| Show M Men en of the 11 by Captain G. G Elliott Nightingale AND SO ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER UNTIL UNTIL- WHEN old Tim Jillis blew his brains out with a rifle he also set off a box of ot fireworks that tha t jumped about hither and yon and hit quite a few tew people In fact tact the body of the suicide was barely cold coldIn coldin coldin in death before an unsuspecting ten zen was tarred and feathered and the latter event caused another explosion ex ex- because it forced a sergeant to desert from the Royal Northwest I Mounted Police At any rate lets let's get back to the beginning Tim Jillis was a lazy good good for for for- nothing sort and a fighter booze-fighter to boot all of which kept his hardworking hardworking hard hard- working wife and his two fine children children chil dren on the outermost edge of ot destitution destitution desti desti- and want Neighbors did all they could of ot course for tor the sake atthe of at the youngsters and just when things were about as bad as they could be Mrs Jillis had a bright idea She would change the house a bit and andI I take in a lodger someone who I would pay for tor good food and a warm room With the Income from tram the boarder she could make it all right she felt sure and soon a Charlie Brown Drown was part of ot the household Now Brown was a sober hardworking hard work ing chap and when he saw the general gen eral economic conditions in the Jillis Jillis Jil Jil- lis household he dug down into his pockets and provided plenty of at food toad some necessary clothing and a nice pile of ot fuel Naturally the heart of Mrs Jillis JUlIs was about to burst from sheer gratitude gratitude grat grato and she put herself herselt out to tomake tomake tomake make Brown Drown feel teel right at home His Ills slightest wish was law and the began to emerge from destitution destitution desti desti- to a fair measure of comfort and well All of this strange to say aroused the anger and displeasure displeasure dis pleasure of ot the no-account no husband and father tather who spent his days in local barrooms bewailing the fact that Brown Drown the lodger was stealing his wife and gradually breaking up the Jillis home Instead of shooting the lodger as most people had expected Jillis Jilis stuck the rifle barrel in his own mouth pressed the trigger and scattered his brains all aU over the bedroom walls The coroner and the Mounted Police soon realized that it was a plain case ease of ot suicide and the case would have been closed right then had not a gang of ot half halt a dozen masked men barged into the Jillis home and seized Charlie Brown Drown the lodger They took him to a lonely spot and there they tarred and feathered him from cap capto capto capto to boots They drove him back to the tiny settlement and threw him into the lobby 7 1 of ot the local hotel which was hardly more than an n ordinary six or seven-roomed seven house Hours later Brown Drown found his is way back to his room in the Jillis home and about the only clue he had as to the identity of ot his kidnapers was that all the talking and all the orders orders or or- ders had been spoken by a man with a distinctive western drawl draw such as was common along the Montana boundary Things quieted down and Brown stayed on at the Jillis place And then months later he was sitting on ona ona ona a hotel veranda in Lethbridge Alberta Alberta Al Al- berta when his ears caught up a voice that he would never tor forget get as long as he lived He knew he had found the leader of ot the kidnap gang and in half an hour the owner of ot the distinctive western drawl w was a s breaking down under stiff questioning question ing on the part of Men of at the Mount Mount- ed Later he admitted leading the gang and was held for tor trial And then while assembling all the necessary necessary necessary essary data and information for the I trial the Inspector of ot the Mounted Police in the district made a most startling and distressing discovery Five ive of ot the six gangsters were accounted accounted ac counted for tor and the inspector while moving heaven and earth to find out the identity of ot the sixth found that the wanted much-wanted lawbreaker was one of ot his own sergeants a man with years of creditable service behind be hind him and a man who had always al ways been above reproach in every way At any rate perhaps a bit enraged by this discovery the Inspector inspector In in- did all he e could to make a strong unshakable case against the I sergeant But Dut as the days passed it appeared that the inspector was more hell-bent hell on getting that tha sergeant than anyone else and just jus when conditions looked bad for the three-striper three he turned up missing The fact tact is the tiny settlement was loyal to the sergeant and while the inspector was fussing and fuming fum tum ing Jag over evidence and court procedure procedure pro pro- the sergeants sergeant's many friends Jug into their pockets made up a sizable purse of money and staked the sergeant to a midnight getaway on one of ot the finest and fastest horses in the region Moreover while the inspector was looking up the law on this and that a fair fair- sized escort of mounted citizens were escorting the sergeant over the border into Montana And that's how one thing letto led let to another until well i iwas it was difficult to find out just where this all started and when and where it finished At any rate it added a afew afew few tew gray hairs to the inspectors inspector's scalp calp No doubt about that |
