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Show I wish to ask you several questions sir, said Luke, about things that have been on my mind. Ask away, replied the squatter. First of all, I must tell you something of my own history, began Luke nervously. That is unnecessary, I am sure, said Mr. gently. It cannot possibly bear upon this present question. No, sir; perhaps not, but still I BLACK 3iG V CHAPTER XI. My Oh, head my head! he exclaimed. me, sir! Ill think di- dont mind rectly. My belief is that he has been put to attend upon the invalid at Sullivans. He had such a horror of drunkards In away! Put away? general that the mans illness excited Yes, sir murdered! no sympathy within. Besides he had to Nonsense, communicate man; you are imagining regarding nothing Robert Luke, the brother, and had long things which we know cannot be true! since ceased to take any interest in By whom could he have been murdered? what had become of him. Leisurely mounting his horse that afternoon, he rode down to the public-house. There he was received by an expect- ant crowd of loafers, foremost amongst whom was the landlord he so much detested. Take Mr. Halls horse, Bill, cant Very good c2 yer!" cried Sullivan. you, sir. I'm sure, to have taken the trouble to come. This business has and the quite upset me its awful! man really did look as if his nerves were in a more shattered condition than usual. Will you step inside, sir? he asked respectfully. I have a letter you had better see at once." Mr. Hall followed the landlord into the little which was so far In advance of the rest of the establishment as to boast of a calicq ceilingr Closing the door, Sullivan pulled out a letter from the depths of one of his pockets. It was the letter written by Robert Luke to his brother in England. Mr. Hall read the letter carefully back-parlo- r, through. cant make head or tail of it, he remarked at last. It is dated on the I day the man disappeared, I see; but what was the trial, and what was the thousand pounds reward he seemed so keen about getting? Youll remember, sir, surely! It was the great Froyles murder in England This man William Luke was taken up on suspicion. He was the butler to the old gent who was killed. Yes, yes; I remember now reading all about it, replied Mr. Hall, becoming more interested. Well, this William Luke was condemned to death, and there seemed no doubt that he committed the murder, Bhortly after the execution was to have taken place, however, the police got tipon another scent. I remember and he was pardoned." Yes, sir; and the people who were wanted In his stead were two of the aervants who gave evidence against him at the trial. Here is a printed handbill describing them. Mr. Hall took the paper in his hand. It was headed One Thousand Pounds Steward, and contained the descriptions of Edward Bartlett and Anne Dodson. I cannot say that this In any way enlightens me, he remarked presently. Then, referring to Robert Lukes letter to his brother, he said, Luke seemed to fancy that he traced a likeness In Tom Baynes to the woman who is here wanted. This is absurd! He had his own reasons, no doubt, replied Sullivan. Possibly he had, or thought he had; hut which is more likely he was carried away by the hopes of gaining the reward, and so allowed himself to suspect people without just cause. He may have been right, anyhow, growled the landlord. I dont think so, and Ill tell you why. I have seen Baynes wife, and she in no way answers the description of the woman here. Yes. Oh, you have seen her? And what was she like? In the first place she was not nearly so tall as this Anne Dodson, who seems to have been much above the average height of women. Then her hair was very dark. That might easily be managed, argued Sullivan. Of course; but her features in no way answered the description here. In fact, I am certain she could not have been the same person. Oh! grunted Sullivan, in a disappointed tone. Well, perhaps, sir, you would like to see the man Luke. He is In the next room. You wished to see me," said the squatter, taking a seat by the bedside. Yes, sir, said Luke, if you are Mr. Charles Hall. That Is my name! I have come out all this way to see piy brother Robert. Yes; I know all about It. You have 'biard how suddenly he went away? He never went away, sir, replied Ihe sick man. What, then, do you suppose has become of him?" Raising himself with difficulty upon one arm, William Luke looked wildly about him. , By them. Whom? Edward Bartlett and Anne Dodson. Mr. Hall My good fellow," said soothingly, there have been no such Your people in this neighborhood. brothers suspicions as to Baynes were quite ridiculous. He and his wife were nothing like the people here described; and Mr. Hall held up the printed handbill as he spoke. This Baynes can I see him? Will you have him brought to me here, so that I may be satisfied? Why, he was here last night, interposed Sullivan, and you were talking to him yourself at the door. "He was and you never told me? Told you? How was I to know then what you wanted? If people are so precious close You will bring him to me, then? cried Luke, seizing Mr. Halls hand as he spoke. That I cannot do, replied the Tom Baynes and his wife squatter. left the station at an early hour this morning. Gone? shrieked the man In an You have let agony of excitement. them go! You are all against me. Oh, murdered, murdered! he yelled, and struggling to leap out of the bed, he fell upon the floor In an epileptic fit. FOR HIM OR ALIVE. REWARD DEAD - in Outlaw from Youth Who Has Terrorized Arizona amt New Mexico HU Worth Career of Crime in Arizona Five Tbousaud Dollar. Iill Mr. Hall then went about his business and by no meano hurried himself JAKE, OUTLAW think Id rather. Go on, then I am listening." Well, sir, I entered service early, and was in many a good situation; but latterly I could not keep my places. The curse of my life, as it has been the curse of many another cue, was the Black Jake, the Arizona desperado, worth $5,000 to the man who takes aim either dead or aiive. This outlaw, who has been terrorizing Arizona and New Mexico for several jears, has eluded the detectives and cowboys who have been on his trail. Black Jake has been a tough from boyhood and committed his first murder when but 20 years old. He was left $1,500 by a relative in 1S93, and spent all the money in a month in Phoenix and Yuma. Then he drifted down to Sonora, Mexico, and the few people who remember him thought he was probably dead down there until the news came that he was the head of a reckless gang of bandits who were after gold coin at the sacrifice of any life that baffled their efforts. About August 8, 1830, several men employed in the general merchandise store of the Hualipi Mining Company, two miles north of Kingman, Arizona, were roused from their noonday siestas behind the counters one hot, blistering day, by four cowboys who walked in and asked to see some saddles. One of the store men started to go upstairs to show the strangers his stock of saddles. The others were too warm and sleepy to move, but the moment they saw each of the supposed purchasers whip out two long, murderous revolvers at full cock they were instantly very much awake. When each of the store men looked into the muzzle of a pistol as if into the mouth of a railroad tunnel he saw that he and his store companions were In the hands of bandits. While one bandit, a tall, dark complexioned feleyes and mammoth low, with deep-stattooed stars on his hands, went about the store seeking money and transportable valuables, the store men were kept looking at very close range Into the muzzles of cocked revolvers. In ten minutes, perhaps, some $1,400 in coin was taken, for there is not the convenience of bank deposits in frontier settlements. Then the storekeepers were bound and gagged. 'One of them, John A. Bishop, resisted, and in the scrimmage was stabbed to death. The bandits bound the other men tighter, and, hastening out, were soon on their broncos outside. Before any of the men in the store could get loose and give the alarm the bandits were miles away on the alkali desert, where no one but a few poor, starved Hualipi Indians live in a territory of about 700 square miles. The sheriff had no sooner set out to seek the bandits than the information came that the office force of the Resolute Mining Company, fifty miles over toward Ash Fork, had been held up, bound, and gagged by the same gang on the day previous to the robbery and murder at Kingman. Some thirty ounces of gold and coin to the amount of $100 had been stolen from the rafe. In the latter part of the following month Black Jake and his gang robbed the bank at the rich cattle and mining town of Nogales, Arizona. It was a very bold deed. Three entered the bank. One covered the president, who was outside the railing; another stepped to the window and called the teller, who was sitting at some distance, and ordered him to hold up his hands. The teller promptly obeyed, and started to walk to the window, but was stopped before he could get there. is drink. The place where I lived before I went to Mr. Hughes who, you know, was murdered I left on that account; I cheeked the master, and he said I had stolen his wine. That was true. However I made up my mind on go- ing to my new situation to turn over a new leaf! And you did not succeed? No, sir. I went on very well for a short time; hut, if it is not wicked to speak so of the dead, he was a most provoking old gentleman. Frequently he would find fault without any sort of occasion; and on that particular day of the dinner-part- y he had been more than unusually cantankerous. That and my old habits made me take to the liquor again. I felt annoyed and put out, and was nipping pretty freely throughout the day. After the dinner was over, I took a bottle of sherry from the cellaret, and drank it up in my room. Yes, said Mr. Hall; and you were not quite sober in the morning. I was three-part- s drunk when I awoke, and could not clearly bring to mind anything which had occurred on the previous night Just so! Well, you know the rest. I was convicted, condemned, and ultimately pardoned. Edward Bartlett, the footman, swore in his evidence against me at the trial that I had been often talking of how I should like to raise money enough to take me out to Australia. "And had you done so? Believe me, sir, as there's a Heaven above and as I sit here, It was he who was always speaking of coming out here. Such a notion never entered my CHAPTER XII. head. By slow degrees William Luke reWell, but how does this bear upon covered from his illness so far that he the question? could get out and walk about a little I will tell you, sir. My brother with the aid of a stick. Nothing would Robert was in court when I was tried. now induce him to touch spirits; and He had been for some years in the Sullivan grumbled mightily at having Metropolitan Police, and, unlike me, a lodger who, he declared, not only was steady in his habits. Bob always occupied his best bedroom, but hardhad his head screwed on right; apd, ly spent enough to pay for his "tucker. putting two and two together, he made Still Sullivan had one consolation, and his mind that the missing man and up that was that, as the story of the new woman ,had somehow or other made arrival was circulated, people were their way out here! curious to see this William Luke who said Mr. Yes, yes I understand, had been condemned for murder and Hall. pardoned. His letter the rest, conLukes one desire was to get strong tinued Luke. explains I came out here as enough to go on to Redmount and quickly as I could not only in the search for some traces of his brother. them and bringing hopes of He aint there, replied Sullivan, as them to tracing but, I must confess, of justice, he listened to his customers repetition sharing the thousand pounds reward. of the old story for about the fiftieth Exactly very natural! Didn't Mr. Hall tell you for time. On the way out, on board ship, I certain that the Bayneses couldnt be was drinking pretty freely; but it was the ones you are after? Didnt he see not until my journey up by the coach Baynes wife? And didnt the trooper that it began to tell upon me. When and other people see her and him? And I got to Sulnan's, I felt in an unnatarent they all certain you are on the urally excited state sort of wild I wrong track? cannot tell you how. But what made them go off so sudI hope never to know from persondenly, said Luke, still unconvinced, al experience, said Mr. Hall, smiling; the very day I came up? but I can easily imagine. You felt Bless the man, cried Sullivan, getwhat the men up here call jumpy? ting weary of arguing with him Just so, sir, I felt it coming on; hasnt Mr. Hall told you over and and, when I heard of my brothers disover again that the chap got a letter, I was taken appearance, saying his sister was ill in Sydney? If Well, we wont talk about that I you will make a mystery of everything know all the rest. connected with them, why, you will Thank you, sir, said Luke, wiping thats all Ive got to say. the perspiration from his forehead at But the more Luke thought, and the the bare recollection of the agonies ha his brothers had endured. more he read and One thing I most parletter, the more certain he felt that ticularly wish to ask you, sir, he conwas there something about the tinued, after a pause is It true that Bayneses which no one as yet susBaynes received a letter from Sydney pected. that night by the mall, telling him his Did not his brother say that on that sister was dying? very night of the 25th of May he inPoor Baynes! Well, Luke, you certended to visit their hut? tainly have it firmly implanted in your I mean to see her tonight, whether mind that that harmless youth was or no. Baynes is away fetching some mixed up in some way or other in your stores, and wont be home until mornTo answer your question, tragedy. ing. So nows my chance! to the best of my belief Baynes did get These were the words which William a letter to that effect. Luke read as he sat beneath the shade To the best of your belief? of a gum tree on the creek side, and Yes; for I did not see it. racked his brains to work the puzzle But you have a locked mail-bag- ? out. Yes. One day about a month after his And you saw the letters taken out? arrival at Sullivans, and when he had Yes. I took them out myself; but convalescent Luke his letter was not become tolerably amongst them. He made up his mind that he would go to told me the driver of the coach, Sam Redmount; so, borrowing a horse, he Jones, brought it up for him by hand. started off. Thf driver brought It up? repeated . Upon reaching the station, he was Luke. received with every kindness by the Yes, the driver so he told me. hands, who felt a rough sympathy for That is strange. I never heard of the man who had come so far to see that before. The mall comes in tohis brother and had not found him. night. I will go down to Sullivans, Mr. Hall, too, had got over the first and ask the driver. Poor fellow! thought Mr. Hall, affeeling of disgust he had entertained for the gentleman who had been ter his departure. I should not wondrinking and had had fits, and asked der if this business drove him road. him Pi his kindliest manner to come He seems to have the Baynea on the brain! up wkh him to the house and talk matters over. (To be Continued.) et re-re- ad , tracted the a.tention ef the gentleman at the teller's window, and ue tuineJ to see what the trouble ws. The instant the robber turned, the teller made a jump for his window, uuuer-reat- h which, on a shelf, repos.l the which he graboel bank and began shooting. Over one hundred snots were fired inside of three minutes. Eery mao who could get a gun and a hoise took tne trail. A skirmish ensued among the rocks in the Los Amnios canyon. Black Jake lost his horse, but got the one ridden by the sheriff of Pima county and escaped into Sonora, Mexico. Three months passed and the people began to hope and then to think that the Black Jake band had decided to remain permanently in the republic of Mexico. La to one night, in January, 1897. when the air was a litc tle chilly in the regions, five men in masks walked in upon a ime faro game at Denting, N. M. four of the masked men covered the eleven gamblers and kept their harms away above their heads, the talPst of the masked men gave his whole attention to the cashier of the layout. That official reached for his pistol, hut he was too slow. He was shot in the -- Arizona semi-tropi- MARSHAL HALL face and he dropped forward on the green table. The robbers were gone in a twinkling. Three murders were added in 1898 to the catalogue of rimes attributed to the notorious band. One was the shooting of a passenger on the stage from Tombstone to Grant Springs, In Arizona, when that vehicle was held up and the passengers piled their watches, purses and other valuables In a heap for the use of the bandits. Another murder was that of a switchman for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company at Navajo, because, probably, he was suspected of having recognized the gang and of having plans for telling his suspicions to the sheriff. d The Santa Fe overland was held up by the gang west of Gallup In June, 98. The express messenger was shot, the safe was dynamited, and a sack of gold and currency was secured. Sheriff Lawrence and twenty carefully picked men chased the gang for two weeks. Heavy rains fell, and for 001 the faintest clue remained trailing the outlaws across hundreds of miles of sunbaked soil in an uninhabited region. The general merchandise store of the Phelps Mining Company, at Hueneme, in Yavapai county, A. T., was robbed one day last November, while two employes there were at dinner, and the two other men in the store were bound and gagged, hut only a few dollars were had. This gang is well acquainted with a large section of the country, and there are few men that will openly d and do anything against them. In a posse it is different. A number of the men are their friends and help them with food, horses and information. Others are living on exposed ranches, where the robbers can come in, if they are revengeful, and kill the man who has helped an officer, or they can kill stock and run off horses. The gang is often seen by cowboys and men living on ranches, and to them the robbers have told their versions of their experiences. The last congress overhauled the law regarding the emoluments of United States marshals, and now if a marshal sends out a man to make an arrest, and the deputy does not get the man he goes after, the government will not pay him anything. Under the provisions of .this law it was impossible for United States Marshal Hall to get men to take the trail. Even a deputy marshal wants to know that he will be paid for his time from when he starts on a trail until he is killed. He objects more to working for nothing than he does to getting killed. west-boun- single-hande- The third man went down to the end of the railing to get behind it and at Whipped by Whitecaps. A mob of whitecaps near White Oak the cash. At the end he saw an open door leading into a room where sev- church, near Owingsville, Ky the eral men were planning an irrigation other night took Willis Manley from his home and gave him 100 lashes with Manley had been and there notified by the whitecaps to leave Bath person with his was no one left to shovel the money county and had failed to observe the tmto the bag. warning. The whitecaps also visited Realizing that something must be the house of Eliza Wright, near by, Avne to change the combination, the and razed it to the ground. The charge naan wba had the Irrigation conven- against Manley and the Wright woman tion at bay promptly shut the door on was for keeping disorderly house, the tt. The slamming of the door at couple left the county at once. scheme. He promptly held them up. Each man was thus busy holding some hickory switches. six-shoot- i |