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Show 'p V t ' i window of the carriage and then drew In his bead, sank back Into bis seat with a sigh and began to review the events of the last few days. Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown! And he had to break this, as well as all that went before It, to those two women at home. A grew some THE FATAL REQUEST ORHrrlFOUND OUT rrlnd,"tc. By A. L. Vdppri'gkt. C ; ' I Author of Mlno Own Familiar isaj, 6s ViimII YuHishiuf I i I , fill, CHAPTER XI. Continued. Know me? Of course he doei! was the reply. "Didn't I buy him of e drunken old Irish woman, and mend hts broken leg for him? And do you think hes going to forget that, though he la only a duck? ' They remained pacing up and down the garden paths until it was quite dusk; the doctor persistently conversing on cheerful subjects, and refusing to allow the conversation to take a morbid turn. At nine o'clock supper was served, sonsistlng of boiled fowl and sausages. "You'll take a leg and a wing and a hit of the breast? said the hospitable little man, as he piled his visitor's plate. Youve got a trying fay before you CHAPTER XII. The Other Passenger. The Inquiry into the death of Mr. Silas Bnrrltt was held at tho Wheat-hea- f, In the long, low room usually dedicated to the flowing bowl and the promotion of social Intercourse. The same routine having been observed as on that previous occasion, Dr. Jeremiah Cartwright was called to prove the finding of the body its position, appearance and subsequent removal to the vestry of the old church, and his examination of the remains resulting In the discovery pf a wound, with two orifices, showing that the bullet which had caused It had traversed the head completely. Other scientific evidence followed, which Is suppressed. Mr. Kdwsrd Burrltt was then ealled, and went through the form of Identifying the deceased as his father, Mr. Silas Burrltt, merchant, of Timber Lane, City, aged 60. lie entirely negatived the theory ' of stating that his father, to his certain knowledge, had not only never possessed anything In the shape of fire- - t I r m I C ! 4 I I THE GIRL AT THE? THALFWAY HOUSE Cttarigkfd, task! thing about either of them that helped to fix his attention upon them, he answered that the taller and thinner of the two though they were both of them tall and wellgrowed seemed uncommon pertlckler about picking out a carriage to his mind. He noticed him looking Into several before he fixed upon that Identical compartment; and when be had, he beckons to him (the guard) and says, Look here! he says, me and my friend, we dont want nobody else getting In here. We want this here carriage to ourselves till we get to London. Take this,' he says, and don't you let nobody else In whatever.' So 1 says All right, sir and locks the door, and thinks to myself, Anybody would think ss It was a couple of Instead of two elderly honey-mooner- s gents.' Could be Identify the body of the gentleman who had been shot as the companion of the other?" He both could and would; except that there had been a sort of a smile on his face then and he looked very different now. In fact, he had struck him (the guard) in spite of the tip which the other party gave him as being by far the agreeabler and most pleaumtrspoken gentleman of the two; and he had been most uncommon sorry that he had, on recognising the body, because, you see, he bad quite made up his mind that he had escaped as well as the other one. Being asked to explain himself, said he didnt see much what there was to explain. Wbat he meant was that he thought that if one gent got off scot free, the other might have done the same. What did he mean by the other having got off scot tree, and what was his authority for speaking as he , did?" Why, it was simple enough. Being In the rear of the train, he was conscious of nothing until be found himself thrown violently on the floor. nffUntwa Having arrived, we wave scented kerchiefs between as and the thought of such a beginning of our prosperity. Having lost touch of the earth, having lost sight of the sky, we opine there could have been small augur in a land where each man found Joy In an earth and sky which to him seemed his own. There were those who knew that Joy and who foresaw its passing, yet they were happy. lff. ti Well, so muck the worse for the man who had been the cause of it all. So much the worse for him when the day came for reckoning up accounts; the day that would see him in the criminals dock; the day that would place a noose round his neck. And the young man felt that that would be a day well worth waiting for, even though it might be Indefinitely prolonged. But he would never restand never give up, until he had helped to bring Jt about; for It seemed to him that revenge would be Incomplete and robbed of half Its sweetness unless it were his foot that helped to dog the murderer and his hand that helped to hurry him to a felon's doom. Oh, yes, he must be an agent. If not the chief, at any rate an Important one. He hoped among his fathers letters and papers contained in a sealed packet, which he carried about bis person to come upon something which might help to set his feet In D. Atthttm Ntm Ytri CHAPTER VllContlnued. he was the guiding mind in the afFranklin bad small notion of Curlys fairs of the odd partnership which locality, but he heard hla voice, half now sprang between him and his taunting and half encouraging, and friend. Batterslelgh would have lived calling on his pluck as he saw some till autumn in his tent, but Franklin hope of a successful Issue, he resolved saw that the need of a house was Imto ride It out If It lay within him so mediate. He took counsel of Curly, to da He was well on with his reso- the cowboy, who proved guardian and lution when he heard another voice, benefactor. Curly forthwith produced a workman, a giant Mexican, a which he recognised clearly. Good boy, Ned, cried out this moso, who had followed voice heartily, though likewise from the cow bands from the far Southsome locality yet vague. the west, and who had hung about Curly's dlvll to a finish, me boy! Git up his own place as a sort of menial, bound head, Ned! Git up his head! The to do unquestionably whatever Curly murderin, haythln brute! Kill him! bade. This curious being, a very coRide him out! lossus of strength, was found to be And ride him out Franklin did, per- possessed of a certain knowledge In haps as much by good fortune as by building houses after the fashion of skill, though none but a shrewd horse- that land that Is to say, of sods and man would have hoped to do this earthen unbaked bricks and since feat. Hurt and Jarred, he yet kept under hJt master's direction be was upright, and at last he did get the not less serviceable than docile, it horses head up and saw the wild per- yras not eng before the claim of formance close as quickly as It had Battersle h was adorned with a comthe right track. Then the thought struck him, if he begun. The pony ceased his grunt- fortable juse fit for either winter or could find that letter! The one that ing and fell Into a stiff trot, with little summer aabitatlon. Even In the first year the settler came less than a week ago! If It had to indicate his hidden pyrotechnic not been destroyed! And why should quality. Franklin whirled him around of the new West was able to make It have been? Unless and he. re- and rode up to where Batterslelgh his living. He killed off the buffalo and Curly had now Joined. He was a swiftly, but be killed them In numcalled that, at the time, distasteful albers so desperately large that their lusion of Dr. Cartwrights unless bit pale, but he pulled himself togeththere were, something compromising er well before he reached them and bones lay in uncounted tons all over a desolated empire. First the hides demounted with a good front of in It! Batterslelgh grasped his and then the bones of the buffalo gave But he rejected the Idea now, as be had then. No doubt he would be hand In both his own and greeted him the settler his hold upon the land, able to find the letter. It was most with a shower of welcomes and of which perhaps he could not else have him won. Curly slapped probable that it was Included among compliments. Franklin saw many wagons coming those other papers which 'were even heartily upon the shoulders. Youre all right, pardner, said and unloading their cargoes of now In his possession. he. Youre the d dest best pil bleached bones at the side of the Meanwhile, at Magnolia Lodge, the ever struck this place, an railroad tracks.- There was a market days had dragged heavily along. Mrs.' grim that Burrltt having once taken to her bed I kin lick ary man that says dlffernt for all this back in that country which had conceived this road across the yore horse, now, shore. (a recumbent position being looked HesAnd how do God bless desert. Franklin put out a wagon at Ned? do, ye as most her the upon by proper and ye ! - said Batterslelgh a moment later, this industry, hauling in the fuel and becoming one in which to encounter after the merchandise of the raw plains. He things had become more affliction) immediately upon receipt Im glad to see ye; glad as bought the grim product of others who of the sad tidings had not since sufflvver I was In all me life to see a liv- were ready to sell and go out the eariciently recovered herself to leave It Grief, she said, "always had in soul! Why didnt ye tell ye was lier again. again. Meantime the little town added a peculiar effect upon her spine, and cornin', and not come rldin like a she didn't know whether It was the murderln Cintaur but ay, boy, yere building after building along Its strag blinds being down, or the sight of her widows cap, but she couldn't help feeling that she was not long for tills world. Anyhow, they must not grieve, but be sure and bury her by the side of their dear father. All this could scarcely be said to add to her daughter's spirits, only, there was so much to be done, that she had, fortunately, little time in which to Indulge in morbid reflections on her own behalf. There were letters to be written, dressmakers to be Interviewed, and a host of other things, which must be done whether the housu, lm .ieeWT joy or mourning. t seven on It was about Tuesday evening when .she heard the sound of wheels. She hastened Into the ball and met her brother. The first glance showed her the alteration that 'had taken place In him. He half-witte- CHAPTER IX. The New Movers. Far away, across the wide gray plain, appeared a tiny dot, apparently an unimportant fixture of the An hour earlier It might not have been observed at all by even the keenest eye, and It would have needed yet more time to assure an observer even now that the dof was a moving object Presently an occasional puff of dust added a certain heraldry, and thus finally the wagon and its plodding land-sca- d e side-blow- white-toppe- arms, but had always been remarks, able for an unusual amount of almost amounting to horror, with regard to anything of the kind. In eonsequence of an accident, with a tragical termination, which he had once witnessed. Dr. Jeremiah Cartwright, recalled at this juncture, here stated his firm conviction that the wound had not- been which he proceeded to prove, to his own satisfaction and the entire bewilderment of everybody else present, by the aid of a great many polysyllabic expressions and a torrent of professional phraseology, which swept everyone off their feet, but which, on being filtered down for the benefit of the unlearned, merely amounted to the following facts, !., that the edges of the wound, by which the bullet had made Its entrance, were torn and lacerated, as well as blackened and burnt by the action of the gunpowder, that the skin In the vicinity of the wound was blistered, the bleeding slight, and chiefly from the orifice of exit, and the two openings in the scalp nearly opposite each other. Dr. Cartwright, having brought his evidence to a conclusion, row gave place to another witness, and one in whose power it might be to help to unravel the mystery. This last was the guard of the 4:30 train an intelligent looking man, who, with a bandage round his head and one arm in a sling, bore tokens of the injuries he had received In Jumping from the train while it was in motion. On being questioned as to what he knew of the matter, he replied, without any hesitation, that he remembered the fourth carriage from the engine well, and the passengers that It contained in that particular comnerv-susnes- partment Was he sure that there was more than one passenger In that compartment of the carriage referred to? There Sure and certain he was. were two of them. He could swear to It. Didnt one of them, the taller of the two, tip him handsome to lock them In so that they might bare the carriage to themselves for the Jour- ney?" And did you lock them In, and are quite sure that they were both together in the carriage when the train started? Certain sure he was. He see them both together In the compartment as the train passed him. Just before he swung himself Into his van. Being asked whether there was any- 4 n Meantime, from the direction of the north, there came traveling across the prairie another cloud of dust more-rapithan that stirred up by the emigrant wagon. Bam, the stage driver, was crossing on hla reg-'ular huckboard trip from Elllsvllle to Plum Centre, and was now nearly half-wa- y on bis Journey. Obviously the courses of these two vehicles must intersect, and at the natural point of this Intersection the driver of the faster pulled up and waited for the other. Movers were not yet so commqn In that region that the stage driver, natural news agent, must not pause for Investigation. The driver of the wagon, a tan, dark man, drew rein with a grave sal- utation, bis tired horses standing with drooping heads while there took place one of the pregnant conversations of the plains. Mornln, friend, said Sam. Mornin, sir,1 said the other. Which way you headin, friend? asked Sam. Well, sir, came the answer, slowly, I rather reckon youve got me. I've just been movin on out. I want to locate, but I reckon my team' could travel a little further If they had to. This with a certain grimness In his smile, as though he realized the whimsicality of the average motive which governed in that day In quests like Is there much travel cornin hla he rethrough here this season? sumed, turning in his seat and resting one foot on the wheel as he sat still perched on the high wagon seat Well. replied Sam, they aint so much Just yet, but they will be pretty soon. You see, the Land Office Is about sixty miles east of here yet, and folks is mostly stoppln in there. Land around here Is pretty much all open yet. If they move the Land Office to the track-end- , of course all this land will be taken up a good deal slow-movi- tran-qul- L Recovering himself, he Jumped from his van and alighted on his feet, but was struck by a fragment of something and knocked down. He rose to his feet again, though suffering from wounds In the head, hand an knee, and saw a sight the like of which he had never seen before. With his keys In bis hand, he ran up and down the line, hardly knowing what he was doing. As soon as he began to get his senses back, which had been pretty well knocked out of him, he unlocked all the doors of the carriages that he came to, though they were already unlocked on one side. After he had done all he could, he went and sat down by the side of the line, for he began to turn faint and dlxsy. While he sat there he saw a tall, rather thin, elderly gentleman making his way slowly towards him, who limped a little as he walked. As this latter came nearer be recognized him as being the same Individual who had given him the tip, and told him to keep anyone else from getting Into At a rider worthy the ould Coming Home. day Dr. Jeremiah was bidding his new as he saw him off friend "good-bye- " from the station. The train puffed slowly out of the station, and the last view Ted had of the little man showed him standing at the end of the platform and waving his spectacles after him. He gave him a parting salute out of the Forty-sir-ent- h yls, more, I'll say ye might be a the guards, or In the Rile Irish Itself, bgad, yes, sir! Curly, ye dlwll, what do ye mean by puttin me friend on such a brute, him the first day In the land? And, Ned, bow are ye goin to like It here, me boy? Frankljn wiped his forehead as he replied to Batterslelghs running fire of salutations. he said, I Well, Batterslelgh, must say Ive been pretty busy ever hlnce I got here, and so far as I can tell at this date, I'm much disposed to think this is a strange and rather rapid sort of country youve got out here. n pilgrim ever hit this Best d rodeo! repeated Curly, with' conviction. "Shut up. Curly, ye dlwll!" said Come into the house, Batterslelgh. the both of you. Its but a poor house, but yere welcome. An welcome ye are, too, Ned, me boy, to the New World." officer In HIS RIGHTS IN THE CASE. How an Aggrieved Man Might Abolish Cat Concerts. A retired citizen In the southeast section has been greatly annoyed by the howling on his own fence and shed In the back yard oi a big black cat in the neighborhood. Not being the carriage. Witness noticed that his face waa able to sleep, ho called upon his atghastly, and that he breathed like a torneys the other day to discuss with man who had been running a race, him what could be done In the way but naturally put It down to the ter- of getting rid of the cats. There the cat sits every night on rible shock and the fright caused by the accident. As he came up to him, my fence," the sufferer explained, he (the guard) spoke to him and and he yowls and yowls and yowls. said, Glad to see you're safe, sir! Now, I dont want to get Into any trouble with my neighbors, for I am hope the other gent is the same? But he only stared at him in a queer, a lover of peace, but I would like to dazed sort of way, without making know if I am not Justified In putting any answer, and passed on down the a stop to it? line. Certainly, replied the lawyer. I am well within my rights If 1 At last, after some debate, the vershoot the cat, then?" dict agreed upon was; Wilful murder against some person Um, well. I would hardly like to or persons unknown. say that, answered the lawyer. Tho Ted Burrltt and his friend the doc- cat does nut belong to you, as I understand the case? tor left the place together. No." What will be your next step In And the fence does? the matter? asked the latter. Yes. First, to take my fathers body home then to look for his Well, then, I think 1 may safely say that you hare a perfect right to pull down the fence." Washington Times. CHAPTER XIII. Early In the evening of the same last he did gat the hone's head CHAPTER VIII. The Beginning. Franklins foot took hold upon the soil of the new land. His soul reached out and laid hold upon the sky, the harsh flowers, the rasping wind. He gave, and he drank In. Thus grew the people of the West Think you. Nod. my boy," said one day, as they stood at think you, this old the tent door gray world has been inhabited a million years, by billions of people, and yet here we have a chance to own a part of It, each for himself, here, at this last minute of the worlds life! Do you mind that, what It means? Never you think a chance like that'll last forever. Yet here we are, before the law, and almost antedatin' the social Ijee. It's the beginnln', man. of things, It's the very beginnln where we're standln here, this very blessed day of grace. Its Batty has traveled all hla life, and seen the lands, but never did Batty live till Standard Oil Branches. The International Oil Company of nowl murmured Franklin, Japan, which Is a branch of the Stan- halfIts grand, and unconsciously redreamily dard Oil Company, has a large refinery at Navetsu, besides owning Important peating the very words of his friend, as he had done before. wells on the western provinces. Yet Franklin was well bitten of the native companies have been forced to combine, so that there are ambition germ. It would serve him now two competing companies, neither to run only in the front rank. He was of whom has the capital not content to dream. He saw the great things ahead, and the small of tho International company. things that lay between. In a week ht one-fourt- h h, d the West half-pas- Know me? Of course he does. n team came fully Into view, crawling ever persistently from the East to - looked very worn and full of trouble, much older, and she thought, much sterner. She had been in the habit of regarding him as a boy was he not barely three years her senior? now he looked a man, every inch pf him. A hasty greeting passed them, and then she went to prepare her mother for his arrival. Mrs. Burrltt was dozing, and her daughter hesitated for a moment before rousing her. As she stood, wait ing, she heard heavy footsteps ascendof men, ing the staircased-footste- ps who were carrying something of great weight. She knew what It was. They came on slowly past the door of the room In which she was. Then, after a short time, she heard them descending the stairs again; the, door of the house was closed, and at the same moment her mother woke. (To be continued.) pa faster. Is it here? Sura and Just Wheat'll cold for earth. good farmin Better'll it land t ' . around, Is farther west, Is farther east: as good as It do well here, and it ain't too corn. Best cow country on How Is EHisvlIle doing now? up. "Bloomin". gling street These new edifices were so I beard farther back. for the most part used as business Is Yes, sir,to be a real town? it goln' sorts of commerce places, the being whatever! How can it help. "That's two "general but merchandise, It? Its goln to be a division point-owhich meant chiefly saddles and firethe road. It's goln to have all the1 arms, and that other industry of new trade. After a while; lands which flaunts under such sign- itll have all the farmin trada It's boards as the Lone Star, the Happy to be,tbe town, all right, dont' gain' Home, the Quiet Place, the Cowboy's you neglect that Yea, sir, Ellis villa Dream and such descriptive nomenclathe place! ture. Of fourteen buslnes houses, nine is "Which are you bound, sir? were saloons, and all these were pros- asked the way still sitting, apstranger, perous. hi thought, with his chin parently One by one, then In a body, as resting on his hand. though struck by panic, the white (To be continued.) tents of the railroad laborers vanished, passing on yet farther to the Walts for His Master. West, only the engineers remaining at Elllsvllle and prosecuting from the Hello, Ribs, he aint on this train! haven of the stone hotel the work of Thus brakeman or ' baggagem aster' continuing the Una The place of the greets a big black and white dog which every evening trots down to tents was taken by vast wagons, the creaking cook carts of the station in a small Pennsylvania the cattle trail, and the van of the town to meet the train on which his less nomadic man. It was the begin- master used to come home. Ribs master has not come home on ning of the great cattle drive from the Southern to the Northern ranges, the train for many months. He was a strange, wild movement In Ameri- conductor of a train which was can life which carried in its train a wrecked, and was killed. But Ribs set of conditions as vivid and peculiar has never massed a train. He stands on the platform wagging his tail, his as they were transient. Elllsvllle lay at an eddy in the tongue hanging out, an expression of Plains and gathered toll of the anxious hope In his eyes, waiting for strange driftwood which was then his master. When one of the trainmen explains, afloat Though the chutes at the rail'He aint on this train, the red were way busy, yet other herds of cattle passed Elllsvllle and wandered tongue goes slowly back into the big on north, crowding at the heels of mouth, the strong jaws close, the the passing Indlans.'.who now began shaggy tall drops and Ribs turns and to see their own cattle to be doomed. walks back to his kennel. But on the The main herd of the buffalo was following day he appears promptly now reported to be three or four days' in time for his masters usual train, drive from Elllsvllle, and the men and waits until some one of the pitywho killed for the railroad camps ut- ing train hands tells him, He ain't come In yet! tered loud complaints. The still went on. Great wagons, cattle-shippl- white-toppe- d . skin-huntin- loaded with parties g of rough men, No Love of Gcd In a Footnote. Dr. Charles Parkhurst of New York passed on out, bound for the Inner haunts, where they might still find lftdicves in people saying Just their prey. The wagons came creakmean, and says he has a horror Whenever I see a ing back loaded with bales of. the of footnotes. .what--the- foot-not- e, shaggy brown robes, which gave the monev with which to Join the cowmen at the drinking places. Not sinless was this society at its Inclpiency. In any social atmosphere good and evil are necessary concomitants. Sinless men would form a community at best but perishable. Tolerance, submission, patriotism so called, brotherly love so named all these things were to come later, as they have ever done in the development of communities, bnilded mainly upon the foundation of individual aggressiveness and individual skin-hunte- rs he says. I am always remind- ed of a certain Presbyterian church meeting. One statute drawn np pertained to the love of the Almighty, and it was stated In the rigid, Presbyterian style, with more of sternness than Jove in it One of the more gentle Presbyterian brethren suggested, that a foot-notbe added, mitigating somewhat the harsher statement Then up Jumped the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby. I t. gentlemen,' he said. 'I will not have the love of God put in a e ob-jee- t y |
