Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1884-11-07

ttohluS JAIN I1Ci SiClOCk tOtM Wao
sharply defined against the early morn
ing sky for moment--I can see it
yet! Then she sank back into her
seat, and presently she had passed
out OF sight.
The mountain, that had been wrap.
ped in purple mists when they had sent
their sweet, fresh breezes into the
heart of the midsummer, stood up
blue and clean against the cold, gray
sky OF November. All day long a
norther had been roaring down from
them twisting the bare thorny branch
es OF the mesquite thickets, breaking
the limbs OF the great, isolated. olive.
colored live-oaks whistling through
the dry grass of the little prairie, strlk.
ing like solid thing upon the shiver.
ing sides of the shelterless gaunt, long
horned cattle, and sweeping with
moan into the streets ofthe town. The
little town itself, all the warmth and
color blown out OF It looked deserted,
for it was Sunday, and every man was
housed with his own in the glow of his
hearth fire.
AS light came. the wind grew keen.
er, with suggestion of sleet upon it.
The old stage lunbered in, arous-
ing the dogs as it passed but presently
these dropped into stiffness again. The
lights behind the windows began early
to disappear, and one by one went
out. except in a house far down in a
hollow, where the divine hour of wo.
man was approaching-there only
twinkled all night the feeble rays of a
lamp.
| There, and in the square stone Jail
where the guards watched and dozen
alternately in the hall below, and in
the cells above the prisoners shivered
on their scanty pallets.
Down the long hill, close upon mid
night, into the midst of this stiffness
and gloom, rode two score and more of
men. Grim, silent and pittiless, with
faces velled and belts bristling with
weapons they came like phantoms from
some unknown Dark.
The heavy thud of a ponderous
beam upon the door of the Jail The
guards within start to their feet. The
prisoners grasp each other in hush of
. expectation into which creeps the hope
of deliverance. Again and again the
dull sound m;ngles with the ever in
[ creasing roar of the wind and the: dash
. of the rain. Then there it the crash OF
$ splintered wood and a rush like that Of
= doom, silent and mighty, up the mar
+. row stairway, with the white and strick-
e en- guards driven on before. Deliver
. ance2 The solid key groans in the
= lock, the smoky lamp throws ghastly
t glare into the cold cell.
i And presently emerges into the freez-
Ing night air long, double file of men
f whose faces are hidden, but whose
, clenched hands betray too well lack
| of mercy; and in the midst thereof
/ walk two barefooted, half-naked crea.
, lures, with the ropes already knotted
S about their necks.
;. And so silently hurries this ghostly
E procession up the wind swept hill and
f across the barren heath, that not even
, the watch.dogs are aroused from their
!, slumbers. One old hunter, indeed
a lifts his head from his pillow with the
r instinct of danger upon him, rises upon
/ his elbow and listens to the soughlng
t OF the wind, while the glow of the dy-
/. ing fire reddens the barrel of the rifle
swung above his door, laughs content.
e eddy as he hears nothing else and drops
t back into dreamland.
r Behind, the Jail doors are left wide
e open. but the other prisoners, frozen
J. with horror, cover back into their cells
e and pray.
e And out yonder the work is finished;
: finished remorselessly and in silence.
One of the victims indeed begs for the
0 life of his younger brother, and the
other prays that he may be shot. Blu,
that is all. But white and cold already
;, before death has had time to freeze
> the blood in their veins, and they are
. left swinging to and fro in the frantic
= gusts of wind. while those yelled phan-
toms of the night mount their horses
j, and ride swiftly back into the unknown
= dark from whence they came.
I The little town sleeps peacefully on
, and midnight has not yet sounded.
q 1t is still the Lord His Day.
. And that old murder has been
: avenged 2"
iii Fab, but ouer yonder, more than fifty
) miles away, that Sunday morning, a
slender little woman had climbed into
! an old rickety, open buggy. l have
!. told you that never saw her face, Blu,
: l make no doubt at that moment hel
: face beneath the faded sunbonnet was
> beautiful lovely light, of first youth
;, and first love, played over the lonely
pallor of her cheeks her sunken eyes
: shone and bonny smile parted hel
lips as sheleaned forward and gather.
ed up the reins and started the bony
, slow-moving horse on.the long and
: wearisome journey. For "the boys
bond had been signed. Tomorrow
they would be set free-for a time a,
5 least-and respite meant everything