River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-02-12
But thisl 7" l exclaimed, rushing for a

! had barely time to place myself in
this receptacle for the dead, when a
hoarse voice-onc that knew by the
description which L had Of it, called OUT
Here you Dick"
The woman threw her apron oyer her
head and opened the door.
where's Dick p
"He hasn't come back yet" returned
the woman.
"oh, he ain't-Jen, hev yer hurd a
horse 60 by Tonight
Eyes, only little while ago-a small
man
"Yes--driying like the devil"
~ guess" she said, and then paused,
''you can hear the horse now" ieigning
to listen.
But ELL Wolf mnst have been Of a sus.
picious nature. | heard him leap from
hi2 horse and strike with a Earring punk
upon the sod. A smoudering fire was
burning on the stone hearth. | could
imagine Bills attitude--he had hand on
each door casing, his brutal head was
thrust inside the room; he was peering
about the apartment.
"What in ~ is thatl" he question.
cd; and my heart stood still, for | knew
he spoke of my retreat.
Its Stauifer's coffin. Dick is agoing
to carry it over tonight"
stuff calculated the desperate, "as
he made his bed, so let him lay buzzards
are the sections for the likes o him."
The woman sort groaned, and then
heard Wolf go up and joggle the rain bar
rel at the corner of the cabin, and finally
60 away with the remark
"I1e amt far off f; he couldn' stick to
that blind ciitter when he began ter hur-
ry."
what shall do ! what shall do o.
gasped the woman "he will be back in
twenty minutes, for believe that your
horse is in sight, not more than three.
quarters of mile oil, and my husband is
liable to come at arv moment
'Bnt with him inside the house we
might"
with him - she emphasized it in dis.
pairing tones-"he's Bill VOLTS
brother"
was out Of the coffin in trice then,
you may well believe.
at is death for you any way" she
moaned, "for hear the rattle of Dick S
axles already"
stay, there's the rain barrel" said /,
in desperation, "they've tried that once,
they may not again"
And before you would be able to speak
a sentence, the water was dashed out of
the cask and stealing down into the arid
soil, and | was in the barrel, and the
woman dropping tub half filled with
water in at the top as cover.
She had barely time to enter the house,
the door Of which, fortunately, opened on
tn side away from the moon, when a
ra ding vehicle drew up at the door, and
| heard hoarse voice raving and swear
ing at the woman for something done or
undone, and then from the bung- hole, the
plug having been dislodged in the upset
ting of the cask, saw the furious return
OF the three renegades.
There was a good deal of loud talking,
and explanations, and oaths and stirring
up of hot nectar, and rough remarks
| about the cistern in the corner but both
Dick and the woman seemed sore about
that matter, and the man peremptorily
refused to join the hunt because of the
coffin.
"Well, you're going our way piece"
said Wolf, ''likely enough you'll have the
fun of seeing us wing the turkey"
The conversation was distressingly per-
sonal, made acutely so by Dick asking:
sis there water enough out there, Jen.,
to drink my horse2"
"I'll see," she returned, moving slowly
over the door sill, and then leaping to the
cask she lifted out the tub and tipped my
prison over little so that could spring
out. | was behind the cask when Dick
came to the door, and chirruped his beast
up to the tub to drink.
''I'll go with you as far as the forks"
he said, as two of them came out with
the coffin and slid it into the body Of the
wagon. They then stepped back, proba.
bly, to call the others.
AT that moment wild and desperate
plan entered my brain, but feeling for my
knife found that it was missing, along
with the belt to which it was attached.
In the sudden jostle which the falling
steed had given me, the girdle had been
snapped and lost without my knowledge.
The horses of the three renegades-my
own, which had been retained by the
hostler at the inn, among them we're
hitched on the farther side Of the door,
where the moonlight, striking by the end
of the cabin, rested fnlly upon them. 1t
was suicide to attempt Selling one of
them but as the woman with some pur
pose in her mind sang out to the men TO
come back and get the last dipper full OF
liquor which she had mixed, seized the
only alternative. | sprang lightly into
the wagon, lifted the coffin lid, aud again
crawlcd into the long, narrow prison.
There was no choice. The food Of
moonlight has swept so far toward my
hiding place that only part of my body
was concealed by the barrel, and knew
that discovery was inevitable, for the
mans horse stood in such position that
in order to recover the reins he must have
trodden upon me- and there was no
earthly thing as far as the eye could
reach over the plain, behind which man
could hide. All, but what il he should
re.adjust his freight Can sou think
how my heart pumped away at the
thought. You wonder what my plan
could bel had none, other than the
hope Of having only one man to deal With,
I