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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1908)
LAMEF(LM BY KATE AND VIRGIL coovQGnr er a c Mcujr?c uco. 907 -cr ' her knees, sat on the doorstop, thoughtfully staring out Into the still darkness. There was a stir. "Hedtime, little girl," said Willis ton. "Just a minute more, daddy. Must we have a light? Think how the mosquitoes will swarm. Let's go to bed In the dark." "VVt will shut the door, and next summer, little girl, you shall have your screens. I promise that, always providing, of course, Jesse Mack leaves 113 alone." Had it not been so dark, Mary could have seen the wistful smile on the thin scholarly face. Hut though she could not see it, she knew it was there. There had been fairer hopes and more generous promises in the past few years. They had all gone the dreary way of Impotent striving, of bitter disappointment. There was little need of light fcr Mary to read her father's thoughts. "Sure, daddy," she answered, cheer ily. "And I'll see that you don't for get. As for Jesse Black, he wouldn't dare with the Three Bars on his trail. Well, if you must have a light, you must," rising and stretching her firm fleshed young arms far over her head. "You can't forget you were born in civilization, can you, daddy? I am sure I could be your man in the dark, if you'd let me, and I always turn your night-shirt right side out before hanging it on your bedpost, and your eheet and spread are turned down, and water right at hand. You funny, funny little father, who can't go to bed in the dark." She was rummaging around a shelf in search of matches. "Now, I have forgotten long since that I wasn't born on the plains. It wouldn't hurt me if I had misplaced my nightdress. I've done it," with a gay little laugh. He must be cheered up at all costs, this buffeted and disap pointed but fine-minded, high-strung and lovable father of hers. "And I haven't taken my hair down nights since oh, since months ago, till oh, well so you see it's easy enough for me to go to bed in the dark." Her hand touched the match box at last. A light flared out. "Shut the door quick, dad," she said, lighting the lamp on the table. "The skeeters'U eat us alive." Williston stepped to the door. Just a moment he stood there in the door way, the light streaming out into the night, tall, thoughtful, no weakling in spite of many failures and many mis takes. A TaTr mark lie made, outlined against the brightly lighted room. It was quiet. Not even a coyote shrilled. And while he stood there looking up at the calm stars, a sudden sharp re port rang out and the sacred peace of God, written in the serenity of still summer nights, was desecrated. Hiss ing and ominous, the bullet sang past Williston's head, perilously near, and lodged in the opposite wall.- At that moment the light was blown out. A great presence of mind had come to Mary in the time of imminent dan ger." "Good, my dear!" cried Williston, in low tencs. Quick as a flash the door was slammed shut and bolted just as a second shot fell foul of it. "Oh, my father:" cried Mary, grop ing her way to his side. "Hush, my dear! They missed me clean. Don't lose your nerve. Mary. They won't find it so easy after all." There had been no third shot. A profound silence followed the second report. There was no sound of horse or n:an. Whence, then, the shots? One man, maybe, creeping up like come foul beast of prey to strike in the dark. Was he still lurking near, abiding another opportunity? It took but a moment for Williston to have the lifles cocked and ready. Mary took her own from him with a hand that trembled ever so sligthly. "What will you do, father?" she asked, holding her rifle lovingly and thanking God in a swift, unformed thought for every rattlesnake or other noxious creature whose life she had put out while doing her raan work of riding the range work which had giv en her not only a man's courage, but a man's skill as well. "Take the back window, girl," he answered briefly. -I'll take the front. Stand to the side. Get used to the starlight and shoot every shadow you see, especially if it moves. Keep track of your shots, don't waste an effort and don't let anything creep up on you. They mustn't get near enough to fire the house." His voice was sharp and incisive. The drifting habit had fallen from him and he was his own master again. Several heavy minutes dragged away without movement, without sound from without. The ticking of the clock pressed on strained ears like ghastly bell-tolling. Their eyes be came accustomed to the darkness, and by the dim starlight they were able to distinguish the outlines of the cattle sheds, still, empty, black. Nothing moved out there. "I think they're frightened off." said Mary at last, breathing more freely. "They were probably just one, or they'd not have left. He knew he missed you, or he would not have fired again. Do you think it was Jesse?" A - J Mil D. BOYLES "Jesse would not have missed." he said, grimly. ' At that moment a new sound broke the stillness, the whinny of a horse. Reinforcements had approached with in the shadow of the cattle-sheds. Something moved out there at last. "Daddy!" called Mary, in a choked whisper. "Come here they are down at the sheds." Williston stepped to the back win dow quickly. "Change places," he said briefly. "Daddy!" "Yes?" "Keep up your nerve," she breathed between great heart-pumps. "Surely! Do you the same, little comrade, and shoot to kill." There was a savage note in his last words. For himself, it did not matter so much, but Mary he pinned no false faith in any thought of possible chivalrous intent on the part of the raiders to exempt his daughter from the grim fate that awaited him. He had to deal with a desperate man; there would be no clemency in this desperate man's retaliation. To his quickened hearing came the sound of stealthy creeping. Some thing moved directly in front of him, but some distance away. "Shoot every shadow you see, especially if it moves," were the fighting orders, and his was the third shot of that night. "Hell! I've got it in the leg!" cried a rough voice full of intense anger and pain, and there were sounds of a precipitate retreat. Out under protection of the long row of low-built sheds other orders were being tersely given and silently received. "Now, men, I'll shoot the first man of you who blubbers when he's hit. D'ye hear? There have been breaks enough in this affair already. I don't intend for that petticoat man and his pulin' petticoat kid in there to get any satisfaction out o this at all. Hear me?" There was no response. None was needed. Some shots found harmless lodg ment in the outer walls of the shanty. They were the result of an unavailing attempt to pick the window whence Williston's shot had come. Mary could not keep back a little womanish gasp of nervous dread. "Grip your nerve, Mary," said her father. "That's nothing shooting from down there. Just lie low and they can do nothing. Only watch, child, watch! They must not creep up on us. Oh, for a moon!" She did grip her nerve, and her hand ceased its trembling. In the darkness her eyes were big and solemn. Sometime, to-morrow, the re action would come, but to-night "Yes, father, keep up your o.wn nerve," she said in a brave little voice that made the man catch his breath. Again the heavy minutes dragged away. At each of the two windows crouched a tense figure, brain alert, eyes in iron control. It was a fright ful strain, this waiting game. Could one be sure nothing had escaped one's vigilance? Starlight was deceptive, and one's eyes must needs shift to keep the mastery over their Tittle horizon. It might well be that some one of those ghostly and hidden sen tinels patrolling the lonely homestead had wormed himself past staring eye balls, crawling, crawling, crawling; it might well be that at any moment a sudden light flaring up from some corner would tell the tale of the end. Now and then could be heard the soft thud of a hoof as some one rode to execute an order. Occasionally, something moved out by the sheds. Such movement, if discernible from the house, was sure to be followed on the instant by a quick, sharp remon strance from Williston's rifle. How long could it last? Would his nerve wear away with the night? Could he keep his will dominant? If so, he must drag his mind resolutely away from that nerve-racking, still, and un seen creeping, creeping, creeping, nearer and nearer. How the stillness weighed upon him, and still his mind dwelt upon that sinuous, fiat-bellied creeping, crawling, worming! God, it was awful! He fought it desperately. He knew he was lost if he could not stop thinking about it. The sweat came out in big beads on his forehead, on his body; he prickled with the heat of the effort. Then it left him the awful horror left him curiously cold, but steady of nerve and with a will of iron and eyes, cat's eyes, for their seeing in the dark. Now that he was calm once more, he let himself weigh the chances of succor. They were pitifully remote. The Lazy S was situated in a lonely stretch of prairie land far from any direct trail. True, it lay between Kemah, the county seat, and the Three Bars ranch, but it was a good . half mile from the straight routs. Even so, it was a late hour for any one to be passing by. It was not a traveled trail except for the boys of the Three Bars, and they were known to be great home-stayers and little given to spreeing. As for the rustlers, if rustlers they were, they had no fear of interruption by the officers of the law, who held their - - places by virtue of the insolent and arbitrary will of Jesse Black and his brotherhood, and were now carousing in Kemah by virtue of the hush-money j put up by this same secret tribunal, j "Watch, child, watch!" he said again, without in the least shift inr; his I 1ens position. "Surely!" responded Mary, quite steadily. Now was her time come. Dark, sinister figures flitted from tree to tree. At first she could not be sure, it was so heartlessly dark, but there was movement it was different from that terrible blank quiet which she had hitherto ben gazing upon till her eyes burned and pricked as witlf needle points, and visionary things swam be fore them. She winked rapidly to dispel the unreal and floating things, opened wide her long lashed lids, fixed them, and fired. Then Williston knew that his "little girl," his one ewe lamb, all that was left to him of a full and gracious past, must go through what he had gone through, all that nameless horror and expectant dread, and his heart cried out at the unholy injustice of it all. He dared not go to her, dared not desert his post for an instant. If one got within the shadow of the walls all was lost. Mary's challenge was met with a rather hot return fire. It was probably given to inspire the besieged with a due respect for the attackers' num bers. Bullets pattered around the out side walls like hailstones, one even whizzed through the window perilous ly near the girl's Intent young face. Silence came back to the night. There was no more movement. Yet down there at the spring something, maybe one of those dark, gaunt cot tonwoods, held death death for her and death for her father. A stream of icy coldness struck across her heart. She found herself calculating in delib eration which tree it was that held this thing death. The biggest one, shadowing the spring, helping to keep the pool sweet and cool where Paul Langford had galloped his horse that day when ah! if Paul Langford would only come now! A wild, girlish hope flashed up in her heart. Langford would come had he not sworn it to her father? Had he not given his hand as a pledge? It means something to shake hands in the cattle country. He was big and brave and true. When he came these awful, creeping terrors would disperse grim shadows that must steal away when morning comes. When he came she could put her rifle in his big, confident hands, lie down on the floor and cry. She wanted to cry oh, how she did want to cry. Cold reason came back to her aid and dissipated the weak and womanish longing to give way to tears. There was a pathetic droop to her mouth, a long, quivering, sob bing sigh, and she buried her wom an's weakness right deeply and stamped upon it. How utterly wild and foolish her brief hope had been! Langford and all his men were sound in sleep long ago. How could he know? were the ruffians out there men to tell? Ah, no! There was no one to know. It would all happen in the dark In awful loneliness, and there would be no one to know until it was all over to-morrow, maybe, or next week, who could tell? They were off the main trail, few people ever sought them out. There would be no one to know. As her strained sight stared out in to the darkness it was borne to her intuitively, it may be, that something was creeping up on her. She could see nothing and yet knew it to be true. Every fiber of her being tingled with the certainty of it. It was com ing closer and closer. She felt it like an actual presence. Her eyes shifted here, there swept her half-circle searchingly stared and stared. Still nothing moved. And yet the nearness of some unseen thing grew more and more palpable. If she could not see it soon she must scream aloud. She breathed in little quickened gasps. Soon, very soon, she would scream. Ah! A shadow down by the biggest cottonwood! It bodly sought a nearer and a smaller trunk. Another slink ing shadow glided behind the vacated position. It was a ghastly presenta tion of "pussy-wants-a-corner" played in nightmare. But at last it was something tangible something to do away with that frightful sensation of They Were Covered on the Instant. that crawling, creeping, twisting worming, insinuating nearer and nearer, so near now that it beat upon unseen presence. She pressed her finger to the trigger to shoot at the tangible shadows and dispel that enveloping, choking, blanket horror, when God knows what stayed the action of her fingers C-u;.i it Instinct, what you will, her hand was stayed even before her physical eye was caught and held by a blot darker still than the night, over to her right, farth est from the spring. It lay perfectly still. It came to her, the wily plan, with startling clearness. The blot was waiting for her to fire futilely at grinning shadows among the trees and, under cover of her engrossed at tention insinuate its treacherous body the farther forward. Then the play would go merrily on till the end. She turned the barrel of her rifle slowly and deliberately away from the mov ing shapes among the cottonwood clump, sighted truly the motionless blur to her right and fired, once, twice, three times. The completeness of the surprise seemed to inspire the attackers with a hellish fury. They returned the fire rapidly and at will, remaining under cover the while. Shrinking low at her window, her eyes glued on the still black mass out yonder, Mary wonder ed if it were dead. She prayed pas sionately that it might be, and yet it is a dreadful thing to kill. Once more the wild firing ceased. Mary re sponded once or twice just to keep the deadly chill from returning if that were possible. Under cover of the desperadoes' fire, at obtuse angles with the first attempt, a second blot began its tor tuous twisting. It accomplished a space, stopped; pulled itself its length, stopped, waited, watchful eyes on the window whence came Mary's scatter ed firing still into the clump of trees. They had drawn her close regard at last. Would it hold out? Forward again, crawling flat on the ground, ever advancing, slowly, very slowly, but also very surely, creeping, creep ing, creeping, now stopping, now creeping, stopping, creeping. All . at once the gun play began again, sharp, quick, from the spring, from the sheds. The blot lay perfect ly still for a moment waiting, watch ing. The plucky little rifle was silent. But so it had been before. Quarter length, half, whole length, cautiously with frequent stops, eyes so steely, so intent could it be possible that this gun was really silenced out of the race? It would not do to trust too much. The blot waited, scarcely breathed, crept forward again. A sudden bright light flashed up through the darkness under the unpro tected wall to Mary's left. Almost simultaneously a kindred light sprang into being "from the region of the cattle-sheds. The men down there had been waiting for this signal. It meant that for some reason the second effort to creep up unobserved to fire the house had been successful. The flare grew and spread. It became a glare. When the whole cabin seemed to be in flames save the door the dry, rude boarding had caught and burned like paper when the heat had become un bearable. Williston held out his hand to his daughter, silently. As silently she put her hand, her left hand, in his; nor did Williston notice that it was her left, nor how limply her right arm hung to her side. In the glare, her face shone colorless, but her dark eyes were stars. Her head was held high. With firm step, Williston ad vanced to the door. Deliberately he unbarred it, as deliberately threw it open and stepped over the threshold. They were covered on the instant by four rifles. "Drop your guns!" called the chief, roughly. Then the desperadoes moved up. "I take it that I am the one wanted," said Williston. His voice was calm and scholarly once more. In the uselessness of further struggle, it had lost the sharp incisiveness that had been the call to action. If one must die it is good to die after a brave fight. One is never a coward then. Williston's face wore an almost exalted look. "My daughter is free to go?" he asked, his first words having met with no response. Better, much bet ter, for the make of a man like Willis ton to die in the dignity of silence, but far Mary's sake he parleyed. . . . II T . 1 1 1 ,1 i guess not: responueu cue icauer, curtly. "If a pulin' idiot hadn't missed the bread side of you as pretty a mark this side heaven as man could want then we might talk about the girl. She's showed up too damned much like a man now to let her loose." His big, shuffling form lounged in his saddle. He raised his rifle with every appearance of lazy indifference. They were to be shot down where they stood, now, right on the thres hold of their burning homestead. Wil liston bowed his head to the inevit able for a moment; then raised it proudly to meet the inevitable. A rifle shot rang out startlingly clear. At the very moment the lead er's hawk eye had swept the sight, his rifle arm had twitched uncertainly, then fallen nerveless to his side, while his bullet, playing a faltering and discordant second to the first true shot, tore up the ground in front of him and swerved harmlessly to one side. Instantly the wildest confusion reigned shouts, curses, the plunging of horses mingled with the sharp scrack of fire-arms. The shooting was wild. The surprise was too com plete for the outlaws to recover at once. They had heard no sound of ap proaching hoof-beats. The roaring flames licking up the dry timber and rendering the surrounding darkness the blacker for the contrast had been of saving grace to the besiegers after all. In a moment the desperadoes ral lied. They closed in and imposed a cursing, malignant wall between the rescuers and the blazing door of the shanty and what stood and lay before it. Mary had sunk down at her father's feet and had no cognizance of the fierce though brief conflict that en- Eilmwood From the leatlur-Kclio. A son was born to Mr. anil Mrs. John Swartzman Wednesday, April 1st. A sou was born to Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Kemke, residing' west of M unlock, on Saturday, March 2.S. A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Miller, residing four miles south and a miles east of Elmwood, yesterday. Mrs. Munn, of Plattsmouth, came out Saturday for an over Sunday visit with her daughter, who is staying at the John Weichel home near AIvo. The oldest son of Henry Frisbee, who has been seriously ill with typhoid fever, suffered a severe hemorrhage Saturday and at present writing is in a very serious condition. Kirk Cunningham got the first finger of his left hand in the way of a couple of barrels of salt when they bumped together Tuesday, and now he is nurs ing a painful and badly mashed finger. Next week L. F. Uhley expects to commence the carpenter work on Frank Buell's new house, four miles north and a half mile west of Elmwood. The house will be 32x34, two stories high with finish attic, two large porches and all up-to-date improvements. When completed it will be one of the finest farm residences in Cass county. Miss Edith Mullin, who recently graduated as a nurse from the Ne braska orthopedic hospital departed Tuesday for New York City, where she will take a post graduate course in Bellevue hospital, one of the most celebrated hospitals in the country, to further fit herself for a professional career. Her father and neice, Miss Marjorie Stark, accompanied her to Lincoln Monday. $100 Reward SIOO The reders of this paper will be pleased to learn that there is at least one dreaded disease that science has been able to cure in all stages, and that is Catarrh. Hall's Catarrh Cure is the only positive cure now known to the medical fraternity. Catarrh being a constitutional disease, requires a con stitutional treatment. Hall's Catarrh Cure is taken internrlly, acting directly upon the blood and mucous surfaces of of the system, thereby destroying the foundation of the disease, ond giving the patient strength by building up the constitution and assisting nature ir doing its work. The proprietors have so much faith in its curative powers that they offer One Hundred Dollars for any case it fails to cure. Send for a list of testimonials. Address F.J. Cheney & Co., Tole, O. Sold by all Druggists, 75c. Take Hall's Family Pillc for C3nstipatior. Union From the LedKer Born To Herny Duclos and wife' a girl, who came to live with them last Thursday. Miss Florence Davis was a guest of her May Larson in Plattsmouth last Saturday and Sunday. Mahlon Applegate's genial phiz made its appearance here again on Wednes day, as he came in that day from Villisca, Iowa. Len S. Austin arrived Wednesday night from Wymore to visit his brother, Gabe, who has been very sick the past week. Roy Upton's lame eye had him down and out of business for a few days and a physician had to be called to relieve the pain. He was able to appear in public Tuesday. Mrs. Claud Everett had as guests Sunday her mother, Mrs. Grimes, of Plattsmouth, her son, Frank Smith, of Plattsmouth, and her brother, Chas. Grimes of Fort Worth, Texas. A. II. Austin has been a very sick man the past week, confined to his bed with an attack of fever and stomach trouble. He is now improving, but not yet able to be out of the house. At the April term of the Federal court at Lincoln, which convenes on the 14th, John Bramblet, Will Cross and Dan Lynn will have to serve as jurors or furnish some almighty good ex cuses. Tabor Spratlin, a former citizen of this county, who has been out on the Pacific coast several years, arrived here Monday from the state of Wash ington, and will visit some time in this county and in Omaha. Chas. Morton with six car of cattle, and Abe Becker and Lute Hall with four cars of cattle and hogs, went to the Kansas City market last Saturday night. This is perhaps the largest ship ment of stock made at one time from any point in this county. Charles Garrison and wife and Mrs. Dean Austin went down to Burlington Junction, Mo., last week. Mr. Garri son returned home Sunday, but the two ladies remained here to try the ef fects of the treatment at tne sani tarium. Whooping Cough Ihave used Chmaerlain's Cough Rem edy in my family in cases of whooping cough, and want to tell you that it is the best medicine I have evei used. W. F. Gaston, Posco, Ga. This remedy is For sale by F. C. Prick e Louisville f rom t Ik; Courier Born to Mr. and Mrs. Emery Steele, March 25, a girl. Uncle George Schoernari caino up from I'lattsmouth Thursday evening for a few day's visit with his Louis ville friends. Miss Ora Watson, who has spent the winter here with Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Phelps, returned to her home at Coals, Neb., last Saturday. "Grandma" Boedeker has been lying very near death's door for the past week or ten days, but at time of going to press was resting easier. Oscar and Arthur Palmer, Bert Jacobson, Otto Petersen and Miss Beth Maxfield came down from Lincoln last Saturday to spend a week's vacation at their home. Fred Diers, sr.. and wife and H. J. Tangeman and wife left Wednesday for Ulysses to visit with relatives. Mr. and Mrs. Diers expects to remain for an extended visit. The Louisville Public Library is steadily increasing in the. number of its patrons. Since January 1, 190S, the librarian has let out 520 books, and with this increasing demand it will be necessary to increse the number of volums in the near future. Charley Bryant has the thanks of the Courier for a fine mess of new onions. Charley has converted the right-of-way near the junction of the Burlington and Missouri Pacific roads into a neat and well kept lawn with flowers of every variety in profusion. Further back he has his garden patch, where he raises all vegetables needed for his table. A number of years ago Mr. Bryant lost his right arm, but anyone who will take the trouble to visit him at the semaphore will agree with the Courier that there are many men possessing two strong arms who do not accom plish half as much as our friend, Mr. Bryant. Nehwka (From the l:flslr. ) A daughter of the reported weight of twelve pounds was born to Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Duclos last Friday morning. Herman Stoll was in town Wednes day and had with him a bird, said to be a crane, which he killed on the creek near his home. Mr. and Mrs. Nick Opp are grand parents to a little boy baby born to Mr. and Mrs. Claude Ausmus March 12, at Swift Current, Satchkewan, Canada. Mr. D. C. West and Mrs. J. M. Pal mer went to Oskaloosa, Iowa, Saturday evening to be present with Mrs. West, who was operated on Tuesday morn ing. Mrs. D. C. West, who was operated on last Tuesday, stood the operation fairly well, but, of course, is not out of danger. Her many friends hope for a speedy recovery. Mrs. Pankonin of Perkins county, tl i 5 state, and Mrs. Goehry, of Mur- dock, visited with their sisitujr, Mrs. Garber on Monday. Mrs. Pankonin left Tuesday morning for Westfield, Wis., where she expects to make her future home. Norman C. DelesDernier and family went to Elmwood Sunday and with other relatives and friends f,ave a sur prise to Mrs. John Drecmir, Mrs. DelesDernier's mother, on her sixty sixth birthday. A very pleasant time was had and many presents were given ti Grandma to help her remember the day. We forgot to mention in last week's issue that Wes. Magney and family, had returned home from California, where they spent the winter. Wes. is much improved in health and says if he gets to feeling badly he known where to go to get relief. He brought home a lot of oranges that were ripe when picked and say we would like to have the pleasure of picking some if they are as good as the one he gave us. IF NOT WHY NOT NOW ? GET CURED Average Time to Cure. RUPTURE HYDROCELE . VARICOEELE. CATARACTS.. IMPOTENCY. . STRICTURE. . . GLEET CANCER CATARRH One Visit One Visit One visit 3 to 10 Days 5 to 10 Days 5 to 30 Days 5 to 30 Days 5 to 30 Days 10 to 30 Days CO to 90 Days GOITER. Piles, Fistula 3 to 5 Days Losses, Drains, etc 5 to 30 Days Liquor Habit 10 to 30 Days Prostatic Troubles 10 to 30 Days Rheumatism, Gout 10 to 30 Days Stomach Diseases 20 to CO Days Kidney Diseases 20 to 60 Days Bladder Diseases 20 to GO Days Blood Poison, etc 60 to 90 Days We advertise what we do, and do what we advertise. No incurables taken. NO KNIFE, BLOOD OR PAIN. Examinations freo to all who write for Appointment Card Now. THE GERMAN SPECIALISTS, SECOND FLOOR 522 Broadway, - - Council Bluffs, la. safe and sure. & Co.