Pittston Gazette

              Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Vi lley. 1MTTSTON, LUZERNE CO., I'A.. FRIDAY, FKBRUARY 2:5, 18!H. ESTABLISHED 18SO. » VOL. XLUI. NO. -i6. t A Weekly Local and Family Journal. PER ANNUM I IN ADVANCE van's squad brought it in from otajvo's. (live me a C1rink now anyhow, yon infernal greaser; I'm all hnrnt out with such a day as this. We've got to start the moment they get hack, and there won't bo any time then." to Tucsoj The children had been educated ;it S.ui Francisco, :tnCl the sistrrs, now i 7 ami 15 years of ago respectively, wt rc soon to go to Cuba to visit relatives of tin ir mother, lint were determined once more to pee the quaint old home at Tncson l«eforo so doinjC; hence tliis journey nnder his charge. The story seemed straight enough. Plummer had never yet been to Tucson, hut at Drum Barracks and Wilmington ho had often heard of the Harveys, and Donovan swore he knew them ail by sight, especially the old man. "It's to yon, sir," said Feeny, with c *!•" glance iit the sprawling superscription. "In God's name road ami let ns know what devil's work's abroad tonight."About 1 "D ' And tl Sergeant i lying li.k toward 11 off hot -1 the plain, 1 blanket far iug in its rocky lied, ho reined his horse to tlio left to give him his fill of the pool, and Jhere the troop addressed as Bland presently joined him. KILL NYE FEELS SAD io Isnpe tlifit congress will atford relief this year had better return to tlifir furies anil fheir farms and look to heaven for comfort. With the country running behind $10,000,000 per month and a swelling army of unemployed on every corner, it is evident that in the last national campaign those who promised prosperity were unable to deliver the gooCls. Are they any better prepared to do it now than they were then? Xho: ;i dnik HE FINDS THAT HIS BANK HAS DIS- Even Plmnmer's pudgy fingers trembled as he tore open the dingy packet Old Moreno came forth with a light, his white teeth gleaming, his black eyea flashing from one to another of the group. Holding the penciled page close to the lantern, the paymaster read aloud: Wo can get bavlcy ,nd water at "Where was it you enlisted. Bland?" was the younger soldier's first question. "I understand yen are familiar with nil this country." APPEARED. "Hush. caballero; they eoiuo not to night. You will rest here." both?" "Plenty "The men would mi her wait here, I suppose, until 2 or 3 o'clock?" And tlio S.-OO lie Tlad on Deposit Only a "Softly!—I know not. I know noting: yet, miral—I know. They talk long in the corral—the major and that pig of a sergeant—for him 1 snap my finger. Look you!" And Moreno gave a flip indicative of combined defiance and disdain. Why, how in blazes do you know ? "At Tucson, sir. six months ago. after the stage company discharged me." Mytli—II© »Like« Farming Er,cn if the "Very much, sir; they haven't been able to rest at all today. I'vo fed out the last of the barley, though." The lieutenant reflected a moment, pensively studying the legs of the trum - peter's liorso. Fanner IDoes Have a Hard Time—Ili.s "I rememlter," was tho answer as the lieutenant gently drew rein to lift his liorse's head. "I think you were so frank as to give the reason of your quitting their employment." Boy Henry [Copyright, 1894, by Edgar W. Nye.] That's the way' Henry and I argued all summer. When I was in England, I said to the son of Charles Dickens, who is a business man of perhaps 60 years, "We are liable some day to be a free trade country, they tell me." I said this to make England feel friendly toward us. "Camp burned. One man killed: others scattered; mules and buekboard gone. For God-'s sake help in the pursuit. Strike for Raton Pass. The Indians have ran away my poor sisters. Once more I am on my native heath and take up the burden of life on the farm where I laid it down when I sailed for the old World. The matter was settled beforo Flummer really knew whether to take the responsibility or not, and the cavalry corjHiral with five men rode back into the fiery heat of the Arizona day and was mill s away toward tlio Gila before Feenywoke to a realizing sense of what bad happened. Then he came out and blasphemed. There in that wretched little green safe were locked up thousands enough of dollars to tempt all the outlawry of tlio Occident to any deed of desperation that might lead to the capture of the booty, and with Donovan and his party away Feeny saw he had but half a dozen Mi ll for defense. (bpyRiGi iHT, I8933YC/iARLEJ KJMO "Don't you count on his not finding out, Moreno. It's all easy enough ho far as the major's concerned, but that blackguard Fecny's different, I tell you. He'd hear tho gurgle of the spigot if he were 10 miles across the Gila, and bo hero to bust things before you could servo out a gill-—d—n him! He's lDeen keen enough to put that psalm singing Yankee on guard over your liquor. How are you going to get at it anyhow?" "Is there any chance of Moreno's people not having heard about the Apaches in the C 'hristobal ?" " Well, there was no sense trying to conceal it or anything else a man may do out here, lieutenant. They fired mo for drinking too much at tho wrong time. The section lioss said he couldn't help himself, and I don't suppose he could." What has been done since I went away? ovan an't tnose other men go oacK on the trail they'd find some excuse to stop at Ceralvo's. and, d n 'em, they've done it." "Edward Harvey." "Hardly, sir; they are nearer tho Tucson road than wo are. Tho stage* must have gone through this morning early. It's nothing new anyhow, I've never known the time when tho Indians were not in the neighborhood of that range. Moreno, too, is an old hand, sir." CHAPTER I. The major dropped the paper, fairly stunned with dismay. Feeny sprang forward, picked it up. and eagerly scrutinized the page. Mullan. standing unsteadily at tho head of his wearied Nothing! "Possibly you may," lie said, "but I'll bet yon a new chimney pot hat that England will be a high protection country before America is for free trade." Tho sun was just going down, a hissing globe of fire and torment. Already the lower limb was in contact with the jagged backbone of the mountain chain that rimmed the desert with purple and gold. Out on the barren, hard baked flat in front of the corral, just where it had been unhitched when the paymaster and his safe were dumped soon after dawn, a weatherbeaten ambulance was throwing unbroken a milo long shadow toward the distant Christobal. Tho gateway to the east through the Santa Maria, sharply notched in the gleaming range, stood a day's march away—a day's inarch now only made At this writing the tariff question has about the same appearance that it had eight years ago. I return to this coun- present ly "Don't you s'pose they'll bo along "As I remember," said Drnmmond presently, and with hesitation, for ho hated to pTyinto tlio past of a man who spoke so frankly and who made no effort to conceal his weakness, "you were driver of the buekboard the Morales gang held up last November over near tho Catarinas." Howfrver, I do not care 2 cents one way or the other. If it could be settled and then a law passed that whoever agitated the.quest.ion or even hereafter mentioned the matter should be taken out behind the barn and shot, I wonld_vote for that measure. As it is now, I do not know what crops to raise next year, and everybody is unsettled. Nothing pays dividends any more. Who is going to win the confidence of stocking leg depositors when there is no investment that pays? How will you get me to ransack my hollow gum tree when railroads are in the hands of receivers and even the whisky business has a great big still in it? "S'pose?" and the sun blistered face of tho cavalryman seemed to grow a shade redder as he echoed almost contemptuously the word of his superior. "S'pose? Why, major, look here!" And the short, swart trooper took three quick strides, then pointed through tho 'V III J and dejected horse, was looking on with glassy eyes, his lips vainly striving to frame fu her particulars. Leaving theis- supper unfinished, tho other men of the little squad had como tumbling out into the summer night. No ono paid other heed to tho trooper sprawling in the saml. Already in deep, drunken slumber, he was breathing stertorously. eyes seemed fastened to the letter. Line by line, Word by word, again and again he Spelled it through. Suddenly he leaped forward and clutched Mullan at the throat, shaking him violently. The lieutenant looked long and intently out over the dreary flats beyond the foot hills. Liko the bottom of somo prehistoric lake long since sucked dry by tho action of the sun, tho parched earth stretched away in mile after mile of monotonous, life ridden desert, a Sahiira without sign of an oasis, a sandy barren shunned even by scorpion and centipede. Already the glow was dying from the western sky. The red rim of the distant range was purpling. Tho golden gleam that flashed from rock to rock as the sun went down had vanished from all but the loftiest summits, and deep, dark shadows were creeping slowly out across the plain. Over thf great expanse not so much as the faintest spark could bo seen. Aloft, the greater stars wero beginning to peep through the veil of pallid blue, while over the distant pass the sun's fair handmaiden and trainlDearer. with slow, stately mien, was sinking in the wake of. her lord, as though following him to his rest. Not a breath of air was astir. MA - rif fcjy 1 I I ' r- /7 _ I \/ For an answer the Mexican placed the forefinger of his left hand upon his lips and with that of the right hand pointed significantly to tho hard 1 (eaten earthed flot n At liis iut ition the major bad at least done one tiling warned Moreno not to si.ll a drop of his fiery mescal to any ono of the men. ami when the Mexican expressed entire willingness to acquiesce Feeny's suspicions were redoubled and be picked out Trooper Latham, a N'( w Erglander whom some strange and untoward fate had led into the ranks, and stationed him in the bullet scarred barroom of the ranch, with strict orders to allow not a drop to be drawn or served to any one without tho sanction of Sergeant Feeny or his superior oftic. r, the major. Even the humiliation of this proceeding had m no wise disturbed Moreno's suavity. "Yes; that's tho time I gut drunk, sir. It's all that saved mo from being killed, and between keeping solier and losing my li&Air getting druuk and losing a job fj^ferred the latter." " Yet you were in a measure responsible for the safety of your passengers and mail, were you not?" — ' -n gap in the adobe wall to the ft u edge of the range where the sun had just slipped from view. "It's 10 mile to that ridge, it's 10 minutes since I got the last wigwag of the signal flag at the pass. They hadn't come through then. What chance is there of their getting here in time to light out at dark? You did tell me to have everything ready to start, and then you undid it by sending half the escort back. You've been here in hell's half acre three days, and I've been here three- years. You have never been through Canyon Diablo: I have been through a dozen times and never yet without a fight or a mighty good chance of one. Now. yon may think it's fun to nm your hD-:.d into an ambuscade, but 1 don't. You can get 'em too easy without trying here. I'm an old soldier, major, end too free spoken perhaps, but I mean no disrespect, only I wish to God you'd listen to me next "Ah, I liavo a mine," he whispered. "•You will not betray, eh? Shu-u! Hush 1 He comes now." by night, for this was Arizona, and from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same anywhere south of that curdling mud bath, the Gila, the only human beings impervious to the fierceness of its rays were the Apaches. "And they," growled the paymaster as ho petulantly snapped the lock of his little safe, "they're no more human than so many hyenas." Tho gruff voice of Sergeant Feeny broke up tho colloquy. "Corporal Murphy, tako what men you have here and groom at once. Feed and water too. Moreno, 1 want supper cooked for eight in 80 minutes. Drop those cards now, you men. Yon should havo been sleeping as I told you, so as to bo ready for work tonight.""Well, no, sir; not aftertlio warning I KCive the company. I told them Ramon Morales was in Tucson the night before we had to pull ont, and wherever ho was that infernal cutthroat of a brother of his wasn't far away. I told them it was taking chances to let Judge Gillette and that infantry quartermaster try to go through without escort. 1 begged to throw up the job that very night,hut they held me to my contract, and I had to go. We were jumped not 10 miles out of town, and before any ono could draw a derringer every man of us was covered. The judge might havo known they'd shoot him on sight ever since that greaser from Hermosillo was lynched. But they never harmed the quartermaster." Last year my liens produced, even at low prices, $107.35 worth of eggs. This year opens very dull, with a prospect of 40 per cent falling off, so that there is a lack of confidence even among the hens. I have tried in every way to show them that we are on the eve of a great revival of trade, bnt they look at me askance and refuse to place their eggs in circulation."Answer now. Hware'd you get your liquor? Didn't this-fellow give it to you?" "On my' honor—no, sarsh'nt, 'pon my 'on" '' Oh, to h—1 with your honor and you with it! Hware'd you get it if it wasn't from him? Shure you've not been near Ceralvo's?" A big man physically was the custodian and disburser of government greenbacks—so big that, as he stepped forth through the aperture in the hot adobe wall, he ducked his head to avert unwilling contact with its upper edge. Green glass goggles, a broad brimmed straw hat, a pongee shirt, loose trousers of brown linen and dustcolored canvas shoes made up the outer man of a personality as distinctly unmilitary as it was ponderous. Slow and labored in movement, the major was correspondingly sluggish in speech. He sauntered out into the glare of the evening sunshine and became slowly conscious of a desire to swear at what he saw; that, though in a minute or two the day god would "douse his glim" behind the black horizon, no preparation whatever had been made for a start. There stood the ambulance, every bolt and link and tire hot as a stovelid, bat not a mule in sight. "Shure wo don't go tonight, sergeant.""All I jKjSfkks is at your feet." he had said to the major, with Castilian grace and gravity. "Take or withhold it as you will." "Who says that?" demanded Feeny quickly, whirling upon his snbordinates. The corporal looked embarrassed and turned to Moreno for support. Moreno, profoundly calm, was as profoundly oblivious. "No, sarsh'nt, no Ceralvo's. We met couple gen'l'men—perfec' gen'l'- men, ranchers; they wero going after tho Indians. They gave us jus' o-one drink—'piece. Jns' five minutes—go." try sad and depressed. When I got off the boat, having borrowed money to pay 66| per cent duty on articles which if I had been smart I would have smujrgled in, I hurried to my bank to get $.-,00 to go back to the farm with. MILKING TIME, As I write this another letter from Henry says that the farmer will be the first one to reap a benefit from tariff legislation, and that we must have more confidence in each other. He incloses a note at 90 days which he asks me to indorse with him to aid in the purchase of a costume for a masked ball. " Infernal old hypocrite!" swore Feenv, between his strong, set teeth. "1 believe he'd like nothing ln-tter than to get the escort drunk and trim us over hag and baggage to the Morales gang." The night came on still as the realms of solitude. Only the low chatter of the men, the occasional stamp of iron shod hoof or the munching jaws of the tired steeds broke in upon the perfect silence. From their covert in the westward slope of the Christobal the two sentries of the little command looked n]MDn a lifeless world. Beneath them, whiffing their piiDes after their frugal supper, the troopers wC ro chatting in low tones, some of them already spreading their blankets among the shelving rocks. The emliers from the cook's fire glowed a deejwr red as the darkness gathered in the pass, and every man seemed to start as though stung with sudden spur when sharp, quiek and imperative ther" came tho cry from the lips of tho farther sentry : "Moreno there," began Murphy, finding himself compelled to speak. "How far away was this? Hware were they? Answer or, d—n you, I'll shako tho truth out of you C'' shouted Feeny, suiting action to word. "Spake befoie you, too, are lying like that other hog. Did you ever see the camp? Did you ever get to the crossing at all ? Douse a dipper of water over him, yon Latham, quick. Wake up, I say, Mullan. For tho love of God. major, 1 l)e-lieve they're both drugged. I believe it's all a d d lie. I believe its only a skame to get you to send out the rest of your escort, so they can tackle you alone. Kick him, Murphy, kick him; throt him round: don't let him get to sleep. Answer me, you scoun- What was my surprise and indignation to find in place of the bank a nice new book and stationery store. "And what can I do for you?" asked an urbane man with disheveled whiskers, coming forward. time." "I?" gravely, courteously protested the Mexican, with deprecatory shrug of his shoulders and upward lift of eyebrow. "1? What know I? I do but say the Corporal Donovan is not come. How know I you go not out touightV" Thrice during the hot afternoon had Feeny scouted tho premises and striven He is a great favorite there where he is, and I'll bet that the town will seem dull after he graduates. I tried to get him to help us get in our alfalfa last "Yon wouldn't have had mo leave those women in the lurch back at the crossing, would you?" queried the paymaster half apologetically. "Huh! Tho devil they didn't!" laughed tho lieutenant. "They took his watch and his money and everything he had on except his underclothing. How long had yon been driving when that happened?" to find what number and manner of men Moreno might have in concealment there. Questioning was of littlo use. Moreno was ready to answer to anything and was never known to halt at a lie. Old Miguel, the half breed, who did odd jobs alnmt the well and tho corral, expressed profound ignorance both of tho situation and Penny's English. The Mexican boy had but ono answer to all queries, "No sa-a-abo." "Why, I don't believe that story at all," flatly answered Feeny; "it'ssome d d plant that follow Donovan's springing on you— a mere excuse to ride back so they could drink and "You might tell me where the Farmers and Swappers' bank has gone." said I, with some warmth. "When I leave a bank on a certain corner and tell it to stay there till I come back, 1 am not pleased to find when I return that it has taken advantage of my absence to go out and see the town." "Neither you nor the likes of you knows," was Feeny's stern retort. "We go when we will and no questions asked. As for yon. Murphy, you be ready, and it's mo you'll utsk, not any outsider, when we go. I've had enough to swear at today without you fellows playing off on me. Go or no go. no liquor, mind you. The first man 1 catch drinking I'll tie by the thumbs to the back of the ambulance, and he'll foot it to Stoneman." "Just eight months, sir, between Tucson and Grant." "And did you never serve with the cavalry before? You ride as though you had." 2-i H '' Most men hereabouts served on one side or other," said Bland calmly, as his horse finished his long pull at the water. "The Farmers and Swappers' bank," said the man, "hopes to resume very soon, but of course at present it is closed until it can realize on its collateral." Tanking to his left, he strolled along toward a gap in the adobe wall and entered the dnsty interior of the corral. One of the four quadrupeds drowsing tinder the brush shelter languidly turned an inquiring eye and interrogative ear in his direction and conveyed, after the manner of the mule, a suggestion as to supper. A Mexican boy, sprawling in the shade of a bale of government hay and clad in cotton shirt and trousers well nigh as brown as the skin that peeped through occasional gaps, glanced up at him with languid interest an instant, and then resumed the more agreeable contemplation of the wri hings of an impaled tarantula. Under another section of the shed two placid little burros were dreamily blinking at vacancy, their grizzled fronts expressive of that ineffable peace found only in the faces of saints and donkeys. In the middle of the incisure a rude windlass coiled with rope stood stretching forth a decrepid lever arm. The whippletree, dangling from the end over the beaten circular track, seemed cracked with heat and age. Tho stout rope that stretched tautly from the coil passed over a wooden wheel and disappeared through a broad framed aperture into the bowels of the earth. Other occupants there were, but these even Feony's sense of duty could not prompt him to disturb. Somewhere in the depths of the domestic portion of the ranch, where the brush on tho flat roof was piled most heavily and tho walls were jealously thick, all scouting parties or escorts well knew that Moreno's wife and daughter were hidden from prying eyes, and rumor had it that often there were more than two feminine occupants; that these were sometimes joined by three or four others—wives or sweethearts of outlawed men who rrnle with Pasqnal Morales—and all Arizona knew that Paaqual Morales had little more Mexican blood in his veins than had Feenv "Fire, sir—out to thCD west!" "And your side was' I hustled around and found that the collateral was a lot of paper showing that Mr. Chow Chow,'the grocer, had in dorsed for old man Stiff, the embalmer, and old man Stiff, the embalmer, had indorsed for old Chow Chow, the grocer, in order to borrow of the bank $30,000 deposited there by old man Rennet, the farmer, and old man Ensilage, the farmer, and old man Pieplant, the farmer. It was the old story. The business men had indorsed for each other in order to borrow the fanners' deposits, and the lawyers were now taking what was left in payment for advising them about how to do it. No words were wasted in remonstrance or reply. These were indeed In an instant Lieutenant Drnmmond had leaped down tho rocky canyon, and "Confederate," was tho brief reply. "I was born in Texas. Here comes the troop, sir." "the days of the empire" in Arizona— days soon after the great war of the rebellion, when men drank and swore and fought and gambled in the rough life of thtir exile, but obeyed, and obeyed without question, tho officers appointed over them. These were the days when veteran sergeants like Feeny —men who had served under St. George Cooke and Sumner and Harney on the wide frontier before the war, who had ridden with the starry guidons in many a wild, whirling charge under Sheridan and Merritt and Custer in the valley of Virginia—held almost despotic powers among the troopers who spent that enlistment In tho isolation of Arizona. Bare were the cases when they abused their privilege. Stern was their rule, rude their speech, but by officers and men alike they were trusted and respected.4\vv m,x D "Come on, then. I want to ask you about th'it trail to Crittenden as we ride. We make first for the Picacho pass from here.'' ft S It' "Why, that's south of west, sir," answered Bland. "I had thought perhaps the lieutenant would want to go northward toward the Gila to head off any parties of the Apaches thst might be striving to get away eastward with their booty. They must have picked up something over at the Bend." summer ahead of a big thunderstorm, for he has a big muscle on his arm that looks like a tumor, and he has a corrugated stomach like Sandow, the athlete, who couldn't pay his boardso I reckoned Henry would be a good hand to pitch hay into the top of the barn, but he said he was training-and so could not do anything that wasn't prescribed by the coacher of the team. THROWING HENRY. liis forcfintjcr. gamble with those thugs at Ceralvo's. They've just been paid off and had no chance for auv fun at all before they were orderC C1 out- on this escort duty. That money's been burning in their packets now for three whole nights, and they just can't stand it so long as a drop of liquor's to lie had by hard riding. No soldier is happy till he's dead broke, major—leastwise none 1 ever The soldier Just touched the hat rim, with himself. Ho wan an Americano, a cursed gringo for whom long years ago tno snenns or uaiirorma ana JNevaua had chased in vain, who had sought refuge iind a mate in Son or a juid whose swarthy features found no difficulty in masquerading under a Mexican namo when the language of love had made him familiar with the Mexican tongue. Holding thr jicnrtlrd page close to the lantern, the jHtynuistcr riail abitul. drel!" he fairly yelled,for Mullan's heart was drooping on his brejist and every lurch promised to land hiiri on his face. Twice his knees doubled up like n*footrule and the stout little sergeant had to jerk him to his feet. ¥ "They're more likely to go southward, Bland, for they know where we've been scouting all the week. No, I'll inarch straight to the signal. There they must know where the Indiana have gone." I have been farming it now for two years on my place, and I can say of a truth that I have no desire to turn back. It is a healthful and honest life, for when I say that I liave been as upright as my farm I am saying nothing that I cannot prove. Tn an 1 nul/rnt Lfcutcnrmt Dnimmnnd wis "Aye, aye, sir, hut then yon can only pursue, and a stern chase is a long One evening when he was showing his biceps tumor to some girls here at the farm and telling them about his corrugated Sandow stomach I slipped behind him with a hiplock and grapevine twist which I learned while lumbering on the Kennebec years ago and laid Henry down in a patch of blue grass on his back. I knew I could do it, for his legs have been neglected while he has run a good deal to chest and cowlick. manjltnij hy the kC ntry'x niih fieldglass in hand was standing hy the sentry's side. No need to question "Where away?" When a neighljor's farm that is situated farther np the mountain than mine has slipped down in the night, I have returned it to him on the following day. Stock that has fallen out of other farms above me and into my farm has been returned without loss or delay. Even milk cows that have dropped into my inclosure in that way have only been milked in order to preserve their health. see." Slow to uctiou, slow of speech as was the paymiister, he was not slow to see that Sergeant Feeny was anxious and ill at case, and if a veteran trooper, whom his captain had pronounced the coolest, pluckiest and most reliable man in the regiment, could lie so disturbed over the indications, it was high time to take precaution. What was the threatened danger? Apaches? They would never assault the ranch with ita guard of soldiers, whatsoever they might do in the canyons in the range beyond. Outlaws? They had not been heard of for months. Ho had inquired into all this at Yuma, at the stage stations, by mail of the commanding officers at Lowell and Bowie and Grant. Not for six months had a stage been "held up" or a buckboard "jumped" south of the turbid Gila. True, there was rumor of riot and lawlessness among the miners at Castle Dome and the customary shooting scrape at Elireuberg and La Paz, but these were river towns, far behind him now as he looked back over tho desert trail and aloft into the star studded, cloudless sky. "Search 'em both. See if they've a flask Ik-tune 'em, Latham. Answer me, Mullan, did you Bee the burned camp? Did you see the dead man? Did—• Oh, murtherl Now he's gone! There's never a word to be got out of aither of them this night. But don't yon believe that letther, major. Don't you trust a word of it; it's false as hell. It's only a plan to rob ye of your escort first and your life and money later. That's it, men; douse them, kick them, murther them both if you like—the curs!—and they'd drink when they knowed every man was needed." And adding force to his words Feeny drove a furious kick at tho luckless Mullan. one.'' '' What makes you doubt tho ptory, sergeant? It came straight enough." As for Feeny, there wore not lacking those who declared him spoiled. Twice that day had the paymaster been on the point of rebuking his apparent Indifference. Twice had he withheld his censure, knowing, after all, Feeny to be in the right and hiniBelf in the wrong.. And now in the gathering shades of night, as he stood in silence watching the brisk process of grooming, and noted how thorough and businesslike, even though sharp and stern, was Feeny, the paymaster was wishing he had not ventured to disregard the caution of so skilled a veteran. Drummond turned in his saddle as they rode forth upon the dark falda and gazed long and fixedly at the trooper by his side. Imperturbably Bland continued to look straight ahead. Queer stories had been afloat regarding this new acquisition. He mingled but little with the men. He affected rather tho society of tho better class of noncommissioned officers, an offense not likely to lDe condoned in a recruit. He was already distinguished for his easy mastery of every detail of a cavalryman's duty, and for his readiness to go at any or all times on scout, escort or patrol, and the more hazardous or lonely the task the better ho seemed to like it. Far out across the intervening plain a column of flame was darting upward, gaining force and volume with every moment. The lieutenant never even paused to raise tho glass to his eyes. No magwtying power was nevaea to see the distant pyre; 110 prolonged search to tell him what was meant. Tho troopers who had spuing to their feet and were already eagerly following turned short in their tracks at his first word. '"It came too d——d straight, sir; that's just the trouble. It came straight from Chihuahua Pete's monte mill. It's only a hook to draw 'em bafk, and they played it on you lDecause they saw you were new to the country, and they knew I was asleep; and now, Unless Lieutenant Drummond should hapjien in with his troop, there's no help for ■t but to wait for tomorrow night and o certainty of getting away then." Close at hand in the shade of a brush covered "leanto" hung three or four huge ollas, earthen water jars, swathed in gunnysack and blanket. Beyond them, warped out of all possibility of future usefulness, stood what had once teen the running gear of a California buckboard. Behind it dangled from dusty pegs portions of leather harness, ■which all the neatsfoot oil of the military pharmacopoeia could never again restore to softness or pliability. A newer edition of the same class of vehicle was covered by a canvas *' paulin.' We make our money by hard knocks, and we are so situated that we cannot get together and form trusts for our own protection. We are the only class of people that don't raise a riot or throw bombs when we are imposed upon, and yet when a saving bank busts, if you will analyze the cause, you will find that the farmer's money has been loaned on rotten security in order that other professions and other branches of trade may have the capital to gamble with on the price of our wheat. Ilis mother thinks tliat he will make a great man, but I have got a colored boy named Bud Watson, who works for $11 per month, jyid he is worth two of Henry at anything I ever put him at. "Well, if Mr. Drummond were here, don't you supposo he'd have gone or sent buck to protect those jieople?" "Saddle up, men. It's the beacon at the signal peak." Of course I don't claim that Henry is totally worthless, but he is a nondividend declaring block of stock that I stand ready to swap for range cattle or night blooming Angora goats. "Oh, he'd have gone—certainly— that's his business, but it isn't yours, major. You've got government money there enough to buy up every rumhole south of the Gila. You're expected to pay at Ktoncman, Grant and Goodwin and Crittenden and Bowie, where they haven't had a cent si nee liist Christmas and here it is the middle of May. You ought to have pushed through with all speed, so none of these jay hawkers "ould get wind of vonr going, let alone tne Apaches. fcivery hour you halt is clear gain to them, and here you've simply got to stay 21 hours all along of a cock and bull story nbout some stageload of frightened women 15 miles back at Gila Bend. It's a plant, major; that's what 1 believe." And yet the paymaster, having a human heart in his breast, had been sorely tried, for the appeal that camo for help was one ho could not well resist. Passing Ceralvo's at midnight and pushing relentlessly ahead instead of halting thero as the men hrd hoped, the party was challenged in the Mexican tongue. "Quo viene?" "Do you mean there is no truth in this? Do you mean you think it all a fraud, a trick?" at last queried the major. "Why, it seems incredible!" Then came a scene of bustle. No words were spoken; no further orders given. With the skill of long practice the men gathered their few lDelongings. shook out the dingy horseblankets and then, after careful folding, laid them creaseless back of the gaunt withers of their faithful mounts. Tho worn old saddles were deftly set: lariats coiled and swung from the cantle rings; dusty old bits and bridles adjusted; then came the slipping into carbine slings and thimble belts, the quick lacing of Indian moccasin or canvas legging, the filling of canteens in the tepid tanks Itelow. while all tin; time the cooks and packers were flying about gathering up the pots and pans and storing rations, bags and blankets on the roomy apparejos. Drummond was in the act of swinging into saddle when his sergeant hastened up. Then ho was helpful about the offices in garrison, wrote a neat hand, was often pressed into service to aid with the quartermaster or commissary papers, and had been offered permanent daily duty as company clerk, but lxrgged off, saying he loved a horse and cavalry work too well to be immured in an office. He was silence and reticence itself on matters affecting other p -ople, but the soul of frankness apparently where I10 was personally concerned. Anybody was welcome to know his past, he said. He was raised in Texas; had lived for years on the frontier; had been through Arizona with a ball team in the fifties, and had 'listed under the banner of the Lone Star when Texas went the way of all the sisterhood of southern (not border) states, and then, being stranded after the war. had"bull whacked" again through New Mexico; had drift.-d again across the Mimbres and down,to the old Spanish-Mexican town of Tucson; had tried prospecting, mail riding, buckboard driving, gambling ; had been one of the sheriff's posse that cleaned out Sonora Bill's little band of thugs and cutthroats and had expressed entire willingness to officiate iis that lively outlaw's executioner in case of his capture. A huge stack of barley bags w;is piled at the far end of the corral, guarded om depredation (quadrupedal) by a arrier of wooden slats, mostly down, /id by a tattered biped, very sound sleep. Still he was a great comfort here at home during the dry spell, for when everything was scorched and withered and dry there stood Henry, just as fresh as he could be all the time. "I say j'vst what I mean, major. It's a plot to rob you. I mean the gang has gathered for that very purpose. I mean that every story told us about tho Apaches west or south of hero or between us and the Gila is a blood} lie. The guard at tho signal station hadti't seen or heard of them. They laughed at me when I told them what they tried to make us believo at Ceralvo's. 'Twas there they wanted to have you stop, for there you'd have no chance at all. Shure, do you suppose if the Apaches were out—if this story was true—they wouldn't have heard it and investigated it by this time, and the beacon fire would have been blazing at tho Picacho?" That is why the farmer will hereafter put his money in an old sock in a hollow tree. Do you blame him? Why do you ask me for my "confidence" and beg me to put my money into circulation and help the country when I -return from a foreign strand to find my savings gone and a book store where my bank was in October? 7s "Where's the sergeant?" queriod the paymaster slowly, addressing no one in particular, but looking plaintively around him. To which unlooked for and uncalled for demand the leading trooper, scorning greaser interference in American territory, promptly answered: Still leaning a brown chin on a nearly black hand, and stirring up his spider with the forked stick he held in the other paw, the boy simply tilted his head toward the dark opening under the farther end of the shed, an aperturo that seemed to lead to nothing but blackness lieyond. Nothing could be more placid, nothing less prophetic of peril or ambush than this exquisite summer night. Somewhere within the forbidden region of Moreno's harem a guitar was beginning to tinkle softly. That was all very well, but then a woman's voice, anything but soft, took up a strange, monotonous refrain. Line after line, verse after verse, it ran, harsh, changeless. He could not distinguish the words—he did not wi'sh to; the music was bad enough in all conscience, whatsoever it might become when sung by youth or beauty. As it fell from the lips of Senora Moreno the air was a succession of vocal nasal disharmonies, high pitched, strident, nerve racking. Obeying the Law. "Go to li~ 11" Last summer my boy Henry was home from Yale college, having been suspended for something or other. It seems that the chair of Greek history was offered to a man with a good education along in April, but before he accepted it Henry put a bent pin in it and was tried for the offense. He would have come out all right, too, for he is very solid with the faculty, but just about that time he made a wrong tackle at a football game and was snsiDended, but has returned now and been reinstated in the college. But while he was at homo during the summer he explained to me the situation of the country, and the tariff, and the monetary question. He said that confidence was all that was needed and wound up by getting $8.D worth of mine. The laws of Iceland are so fully recognized that the services of a police officer are hardly necessary. Criminals arrest themselves, and the authorities have little trouble in securing the punishment of an offender. A young Icelandic frien4 of mine, says the writer, going across the desert from Reykjavik, met a man riding a pony. Such meelin f are rare in these parts, and like slaps on the sea the two hailed and spoke. And this was the manner and substance of their conversa- All the same ho heard tho click of lock and was prompt to draw his own Colt, as did likewise the little squad riding ahead of the creaking ambn' lance. The two leaders of the mules whirled instantly about and became tangled up with the wheel team, and tho paymaster was pitched out of a dream into a doubled up mass on the opposite seat. To his startled questions the driver could only make reply that he didn't know what was tho matter; the sergeant had gone ahead to see. Presently Feeny shouted "ForwardI" una on iney went again, arm not uiim Ceralvo's was a mile behind could the major learn the cause of the detention. "Some of Ceralvo's people." answered Feeny; "d—n their impudence! They thought to stop us and turn us in there by stories of Indian raids just below us—three prosjiectors murdered 24 miles this side of tho Sondra line. CochiscDs' peoplo never camo this far west of the Chiricaliua range. It's white cutthroats maybe, nnd we'll need our whole command.". Old Plummer kicked the toe of his shoe into tho sandy soil and hung a reflective head. "I wish you hadn't shut your eyes," he drawled at length. "What's he doing?" "No sa-a-abe," drawled tho lDoy, never lifting his handsome eyes from the joys before him. Then Murphy turned and ran around tho corner of the corral to a point where he could see the dim outline of the range against the western -sky. The next moment his voice rose upon the night air, vibrant, thrilling: "Beg pardon, lieutenant, but shall I leave a small guard with the pack train, or can they come right along?" "I wouldn't, sir, if I hadn't thought you'd keep yours open. You slept all night, tir, yon and Mr. Dawes, while I rode alongside with linger "on trigger every minute." "Why hasn't he harnessed up?" A shrug of the shoulders was the only reply. "They'll go with us, of course. Wo can't leave them here. We must head for Ceralvo's at once. How could those Indians have got over that way?" tion : "What's your name?'' "Stefan." "Hey?" Al»orbed in their gloomy conversation, neither man noticed that the wooden shutter in the adol*! wall close at hand had been noiselessly opened from within, just an Inch or two. Neither knew, neither could see that ln-hind it. in the gathering darkness of the short summer evening, a shadowy form was "Look! God be good to us, major! It's no lie. The signal fire's blazing at tho peak." "Whose son?" "Tliorstein's son." "Where are you going?" "No sa-a-abe," slowly as before, j "What's your name?" "Jose." ' "Well, here, Jose, yon go and tell him I want him." "It is beyond me to say, sir. I didn't know they ever went west of the Santa Unable to listen after the third repetition, Plummer slowly retired from the corral and once more appeared at tho front, just in time for a sensation. Two troopers, two of the men who had ridden back with Donovan, came lurching into tho lighted spaco before the main entrance. At sight of tho paymaster 0110 of them stiffened up ami with preternatural gravity of mien executed the salute. Theother, with an envelop*! in his hand, reeled out of the saddle, failed to catch his balance, plunged heavily into the sand and lay there. CorjDoral Murphy sprang eagerly forward, tho first man to reach him, and turned the prostrate trooper over on his CHAPTER II "I can hardly lDelievo it now, but there's 110 doubting that signal; it is to call us thither at all speed wherever we may be and means only one tiling Maria." "To prison." "What for?' "Stealing a sheep." "No one taking yon?" "No. The sheriff was busy, so he gave me ray papers—the warrant for the arres—and sunt me on to prison by my- Late that night, with jadeil steeds, a little troop of cavalry was pushing westward across the desert. The young May moon was sinking to rest, its pure pallid light shining faintly in contrast with tho ruddy glow of some distant beacon in the mountains beneath. Ever since nightfall tho rock buttress at the pass had been reflecting the lurid glare of the leaping flames jis, time and again, unseen but busy hands heaped on fresh fuel and sent the sparks whirling in fiery eddies to the sky. Languid and depressed after a long day's battling with tho fierce white sunshine, horses and men would gladly have spent tho early hours of night dozing at their rude bivouac in the Christobal. Ever since 9 in the morning, after a long night march, they had sought such shade as the burning rocks might afford, scooping up the tepid water from tho natural tanks at tho Iwttom of the canyon and thanking providence it was not alkali. He also explained how ranch ljetter off we would all be with free trade But what does it matter to the farmer anyway, so long as he has tC uiake tip all deficiencies anyhow? If ho has protection, the merchant sock:- 20 per cent on the clothes he sells to thi farmer, and if free trade allows othei nations to compete with the farmer in raising things to eat the price of his product goes down. What, rights has a farmer got anyhow? He can't combine, because he can't walk eight miles to ati-otkI agitation meetings, and if he should his henhouse would be by a socialist while he is gone. The boy slowly pulled himself frD- fcether and found his feet; started reluctantly to obey; glanced back at his captive, now scuttling off for freedom: turned again; scotched him with bin forked stick, and then with a vicious " huh 1" drove the struggling araneiiia into the sandy soil. This done, he lounged off toward the dark comer in the Wall of the ranch and dove out of ■ight. He had twice been roblDod while driving tho stage across the divide and had been left for (lead in the Maricopa range, an episode which he said w;is the primal cause of his dissipations later. Finally, after a summary discharge he had come to the adjutant at Camp Lowell, presented two or three certificates of good character and bravery in the field from officers who bore famous names in the southern army, and the regimental recruiting officer thought ha could put up with an occasional drunk in a man who promised to make-as good » trooper under tho stars and stripei* as he had made under the stars and bars. And so he was enlisted, and to the surprise of everybody, hadn't taken a dron since. crouching, —'Apaches here.' Sergeant Wing is not tlio man to get stampeded. Can they have jumped tho stage, do you think, or attacked, some of Ceralvo's people?" "Then j'ou think we must stay here, do yon?" queried the paymaster. self." The men exchanged snuff and a kiss and parted. A week later the young Icelander was returning to Reykjavik, and near the same spot he met the same "Think? I know it. Why, the range ahead is aliVe* with Apaches, and we can't stiuid "em off with only half a dozen men. Your clerk's no 'count, And yet in the glaring sunshine of that May morning, after they had unsaddled at Moreno's, and the sergeant, wearied with the vigils of two successive nights, bad gono to sleep in the coolest shade be could find, there came riding across the sunbaked, cactus dotted plain at the west a young man who had the features of the American and the grave, courteous lDearing of the Mexican. "Lord knows, sir. I don't see how they could have swung around there. There's nothing to ( nipt them along that range until they get to the pass itself. They must have come around south of Moreno's." major." "What!" he cried. "StefanTliorstein! Why, you said you were going to prison!" man, I Presently there slowly issued from this recess a sturdy form in dusty blue mouse, the sleeves ot which were decorated with chevrons in far faded yellow. Under the shabby slouch hat a round, sunblistered, freckled face, bristling with a week old beard, forth at the staff official with an expression nair ot languid tolerance, nair or mild Irritation. In most ]Derfunctory fashion the soldier just touched the hat rim with his forefinger, then dropped the hand into a convenient pocket. It was plain that he felt but faint respect for the staff rank and station of the man in goggles and authority. Old Plnmmer stood irresolute. His clerk, a consumptive and broken down relative, was at that moment lying nerveless on a rude lmnk within the ranch, bemoaning the fate that bad impelled him to seek Arizona in search of health. He was indeed of little '"count," as the paymaster well knew. After a moment's painful thought the words rone slowly to ms lips: "So I was, and I went, but they would not let me in." back, I think not, set' "Why not?" "What's the mutter?" queried Plum 'Is he sick?" Tho words were spoken in a very qniet voice. Drummond turned in surprise, his foot in the stirrup, and looked at tho speaker, a been ejvd trooper of middle "aire, whoso hair was already sprinkled with pray. That is why farmers' sons aspire to become bartenders. My lDoy Hejiry will graduate in June if nothing happens, and will march from the curriculum to the mint julep works in spite of his mother, for he says that there's where you find your* statesmen now. There's where the laws are made and unmade. He can mix a good beverage now. for he did so while at home, by means of which he secured the use of my horse ayd buggy during our busy time. "Because, I had lost my papers, and the sheriff said he could not take me without my warrant." mer. "Sick, is it?" was tho quick retort, as tho corporal sniffed at tho tainted breath of tho sufferer. ."Bo tho powers, I only wish I had half his dis- My name is ITarvey, ' said he. [TO Hit CONTlNUEn ] "So they won't havo you in prison?' "My sisters, who have lieen in San Francisco at school, are with mo on the way to visit our parents in Tucson. Father was to have met us at the Bend with relays of mules. We have waited ts hours and can wait no longer. For ( lod's sake let half a dozen of your men ride out and escort them down here. There is no doubt in the world the Apaches are in the mountains on both sides, and I'm trembling for fear they've already found our camp. Nouo of my party dared make the ride, so I had to Tedious. "And you are going Lome again?' "Yes."—Pearson's Weekly. "No." "Well, perhaps you know best, so here we stay till tomorrow night, or at least until they get back." avse." And then caine Feeny, glaring, wrathful." Why not. Bland Miss Aijed (at the afternoon conversazione—You've no idea, Mr. Kallough, what a disadvantage it is heing young. "Because we havo hern along the range for nearly 50 miles below here, sir, ami haven't crossed a sign, and be- "Como down off the top of that horse, Mullan," he ordered, fiercely. font a CJu«*rter. One could almost hear the whisper in the deep recess of the retaining wall —sibilant, gasping. Bome 0110 crouching still farther back in the blaek depths of the interior did hear. The lieutenant commanding, a trill, wirj1, keen If red young fellow, had made the rounds of his camp at sunset, carefully picking up and scrutinizing the feet of his horses and sending tho farrier to tack on hero and there a starting sh(jDe. Gaunt and sunburned were his short coupled California chargers, as were their toughlooking riders; fetlocks and beards were uniformly ragged; shoes of leather anil shoes of iron showed equal wear. A bronze faced sergeant, silently following his young v-iiiei, vvntuueu una witu inquiring e^es and waited for the decision that was to condemn tho command to another night march across tho desert, or remand them to rest until an hour or so lx-foro the dawn. cam 1 understand now \vl account for nt 2 o'clock thought must !«• imagination." t I couldn't what I Miss Caustique (breaking in)—Yes, indeed, it must be tiring when one has been young so many years.—Vogue. Ragged Robert (with a mysterious air) —I saw your husband down town, mum, an ef you'll give me a quarter I'll tell you what sort of a place I saw him go into. 'How—how'd yo get here? Which way'd ye come? Where's the rest?" For seven or eight years the tariff has been used to scare the farmer .into selling his chickens for 8 cents and paying a little extra for his winter uudergam:cuts. For nearly eight years presidential conventions have talked one way and cougress the other. "Sergeant Feeny, I thought I told you I wanted everything ready to start at sunset." With the ponderous dignity of inebriety, Mullan slowly pointed up the ihwcrt under the sjxit where the pole *tar glowed in the northern skies. "Smoke, sir, olf toward the Gila, north of Ceralvo's, 1 should say, just about north of west of where we are." "What was that Not This Time, "You did. sir. and then you undid it," was the prompt and sturdy reply. "Santa Maria!" Kathryn—Frank was saying sweet nothings to yon again last night. Mrs. Greeneye—-Goodness me! Here's the quarter. Tell me quick. What wai the place? But when a moment later the proprietor of this roadside ranch, this artificial oasis in a land of desolation, strolled into the big bare room where half a dozen troCjpers were dozing or gambling it was with an air of confidential joviality that bo whispered to the corporal in charge: Hattie (showing a jeweled finger)—Do you call that nothing, my dear?—Detroit Free Press, :  The paymaster stoCxl irresolute. Through the shading spectacles of green his eyes seemed devoid of any expression. His attitude remained unchanged, thumbs in the low cut pockets of his wide flapping trousers, shoulders meek and drooping. come." "Sarsb'nt," ho hiccoughed, "we're we're too late; 'Paches got there— "Why didn't yon report it Ragged Robert—The postoffice, mum. —New York Weekly. What was Plnmmer to do ? ne didn't want to rouse the sergeant. This wasn't going back to Ceralvo's, but riding northward to the rescuo of imperiled beauty. He simply couldn't refuse, especially when Donovan and others were eager to go. From Mr. Harvey he learned that his father bad married into an old Spanish Mexican family at Havana, bad lieen induced by them to take charge of certain business in Matamoras, and that long afterward he had reuioved to Ouavmas and thence first." "Yon Were asleep, sir, and by the time I got the glasses and looked it had faded out entirely, but it's my lielicf the Indians are between ns and the river, or were over there north of Ceralvo's today. If not Indians, who?" Why? "Hwatl hwat!" thundered Feeny. "D'ye mean thero were women— that It wasn't a plant?" "Fack." • Si'iiniblo Cows. Aunty—You are very fond of meat, aren't JSeeanse the members of a national convention are not responsible, while the members of confess are. Plat forms an made to secure votes, bat taritf legislation has got to fit every locality and' *"ery congressional district. So, as a i-.mier, I am without hope in this world on that matter. I am betting what money I had left in a hollow black gum tree when the bank failed that there are harder times ahead than 1898 has shown— not harder times for banks perhaps, but for people who want clothes and food. "I always kne lie was too timid to propose." "But be married a short time ago." f'Yea, but be married a widow."— Life. 1'root of It. rou? Little Niece—Yes, indeedy if it's lean Where does meat tcriD\v ? "Our fren, the major, he riflnso me sell you aguardiente—mescal, but wait —tonight.'' "W-e-11," he finally drawled, "you raderstood I wanted to get on to Camp Stoneman by sunrise, didn't you? Didn't my clerk, Mr. Dawes, tell you?" "Hware's your dispatches, you drunken lout? How dare you dhrink when there was fight ahead? Ilware's your dispatches? ?nd may heaven blast the souls of you both!" "You ride with me. Bland. I'll talk with you further alxmt this. Come on with til"- men ;vs soon as yon have the packs ready, sergeant." And so saying Lieutenant Drnmmondmounted and rode slowly down the winding trail among the bowlders. At the foot of the slone where the water lav «leam- "lt conies from cattle." "Yes." "Cows?" "Oh, d—nit, Moreno, we'll ho half way to Stoneman by that time," interrupted the trooper quite savagely. "Who's to know where wo got the stuff ? We'll mako 'em believe Dono- "And do they have to lie killed so I can have moat?" "Yes." Too Much. Prisoner—Ten dollars for stealing a pair of shoes? Judge—That's what I said. "Why, judge, they didn't fit.—Lif®. "He did, yes, sir, and you don't want to get there no more than I do, major, fjut I told you flatfooted if you let Don- "How far did you say it was to Ceralvo's, sergeant?" "Here, sergeant," said Murphy, wrenching the soiled envelope from the loose urusu of the urostrate trooper. "I didn't know that, but I guess the cows does, 'cause they act awful mad when I *r\rr\ma Rromnrl linnrl Npw» "Aliout 23 miles, west." "And to Moreno's?"