White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1858-06-17
WHITE CLOUD, KANSAS, THURSDAY, JUNE II, 1858.

or pole, cut from the woods and placed
as prop against it. The hand railing
around the piazza was partially gone, and
the pillars which supported the roof weri
nearly rotted sway at the base. Altogeth.
er the building was as dilapidated and
cherries, as if it had remained untenan-
ted for whole generation. -
His first summons failing to attract
attention, Michael knocked more loudly
than before. and in a moment after, a firm
and masculine step was heard advancing
within the spartment-the door was
thrown open, and he found himself face
to face with tall, athletic and powerful
man of about forty years, who invited
him to enter.
The furniture of the room into which
Michael was ushered, was of the most
costly and luxurious description. Indeed,
considering the time and condition of the
country, it might have been esteemed
elegant and tasteful. Rich carpets of re
manufacture yielded to his tread as he
passed along, and polished mahogany
tables, with skilfully carved arm-chairs
of oak, met his view on every side. A
beautiful clock of most costly style,
licked upon the mantel- board, which was
elegantly ornamented with vases of pure
alabaster and costly 6youteris of exquisite
workmanship. So richly in,leed was the
apartment furnished, that Michael could
not repress a glance of surprise and won
der, when he compared the interior of the
apartment with the mean and dilapidated
appearance of the building from without.
His expression of wonder and aStonish-
ment did not escape the observation Of
his host, whose smile as he remarked it,
might have seemed to arise from gratified
vanity, but for the expression of scorn
and bitterness by which it was accompa-
MED.
Advancing to chair pointed ont to
him at the farther side of the fireplace,
Michael seated himself, while the individ-
ual who had admitted him into the house,
resumed his place at table few feet
distant. just in front of the fireplace,
and busted himself among pile of papers
which lay before him, with which he had
been occupied before the entrance of our
hero.
But these two were not the only tenants
of the room. Immediately before our
hero on the opposite side of the hearth
was small, wiry, pug-nosed, red-headed,
ferretty little individual, who, from the
first moment of the entrance of Michael
had fixed upon him his diminutive gray
eyes, with an impudent wondering stare.
His pantaloons, that seemed to shrink
back instinctively from any kind Of init
macy with the coarse and rude broganE
that encased his neither extremities, so
tightly encompassed his spindle shanks,
that his ever having established himself
in them could not be accounted for by
any process short of liquefaction or by
draulic pressure. For the scantiness of
his neither garment, however, ample
amends were made by the hinge proper
tons of large blue blanket overcoat,
that hung about his body like ships
sails around the mast in dead calm.
The other individual who sat with sew
eral papers scattered before him, which
he was arranging, as he hurriedly glanced
at their contents, was evidently a man
who had seen somewhat of the world
Though not an Unlocking man, his phys
log lomy was certainly not an attractive
one. His heavy brows, and certain
sinistrous expression in the glance of his
eve, which seemed to shrink beneath the
calm, quiet gaze of our hero, caused him
to regard him somewhat unfavorably.-l
His eve fell whenever he casually encoun-
tered the glance of Michael. Our hero
did not fail to remark that he started,
and with an exclamation of surprise,
glanced hastily and suspiciously towards
him, as his comrade left his seat, and
hurriedly whispered few words in his
ear. A sense of insecurity, and a pre-
sentiment of danger began to steal over
Michael, for he was greatly apprehensive
Of having fallen in with Inscriptions
tories, who were aware of his part in the !
contest with the mother country. Dis
sembling his uneasiness, however, ne
manifested no symptom of distrust or
Meantime the storm was raging in all
its fury. The old house rocked and tot
tered in the gale as though its decaying
timbers were about to yield to the shock
Of the tempest, and be riven by the storm.
AS wild as was the contention of the
elements, Michael felt that it would have
been far more prudent and safe to have
encountered the tornado upon the high
way, than to have placed himself in q
in the power of two reckless
men, who might belong to that class of
who, under the name of 10y
atty to distant monarch. perpetrated the
most revolving and heinous crimes.
At the time of which we speak, there
existed between the wings and tories, the
most unsparing enmity. The blood Of
war was shed in peace, with cool and
6end-like atrocity and the loyalists, as
they termed themselves, asked no other
excuse for their deeds of blood than that
the victims of their sanguinary cruelty
adhered to political creed different from
their own, and were animated by an I'M
sl,srable devotion to their eountry's indie
kdence.
Michael already hogan to suspect that
the two individuals before him belonged
to that reckless = of marauding tories
that infested ountry, and he well
knew that if his surmise proved to be
correct. his safety Mouh depend upon his