Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-04-26
As A CHILDIN A CRADLE
BY Dwight Weldon.

Oy w SASAoIAs
/.
aDraw your tickets, gentlemen! I
must confess, it's no pleasant task run
ming down smugglers, but some one
mist do it. Number four is the lucky
figure; who has it ?"
From the ranks of twelve detectives,
members of the world famed Chinkerton
corps of San Francisco, a handsome,
manly Young fellow of twenty-five
stepped forward.
"Ridgely? YOU, eh?" murmured the
detective "Well, you're the chosen
man. Orders? there you are: Rest
neither night nor day till you have run
the opium smugglers to cover. Never
mind the stuff itself. It's the men we
want"
Walter Ridgely received packet of
papers from the hand of his superior
officer: bowed silently, and as silently
withdrew to the stall that was his
desk, trunk, and Longing place when
off duty.
He was a new man in the service;
had been clerk or bookkeeper in the
East, had come West to better his for
tune. had failed, and, given work by
the detective agency, had exhibited q
nerve force and ability as o man-hun-
ter that at once won command and
high pay.
About month previous, however,
he had been set at work on q case that
had puzzled even his superiors, and
utterl y battled himself Gen. Robert
DAYTON, wealthy retired merchant,
had been found murdered in his bed
one morning. Ridgely, sent to work
up the case, found two frightened SER
wants. a rifed money box, and beau
tiful girl. Grace, the daughter of the
General by his side, was frantically
calling her dead fathers name, and
utterly unable to give O theory as to
the motive of the crime, outside of
robbery.
In her frantic emotion, however, she
had suddenly alluded to discarded
lover-Aylmer. Noting the fact, and de-
termining to remember that name and
to later question the fair, stricken
Grace about its owner, Ridgely left
the house of death to report the case
at headquarters, anl! at the same time
to confess secretly That he had met the
first woman in the world capable of
stirring his heart to its intensest
depths.
That evening when he returned to
the mansion a new sensation awaited
nm. He found the servants terribly
heightened and excited-they had a
startling story to tell. Just at dusk a
close carriage had driven to the front
OF the house. A note brought by the
driver induced Miss Dayton to go to
the carriage, as if to see some invalid
friend there. Then a shrek, a man
sprang from the vehicle, she was thrust
within, the door banged, and the car
rage whirled away ere the alarmed
servants could get to ths,road.
=, Since then, almost day and night,
!. .he Young detective had sought to solve
.he double mystery of murder and alb
auction by investigation and theory.
a AS to the former, utter failure brought
MN ~ to the blank wall of mysterious
disappearance" within week. AS to
seurmlse, he believed that the re-
!ected sutton, Aylmer, had murdered
General Dayton from motives of re-
tv;enge, because he opposed his aspira-
nc, IONS for his daughters hand, and had
LAT later abducted the girl herself. Where
ne had taken her, what he hoped to
gam e finally, were vague guesses with
.ne detective, whom q dawning love
f %ore than duty OF reward inspired to
1 m the fate of the eaautiful Grace
Why did he suspects Only
from what he had heard Of Sthe man
a absolute, desperate fellow, who, il
was was ramored, had disappeared from So
l,iety, after his rejection by Grace, te
become chief of lawless band of ma
'a uq4 living in the mountains.
o.; ne has made Grace captive" the
I In Ridgely; "he hopes to terrify
ner INTO wedding him; he believes that
Sda; ~. of her fathers death is not
directed against him. When he has
o oo,ceo her to become his wife he vii
sonpel her to claim the fortune, con
a sei' II into ready cash, and spirit bel
a" a:s, TO some safe and distant retreat
7 : , olhcult task to prob all this, but
bo VIII ind him yeststhat girls face
WI; WIZ. ~ me-so piteous, SO pleading
~ ~ t ~. first clue to her fate never de
s;o mat thought found expression in .
l h;s li as kldgely looked over the paper:
smn ellef had given him. The opium
h etes1 on the force Stunned ane
WIe In hunting to cover the me,
-'o were engaged in this illicit trade