The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-11-24

to do, out of pure, guileless depravity of heart, but that a man should plan and plot for a couple of years to impose upon the simplicity of dishonest community by persistent show of responsibility, with the ultimate object of stealing its whole wealth at one fell swoop, was scarcely within the limits of his narrow intelli- gence. He stared blankly at the empty safe, and whispered once more to Pete in timid undeuone, Perhaps he's got wind of this, and took of the plate to somebody else's hut. If the boys was to come and catch us here, it 'ud be derned awkward for you an me, Pete" But Pete answered gruffly and boldly" Never you mind about the plate, pard. The cap'n's gone, and the plates gone with him :; and what we've got to do new is to rouse the boys and ride after him like greased lightnin'. The mean swindler, to go and swindle me out Of the silver that I've been and dug out of that there claim yon- der with my own pick :" For the sense of personal injustice to oneself rises per ennially in the human breast, however depraved, and the man who would mur- der another without soruple Is always
 
 when he finds the counsel for the prose- cution pressing point against him with what seems to him unfair persistency.
 Pete flung his lock-pick out among the agave scrub that faced the bank shanty and ran out wildly into the midst of the dusty white road that led down the row of huts which the people of Aylmer's Pike euphemistieally described as the Main street. There he raised such an unearthly whoop as reused the sleepers m the near est huts 10 turn over in their beds and listen Tn wonder, with d vague idea that the lnJuns were coming down on a scalping-trail upon the diggings. Next he hurried down the street, beating heav- i fly with his fist on every frame door. and kicking hard at the log walls of the sue whole Pike was out and alive. Unwhole- some-looking men. Tn unwashed flannel shirts and loose trousers, mostly bare footed in their haste, came forth to in- qulre, with an unnecessary wealth of ex- pletives what the something was stirring. Pete, breathless and wrathful in the midst livid with rage and disappointment, could only shriek aloud. Cap'n riezpoint has cleared out of camp and taken all the plate with him !" There was at first an lncredulous shouting and crying then a genera al stampede toward the bank shanty: and finally, as the truth became appar- ent to everybody. deep and angry howl TOT vengeance on the traitor. In one moment Captain Pierpoint's smooth-faced villainy dawned as clear as day to all Axylr La he k0l ak gamblers, rascals. and blacklegs stood awe-sIuck with horror and indignation at the mere plausible rogue who had sue ceeded m swindling even them. The clean-washed. white-shirted. fair-spoken villain they would have his blood for this, if the United States Marshal had every mother son of them strung up in d row for it after the pesky business was once fairly over.
 Nobody asked how l'ete and Hiram came by the news. Nobody asked how they had happened to notice that the ] shanty was empty and the safe rited. All they thought of was how to catch and punish the public robber. He must have made for the nearest depot, Madison Clearing, on the nion laciiic line, and he would take the tirst cars east for St Louis-tnat was certain. Every horse n the Pike was promptly requisitioned by the fastest riders, and a rough cavalcade. revolvers in hand, made down the gulch and across the plain. full tilt to Madison But when, in the garish blaze of early morning. they reached ,he white wooden depot in the valley. and asked the ticket clerk whether man answering to their description had gone on by the cast mail al !: ;o. the ticket-IleIk Swore. in reply. that not a soul had left the depot by any train either way tsat blessed night. Pete Morris proposed to hold d revolver 10 his head and force him to confess. But even that strong measure failed to induce d satisfactory reiraction. By way of gem eral precaution, two of the boys went on by the day train 10 St. Louis, but neither of them could hear anything ot Captain Pierpoin.. Indeed. as a matter of fac, the late manager and present appropria,or of the Aylmer's Pike bank had simply turned his horses head in the opposite direction. toward the further station a, Cheyenne Gap, and had gone westward to san Francisco, intending to make his way back to New York via Panama and the isthmus railway.
 When the boys really understood that they had been completely duped they swore vengeance in solemn fashion. and they picked out two of themselves to carry out the oath in regular assembly. Each contributed of his substance what he was able; and Pete and Hiram, being more stirred with righteous wrath than all the rest put together, were unanimously de- puted to follow the captains tracks to San Francisco. and to have his life where ever and whenever they might chance to find him. Pete and Hiram accepted the task thrust upon them. eos aD,ore and went forth 1ealously to hunt up the doomed life of Captain Montague Beres- ford Pierpoin,.
 : II
 Society in Sarnia admitted tha, Cap tain f,eIpoint wa, really quite sF. scdai- sition. An English gentleman by bi,th well educated, and of pleasant manners he had made little money out west by