocked at the door of the Evans 
 homestead, the big, heavy door that gave 
 into the hallway with the ample rooms at 
 either side, and the fireplaces at the farther 
 ends. Jane admitted him, and he noticed 
 she started when the light of her candle 
 fell upon him. There was a bit of a 
 difficulty in beginning his speech, and it 
 was increased as he felt the chill of her 
 reserve. 
 
 " Come in," she said presently. But she 
 pressed him rather hastily into the west 
 room; and he knew her father was lying 
 there to the right, and that Doctor Borton 
 was sitting beside him sitting beside with 
 elbows on knees and hands clasped, with 
 studious eyes searching the hidden condi- 
 tion of the patient. 
 
 "Who is it? " demanded the sick man. 
 
 The girl closed the door. Dan Eank 
 had walked to the western fireplace, as was 
 82 
 
At the Stile 
 
 his custom. Jane did not offer a chair. 
 She was increasingly troubled. There was 
 more speech in the east room. 
 
 Dan Bank came directly to the point, 
 since he knew no diplomacy. 
 
 " Does he think I stole his four-year- 
 olds?" 
 
 Jane stepped nearer the sick-room, and 
 made listening an excuse for not at once re- 
 plying. But he could not wait then. He 
 had something at stake more precious than 
 horses. 
 
 " Does your father think " 
 
 " Hush he is calling you." 
 
 Doctor Borton came to the hall. 
 
 " You b-better come in, Dan," he said, 
 and held the door open. 
 
 He walked in very bravely, for he had 
 come here full of indignation and resent- 
 ment ; yet he knew he was without weapon 
 against a sick man. He would cheerfully 
 have challenged the judgment of any num- 
 ber in able-bodied condition; but now he 
 stood beside a bed and looked down, his hat 
 83 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 in his two hands, and his strength no aid 
 to him. 
 
 " Dan oh, Dan, how could you steal 
 my horses 1 " 
 
 " I didn't." 
 
 " Don't you lie to me." 
 
 The big man struggled fiercely, as if to 
 rise. There was threatening in his man- 
 ner. The white face, with its unaccustomed 
 stubble of beard, the flaming eyes, the des- 
 perate, the unusual in the picture all im- 
 pressed and confused the visitor. Doctor 
 Borton was trying to calm his patient. 
 
 " Don't you lie, Dan Rank. After grow- 
 ing up here, right in my neighborhood, 
 right in my house, right " 
 
 He paused there, for his strength would 
 not support him. 
 
 " I never took your colts, judge, and I 
 don't know who did. I'm no outlaw." 
 
 " Then where were you last night ? " 
 This savagely, as a wolf-hound for an in- 
 stant checked. 
 
 " I was in town." 
 84 
 
At the Stile 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 He could not answer. Neighbors knew 
 each other's affairs. He could not have 
 gone without an errand, and there was 
 none. He could not have remained away 
 from home over night on any errand with- 
 out public knowledge of the circumstance. 
 
 " What did you go for? " 
 
 " Because I wanted to." 
 
 There was a stubborn, a defiant quality 
 in his voice that the sick man at least took 
 for evidence of guilt. His inquisitor strug- 
 gled once more against the doctor and the 
 detaining bedclothes. 
 
 " You sha'n't leave this house. I'll turn 
 you over to the law. I have caught one of 
 them." 
 
 But they hurried the young fellow from 
 the room. They closed the door upon him, 
 and united in quieting the roused and half- 
 f rantic patient. Out in the west room Dan 
 was standing in the middle of the floor be- 
 fore he knew it was Phil Whitesell; and 
 he flamed at him savagely. 
 85 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "Do you think I stole them horses?" 
 he demanded, all the pent-up, impotent an- 
 ger rising against somebody that gave evi- 
 dence of equality. 
 
 " No," was the prompt, frightened re- 
 sponse. 
 
 " Then how do you think they went? " 
 demanded Maria from the dining-room 
 door. 
 
 Dan whirled with a look of sudden sur- 
 prise at her. From childhood he had been 
 a favorite with the serving-woman ; but the 
 uselessness of such defending came to him, 
 and he turned back to the man. Yet it was 
 not with the thought of contending against 
 him. Trouble develops swiftly; time, 
 slowly. He was thinking of a far more 
 serious problem; but Maria repeated her 
 query : 
 
 " How do you think they went? " 
 
 "I told you that mebby ghosts took 
 them," responded Phil. "I seen a ghost 
 one time as high " 
 
 But she slammed the door. 
 86 
 
At the Stile 
 
 Dan Bank waited a moment, and then 
 Jane Evans came to him. She was just his 
 age; but a girl of twenty-one is so vastly 
 older than a boy just escaped from minori- 
 ty. She stood squarely before him, her face 
 very white, her honest eyes looking deep 
 into his own. They had grown up together, 
 these two. Even in those years when her 
 father discharged official duties in town she 
 had made her pilgrimages to the old neigh- 
 borhood ; and the bond of child-fellowship 
 had never been broken. 
 
 " Jane, I did not take the four-year-olds. 
 You know that. You believe me, don't 
 you?" 
 
 " I hope you didn't oh, I hope so, Dan. 
 But they think you did. You were not at 
 home. They feel very bitter toward you. 
 I think they will will arrest you." 
 
 "Arrest me here at my home for 
 nothing! And everybody will see " 
 
 " They are very angry." 
 
 " But I am not guilty." 
 
 " They all think you are. Oh, I know, 
 87 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Dan, I know you are not," for the woman 
 was rising above the accuser now. " But 
 think of the horror of it! "What will we 
 do I Arrested for " 
 
 " Horse-stealing," he replied nervously. 
 
 " You better go away for a time. They 
 will find out before long you are not guilty. 
 It will be better to come back when Oh, 
 I have seen them in in " 
 
 "In jail? Yes, I know. And it's good 
 of you, Jane. But I never did a wrong 
 thing in my life, and I'm not going to be 
 arrested. I am going about my business, 
 and the man that takes me will have his 
 hands full." 
 
 He turned to leave. Big as she was, 
 and strong, the power of him startled her. 
 She knew something of the force of men in 
 anger. That rough age had impressed the 
 lesson of contending, and the havoc Na- 
 ture's simple weapons could inflict. Be- 
 sides, she had a personal interest here. She 
 thought much of this comrade of her girl- 
 hood. But, if he were taken Clark Thomp- 
 88 
 
At the Stile 
 
 son would have to take him. And she 
 dreaded that issue. 
 
 " Dan ! " she cried, springing after, to 
 detain him. But he put her off, and opened 
 the door. 
 
 "I'm no outlaw," he said simply; and 
 the simplicity of it accentuated its strength. 
 
 As he turned to the east she heard the 
 beat of hoofs from the west and was glad 
 the moment of evil was postponed. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 
 THE DOOR OF DESTINY 
 
 BUT Dan Eank did not go home. 
 
 When he came to the bridge that night 
 after the visit to Judge Evans's home, he 
 paused and leaned on the rail as he had 
 when, in an afternoon that seemed very 
 long ago, a boat came out of the east, and 
 carried him into a world that was new. 
 There was a conflict of passion in his 
 bosom. First of all, and overtowering all, 
 was the thought that his oldest friends be- 
 lieved him capable of crime. He could not 
 fully realize that the odium of outlawry 
 might attach to him. He had never thought 
 very deeply; had never speculated on the 
 ethics of life, nor even on the forces he 
 found about him. The fact of being a part 
 of this problem which seemed swifter of 
 solution then than now, had not yet im- 
 90 
 
The Door of Destiny 
 
 pressed him. We are all individualists 
 when we are young. 
 
 But he had, though unconsciously, a 
 plan and a conception. He realized that 
 this great region was fast passing from a 
 primitive stage to a period of full develop- 
 ment. We underrate them if we fancy 
 those men were insensible to the trend of 
 events, or incapable of foreseeing those 
 pages that Time has later unrolled from 
 the scroll. The spirit of the era was one of 
 breathless haste. The state was swift in 
 the process of making. There were canals 
 here, and canals there. New highways were 
 being opened daily, and with impetuous 
 hands. The wilderness had been ordered 
 to blossom as the rose. 
 
 And there was abundance of reward 
 that could be gathered in a lifetime. The 
 country was flooded with money. True, 
 much of it was of the kind that might or 
 might not be good ; but little was so lack- 
 ing in value as to be rejected utterly. There 
 was canal scrip bales of it. But every 
 7 91 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 flimsy paper was good for lands in the 
 choicest locations; and land was being 
 sought for by the wise and has been since 
 the family of man was established. 
 
 He who had to offer what was needed 
 in this development might command any- 
 thing that he would even specie, though 
 coin was scarce. He who had labor or ma- 
 terial or influence or good counsel to sell 
 might have his pay in money. It was abun- 
 dant. The fruition of man's desire was at 
 hand. For money was the magician which 
 could do all things. Money was pushing 
 this canal farther west and south; was 
 bringing the throngs of Irish laborers with 
 their picks and shovels, their strange 
 tongue, and their tendency to fighting 
 but with their industry, none the less. 
 Money was urging the farmers to hurry 
 with their clearing, to roll the forest far- 
 ther back, and to widen the fields. Money 
 was building the mills, and dragging the 
 saws, and teaching the heavy stone burs to 
 hum in a musical monotone as they poured 
 92 
 
The Door of Destiny 
 
 out the stream of flour and meal. Money 
 brought strangers in increasing numbers 
 from out the mysterious East to the trans- 
 formation of the West. And this man-child 
 at the door of Destiny apprehended the 
 key that would give him possession of all 
 things. 
 
 Yet his was a settler's view not that of 
 a miser or speculator. His vision was of 
 riches digged from this valley, and heaped 
 in beauty and convenient use within this 
 circle of enclosing hills. The gathering 
 here to scatter elsewhere was not part of 
 his plan. He looked at the right arm which 
 had held a good woman, and the hope of a 
 home was in him. Jubilant with youth un- 
 formed, he caught as he rested there the 
 purpose and the promise of his own estab- 
 lishment. He had his duties for the pres- 
 ent; but beyond them lifted the desirable 
 heights of possibility. 
 
 The swift coming of the packet yester- 
 day, its entrance into his life and its pass- 
 ing on ; the flashes of that night in town 
 93 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 flashes which for him illuminated so much 
 more than was done or spoken had broad- 
 ened his view. The very vices of it revealed 
 highways to avoid, and made more certain 
 the profit of straight paths, however nar- 
 row. 
 
 And he thought of his future. He knew 
 where his own farm would lie. He knew 
 those acres, still thick-studded with giant 
 trees, would belong to him ; that he would 
 hew away the timber and spread harvests 
 for the sun to ripen ; that there would be a 
 house at the highest point, and that Pru- 
 dence would make of it a blessing. He 
 knew this whole country would go for- 
 ward with him; and he wanted to feel 
 that it was going forward in part because 
 of him. 
 
 Something from Anderson's latest ser- 
 mon sang through his memory, and it 
 seemed he had "Bible warrant" for his 
 hope: "From the wilderness, and from 
 this Lebanon, even unto the great river 
 ... all the land of the Hittites, and unto 
 94 
 
The Door of Destiny 
 
 the great sea toward the going down of the 
 sun, shall be your coast." 
 
 In that greater day he saw the hateful 
 word "outlaw" applied. How could he 
 wear that odium? How impossible the ful- 
 filment of his dream, with that cloud on his 
 title to equality ! 
 
 Besides, Jane Evans had said she did 
 not believe him guilty. Had she said just 
 that? He tried to remember her exact 
 words. He could not believe she doubted 
 him. He had known her so long. They had 
 been so frank in all their intercourse. 
 
 He had not stolen the horses, nor any- 
 thing ever. And he was not afraid of 
 trial. But he was afraid of the name of it 
 of the fact of arrest, of the clinging stain 
 it would put upon him. It is an error which 
 youth has made occasionally, both before 
 and since the days of Dan Rank. 
 
 Nothing could convince Prudence that 
 
 he was guilty. He was sure of that. But 
 
 the lines of their lives lay side by side far 
 
 away into that future where " they twain 
 
 95 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 were one flesh." He thought of her in that 
 aftertime, when she might remember that 
 she had seen him with iron on his wrist, 
 and bleeding with the fight against capture. 
 He would save all that, if he could. 
 
 So he argued himself away from the de- 
 fiant mood in which he had left the big 
 house, and, as he did so, some stirring of 
 that jubilant spirit which belongs with 
 youth came back to him. It is the tempta- 
 tion which liberty holds just ahead some- 
 times from the farther side of troubling 
 morasses. And he was listening to its in- 
 toxicating melody when he saw the lights 
 of a canal-boat far down through the trees. 
 
 It came from the town. The mules were 
 trotting, for this was a hastening vessel 
 with very precious freight. Men were 
 sleeping below that arched roof, certain to 
 be far on their journey when they waked 
 at dawn. Money was there, and money's 
 worth. The boat which had gone west yes- 
 terday brought seed. Here was the har- 
 vest, returning. 
 
 96 
 
The Door of Destiny 
 
 He watched it as it glided under the 
 bridge, the helmsman leaning drowsily 
 against his long tiller, the boy on the rear- 
 ward mule hurrying his animals to diligent 
 speed, the dim lights gleaming from the 
 big cabin where unknown beings slept and 
 he turned to the tow-path which was the 
 side farthest away from his home and 
 started toward town. 
 
 The moon had risen. He looked to the 
 south, and saw the outlines of a cabin in 
 Jared Caruth's clearing ; and a great hope 
 welled up in his heart. 
 
 She would know that he was not an out- 
 law. 
 
 97 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A DINNER OF DREAMS 
 
 "AN outlaw!" 
 
 In all the vocabulary of that time no 
 word meant so much. 
 
 An outlaw! 
 
 It suggested every imaginable oppro- 
 brious thought. It meant even more than 
 " convict," for it implied the deserving of 
 conviction, the justness of punishment. It 
 included the thought of flight from home, 
 the running from arrest, the armed defi- 
 ance of officers. It carried with it the 
 charge of confidence betrayed, of treachery 
 for the outlaws were more than profes- 
 sional thieves, brought up in an alien envi- 
 ronment and preying upon people with 
 whom they had nothing in common, for 
 whom they need feel no bond of sympathy. 
 There were instances of infamy in the 
 98 
 
A Dinner of Dreams 
 
 neighborhood, in the very household. It 
 was not alone the last expression of crimi- 
 nality. It was base which is worse in the 
 first half century of a region's settlement. 
 
 But the outlaws were a race to be reck- 
 oned with, for all that ; a force to be taken 
 into account. No man openly defended 
 them, or openly aided them in the commis- 
 sion of crime; but there was an unex- 
 pressed sentiment of toleration, and a 
 never-forgotten fear of visitation. 
 
 Men remembered that honest Absalom 
 Bank came one night on the camp of three 
 with their stolen horses, while he hunted 
 for 'coons. And they remembered that he 
 left his dogs barking at the foot of a sugar- 
 maple, and rode to town and brought the 
 officers. And men remembered that the 
 flame of Absalom Bank's burning wheat- 
 stacks rose higher than the waving, warn- 
 ing branches of the trees the crowding 
 forest trees that see all, and say nothing. 
 So men held their peace, and let outlaws 
 fix such code of morals as they would. 
 99 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Little Prudence opened her eyes very 
 wide in the morning light. Country people 
 along the Wabash are commonly up before 
 dawn; yet she had slept till the sun was 
 shining. She remembered everything, 
 and lifted her head to listen for the sound of 
 her father's breathing. But the place was 
 very still. Besides, were he at home, there 
 would have been a blaze in the fireplace. 
 Yet the house was cold. That silence was 
 increasingly oppressive. In her girl heart 
 she knew what it meant. 
 
 She lay then for a time, thinking. Last 
 night and the touch of a loving hand came 
 back to her. That was music, and perfume, 
 and light in the gloomy vigil she had been 
 keeping since her discovery yesterday 
 morning that her father was gone. It was 
 a vigil that begun before she learned that 
 the horses were stolen from Judge Evans's 
 stable. It was a vigil, too, which was not 
 wholly new, but which was always terrible. 
 
 After a time she rose and went to the 
 fireplace. Her own bed was curtained off 
 100 
 
A Dinner of Dreams 
 
 from the rest of the cabin's single room, 
 and there were attempts at decoration 
 about it. There was a shelf where her 
 mother's keepsakes were bestowed ; a print- 
 ed sermon, with a picture of the Friends' 
 "meeting-house." There was a strip of 
 rag carpet of her own weaving before her 
 couch, and a chest in which treasures were 
 kept. But she would not look at her 
 father's bed, because she wanted still to 
 hope that he was there, sleeping. 
 
 No glow of warmth came from the 
 ashes. The fire had gone out completely. 
 Matches were rare things then; and she 
 had none. Her father was notoriously a 
 " poor provider." Prudence went back to 
 her alcove, and dressed. Then she mount- 
 ed the high bench at the loom, and busied 
 herself weaving, finding in hopelessness 
 still some hope that she would wake that 
 sleeper. But the shuttle rattled, and the 
 beams clanged, and the ropes creaked in 
 vain. 
 
 She was alone. 
 
 101 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 From her front door she looked out on 
 the big field of Absalom Rank ; and a breath 
 of warm air from the burning logs came to 
 her. Farther over, she could hear the 
 sound of chopping. She listened. There 
 was but one ax, and she believed it was 
 Dan Rank, working away alone. He was 
 thinking of her. She was very sure of that. 
 
 Yet the sense of being deserted came 
 to her; the sense of unjustness and she 
 whirled toward the big bed. Of course it 
 was empty. Of course the neatly smoothed 
 coverlet had not been disturbed. She 
 looked at the tidy room, the order of it, 
 the arrangement of scanty and simple 
 furniture, with the pride of a good house- 
 wife. She had not deserved to be left 
 alone. 
 
 But that was the moment of self-asser- 
 tion. She would not permit herself to sur- 
 render to cry. The temptation came, but 
 something like anger, as she gazed at that 
 untouched bed, armed her against it. And 
 she set about providing for herself. 
 102 
 
A Dinner of Dreams 
 
 First, there must be a fire. She slipped 
 across the road, and, keeping cover between 
 her and that ax she could hear but not see, 
 ran swiftly to the nearest heap of smol- 
 dering logs. She took up a billet of wood 
 which had burned at one end, which was all 
 bright coals for a third of its length, and 
 sped back to the cabin. Presently there was 
 warmth in the room. Then her spirits rose. 
 The sunny temper came back again. With 
 that came another sensation not wholly 
 unknown to those who had depended on Ja- 
 red Caruth. The zest of healthful appetite 
 assailed her. 
 
 She would eat; but the food should be 
 fitting for the girl who had felt the strong 
 arm of Dan Rank about her; for the girl 
 he had comforted. There was a new dig- 
 nity in love, a sense she had never known 
 before. 
 
 And the larder? 
 
 It held a bit of corn bread cold and 
 some measures of flour. 
 
 She wrapped a shawl about her, and 
 103 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 walked down to the stile where she had 
 stood last evening, where the one perfect 
 happiness of her life had come to her the 
 ecstasy of a first passion expressed; and 
 still she was touched at times with a very 
 commonplace desire for food. The men and 
 women who builded the nation loved with 
 an absolute devotion unsurpassed by the 
 heroes and heroines of story ; but they hun- 
 gered and they thirsted at times. They 
 took thought of the morrow what they 
 should eat, and what they should drink, and 
 wherewithal they should be clothed. And 
 much of the time they were vastly unro- 
 mantic. 
 
 Prudence Caruth, indignant at aban- 
 donment without provision, as without 
 provocation, and on the Mount of Beati- 
 tudes for that her heart was won, had yet 
 room in her nature to remember broiled 
 ham, and to think of eggs. 
 
 But she had no poultry. The thrift- 
 less habit of her father had left that un- 
 provided, though the lack was common 
 104 
 
A Dinner of Dreams 
 
 enough even at better farms, in the early 
 days. She could not hunt as a man might, 
 though there was game in the woods, and 
 guns in the house, cared for with the same 
 solicitude that her father had bestowed on 
 his fiddle and his traps. She stood in the 
 sharp sunlight, and heard a partridge 
 drumming. She knew the ponds were 
 troubled with water-fowl, pausing in their 
 spring migration to the northward. She 
 might turn trapper, and fare sumptuously. 
 
 She looked in the stable, which Dan 
 Rank had properly characterized as " ram- 
 shackle," but the only trap she could have 
 handled was gone. Yet she was sure she 
 had seen it there yesterday. She gazed 
 down through the forest, toward the 
 swamp-land, in the tree-hidden depths of 
 which the Sand Islands lay. It brought a 
 pang ; for Prudence knew, though she tried 
 to forget it, that outlaws made those hills 
 their rendezvous. 
 
 But half-way to the swamp-land was 
 the creek, broadened and deepened here by 
 105 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 the canal's embankment; and there before 
 her, at the edge of the water, was the trap 
 closed. And it held a mallard duck, 
 frightened and fat, and deserted by his 
 flock. 
 
 What impressed her first of all was that 
 her father had taken that trap, had baited 
 and set it with all the skill of an expert, 
 some time after that hour when the judge's 
 colts were taken. She repented the harsh 
 judgment of the earlier morning, for he 
 had considered her, at least. 
 
 The trapper blood in her stirred at the 
 specimen ensnared, for he was the finest of 
 a fine race of birds. She released him and 
 despatched him ; then she dressed the flesh 
 with all the care her mother had taught her, 
 and in an hour the aroma of it was filling 
 the cabin. She sat by the side of her fire- 
 place, turning the duck, dipping up the liq- 
 uor with a long iron spoon from the drip- 
 ping-pan beneath, and pouring it over the 
 browning surface. 
 
 She had a loaf of bread in the " Dutch 
 106 
 
A Dinner of Dreams 
 
 oven " at the farther side of the fireplace 
 white bread; for this was no common occa- 
 sion. 
 
 In that chest by the bed, among the 
 treasures which pioneer maidens cherished 
 against the day of their marriage, was 
 linen ; and a cloth of snowy whiteness was 
 spread on the little table. There were solid 
 silver spoons and some bits of china in 
 the deeps of the cupboard the former 
 wrapped in fawnskin and preserved from 
 common using ; and there was a great plat- 
 ter with castles and knights in blue a waif 
 from the household of Friends. In the last 
 moments, before serving, she changed her 
 gown for one of fresh gray flannel. She 
 had spun the wool and woven the fabric, 
 and Jane Evans had helped in the making 
 of the dress. Then she heaped her table, 
 and sat down, and looked over the splendid 
 duck, the warm white bread, the sweet po- 
 tatoes, and the honey. She could not re- 
 member a better feast since the days when 
 her mother worked miracles with nothing. 
 8 107 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 There was a welling of gratitude in her 
 heart, even if she sat there alone. Her fast 
 had been purification, and this was the 
 feast of forgiveness. So she bent her fair 
 head for a moment, and forgot her play, 
 and asked that silent blessing the Friends 
 had taught her the prayer her unregen- 
 erate father had never employed. 
 
 Then the play came back with a wonder- 
 ful tenderness. Across from her own an- 
 other chair waited. Before it was laid a 
 plate, and upon that she heaped, before she 
 tasted, a portion of the dinner. She was 
 very quiet as she ate, very thoughtful of 
 that guest who sat opposite, unseen, yet 
 real to her hope and her heart. She ate, 
 and her strength returned to her. But the 
 dream she was weaving was only intensi- 
 fied. She thought, as the stress of appetite 
 passed away, that the guest of her fancy 
 deserved something more ; and she brought 
 from the ancient cupboard a jar of pre- 
 serves, and opened it, placing it at the side 
 of that untouched plate. She did not taste 
 108 
 
A Dinner of Dreams 
 
 till the thought came he would not like to 
 eat of them alone. So she dipped out a bit 
 of the precious fruit, and leaned back, tast- 
 ing it, thinking what he would say, dream- 
 ing her replies, biting slowly through the 
 fine, white bread, picking fragments of the 
 odorous meat and very happy. 
 
 For about her waist was still the warm 
 pressure of a guardian arm, and on her lips 
 lay the glory of a comforting kiss. 
 
 It had all been so real to her, and so 
 precious, that she could not destroy the 
 fabric of her fancy. She rose, though, and 
 went to her weaving. That dinner of 
 dreams was over, and she knew it. But the 
 charm lingered, and she was happy. Dan 
 Rank had said no word ; but we build our 
 surest conclusions not from speech, but by 
 deduction. And she, taking belief from 
 promise, argued to the fulfilment of a wom- 
 an's love. 
 
 109 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 JAEED COMES HOME 
 
 As fair Prudence left the table of her 
 fancy and her feasting, and resumed her 
 work at the loom, she heard a footfall on 
 the crisp leaves near the ramshackle stable. 
 She stepped down, and looked from the 
 window. 
 
 It was her father worn, tired, stum- 
 bling, white of face, and shifty of eye. He 
 came in, the yellow mud of his clothing tell- 
 ing his daughter he had been far from 
 home and riding. 
 
 " Ah, Prudence, my dear " for he was 
 always gentle with her "you have had 
 your dinner. You waited, and I didn't 
 come, so you et alone. But you did get up 
 a meal for a hungry man ; and I am hungry. 
 Has any one been here? " 
 
 " Not in the house." 
 110 
 
Jared Comes Home 
 
 She spoke with hesitation. 
 
 " Have they been outside! " 
 
 "Theywho!" 
 
 Eh- Any one." 
 
 " Dan Rank came past last night." 
 
 "Did he stop!" 
 
 " He stopped a minute." 
 
 " Where was you! " 
 
 " I was out at the stile." 
 
 " Last night, you say! After dark! " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " You mustn't be out of the house after 
 dark. What did he say! " 
 
 " Nothing much." 
 
 It was again with something like hesi- 
 tation; something like mental reservation. 
 He had said nothing except all that the 
 world held for him to say: The words of 
 heart comfort that she needed. He had not 
 even said he knew her father was an out- 
 law, though she was aware what was in his 
 mind by the question concerning the saddle. 
 He had said nothing of love ; and yet, when 
 his arm had drawn her to him, all the lan- 
 111 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 guage that ever was worth listening to in 
 all the earth could not have expressed 
 more. And she understood. She was hap- 
 py. Yet she was true in the letter. He 
 had said nothing much. 
 
 The father sat down at the table, and 
 Prudence hurried to wait upon him. 
 
 " I thought you'd ketch a duck in that 
 trap," he said contentedly. "I generally 
 get them. They know their Uncle Jared, 
 and walk right into his snares. Ah smells 
 fine. You're a great cook, Prudy." 
 
 He ate ravenously. It was little he left. 
 It was less he inquired how other meals 
 were to be provided. He fed full on the 
 mallard, and flattered himself he had been 
 considered in the preparing of that rare 
 white bread; and he made poor Prudence 
 seem quite a hypocrite as he thanked her 
 for this taste of her cherished preserves. 
 
 And then he took the bootjack from the 
 
 corner and drew off his muddy boots, and 
 
 sat in the one rocking-chair with his long, 
 
 thin legs stretched out to the fire the fire 
 
 112 
 
Jared Comes Home 
 
 he had not kindled talking all the time, 
 and uttering the wisest sayings and the 
 most instructive counsel; and later he 
 grew sleepy and suspended talk, and 
 nodded a little. 
 
 Then he went to the bed, and slept 
 eighteen hours without waking ! 
 
 At the end of that time Clark Thomp- 
 son, with Phil Whitesell at his side, reined 
 his horse in front of the cabin, and shouted : 
 "Hello!" 
 
 Prudence went to the door. 
 
 " Is your father at home? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 Heaven only knows how thankful she 
 was that she could say it. 
 
 " I want to see him." 
 
 Jared Caruth came out in his shirt- 
 sleeves, kicking on his boots. He was a 
 shiftless fellow, they well knew ; but more 
 cunning than the rest, and better of speech, 
 and a far more successful hunter. 
 
 The sheriff summoned him to join the 
 posse for the chasing of outlaws. He pro- 
 113 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 tested lie could not go till he had finished 
 fixing the loom; but he was given no alter- 
 native. 
 
 " I have no horse," was his next objec- 
 tion. 
 
 "You have a gun?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Bring that." And he did. "And, Ja- 
 red," called the sheriff, " bring your sad- 
 dle." 
 
 114: 
 
CHAPTER X 
 STOCKING'S TIMELY STRATEGY 
 
 As for Dan Rank, he had plodded stead- 
 ily on down the tow-path toward town. The 
 moon rose higher, and rode with splendid 
 swiftness from peak to peak of the cloud 
 mountains that stretched across the sky; 
 and the stars that peeped upon him from 
 behind the folds of vapory drapery that 
 curtained the west seemed to tell him of 
 days to come; seemed to promise, and to 
 vanish before he could fashion the form 
 of his dream. 
 
 Above all things he was trying to fix 
 in his mind the definite objective toward 
 which he should struggle. It is the puzzle 
 of youth, the riddle that comes to the ear- 
 nest always ; and he tried to solve it as he 
 hurried away from home a shadow of bit- 
 terness behind, a vague, illusive troop of 
 115 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 possibilities before. And he wanted to 
 realize that which was most desirable. He 
 wanted to feel that when he came back the 
 untroubled sleep of his youth would await 
 him, and the joy of vigorous labor, and the 
 greeting of friends. And, dearer than all, 
 approached with tender hesitation even in 
 his thought, yet won with joyful purpose, 
 was the welcome that Prudence would give 
 him, the blessing that Prudence would 
 bring. 
 
 It was a long walk, and he was weary 
 when he saw through the midnight the dim 
 shapes of the buildings before him. There 
 were the shanties first, which had risen 
 when the canal was building here, and in 
 some of which still lived the women and 
 the children who had watched husband and 
 father go to the digging. Then the larger 
 houses of more prosperous citizens, and 
 then the wide row of warehouses and stores 
 that fronted the street and opened back 
 doors on the busy canal. There were many 
 boats waiting their turn to receive or deliv- 
 116 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 er. There were torches at one of the docks, 
 and the night was pierced with their flaring 
 rays, and the silence of darkness was trou- 
 bled with daylight's sounds ; for command, 
 response, inquiry, reply, were exchanged 
 by merchant and shipper, by warehouse 
 foreman and the mates of the boats. Men 
 were hurriedly trundling bundles and bar- 
 rels and bales from the boats to the wharf. 
 Farther on there was a stream of wheat 
 from an elevator to the hold, and bundles, 
 barrels, and bales were being hurried on 
 board. The crews of a score in waiting 
 were profane in impatience for place. The 
 drowsy ill-temper of sleeplessness was 
 gone. It was the nervous energy of day 
 translated to night on the wharf; and the 
 city, covering that amphitheater of the 
 hills, was in silence and dreams. 
 
 A number of spectators were grouped 
 on the wharf, watching the labor as some 
 one always watched, whatever the hour. 
 Out of one of these groups, while Dan 
 Eank stood uncertain, came David Stock- 
 
 117 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 ing, dapper and graceful, smiling antf 
 shrewd by night as by day; always the 
 same. 
 
 "Hello, my wrestler!" he cried joy- 
 fully. " Do you never go to bed! " 
 
 The inquiry implied a species of compli- 
 ment new to the countryman, but evident. 
 There was an imputation of superior qual- 
 ity in men who disdained ordinary hours. 
 Dan caught the inference; and some qual- 
 ity in him drank the flattery with delight. 
 " What are you doing here! " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " What are you going to do! " 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 "Come here." 
 
 They walked a little way, turned and 
 faced the busy scene at the landing, and 
 David Stocking presented a plan. It was 
 lawless, of course ; yet it was plausible, and 
 frank enough. It promised wealth, and 
 that without the laggard curse of wait- 
 ing. It was big in conception, and splen- 
 did in possible achievement. No one could 
 118 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 say he was a petty rascal. And these 
 were very enticing times for those who 
 dared. 
 
 Besides, it was not that unmasked face 
 of vice which " to be hated needs but to be 
 seen." Yet under the sophistry Dan Bank 
 saw the skeleton of a success which Pru- 
 dence could not share ; a triumph of which 
 he would be ashamed. It was not what he 
 wanted. The kingdoms of the earth looked 
 very fair from the top of this high moun- 
 tain to which his first infatuation for David 
 Stocking had taken him. He felt the in- 
 fluence of the man, and saw with alarm his 
 own weakness before it. So he conjured up 
 again that vision he had seen at the bridge 
 and escaped. 
 
 " No-h," and he laughed. The winds of 
 blessing were already blowing across those 
 fields he desired, and he waked in the 
 strength they brought. 
 
 " Better think of it." 
 
 " I have enough." 
 
 Stocking laughed easily. " Well, there's 
 119 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 plenty of time. No harm done. Good 
 night." 
 
 " Not a bit. Good night." 
 
 And they separated. 
 
 He watched the busy men a little while 
 longer, strolling nearer, and wondering if 
 he could find a place among them. He 
 thought of the journeys they must take, of 
 the unknown places they would see, of the 
 strange cities that stooped to the margin 
 of waterways where their boats would 
 pause. It was the great world inviting, 
 and his boy heart yearned toward accep- 
 tation. 
 
 The doors were open behind him, and in 
 the darkness there the torches flashed occa- 
 sional lances of light. There were heaps 
 of merchandise in bags ; and presently he 
 went in with the freedom of a countryman, 
 and sat down. For the weariness he had 
 forgotten was pressing heavily upon him. 
 Besides, he had some thought of escaping 
 temptation. He did not believe Stocking 
 would pursue that doubtful subject; but 
 120 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 here on the bags, in the dark corner, he 
 was quite sure he would not be followed. 
 
 All the doors on the waterside were 
 open, and he could watch the hurrying, 
 busy toilers. He could hear the cries of 
 those below, and the orders of those on 
 shore. He leaned back on the heaps, and 
 enjoyed it. When they should be less busy 
 he would approach one of those who 
 seemed commanding worlds, and offer his 
 services. 
 
 The tramping, the clattering grind of 
 little wheels, the sound of merchandise 
 flung here for distribution and there for re- 
 moval, interested him greatly. He won- 
 dered what was in all these boxes, and what 
 sort of city they had come from. He won- 
 dered whither that other wealth was going 
 that product of his own land, which he 
 knew so well. He tried in fancy to trace 
 it up through those woods which had 
 flanked his march as he came from home, 
 beneath the little bridge over which ran the 
 highway to "her" house, and to his to 
 + 121 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 the home where mother and sisters and 
 loyal old father were sleeping now and so 
 on to the east and north through a region 
 he could only imagine, to a destination his 
 fancy could not presume to construct. 
 
 What pastimes had these people 1 How 
 did they live I How were their meals pro- 
 vided, and where were their beds? Their 
 pay, he had heard, was ample. How much 
 could it be I He was drowsily trying to set 
 a figure which could satisfy all demands. 
 
 A packet of the older type, one less 
 gorgeous and less fine in color, came down 
 alongside the boat at the wharf. It was 
 crowded with people, and their speech was 
 strange. They were mostly men, though 
 here and there were women women with 
 shrill voices for children who pushed for- 
 ward for better view. The speech of cap- 
 tain and steersman and hands was heavy 
 and sharp in contrast. It made more curi- 
 ous the jargon of those who were new. 
 
 He understood what it meant. Another 
 cargo of Irish laborers for the canal had 
 122 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 arrived. They came straight from the 
 green island which was no longer a home. 
 They had tossed for weeks on the ocean. 
 They had been herded and hurried like 
 beasts through cities. They had been 
 packed as slavers pack their cargoes, and 
 had touched the threshold of liberty at 
 night. 
 
 No wonder they seemed strange. No 
 wonder there was an air almost of sav- 
 agery about them. No wonder those men 
 fought as they clung to points of vantage, 
 striking blows which shocked the country- 
 man, yet abandoning contention in a mo- 
 ment, and fraternizing again. 
 
 He sat still and watched them as they 
 crowded ashore, as they thronged over the 
 'freight-boat and scrambled to the ground 
 individualists, forgetting comrades and 
 friends ; barbarians again in ignoring fam- 
 ily ties. Yet the matrons preserved the 
 mother quality which holds through all the 
 races, which is revealed in the beasts and 
 is blessed in women. They brought their 
 9 123 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 little ones, ragged, half asleep, and wholly 
 startling, to the shore ; and all were round- 
 ed up and driven down the dock to the south 
 by a big, dark man who seemed to have 
 waited for them. And the work of loading 
 and unloading went on. 
 
 The young man who had watched them 
 from the shore found the picture that suc- 
 ceeded less attractive. He saw the torches, 
 and the shapes of men speeding up one 
 gangplank or down the other. He heard 
 the shouts of masters growing lower, and 
 less intelligible. He heard a tramping in 
 measured cadence far down the valley, and 
 he thought of the Irish, marching to their 
 homes. It was not a mud-pervaded hill- 
 side they approached, but an ancient coun- 
 try ; and the shores were green. And there 
 were those on the grassy hillsides who 
 reached hands of welcome to crowding emi- 
 grants returned. 
 
 Dan Rank was sound asleep. He had 
 found a day of work in the clearing, a night 
 of trudging the miles from home, and the 
 124 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 comfort of an improvised couch too much 
 for his hold on consciousness; and he 
 lapsed into dreams that were lighted with 
 the visions which unusual scenes could 
 paint. 
 
 Then, it seemed in a twinkling of time, 
 there was daylight all about him. The 
 doors toward the canal were closed. The 
 whole warehouse portion was deserted and 
 still. But new sounds and a new activity 
 impressed him. At the east, in the street, 
 he could hear the noise of many wheels, and 
 the talk of men whom he could not see. He 
 tried to find a way of escape. The doors 
 could be opened from the inner side, but 
 they were bolted ; and he had a native's in- 
 stinct that he should not go out and leave 
 them unsecured. He was moving about, 
 much troubled, when a clerk at one of the 
 offices in front the side to the east, and 
 the street spied him, and leaped to give 
 an alarm. There was commotion in the 
 counting-room. There was a summoning 
 of truckmen and loiterers about the door. 
 125 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 There was a call which clearly meant an 
 appeal to the officers of the law; for the 
 fear of outlaws was on all men. 
 
 And the young fellow was half caught 
 by a panic. He realized from the stand- 
 point of an honest man that he should not 
 have been there, that he had taken an un- 
 warranted liberty; that his presence was 
 prima facie evidence of unlawful intent. 
 And he tried to think what was his best 
 justification. 
 
 He looked wildly this way and that, and 
 then started to do the right and honest 
 and dangerous thing. He started frank- 
 ly maybe a little hurriedly, for he was in 
 confusion toward the counting-room, to 
 explain. 
 
 " Here they come ! " shouted the clerk. 
 
 " They are all coming this way ! " yelled 
 a second, naturally louder and in more 
 startling tones. 
 
 " Shut the safe," screamed a strident, 
 terrified voice from the sidewalk. " Come 
 on, you fellows. Surround them." 
 126 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 There was such a shouting, such a 
 clamor and excitement, that poor Dan 
 Rank could not make himself heard. It 
 seemed a picking up of that charge which 
 Judge Evans had launched at him and it 
 appalled him like unexpected evidence. If 
 it had not been for that sting of an earlier 
 thrust, he probably would have surren- 
 dered, told his story, and trusted them to 
 be just and generous. But a sudden 
 thought came that arrest now, with that 
 other stain upon his reputation, would be 
 fatal. He knew he was really in a com- 
 promising position, and it would confirm 
 the vague charge of criminality at his home. 
 He dared not be arrested. 
 
 He thought of dashing through their 
 line of timorous advance. They were 
 afraid of him, anyway. But a glance at 
 the street showed the wider doors there 
 were full of men, and that more were strug- 
 gling into view. 
 
 A club was hurled; but it came from 
 the lighted side, and he dodged it. Then 
 127 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 the clerk flung a hatchet ; and as the deadly 
 weapon sung past his lowered head, the 
 spur of anger aroused him, and he watched 
 for reprisal. A mighty fellow ran toward 
 him, encouraged by cries from the crowd 
 a handler of barrels and bales and boxes, 
 with great shoulders, and a round head 
 dipped forward. There was the self-con- 
 trol of the practised fighter in his bearing, 
 and the confidence of a victor in his eyes. 
 
 He struck, with the murderous flaming 
 of small eyes, and the silent compression 
 of thin lips. But he came too close, and 
 the agile countryman dodged and grap- 
 pled. 
 
 They were locked for an instant in a 
 tight embrace, and in the next Dan Rank 
 was free again. For the handler of barrels 
 and boxes and bales went as trifles go, and 
 struck the heaps of freight, and lay there 
 still. 
 
 Then Dan Rank whirled, frightened to 
 the point of screaming not by the peril, 
 but by the panic of his compromising and 
 128 
 
Stocking's Timely Strategy 
 
 darted to the doors. He was through, 
 though they opened but the smallest of 
 cracks, and fled like a frightened deer. 
 
 They must have mistaken the direction 
 he took. A well-dressed man, who seemed 
 to be a sailor, was there on the wharf ; and 
 he darted north, leading them, directing 
 them with shouts and pointings. They 
 searched the canal-boats packed side by 
 side. They inquired. They were con- 
 fused, bewildered. They hunted to the 
 river, and among the craft there. 
 
 But Dan Bank sped down the valley to 
 the south, and did not look back. 
 
 129 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 JARED'S SADDLE FOUND 
 
 JARED CARUTH did not hesitate a mo- 
 ment when Clark Thompson bade him 
 bring his saddle. 
 
 " It's broke, sheriff, and I ain't had no 
 time to mend it. It's split right across the 
 tree, and I reckon " 
 
 "Then leave it. We'll get a saddle 
 where we find a horse." 
 
 They were at Absalom Rank's place, 
 and met the farmer on his way to that 
 " clearing " which was becoming a land- 
 mark in the side of his life where acres and 
 labors are not reckoned. 
 
 "I want a man here, Absalom," said 
 the sheriff. "I'm raising a posse to get 
 after horse-thieves. They've got to keep 
 out of my county. Either you or Dan will 
 do." 
 
 130 
 
JarecTs Saddle Found 
 
 " Well, I guess I can git away, but " 
 
 " Let Dan go. It will be hard riding, 
 and he'll stand it better." 
 
 "Well- Why, the truth is, I don't 
 think Dan is here." 
 
 The troubled man was in the quandary 
 of his life. It was bitter enough when he 
 fought alone. It was grief unutterable 
 when disclosed. 
 
 " Isn't here ! Where is he ! " 
 
 " Well, I really don't know." 
 
 " He was here all night, wasn't he? " 
 
 " Well, no not all night." 
 
 "Didn't he come home from Judge 
 Evans's place?" 
 
 " No, I don't think he did. But I can 
 go with you. It don't make any difference, 
 and I bet you won't have a man stand the 
 ride, or anything else, any better than I 
 do, sheriff." 
 
 He had started with nervous alacrity to 
 the stable, where Selim was standing and 
 begging to requite with much good running 
 the absence of his young master. 
 131 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Yes, but how about Dan? " asked the 
 sheriff. " Where is he, Absalom! How do 
 you account for his being away from 
 home? This is two nights, you know." 
 
 The old man stopped. He looked at the 
 ground, pushing about a bit of wood with 
 his foot, and then stooping to pick it up 
 and examine it, as if the fiber would point 
 a way out of this dilemma. But there was 
 no escape. 
 
 " 'Tis curious," Jared Caruth chirruped 
 cheerily. "Ain't coon-hunting, is he, 
 Abe?" 
 
 Phil Whitesell took on the absorbed ex- 
 pression which always clothed him like a 
 garment when he saw even the smallest op- 
 portunity to introduce his ghosts. 
 
 " Looks bad, Bank," resumed the sher- 
 iff. 
 
 Absalom turned to the little group that 
 waited, weighing him. 
 
 "I don't care how it looks," he said 
 stoutly. "And I don't want no shiftless 
 fiddlers making slurs. Dan ain't home, and 
 132 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 I don't know where he is. But wherever he 
 is, he is attending to his own business. And 
 he ain't done no wrong, and you know it 
 now ! " 
 
 " Absalom, I don't think I'll take you in 
 this posse. You might not be the most val- 
 uable man in the world. Good morning." 
 
 It was long after they had gone that the 
 farmer started from that attitude. As they 
 left him, so he stood. It was a blow for 
 which he had no guard; and it meant not 
 only accusation against his boy, but impli- 
 cation for himself, who had known no rule 
 of conduct in life but the keeping of those 
 children in right ways and the building of 
 substance for them. He wandered about 
 the stacks and sheds, and Selim whinnied 
 his consolation. The girls saw him, and 
 knew his trouble. They linked it at once 
 with Dan's absence, an incident they could 
 not understand. 
 
 And presently he roused enough to turn 
 back to the woods where he trimmed the 
 fires and swung his ax, and labored alone. 
 133 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 The blessing of work came to him slowly, 
 and he breathed a little prayer of thanks- 
 giving, and bent to harder toil. And at the 
 end of the day his headlong haste and tire- 
 less energy had wrought a vast amount of 
 accomplishment. He tried to be proud of 
 it as he turned from the clearing ; but the 
 pain of that wound at the morning came 
 back with the respite from toil. The load 
 was as heavy when he turned at the call of 
 the supper-bell, and gave up his tasks in 
 the gathering dusk. 
 
 The girls had done all they could to 
 comfort him. It was not with the sense of 
 relieving him of duties that they fed the 
 stock, and closed the round of " chores " at 
 the barn. It was simply that, out of their 
 loving hearts, they wanted him, stricken as 
 he was, to understand their care for him, 
 and in spite of their own suffering their 
 sympathy. 
 
 Jared Caruth was urgently in favor of 
 striking across to the higher country, away 
 from the valley. The straight road would 
 134 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 have been along the corduroys, past that 
 swamp region back of Jared's house the 
 corduroy way that held to the valley. But 
 the man argued for another and a more 
 roundabout course. He presented many 
 reasons, and made them plausible. The 
 farmers up there back of the valley had 
 suffered more seriously from the raids of 
 outlaws. They would go farther, and could 
 be counted on for more energy in an en- 
 counter. They were more given to hunt- 
 ing than were the men in the bottom lands. 
 The latter had passed more clearly to the 
 stage of farmers, and would not shoot well. 
 Jared quite indorsed the word of the sher- 
 iff that this must be a war of extermina- 
 tion. 
 
 Clark Thompson was glad to have the 
 assistance of a man who entered so wholly 
 into his plans who was so quick to second 
 his efforts, and so ready with any kind of 
 help. As they turned into the main road 
 again, Jared mentioned the fact that Bill 
 Anderson was out after foxes. 
 135 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " He went over to the beech woods this 
 morning," said the sheriff's assistant. 
 " He says he's been losing chickens all win- 
 ter, and he's going to dig the varmints 
 out." 
 
 He peered over there toward the thick- 
 ets in the lowlands occasional islands in 
 the swampy region and finally declared 
 he heard the yelp of Anderson's hounds. 
 
 "He better be makin' a new sermon; 
 but if he ain't doin' that, he might as well 
 be with us," said Jared. " He's a gritty 
 little feller, and he'd help powerful if we 
 got into trouble. I'll go fetch him." 
 
 " Tell him to meet us at the ford," called 
 Clark Thompson. " I'll go up here to the 
 Bacon place. Mebby those boys can tell 
 me something about Dan Eank. And any- 
 way, I will get a horse there for you." 
 
 He heard Jared Caruth shouting: 
 
 " Yes huntin' horse-thieves. Go over 
 to Rank's, and borry his Selim colt and 
 hurry up." 
 
 Then a pause. The sheriff could hear 
 136 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 no reply. But then he was not so near the 
 swamp as was Jared. And presently the lat- 
 ter lifted his voice even clearer than before, 
 still shouting toward the Sand Islands : 
 
 " Clark Thompson sheriff posse 
 hurry ! " 
 
 The sheriff saw him turn back and 
 stride placidly toward the ford. He was 
 waiting there when Phil Whitesell rode up ; 
 and the man of specters eyed him suspi- 
 ciously. 
 
 " I thought you said Bill Anderson was 
 digging out foxes in the beech woods, Ja- 
 red," he said. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Well, you was yelling right away 
 from the beech woods. You was yellin' at 
 the Sand Islands." 
 
 "I thought I seen him crossin' there, 
 goin' home," was the ready rejoinder. " I 
 don't suppose, Philip " Jared was always 
 formal in his cudgelings "that Mr. An- 
 derson is going to dig all day and all night. 
 He's bound to go home sometime." 
 137 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 But the blow did not crush Philip. 
 
 " You seen him cross the swamps ! " 
 
 "Yes. Didn't you, Mr. Whitesell? 
 Your eyes are failing. I suppose Maria 
 has scratched them." 
 
 "Well, Bill Anderson wasn't in the 
 swamp." 
 
 " Wasn't he, Philip? Where was he? " 
 
 Phil pointed, by way of reply, to the 
 path up the ridge toward the Bacon home- 
 stead; and there came the little preacher, 
 mounted, and leading a second horse all 
 saddled and bridled a steed for the trap- 
 per himself. Clearly the visit to the Bacon 
 homestead had paid. For close behind 
 came Clark Thompson, with one of the 
 widow's sons her eldest at his side, 
 proud of his position, ambitious in the mis- 
 sion, and armed for conflict with a long- 
 barreled and very heavy squirrel rifle. 
 
 " Then who did I see in the swamps, 
 I wonder ? " mused Jared pensively ; and 
 there was no admission of attempt to de- 
 ceive. 
 
 138 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 As the four horses came out on the 
 main road at the river ford, Selim, still 
 observant from the barnyard of the Bank 
 place, whinnied loudly his pleading to be 
 taken along his volunteered service for 
 the clearing of the family 'scutcheon. 
 
 That afternoon they crossed half the 
 county from north to south, plunging 
 through the woods to the right and the left 
 of the main course, warning out the set- 
 tlers, and summoning men here and there 
 to join the posse. 
 
 They rode fast and far on the track of 
 a hurrying band, and came upon the enemy 
 one evening at the edge of a wood, just as 
 the outlaws were rousing for the night 
 journey which should take them beyond the 
 fear of pursuit. 
 
 And three were captured. 
 
 This was the manner of it. 
 
 There was a fairly good farm, the 
 
 woods close to the house at one side, and 
 
 a strawstack at the edge of the woods a 
 
 strawstack heaped on a skeleton of poles, 
 
 10 139 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 and forming a warm shed where cattle had 
 wintered. 
 
 The farmer was chopping wood at the 
 side of his house, and Clark Thompson 
 asked him, as he did all other men he en- 
 countered, if he had seen strangers with 
 horses. 
 
 " I hain't seen nobody," was the reply. 
 But it was not quite frank. It lacked a 
 quality the sheriff thought it should pos- 
 sess. It was as if he had expected the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 " Been feeding any one lately 1 ? " 
 
 " No only my own family." 
 
 " How many are there in your family! " 
 
 " Just me and my wife." 
 
 " Got any visitors ! " 
 
 " Nope not now." 
 
 The man was uneasy, and on the de- 
 fensive. 
 
 The sheriff dismounted, and kicked 
 about some refuse from the kitchen. 
 
 " Seems to me," he said, " your family 
 is eating a good many potatoes and chick- 
 140 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 ens. Look at these parings, and feathers. 
 We will go through your place, if you don't 
 mind. Jared, take four men, and watch 
 the house. Boys, come on. This looks 
 good." 
 
 He approached the straw-shed with 
 some hope. The trail of those hoofs he had 
 followed led down to the woods, then wound 
 about and came back straight to the door 
 of the stable. Four horses were standing 
 side by side in the shelter, all fed and rest- 
 ed. And beside them, grooming them, were 
 two men strangers to the valley. 
 
 " Good evening," said the sheriff, as he 
 walked unhesitatingly to the wide door. 
 
 They made no reply. Behind him, in 
 the narrow strip of land between the shed 
 and the forest, they saw his posse with 
 guns. 
 
 "What do you want?" demanded one 
 of the strangers. 
 
 "I think I want you," was the reply. 
 " Come out, and get acquainted with some 
 friends of mine." 
 
 141 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "Who are you?" 
 
 " I am the sheriff. Who are you? " 
 
 The second man spoke and angrily : 
 
 " We own this farm, and you better get 
 off." 
 
 " The man that owns this farm is chop- 
 ping wood up by the house or there is a 
 liar on the place. You boys come out here." 
 
 They came, slowly and surlily. They 
 were fine figures, with better clothes than 
 the men gathered about. They looked over 
 that posse, and recognized the hard propo- 
 sition which criminals know that farm- 
 ers, unused to man-hunts, are the most dan- 
 gerous of all pursuers. They do not know 
 the peril imposed by desperadoes, and 
 promptly take chances from which a prac- 
 tised officer would recoil. 
 
 " Where are you from? " demanded the 
 sheriff stoutly; "and where did you get 
 those horses? " He was master now. 
 
 " We bought them." 
 
 " How many of you are here ? " 
 
 " We two." 
 
 142 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 Both spoke at once and quickly. 
 
 "Put out your hands. Boys, scatter 
 around this shed. This isn't all of them." 
 
 " Don't handcuff us, Mr. Sheriff. We 
 will go quietly," said one. 
 
 " Put out your hands ! " 
 
 The command was not to be disobeyed. 
 The big irons were locked on their wrists. 
 
 " Now, you are safe. Phil, watch them. 
 If they run you shoot." 
 
 "If they run," said Phil solemnly, 
 " there'll be ghosts, sure." 
 
 The sheriff peered into the cavernous 
 depths of the shed, and shouted : 
 
 " Come out of there. I'm going to set 
 this strawstack on fire." Then, toward the 
 house : " Jared, fetch some coals." 
 
 Jared brought a shovelful from the fire- 
 place in the little house; but the farmer 
 hurried before him, pleading and con- 
 trite. 
 
 " Don't burn my shed, sheriff," he 
 begged. " Two is all tha is. Oh, I done 
 wrong but how could I help it? I was 
 143 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 afraid of them and they paid me money. 
 Don't burn my shed." 
 
 " Go in there, and lead out the horses." 
 The words were low, inaudible half a dozen 
 paces away. " The fellows who are hidden 
 will think you are one of us, and shoot. I 
 want to save my men." 
 
 But the farmer went headlong into the 
 shed. 
 
 " Tha ain't no more men here," he said 
 loudly. 
 
 He brought out the horses four fine 
 animals, not much jaded ; but he was great- 
 ly terrified. He glanced apprehensively at 
 Jared Caruth, blowing on the coals to keep 
 them alive. 
 
 " Don't burn me out, sheriff," he plead- 
 ed. " I didn't dare do anything else. I 
 never stole a horse in my life. I never 
 harmed no one." 
 
 His wife hurried from the house to 
 strengthen his argument. 
 
 " We've just got started, sheriff," she 
 said. " It's pretty hard to make a home in 
 144 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 the woods, anyhow. You ain't goin' to 
 set our stable on fire I know you ain't." 
 
 " I want the rest of these outlaws," was 
 the calm rejoinder of the officer. " I'm tired 
 of having horse-stealing in my county. 
 There are more than these two. Where are 
 they?" 
 
 "Then, I'll tell you," she cried. "I 
 won't be burned out of house and home 
 not for no one. And if they come back and 
 murder us, it ain't my fault. The other 
 man went straight west right after they 
 et their dinner. He's goin' to ketch a boat 
 at the locks." 
 
 She was excited, and spoke in a high, 
 shrill voice, motioning in the direction in- 
 dicated, and urging the attention of all to 
 the woods. 
 
 "He's goin' to ketch a packet at the 
 locks," she repeated. " He's goin' back 
 east." 
 
 The day was darkening, but the posse 
 hurried to examine the ground at the edge 
 of the woods. 
 
 145 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " I can most see his tracks," said Jared ; 
 and the outlaws made no comment. 
 
 "Yes, sir, sheriff at the locks," re- 
 sumed the woman. " But don't you f oiler, 
 for he's got pistols and knives. It was 
 him made me kill my chickens, and peel 
 my potatoes, and git up a dinner. Yes, 
 sir." 
 
 " Jared, you and Abe Rhinehart take 
 these two men to town and lock them up. 
 Here is the key to their handcuffs. I'll be 
 there in a day or two. Tell my jailer who 
 they are, and he'll keep them. And, my 
 good woman, I wouldn't burn a stick nor a 
 straw on your farm not for twenty horses. 
 And if we catch that fellow at the canal, I'll 
 send a calico dress to you. Hurry up, 
 boys." 
 
 The two were handcuffed together, and 
 a rope was passed back from the shackles, 
 and carried by Jared. Ehinehart made 
 sure his long rifle was ready for instant 
 action, and then the two keepers mounted ; 
 and the two prisoners, without the shadow 
 146 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 of objection, started ahead on the ten-mile 
 tramp to the county seat. 
 
 Down the hill they went, and across the 
 creek, knee-deep in water, and out at the 
 farther side. It was forest nearly all the 
 way, and not unpleasant footing. Jared 
 was inclined to push the pace. 
 
 " When we git these fellers locked up, 
 we can go home," he said. " I'm tired nigh 
 about to death, and I want to sleep in a bed, 
 and git up for buckwheat cakes and ham 
 gravy." 
 
 It brought up a picture which his com- 
 panion would have been glad to realize. 
 
 " Hurry up, there," he cried; for one of 
 the prisoners was lagging and laughing a 
 little. 
 
 " All right, captain," replied one. " We 
 are going as fast as we can. Remember 
 you are on horses." 
 
 " Yes, and they are our own horses," 
 was the tart rejoinder. " We didn't steal 
 them." 
 
 " Neither did we." 
 147 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " No, but you would if you had a chance. 
 Step up there." 
 
 They had gone over a mile of wind- 
 ing road, and the captives were walking 
 with bodies bent forward, and heads close 
 together. They smiled and whispered, then 
 glanced back. 
 
 "What you laughing at?" demanded 
 Jared. 
 
 " Was I laughing? " asked one. 
 
 " Yes. You'll find this ain't so very 
 funny." 
 
 " No, that's so. And yet it tickled me." 
 
 "What did!" 
 
 "I suppose I ought to tell you. My 
 friend here and me didn't want to get into 
 the horse-stealing business, but the leader 
 back there in the straw-shed forced us to. 
 We are done with all this sort of thing, 
 and are glad to get out of it no matter 
 what you people do with us." 
 
 " What leader you talking about? What 
 straw-shed? " 
 
 Ehinehart was impressed with the evi- 
 148 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 dent fairness of speech. It appealed to 
 him. But he caught another note. He had 
 to repeat his query. " What leader you 
 talking about?" 
 
 "Well, it isn't any more than right, 
 since we are going to quit this sort of life, 
 to tell you. Our leader is hiding back there 
 in the strawstack." 
 
 "What whoa!" The words leaped 
 from Rhinehart's lips. 
 
 "That's the truth; and if the sheriff 
 had set that straw on fire he would have 
 caught the worst outlaw in the Wabash val- 
 ley." 
 
 The little cavalcade had halted. 
 
 " Why didn't you say that before! " 
 
 " How could we ? I told you as soon as 
 I dared. He's back there in the straw, and 
 that woman has saved him by sending your 
 sheriff on a wild-goose chase to the lock." 
 
 "Jared," said Ehinehart, "you take 
 these fellows to jail. Good-by." 
 
 "Where are you going?" asked the 
 more loquacious of the outlaws. 
 149 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " I'm going back to that shed." 
 
 " Don't do it. Cut across, and head off 
 your sheriff. Take him back to the shed 
 with you. You'll need him. Don't go back 
 alone." 
 
 "All right; I'll get the sheriff." 
 
 He turned his horse about, gripped his 
 long rifle, leaned down, and galloped into 
 the forest shadows. His last sight of the 
 captives showed him two men plodding 
 steadily forward again, and their keeper 
 riding watchfully behind. 
 
 " Is he gone I " asked one of the pris- 
 oners. 
 
 " He's gone," replied Jared. 
 
 " Then unfasten these things. They are 
 hurting my wrists." 
 
 The horseman swung down from his 
 mount, and set them free. 
 
 " Now, smash that lock with a stone," 
 said the talkative outlaw. " You can carry 
 it back, and tell them we forced it." 
 
 " I ought to carry something else back," 
 Jared chirruped blithely. 
 150 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 " You mean money? " 
 
 "Yes. I need a few things at the 
 house." 
 
 "Well, you have earned it if that 
 friend of yours don't go straight back to 
 the shed. But don't ask for too much. 
 Here's enough to last you." 
 
 He counted out some bills, and placed 
 them in the nervous hand that battered the 
 lock. 
 
 " There is another thing you had bet- 
 ter carry back, Caruth," suggested the 
 stolid outlaw. 
 
 " What's that! " with anticipation. 
 
 " A scar or two." 
 
 It was a full minute before the signifi- 
 cance penetrated the brain of the native. 
 The stolid one continued: 
 
 " You have to explain that we turned 
 upon you, and that you fought, and that we 
 overpowered you. If you ain't scratched 
 up, no one will believe you." 
 
 It was a trying ordeal, for the shiftless 
 fellow shrunk from pain; but there were 
 151 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 strong reasons, and he submitted though 
 his submission was of little consequence to 
 them. It is possible that the two men 
 found some satisfaction in providing cor- 
 roborative evidence for his story. It is 
 probable Jared felt they were using him 
 with unnecessary roughness. He quite 
 pitied himself when he found his face 
 bleeding, his clothes torn, and his hands 
 scratched. But when they finally ceased 
 their manhandling, and stood back to view 
 their work, there is no kind of doubt they 
 regarded it as thoroughly done. 
 
 Jared Caruth's story would certainly 
 be supported by evidence. 
 
 The chief of the outlaws crept out of the 
 straw farthest from the stable door. He 
 had burrowed straight through; and he 
 was dusty and hot as he emerged, half 
 smothered, into the air. 
 
 For a moment he lay there, watching. 
 Then the farmer and his wife, still in an 
 agony of fear, walked past him on their 
 way to the house. 
 
 152 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 " Now, get out ! " exclaimed the woman. 
 "You'll get us burned up and murdered 
 yet. Oh, hurry, and run away." 
 
 " Be still," replied the outlaw, panting 
 and trying to dislodge the chaff and straw 
 that had penetrated under his clothing. 
 " Get me food to carry with me quick." 
 
 " No, get out now," insisted the woman 
 a little louder. She was on the verge of 
 frantic outcry; and of that he was most 
 afraid. He swore at her, undaunted by her 
 husband, and crept on hands and knees 
 down the hill toward the thickets. 
 
 He had been very fortunate indeed. 
 The two best horses he had ever stolen 
 were overlooked by that roused sheriff 
 and his discourteous posse, and were still 
 among the willows where he had hidden 
 them. 
 
 As soon as he was safe in the shelter of 
 the woods he rose and ran forward. He 
 had no present fear of the sheriff's return. 
 That woman had done her work well. But 
 the county was suddenly unsafe, and he 
 153 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 must make a night ride of the hardest if he 
 would escape. 
 
 The horses were there, saddled and 
 bridled strong from the day's rest. They 
 had gone many miles in their roundabout 
 race from their home to this point ; but they 
 had fed this day, and were ready. 
 
 Yet, before he could lead them to the 
 road there was a rush of men upon him. 
 It seemed they came from every direction. 
 He knew then the sheriff had not been 
 deceived, and had simply employed a 
 ruse to effect the capture without having 
 to burn the stable. The outlaw aban- 
 doned one horse, leaped to the back of 
 the other, and dashed headlong into the 
 highway. 
 
 In spite of them, in spite of their shout- 
 ing, and the rifle-shots which by a miracle 
 killed none of their own party, he was 
 through their line, and had just bent for 
 flight to liberty when he ran without warn- 
 ing heavily against the galloping horse of 
 Abe Ehinehart ; and in another moment he 
 154 
 
Jared's Saddle Found 
 
 was rolling on the ground held tight in the 
 embrace of those veteran arms. 
 
 "Pretty good work," said the sheriff 
 later, when their last prisoner was bound 
 and helpless. " These are Judge Evans's 
 four-year-olds. But there is one thing 
 strapped on this horse that I want you men 
 to come and see." 
 
 They went in a group, and looked. 
 
 But one thing was strapped on the 
 horse. 
 
 That was Jared Caruth's saddle. 
 
 11 155 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 DAN COMES TO COMMAND 
 
 FOR the first mile of his flight Dan 
 Bank's sole purpose was to escape the 
 racing crowd of townspeople who had ac- 
 cused him of felony. Under this motive 
 was the one dominant thought in the coun- 
 tryman's mind the fear of an officer; the 
 dread of arrest, the odium of imprison- 
 ment. It is an attribute of the free, a qual- 
 ity of the independent. 
 
 But when he knew there was no pur- 
 suit, he went on more slowly, and presently 
 he heard, down the valley, the sound of 
 axes, and the shouts of many men. As he 
 crossed the hill, and neared an opening in 
 the woods, he saw groups of workers, and 
 knew he had come upon one of the camps 
 where imported laborers were disturbing 
 156 
 
Dan Comes to Command 
 
 the earth, and building a canal. He went 
 nearer, and sat down. 
 
 There was a big man, black of whisker 
 and broad of shoulder, standing on the 
 highest point, and directing with much 
 strongly expressed profanity the labors of 
 a hundred workers below. These were 
 busy with picks and shovels ; with dump- 
 carts drawn by oxen, and with many wheel- 
 barrows. They were scooping out the 
 channel through the little hills, and pushing 
 the material into right and left banks for 
 their eanal, farther ahead. They were 
 working in mud and water, and they toiled, 
 when spurred by the oath-inspired fore- 
 man, with such diligence as they had never 
 known before. 
 
 Many of these were the newcomers 
 whom Dan had seen on the landing last 
 night. Many more, their bundles still about 
 their feet, were waiting here and there for 
 assignment to place; for the enrolment of 
 their names on the books of an inspector 
 a quiet and practised man who spoke as 
 157 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 one capable of commanding. He was send- 
 ing them in groups of a dozen farther 
 along, providing them with tools from an 
 old canal-boat tied up at the edge of the 
 river below, assigning the women to a row 
 of shabby shanties that had been hurriedly 
 erected. Evidently, the number on hand 
 was greater than the company had been 
 prepared for. 
 
 Dan Rank understood the problem. He 
 had watched the work in the earlier years, 
 when the canal was in process of construc- 
 tion past his own home. It was there he 
 had first risen to the pride of " making a 
 hand," of achieving equality with grown 
 men at labor. From much watching and 
 work he was familiar with every detail 
 of it, from felling the trees that stood in 
 the way to joining the rocks in an aque- 
 duct. 
 
 The big, dark man came to him hur- 
 riedly. 
 
 "What yez doin' here?" he demanded 
 in the brogue by no means unfamiliar. 
 158 
 
Dan Comes to Command 
 
 " Nothing," was Dan's reply. 
 
 " Do yez want worrkl " 
 
 He could not honestly say " No," and in 
 the moment of his hesitation, the dark man 
 decided for him. 
 
 " Git in here wid dhe handshpike, and 
 roll dhem shtones. Ye're a fine shtrong lad 
 for the canal." 
 
 And fairly before he realized he was 
 tugging at the lever, and rolling the heavy 
 boulders out of the way. 
 
 Accustomed to work unimpeded by out- 
 er garments, he wanted to remove his coat, 
 yet was reluctant to lay it down. The other 
 men ceased talking when he was near them, 
 and eyed him. He doubted if he would ever 
 see that coat again and it his best. Yet he 
 tossed the garment rather carelessly across 
 the low branch of a tree by the side of the 
 channel. He was very sure every eye 
 among the hundreds saw his action and 
 marked the prize for capture. He won- 
 dered if they would quarrel over it, and 
 rend it. He glanced at some of the wrap- 
 159 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 pings of leg or body, and fancied these 
 might have been secured in just that man- 
 ner. 
 
 One thing became clear to Dan Eank 
 very quickly. He was better than they in 
 the work. His judgment and skill were 
 better. He knew how to take advantage of 
 the labor. They were in the main, as chil- 
 dren ; and needed much direction. But they 
 followed willingly, and every time he indi- 
 cated where their strength should be 
 thrown, they gave the heartiest support. 
 The big, dark man, always shouting com- 
 mands, directions, maledictions which pro- 
 voked no resentment, came nearer, and took 
 note of the progress. Once or twice the 
 inspector passed, leading new men to the 
 boat for tools, or hurrying other late arri- 
 vals along the line; for there was a nerv- 
 ous energy everywhere. 
 
 From time to time Dan Eank was moved 
 to new places, and by noon he was a hun- 
 dred yards from his coat. 
 
 " Haley," said the inspector, " put that 
 160 
 
Dan Comes to Command 
 
 young Hoosier in charge of the lower gang, 
 and get them all to work. Take him down 
 to the boat with you. He can't live with the 
 paddies, and he's too good to lose." 
 
 They stopped work at a signal from 
 their foreman, and instantly brought from 
 unsuspected places slender fragments of 
 food. There was little meat. The bread 
 was usually of corn meal ; and Dan noted, 
 too amazed for the thought of impolite in- 
 spection, that there was frequently nothing 
 in addition to this morsel. 
 
 Yet they ate slowly, jabbering in that 
 often unintelligible tone, breaking off a 
 fragment at a time, and making much of 
 the amazing little. 
 
 Accustomed as he was to great feasts 
 of hot food at noon, with meat in profusion 
 and bread and vegetables in plenty, with 
 sauce of fruit or of honey, and with milk 
 whenever desired, Dan was suddenly op- 
 pressed with pangs of hunger more griev- 
 ous than he had felt before. Yet he was 
 overwhelmed with profound pity for the 
 161 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 men who, needing so much, were supplied 
 so meagerly. 
 
 Their cabins were, for the most part, 
 the slenderest protection against weather. 
 Some were without a single board in the 
 whole construction. They were low the 
 framing of saplings or small trees ar- 
 ranged against timbers of bigger growth, 
 and usually covered half-way to the apex 
 of a clumsy roof, with earth thrown from 
 the ditches at the side. He was very sure 
 the ground was the only floor the cabins 
 boasted. 
 
 About the houses were clustering 
 groups of women and children. The lat- 
 est arrivals had been freely given such wel- 
 come as warm hearts, though almost empty; 
 hands, could afford. In many places there 
 were out-of-door fires, and provision for 
 feeding the men and their families ; but the 
 promise only accentuated the poverty and 
 extremity of the workers. The strong 
 young native turned away overpowered 
 with his sympathy for them. 
 162 
 
Dan Comes to Command 
 
 A number of men came toward him, 
 chattering excitedly. One of them had 
 taken that Sunday coat from the tree, and 
 was carrying it carefully. They were run- 
 ning, and calling him. Two came quite 
 close, and gave him the coat. He under- 
 stood instantly they felt he needed it after 
 the warming exercise of labor, and that 
 their action was simply an expression of 
 kindliness and concern. It was the one 
 thing he could not have borne. His eyes 
 were full of tears. The athlete who would 
 cheerfully have fought any number of them 
 on any sort of provocation, felt that the 
 moment of unmanly weeping had come. 
 
 The man who presented the coat Dris- 
 coll was haggard and pale, and the blue 
 eyes gleamed with fever in an emaciated 
 face. He was, without doubt, the ragged- 
 est man in the crowd, and the one who 
 seemed least fitted in strength for the work. 
 He was ill. He lacked nutritious food. He 
 was worn with the malaria which, even at 
 that early season, was making inroads all 
 163 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 along the valley; and Dan Bank put the 
 coat upon DriscolPs half-bare shoulders, 
 thrust the gaunt arms in the comfortable 
 sleeves, buttoned it from top to bottom, and 
 turned him about. The others, surprised 
 and gratified at the action, shouted their 
 warm-hearted commendation. 
 
 " That's yours, brother," he said sim- 
 ply; for his lips were quivering, and he 
 dared not say more. 
 
 There he left them, for Haley, the big 
 foreman, approached. 
 
 " Yez hain't any dinner wid ye," said 
 the ni'an. The tone was as harsh and as 
 dominant as when commanding the work- 
 ers. " Come along wid me." 
 
 They went to the old canal-boat, drawn 
 up at the shore of the river. It had been a 
 freighter, and the forward part still held 
 to the uses of a living place. Inside, a stout 
 woman was bending over a stove, and near 
 a window was a table. 
 
 " Ye'll eat wid me," said the boss. 
 " Anny man can see yez are no loafer ; and 
 164 
 
Dan Comes to Command 
 
 yez wasn't raised to canallin', though yez 
 do take hold amazin'. Set down. Old wom- 
 an, fetch on yer dinner." Then, turning 
 again to his guest, " What's yer name? " 
 
 " Dan." 
 
 " Dan's enough, if there ain't anny 
 more. Phwat's dhe rest av it! " 
 
 " Dan Rank is my name." 
 
 " Phwere do yez live ? " 
 
 The first impulse was against telling. 
 There was a thought that he was " running 
 away," and of course in such a case he 
 must not make admissions that would lead 
 to detection. But instantly the better coun- 
 sel prevailed. The very reason for his 
 presence here was his rectitude; 'and he 
 answered : 
 
 " On a farm, up river." 
 
 " Dhen yez have money." 
 
 " Some enough." 
 
 "Well, yez can booard wid me. Dhe 
 likes of ye would starve in dhe huts. Old 
 woman, fix up a bid for dhe man some- 
 where. I'll pay yez a dollar and a quar- 
 165 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 ther a day. Dhat's more dan dhe others 
 git and its more dhan dhere 're worth 
 dhe County Mayo omahdauns. I'll give yez 
 canallin' clothes afther dinner; and ye'll 
 boss dhe min in dhe lower gang. Ye'll have 
 to whale dhem, or dhey won't worrk, and 
 dhe superintendent '11 put yez back in dhe 
 pits. Yez must kape yer eye on dhe tools, 
 for dhem shpalpeens shtale whale-bar- 
 ries and chubbles, and sell dhem for 
 whishky." 
 
 "For whisky!" 
 
 " Yes, though Hiven help dhem dhey 
 couldn't do dhe worrk if dhey didn't have a 
 dhrap of the crature. And dhey have no 
 money till pay-day and dommed little 
 dhen. Old woman, git me poipe." 
 
 She was not an old woman at all, but 
 young and measurably attractive when 
 compared with Haley but it was a man- 
 ner of speech not uncommonly applied to 
 wives. She cooked fairly well, and the 
 dinner was vastly better than Dan Eank 
 had expected. He left his new host smok- 
 166 
 
Dan Comes to Command 
 
 ing beside the table, and walked aft through 
 the boat. 
 
 Back of the living room was a big, 
 empty section, once devoted to cargo ; and 
 beyond that, the place where horses had 
 been stabled when the boat was in active 
 service. The remaining third of the vessel 
 was a storeroom with tools and supplies 
 of coarse food and coarser clothing. He 
 selected garments, put on the clumsy shoes, 
 and smiled at himself, for the picture pre- 
 sented was as amusing as it was new. 
 
 "Pm disguised now," he said, trying 
 to laugh. 
 
 There was vast comfort about him, in 
 spite of the grotesque costume. He had 
 employment, and at wages that were rated 
 good. He had food and bed assured. And 
 the working out of his larger problem must 
 rest, first of all, on this beginning. 
 
 Dan toiled among his gang at the sec- 
 ond section through the afternoon, and was 
 pleased to observe that his group escaped 
 the profane condemnations of the boss. 
 167 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 The course of the canal ran through an 
 area covered with oak and walnut ; and the 
 men from overseas were not skilled wood- 
 men. It was a pleasure to him. The work 
 was of a sort to which he was accustomed. 
 And the big trees which other choppers had 
 felled across the right-of-way, or heaped 
 in annoying tangles, or hurled in careless 
 proximity to the groups of unwarned dig- 
 gers, all lay, under his chopping, in order- 
 ly array, to the right and to the left. So 
 that a fair aisle was opened through the 
 woods. 
 
 Just at quitting time the work was vis- 
 ited by the inspector ; and Haley reported 
 on his latest acquisition. 
 
 " Dhey loike to worrk for him," said he, 
 " and I'm givin' him twelve shillings." 
 
 " Give him two dollars," said the supe- 
 rior. " Push him, and let him push the rest 
 of them. We need such men, and need them 
 badly." 
 
 168 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TRICKING THE POSSE 
 
 THE posse had finally returned to the 
 home neighborhood, and had found in the 
 Sand Islands, within a mile of their start- 
 ing point, after infinite hardships and 
 wearisome rides, the long-hidden rendez- 
 vous of the outlaws. 
 
 They had found out the traitor in their 
 own councils the crafty and capable Jared 
 Caruth. 
 
 They had followed the chase for weeks, 
 had suffered hunger and exposure in an 
 inclement season, had perilled their lives, 
 and had in every hour crystallized that 
 sentiment of antipathy to crime which 
 is the sufficient foundation of order. And 
 as the purpose of rectitude took definite 
 form, banishing the spirit of tolerance, of 
 easy judgment, their anger grew against 
 169 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 the men they hunted. The consciousness 
 increased that those offenders had no de- 
 fense ; had no refuge, had no rights. Wild 
 beasts that came from the forests and dev- 
 astated the flocks were no more beyond the 
 pale of mercy than were those who made 
 defiance of law. 
 
 And it was with an added sting of re- 
 sentment that they finally realized one of 
 their own community had been allied with 
 the outlaws from the first. They suddenly 
 took up and viewed, one after another, a 
 score of Jared's acts which were puzzling 
 at the time of commission, and could have 
 but one construction in the light of this 
 later discovery. 
 
 He reached his home in the same hour 
 with them, his clothes torn, his face and 
 hands covered with bruises, and carrying 
 the battered lock which he hoped would 
 free him from all suspicion. 
 
 True, when confronted, agile Jared 
 found defenses. Eoused as they were, he 
 overwhelmed them with arguments; and 
 170 
 
Tricking the Posse 
 
 while he stood before them in the hour of 
 their triumph over outlaws, his case seemed 
 good. 
 
 " Hold my wa'mus," he cried, flinging 
 his arms from the garment, and handing 
 it to rugged Abe Rhinehart, grown even 
 more grim and retributive. 
 
 It was by the side of the old stable in the 
 rear of his cabin; and he began thrusting 
 his hands in the matted grass and leaves 
 that formed the weatherside wall, as if 
 searching for something that could estab- 
 lish his innocence. And he had builded 
 so well it needed nothing but corrobora- 
 tion. 
 
 Whatever he searched for eluded his 
 thrustings, and Jared intent, resolute, 
 with growing indignation which put them 
 on the defensive stepped quickly about 
 the end of the stable, and entered the wide 
 door. 
 
 They heard him from the inside, not 
 five feet away, still troubling those twigs 
 and leaves in the rain-brown straw. 
 12 171 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Can you see it? " he demanded ; and 
 they pressed a little closer on the out- 
 side. 
 
 " See what? " demanded Phil Whitesell, 
 suspiciously. 
 
 " It's a leather bag. Can you see it? " 
 He was accusingly insistent. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Can you see my hand? " 
 
 "Yes, but " 
 
 " Wait a minute." 
 
 There was silence. 
 
 They waited more than a minute. 
 
 Then they called to him. 
 
 He did not answer. 
 
 Seth Reed stepped swiftly around to 
 the door. 
 
 The others caught up their guns. 
 
 But the man was gone, and they did not 
 see him again. They tried to solve the rid- 
 dle of his disappearance, but it baffled 
 them. He had betrayed them consistently 
 from the start. 
 
 Just once a man of that intelligence may 
 1T2 
 
Tricking the Posse 
 
 walk into the peril of enraged partners, but 
 he will not do it a second time. 
 
 They beat the woods. They almost 
 completed the demolition of the ramshackle 
 stable, and they searched the swamps. But 
 they were not rewarded. Jared Caruth 
 had gone as foxes go right out of the 
 sight, under the eyes that were watching 
 him. 
 
 Phil Whitesell was the only man in the 
 neighborhood ever satisfied with his expla- 
 nation of the disappearance. 
 
 " Ghosts," said he, whenever the matter 
 reached the point of futility in the discus- 
 sion. 
 
 Jared found the Sand Islands safest till 
 night fell. Then he fled shivering through 
 the woods, and followed the river, and was 
 gone. 
 
 173 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 STOCKING AND HALEY 
 
 AT the close of the day Dan Rank walked 
 down toward the old boat which had become 
 a house for him. 
 
 A woman carrying a babe paused at the 
 door of her cabin. 
 
 " You're the mon that put a co-oat on 
 me husband, Teddy," she said ; and the tone 
 was musical with the gratitude which the 
 Celt can best express. She lifted the babe 
 to the hollow of her elbow, and turned to 
 look into the little hut that volunteer hands 
 were building about her. " He's laid down 
 for the bit of a rest. He's that wake from 
 the long v'yage, and his stren'th don't come 
 back." 
 
 " Driscoll's got the agy," volunteered a 
 neighbor. 
 
 Dan stepped to the door. The man was 
 1T4 
 
Stocking and Haley 
 
 lying on a bit of mattress, but he struggled 
 to a sitting posture, with an effort at hos- 
 pitality. 
 
 " Coome in," he exclaimed. " Coome in, 
 and set down. Will yez have a cup o' tay? 
 Bridget, me darlint " 
 
 "No, thank you. Lie down, Driscoll. 
 Get rested. You'll be the better in the 
 morning."' 
 
 The pathos of it touched him, for there 
 was not the suggestion of a chair in the 
 place ; and he was sure that offer of tea was 
 but the flower of a courtesy as instinctive 
 as it was hopeless. 
 
 " They will have to be fed, or they can't 
 work," he mused as he turned away. 
 
 The boat was better than when he 
 walked through at noon. There was a com- 
 fortable bed and a number of chairs in the 
 middle compartment. The further fur- 
 nishings of the room were meager enough, 
 but they were so vastly better than he had 
 expected that Dan Rank stood at the plank 
 in the dusk of evening, a feeling of thank- 
 175 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 fulness in his heart thankfulness which 
 would have been more complete but for the 
 pity that pressed upon it. 
 
 At supper Haley had a tin cup of whis- 
 ky at his plate, and he drank a good deal. 
 He was even louder than usual, and bent 
 on contention. 
 
 " Old woman, bring Dan a cup of dhe 
 liquor." 
 
 "I don't want any thanks. I never 
 drank a drop in my life." 
 
 " Dhen it's toime ye began. Old woman, 
 will ye bring him dhe cup ! " 
 
 She supplied him, saying nothing, and 
 went about her kitchen duties. Dan pushed 
 back the proffered bottle. 
 
 "Thanks, Mr. Haley," he said. "It 
 would spoil my good supper." 
 
 " Ye'll drink wan drink, or I'll t'row yez 
 aff dhe boat." 
 
 Haley was no more angry than before. 
 It was still the rough insistence of a rough 
 host; but the young man laughed as he 
 shook his head. 
 
 176 
 
Stocking and Haley 
 
 " Will yez drink it, or will yez go over 
 dhe soidef " 
 
 " I'm not sure that I will do either, Mr. 
 Haley." 
 
 " That strange man with good clothes 
 is coming," said the woman suddenly. 
 Then she hurriedly set forth another cup. 
 
 A strong tread on the earth outside, the 
 stroke of a booted foot on the plank, and 
 then the form of a man appeared at the 
 door. 
 
 " Hello, Haley," called a genial, hearty 
 voice ; and David Stocking strode into the 
 room. 
 
 For a moment he did not recognize Dan 
 Rank. The light was dim. The one candle 
 served only to furnish him safe passage to 
 the chair that the woman placed. But he 
 was clearly a habitual visitor, and quickly 
 noted the addition to the usual group. 
 
 " Why, it's my Dan," he cried, extend- 
 ing his hand, and advancing cordially. 
 " It's my wrestler my young Hercules. 
 I'll take a drop of the liquor, if you don't 
 177 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 mind, Mrs. Haley," lie said. "And I 
 brought a comb for your black hair. If 
 Haley isn't jealous now " 
 
 " Yez can bring her a carriage, if yez 
 loike," responded the foreman. " Fill up. 
 Fill up, Dan, and drink to dhe gintleman's 
 good health." 
 
 " Dan don't drink," said David Stock- 
 ing. " He's temperance." 
 
 " He'll drink to-night," said Haley, ris- 
 ing with some difficulty, " or I'll pitch him 
 over dhe soide." 
 
 " Don't do it, Haley," protested the vis- 
 itor, gaily forcing the dark man back to his 
 chair. " Don't ever try to put Dan over 
 the side. I know him. Come on. I haven't 
 had my dram. Here's to the ditch, and 
 may we all live to see it finished." 
 
 The two then drank, Haley's eyes rov- 
 ing over to Dan at intervals. There was 
 a suggestion he did not relish in Stocking's 
 words. He could not understand that any 
 man would pretend Haley was less than 
 master in the field of force. 
 178 
 
Stocking and Haley 
 
 "Well, you're getting on famously," 
 cried the jubilant guest. " The new gang 
 is settled as if they were born here. How 
 many have you 1 " 
 
 " Dhey's two hundred." 
 
 Haley was in liquor; but he was one 
 of those whose shrewdness remained long 
 after leg and arm turned traitor. 
 
 "Two hundred." Stocking lifted the 
 half -empty tin cup, and sang : 
 
 "And a hundred went out in the morning 
 
 Hi lo! 
 
 And ten laid them down for to die ; 
 And the ninety they laughed at the warning 
 
 Hi lo! 
 
 And we look for them now in the sky. 
 We look for them now in the sky 
 For five are all of the hundred that's left, 
 And they're going too, by and by." 
 
 " Drink up : 
 
 " And they're going too, by and by." 
 
 " Dhat's good," shouted Haley. " Dhat's 
 good singing. Dhey're all goin'. Have an- 
 other." 
 
 1Y9 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Have you told Dan Bank anything, 
 Haley?" 
 
 " Not a worrud. Should we let him in ? " 
 
 " He's just the man for us. Dan " 
 This in a lower tone "We are going to 
 let these canal people make us rich. Ha- 
 ley and I have worked it out. I gave 
 you a hint of it last night. It's nice and 
 easy." 
 
 "Saturday's pay-day," said Haley. 
 
 " And Saturday's the horse race. We'll 
 get the beginning of it. What's the use 
 digging? They have too much money. 
 Fill up again. Dan, here's to you, whether 
 you drink or not. My eye, man, I wish I 
 could see you wrestle once more. Here's 
 to you, I say." 
 
 Then he sang : 
 
 "We drink to the chief who has never a fear, 
 
 We drink to the men who can follow. 
 We ride all night in the moonlight clear, 
 
 And we sleep in the caverns hollow. 
 For the days are swift, and money is slow, 
 And it's hard to get, and easy to go 
 
 180 
 
Stocking and Haley 
 
 And a long strong rope is the end, my friend, 
 And a tilting plank, and a fall; 
 
 And so, if you dread the end, my friend, 
 You better not ride at all." 
 
 "Hurrah," shouted Haley. And even 
 the unconsidered woman across the cabin 
 clapped her hands in applause. The dishes 
 still littering the supper-table danced as 
 the heavy fists came down, and the can- 
 dle toppled with the roistering jubila- 
 tion. 
 
 "How's that, Dan?" 
 
 " Fine the best I ever heard." 
 
 " You will sing a gayer tune if you go 
 with us." 
 
 " Where are you going? " 
 
 " To stay right here for a while ; but 
 we are going to get some money to stay 
 with us." 
 
 Dan was wise enough to realize that' all 
 this meant the lawlessness which he could 
 not share; that it implied a purpose of 
 something criminal ; and he sat there won- 
 dering what was his best course. For he 
 181 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 had already caught a glimpse of that dawn- 
 ing for which he had planned when he left 
 home, and no thought was so strong as the 
 resolve for rectitude. 
 
 They saw he was silent. 
 
 " You've got to go in, Dan. Your folks 
 believe it, anyway." 
 
 "Believe what?" 
 
 " That you are an outlaw. The sheriff 
 would come and get you if he knew you 
 were here." 
 
 " He would have a good time. You fel- 
 lows But listen!" 
 
 There was a cry, a shrill voice, lifting 
 his name out there among the trees. 
 
 " Some of the men are calling me," he 
 said, and went hurriedly from the boat. 
 Haley leaned forward as he went, half ris- 
 ing to measure that sturdy frame, to trifle 
 with the temptation which always besets a 
 bully. 
 
 Ashore, Dan met the people running 
 from the cabin of the Driscoll's. 
 
 " Oh, Holy Hither, me Teddy's dead," 
 182 
 
Stocking and Haley- 
 cried the woman. She was kneeling at the 
 side of the pallet, her hair disheveled, 
 her hands clasping and unclasping in the 
 agony of her trouble. 
 
 The young fellow pushed his way 
 through the gathering group of exclaim- 
 ing sympathizers, and stooped low above 
 the quiet figure outstretched on the mat- 
 tress. But he found what the wife had 
 missed that the cold limbs were not limp. 
 They moved however weakly in re- 
 sponse to his pressure. He rose, and tried 
 to look about the unlighted room. At the 
 door he found a man with whom he had 
 worked all day. 
 
 " Dinny, you get a candle ; and then 
 have the men bring some boards to put un- 
 der his bed. He's too near this damp 
 ground. The man's not dead. Be quiet, 
 people." 
 
 It was astonishing how he controlled 
 
 them, how they submitted themselves to 
 
 him. He took no note of the blessings they 
 
 showered on him as he ran. But he hur- 
 
 183 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 ried to the boat, sprang across the plank, 
 and burst into the room where Stocking 
 and Haley were sitting. 
 
 " Lend me the bottle," he said ; and had 
 taken it and fled before they could offer a 
 protest. It was far better liquor than that 
 commonly provided for their drinking, but 
 he did not regard the circumstance as a de- 
 terrent. He pressed a spoonful to the lips 
 of the sick man, then gently lifted him, 
 mattress and all, to the rough board sup- 
 port the neighbors had provided. How he 
 wished for his mother's skill in medicine 
 or even the surly service which Maria 
 could render. He stripped up the thin 
 sleeve of the patient, and, pouring some 
 liquor in his palm, bathed the shrunken 
 member, rubbing briskly but gently. 
 And presently Driscoll breathed, opened 
 his eyes, and even laid his hand on that 
 tousled crown of his kneeling and terri- 
 fied wife. 
 
 Then Dan Rank went outside, and had 
 half-a-dozen logs rolled together, heaped 
 184 
 
Stocking and Haley 
 
 their severed branches upon them, as was 
 the custom in the clearing at home, and 
 started a fire which roared all night, con- 
 suming the vapors, and warming the air 
 for the chill bodies of the emigrants. 
 
 185 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 DAN'S " BAD DREAM " 
 
 THE air was balmy and warm, and the 
 chill wind which had blown steadily for 
 weeks was finally stilled. Haley came 
 somewhat late from his boat-house, but he 
 was unusually noisy and profane, and the 
 laborers at his end of the work paid for the 
 loitering of their earlier hours with savage 
 driving and much condemnation. 
 
 It was the custom of the inspector to 
 travel along the line almost daily, and it 
 happened that he came this morning when 
 his foreman was least presentable. 
 
 " How are they to-day, Haley? " 
 
 " Oh, dhere dhe pest of the worrld, Mis- 
 ther Patterson. Dhe're dhat sullen " 
 
 The men made no complaint to their 
 superior. They resumed their work, thank- 
 186 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream" 
 
 ful for the temporary peace, and willing 
 to waive all protests. 
 
 " Many of them sick 1 " 
 
 " A dozen, sorr. Some won't git well." 
 
 "You're giving them whisky, aren't 
 you?" 
 
 " Well, not ivery day, sorr." 
 
 " They need it every day. We are pro- 
 viding it. They must have it regularly 
 those that are weak or they will die of 
 the fever and ague." 
 
 " Howly Mither, Misther Patterson. I 
 couldn't manage dhem at all if dhey had 
 dhe dhrink." 
 
 " Then some one else will have to man- 
 age them. You have it here, and we expect 
 you to issue it to them as they need it, and 
 you are making requisitions for it every 
 time you get supplies. What are you doing 
 with it?" 
 
 "Nothing, sorr." 
 
 " Then put on a jigger-boss at once. I 
 don't like this, Haley. I think you are 
 drinking too much of it yourself." 
 13 18Y 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 The jigger-boss, under one name or 
 another, is present wherever canals are 
 digged. On the old Wabash waterway he 
 was much like his brothers later at Suez 
 and Panama or that earlier brother on 
 the Erie, and earlier still, no doubt, in 
 Syria and in China. He prolonged some 
 lives, very probably; relieved a good deal 
 of pain, and for this was the final con- 
 sideration he got more work out of the 
 men. 
 
 Barrels of liquor had been stored there 
 in the old canal-boat, and a man was se- 
 lected for his discretion, and his habit of 
 comparative abstinence, who went about 
 wherever laborers were gathered together, 
 carrying his pail of spirits and his dipper. 
 Those exhausted, or suffering from the 
 chills of malaria, were given drink. It was 
 an office of importance. The judgment of 
 the jigger-boss was the only rule; and as 
 human wisdom fails at times, he may have 
 made mistakes. He may have given tip- 
 ples when nature did not demand; and he 
 188 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream' 
 
 may have refused where stimulant would 
 have been a benefit. Also, being human, 
 he may have abused his high office to re- 
 ward friends or to punish enemies at 
 times. But in the main his ministration 
 was a help. 
 
 Kemember, there were no medicines. 
 No tonic had leaped from the earth to com- 
 bat a pestilent ague which answered the 
 challenge of their picks and shovels. The 
 broken doors of earth had emitted a vapor ; 
 and those who forced the portals brought 
 no weapon for that combat. The rank poi- 
 son of the alcohol was a primitive defense 
 against the ranker poison of malaria. And 
 whisky was, to a whole generation, the 
 only tonic that ague-troubled pioneers 
 could find. Even when their good wives 
 learned the secrets of the herbs and roots 
 which drew curative qualities from the 
 very soil that exuded the disease, whisky 
 formed the base of their medications; 
 and "bitters" took the place of bev- 
 erage. 
 
 189 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 The inspector walked down the line, 
 noting progress, and so came to Dan Bank 
 and his men. 
 
 "Who is bossing this gang 1" he de- 
 manded. 
 
 " I am," replied the young man. 
 
 "What are you down there with them 
 for? Get up here, where you can see 
 them." 
 
 Dan Bank looked at him for a moment, 
 and then said : 
 
 " If I am going to have this gang, I will 
 work with them. We can do more that 
 way, and do it better." 
 
 The inspector was a very great man; 
 and the spectacle of a foreman crossing 
 him, or declining to act on one of his sug- 
 gestions, was a rare thing. A murmur of 
 surprise and commendation was heard 
 from the hurrying men. 
 
 But Mr. Patterson was one of those 
 wise persons who prefer the accomplish- 
 ing of the main object to the gratifying of 
 an unimportant whim. He was trying to 
 190 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream " 
 
 build a canal; and no temptation to self- 
 assertion could induce him to lose a step 
 in that progress. He recognized in the 
 tone and in the opposition of this young 
 fellow a spirit which promised value in his 
 enterprise. 
 
 " What is your name? " 
 
 He took out a note-book and pencil. 
 
 " Dan Bank." 
 
 " Oh, yes. I did not recognize you in 
 those clothes. You are getting along. 
 Need anything?" 
 
 " Nothing but more men." 
 
 He waited a moment, looking at the 
 young leader, and the rare energy of his 
 toilers. 
 
 " You will have them yet in plenty," 
 he said simply, and turned away. 
 
 Haley visited his room at intervals 
 through the forenoon, and at dinner was 
 the worse for the visits, since he was drink- 
 ing heavily. 
 
 "I won't go up to dhe wor-rk dhis 
 afthernoon, Dan," he said, a savage quality 
 191 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 in his voice. " You'll have to manage dhe 
 whole uv 'em." 
 
 " All right." 
 
 And so the youngster was in command 
 of nearly two hundred men; and he felt 
 as he passed among them that it was not 
 simply flinging earth and rolling stones 
 that engaged him. He was helping to 
 build a mighty waterway ; and the dignity 
 of that enterprise ennobled his industry, 
 and brought the feeling that a part of his 
 own life was taking form in the walls and 
 floors of this canal. He had caught a pro- 
 phetic glimpse of the valley's development, 
 with cities lighting the great region, with 
 farms full of life and rich in happiness, 
 with highways, and schools where children 
 learned; and, linking them all together, 
 making each greater because of this artery 
 which brought the blood of commerce and 
 of books from other lands, was the great 
 heart of progress, the nerves of advance- 
 ment, and civilization's brain. 
 
 He knew he would live to see that val- 
 192 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream' 
 
 ley picture filled in in all its fair detail ; and 
 his growing, forming ambition was to pre- 
 pare the way, to make straight the path 
 where culture might enter in. 
 
 It was not as a hireling he labored. He 
 had an interest which was growing to be a 
 large part of his life ; an earnestness which 
 welled over from his own abundant energy, 
 and fed the fires of other men. 
 
 That was why he waked with sorrow in- 
 stead of anger when strange sounds came 
 to the waterside of his lodging late in the 
 night. He knew perfectly that some one 
 was pushing a skiff along there in the deep 
 shadow. He knew when an attack was 
 made on the big door; and he knew that 
 within the long room back of his own were 
 stores of tools and food, and the barrels of 
 spirits the company had provided. 
 
 He realized that there was strong temp- 
 tation, but he was grieved that his men had 
 yielded, sore as was their need. There was 
 little of the sentry's indignation as he 
 stepped from his bed and drew on his 
 193 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 clothes. It was much more the grief of a 
 guardian whose ward falls into the wrong. 
 
 The fact that the point of attack was on 
 the waterside surprised him, for the work- 
 men had no known means of approaching 
 there. Though the shoreward side of the 
 boat lay, in its entire length, almost touch- 
 ing the bank, there was something like four 
 feet of water on the opposite side. But the 
 noise of forcing an opening continued at 
 cautiously continued intervals, and Dan 
 Kank took advantage of it to open his own 
 door, and step into the tool room. 
 
 By the same process he then closed the 
 door, and stood in the place alone. 
 
 He wondered which of the men it might 
 be, and employed his brief time finding a 
 different rebuke in either of the several 
 cases that seemed probable. 
 
 Then the portal long battened shut was 
 forced open, and Dan could see the shift- 
 ing outlines of a rowboat. 
 
 For a moment there was perfect silence, 
 and then a shadowy form filled the open 
 194 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream" 
 
 door, and a tall man stepped from the skiff 
 into the floating storeroom. He turned to 
 whisper something to a confederate with- 
 out, and then tiptoed in the dark straight 
 to the corner where the whisky barrels 
 stood. 
 
 As he did so his figure was silhouetted 
 against the light from the burning heap of 
 logs,- and Dan Bank recognized not a 
 shoveler, but the director of shovelers 
 Haley! 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " he asked 
 sternly. 
 
 The foreman leaped to the shadow, and 
 his frightened eyes flashed in the dark. 
 There was the stroke of an open hand 
 against the wall outside, the grinding of 
 the skiff on the heavier craft, the disturb- 
 ing of water, then the steady sweep of oars 
 growing lighter. The confederate had es- 
 caped, and Haley was left alone. 
 
 " What are you doing, Haley! " 
 
 Then the big man's assurance came 
 back. 
 
 195 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "It's none of your business. Who's 
 boss here yez, or me? I'm movin' me 
 tools, and I'm not askin' permission of the 
 loikes of chubblers. Go to bed." 
 
 But the strength of might as the 
 strength of right was with the younger 
 man. He knew he was master in this 
 meeting, as he knew in all reason it 
 would make him master on the section 
 the foreman of workers, the leader of 
 labor. 
 
 " You go through my room to your own, 
 Haley," he said steadily. "Go in there, 
 and be there in the morning, or the sheriff 
 will be after you." 
 
 " He's afther yez now," shouted Haley. 
 And there was the swift shuffling of feet as 
 he threw himself on the man who had 
 trapped him. 
 
 He could have borne buffeting; he 
 could have suffered blows. A driver of 
 laborers on land or water in those days was 
 a fighting man, and Haley had risen to em- 
 inence because he was strong. But he was 
 196 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream" 
 
 not prepared for this quick pressure of 
 arms about him, this sudden tripping which 
 disturbed his feet, this thrust of an angular 
 hip against his thigh, and the heave that 
 bereft him of breath that sent his great 
 body as from a catapult, his heels striking 
 the low ceiling, his shoulders crashing 
 against the floor. 
 
 Dan looked from the opened door, but 
 the boatman was far away, up the stream, 
 and facing him. Close to the shore he 
 went, and was rowing hard. The ar- 
 rows of light from the burning log heap 
 pierced the thicket now and then, and he 
 could see that the fugitive was slender, 
 graceful, very well dressed, with the lin- 
 en collar uncommon in Western apparel. 
 He believed that it was David Stock- 
 ing. 
 
 As he watched, an oar was caught by 
 one of the fishing lines with which the 
 Irishmen had laced the edge of the stream. 
 In an instant there was a shout from the 
 shore, and a volley of condemning decla- 
 197 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 mation. A laborer was watching there, 
 hopeful of food, or armed against poachers 
 on his own private lines. 
 
 " Lave loose, ye thaf e av dhe worrld," 
 cried the irritant voice from the bank. 
 "Lave loose me hooks, and be aff wid 
 ye." 
 
 There was more speech, and a thrash- 
 ing of the bushes as he pulled impatiently 
 at his line. The oarsman, singularly deaf 
 to accusation, loosed the entangling ob- 
 struction, and without a word of reply, 
 swept on to the north. 
 
 Dan Bank went to the shoreward door, 
 and called to the Irishman. 
 
 " Callahan, who was that in the boat? " 
 
 " Oi don't know his name. It's dhe mon 
 wid good clothes that visits here. He's 
 joost afther bringin' dhe boss home." 
 
 " I thought so. Good night." 
 
 Haley was at the table in the morn- 
 ing, and was in a particularly agree- 
 able mood. He greeted Dan without con- 
 straint, and even made a laughing refer- 
 198 
 
Dan's "Bad Dream" 
 
 ence to the encounter of the previous 
 night. 
 
 " R'ach, and take holt, and help your- 
 self," he said. " Me roight shoulder's dhat 
 lame I can't hand annything to ye." 
 
 The woman served them in silence, as 
 usual, and the meal was as others had been. 
 But at the end Haley pushed back his chair, 
 and looked across the table with the frank 
 grin of an unabashed villain. 
 
 " Dan," said he, " ye sometimes have 
 bad drames." 
 
 " Yes, that's true." 
 
 " An' ye had a bad drame lasht night." 
 
 " I did, for a fact." 
 
 " Well, if ye're wise, it's no more dhan a 
 drame. If ye're wise d'ye moind? " 
 
 " Yes, but you be careful to keep awake 
 hereafter, Haley. You were dreaming, too, 
 you know." 
 
 " Well, dhen, we'll nayther drame anny 
 
 more. And Sathurday ye can have the 
 
 whole day aff, if yez want it. Dhere'll be 
 
 little wor-rk on dhe canal. What wid 
 
 199 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 pay-day in dhe mornin', and dhe race 
 in dhe afthernoon, dhe gangs'll be idle, or 
 worse. Just help to kape dhem from kill- 
 in' 'ach other off, for we'll nade dhem 
 Monday." 
 
 200 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SELIM WINS A RACE 
 
 WHEN Saturday came, there was all tlie 
 disinclination to work that Haley had an- 
 ticipated. Men who could toil unceasingly 
 on other days were hunting excuses for 
 idleness and sometimes working harder 
 in the hunt than they would at regular tasks. 
 At midforenoon the paymaster came; and 
 that meant abandonment of all pretense at 
 labor. The calling of names, the disputes 
 between claimants, the adjustment of time, 
 the identification of newcomers all kept 
 a throng about the paymaster's improvised 
 table ; and officials were too busy in settling 
 the month's finances to give any time to 
 digging. 
 
 Women were about in the crowds, some- 
 times carrying babes, sometimes leading 
 children; but always appreciative, always 
 201 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 on the wailing borderland of despair. 
 They needed money, and the men were not 
 prudent, nor given to self-denial. 
 
 Above all things, after payment, the 
 general thought was of the race. The In- 
 dian pony which Section Seventeen was 
 bringing to the course had a fame from 
 earlier years. Later arrivals caught the 
 spirit of hostility caught the desire to see 
 that winner of wagers beaten. The inter- 
 est had been growing more intense for 
 weeks. It crystallized into a sentiment of 
 hatred against pony and owner; and 
 against every one from Seventeen. It 
 grew stronger in a universal public loyal- 
 ty to 
 
 To what? 
 
 To a horse they had not seen. 
 
 To a horse that David Stocking told 
 them he had " picked up " an animal that 
 he vowed was so fleet that the Indian pony 
 would be disgraced, and its owners and 
 backers ruined and humiliated. 
 
 And, strong in that hope, they moved 
 202 
 
Selim Wins a Race 
 
 by scores down to the course. The farmers 
 came in from the surrounding country; 
 residents of the towns joined the throng. 
 The settlements along the canal for twenty 
 miles were depopulated. 
 
 There were thousands at the course. 
 
 It was a great stretch of level turf, half 
 a mile long, with a post to mark the start- 
 ing-point a tree at the farther end and 
 a lane fifty feet wide, walled with people. 
 The horses would leave the post side by 
 side. They would run that half mile, pass 
 around the tree, and come back, finishing 
 where they started. 
 
 And nothing but speed and bottom 
 could decide that race ; for the arts of the 
 jockey were of little use. 
 
 Dan Eank had come with the others. 
 He felt some interest in the race, some 
 thrill of loyal hope that the Indian pony 
 from Seventeen would be beaten, some sen- 
 timent of grudge against its friends for 
 former vanquishings. But he staked no 
 money. When bettors challenged him he 
 14 203 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 [ 
 
 turned a deaf ear. "When he saw his Irish 
 laborers risking their money, he trembled 
 for them. When he saw the rising tide of 
 excitement, as the time of starting drew 
 near the excitement which was fed by 
 abundant liquor and spurred by abound- 
 ing antipathy and when he noted the cold 
 calculation of those who had prepared the 
 running, a feeling of revulsion came to him, 
 and the spirit of love for a splendid sport 
 almost vanished. 
 
 They were betting like mad, the pit- 
 tance-earning laborers risking their all on 
 the day. Big, dark Haley, the stakeholder, 
 jotted some marks on a broad sheet of pa- 
 per, and dropped the money into a bag. 
 
 Dan was in the front rank, a hundred 
 yards from the starting-point, and the 
 shout that rose at the lower end of the 
 course told him the horses were coming, 
 and called back his native interest. 
 
 They cantered lightly along from the 
 tree to the start, the gray pony alive to the 
 race, with a racer's understanding of it; 
 204 
 
Selim Wins a Race 
 
 the "unknown," simply a strong, young 
 animal, with fine limbs and a breadth of 
 breast that told of staying powers. 
 
 "If it were two miles or five," said 
 Dan, " the bay would win." 
 
 Haley was nervously hastening now, 
 spurring the bettors urging them, sweep- 
 ing their forward-thrust money into his 
 canvas bag, and making but a pretense of 
 a recording. 
 
 As the bay came nearer, Dan Bank 
 thought he knew the animal. As it passed 
 him he could have sworn, but for the white 
 blaze in the face, that it was Selim. So 
 that, as they took their places and pre- 
 pared to start, he was the most troubled 
 man on the course, though he had wagered 
 nothing. For this was his horse, and it had 
 been stolen. 
 
 This was Selim his face whitened to 
 disguise him prepared to run for out- 
 laws, in the biggest race of years, and 
 within twenty miles of his stable. 
 
 He struggled toward the nervous, con- 
 2C5 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 fused group at the start. He called, but 
 they were far from him, and the uproar of 
 thousands drowned his voice. Then came 
 the hush of the final moment, and the two 
 were launched away. 
 
 The pony was ahead, wise in racing; 
 the bay colt following, startled and nerv- 
 ous. He was not used to crowds. They 
 flashed past Dan Rank ; and before he real- 
 ized it he found himself running down the 
 course as crazy a man as any of the hun- 
 dreds who loosed their clamorous roar at 
 the racers. 
 
 The western side of the track, toward 
 the river, was the special rallying place of 
 the pony's friends. It was the assembling 
 ground of the men from Section Seven- 
 teen of the men from the down-river 
 towns, who had come up for Lafayette 
 money. And their cries to the pony and 
 his Indian rider showed the savage thirst 
 of practised despoilers. 
 
 Through the dust-cloud Dan Eank could 
 see the two horses, and he knew the pony 
 206 
 
Selim Wins a Race 
 
 was still leading. He was calmer now, the 
 consciousness of a crisis restoring his self- 
 command. He knew that was Selim, with 
 deceiving white blazing his face, as they 
 turned far down at the tree. The pony 
 flashed about it, and sinking his body for 
 the swifter work of the legs, fled away to- 
 ward the goal. He was forty yards in the 
 lead; but the blaze-face follower was run- 
 ning as he had never run before. And he 
 was eating up that lead with a power and 
 resolve that proved his quality. 
 
 Down they came, the Indian watching, 
 the pony working hard, the bay horse just 
 running at ease, but closing up the gap till 
 he came alongside. And there, not being 
 a practised racer, he settled down as if by 
 a pacemaker, his ears forward, his powers 
 unspent. 
 
 And there Dan Eank yelled at him, 
 above the roar of the mob that flocked in 
 behind, and swept toward the finish there 
 he yelled at him : 
 
 "Get down, Selim!" 
 207 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 And in an instant the bay colt's ears 
 lapped back, and his neck straightened, and 
 he sped away, good for another mile of it. 
 For he had heard that call on other runs 
 and had gloried in responding. And he fin- 
 ished two lengths ahead of an Indian pony 
 that drooped and wabbled, and coughed his 
 testimony that the race had been too hard. 
 
 Through the throng about the finish 
 Dan Bank pushed his way. His great 
 strength was needed in gaining the side of 
 his colt. He laid one hand on the bit, and 
 the other on that sweated forehead where 
 the white came off. And the thin nose 
 rubbed against his shoulder. 
 
 Selim knew him, and he was happy. 
 
 David Stocking saw him, and hurried to 
 approach him. 
 
 " Take the colt away," he said to the 
 boy who had ridden. 
 
 " I'll take the colt," said Dan Eank. 
 
 "You'll get your neck broken, Dan," 
 growled David Stocking, the demon flash- 
 ing in his eyes. 
 
 208 
 
Selim Wins a Race 
 
 " Not by you, nor by any of you," was 
 the stout rejoinder. " Look at this." And 
 he held up his hand, and touched his shoul- 
 der, both marked with the white of that 
 disappearing blaze. " You lift a hand to 
 stop me, and I'll have you in jail before 
 sundown. Take your winnings. I'll take 
 my colt." 
 
 And he did. 
 
 He was clear of the crowd, and petting 
 the head and neck of the animal beside him, 
 proud of the victory and half minded even 
 yet to punish those who had stolen. 
 
 There he heard the quick tread of a man 
 running. Looking over the back of Selim, 
 he saw Haley, with the canvas bag quite 
 full, gripped in his hand. 
 
 " Help me up. Help me up on his back," 
 cried the foreman, excitedly. He was nerv- 
 ous, and half confused. 
 
 " Oh, this is your scheme, is it 1 " asked 
 Dan Rank. " Well, there are a lot of men 
 looking for you and their money up 
 there in the crowd." 
 
 209 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Gi' me dhe horse, Dan," commanded 
 the stakeholder. 
 
 A roar was rising about the finish-post. 
 The crowd of winners had missed their 
 money, and the savage was waking in them. 
 
 "Haley, you thief," cried Dan Eank 
 suddenly, realizing the whole of that heart- 
 less plot, "I'll give you what you de- 
 serve ! " 
 
 Then he turned to the crowd, and raised 
 his voice : 
 
 " Here's Haley, men. Here he is, Cal- 
 lahan Malone. This way ! " 
 
 They came with a rush. All the demons 
 of drink and cupidity and wild anger were 
 roused within them. 
 
 And they had their will with Haley. 
 He was beaten and trampled, and they took 
 his money away. But he escaped them at 
 last, and reached the river, hunted by 
 scores who had dodged from his blows in 
 the past, pursued by other scores from Sec- 
 tion Seventeen. 
 
 How the cash was divided no one could 
 210 
 
Selim Wins a Race 
 
 tell. There was a court held by the strong- 
 est, and a crude administering of justice. 
 And then there was a pacifying drink from 
 the jugs, and a jubilant departure for 
 that revel in town which always succeeded 
 a horse race. 
 
 Down through the crowds Dan Rank 
 led Selim to the river-road, and then 
 turned toward the city, still caressing the 
 splendid fellow, and breathing his love for 
 his home. 
 
 211 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 "i WILL GET PRUDY" 
 
 AND so leading Selim he walked into 
 town. 
 
 He knew the crowds would follow him 
 later; that the fights at the race-course 
 would be resumed at the tavern and about 
 the streets all along the canal. He knew 
 Haley could not come back, and in the 
 thought that the men would need him came 
 the recognition of his own opportunity. 
 
 Down on Main Street he saw Seth Eeed, 
 and called to him. 
 
 " Here's Selim," he said. " He has been 
 in a race down at the course, and has 
 won." 
 
 "Why, Selim's stole," exclaimed Seth 
 Eeed. 
 
 "I reckon; but I got him back. They 
 tried to paint a blaze on his face, but it's 
 212 
 
I Will Get Prudy" 
 
 washing off, you see. Will you take him 
 home ! " 
 
 " Why, yes." 
 
 For Seth saw an opportunity. This 
 was the first time he had seen Dan Bank 
 since the Judge's colts were stolen ; and he 
 remembered the neighborhood theory that 
 this young fellow had shared in that guilt. 
 He wanted to believe the story, for he 
 could not quite forget the wrestling on his 
 own new puncheon floor, and the falls that 
 followed. But he had grown very shrewd ; 
 and this colt in his possession was a key to 
 unlock the hiding-place of the deeply hated 
 Jared Caruth. So he departed, consenting. 
 
 But before he went Dan Rank laid his 
 two arms about the neck of the horse he 
 loved the horse that was pulling at his 
 heart-strings, and coaxing him back. And 
 then he turned away to the work he had 
 chosen. 
 
 He went back to his place, at the boat- 
 house on the canal. 
 
 In the evening a man came hurrying 
 213 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 down the old roadway which had once fol- 
 lowed the bends of the river, but which had 
 been abandoned when work on the canal 
 begun. Something in the poise of the new- 
 comer's body was familiar. It was quite 
 unlike the movement of a laborer. 
 
 "Well, if it isn't Jared!" Dan Kank 
 exclaimed, as the wayfarer approached 
 him. 
 
 The old fiddler halted suddenly, and 
 glanced about. He was evidently afraid to 
 run. Stories of hardships that had befall- 
 en strangers who ventured among these 
 Irish settlements covered the country ; and 
 farmers were wary of them. Jared looked 
 across the slope, dotted with their cabins, 
 and peered wistfully at the darkening 
 woods ahead. 
 
 " Why don't you shake hands 1 " de- 
 manded Dan banteringly. 
 
 The old man walked closer, and extend- 
 ed his palm; but his eyes were now out 
 across the river. 
 
 " Where are you going, Jared 1 " 
 214 
 
"I Will Get Prudy' 
 
 "Thought I'd try Texas," said the 
 veteran, shifting his feet uneasily. 
 
 " How are the people at home? " 
 
 " Oh, they're well, I guess." 
 
 "You guess? When did you come 
 away? " 
 
 " Well, I haven't met any of them for 
 some time." 
 
 " Where have you been? " 
 
 " On the On the Sand Islands, and 
 one place and another." 
 
 " Say, Jared, come in and sit down. I 
 want you to tell me." 
 
 " No, I'd sooner stay out here. I guess 
 I'd better be going." 
 
 "Jared, you're running away. How 
 does that come ? " 
 
 " Well, they found my fancy saddle on 
 one of the Judge's four-year-olds." 
 
 "Oh, they did?" 
 
 " Yes, and I got that about explained, 
 and then they caught the two outlaws that 
 I let go one day when Clark Thompson sent 
 me to lock them up." 
 215 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "And those rascals betrayed you? " 
 " Yes after mauling me so I could say; 
 they fought." 
 
 "Couldn't you explain that?" 
 "Not when the sheriff found their 
 money in my pocket." 
 " Oh." 
 
 " I guess I'll be goin'." 
 "Where's Prudence?" 
 " She's at the cabin, I guess." 
 " What has she to live on! " 
 He was shifting again on those uneasy 
 feet, and facing all ways but to the eyes of 
 his inquisitor. 
 
 " She's not alone, is she, Jared? " 
 " Oh, the girls come over sometimes. 
 I've seen them. I can hide there in the 
 horseweeds in the Sand Islands and see 
 everything that goes on in the neighbor- 
 hood. But Phil Whitesell found where I 
 
 was, and " 
 
 "And you left Prudence, and ran away?" 
 " I'll come back after a while. I'll send 
 money to her." 
 
 216 
 
"I Will Get Prudy' 
 
 Dan Rank looked closer, and saw that 
 tears were running down the thin cheeks 
 of the unhappy old scamp. His voice had 
 not betrayed emotion. It was wholly cheer- 
 ful and uncomplaining while he told of 
 his daughter's abandoning, as while he 
 sketched the outlines of his own esca- 
 pades. 
 
 " You're crying." 
 
 " Yes the smoke of your log fires " 
 
 " Jared, you haven't left that girl 
 alone?" 
 
 " I couldn't bring her along." Then, as 
 if a new thought occurred to him : " You 
 mustn't go up there. The people in the 
 locks' neighborhood think you are an out- 
 law, too." 
 
 " Well, they think wrong. I'm going to 
 get her." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I'm going to get that girl." 
 
 " I have told you to keep out of my 
 house." 
 
 " Never mind about that. You haven't 
 217 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 any house now, you know. Are you hun- 
 gry?" 
 
 " No, I just had supper." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " Back there, in an old cabin." 
 
 " Did you see Stocking? " 
 
 "Yes. He said I better go on South 
 for a while. He's mad. He had a horse, 
 and some one took it away from him." 
 
 " Was any one with him? " 
 
 "Yes; a big, black Irishman, all 
 scratched up. Tha's lots of fights in town." 
 
 " Have you any money? " 
 
 " Yes. He gave me enough." 
 
 "Well, Jared, I ought to whale you, 
 but " 
 
 " I guess it's time for me to be moving," 
 said the old man, starting tentatively, and 
 looking about with apprehension. There 
 were perils on every hand. He feared 
 those returning laborers many of whom 
 were noisy now, and all of whom seemed 
 threatening, and quite capable of violence. 
 
 " I ought to give you up to the sheriff." 
 218 
 
<c 
 
 I Will Get Prudy 
 
 " Nice night," said Jared, still a little 
 farther away. 
 
 "But I'll not. You keep out of their 
 way. And, say " 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " Leave all Stockings and fancy saddles 
 alone." 
 
 " And you'll get Prudy? " 
 
 " I will." 
 
 " Looks like rain." 
 
 " Yes, a little." 
 
 "Wind's rising." 
 
 " Some." 
 
 " Good-by." 
 
 " Good-by, Jared." 
 
 The old fellow was shuffling the leaves 
 with his feet, but he turned suddenly, and 
 struck out with a hurried step, his head 
 bowed forward, and a sound very like a 
 sob redeeming some of the seeming which 
 had so long condemned him. 
 
 The men saw him. One or two pointed 
 out his hurrying figure, and their shout 
 added speed to his retreating, 
 is 219 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Let him alone, men," called Dan Bank. 
 " He's my friend." 
 
 " Then, if he's yer fri'nd, let him shtop 
 and have a sup wid us, begorry." 
 
 Scores of them took that up with a 
 shout. They were on all sides of him, and 
 he paused, greatly frightened. But he 
 took the cup of liquor one proffered, and 
 drank with remarkable relish, his eyes in 
 the tree-tops, his shuffling feet in the rust- 
 ling dead leaves. 
 
 "Have some more," cried the men. 
 " Have some more, and sing us a song." 
 
 But Jared shook his head, still avoiding 
 the meeting of human eyes. 
 
 " Let him go, now," said Dan. 
 
 "Lave him go," was the chorused re- 
 joinder. 
 
 And old Jared went into the night and 
 the woods, to a measureless wandering. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 LITTLE PRUDY'S NEW HOME 
 
 PRUDENCE CARUTH knew that her fa- 
 ther was discredited, and that nothing but 
 his trapper cunning had saved him from 
 prison. She was quite certain he was hid- 
 ing over there in the Sand Islands, even 
 when the sheriff's posse came back from 
 searching the place, mad with the sting of 
 his treachery, and furious at his escape. 
 
 And the keenest of her sufferings came 
 when Selim was stolen. That was more 
 than a personal loss. It was a blow at the 
 man she loved, and it added rage to neigh- 
 borhood anger against outlaws. 
 
 Clark Thompson, indeed, was the least 
 self -controlled of any of them. The riding 
 had worn him. The strain of purpose and 
 effort, of fending against surprise, of in- 
 cessant searching, of peril and resolve, the 
 221 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 loss of sleep, and the hope of capture all 
 this had exhausted his reserves of patience 
 and of philosophy. He was irritable to the 
 point of tyranny to his men. And they, 
 who had ridden with him, had come to such 
 discipline as soldiers know, brooking his 
 impatience, and spending themselves ut- 
 terly in his service. 
 
 They would have rebelled against it as 
 domineering at the start. They accepted 
 it without thought of demur at the ending. 
 So that when he questioned Prudence about 
 her father, they strengthened his suspi- 
 cions with their own. 
 
 There was peril for this man who had 
 hoodwinked them; and trouble, too, for 
 those he had hoodwinked. The sheriff 
 rated them fiercely for their clumsiness in 
 letting the prisoner escape; and went in 
 rage and alone after the wanderer. 
 
 They all believed Jared was still in the 
 neighborhood, and planned for his trap- 
 ping, and their own rehabilitation. 
 
 " Prudy knows where he is," said Bill 
 222 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 Anderson. " She ought to be made to 
 tell." 
 
 " If she don't tell, she is as bad as her 
 father." 
 
 " That's it. She's an outlaw just like 
 the rest of them." 
 
 " Let's ketch her some way, and scare 
 her into telling." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 They sat that Saturday evening on the 
 rail of the bridge, and laid their plans for 
 the girl's overcoming. What considera- 
 tion might have moved them once was for- 
 gotten now. The rage of capture, the re- 
 solve on Jared's punishment, were ruling 
 passions ; and all her goodness and gentle- 
 ness, all her sacrifice and trials were as 
 nothing to them. 
 
 She was sadly alone. 
 
 While they rested there, Seth Eeed 
 came to them, leading Selim. To their as- 
 tonished questioning he answered in mys- 
 tery. 
 
 "I got him, and he'll help us catch 
 223 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Prudy. He'll help us make her tell where 
 her father is hiding." 
 
 And they moved silently, in the dark of 
 the evening, against her. 
 
 Never had solitude been so bitter to the 
 girl. The pretense she had built about her 
 was gone. She was face to face with that 
 fate whose coming she had expected, but 
 never confessed, even to herself. All the 
 world knew just what she knew now. 
 
 The loom was her solace, and there she 
 busied herself with work the one consola- 
 tion till the evening was gone. Then she 
 blew out her candle, and was alone in the 
 dark. The woods were all about her ; and 
 all who had been her friends were more 
 perilous than the woods. 
 
 She stood at the little back window, and 
 looked across at the Sand Islands, trying 
 to pierce the shadows of the forest, to trace 
 the path through the lowlands, to picture 
 her father and wish she could wake and 
 find it only one of the old, distressful 
 dreams. 
 
 224 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 There was a movement in the ram- 
 shackle stable. Something of life was 
 within its doors. She looked intently, with 
 growing fear, and saw the outlines of a 
 horse. 
 
 No beast of theirs had ever been quar- 
 tered there. Not only was this not her 
 own, but its presence was calamity con- 
 viction. She flushed with the terror of that 
 discovery, and tried to solve the mystery 
 of it. She could not; and she would not 
 believe her father had placed the animal 
 there. He was quite too clever for that, 
 and he must not be further compromised 
 by an act as mad in its blundering as in its 
 lawlessness. 
 
 Half crying, too frightened to give way 
 to fear, she put on her cloak, tied the plain 
 Quaker hood on her head, and slipped out 
 of the darkened house. She was not accus- 
 tomed to handling horses, as were most of 
 the pioneer girls; and that added to the 
 heroism of her action. Unmindful of peril 
 from men who might be hiding there 
 225 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 yet conscious of that she went in and took 
 hold of the halter. She led out the horse, 
 thinking only of taking him away from her 
 already compromised home, and loosing 
 him. 
 
 But, once outside, she recognized Selim. 
 Seth Reed's plan had been adopted. 
 
 It was impossible for her to be mis- 
 taken; and some thought that this horse 
 was the property of Dan Rank led her to a 
 new resolve. She would take him home. 
 She would not give that colt unsheltered 
 to the highway. He had been stolen away, 
 and she would restore him. Selim laid his 
 nose caressingly against her shoulder 
 and the tears of a needed sympathy were 
 upon her cheeks as she hurried along. 
 
 Less than a hundred yards from her 
 home two men stepped from the fence at 
 the roadside. She looked about, and saw 
 two others behind her. 
 
 She was not fearless. She was a timid 
 girl. But the time for trembling and weep- 
 ing was past. If great days wake power 
 226 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 in men, great need wakes it in women. 
 And she walked unwaveringly: ahead till 
 they; stopped her. 
 
 It was the posse. She knew them, and 
 that fact made them the more dreaded. 
 
 "Caught you, haven't we, Prudy?" 
 asked Seth Reed. 
 
 " Go pretty hard with you," added Bill 
 Anderson. 
 
 "What will we do with her!" asked 
 Abe Ehinehart. 
 
 She found a note of mercy in his tone, 
 and turned toward him; but it was hope- 
 less. 
 
 " Take her to jail, of course," replied 
 Phil Whitesell. 
 
 "Get her father first, and take him 
 along," suggested Anderson. 
 
 "Where is your father, Prudy? " 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Well, you better tell, or we will lock 
 you up for horse-stealing." 
 
 " Where is Jared?" 
 
 She was silent. 
 
 227 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Put lier up," cried Anderson. " Put 
 her on the horse she has stolen." 
 
 " Make her ride right up to jail." 
 
 It was a pretty severe trial to them; 
 yet they would have confessed to no weak 
 pity had the victim been child of their 
 own. 
 
 " Take hold of her arms, and lift her 
 up." 
 
 " Leave me alone," she screamed shrilly 
 as they advanced toward her. 
 
 " You've got to ride that horse to jail, 
 Prudy, unless you tell where Jared is hid- 
 ing." 
 
 " Then I will get up myself. Keep 
 away from me." 
 
 " Well, hurry. But, Prudy, if you will 
 show us where he is, we will let you " 
 
 " I tell you I don't know where he is." 
 
 " This is your last chance." 
 
 She made no reply. She led the colt 
 
 close to the fence, and mounted somewhat 
 
 clumsily. And Selim, frightened at the 
 
 unused burden, or knowing more of the sit- 
 
 228 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 nation than men imagine horses can under- 
 stand, bounded forward, tossed his head, 
 flung his heels, and left a startled, non- 
 plussed quartet behind him. 
 
 They shouted and ran. And the colt 
 ran the faster maybe still frightened; 
 maybe in a paroxysm of laughter at 
 the outwitting head down, breath sup- 
 pressed, and the little hoofs beating a ket- 
 tledrum tattoo from the hard earth of the 
 highway. And poor Prudence, uncertain 
 of the seat, but suddenly glad the peril was 
 of a bodily kind, clung to the mane, and 
 held on. 
 
 It was but a moment, and they were at 
 the yard gate of Absalom Rank's farm; 
 and out of the door came father and moth- 
 er, and ruddy girls, all called by the com- 
 motion in the road, and the running of 
 men. And with them was a tall, young fel- 
 low, in Sunday clothes, with the black 
 slouch hat of the period a young fellow, 
 lank in limb, and angular, with the forward 
 tilt of the body that goes with great 
 229 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 strength, and tireless powers, and which 
 promises length of days. 
 
 Prudence, unused to riding even with 
 a saddle, could do no more than tumble 
 slowly, clutchingly as Selim stopped, as 
 he blew from dilated nostrils a blast of de- 
 fiance and challenge to all posses soever. 
 But before her feet touched the ground the 
 arms of the strong young man were about 
 her. 
 
 " I think I understand," said Dan Rank. 
 " They have tried to make it seem that you 
 stole Selim, and you have brought him 
 home. And now they are after you. Fa- 
 ther, put up the colt." And as he kissed 
 his mother and patted the sisters with 
 the big, brotherly hand, he added : " Pru- 
 dence and I are going. We are going 
 home. We will come back together next 
 time. And if those fellows make any 
 trouble around here, call me, and I'll 
 come and duck the whole posse in the 
 canal." 
 
 They could not follow all of his reason- 
 230 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 ing; and they had been so radiant at his 
 home-coming, so exalted at his good ac- 
 count of himself, so abundantly thankful 
 generally, that the posse found less up- 
 braiding than it deserved when the four 
 panting men gathered at the gate. 
 
 " Where's Prudy? " demanded Bill An- 
 derson. 
 
 " Which of you put my colt into her sta- 
 ble? " demanded Absalom Bank. " Which 
 of you led the others to chase that poor 
 girl that never did a wrong thing in her 
 life? You are a nice lot of neighbors. 
 Ain't you ashamed of yourselves ? " 
 
 They held a little council. It was in- 
 formal enough. They were half dazed at 
 the outcome of their maneuver, and the 
 view that they were themselves breakers 
 of the law they were trying to uphold, 
 brought a new fear. Not one believed the 
 girl had part in any outlawry, though 
 they did believe she could solve the riddle 
 of Jared's hiding; and they were still in- 
 tense in their determination to capture 
 231 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 him, and administer the punishment his 
 offenses and his treachery merited. 
 
 The real groundwork of their reasoning 
 was the sure conclusion of right. They 
 may have erred in their procedure, but that 
 basis justified them. And Bill Anderson, 
 strutting a little to simulate the indigna- 
 tion he could hardly feel, warned Absalom 
 Bank that he was harboring an outlaw, and 
 that he would reap trouble for his pay. 
 But he knew his cause was weak. He 
 wished Clark Thompson was with them. 
 
 Besides, tKe sisters of Dan Rank railed 
 at him for clumsiness ; and ridicule routed 
 where force would have failed. 
 
 Then they went back to the Caruth cab- 
 in, and watched all night and longer for 
 some sign of outlaw father or quick-witted 
 girl. 
 
 As for Dan Eank, he cared little for 
 pursuit. He took the way across the nar- 
 row field to the canal; and beside him 
 walked, in the glow of a great happiness, 
 the woman he loved. For the arm that had 
 232 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 been the solace of her dreams, her hopes in 
 waking hours, was about her now and 
 evermore. She was sure of that. She was 
 sure the door of the old life, with its pain 
 and anxiety beyond the knowledge of most 
 girls, was closed, and would not open 
 again. And the peace of the stars was in 
 her heart, and the joy of the world all 
 about her. 
 
 "Prudy, can you walk to the locks?" 
 asked the young man. " There are plenty 
 of horses in the barn, but people don't want 
 you and me to ride." 
 
 " Yes, I can." 
 
 Walk with him? She would have put 
 no limitation on that companionship, no 
 bounds to the labor she would willingly 
 bear with him. 
 
 They made no effort at concealment, 
 took no measures to avoid being seen. The 
 towpath was a highway for every one, a 
 thoroughfare where all without offense 
 might travel freely. And they walked 
 there. 
 
 233 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 They came to the locks. A packet from 
 the West was rising with the inrushing 
 waters. A packet from the East was 
 awaiting its turn. 
 
 " We will go on board," said Dan. 
 
 The cabin was gay with lights, and 
 noisy with many people. Their destination 
 was near, and some had completed prepa- 
 ration for disembarking. 
 
 At another time Prudence Caruth 
 would have flinched, as any woman might, 
 from the ordeal ; for she was dressed in the 
 simplest of home frocks, with only the gray 
 silk hood of the Quakers framing her pret- 
 ty face. But the young man beside her 
 graceful for once in spite of his long limbs 
 and his abounding strength, graceful be- 
 cause he was dignified with the love of the 
 woman beside him put her at all ease. 
 
 He could not have borne himself more 
 royally had he owned the packet and all 
 its stores. 
 
 They sat there chatting, unmindful of 
 the interested eyes that studied them. Dan 
 234 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 paid the trifle demanded for transporta- 
 tion, and dismissed even the captain with 
 a nod. 
 
 The first lights of the town were visible 
 when a gentle hand was laid upon his 
 shoulder, and a kindly voice said in his 
 ear: 
 
 " Are you running away ! " 
 
 He looked up slowly, gathering for such 
 reply as occasion might demand, equally 
 willing for either friend or opposer. But 
 he met the bright, steady gaze of Mr. Pat- 
 terson, the inspector. 
 
 "Are you running away, Dan? " 
 
 "Yes both of us," he replied. And 
 Prudence, brought into the indictment, 
 joined in the plea of guilty with her smile. 
 
 " Both of us," repeated Dan Bank, mak- 
 ing room on a chair near by for his supe- 
 rior. " And you can do me a favor." 
 
 " I shall be very glad, and " he added 
 quickly, with a perception for which Pru- 
 dence was grateful " so will my wife." 
 
 " Thanks. Then this is Prudence Ca- 
 16 235 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 ruth, Mr. Patterson. I want you to find for 
 me a county clerk and a minister." 
 
 " To-night ? Why not leave her with us, 
 and come after her to-morrow ! " 
 
 " No ; I will keep her from now out," 
 
 If there was embarrassment for the girl 
 in the discussion, however brief, it was ban- 
 ished by the gentle considerateness of the 
 stranger as much as by the tone of her 
 lover. She would never be lonely never 
 be alone again. 
 
 "Will you help me?" 
 
 " Certainly, Dan. When did you leave 
 the work? " 
 
 " At dusk." 
 
 "You have been making pretty good 
 time, haven't you? " 
 
 " Well, I haven't wasted much." 
 
 "Are you interested in Mr. Bank's 
 work, Mrs. Miss Prudence ? " 
 
 She turned her blue eyes full upon him, 
 a twinkle bubbling into them, and absolute 
 truth all about her. 
 
 " I don't even know what he is doing." 
 236 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 For a moment the superintendent was 
 dumb. Then he bowed to Dan Rank. 
 
 " She trusts you amazingly," he said. 
 " I am glad to tell you, Miss Prudence, he 
 will never betray your confidence." 
 
 And his reward was in those twinkling 
 eyes bright with the promise of happy 
 tears. 
 
 "My dear," he added, "Dan Rank is 
 the best foreman on the canal, and he is 
 like to be more. My house is your home 
 till he can place you better, whenever that 
 may be." 
 
 " She will go with me down to the sec- 
 tion," said Dan. " We will fit up that old 
 boat till it will look like a home. I think 
 she will be better contented there." 
 
 " Not to-night. You will stay with us 
 to-night, and go down there in the morn- 
 ing. Let me and my wife arrange it." 
 
 " Very well. Go ahead." 
 
 That was by no means an unknown de- 
 mand to which the county clerk listened. 
 He was easily found ; for though the hour 
 237 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 was late his hours were later. And he 
 dropped a hand of cards in the tavern bar- 
 room, with the chance of winning much, to 
 earn in office the certainty of a fee that was 
 small. And after that it was easy to find a 
 minister; for although the night was old, 
 his heart was young. His habits were 
 primitive, and he was safely in bed ; but he 
 arose, and brought to the wedding his good 
 wife. And the inspector called in two of 
 the canal officials, and their wives came 
 along. They took little Prudence and 
 dressed her hair, and bathed her hands, 
 and kissed her with much encouraging, so 
 that she went to her wedding happily; so 
 that she took her vows proudly. For the 
 good of the whole world and its decorum 
 and its men and women were her friends 
 and her handmaidens. 
 
 After that there was a pretty little sup- 
 per in Mrs. Patterson's dining-room for 
 the embryo city had resources which, when 
 occasion demanded, were ample. So much 
 of Dan's story as he thought prudent, he 
 238 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 told them. The rest they framed from 
 their fancy, and embellished from the 
 wardrobes of romance. And the whole 
 company stood at midnight, and drank to 
 the health of bride and groom the min- 
 ister by no means declining his portion. 
 
 The men on the canal had been left 
 alone more than once; and it was never 
 productive of the best results. Too long 
 oppressed into inaction, too long strangers 
 to self-reliance and initiative, they turned 
 in their new liberty to a frolic view of all 
 life. They were not more contentious than 
 other men, but they found for the first time 
 that all men were equal; and they fought 
 cheerfully, fiercely, but without real anger, 
 because without real care for the result; 
 because resistance was a luxury long de- 
 nied, and now absolutely free. 
 
 They drank somewhat more than they 
 should ; but they paid for it when they de- 
 voted themselves by the thousand to the 
 malaria-cursed employment that no other 
 band of men would have persisted in. 
 239 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 And because of all these things, they 
 were idle unless led. And the bane of that 
 age-old oppression has not passed. Yet 
 they followed farther and more faithfully 
 than any other race that has left its story 
 in the records of men. 
 
 Dan Eank and his bride went on Sun- 
 day to their new home. The canal was not 
 ready, but the river was there, and it bore 
 them and a load of furniture, and some 
 presents to the very door of their odd 
 habitation; for the woods were already 
 warm and soft with the bannering of 
 spring. 
 
 The workmen and their wives watched 
 the boat at the landing, and as Dan Eank 
 stepped ashore a dozen laborers hurried to 
 help him with the parcels. And Pru- 
 dence's first view of them brought the im- 
 pression of kindliness of warm hearts 
 and willing hands for her service. 
 
 She was installed in the curious dwell- 
 ing; and the first hours of her occupancy 
 of that little throne that is prized by all 
 240 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 good women were given to a most diligent 
 season of planning. Spring was here, and 
 the woods and the vines would help her. 
 The dull craft would gather new graces 
 from within and without, and would float 
 such a cargo of riches as it never had borne 
 in all its treasure-laden years. 
 
 Dan Bank went out at noon, and called 
 the men toward him. They came, and their 
 women and the children came along. And 
 Prudence, deep in her dream of beautify- 
 ing, felt both the dignity and the obliga- 
 tion of such a wifehood. 
 
 They had need of her. 
 
 Her husband stood at the plank, and ad- 
 dressed them. 
 
 " Men, I have brought my wife to live 
 with me here. We were married last night. 
 I know you will be good to her." He beck- 
 oned, and she came and stood near him. 
 " There must be no disturbance about the 
 boat-house. I want her to like you as well 
 as I do. That's all only there is a meas- 
 ure of tea in the storeroom for each of 
 241 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 you ; and some meal and some meat. The 
 canal company sends the meat. The tea is 
 my wedding-present and some smoking 
 tobacco. That's all." 
 
 It was near the old fort of Ouiatonon 
 where Frenchmen had flourished a hun- 
 dred years before; where Indians had 
 gathered in throngs; where soldiers and 
 traders had made jubilation in peace and 
 revel at the end of wars. But never had 
 the old trees heard such a shout of greeting 
 as this which welcomed little Prudence to 
 her heritage. 
 
 There is something comprehensible in 
 that language which speaks from the heart 
 unsyllabled; which stirs the unexpressed 
 in the pulses of men. And the soul of the 
 girl understood, and accepted the pledges 
 of greeting and protection accepted them, 
 and yearned for an adequate reply. For in 
 the swell and sincerity of it she forgot the 
 manner of men, the appearance of women. 
 All the ill sights of the crowded slope, the 
 white faces of the sick at the cabin doors 
 242 
 
Little Prudy's New Home 
 
 many sorrowful from yesterday's race and 
 revel the scant clothing, the half -barbar- 
 ous tones it was all washed from her 
 memory with the surging wave of that sen- 
 timent which links all human hearts to- 
 gether. 
 
 243 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE SHERIFF CAPTURED 
 
 CLARK THOMPSON did not find his fu- 
 gitive. 
 
 There was a report that a thin man, no 
 longer young, the worse for the lack of a 
 coat and a " wa'mus," was hurrying across 
 the country north; and he rode after him. 
 He forgot food and rest, and life's limita- 
 tion, till his stout mare staggered and fell. 
 Then he borrowed another, and rode on. 
 There was something like murder burning 
 in his heart. Once he thought he saw Jared 
 stooping and skulking through the woods, 
 and he put away his pistol, for his naked 
 hands were tingling and trembling to stran- 
 gle him. 
 
 It was not Jared ; and when the second 
 horse stumbled on a steep hill, Clark 
 Thompson stopped to consider. 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 He was thirsty, and he kneeled at a 
 brook for a drink. And the ghastly face 
 and bloodshot eyes that looked up at him 
 brought a sharp surprise. 
 
 " I must take care of myself," he said. 
 " Jared is wearing me out." 
 
 The main purpose was not disturbed. 
 Nothing could displace that. He would 
 catch that chief of all culprits, and punish 
 him. This was the one sure thing. But he 
 found he must not waste his wits. That 
 reprobate demanded the best that pursuit 
 could bring. 
 
 He had swept the arc of a circle from 
 the Tippecanoe around to the Wildcat, and 
 was convinced that Jared could not have 
 fled up country at all. More likely he was 
 bound down the valley, and good time was 
 already lost. 
 
 Sunday morning the sheriff took a 
 third horse, and, declining the food which 
 a shrewd farmer offered, hurried straight 
 west toward Lafayette, and the road down 
 the river. 
 
 245 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Time and again he found himself gal- 
 loping along, leaning forward, straining 
 his eyes through the thicket, intent and un- 
 conscious. He would gather his faculties, 
 pull down his horse to a walk, although it 
 was torturingly slow; would find he had 
 passed unobservingly the homes of men 
 who as sheriff and politician he should 
 have hailed, at least. And before he knew 
 it he would be urging the horse forward 
 again. He galloped out on the Plank 
 Eoad, and held straight down the course 
 old Jared had taken. Two miles south it 
 bent to the right, and was cut across in 
 many places by the building canal. Mate- 
 rial was scattered about. Rapid riding 
 was impossible. Yet he must hurry if 
 Jared be overtaken. 
 
 Immigrants loitered at intervals, some 
 going toward town, some unsteady and 
 boisterous, frequently quarreling and oc- 
 casionally fighting passing toward the 
 work. He could understand they might 
 molest and delay him. He was in no sort 
 246 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 of fear of them, but was perfectly con- 
 scious that they could cause him to lose 
 time. He had turned from the channel 
 with the purpose of reaching the Attica 
 road, where he might ride to the full bent 
 of his burning, driving impulse for cap- 
 ture. And just then he saw Doctor Borton 
 picking his way toward home, the stout gig 
 tipping and bounding as it found obstruc- 
 tion, but always righting ; the good physi- 
 cian's body meanwhile tossing and bound- 
 ing, but never losing its seat. 
 
 " Hello, Sh-sheriff," he called between 
 jolts. 
 
 "Hello!" 
 
 " What are you after d-down here ! " 
 
 The sheriff had a crafty thought that he 
 must not mention Jared's name. Even this 
 doctor might be the outlaw's friend. And 
 he said nothing. 
 
 " You look as if you n-needed sleep." 
 
 No reply. 
 
 "Go on d-down there to Dan Kank's 
 house, and t-turn in." 
 24T 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 That roused him. 
 
 "Dan Bank's house?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Is he working on the canal? " 
 
 " Why, yes. He's f-f oreman. He mar- 
 ried Prudence C-Caruth, and he lives down 
 there in a boat-house." 
 
 The gig had not paused in its jolting 
 progress, and it did not pause, even then. 
 The doctor published his news, and drove 
 straight on. 
 
 And the sheriff stopped his horse, ex- 
 cited, and saying to himself: 
 
 " Now, think quick. Do the best thing. 
 YouVe treed your man." 
 
 Half-way to the Attica road he dis- 
 mounted, and turned his horse loose in the 
 woods. He puzzled over that a little. It 
 did not seem right to abandon a horse; 
 but he impatiently dismissed the matter. 
 He must creep up close, and find the 
 boat-house. That monster, that traitor, 
 that Jared Caruth, would be somewhere 
 near. 
 
 248 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 He was going back on foot toward the 
 canal. He heard voices, and crept near, 
 as beasts of prey creep. The victim might 
 be even here. 
 
 No the speech was in the thick brogue 
 of an Irishman. 
 
 But another voice replied, and in the 
 purest English. He went still nearer. 
 
 One was a big, dark man, vehement of 
 utterance, battered of face, and volubly 
 profane. The other was slender, well- 
 dressed, dapper, and graceful. 
 
 The sheriff knew that man. It was 
 David Stocking. He had gone untrapped 
 through the perils of Saturday, and was 
 holding by stealth a conference with the 
 man whose appearance would have sum- 
 moned a mob, and ended his life. 
 
 Clark Thompson crept past them, leav- 
 ing them planning villainy. 
 
 A little farther along was a cabin quite 
 
 away from the canal, in the fringe of the 
 
 woods. An Irishman was sitting in the 
 
 sun at the door, and shivering an Irish- 
 
 249 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 man with the clothing and stains of a la- 
 borer. 
 
 " If I had such clothes," mused the 
 sheriff, "I could get anywhere among 
 them, and watch." 
 
 The thought brought an uplift of hope- 
 ful promise. There was a stir of pride at 
 it. He regarded it as clever. He believed 
 his mind was all right. He had thought 
 out a wise plan. 
 
 " What will you take for your clothes 1 " 
 he asked. 
 
 The Irishman looked up, the blue eyes 
 flashing from a face of pain. The ague was 
 on him, else that question which seemed to 
 convey insult the ridicule of his shabby 
 dress would have bred a conflict right at 
 the threshold of strategy. Clark mistook 
 the cause of hesitation, and missed the 
 menace altogether. Of course the man had 
 no other garments. Gratified anew at the 
 second proof of reasonable processes, he 
 advanced and spoke kindly, employing a 
 cordial tone : 
 
 250 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 " I'll give you a dollar to trade clothes 
 with me." 
 
 The Irishman was sick. He was quak- 
 ing in the grasp of malaria, and the ice of 
 disease was in his veins ; but he knew a bar- 
 gain. He saw that dotted fawnskin vest; 
 and he nodded. 
 
 " Phwere's your dollar ? " 
 
 The sheriff took a bill from his wallet, 
 and tendered it. 
 
 They were alone in the cabin. 
 
 The sheriff came out in the Sunday twi- 
 light, dressed as a laborer, proud of his 
 exploit, intent on his crafty hunt, but dizzy. 
 He could not at all times be sure what it 
 was he meant to do ; and he sat down with 
 the feeling that he would remember pres- 
 ently, and proceed. And there Haley and 
 Stocking found him. 
 
 It was not difficult to recognize him, nor 
 to understand that he was following Jared. 
 It was not difficult to lead him into the 
 deeper woods. The thing became quite a 
 joke to them. 
 
 17 251 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " He's been hurted," said Haley, exam- 
 ining the limp, unresisting officer. 
 
 " His head has gone wrong," said Stock- 
 ing. " That's what broke him down. He 
 don't know whether he is sheriff, or the 
 admiral of the fleet. Do you, Clark! " 
 
 It was true enough; and the man who 
 was become a terror to them made no pro- 
 test, spoke no word. 
 
 Two weeks later court was in session. 
 
 But it adjourned in the middle of a trial 
 one day, for ill news had come. 
 
 A bailiff, leaning from the window to 
 call three times for parties defendant, saw 
 people hurrying to a group of men who 
 were carrying something down at the cor- 
 ner. There were four of them, and the 
 burden between them a burden hidden 
 and covered by a pall of black a bur- 
 den which, like a magnet, drew a throng 
 from the packet landing, drew clerks from 
 the stores, drew crowds from the street. 
 No loud word was uttered. The town 
 was still. But the people knew, even be- 
 252 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 fore the message fell, the presence of dis- 
 aster. 
 
 "What's up!" asked the bailiff, in a 
 work-a-day tone ; and it sounded a discord 
 in the hushed air. 
 
 One, hurrying to retail the news, 
 paused to fling up a reply : 
 
 " They've found the sheriff." 
 
 "Alive?" 
 
 "No. Dead." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "In one of them old cabins that the 
 canalers used to have." 
 
 "Who found him?" 
 
 " Dan Rank, a foreman." 
 
 " How did Clark come to be there 1 " 
 
 " Clark has been there ever since that 
 Sunday after the race." 
 
 " Oh." 
 
 A pause in which fearful fancy was 
 busy. Then the messenger volunteered : 
 
 " They knew him by his clothes that 
 fawnskin vest, and his papers." 
 
 That was all. 
 
 253 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 The bailiff fled back to the court-room, 
 and interrupted a browbeating lawyer, 
 deep in the fire of cross-examination. The 
 bailiff spoke loud and informally; and 
 judge, jury, bar, hangers-on went thunder- 
 ing to the stairway, and poured themselves 
 into the massed crowd that pressed numb, 
 speechless, horrified, viewing IT ! 
 
 As the crowd dissolved from about that 
 body at the street corner, now consigned 
 to official care, to the public's mournful 
 custody, Dan Eank felt the pressure of a 
 tall man against his shoulder, and glanced 
 about to meet the eyes of David Stocking. 
 
 Solemn as was the hour, sad as was the 
 incident which discovery had established, 
 the graceful stranger was humming a bit 
 of a song; and there was a jubilant light 
 on his face which was far from comport- 
 ing with the spirit of the town. 
 
 " Come on. I want to see you," said the 
 sailor. 
 
 They walked slowly. Every one moved 
 slowly; but there was more than the im- 
 254 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 pressiveness of a death in Dan's unhurry- 
 ing step. He had thought a good deal of 
 this David Stocking, this hero who came 
 out of the East; and he could yet see all 
 the charm of that smile, all the winning 
 power of the man's presence. 
 
 But they were not now traveling the 
 same road. 
 
 "Where are you going?" he asked 
 presently. 
 
 " Come down to the tavern." 
 " I don't think there is anything at the 
 tavern that I want," replied Dan Eank. 
 
 " There will be something there in about 
 two minutes that you can not get along 
 without." 
 "What?" 
 
 " Myself. I will be there." 
 " Well, I won't. Then what? " 
 David Stocking met the blue eyes fair- 
 ly and firmly, the smile in his own for an 
 instant ; and then Dan Eank saw the lines 
 harden, and the look change from genial- 
 ity to menace. It was not a frown, nor a 
 255 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 clouded brow. It was simply a change of 
 the man inside a reversal of the temper 
 and purpose in one who was self -controlled. 
 
 " Dan, I offered you a good thing when 
 you first came down here. There is the 
 spot where we stood. Do you remember? 
 It was at night. A freight boat was un- 
 loading here ; and something had happened 
 up-country that night while you were here 
 in town. By the way, there comes the 
 Lewis Cass again. Remember her? " 
 
 But he suddenly dropped that topic, and 
 turned so as to divert Dan's eyes from the 
 packet, just warping to a landing. 
 
 " Well, let me tell you something. Clark 
 Thompson knew you had nothing to do with 
 stealing those colts of Judge Evans. I 
 told him so next day. But do you know 
 where Clark Thompson is now? " 
 
 Dan glanced at the corner windows of 
 the court-house, shading his eyes from the 
 afternoon sun, and shaded more deeply be- 
 cause behind them lay, in rough state, the 
 body he had found. 
 
 256 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 " That's it," pursued Stocking. " The 
 man who could clear you is gone. The peo- 
 ple up in your home neighborhood still 
 class you as an outlaw, and now that every 
 one is telling how you found Clark, they 
 will be down here making you trouble. The 
 people at the tavern do as I tell them. You 
 know that. Now, you don't want to be ar- 
 rested, nor have any disgrace. You are 
 just married. You are fast getting up with 
 the canal people." 
 
 "Well?" The young fellow had fol- 
 lowed the argument, and could pretty near- 
 ly see the end. " Well and then what? " 
 
 " Don't be so stiff. You can make more 
 money by favoring me a little I mean 
 we can both make more money by work- 
 ing together than any one can alone. 
 You outplayed me the day of the race 
 by taking the colt away. But I overlook 
 that." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 The tone was more imperative, and 
 more warning. 
 
 25Y 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "You have the confidence of the com- 
 pany. They have oceans of money. A lit- 
 tle hint from you now and then a word to 
 me you understand " 
 
 "Hold up, Stocking. You can't even 
 talk to me that way. And say: you are 
 making a mistake. You are clever. You 
 could manage good men just as easily as 
 bad men. And, if you want money, you 
 will find good men have more of it than 
 any one else. Say : I liked you at first. I 
 don't like you so well now. You charmed 
 me. You can charm any one, I believe. 
 ,Why don't you quit that crowd at the tav- 
 ern, and try the crowd that suspects the 
 tavern? " 
 
 " Don't preach, Dan." 
 
 " I'm not preaching. But you don't 
 know how a young fellow can like a man 
 of your sort. I never could feel anything 
 but kindness for you, no matter what hap- 
 pened. You can rule men, though you ruin 
 them. Why don't you rule the right kind 
 of men? " 
 
 258 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 " You're going too fast, Dan," was the 
 reply. " You know what I want in this 
 country. Let me tell you I am getting it. 
 You can have money money money, if 
 you do what I want you to. If they arrest 
 you for horse-stealing, and I keep still, you 
 are done for always. Which do you 
 choose 7 " 
 
 "It's which do you choose, Stocking. 
 You are going to need me a heap more 
 than I will need you." 
 
 " Then don't blame me." 
 
 " Blame you 1 For what ? " 
 
 " If you get into trouble." 
 
 " I'll not. Good-by." 
 
 But he was sorry. An idol was shat- 
 tered, and he did not want to see it so. 
 
 Several men were in the office of the 
 canal company. Dan was accustomed to 
 going there whenever in town. The offi- 
 cers were always glad to see him, and he 
 found his work down the canal went for- 
 ward more smoothly when he kept in touch 
 with his superiors. 
 
 259 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 But there was a surprise for him as he 
 stepped into the little room. There sat 
 Bill Anderson, and beside him was Seth 
 Reed. 
 
 " Hello," he cried. 
 
 " Hello, Dan." 
 
 The tone was cheery enough, but Dan 
 caught a curious look in the eyes of both 
 men, and a curious silence in the group. 
 It was not wholly the look and the silence 
 with which men bring accusation. They 
 could not have surprised him much, for he 
 knew what the men of the old neighbor- 
 hood thought of him. At the first it had 
 been an ever-present sorrow a regret 
 which not even hard work could wholly 
 allay. He wanted his home to believe in 
 him all of his home; and that was much 
 more than simply the domicile where his 
 father resided. But later he had felt less 
 concern for their views, because he had 
 been conscious of increasing strength, 
 and of a mightier task for his doing. He 
 was nearing the place where they would 
 260 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 become defenders rather than accusers; 
 and he was more and more willing to 
 wait. 
 
 But there was a bit of embarrass- 
 ment in their own bearing toward him; 
 and it was not the constraint of men 
 disliking to embarrass, to accuse, to ap- 
 prehend. It was the embarrassment of 
 men who felt themselves in the presence 
 of one who had passed them, who was 
 looming large in their view, who had 
 won honors and was able to wear 
 them. 
 
 The young man recognized the attitude, 
 and it helped him to treat them with all 
 cordiality, to shake hands, to ask after 
 the neighborhood news. 
 
 All this time Mr. Patterson and the offi- 
 cers had said nothing. When a lull came 
 the inspector spoke: 
 
 "Dan, these men say you have been 
 regarded as an outlaw." 
 
 He laughed the big, genuine, hearty 
 laugh which is worth fortunes. 
 261 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Why, have I, Bill? " he asked. 
 
 "Well, we just about had to think it, 
 Dan up till the sheriff died." 
 
 " Have you changed your minds 1 " 
 
 "We want to change them, don't we, 
 Seth?" 
 
 " It would be better thataway." 
 
 The greater sorrow that had fallen on 
 all had softened asperities, and yet in that 
 hour no man who had had share in the 
 business which brought the sheriff low 
 must be permitted to escape. 
 
 Mr. Patterson had a bit of paper before 
 him some dates written upon it. 
 
 "They say, Dan, Judge Evans's colts 
 were stolen on the night of March 8th. 
 You were not at home that night, but went 
 back next day, and on the evening of March 
 9th disappeared again. I have accounted 
 for you all the time except the night of 
 March 8th." 
 
 There was precisely what David Stock- 
 ing had foreshadowed. 
 
 Dan did not much care for any threat- 
 262 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 ened peril. He was far too big to fear, now. 
 But he did care for his good name ; and he 
 grew very sure that he must clear up the 
 mystery of that night, so that no man might 
 question. 
 
 He rose, resolved to find David Stock- 
 ing, and compel the truth from him, or 
 punish without more ado the clever 
 stranger in the West. 
 
 " Come with me, boys," he said. " We 
 will be back in a few minutes, Mr. Patter- 
 
 son." 
 
 They passed the packet landing. The 
 Lewis Cass had discharged her passengers, 
 and was lying half neglected. People had 
 lost interest in her, since all that was un- 
 known before was common knowledge now. 
 Suddenly it occurred to Dan Eank that he 
 might find here a man who could help him. 
 A deck-hand was leaning in glowering idle- 
 ness against the tiller-post. Dan looked 
 at him. 
 
 " On your March trip down," he said, 
 "you brought a wrestler a fellow who 
 263 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 said he had thrown every one from here to 
 Toledo." 
 
 " Well, he got flung here," said the boat- 
 man, lazily. 
 
 " Where is he now! " 
 
 " Ashore." 
 
 " Where does he stop! " 
 
 " I don't know. Ask at the tavern." 
 
 "What is his name!" 
 
 " Hain't got no name. Call him Tim." 
 
 " That's the man. I had forgotten his 
 name." 
 
 " I tell you that hain't his name," pro- 
 tested the deck-hand irritably. " That's 
 what we call him." 
 
 " All right. Thanks. Good day." 
 
 They turned and walked rapidly down 
 the long, level way, past the warehouses 
 and the stores to the tavern. 
 
 "I don't think you helped take them 
 horses, Dan," said the little preacher. 
 
 " Well, I don't suppose you do. But I 
 want to make sure no one will think it 
 
 ever." 
 
 264 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 At the tavern door they heard loud 
 voices. 
 
 Some one was accusing another of 
 treachery. Dan led the two countrymen 
 inside. In the center of the room stood 
 David Stocking. Beyond him, facing the 
 newcomers, was Tim, the wrestler. And 
 they were quarreling. 
 
 " Naw, you played off on me," declared 
 Tim angrily, refusing to be mollified by 
 Stocking's suave protestations. "Don't 
 lie, Dave. You got me to bet my money, 
 and you run me ag'in a circus rastler, and 
 he nigh broke my back, and I lost my 
 money." 
 
 " Tim, I tell you I never saw nor heard 
 of him till that day," insisted Stocking. 
 
 " Yes, you did. You played off on me. 
 You got him to jump." Then he stopped, 
 looking past David Stocking, at Dan Eank, 
 and the two. " There he is now dressed 
 up with my money." 
 
 Dan went to them. 
 
 "What's the matter?" he demanded. 
 265 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " You know well enough," was Tim's re- 
 ply. Stocking said nothing at all. He 
 rather enjoyed the completeness of his 
 trapping. 
 
 " Yes, I know, Tim. You think Stock- 
 ing robbed you, and got you thrown, into 
 the bargain. Well, you are wrong about 
 part of it. He never saw me till the day 
 I wrestled with you. These men are farm- 
 ers. They live about the locks. They know 
 I was born and raised there, and never was 
 away from home till I jumped on the Lewis 
 Cass. Isn't that true, men? " 
 
 They both confirmed him. There was 
 no question about them in Tim's mind. 
 The giant canaler was silenced. 
 
 "If Stocking got any of your cash," 
 added Dan, "make him give it up. He 
 never gave me any." 
 
 "Didn't you get the winnings?" de- 
 manded Tim, the light of a new offending 
 in his eyes. 
 
 " Not a penny. I don't wrestle for 
 money." 
 
 266 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 "What for, then?" 
 
 " Because I like it." 
 
 " Well, I ain't that foolish but I guess 
 you are the only one of the kind. If I 
 was as good as you I wouldn't walk on 
 anything but men. And I would have 
 money in every pocket." 
 
 " This is fine," cried Stocking, his ring- 
 ing tone, his laugh, his attitude bespeaking 
 his delight in his own discomfiture. 
 
 " I put up thirty dollars in your hands," 
 cried Tim, whirling on the sailor. " I bet 
 it 'cause you said he was a country- 
 man, and that he had money. Give it 
 up." 
 
 " Certain sure," said Stocking; and he 
 began counting it out. 
 
 " I thought you was a circus rastler," 
 said Tim, with a half-apology to Dan. 
 
 "Well, you were wrong. Now, tell 
 these men where I was that afternoon 
 after I jumped on the Lewis Cass." 
 
 "When the Cass come down in 
 March?" 
 
 18 267 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "Yes. Tell them where I was in the 
 afternoon here in town." 
 
 " You was breaking my back part of 
 the time." 
 
 " In the evening I " 
 
 "Eatin' supper and I couldn't stand 
 up." 
 
 "After that?" 
 
 " Settin' around the stove in this room, 
 while that robber was bawlin' his ' Sing- 
 ho ' songs, and I was groaning on the bar- 
 rels back there in the corner, sick." 
 
 "How late?" 
 
 " Till midnight, anyhow. That's when 
 they carried me up to bed. And I laid there 
 till the boat started back on the up-trip." 
 
 " That's all. Thanks. Are you satis- 
 fied? " This to Anderson and Reed. 
 
 They were abundantly convinced, and 
 they hastened to assure him. He could 
 have had no hand in stealing the four-year- 
 olds. His vindication was complete. 
 
 Quite a crowd had gathered. As he ap- 
 pealed to his neighbors, he saw back of 
 268 
 
The Sheriff Captured 
 
 them, and in the throng, Mr. Patterson, 
 and the president of the canal company. 
 He turned to Tim, now pocketing his 
 money, and already planning the revel 
 which should exhaust both it and him. 
 
 " My friend, you are a good wrestler, 
 and an honest man. Good-by." And they 
 shook hands, cordially. 
 
 " Then, everybody drink," called Stock- 
 ing. 
 
 There was the shout they had all heard 
 the absolution for sin at the tavern, the 
 paean of rough jubilation along the entire 
 canal. It was David Stocking, scorning 
 apology, above denial, master of their ad- 
 miration in spite of confession. 
 
 "Everybody have a drink, and every- 
 body sing." 
 
 He lifted his voice in the strident meas- 
 ure; and the last sound that reached Dan 
 Bank's ears as he hurried up the street 
 with his neighbors now his friends was 
 that ancient song of the sailor: 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "They are racing and chasing afar 
 
 Sing ho 1 
 They are armed like the soldiers in war 
 
 Sing hoi 
 
 But the storm-cloud is gathering over your head, 
 And the horse and the sheriff that rode it are dead, 
 And we're putting the posse all safely abed 
 
 Sing ho 1 " 
 
 " Drink up 
 
 "We're putting the posse all safely abed 
 Sing ho 1 " 
 
 Dan Bank shook hands with Reed and 
 'Anderson at the corner. They were almost 
 abject in their conversion. 
 
 " We will make you right at home," said 
 the preacher and then, because deep feel- 
 ing always sent him to the Scripture, and 
 usually to a text of no possible relevance, 
 he added : " l The Lord will provide.' " 
 
 " Thanks. Good-by." 
 
 270 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE FIRST SHADOW 
 
 SUNDAY evening at the end of May was 
 a time of delight for Dan Eank. 
 
 The ancient freighter, which had been 
 a shabby refuge to him at first, had passed 
 under the magic wand of a happy woman, 
 and was becoming a bower of beauty. Lit- 
 tle Prudence was happy. Her status was 
 established in the old neighborhood, and 
 her heart was at peace. She was making a 
 home. 
 
 She had taken advantage of the broad 
 rail that ran around the vessel just above 
 the deck-line, and had added an upright 
 strip to its outer edge, and filled the trench 
 thus made with rank mold from the for- 
 est. There she had planted seeds of vines 
 and flowers. There she had fixed the roots 
 of wood plants and trailers, the ivy that 
 271 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 wraps old trees to their tops, glistening in 
 green all summer, flaming in scarlet in the 
 autumn. It was a delight to sit there, and 
 talk of the time when the foliage would 
 bend to the task of beautifying the walls 
 of their floating home, or thatching its 
 weather-beaten roof, or framing its little 
 windows till they forgot they were ever 
 blank, staring eyes in a dull, dead face, and 
 would flash twinkling, bewitching gleams 
 into the woodland upon the one side, and 
 out upon the broad river on the other. 
 
 Inside, the transformation was already 
 complete. Beyond a renovation which 
 taxed the energy of kindly, helpful Mrs. 
 Haley, the kitchen remained the same. 
 But that larger room adjoining was white 
 in wall and ceiling ; was carpeted with fab- 
 ric of the girl's own weaving; was hung 
 with fresh flowers from the woods every 
 day, and was fragrant with the aroma 
 which may be had without price, which no 
 money can buy. 
 
 It was a place of comfort, a haven of 
 272 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 rest; cool and silent in the fervid warmth' 
 of summer days, musical with the many 
 voices of the forest, and the never-ceasing 
 undertone of the river's melody at night. 
 It had grown from the four bare walls of 
 Labor's bedroom to the sweetness and 
 sanctity of a bridal chamber. Where phys- 
 ical exhaustion, and the stupor of toil-worn 
 unconsciousness had been its only associa- 
 tions, the gentleness of daytime, the songs 
 of evening, the happy night-dreams of lov- 
 ing hearts became the censer-fragrance of 
 its memories. 
 
 But in that heyday of pleasure their 
 first cloud fell. 
 
 It was just at the end of the work, one 
 day, when Malone, who had been healthy 
 from the start, who had done more work 
 and less fighting than most men, cried out 
 in the suddenness of a surprising pain. 
 
 They went to him, but it was no phase 
 of fever and ague. It was too deadly for 
 that. It was not the dumb pressure of a 
 stubborn lassitude. The man suffered. 
 273 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 "Go get Doctor Borton," commanded 
 Eank. For he cared for his men. " Take 
 a horse, and ride fast." 
 
 Late that night Doctor Borton came 
 down from the cabin to the boat-house, and 
 asked for a cup of coffee. And Mrs. Haley, 
 always ready to serve, lighted the fire to 
 prepare it for him. 
 
 "How's Malone?" asked Dan, turning 
 from his scanning of notes and plans. 
 
 " Pll tell you p-presently." 
 
 For once in his life the doctor gave 
 trouble. 
 
 " Mrs. Haley, I want about four ounces 
 of whisky." 
 
 "Four ounces," sighed the woman. 
 "Have they taken to weighing the 
 stuff!" 
 
 But she supplied him. 
 
 He poured it out in a tumbler, and 
 drank it without winking, though he had 
 never been an intemperate man. 
 
 " Dan," said he, looking into the bottom 
 of the glass as if puzzled at the liquor's 
 274 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 disappearance, "we must l-leave here at 
 once." 
 
 "We must leave?" 
 
 " At once." 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " J-just that. We must get away. Can 
 you g-go to-night ? " 
 
 "This minute, if necessary. But tell 
 me why." 
 
 " N-never mind. That man Malone is 
 dead, and b-buried." 
 
 "And buried?" 
 
 " Yes very deep. There's a steamer 
 coming. Make them give you a line, and 
 tow you up to t-town. You can find a house 
 later. Will you d-do it? " 
 
 " Isn't it just as well to wait till to-mor- 
 row ? " For it seemed to him like desertion. 
 
 " If you don't go to-night, I'll wake up 
 Prudence, and c-carry her off with me 
 n-now." 
 
 " Oh, well, where thou goest with Pru- 
 dence, I will go. I think I understand. 
 Shall I tell her?" 
 
 275 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " No, let her sleep. But for God's sake 
 g-get out a line, and hail that steamb-boat." 
 
 And in the morning, when Prudence 
 waked, stores and warehouses and tall 
 mills had taken the places of trees in her 
 landscape. 
 
 It was a sorrow for her. She had large 
 stock of hope invested in that curious, float- 
 ing home ; and there had been services in 
 hovels of the sick, and the mingling of 
 tears. So that her heartstrings drew her. 
 
 But when Dan Eank and the doctor 
 closed the door of discussion, when she 
 knew the reason that rested on the grave 
 of Malone, she gave up her dreams of para- 
 dise there, and brought paradise with her 
 to a more commonplace home. 
 
 Dan did not sleep at all that first night 
 in town. He worked, figuring out what 
 forces he had in hand, where to attack the 
 still unfinished spaces, how with certainty 
 to bring his task to swift completion. He 
 knew the conditions were ripe for the 
 plague's visitation; and he knew, with a 
 276 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 gathering sense of peril, that when the evil 
 day fell his men would suffer severely. He 
 understood, though the hurrying old doc- 
 tor did not tell him, the menace in Malone's 
 death the significance of that sharp ut- 
 terance : " He is dead, and buried deep ! " 
 
 And it was with the suppressed energy 
 of many men that he went to the offices in 
 the morning. He found the inner door 
 locked. There were some clerks at the 
 desks in the main room, and in the ware- 
 house at the side half-a-dozen laborers were 
 busy handling tools and supplies, the fore- 
 men consulting lists, and sending for arti- 
 cles mentioned in the requisitions. 
 
 One man, in tilting a box, started a 
 mouse, and it ran across the floor to the 
 shelter of some ropes and bagging. Two 
 men gave a playful shout, and ran after it, 
 pushing the articles about, and trying to 
 scare the little animal from cover. An- 
 other joined them, and a third, at some dis- 
 tance, paused with an armful of material, 
 and watched the sport. 
 277 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Dan Eank turned back into the office, ir- 
 ritated at the waste of time. His superiors 
 in control should have been there. He felt 
 impelled with the fever of impatience, im- 
 pressed with the need of all haste. He felt 
 a sense of personal grievance against Mr. 
 Patterson, who had always seemed fired 
 with enthusiasm. He must confer with 
 them, and yet he knew he was needed down 
 at the section. 
 
 He took up a copy of the Free Press, a 
 local paper, for this was publication day, 
 and the pages were wet from the press. 
 
 But it was little he read. He was sure 
 each approaching step was that of the 
 president, or of the inspector, or the pay- 
 master, and the deliberateness of all foot- 
 falls provoked him. Would they never 
 come never realize that they must make 
 such speed as armies need when triumph 
 and defeat are trembling in the balance? 
 Would they waste these hours when every 
 one was precious, when the handful of 
 days was all they might hope for when 
 278 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 the perilous cloud of a pestilence might 
 gather and descend upon them at any time ? 
 
 The shipping columns of the paper 
 seemed to dance in taunting jubilation be- 
 fore him the mocking leaders in a race he 
 had so nearly won ; that he was in such im- 
 minent peril of losing. 
 
 There was a shout from the warehouse. 
 He flung down his paper and stepped to the 
 door. Six men were standing, half-way in 
 errands, their faces aglow with laughter 
 and interest. The seventh had killed the 
 mouse, and was holding it up by the tail. 
 
 "Men," said Dan, stepping into the 
 room, "you are wasting time." He was 
 struggling to speak with great composure. 
 "Hurry!" 
 
 They picked up their tasks, scattering 
 tardily, still regarding that chase and cap- 
 ture as an important incident. Also, they 
 regarded him with accusing eyes. He 
 might be a big man in the company, but his 
 place was out on the line not here in town. 
 And they resented it. 
 2T9 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 One of them made a venture. 
 
 " I hear the Paddies on the canal work 
 night and day." 
 
 A foreman took courage from that, and 
 shouted : 
 
 " Hurry up there, Bill." Then lower : 
 " We'll try to run this warehouse." 
 
 But they all heard it, and they all 
 laughed. Dan Kank walked quietly over to 
 the man, caught him by the collar and flung 
 him through the wide door toward the 
 canal. 
 
 " Don't come back," he said, picking up 
 the list of requisition. Then he turned to 
 the others. " There is a good deal of work 
 to do, men, and there is no time for chas- 
 ing mice. Hurry ! " 
 
 They did silently, and savagely. 
 
 If he had not allowed himself that out- 
 break, he could not have met the presi- 
 dent with the respect he owed. For 
 as he turned back to the door he saw 
 that calm official leisurely approaching, 
 swinging his cane as was his habit, see- 
 280 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 ing every one on the street, and saluting 
 most. 
 
 " How are you, Dan? " he cried cheer- 
 ily; and they clasped hands. " Sit down." 
 
 "I have very little time," was the re- 
 ply. " I have just thrown out one of your 
 foremen from the shed. They were catch- 
 ing mice. Better take him back after I get 
 away. Let me tell you something. One of 
 my men died last night." 
 
 " It isn't the first." 
 
 " I am afraid it will not be the last." 
 
 " Probably not. But there are plenty 
 more." 
 
 The brutality of it was so common at 
 the time that he could pass it without re- 
 senting, though he never shared in it; but 
 the indifference to its significance just now 
 nettled him. He was almost rough in the 
 suddenness of his announcement: 
 
 "I think it is cholera. Ah good 
 morning, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Love." 
 
 "Why! There was only one case at 
 Memphis at the last report." 
 281 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " There is only one case here at last re- 
 port. But one is enough. We must push 
 this work as it never was pushed before." 
 
 " We have plenty of time to finish by 
 September." 
 
 "We have, if nothing happens. We 
 haven't half enough, if something does 
 happen." 
 
 Mr. Patterson was gently but jubilant- 
 ly rubbing his hands. At last the truth 
 was coming home to the officers. 
 
 The president had learned to weigh 
 the statements of this man. He considered 
 a moment: 
 
 "You are right, I suppose. We must 
 make haste." 
 
 "It is a race," added Dan Eank. 
 " There is another thing. The cars are 
 coming. If we fail this year, we lose every- 
 thing. They will start the first day of 
 September, and secure their right of way." 
 
 " Do you really think it is so serious 1 " 
 
 " I am sure of it. I tell you, the cars 
 are coming. And if they beat us, the canal 
 282 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 won't carry a wheelbarrow of goods in a 
 year." 
 
 They had slept well, and had breakfast- 
 ed. They had come leisurely down street, 
 stopping to chat here and there as was the 
 habit of business men in an earlier day; 
 had walked about; had heard of the boat- 
 house down there at the ferry, and had 
 been there for a moment three of a crowd 
 that had viewed the curious craft, with the 
 beginnings of its vines and foliage. They 
 knew now why it had been removed from 
 the camp. They had entered the office 
 much as on other mornings, and had 
 found this young man fired with impulse 
 and energy. He startled them. He star- 
 tled them though it was in the fervid heat 
 of summer. Besides, he had never been 
 wrong. 
 
 They were interested far more than was 
 he. It meant not alone the securing of the 
 fortune at stake here, but the prestige of 
 great achievement by men who must make 
 success their capital. The whole West was 
 19 283 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 ringing with advancing population and 
 there were other worlds to conquer. 
 
 "What do you suggest, Dan? What 
 for immediate action? " 
 
 The president was in his place at the 
 table intent, alert, caught with the con- 
 flagration of nervous activity. 
 
 "First, the massing of every man we 
 can get on this upper section the viaduct 
 over the Wea ; the completion of the canal 
 here ; then the opening and turning in the 
 water." 
 
 " Can we do that before acceptance 1 " 
 
 " We must secure acceptance. And we 
 will have no difficulty. Every village down 
 the valley is mad for the canal. Their bo- 
 nus is ready in cash when we are ready. 
 But they are tired of waiting. We have, 
 besides the money they offer, miles of land ; 
 and if we perfect the title by finishing the 
 canal and turning it over to the State by 
 September, we can race with the railroad 
 at every town in the Wabash. There isn't 
 law enough nor men enough on earth to 
 284 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 take our fortune away from us. But the 
 railroad people have viewers here now. 
 They will have surveyors here by July. 
 ,We must finish by September, or they can 
 run over our land everywhere." 
 
 " Could we get an extension, in case we 
 needed it? " 
 
 " Why should we need it and take the 
 chances I Besides, they are getting strong- 
 er than we, unless we can hold the land. 
 Malone's death is a hint. Now, if the chol- 
 era should come before we are done, we lose 
 everything." 
 
 " Then go ahead, Dan. Count on us to 
 back you." The man was awake and a 
 power. " If you pull us through, you get 
 two per cent, of the cash, or two per cent, 
 of the land, whichever you choose and 
 your salary. Remember that your sal- 
 ary. Now, what do you need?" 
 
 " Get all the men you can. Send them 
 down to me. Fill my requisitions instant- 
 ly, if the men have to work night and day. 
 Hurry!" 
 
 285 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 It was precisely the tone he had em- 
 ployed in addressing the men in the ware- 
 house. But it fell on ears that heard and 
 understood. 
 
 " I am going down to the work," he said. 
 " Good morning." 
 
 " Long life to him ! " cried Mr. Patter- 
 son. "My energy wore out. He seems 
 exhaustless." 
 
 Dan Rank went to the stable and got 
 Selim. He rode rapidly down the valley. 
 There was no more mouse-hunting in the 
 warehouse. At noon the first order for 
 supplies came in; and the president char- 
 tered a flatboat and fought for instant pos- 
 session. He loaded it in a rush that star- 
 tled the town, and launched it the minute 
 its cargo was in place at three o'clock in 
 the morning. 
 
 At night came a message, asking for 
 men; and Mr. Patterson and Mr. Love 
 combed the town and the region round 
 about for laborers. They offered better 
 pay than any one else was giving. They; 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 forwarded food in advance, and tools in 
 abundance. The river gave them an open 
 highway to the point of attack, and they 
 flung their forces wherever that command- 
 er directed. 
 
 The work on his whole section went for- 
 ward bounding. 
 
 But there was a drag farther on. No 
 one else had heard that order, "Hur- 
 ry!" 
 
 Wednesday a man came up from the 
 rock cut at Portland, and strolled into the 
 president's office. 
 
 " We ain't workin'," he said. 
 
 " Why? Where is your boss? " 
 
 "He run. Heard the men was dying 
 just above Terre Haute." 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 " Part of the men quit, too all but the 
 Irish." 
 
 "You are a lot of cowards." 
 
 "We hear your gang on the Wea is 
 dying off, too." 
 
 The president flashed a look across at 
 287 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 Mr. Patterson, and found the superin- 
 tendent white and preoccupied. 
 
 No one said anything for a moment. 
 Then the man from the rock cut rose a lit- 
 tle from his leaning against the railing, 
 and moved toward the door. 
 
 "I just thought Pd drop in and tell 
 you." Then he was gone. 
 
 "Patterson, some one has got to take 
 charge of our whole contract of every 
 gang, and stand right over them, and drive 
 them and drive them till they finish." 
 
 " Have you heard the news from Louis- 
 yille?" 
 
 " Yes, but I regard those reports as ex- 
 aggerated." 
 
 "And from Cairo?" 
 
 "The people are frightened. All it 
 wants is a brave and energetic leader 
 who can go with the men, and rush them. 
 It will pay you well. Will you take 
 it?" 
 
 " Not for a thousand dollars a day." 
 
 "Mr. Love?" 
 
 288 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 " Nor I." 
 
 The paymaster glanced at the door, as 
 if he wished he were through it, and free 
 to fly. 
 
 " Let me suggest something," said he. 
 "I can manage these estimates, and the 
 purchases, and the getting of laborers. 
 But Dan Bank is your manager of men. 
 He is your leader. Did you see him down 
 there at the tavern that day? " 
 
 " But he is a young man and the pay 
 should be better than any of us gets." 
 
 " That may be. But we are all working 
 for the canal. If anything should happen 
 to keep us from getting done by Septem- 
 ber, we have nothing but our salaries. If 
 we get through on contract time, we are 
 all rich men. It isn't a question of bet- 
 ter salary for three months. It is a ques- 
 tion of completing. We all know that. 
 And I know Dan is the man for the 
 place." 
 
 " I like the fellow," said the president. 
 " He has done wonders. And he is a big 
 289 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 man, in spite of his youth. A big man 
 and the making of a bigger. He is com- 
 manding, influential. Yes, I saw him there 
 at the tavern, and he dominates those peo- 
 ple. He controls them, and they like it. 
 iWhat is more to the point, he controls us. 
 .When he comes in here, I feel like a sick 
 man before a doctor. I know I want to 
 get well. He knows the rest ; and I am sat- 
 isfied, doing what he recommends. You 
 know that all of you." 
 
 " He has done more work than a hun- 
 dred men, and saved us more in men and 
 material, and kept better order in that 
 crew of fighters, than any other man on 
 earth could I believe," said Mr. Patter- 
 son. 
 
 " Another thing about him," added Mr. 
 Love. " He keeps them in better health ; 
 and that is a great deal." 
 
 " Nobody else can do it, at any price," 
 
 mused the president, his brow clouded. 
 
 He rose and walked up and down the 
 
 room. Then he went to his desk with the 
 
 290 
 
The First Shadow 
 
 decision which they had learned to re- 
 spect. 
 
 " Gentlemen, with your approval I make 
 Dan Bank general manager." 
 
 They agreed; and the word was hurried 
 down the line. 
 
 291 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 THE CHOLERA! 
 
 As for Dan, he gave himself no rest, 
 night nor day. It seemed afterward, as he 
 tried to remember, that he had slept in the 
 saddle, galloping from point to point, and 
 that Selim had known from instinct where 
 to stop and bring this engine of energy in 
 contact with dallying employees. 
 
 On the first day of June his lower chan- 
 nel was finished. The difficult stretch at 
 Portland kept him two weeks longer, for 
 the rock was troublesome. And just be- 
 yond that, the bed leaked whenever they 
 turned on experimental waters. 
 
 And the day of the fight at Attica the 
 day when the savage demand for a com- 
 pleted canal bore fruit of riot he saw the 
 railroad viewers striding down the valley. 
 292 
 
The Cholera! 
 
 There was a triumphant look on their 
 faces. The new means of transportation 
 had won great prestige in the eastern coun- 
 try. The State, reviving from its ten years 
 of financial distress, was giving all encour- 
 agement. Many wise men were already, 
 skeptical of the canal's possibilities. Above 
 all, they doubted if this work, which had 
 lagged for years, could be rushed to com- 
 pletion in the time specified. And if it 
 failed, the whole magnificent enterprise 
 must fall. 
 
 The sun was sultry, now, and made 
 solid the channel, and the banks held full. 
 Dan Bank was backing the locks, and pack- 
 ing the towpath when June was ended. 
 And only the viaduct over the Wea and 
 that little stretch of earth at Lafayette re- 
 mained between him and the completion of 
 his task. A month would suffice to do all 
 of it. 
 
 Never had there been such a pushing of 
 men, such a tireless driving of work. The 
 title deeds, assurance of compensation, 
 293 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 waited the arrival of the first packet from 
 below. He would win! 
 
 The Fourth of July came, and the men 
 demanded a holiday. He grudged it, but 
 he saw in the temper of them that time 
 would be wasted if he made denial ; and a 
 cessation of work was ordered with ap- 
 pearance of cheerfulness and good-will. 
 They should not know how much one brief 
 day meant for him. 
 
 That day he spent at home at a cozy 
 house he had found; and Little Prudence, 
 with Mrs. Haley's help, prepared for him 
 a famous dinner. The paymaster and the 
 inspector ate with them. And they sat 
 about in the shade of the trees after the 
 feast, drowsily listening through the 
 hours. 
 
 There had been firing of anvils in the 
 early morning, and some farmers had 
 come to town in big wagons, the boys ex- 
 pectant of sights. But at midday the 
 sounds were hushed, and the sun glared 
 on the noiseless city. 
 
 294 
 
The Cholera! 
 
 A terror, impending unnamed, vague 
 hovered continually. 
 
 Somehow, they could not find a topic 
 that interested them. That stillness in the 
 air, that odd absence of any bird song, the 
 dry, burning heat of the afternoon seemed 
 to oppress them. The women had given 
 up song and fancy work the latter a rare 
 surrender. For a long time no one had 
 spoken. They heard distant footsteps. It 
 was curious they should all catch that com- 
 monplace sound. But there was no other. 
 Besides this, it was utterly still. 
 
 The tread was that of a man on the 
 board sidewalk not hurrying. It came 
 nearer, and every one in the little group 
 under the trees, listened and watched, in- 
 tently interested. The hot boards cracked 
 hollow under his tread as if they were 
 laid across graves. He came in sight, and 
 they knew the president. 
 
 His face was white ashy white. His 
 eyes were wide and staring. He did not 
 295 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 look to the right nor to the left, and was 
 startled when they called him. 
 
 Dan Eank observed the man was not 
 carrying his cane. And the fact that he 
 had noted this stuck in his memory al- 
 ways the most trivial thing of the day. 
 
 " Won't you come in? " asked Prudence, 
 leaning forward in her rocking chair. 
 "What is the matter?" 
 
 They had all risen, and were advancing 
 toward him. He moistened his lips nerv- 
 ously, for they had not been parted. Then 
 he spoke, not looking about: 
 
 "Cholera!" 
 
 "What?" cried Dan Eank. 
 
 "Cholera!" 
 
 He swallowed as if with an effort. Then 
 he passed on. Dan overtook him. 
 
 " Are you sick? " he asked, peering into 
 the frightened face. 
 
 " No. Mrs. Walker is dead. The chol- 
 era is here." 
 
 Far back down the street, they heard 
 a child crying far down the street. 
 296 
 
The Cholera! 
 
 " Fm going to see," said Dan Bank. 
 
 When he returned, Mr. Love and Mr. 
 Patterson, with their wives, had gone 
 home. 
 
 " Sit down," said Prudence. " Let me 
 sing to you." 
 
 All the world was silent and motion- 
 less all but a wagon that went muffled 
 over the dusty street to the corner where 
 Mrs. Walker had lived. There it paused, 
 then moved out Main Street, and turned 
 toward the cemetery. And Prudence, sit- 
 ting beside her husband as the hot day 
 burned to a sultry night, sang the old songs 
 over and over the old songs she had sung 
 to the beating of her shuttles in the loom 
 at home. 
 
 " You must finish your canal," she said 
 to him in the morning. " You have no time 
 to lose." 
 
 " I can't leave you." 
 
 "I am not afraid," she said clearly. 
 " I am as safe here as anywhere. You go 
 to the work, for it worries you." 
 297 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Ah, little woman," lie cried, taking her 
 two hands, and pressing them against his 
 cheeks, " there is no work there is noth- 
 ing in all the world, but just you." 
 
 "And I am nothing without my hus- 
 band. Above all, I want him to finish this 
 canal. Ah, how many nights in the old 
 boat-house we have talked of it! How it 
 was woven into your heart, and made a 
 part of your manhood till it is a part of 
 me! I can not have you fail now! You 
 have risen with each demand upon you, 
 from a homeless boy to the greatest man 
 in the work to the only man, I think. Now 
 it must not stop. It must not fail. I do 
 not believe you have come thus far to find 
 defeat. And I am sure you will not leave 
 it unfinished. I am not going to die. The 
 sickness will pass around me. I will be 
 here, dear, when you come back and will 
 love you so will love you so " 
 
 The two hands were loosed, and they 
 clasped his neck, and they drew him down 
 till his arms closed about her, and the fair 
 298 
 
The Cholera! 
 
 head felt from its rest on his breast the 
 steadfast beat of his heart. 
 
 " Good-by," he said. And he did not 
 look back. 
 
 20 299 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS 
 
 THE men at Section Seventeen would 
 not work, and he moved them up to the 
 viaduct. They had been frightened and 
 idle, their tools flung and scattered, their 
 hovels loud with lamentation, or stilled 
 with the stillness of that awful plague. 
 
 Every mile of the canal had its settle- 
 ment; and Death held carnival, day and 
 night. There was nothing to do for them. 
 They were not equipped to fight it. The 
 malaria had depleted their powers, and 
 they simply lay down and died. 
 
 Priests could not minister to a tithe 
 of them. Physicians could not hope even 
 to see them. 
 
 Yet Dan Eank met that fate, and 
 fought it. 
 
 He had men busy on the approaches to 
 300 
 
The Blackness of Darkness 
 
 the stone work at the Wea; and he drew 
 the able-bodied from every mile of the 
 channel, and threw them on the finishing 
 task at Lafayette. 
 
 He spurred them with big wages. He 
 fed them royally. He labored with them, 
 doing more work than five. He rode or 
 walked up and down the levee, seeing the 
 stagger which meant collapse, and sending 
 a fresh man to the place instantly. 
 
 He was the Company with all of its 
 burdens on his shoulders. 
 
 July slipped past, and the first half of 
 August, and he needed just a week to fin- 
 ish. But there was no begging of Time for 
 a day. 
 
 His Irish had done all they could. Odd- 
 ly enough, they were not panic-stricken. 
 They did not run. Indeed, they jested 
 over the matter, calling on the jigger-boss 
 rather oftener than common, and frater- 
 nally berating the freshly stricken even 
 while giving the brief, scant help that was 
 theirs to give. But it was a rope of sand 
 301 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 that bound up his fortunes. He could not 
 make energy wake the response of accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 He went to his home every night, of 
 course ; for they were now just at the edge 
 of the little city. And he found that home 
 as cheerful as in the glorious days. Not 
 a shadow troubled " Little Prudy's " brow. 
 Not a cloud of gloomy apprehension, not a 
 suggestion of the death-arrows that had 
 fallen to the right or to the left of her ; not 
 a mention of the Valley of the Shadow 
 through which she had walked beside some 
 neighbor woman or child. Just the com- 
 fort and encouragement, and the interested 
 questioning of natural times ; and the sing- 
 ing, and the love. 
 
 And, day by day, he went out from it, 
 choking with strange thanksgivings, and 
 picking up his burden that he would not 
 abandon. And every day he saw the wall 
 of Impossibility vastly nearer, and saw no 
 gate that could open to let him through. 
 
 Two men who had been with him from 
 302 
 
The Blackness of Darkness 
 
 the first day were shoveling side by side 
 when the sickness came to them. The part- 
 ner of Driscoll, the laughing, unserious 
 wag of the whole work, stopped to shout a 
 gibe at them then gripped his arms about 
 his body, and sat down. The man who 
 drove the oxen paused in his loading, 
 smiled up at Dan Bank with the white, 
 drawn face of the smitten, called bravely 
 though nervously, and hoarse : " OI'll be 
 goin' on in a minute, sorr." 
 
 It was the end of his resources. 
 
 There were teams and tools, and abun- 
 dant material. There was money without 
 limit at his command. But he could do 
 nothing without men. 
 
 Half-a-dozen, able-bodied, could com- 
 plete it. But his hundreds had melted 
 away till the whole line was deserted. 
 
 It was the blackness of darkness for 
 Dan Bank. 
 
 303 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE RETURN OF JARED 
 
 THE blow fell with appalling sudden- 
 ness on the little city. Its effect was stupe- 
 fying. Doctor Borton took down the slate 
 from his door. He did not pretend to an- 
 swer calls. He simply went as far as they 
 needed him in one direction, then came 
 back, and started anew. He hummed a bit 
 of tune as he worked, always cheerful, al- 
 ways comforting nearly always baffled. 
 
 The second night twenty families 
 slipped out of town by wagon for the North 
 and stopped the third to bury their dead. 
 Stores were deserted. They were not 
 locked, and no one guarded them only 
 one, where black was sold. The owner was 
 gone. When the clerk died, people went 
 in and helped themselves. 
 
 Across the canal, the low houses were 
 304 
 
The Return of Jared 
 
 vacated. Scarlet women and squalid fre- 
 quenters had gone. 
 
 The tavern had one guest a dapper, 
 graceful, sailor-seeming man; and he pro- 
 vided for himself. In broad daylight he 
 went where he would, entering doors of 
 home or business house, carrying away 
 what he chose, aiding no one. And no one 
 took notice of him. There were things of 
 more consequence. A far more perilous 
 power than he was ranging the streets, and 
 entering homes. A mighty Outlaw was 
 suspending all rule. In the presence of 
 that terror, what mattered how this man 
 did? No one challenged any other. 
 
 So he ate in the old hotel, drank little, 
 and rested much and heaps of cash and 
 costly goods accumulated in his room, 
 awaiting time for safe disposal. 
 
 Banging along the levee, from one 
 groggery to another, was a big, dark man, 
 drinking without limit, smashing every- 
 thing to the full bent of a madman uncon- 
 trolled. On the fifth he staggered up 
 305 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 town, eating stale fruit at the groceries, 
 drinking stagnant water, cursing, and de- 
 fying Death. 
 
 Doctor Borton caught him in the even- 
 ing. 
 
 " Haley, you're d-drunk," he said. 
 
 " Dhey're all dhrunk ! Dhey're all 
 afeard! Dhey're all sheared to death," 
 bawled the old foreman. 
 
 " You are afraid of one thing, yours-s- 
 self." 
 
 "Fhwat's dhat!" 
 
 " To bury the d-dead." 
 
 " OPm not." 
 
 And he was not. For a month his were 
 almost the only hands that hollowed the 
 graves, and committed the bodies to their 
 everlasting rest. 
 
 Mr. Love went away, taking his wife 
 as far as Delphi burying her there Sun- 
 day night. 
 
 Mrs. Patterson and Prudence did what 
 they could for the inspector, but he went 
 at daybreak. 
 
 306 
 
The Return of Jared 
 
 Almost every house held a death- 
 chamber. 
 
 The packets did not come. Freight 
 boats stopped running, for there were no 
 men to handle the cargoes. The steamers 
 came up the river, paused in midstream, 
 and sent letters ashore, refusing passen- 
 gers; then dropped down, swung around, 
 and fled with steam and current, freighted 
 with horrors and passing a host of horrors 
 in every town. 
 
 From one of the river boats a thin man 
 stepped into a skiff. 
 
 " Eow yourself ashore, Jared," said the 
 captain. " Give the letters to any one that 
 will take them. I will hold a line, and pull 
 in the skiff." 
 
 The thin man stood on the hot stones 
 of the shelving levee, looking over the 
 queer packages. 
 
 " Here's a letter for you," he said pres- 
 ently, at the door of a silent residence. 
 
 " Oh, my boy my boy is dying," 
 wailed a woman, suddenly from within. 
 307 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Let me see him," chirruped the thin 
 man, genially. 
 
 He went in and lifted the lad, bathed 
 him, put him in cool sheets, amused him 
 with bits of story, with fragments of prom- 
 ise impossible of fulfilment promises of 
 summer joys and winter sports; and went 
 away cheerily. 
 
 He never met the eyes of man nor 
 woman. He shifted uneasily on his feet. 
 But he delivered all the letters. And each 
 time when he found the gruesome visitor 
 he went in and ministered, chatting, prom- 
 ising, cooling, calming wherever he went. 
 
 Day after day, night after night, he 
 came back, always remembering what he 
 had said to man or woman or child ; caring 
 for each without a hint of hesitation ; bring- 
 ing simple food and cooling drink though 
 only God knows where he got them. The 
 doctors encountered him a hundred times, 
 and blessed him. 
 
 The streets were littered with refuse. 
 The sidewalks were cumbered with boxes 
 308 
 
The Return of Jared 
 
 and unmoved goods. The displays at the 
 fronts of stores fell into confusion, and 
 not even the wind disturbed them. The 
 clinging dust covered them, and told of 
 sudden, terrified, unprepared flight. 
 
 The thin man, speeding up Fifth Street, 
 heard a call from the big log jail, and 
 paused to listen. It was a cry for help, 
 and his ears had learned it. He went up 
 the stairway, and into the little entry. The 
 jailer was sitting grimly before the iron 
 door, bent over with the first agony of his 
 illness, his pallid face still resolute through 
 the pain. 
 
 " I kept the outlaws," he groaned. " I 
 didn't run." 
 
 " Take a swallow of this," said his vis- 
 itor cheerily. " It will warm you." 
 
 " You are Jared Caruth ! " cried the 
 jailer. " I must lock you up." 
 
 " Yes, you'll lock me up. That's right. 
 But lie down, and rest a little now. I'll be 
 here whenever you want me." 
 
 "You won't leave, Jared? " 
 309 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " No. I'll stay around. You can lock 
 me up any time. Lay down, and don't 
 worry." 
 
 " I kept them all ten of them," moaned 
 the jailer. " I didn't run." 
 
 Jared took the keys, and a curious long 
 chain, and entered the cell-room. 
 
 "It's Jared!" cried one of the pris- 
 oners. 
 
 " And he's got the keys ! " 
 
 " Yes, I've got the keys." 
 
 "For God's sake, let us out of here. 
 That beast of a jailer keeps us locked up, 
 and there is cholera in town." 
 
 " I know it," cheerfully. 
 
 " Hurry up, Jared. There isn't a min- 
 ute to lose." 
 
 But he was walking about, smelling the 
 place, and finding it singularly clean and 
 healthful. The odor of the plague which 
 he well knew was not even by suggestion 
 lurking here. They were healthy men. 
 
 " Will you unlock the doors ? " 
 
 It was the leader of outlaws. 
 310 
 
The Return of Jared 
 
 " Not yet," chirruped the old man 
 gently. 
 
 " You will or we'll take the keys away 
 from you. Grab him, boys ! " 
 
 " Don't do it," he said, still persua- 
 sively. 
 
 They caught the gleam of a broad- 
 bladed knife in his right hand a broad- 
 bladed knife of uncommon length. He 
 looked at no one, but moved continually. 
 And no one was ever behind him. And 
 outlaw men are afraid of edged tools. 
 They would have dared firearms without 
 hesitation ; but this gliding, crafty old spec- 
 ter, with woundings in his hands, held them 
 in spite of the death at the door. 
 
 "You are all well?" 
 
 " Yes," petulantly. " We are all well 
 now ; but if we don't get out of town, we will 
 all be down with the cholera. Open up, 
 Jared." 
 
 He lifted the chain, with handcuffs 
 forged at intervals, and brought himself 
 suddenly before the leader. 
 311 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 " Left hand, please," he said. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I'm going to take you out." 
 
 " Well, you don't need chain me. I'll 
 go out." 
 
 " Yes but you'll go chained. The left 
 hand." 
 
 " What do you mean, Jared? " 
 
 Before an answer could come, they had 
 penned the old man in a corner. There 
 was menace. The leader snatched at the 
 chain. But old Jared swept that glittering 
 knife in his face, flashed it before the star- 
 tled eyes the startled eyes that looked up 
 to see their former companion transformed. 
 For he was stooped, and near. He moved 
 with incredible swiftness, and the flat blade 
 slapped the lips of the leader. 
 
 " None of that," he commanded. " Left 
 hand ! I'll cut you into half-apples if you 
 don't mind and mind quick." 
 
 And they minded. 
 
 312 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE CANAL COMPLETED 
 
 DAN RANK laid the partner of Driscoll 
 in the shade, and then walked in the calm- 
 ness of desperation to the gap in his un- 
 finished wall alone. 
 
 He had four more days before that fatal 
 first of September. Yet here was a task 
 he could not complete. He looked at the 
 idle teams, at the material which mocked 
 in its abundance, and at the glimmer of 
 waiting water in the upper canal. 
 
 And he looked up from that bad battle- 
 field to see a thin man, not young, coming 
 on nervous feet at the side of a file of cap- 
 tives a file of men whose left hands were 
 locked to a jingling chain, and who trod 
 the hot earth with the vigor of health. 
 
 They were not Irish. They were well 
 313 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 dressed, though their faces lacked the level 
 look of honest workers. 
 
 " The outlaws ! " he shouted. " The out- 
 laws and Jared ! In the name of heaven, 
 man, tell me " 
 
 He could not frame the words. 
 
 " I did not like to leave them in jail," 
 was Caruth's explanation. He was all 
 apology and self-effacement. "And I 
 thought maybe you needed men." 
 
 So Dan set them to work. He made it 
 clear to them that loyalty and industry now 
 meant pardon when the canal was done; 
 and that mutiny or lagging spelled return 
 to jail where the motto of Dante's Infer- 
 no blazed in the sunshine over the doors. 
 They had been working men in their time, 
 and they flung themselves with desperate 
 energy into the task. 
 
 And they finished easily. 
 
 He set them free on the last day of the 
 month at sunset of the last day; and 
 gave them his boat-house, with utensils and 
 stores and his blessing. 
 314 
 
The Canal Completed 
 
 That last evening the sun went down in 
 flaming red, leaving a lurid pathway far up 
 the sky a lurid path that held while the 
 air grew chill, while the rain-clouds came, 
 while the shower broke the awful drought 
 of that black summer, and rumbled away 
 in the cloudy dawn. 
 
 It was the end of the plague. 
 
 And at the very last David Stocking, 
 with a team at the door, went into the twi- 
 light shadows of the old tavern, the de- 
 serted tavern, and groped in the deepening 
 dark for the heaps of plunder he had gath- 
 ered against his going away. And the 
 sickness seized him. He struggled, as they 
 all did at the first shock. Then the stupor 
 came, and he sank unconscious, his arms 
 to the elbows in watches and silks and coin. 
 
 In the noon of the night he waked and 
 saw Haley at the window, his shovel beside 
 him, the clay on his hands. 
 
 "What are you doing?" he gasped, 
 for the agony was on him. 
 
 " Ol'm waitin' f er you. Hurry up ! " 
 21 315 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 JARED ACQUITTED 
 
 THEY came back slowly the people; 
 but they came. Life was resumed in som- 
 berness and sadness for a time, with grow- 
 ing activity as the days went by. 
 
 One man went hurrying back with the 
 thought of a stock abandoned, and found 
 Jared Caruth sitting on the wooden sill of 
 the wide portal, the door behind him closed 
 and locked. 
 
 " I heard at Huntington you were tak- 
 ing care of our stores," he said. 
 
 " Looks like rain," mused Jared cheer- 
 fully. He shuffled his feet as he rose, and 
 glanced at the trees, at the sky, at the 
 shambling figure of a man in laborer's 
 clothes a man who came with difficulty 
 up the street. " I guess I'll be going." 
 
 "I'm looking for you," said a voice 
 316 
 
Jared Acquitted 
 
 from the deeps of the shambling figure. 
 " I've found you, at last." 
 
 "It's the sheriff. It's Clark Thomp- 
 son," cried the merchant returned. " I 
 thought you died." 
 
 " I'm looking for Jared," said the voice 
 again. "I've been sick at the camps in 
 Section Seventeen and every one left me. 
 Who's got my clothes'? " 
 
 " That f awnskin vest was buried in 
 June," said the merchant grimly. " They 
 brought him in from a canaler's cabin 
 and we all thought it was you." 
 
 A little group had gathered about them 
 a little group of both men and women 
 for the city was rousing again. 
 
 " I want Jared," persisted the sheriff. 
 
 " He bathed my boy, and sang to him," 
 said a woman standing by Jared Caruth, 
 and remembering the days that were dark. 
 
 " He brought me letters, and soothing 
 drinks," said a man whose flight had been 
 stopped by the plague. 
 
 "He sat up with my patients, night 
 31T 
 
The Outlaws 
 
 after n-night," said Doctor Borton older 
 by twenty years for the harvest of horrors. 
 
 " Then we'll wipe off old scores," said 
 Clark Thompson, gently. "Jared's ac- 
 quitted!" 
 
 And there was no thought of appeal 
 then, nor evermore. 
 
 The gap in the canal was finished. The 
 water was let in, though but a silent crowd 
 assembled to see the completion of what 
 had been mighty in anticipation, immeas- 
 urable in results. 
 
 The water was turned in, and Dan Bank, 
 with the officers who were left, and some of 
 the State's officials, traversed the whole 
 length of it, and found the work well done. 
 
 It was when they were coming back that 
 Mr. Love called Dan Eank into the cap- 
 tain's little room. 
 
 " You have done your work, Dan, and 
 done it right. The company has paid your 
 salary to the end of the year. It is in the 
 bank there to your credit. Now, they want 
 me to give you a thousand dollars besides 
 318 
 
Jared Acquitted 
 
 what we promised. We realize you did in 
 the awful summer months what saved us 
 what no other man could have done. Now, 
 further than that, will you take two per 
 cent, of the cash we receive, or two per 
 cent, of the land?" 
 
 " I'll take the land." 
 
 So they made the transfer, the com- 
 pany's attorney trembling in apprehension 
 lest this foolish young manager should 
 change his mind. The money was tempt- 
 ing. It was definite, of calculable weight 
 and measure. But Dan Eank knew his por- 
 tion lay here in this valley he and his men 
 had helped the valley whose full, mag- 
 nificent promise he had read while the 
 stars lighted his tired feet to town the 
 valley whose promise he lived to see ful- 
 filled 
 
 " From the wilderness and this Lebanon 
 even unto the great river; and unto the 
 great sea toward the going down of the 
 sun." 
 
 319 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 THERE was an October wedding at 
 Judge Evans's home a wedding at which 
 Clark Thompson and Jane were united, 
 and where little Bill Anderson presided 
 with great solemnity, with a profusion of 
 texts. Solemn Abe Rhinehart was there, 
 and Seth Reed, and Absalom Rank the 
 latter proud of his son whose work and 
 whose worth were the boast of the coun- 
 ty, yet full of a silent charity for those who 
 had misjudged him. 
 
 And Dan was there, with Little Pru- 
 dence, fairer than ever before; and Phil 
 Whitesell who looked once at the bride- 
 groom, and confessed that the day of 
 ghosts had fled. 
 
 THE END 
 
 320 
 
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