Show y out d W anam THE STORY SO FAR on their way to the new cottonwood to n w gold eold diggings in colorado r d 0 in the early seventies robert gilson easterner and his partner buck hayden a veteran min miner 5 r witness the holdup hold up of 0 a stage coach from which the ex i orem box la Is stolen before the banolas ban alti are oh off among amone the holdup hold up victims are mrs constance stance a deane and mrs mra barnaby nho intends to open a restaurant in cottonwood gilson meets marcus handy editor on ills his way to start the cottonwood courier arriving in town gilson and hayden together purchase a mining claim A threatened lynching lunching lyn ching Is averted by the bravery of 0 chris mcgrath town marshal gilson becomes disgusted with gold digging what with its unending labor and small rewards and so the sudden appearance of shorty croly old time partner of buck Is not altogether alto cether disconcerting ting to him gilson takes a job on the courier and arranges to sell his share tn the claim to shorty hla his acquaintanceship with mrs deane ripens As the courier grows erows in power a civic spirit Is awakened CHAPTER vl VI continued ft when judge colliver Coll lver we all granted him film that title took the floor he drew almost as well fig as the variety shows A little before this climax lie he always went out for another drink the tradition of daniel webster still lay strong upon tile the west the ora lawyer most brilliant when halt seas over held field the imagination alike of courtroom and 0 of jury brushing back bach his mop of black hair colliver would work himself up like a camp meeting preacher to an oratorical frenzy always he harped on oil two points tile the victim was armed everyone in camp was armed for that matter but bat as colliver brought out this point you forgot that and always some witness tor for the defense testified to a quick boilon motion toward tile alie hip there you were self de bense absolute and proved judge cowan closed the affair with a pompous pompons charge full of bad latin wherein mercy stood better vindicated than justice the jurors scarcely left their seats the pickpocket whose escape from lynching lunching lyn ching I 1 had witnessed during my first night in camp got a quick traxl and short shrift judge cowan with special emphasis ori or the meanness of his crime sentenced him to ten years of minor cases such as settled communities muni ties usually try in police courts there were none under the tolerant rule of marshat marshal chris mcgrath McGrat li plain drunkenness constituted no offense whatever if an inhabitant was drunk and disorderly the marshal arrested him put him in the log jail for the night and released him in tile the morning sly MY and seare bings about camp led me constantly to that jail built with a double log wall provided with a real door reinforced by sheet iron and with a substantially barred window it had as yet no separate cells murderer and transient drunkard alike slept on straw pallets ballets about the stove of the common room four deputies by turns jailer and policeman licen li ceman lan stood double guard with nith rifle and revolver over thee jani janiz zaries arles to marshal mcgrath ruled as chief as grand vizier one charlie meek ile he it was who when hen the marshal stopped tile the lynching lunching lyn ching at the black jack had bad snapped tile the handcuffs on the pickpocket long a mere supernumerary in the drama of cottonwood camp he was to step p forth for a day a leading actor jim restaurant had the contract for feeding the prisoners the waiters bringing over dinner or supper removed the soiled dishes of the last meal consequently the continuous game of seven up on the floor proceeded always argolda a most untidy fringe the sanitary arrangement I 1 shall not attempt to describe and the eternal scratch ings of the prisoners proved that bunks and clothing alike were hunting grounds for forms of lower life marshal mcgrath had nominally an office domce a boarded tent on slain main street where proceeded the important busl busi ness of registering mining claims but seldom if ever did I 1 f ind find him in those ills his official quarters ills hours of leisure lie he spent at the jail of sue fine sat in a rocking chair by its door smoking a black cigar and holding forth usually lie had an audience squatted about him on its heels once on a morning when the holdup hold up record at the bottom of our last column front page included eight items hems I 1 asked him what lie ha was doing about fool footpads pads not a thing until they give me die a detective or two he replied ive P applied twice or when we get a municipal government ern ment I 1 put in repeating repealing a political ob observation of marcus handy marshal mcgrath did not take I 1 this simple remark simply ills eyes crinkled up but not with a smile 1 the linis lilli of lilg ills face went hard as they did when uben lie ile stepped col upon the table of the lilac k jack to stop slop the lynch ing tell 1701 your kyar aar to keep olt oft that he jerked out oui it if you dont like the way tile the county governments run therell be tm im election in november wont there rut but as though ills his casa case deeded an lie he went ment on what do the those reformers A mitt 1114 cacir aint a sunday school we by will irwin copyright br will irwin arvice had a lynching lunching lyn ching yet I 1 that record it appeared was the marshals special pride cottonwood continued to boom and grow dally daily the courier reported report cd strikes or fine prospects in the mines working on liverpool hill where the last inch tt ot ground had long been staked out and devel developed opeil and in those gul gulches clies and cr casses of 0 the mountains where experienced prospectors were sinking shafts with burket and winch the stages arrived brimful every night the public corral overflowed with the wheeled transport of 0 new arrivals under my eye this crude settlement was transforming itself into a town a city in a gulch above the river valley a brickyard began operations its kilns kalns were scarcely formed before it had orders six months ahead father cassidy signed the first order already ills his ladles sodality was advertising in the courier its fair for the building fund mr sipple tile the presbyterian was clearing ground fur for his new wooden church cli the elie methodists under the flery fiery mr orcutt got along with their gospel tent saved souls mightily and let the lord take care of the future doctor howells episcopalian arched at about that time found quarters for sunday services in an assay office beside the comstock lode saloon gathering sheaf of ecclesiastical news for the sunday morning paper I 1 found that he had sent an urgent call for funds to ills his denomination in the east rending pending their response he did us christian service by spending the last of the funds he hall had brought up from denver to lease a log cabin and start a pay school father cassidy fearing the x winds ands of adverse doctrine immediately added to ills his building plans a parochial school three sisters of charity whom lie he had brought with him possessed themselves of a large tent and started a hospital for pneumonia cases gunshot wounds and other 1 really serious disabilities the odd fellows had clubbed together and built a wide low pine shack floored for dancing within a week after the first timber was laid I 1 they hey held their grand dedication ball it paid for itself almost within a month scarcely a n night but the masons the ancient order of Hibernia ns tle tile G A it the confederate veterans Vet erana or the knights of pythias rented it for lodge meeting or rout our camp was already developing an aristocracy wives of mining engineers the lie richer mine owners and the more prosperous tradesmen odd fellows hall was but a completed when they held an assembly carpenters for a time got double wages so that every miner miller with the least skill at sawing or driving nails deserted the drifts and sought employment at building doors windows find and window panes were now arriving by the truck load the burlap port leres began to disappear the portiere port lere of g gunny sacking at the door of tile the courier passed into rn memory emory the plo pio deer sawmill had now dow a rival but though the two establishments worked double shift and transformed halt half a mountainside from a dryad grove into a littered ruin they could not keep q PS the th tradition of daniel webster still lay strong upon the west pace with the demand assay of offices flees groceries general stores a pharmacy innumerable saloons operated in tents or suspended operations while the owners oeners waited fur fur lumber and ski skilled ailed men we grew and grew ly without organization by the process of adding cells like a jellyfish no stage or caravan but brought some representative of a new find and necessary trade plumbers slept out the first night ou on the floor of the st louls louis lodging house beside physicians barbers beside e dentists plasterers beside assayers stationary engineers beside mining engineers but fast Is as they came gamblers and prostitutes bartenders lind and hure bure thing voi kers carne came faster aster now a telegraph line was preparing to start from denver aud and the courier was to state on the best authority that a narrow gauge railroad w waa coming comilue couil ue bow unreliable rp that best authority was mar cus and I 1 alone knew but marcus would have printed that report if he had been obliged to invent it for as he said we were bound to have a railroad some d day ay after marcus had a way now dow of stopping short on that word after I 1 knew what lie he meant my eyes open I 1 was beginning even to grow interested in what he meant we should have in cottonwood camp none of the sober development which a railroad symbolized until we achieved security tor for life and investment gun law supplemented by ill a withered and weakly corrupt government a days journey away was outworn already responsible citizens said that but said it under their breaths yet day followed day and marcus did not as he had enigmatically threatened cut his wolf loose less and and less indeed did lie he talk about the necessity of of a municipal government more and more did lie draw into himself almost lie e seemed morose A As S often as the job permitted lie he absented himself from the office when lie returned lie he brou brought glit no news once running into our bedroom on some trivial errand I 1 opened the door to find him in close conference with three other men excuse me moll kid 1 he ha said quickly I 1 stepped back closed the door but not bea before ie I 1 IQ biad recognized the good humored fro frog face of isidore cohen the jeweler ant and the loan yankee features of taylor president of the bank once again plodding up an unfrequented trail to liverpool hill I 1 saw before me the familiar backs of marcus and doctor howells the episcopalian clergyman they were walking with their leads heads down like ilke men in n intimate but perplexing conversation I 1 turned up a side trail then it ft was toward the end of my third week on the courier the incident arrived which cut the wolf loose CHAPTER VII returning from supper to write up my sheaf of miscellaneous information gathered during the afternoon I 1 found marcus handy conversation with a stranger I 1 surveyed him casually as I 1 pushed through the door and set him down in the tenderfoot class then he turned revealing a stark small featured american countenance now yelled veiled in deep gloom on one e would have said indeed that he had been crying marcus looked up come here kid shake hands with mr curtis he said 1 I want you to listen to this with conscientious precision mr curtis told ills his story ile he had arrived only three days before bringing ten thousand dollars receipts from the sale of his grocery business and ills house in cairo illinois this money he deposited in the bank of cotton wood while he saw tile the town and looked tor for tin an opening in the bar of the he clack black jack lie met a stranger also from illinois who knew some of ills his people precisely at this moment I 1 anticipated the whole story the pro i ce eding as mr curtis told it in ills his dead grief galef stricken voice was typical orthodox the meeting with two others other str strangers aDgers the deal in mines by which he in bested ested nothing and could not DOE lose the necessity just when the deal stood at completion for proving that lie he had funds the to the bank for his big ten thousand dollars the display of the money in the back room of the black jack the discovery when lie returned to the bank that he be held only a packet of waste paper mr curtis offered no excuses tor for ills his innocence gullibility lie he was past vanity only when lie he told us that he had left his family in the past east and had expected to send tor for them lid did his voice choke and break this was the second lesson to my slow imagination in the essential invariable cruelty of crime the story varied grew more interesting and especially to marcus when mr air curtis touched on the aftermath ile he had thought it over swallowed ills his pride andi and reported the matter to chris mcgrath chris had promised to look into the matter seem much interested added mr air curtis and lie he did nothing at tills this point marcus handy and I 1 exchanged fin fui live tIve significant glances it was part of tin an unwritten agreement that chris mcgrath should inform me of all crimes concerning this the most sensational sat ional confidence operation which had happened as yet in Cotto cottonwood nood lie had dropped not even a hint mr curtis resumed ills his narrative getting no further with tile town marshal he had addressed himself next to sl si conway headman head man presumably chief in that syndicate of gamblers which conducted the blackjack ile he seemed real astonished that such things could happen in his house said mr air cur tag but while he was talking it was in the bar I 1 saw one of tile alio fellows that robbed nie me come out of the back room lil him ixil saas 1 I and started to grab him and the bartender started too cut but he got stuck in the door in front of me and before I 1 could shoe past him my man inan was gone you did that a purposed says 1 I and tilt hit hina him but they pulled me off him und threw me ine out so I 1 come to you I 1 want to know if there Is any justice in tills this town 1 here mr air curti his subdued voice for the first time struck a clenched fist into the palm of the other hand marcus handy spoke his voice unwontedly low kid lie he said youve heard this story you I 1 want you to go straight over to chris mcgrath and put this up to him put it strong ask him why we heard about abou j this little affair and what hes done and on your way home see st sl conway and touch him up similar then come back and tell me what they have to say ile he turned to mr curtis As I 1 approached chris mcgrath sitting in ills his rocking chair chewing his big cigar I 1 felt that I 1 was not going to relish this lob job however the plain recital of mr air curtis had warmed my awn indignation I 1 let some of my feelings foell nga into my voice I 1 suppose when I 1 retold the story and as I 1 talked tile the smile wrinkles smoothed out from about the marshals eyes they grew hard came to your paper he interrupted who does lie he think runs rung this camp the county government or your wile little two by four sheet 1 I suppose he felt he had to fo come I 1 said unwilling to put the already troubled mr curtis into a false position because he thought the authorities it leg were doing nothing nothing snorted chris mcgrath and how am I 1 going to do anything until I 1 git a detective or two but mr curtis says lie saw one of the men who robbed him today I 1 argued weakly ue ile |