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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1905)
iJAs.waba 3 i BP-' fcC" i A ' mnwwvw tSttt!t!!ii!ig!!!gggglgJ3gggggggggggV? Cfe Gentleman Prom Indiana . ;:;:; By 'Booth Tal'rk.ijvgtoj ; . !! I Copyright, 1899. by Houhltday S3L McCturt Co. u IS Copyright. 1902, by McCturt. Vhltttpj ZL Co. WttlliliiiiiAAA.'., t,AJ.AA.......t,.,.r,n ,.,,. (CONTINUED mOM LAST WEEK.) Tho voice wont on rapidly, not heed ing lilm, "All, you needn't howl! Well, laugh iivny. you Indians! If It liadn't been for this nnklo-but It scorns to bo my chest that's hurt-ond side-not Hint It matters, you know. The sopho more's .ut as good or bettor. It's on ly my egotism. Yes, It must he tho side and chest -und head-all over. I believe, ni try again next year next year I'll make It a dally. Helen said, not that I should call you Helen I mean Miss-MKs-Flsbee no. Sherwood-hut I've always thought Helen was the prettiest name In the world you'll forgive meV and please tell Parker there's no more ropy and won't be I wouldn't grind out another stick to save his Immortal she said ah, I never made a good trade no unless they can't eome seven miles but I'll finish you, Sklllett, first; 1 know you! I know nearly all of you. Now let's sing 'Annie Lisle"- He lifted his band as If to beat the time for u chorus. "Oil, John. John!" cried Tom Mere dith, and sobbed outright. "My boy, my hoy old friend!" The cry of the classmate was like that of a mother, for It was his old idol and hero who lay helpless and broken before him. Two pairs of carriage lamps sparkled in front of the hospital In the earliest of the small hours, these subjoined to two deep hooded phaetons, from each of which quickly descended a gentle man with a beard, an air of eminence and a small, ominous black box, and the air of eminence was Justified by the haste with which Meredith had sent for them and by their wide re pute. They arrived almost simulta neously and hastily shook hands as they made their way to the ward down the long hall and up the narrow corri dor. They had a bhort conversation with the surgeon and a word with the nurse, then turned the others out of the room by a practiced innuendo of man ner. They stayed a long time in the Tootn without opening the door. Meredith went out on the steps and breathed the cool night air. A slender taint of drugs hung everywhere about the building, and the almost impercep tible permeation sickened him. It was deadly, he thought. To him it was im bued with a hideous portent of suffer ing. The lights In the little ward were turned up, and they seemed to shine from a chamber of horrors, while lie waited as a brother might have waited outside the Inquisition, if indeed a brother would have been allowed to wait outside the inquisition. Alas, he had found .lohn ITarkless. Ho had lost track of him as men some times do lose track of their best be loved, but It had always been a com fort to know that Harkless was some where, a comfort without which lie could hardly have got along. Like oth ers, he had been waiting for John to turn up on top. of course ho hnd such thillty, ability for anything, and people would always eare for him and believe In lilm so that he would be shoved Ahead no matter how much he hung back himself; but Meredith had not txpectcd him to turn up in Indiana. He remembered now hearing a man who had spent the day In Hnttvlllo on business speak of him: "They've got n young fellow down there who'll bo gov ernor in a few years. He's a sort of dictator. Buns the party all over that part of the state to suit his own sweet will just by sheer personality. And there isn't a man in the district who wouldn't cheerfully lie down in tho mud to let him pnss ovpr dry. It's that joung Harkless, you know. Owns the Herald, the paper that downed Mo Cune and smashed those Imitation White Caps' In Carlow county." He had been struck by the coincidence of tho name, but he had not dreamed that the Carlow Harkless was Ids friend until Helen's telegram had reached him that evening. He shivered. Ills name was spoken from within, and Horner enme out on tho steps with the two eminent sur geons, and the latter favored him with a few words which lie did not under Itand. He did understand, however, what Horner told him. Somehow the look of the sheriff's Sunday coat, wrin kling forlornly from his broad, bent shoulders, was both touching and sol emn. He said simply: "He's conscious and not out of ids head. They're gone In to git his anteinortem statement." And they re-entered the ward. Harkless' eyes were bandaged. The Inwyer was speaking to him, and as Horner went awkwardly toward the cot Warren said something Indicative of tho sheriff's presence, and tho hand on the sheet made a formless motion which Horner understood, and he took t,lt,,1.,,............-.t.J..t-.-J............ ... J the pale lingers In his own very gent ly and then set them back. .Smith turned toward Meredith, but the latter made a gesture which forbade the at torney to speak to him and went to n comer and sat down, with his head in his hands. A sleepy young man had been brought in, and he opened a notebook and shook a stylographle pen so that the ink might How freely. The law yer, briefly and with rulegal agitation, administered an oath, and then there wus silence. "Now, Mr. Harkless, If you please," said Barrett Insinuatingly, "If you feel like telling us as much as you can about it." He answered in n low, rather Indis tinct voice very deliberately, pausing before almost every word. It was easy work for the sleepy stenographer. "1 understand. I don't want to go off my head again before I llnlsh. If It were only for myself I should tell you nothing, because If I am to leave I should like It better if no one were punished. Hut that's a bad communi ty over there. They are everlastingly worrying our people. They've always been a bother to us, and It's time it was stopped for good. I don't believe very much in punishment, but you can't do a great deal of reforming with the Crossroaders unless you catch them young, before they're weaned. They wean them on whisky, you know. 1 realize you needn't have sworn me for me to tell you this." Horner and Smith had started at the mention of the Crossroads, but they subdued their ejaculations, while Mr. Barrett looked as if he had known it. of course. The room was still, save for the dim voice and the soft trail Bcriblngs of the stylographle pen. "I left Judge Hriscoe's and went west on the pike to a big tree. It rained, and I stepped under the tree for shel ter. There was a man on the other side of the fence Hob Sklllett. He was carrying Ids gown and hood I suppose It was that on his arm. Then I saw two others n little farther east in the middle or the road. I think they had followed me from tho Bris coos' or near there. They had their foolish regalia on. as nil the others had. There was plenty of lightning to see. The two In the road were sim ply standing there in the rain looking at me through tho eyeholes In their masks. 1 knew there were others plenty but 1 thought they were com ing from behind me the west. "I wanted to get home -the court house yard was good enough for me so I started east toward town. I pass ed the two geiitlenien, and one Tell down as I went by him, but the other fired a shot as a signal, and I got his hood on' his face for it. 1 stopped long enough, and It was Force John son. I know him well. Then I ran, and they followed. A little ahead of me I saw six or eight of them spread across the road. I knew I'd have a time getting through, so I Jumped the fence to cut across the fields. I lit In a swarm of them. It had rained them Just where I Jumped. 1 set my back to the fence, but one of the fellows In the road leaned over and smashed my head In. rather with the butt of a gun, I iMdleve. I enmo out from the fence, and they made n little circle around me. No one said anything. I saw they had ropes and saplings, and I didn't want that exactly, so I went In to them. I got n good many masks off before it was over, and I can swear to quite a number besides those I told you." He named the men slowly and care fully. Then he went on: "I think they Rave up tho notion of whipping. Wo all got into n bunch, and they couldn't - ,.nminiayMfe" -'nwjr'' " fct clear to shoot without hitting some of their own, and there wan a lot of gouging and kicking. One fellow near ly got my left eye, and I tried to tear him npart, and he screamed a good deal. Once or twice I thought I might get away, but somebody hammered me over the head and face again, and I got dizzy, and then they all Jumped away from me suddenly, and Hob Sklllett stepped up and ant" shot me. He waited for a Hurry of lightning, and 1 was slow tumbling down. Some one else fired a shotgun, I think, 1 can't be sure, about he same time from the fide. I tried to get up, but 1 couldn't, and then they got together for a con saltation. The man 1 had hurl 1 didn't recognize him came and looked at inc. He was nursing himself all over and groaned, and I laughed, I think; at any rate my arm was lying stretched out on the grass, and he stamped his heel Into my hand, and after a little of that I quit feeling. "I'm not quite clear about what hap pened afterward. They went away not far, 1 think. There's an old shed, a cuttle shelter, near there, and I think the storm drove them under It to wait for a slack. It seemed a long time. Sometimes I was conscious, sometimes I wasn't. I thought I might be drowned, but 1 suppose the rain was good for me. Then I remember being In motion, being dragged and carried a long way. They carried me up a steep ' short slope and set me down near the top. 1 knew that was the railroad em bankment, and I thought they meant to lay me across the track, but It didn't occur to thcui-Uicy are not familiar with melodrama and a long time after that I felt and heard a great banging and rattling under me and all about me, and It came to me that they had disposed of mo by hoisting me into an empty freight ear. The odd part of it was that the car wasn't empty, for there were two men already in It, and I knew them by what they said to me. "They were the two shell men that cheated Hartley Bowlder, and they weren't vindictive. They even seemed to be trying to help me a little, though perhaps they were only stealing my clothes, and maybe they thought for them to do -inything unpleasant would be superfluous. I could see that they thought I was done for and that they had been hiding In the ear when 1 was put there. I asked them to try to call the trainmen for me, but they wouldn't listen or else I couldn't make myself mi derstood. That's all. The rest Is a blur. I haven't known anything more until those surgeons were here. Dense tell me how long ago it happened. I shall not die, I think. There are a good many! things I want to know about." He moved restlessly, and the nurse soothed him. Meredith rose and left the room with a noiseless step. He went out to the stars again and looked to them to check the storm of rage and sorrow that buf feted ills bosom. He understood lynch lug, now the thing was home to lilm. and his feeling was no inspiration of a fear lest the law miscarry. It was the itch to get his own hand on the rope. Horner came out presently and whis pered a long, broad, profound curse upon the men of the Crossroads, and Meredith's gratitude to him was keen. Barrett went away soon after, and Meredith had a strange, unreasonable desire to kick Barrett, possibly for hh sergeant's sake. Warren Smith sat In the ward with the nurse and (lay, and the room was very quiet. It was a long vigil. They were only waiting. At ." o'clock he was still alive- Just that, Smith came out to say. Meredith sent a telegram to Helen which would give I'lattvllle the news that Harklesi was found and was not yet gone from them. Horner left for the station hi catch a train. There were things foi him to do In Carlow. At noon Meredith sent a second telegram to Helen as bar ren of detail as the first. lie was alive; was a little improved. But tills tele gram did not reach her, for she was on the way to Itouen, and half of the pop ulation of Carlow- at least so it socmen to the unhappy conductor of the accom modation was with her. They seemed to feel that they could camp in the hospital halls and corri dors, and they were an incalculable worry to the authorities. More canio on every train, and nearly all brought flowers and Jelly and chickens for pro- bd mi hack to the encc." 1 n a53?MKw? MP ' I HI paring broth, and they initiated that tho two latter delicacies be fed to tho pn-1 ticnt ot once. They wcro still in Ig norance of the truth about tho Cross roads and spent the day (It was Sum day) partly In getting In the way ot tho attendants and partly In planning an assault upon the llouen Jail for tho purpose of lynching Slattery in ease" Harkless' condition did not Improve nt once. Those who laid heard Ida state nient kept close mouths until the story appeared In full In the Itouen papers ou Monday morning. Hut by that tlmo h'ory member of tho Crossroads White Dups was lodged In the llouen Jail with Blattery. Horner and a heavily armed posse rode over to the muddy corners on Sunday night, and the sheriff dis covered that he might have taken the Sklllotts and Johnsons single handed ind unarmed. Their nerve was gone, rhey were shaken and afraid, and, to Binploy a figure somewhat Inappropri ate to their sullen, glad surrender, they fell upon his neck In their relief at Qndlng the law touching them. They had no wish to hear "John Brown's' lody" again. They wanted to get In )de of a strong Jail and to throw them selves on the mercy of (he court as soon as possible. And those whom Harkless had not recognized made no delay In giving themselves up. They did not wish to remain In Six Crossroads. Bob Sklllett, Force Johnson ami one or two others needed the care of a physician badly, and one man was suffering from a severely wrenched back. Hor ner had a train stopped at a crossing o that his prisoners need not be taken through riattvllle, and he brought them all safely to Itouen. It took nearly a week to persuade the people of I'lattvllle that It was better for them to go home, and It was only the (Hiiilldeuee Inspired by the manner of the two eminent surgeons (they lay In wail at all hours to interview these gentlemen) that did persuade them to return- this and the promise of two dally bulletins. As many of them said on their re turn, I'lattvllle didn't "feel like the same place," and a strange thing had happened-for the first lime In five years the Carlow County Herald missed lire ultogcthcr. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday passed. Mr. Flsbee only sat staring out of the dingy olllce win dows with Barker In a demented si lence. There was no Herald; there was no one to get It out. In the Itouen hospital John Harkless feebly moved on his bed of pain. Ills constant delusion was that the uni verse was a vast, white heated brass bell ami he a point tit tho center of It, listening, listening for years, to the brazen hum it gave olt and burning in hot waves of sound. Finally he came to what he would have considered a lucid Interval had It not appeared that Helen Sherwood was whispering to Tom Meredith at tin; fool of his bed. This he knew to be a fictitious presentation of ids fever, for was she not by this time away and away for foreign lands? And also Tom Meredith was a slim yourfg thing and not a middle aged youth with an un deniable stomach and a baldlsh head who by the preposterous necromancy of fever assumed a grotesque likeness of his old friend. He waved his hand to the figures, and they vanished like figments of a dream; but, all the same, the vision had been realistic enough for the lady to look exquisitely pretty. No one could help wishing to stay In a world which contained as charming a picture as that. But the next night Meredith waited near his bedside, haggard and dishev eled, Harkless had been lying In a long stupor. Suddenly he spoke, quite loudly, and the young surgeon, (lay, who leaned over lilm, remembered the words and the tone all his life. "A was and away across the wa ters," said John Harkless. "She was here once In June." "What Is It, JohnV" whispered Mere dith huskily. "You're feeling easier, aren't you V And John smiled a little, as If, for the moment, he saw' and knew his old friend again. That same night n friend of Rodney Mediae's sent a telegram from Itouen: "He Is dying. His paper In dead. Your name goes before convention In September." i i i i CHABTHH XL B. BOSS SCHOFIELD wns en gaged In decorating the bat tered chairs in the Herald edi torial room with blue satin ribbon, the purchase of which at the Dry floods Emporium hail been direct ed by a sudden Inspiration of Ids supe rior, Mr. l'arker of the composing force. It was Boss' Intention to gar nish each chair with an elaborately tied bow, but as he was no sailor and understood only the Intricacies of a hard knot he confined himself to Unit species of ornamentation, leaving, how ever, very long ends of ribbon hanging 1s...... . !,.. li. mniiniil' nf Hill tlollltlllllH ' of rosettes. Mr. Schoficld was alone at his labor, his two confreres having be taken themselves to the station to meet the train from Itouen. I It was a wet, gray day. The wldo country lay dripping under formless ' wraps of thin mist, and the warm, driz zling rain blackened the weather beat en shingles of the station, made clear reflecting puddles on the unevenly worn planks of the platform and damp ened the pjicklng cases too thoroughly M ?tH-U for occupation by tho station lounger. Tho bus driver, Mr. Bennett, and tho proprietors of two attendnnt "cut tin ders" and three or four other worthies whom business or the lack of It called to that locality nvallcd themselves of the shelter of the waiting room, but tho gentlemen of the Herald were too agi tated to be confined save by the limits of the horizon. They hud reached the station half an hour before train time and consumed' the Interval In pacing the platform un-1 dor a big eottnn umbrella, addressing each other only In monosyllables. Those in the waiting room gossiped eagerly and for the thousandth time about tho Into events and particularly about the tremendous news of Flsbee. Judd Bet nett looked out through the rainy door way at the latter with reverence and n flue pride of towtismunshlp. He C clnrcd It to tie his belief that Flsbee and Parker were waiting for her now. For all Carlow knew why Flsbee hud gone to meet the strange lady nt tho station when she had come to visit' the Hrlscoes. why he had come with lier to the lecture, why he had taken upper at the Hrlscoes' three times and dinner twice when she was there. Fls bee had told the story to Barker on a melancholy afternoon as they sat to gether In the Herald olllce, and Barker bad told the town. It was simple enough Indeed, and Flshee's past was mystery no longer, it might have been revealed years before had there been anything In particular to reveal and If It had ever occurred to Flsbee to talk of himself mid his affairs. Things had a habit of not occurring to Flsbee. Mr. Barker, very nervous himself, felt his compniduu'M elbow trembling against his own as the great engine, reeking in the mist and sending great clouds of white vapor up to the sky, swooped down the track, rushed by them and came to a standstill beyond the platform. Flsbee and the foreman made haste to the nearest vestibule and were gazing blankly at Its burred approaches when they heard a silvery laugh behind them and an exclamation. "Upstairs and downstairs and In my ludy'H chamber! Just behind yon, dear!" Turning quickly, tho foreman behold a blushing mid smiling little vision, a vision with light brown hair, u vision enveloped In a light brown ruin cloak and with brown gloves from which the bundles of a big brown traveling bng were let fall as the vision dis appeared under the cotton umbrella, while the smitten Judd Bennett reeled gasping against the station. "nearest," the girl cried to tho old man, "you should liavu been looking for me between the devil and the deep sea, the parlor car and the smoker! I've given up cigars, and I've begun to study economy, so I didn't come on either!" The drizzle and mist blew in under the top of the "cut under" as they drove rapidly Into town, and bright lit tle drops sparkled on tho fair hnlr above the new editor's forehead and on tho long lashes above the now editor's cheeks. Sim shook these transient gems off lightly as she paused in tho doorway of the olllce at the top of tho rickety stairway. Mr. Sehotleld had Just added the last touch to his decorations and managed to slide Into his coat us the party came up the stairs, and now, perspiring, proud, embarrassed, ho assumed an at Utude at once deprecatory of his en deavors and pointedly expectant of commendations for the results. (Ho was a modest youth and a conscious. After his first sight of her as she stood In the doorway It was several days be fore he could lift his distressed eyes under the new editor's glanco or, In deed, dure to avail himself of inoro than a hasty and tlultciing stnre nt her when her buck wus turned.) As she entered the room ho sidled nlong tho wall and laughed sheepishly at nothing. Every chair In the room was orna mented with one of his blue rosettes, Ued carefully and firmly to the middle slat of each chair back. There had been several yards of ribbon left over, and there wus u hard knot of glossy satin on each of the inkstands and on the doorknobs. A blue band passing around the "tovepipe lent it an antique raklshnesK suggestive of tho charioteer, and a number of streamers suspended from a hook In tho ceiling encouraged a supposition that the employees ot tho Herald were contemplating tho In tricate festivities of May day. It need ed no ghost to infer that these garni tures had not embellished tho editorial chamber during Mr. Harkless activity, but, on the contrary, had been put In pluco that very morning. Mr. Fisbeo had not known of the decorutlons, und as his eye fell upon them a faint look of pain passed over his brow. But tho girl examined the room with a dancing eye, and there woro both tours und laughter in her heart. "How beautiful!" she cried. "How beautiful!" She crossed the room and gave her hand to Boss. "It la Mr. Schoficld, isn't it? The ribbons aro delightful. I didn't know Mr. nark less' room was so pretty.." (to ii k continued.) That Settle's It. When a Colorado pund stone walk is laid that settltH it. Sue OvoriiiR Bnw, & Co. for priees. ,m jT"1". 1 1'4 U !t w r