The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-02-01
MARTHA MARBLEHEAD
The Maid and MatFon or Chehalem.
CHAPTER XXX.

lue journey proven long anu weary
one. Martha's heart beat a wild tattoo
of maternal anguish as she thought OF
her four tender little ones, torn from her
loving embrace, to go humping and
jolting night and day over the villain
Gus roads, with no one to care for them
save the hairy-faced attorney who had
proved himself as heartless as he was
cunning.
But the longest journey, even the
Journey OF life itself, will some day come
10 a terminus.
The little town where the stage at last
halted, and which Martha was told was
her place OF destination, sat at the foot
Of a tree-eovered mountain range, its
few houses made OF logs and boards, and
its muddy streets, sans sidewalks, sans
pavement, sans everything but muck
and mire, filed with scattering groups
Of Indians, and an occasional miner or
ranchman.
The hotel and stage Office were in one
building, with billiard saloon in one
corner, monte bank in another, and a
tobaeco-smeared stove in the middle.
am not pieturing a scene Of to-day,
reader, else ] should speak Of partitions
and painted screens and other like OBJ
structions to the vision Of the passer by,
for, even in Montana, men are now
ashamed to expose the evidences Of civ
] iliyaffon fb.f fba,r o.fI ..s.-,,os - ob,r,-
and drinking saloons to the full gaze of
the non-participant, whether man or
woman.
Martha was more frightened than in
dignaut. She could not see a woman
anywhere, and she looked equally in
vain for her children.
'Do you know where Thomas Jones
may be found ?" she asked, turning to
stupid bartender with down on his
upper lip and bloated, ruby-eolored
mouth.
"Thomas Jones? Lemme see! Oh,
yes! The new district judge. You'll
find him over at his Office, ma'am,
across the way, but if you're a decent
woman, and 1 low you are, you won't
be for staying there, ma'am."
"What do you mean ?'' asked Martha,
bewildered, in spite Of all she knew.
"Oh, nothing. There's a gang o.
women around his cheJdng that amt
the chastest; that's all"
"But where are his children ?"
"What children? The four babies the
stage brought in last week ?'
ayes"
The fellow took his own time 10 an
swer. First he placed a chew Of tobacco
in his mouth; then he rolled it from
side to side in his jaw. After a
while he expectorated, and then he was
ready for speech.
"They took the young ones over to the
bagnio fora day or two, but they couldn't
get along, and so spit, spit, spit he's
boarding them in the canyon with a
squaw."
Martha screamed iuvoluntarily.
as it possible ?'' she asked, wildly.
"Possible, and probable, and So" was
the decided reply.
"Where is this Indian woman ?"
'Back yonder in the gulch. And say,
my lady, if you're the kids mother, and
l low you are, you'd better turn and go
back, for we've heard how you were di-
vorced and the children given to their
daddy, and all that, and we know they'd
"a been left with you if you'd "a been
the proper person to take care of them"
"I'll see them, or die! And I'll brook
no insult from you, sirp' said Martha,
leaving the dirty stove, with its close
atmosphere, and encouutering the dirty
street with its pure air overheard.
The Office of Judge Jones was not hard
/, to find. Indeed, it was the most con-
spieuous building in the village. She
plodded through the mud, stepping here
and there upon blocks and chips of
stone, but reached the Office in a sorry
plight. The first person she encoun-
tered was the hairy-faced lawyer with
the pulu-colored locks.
: "Where is Thomas Jones ?p asked
4ANi buef tt0uioAAuB AIoul ueau 10 1901
with excitement.
/ "What do you want to know for ?
: Have you any designs upon him ?''
asked the Judges attorney, with a leer.
Martha felt that she could have
! knocked him down for his impudence.
, Sometimes nothing but the physical
argument will teach some persons a
, needed lesson.
/ "Can see Mr.. Jones ?" she asked
smothering her temper with iron deter.
, minqtion.
mo, madam; you cannot"
{ "Then I '0iH; and that ends it ~ she
exclaimed, brushing past the sneering
= laekey with the air of princess, despite
, her bedraggled clothing and detected
! weary look.
5 "Much comfort she'll getl" exultantly
commented the owner Of the rubieunC
face and pulu-cOlored hair.
5 Judge Jones was playing whist. Hi:
+. companions were two bedlzzened wom.
en- whom the discarded wife had nevel
seen. At this she was surprised, for she
0 had expected to encounter Belle Nun
5 son, his former dmorita.
Judge Jones arose 10 his feet, towering
in his offended dignity like terribl,
: injured man.
"Woman, what are you doing here
-, You have no claims upon me! he eiae