Show SERIAL STORY N T U N 0 f i h he e ahree B A RS rk by KATE AND VIRGIL D BOYLES coper C 11 gilt by A I 1 fcc ucc uc arg co 1807 SYNOPSIS cattle thle es despo ling ranches of s south dakota george will ston small ranchman runs into rendezvous of thieves on island in M river they have stolen cattle from three bar ranch langford Lang tord v visits sits williston and his daugh ter and will ston reports what he has seen to langford Lang tord who determines to rid country of thieves jesse black heads out country lam laws s langford falls in love with willis tons ton s daughter but does not tell her so louise dale court stenographer and niece of judge dale visits I kemah emah at re quest of county attorney gordon to take testimony in preliminary I 1 earing gordon falls in love with her after preliminary examination W Illis tons s home is a attacked and defended by his daughter and a nd him self outlaws fire building just as lang ford and his cowboys arrive outlaws carry off williston but langford Lang tord rescues the daughter without will ston evidence against black is meager and case seems to be going against the state gordon takes a night ride and finds williston who has escaped from captors the courthouse at kemah burns at night williston I 1 olds a tea party in hl his room following court ho se fire and mary wll wil listen liston and louise dale attend court con venes in the church and williston s tes Is introduced by gordon CHAPTER cont continued aued it was a straight story and alpar antly damaging for the prosecution it corroborated the attestations of other witnesses many it had a plausible ring to it two bills of sale radiated atmospheric legality it if there had been dirty work it must have anted with that renegade half breed yellow wolf and yellow wolf was dead he had died while serving a term in the penitentiary tor for cattle rustling uncle sam himself had se set t the seal upon him and now he was dead this insinuated charge he could not answer the finality of it seemed to set its stamp upon the peo pie gathered there upon the 12 good men and true as well as upon others yellow wolf was dead george wll wil listen liston was dead their secrets had died with them an inscrutable fate had lowered the veil who could pierce if one might believe but who could know and the law required I 1 knowledge now ledge we will call charlie Night bird sard small complacently there was a little waiting silence a breathless palpitating silence Is charlie presenta 7 asked small casting rather anxious eyes over the packed intent faces charlie Night bird was not present at least he made no sign of coming tor for ward the face of the young counsel u tor for the state was immobile during the brief time they waited for charlie Night bird whose dark frozen face at that moment turned toward the cold sparkling sky and who would never come not it if they waited for him till the last dread trump of the last dread day there was some mistake counsel had been misinformed Night bird was an important witness he ile had been reported present never mind he was probably unavoidably detained by the storm they would call jesse big clo CIO id and others to corroborate the defendant s statements which they did and the story was sustained in all its parts major and minor then the defense rested richard gordon arose from his chair his face was white his lean jaws were set his eyes were steel he was anything but a lover now this man gordon yet the slim little court reporter with dark circles of home sickness under her eyes had never loved him halt half so well as at this mo ment his ills voice was clear and de liberate your honor I 1 ask permission of the court to call a witness in direct testimony I 1 assure your honor that the state had used all efforts in its power to obtain the presence of this witness before resting its case but had failed and believed at the time that he h could not be produced the witness is now here and I 1 consider his ills testimony of 0 the utmost imbor tance in this case counsel for the defendant objected strenuously but the court granted the petition he wanted to hear every thing that might some light on the dark places in the evidence I 1 call mr air george williston said go don had the strain crazed him louise covered her eyes with her hands men alen sat is it if dazed and thus the cynosure of all eyes stupefied eyes williston of the ravaged lazy S thin and worn but calm natural and schol arly looking as of old walked from the little anteroom ante room at the side into the light and knowledge of men once more and raised his hand for the oath not until this was taken and he had sat quietly down in tee tho witness chair did the tension snap ven then men found it difficult to flaus aft ua their atten uon tion on the enormous difference this new witness must make in the case that a few moments before seemed fettled 4 mary alary sat with shining ees eyes in the front TOW of 01 wooden chairs chain it was no wonder she had laughed and been so gay all the dreary yesterday besterda est erda and all the worse to day da louise shot her a look of pure gladness small s face was I 1 dicross in its drop jawed astonishment the little lawyer s face m as a stud study A 1001 of defiance had brei arelt t into the defend ant ants s countenance the preliminary ns were ed and answered mr NN Il liston y ou on may state where ou on were and what you saw on the day of july last williston the unfortunate gentle man and scholar the vanquished cow man for a brief while the most im lin man in tie tl e county perhaps was about to uncover to men s under standing the dark secret hitherto ob soured by a cloud of supposition and aud hearsay he told the story of his visit to the island and he told it well it was enough gordon asked no furth er questions regarding that event and pow mr air williston you may tell what happened to you on the night of the of last augusta williston began to tell the story of the night attack upon the lazy S when the galvanic small jumped to his feet the little lawyer touched him with a light hand your honor he said smoothly I 1 object to that as incompetent irrell vant and immaterial and not binding on the defendant your honor interrupted gordon with great calmness we intend to show you before we get through that this testimony is competent and that it is binding upon the defendant was the defendant therea the defendant was there the objection was overruled so williston told briefly but to the point the story of the night attack upon his his home of the defence by himself and daughter and of the burning of his house and sheds then he proceeded suddenly some one caught me from behind my arms were pinioned to my sides cometh ng was clapped over my mouth I 1 was flung over a horse and strapped to the saddle all in less time that it lakes to tell it and was borne away in company with the man who had overpowered me he paused a moment in his recital faces strained with expectancy de doured him his every look and word and action mary was very pale car ried tied thus back to the dread realities of that night in august and ashud dered remembering that ghastly gal loping langford could scarce re IT T will ston of the ravaged lazy S strain n himself he wanted to rip out a blood curdling sioux war whoop on the spot who was this man mr W Vil il liston asked gordon jesse black small was on his feet again gestick lating wildly I 1 object this is all a lubrication fabrication put in here to prejudice the minds of the jury against this defendant it is a pack of lies and I 1 move that it be stricken from the record the little lawyer bowed his head to the storm and shrugged up his ders perhaps he wished that he or bis his associates one of the unholy al liance at least was where the wicked cease from troubling on the faraway islands of the deep seas possibly or home on the farm but his e expression told nothing gentlemen gentlemen exposto judge dale gentlemen I 1 in this is all out of order only one gentleman was out of order but that was the J idge s way gordon had remained provokingly cool under the tirade A again aln the soft touch small tell fell into his chair he poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher stand ing on the attorneys table and drank a little of it nervously I 1 move said the little lawyer that all this touching upon the per bonal matter of this witness and hav ing to do with his private quarrels be stricken out of the euldene evl dene e as not bearing on the case in question all in ili vain the judge ruled that it did bear on the case and williston Wll liston picked up the thread of his story we ve rode and rode hard it must have been hours daylight was coming before we stopped our horses were spent I 1 had no idea where we were from the formation of the land I 1 fudged judged we were not tar far from the river 14 we e were surrounded by bluffs I 1 can hardly make you see how clearly this little retreat had been planned I 1 was in a valley one of a hundred similar in ili all essential respects the gulch at the bottom of the valley was heavily wooded with scrub oak cot conwood woodbine and plum trees and this tangle ot of extended tor for some distance up the tile ides at the hills in the midst of this under brush a most excellent screen waja wa a tiny cabin in this tiny cabin J 1 have lived a closely watched prisoner aiom that day until I 1 escaped the defendant shined a little uneas ily was ivas he th nimg of Night bird with the dark frozen face who had not answered to his calla black left me soon after he did not ucb nd me rather bound me the tighter there was no one then to watch me he deigned to inform me that he had found it rather in conven lent to kill me after the relief party rode up as then there was no abao lute surety of his making a it clean get away and being caught in the act would be bound to be unpleasant very unpleasant just then so he had alter ed his plans a little tor for the present he gave me no hint either that time nor either of the two times I 1 saw him subsequently as to what was to be his ultimate disposal of me I 1 could only suppose that after this trial was well over in his favor and fear of indict ment tor for arson and murder had blown over if blow over it did he would then quietly put an end to me dead men tell no tales the shant shanty in the gulch did not seem to be much ol 01 a 4 rendezvous lendez for secret meetings I 1 led a lonely existence my jailers were mostly half breeds usually charlie Night bird two or three times jake sanderson was my guard then from the doorway came a loud clear resonant voice a boyf joyful ia voice a voice whose tones fairly oozed rapture hullity damn the three bars s gettin busy mouse ellair hair judge dale started he ile glared angrily in that direction remove that man he ordered curtly he liked jim but he could not hot brook this crying contempt of court jim was removed he ile went quietly but ing his head reproach fully I 1 never would a thought it 0 the bedge he murmured disconsolately I 1 never would a thought it there was a movement in the back of the room A man was making his way 0 it slipping along cat III e try ing to evade a antion quietly gor GOT don motioned tc the sheriff and slipped a paper into his hand look sharp he whispered his steady ees eyes on the shifty ones of the sheriff it if you let him get away awa just remember the handwriting on the wall it s our turn now presently there was a slight scuffle by the door and two men quietly left the improvised courtroom da day before yesterday in the after noon continued williston I 1 man aged to knock Night bird down at the threshold as he was about to enter I 1 had secretly worked a cross beam from the low ceiling there waa nothing else in the room I 1 might use tor for a weapon they were very careful I 1 think I 1 killed him your honor and gentlemen of the jury I 1 am not sorry there was no other way but I 1 would rather it had been the maker not the tool by the time I 1 had nade made my w ay back to the lazy S I 1 was too exhausted to go further so I 1 crawled over to my neighbors the whites and mother white made me a shake down I 1 lay there nearly dead until this morning he leaned back wearily black stood up he was not lank nor lazy now nor shuffling his ills body was drawn to its full height in the instant before the spring mary who was sitting close to the attorneys table met his glance squarely she read there what he was about to do only a moment their eyes held each other others s but it was time enough for a swift message of understanding of utter dislike and of a determined will to defeat the man mans s purpose to pass pas from the accusing brown eyes to the cruel ones of the defendant quick as a flash black seized the chair upon which he had been sitting sprang clear of the table and his law yes and landed close to mary marys s side with his chair as a weapon he meant to force his way to the nearest win dow mary s dilated unhesitatingly she seized the half emptied glass on the table and dashed the contents full into the prisoner prisoners s face blinded he halted a moment in his mad rush mary s quick maneuver made lang ford s opportunity he grappled with black the crowd went mad with ex cit ement the prisoner still retained his chair NN hen langford grappled with him he attempted to bring it down upon the fair head of his antagonist mary gasped with dread but langford Lang tord grasped the chair with one muscular hand wrested it from the desperado desperados s hold and threw it to the floor the two men locked in a close embrace Lang langford fords s great strength was more than sufficient to hold the outlaw until the dazed officers could do their duty had he been let alone but two men who had been standing near the door when the prisoner made his anex pecked leap for liberty had succeeded in worming their way through the ex cited crowd and now suddenly threw themselves upon the ranchman drag ging him back stand aside or shoot TO BE CONTINUED |