The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-03-26
shrinking, pale, and covering woman

H.
noticing my breathless haste.
Had I stopped for a moments relec-
ton upon the strangely isolated position
of the cabin, should not have passed in
by her with the explanation
Is there any chance to hide here
my horse has thrown me and I believe q
party of desperadoes are close up with
me-"
I noticed that the moon was coming
up dry and red in the east, when she
mechanically closed the door behind me,
before had finished my explanation.
No, no; there is no place." she
gasped, her quick ear now catching the
sound of the coming horsemen. This
is all the room there is-and there is
neither cellar nor attic.
But this9" exclaimed, rushing for
dark object in the corner.
It's coffin, " was her quick response;
6 but there's no other chance-they are
turning up to the door-get in.
/ had barely time to place myself in
this receptacle for the dead, when a
hoarse yoice-one that I knew by the
description which had of it-called: :out ::
Here you, Dick. :"
The woman threw her apron over her
head and opened the door.
"Where's Dick 2"
st He hasn't come back yet" returned
the woman.
sob, he arn't-Jen, hev yer hurd a
horse go by tonight"
t' Yes, only little while ago-a small
man9"
Yes-driving like the devil
ttI guess, she said, and then paused,
you can hear the horse now" feigning
to listen.
But Bill Wolf must have been of a sus-
picious nature. I heard him leap from
his horse and strike with jarring plunk
upon the sod. A smoldering fire was
burning on the stone hearth. / could
imagine Bills attitude-he had hand
on each decreasing, his brutal head was
I thrust inside the room he was peering
about the apartment.
| tsWhat in h is that2" he ques-
toned; and my heart stood still, for
knew he spoke of my retreat.
ssIt's Stauffer's coffin. Dick is going
to carry it over tonight.
ssStuff!" CALCULATED the Desperate, Gas
he made his bed, so let him lay-buz-
yards are the sections for the likes o
him."
The woman sort groaned, and then I
heard Wolf go up and joggle the ram
barrel at the corner of the cabin, and
finally go away with the remark:
" He amt far off he couldn't stick to
that blind critter when he began ter
hurry"
sc What shall do? what shall doa"
gasped the woman ''they viii be back
In twenty minutes, for I believe ~ that
your horse is in sight, not more than
three quarters of mile off, and my hus-
band is liable to come at any moment"
But with him inside the house we
might
ssWith him! +" she emphasized it in
despairing tones" he's Bill VOLTS
brother.
I was out of the coffin in a trice then,
you may well believe.
1t is death for you any way" she
moaned, stfor I hear the rattle of Dicks
axles already
'sStsy, there's the rain barrel, % said
I, in desperation, "they've tried that
once, they may not again.
And before you would be able to
speak sentence, the water was dashed
out of the cask and stealing down into
the arid soil, and I was in the barrel,
and the woman dropping a tub half
filed with water in at the top as cover.
She had barely time to enter the
house, the door of which, fortunately,
opened on the side away from the moon,
when rafting vehicle drew up at the
door, and heard a hoarse voice raving
and swearing at the woman for some
thing done, or undone, and then from
the bung- hole, the plug having been
dis1odged in the upsetting of the cask,
/ saw the furious return of the three
renegades.
There was good deal of loud talking,
and explanations, and oaths, and stir
ring 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.
&c Well, you're going our way piece"
said Wolf, t' likely enough you'll have
the fun of seeing us wing the turkey"
The conversation was distressingly
personal, made acutely SO by Dick ask
ing:
lis there water enough out there,
Jen, to drink my horse2"
'sI'n see" she returned, moving slow
ly over the door-si1l, and then, leaping
to the cask, she lifted out the tub, and
tipped my prison over little SO that
could spring out. I was behind the |
cask when Dick came to the door and |
chirTIped 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, prob |
ably to call the others.
At that moment wild and desperate |
plan entered my brain, but feeling for |
my knife, found that it was missing, I
along with the belt to which it was at /
tached. In the sudden jostle which the
falling steed had given me, the girdle /
bad been snapped and lost without my
knowledge. The horses of the three /
renegades- my own, which had been re-
tained by the hostler at the inn, among I
hitched on the farther side
Of the door, where the moonlight, strik-
ing by the end of the cabin, rested fully |
upon them. It was suicide to attempt |
seizing one of them /; but as the woman,
with some purpose in her mind, sang out
10 the men to come back and get the last
of liquor which she had
mixed, seized the only alternative.
sprang lightly into the wagon, lifted the
coffin lid, and again crawled into the
long, narrow prison.
There was no choice. The food of
had swept so far toward my