The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-02-26
THE LONE CABIN.

1 had ridden hard and fast, and was
astonished to find myself coming into Il
struggling settlement. On the course
which l should have taken there was
nothing of the sort. Somewhere / had
crossed the right trail and taken the
wrong one. Almost any traveller in the
border sections would have been glad to
thus stumble upon a place for food and
refreshment. Not so with myself. In
the breast pocket of my coat | carried
five thousand four hun lred and ninety
odd dollars, United States money. L
had received this amount from MAJ. Gen.
Il. M. Lacey, and it was to be carried
through to Fort l., and placed in the
hands of Col. Asa L. Southland, to defray
necessary army expenses.
"Get through Mt your best gait,
Carnes," said the Major, 8" the money
is long since overdue, and Southard's
rather irascible temper must have been
tried to the utmost You know how the
soldiers get to growing if uncle is at all
delinquent in paying up. Ride in Il
careless manner, but be careful [ don't
think that any one dreams of the arrival
of this money-save, of course, the mail
agent and the clerk who delivered me the
packages. p"
l was directed over an unfamiliar sec
ton, hence my losing of the right route.
/ considered it my safest plan, SO long as
| had Numbered upon the verge of the
settlement, to boldly enter and rest as an
ordinary traveller would do. Should |
push hurriedly on, L might, by that very
act, excite suspicion.
flbnra xIyaro only two ,,,o,, ~, t1o 1,o,.
room when / entered the landlord and
the hostler. Under his familiar cor
diality the landlord furtively eyed me in
a manner that made me wish / was well
done with my job, but treasured myself
with the thought that it was the con-
seriousness of the responsibility reposing
upon me that caused his chances to dis
turb me. Before / had finished my sup
per two more travellers rode up, called
out for the hostler, and ordered drinks,
or rather one of them came in with the
orders, and the other threw himself down
on bench outside and began loading a
huge pipe. Strolling carelessly about
the room, l managed to glance out of the
window. My heart leaped into my
throat, for III the man outside-I recog-
nized-from description of him-Bill
Wolf-one of the most desperate char
acters that ever figured in the annals of
border rlffianism. There was the huge
rcd mustache, the thick, hairy throat,
and the shoulders hunched up around
his head, suggesting the shape of a
mammoth clam-and the voice with a
deep down information like the plop,
plop, plop of water hurriedly leaving a
Jug. If the description of the notorious
renegade is inelegant, it has the merit of
truthfulness, and must, therefore, be
. excused.
/ went through with my supper in
form, but whatever appetite L might
have felt on my entrance into the inn,
had vanished with my discovery. After
time the other fellow came in, having
tbeon out, he said, TO look after the ami
mails, and they also ordered supper.
Now was my time to leave, which l did
in careless manner, passing some COM
monplace remarks with the two men as
crossed the dim, smoky bar-room. AS
they seemed to take no notice of me
whatever, / felt my spirits rise with
hopes that should make a safe transit.
1t was quite duskish outside, but the
hostler was Sitting about the stable with
his lantern, which emitted but little
more effulgent light than a white bean
would have done, but he graciously
brought out my steed at the order, and,
mounting, / thankfully trotted away.
The moon--a little passed full-would
make her debut in something more than
an hour after sunset and | pushed along
At smart trot SO as to get well out upon
the plains and into the right trail before
that time. The animal went along at an
assuring gait, and / was feeling infinitely
relieved at my providenial escape from
contact with the desperate characters
whom / had left at the settlement, when /
my acute, trained. ever alert ears de- /
tected the sound of swift riding. In .
which directionl From behind me, rs
the mildly floating breeze blew from that /
quarter. The face of the prairie in this /
section was little rolling, but not so as
to afford any shelter and not shrub or
bush dotted the expanse for miles.
i drew up my horse one moment to
Aisten. No chance travellers ever rode .
like that It meant pursuit.
gave my steed a Calling lash and she
broke into convulsive gait, hove her
body up with one or two plunges, STUN
bled, going down from her knees to her
nose, and pitched me literally heels over
head. For an instant was paralyzed
with astonishment, the next seized the
bit to fetch up the fallen animal, which
had IN the meantime undergone q strange
metamorphosis. She had lost her white
face on OF in the grass, and, passing my
hand between her eyes, i found the hair
was we.. In an instant was examining
the white legs-my horse had been pecu-