Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-22

hWho killed him?'
"That's the question There WASH t
a wound or a mark on him, just 'cept a
blue spot on his temple, and bis revolver
was in his hand and there wasn't a sign
of anybody bout
"What did your father Think" said
CHS, not quite ready with an explanation.
"Oh, he reokoned it was moonshiners;
but he and Cobbs and some more men
rode over there the next morning and
searched all around, but they couldn It
lind anything. And papa and Cobbs -
Ally's face lighted out of its stolidity-
Hpapa and Cobbs and Henri staid all
night. just remember how Sally cried,
she was so afraid something would hap
pen to papa, and 1 reckon I cried too,
thinking how the hsnts might kill him
and Cobbs. But they wouldn't let me
go, just hollered on Uncle Joe Peat and
he took me home
"Why, did you follow them?" eyes,
said Ally, with q shame-faced look
erode after them on my pony, with my
shot gun and the sharpest kitchen cary
ing-knife and rode home bellering all the
way and lost the carving-knife. 1 tell
YOU Aunt Cindy was rarin' on me for
that.
"Oh, bout two years ago. We never
did find out anything. And there
wasn't any whisky for sale, so 1 don It
guess it was moonshiners. Papa reck-
ons it was, though; but Cobbs reckons it
was sure ghosts. -
Cecil looked at Ally musing by trying
the edge of his blade with his fingers;
after all, though he was such q little
savage, Ally was about as braYe as a
boy could be. He thought of the stout
hearted, superstitious little creature rid
ing with his shotgun and his carving
knife; he remembered the simple sdmi-
ration which both the children had
shown him and which he had taken quite
as his due, being SO used to fiattery and,
all at once, something deep down in the
lad g nature gave him some very curious
twings.
1t was ridiculous for little man of
the world to feel abashed and ashamed,
but Cts recalling Ally IS look OF mortifi-
cation and disappointment that morning
had a taste of both those bitter feelings.
"I daresay he would have done as
much for me this morning, - thought
CHS; "but he wouldn't now.
He felt tingling desire to win Ally's
admiration back. Very likely it was
this as much as anything else that made
him else and say carelessly; "well, we
can I find the store in the dark SO per-
haps we would better be going"
fYou don't mean you want to stay
there tonight, - cried Ally, his jaw
falling.
tWhy notP We don't believe in
ghosts, and If there were moonshiuers
they Will have gone a long time since.
1t is plainly impossible for us to get
home and 1 think it would be rather a
lark, don I you?''
''No," SAID Ally, "I'd hate it terri
bly,
''wen. want to see the house. 1
never saw haunted house. The fellows
in Chicago will laugh if 1 get so near a
real, genuine haunted house and don't
take peek. 1 say, Ally, you show me
the way and you can stay outside and
III go in.
Ally had resumed his logged air. can
right, - he said, rather sulkily, "if you
want to go SO bad, III carry you. But
you Il wish you hRdn 'ti''
Here was not a gracious acquiescence,
but, for once, Cecil did not feel disposed
to criticism; in an obscure way, he was
touched by Alan e refusal to desert him,
and st the same time his former desire to
impress the Southern boy was sharpened.
He tried to awaken Ally IS enthusiasm by
describing what fun it would be to tell
about their adventures next morning.
eyes" Ally admitted, doubtfully,
elf we ain t killed up some way before
morning"
But if Cecil eloquence could not con-
vince Ally, who certainly was not an
imaginative boy, at least, it fully con-
quered his own fancy. He could see
himself rehearsing his adventures to the
boys at home. Oh, no, he wouldn 4
talk of them as adventures, or brag, or
be cad about It; he would just say in a
careless way that he had once spent a
night in haunted house; then they
would ask him about 1t and he would