Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1889-05-22

and thoughts from the Dayton affair.
At ldst~
With thrill and start, the detect
i've projected the last words. They
conveyed q marveling token of excite
ment and hope.
For he had happened to read the
last memoranda in the papers given
him by the chief, and its last line was
a wonderful revelation to his excited
mind
"These smugg1ers, the penciled sent
ence ran, z are supposed to have haunt
down the coast. Lee Kirby and Will
lam Page, noted desperadoes, are act
i've members of the band. It is limited
that the moving spirit and moneyed
hacker is one Perciyal Aylmer."
"Aylmerl" gasped the startled de-
tective. @Ah! if it is indeed he, it is a
clue at last. All the perils of earth
shall not prevent me reaching that
man, and through him the woman I
loye-stolcn, bereaved Grace Dayton"
"Quick! off with the top of the
barrel; out with the opium. We have
no time to lose. Some one may come.
It was q little after midnight, and
the scene was a deserted wharf. In
side of it, standing beside a huge,
many-hooped hogshead, was Walter
Ridgely; near him, hammer and chisel
in hand, fellow-detective, and just at
the door, closely watching the wharf
and the street leading to it, was third
member of the agency.
"How did you come to work it.,
Ridgely?" asked the man with the
hammer, as he ripped off the top hoop.
Easily. I spotted the Osprey as
she sailed into the harbor at dusk. A
hundred rods from the wharf some of
the sailors boldly tipped out this hogs
head. To the inspector aboard they
said that it contained straw and fever
infected bedding, and as it foated
away, and no one paid attention to it,,
the inspector believed it"
"And it was this barrel?"
"The same. 1 was in yawl and
followed in the wake of the hogshead.
About two hundred yards. down stream
two men in small boat were waiting
for it. They drew it ashore at this de-
serted spot, attached hooks, dragged it
into this shed, and went away after Sc
curing the door, [ heard them say
that at two o'clock-an hour hence
they would take it to the den. I went
for you two. That's all there is in it..
Remove the contents"
"And arrest the men when they
Gomez"
"Not at ALL"
"Eh?"
"No; it's their haunt we are anx-
ious to locate. Remove the opium, if
opium it is, and hoop the barrel up
again"
81 don't understand"
"And me inside of it!'
Yes, that was audacious Walter
Ridgely's scheme. His fellow officer
glowed with admiration at his bravery,
but shook his head obviously.
Done up in paper, then in water
proof cloth, and finally in tinfoil,
pound after pound, package after
package of the smuggled opium was
taken out of the barrel.
All of this was hidden under heap
of straw in one corner of the shed.
Then Ridgely got into the hogshead,
the top was secured. In his close
quarters he called out to his COM
panion, as the last nail was driven
home:
Keep us in view, but not too closely,
so as to arouse suspicion, and do not
act till I signal by whistle"
Gall right" Then silence and dark
ness, for Ridgely's assistant and the
guard had left the vicinity of the shed.
Ridgely had just completed cutting
an air-hole through a stave, when
wagon wheels sounded outside.
Through the small orifice he had
made he could make out two roughly
dressed men. They iolted him ter
ribly as they proceeded to roll the
hogshead out of the door, up plank,
and into wagon. Then one took up
the lines, the other sat on the barrel
as if to watch if they were being fol
lowed, and the vehicle started up.
1t traversed mile OF two of deserted
city streets, struck off for the suburbs,
and finally threaded a lonely thorough
fare leading south down the coast.
Day was advanced many hours when
the wagon halted. The detective, glanc-
ing through the aperture, made out a
kind of rambling cabin, and beyond il
what seemed boarded-up cave.
Several desperate-looking men came
out and regarded the hogshead crit
cally. Then it was rolled through the
doorway of the boarded-up cave, and
then four weary hours went by for the
cooped-in Ridgely.
Voices sounded on his hearing al
last. CHANGING forth, the detective
saw two men. One of them had driven
from some dark compartment of the
cavern mule. Across it's back were
strung two enormous baskets, such as
are used in South America to convey
merchandise.
"There you are, Aylmer," spoke this
AN, "to order, as you wanted it. You're
! s,oing to great bother, it seems to me-
to get out of the district. Why not &c
boldly, without all this trouble?"
Il dare take no risks" was the re
ply. "This is the best way. You
know the information we have-that
the detectives have located us. If this
is so, I may have difficulty in reaching
Villavosa, even disguised as am. Yor
attend to affairs here try to get what
goods we have to Villavosa Once saft
with the girl there, wen lie low unit
the scare is over, and the officers of
| our track"