Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-11-08
WHERE'S GABE?'

embarrassed with the burden OF Ill news
he bore.
whats become O. Gabe?" she asked,
in shriller tone.
"He-he's been kerried off," STAN
mered Link at last.
"Kerried Off" echoed the expectant
bride, neutrality-suspicious."
IL dunno-the Government officers
hev tuck im," responded Link, now
grown loquacious since the ice of his
reserve was broken.
"Jes' ez he war gettin' ready ter
come over hyar, lot O. pot cutters rid
up an ketched i'm, an tuck i'm way
with 'em down ter tn valley kentry
They foun' his still, too, an cut an
burnt that up. He got word ter me ter
come right street erlong an let yer all
know bout his bad luck an why he
couldn't come hisse'f."
1t was all too true: even then this hap
less groom was being hurried further
and further away from his waiting
bride and the merry company who had
gathered to witness his marriage, as the
officers, with their unlucky prisoner,
rode along the winding mountain way
toward the valley lands and the Fed
eral court, in which he was to be tried
for illicit shilling.
While his fate under ordinary circum-
stances would have been o matter OF
comparative Indifference, it was now q
thing of the utmost moment to him,
and the young mountaineer was beset
with harassing fears.
This anxiety of mind lasted him
throughout the slow. tedious journey
down to the valley lands, and through
the Imprisonment which followed, until
the slow process of the law had fixed
his punishment at two years in the State
prison.
Two years of captivity to him vino
had been as free as the bird and beast
of his native hills, yet even he Jailed at
first to realize how many weary days
could be crowded into two long years of
waiting.
IL he could have hidden his sweet
heart goodbye, and whispered into her
ear how lasting was his love, and en-
treated her to be of good cheer until he
came back, fate would not have seemed
so cruel, but to be thus dragged away
on his very bridal night, that was, in
deed, trying ordeal. Nor was this
lessened when one day there came to
his knowledge, through a guard, who
had been among the raiders when he
was captured, the fact that he had been
betrayed into their hands and the secret
location Of his still revealed by one Of
the mountaincers of that region.
On closer questioning, and after a
more minute description Of the man by
the guard, Gabe Hardesty suddenly
guessed that his betrayer was none other
than Milt Spurlock, his rival in the af-
fections of the pretty girl he was so soon
to have welded.
From this moment the tortures OF
jealousy were added to his already I'M
happy lot
He had so nearly gained the coveted
prize, that until this moment, he had
never once doubted her constancy or
love; but now a thousand horrible fears
dashed him with their relentless scourg-
ing.
He grew hollow-eyed and thin, while
his customary lethargy gave place to a
fierce restlessness, like some captive
animal pining for its native jungles.
His very dreams we're filed with UNI
happiness and unrest
Again and again the fair vision Of the
pretty mountain girl disturbed his
slumbers, yet now it was ever married
by the dark shadow of Milt Spurlock,
which seemed to hover always near.
Once he dreamed that his marriage
was taking place in the cabin on the
hillside. yet after the ceremony was
over he saw, all at once, that the groom
was not himself but that Milt Spurlock
had usurped his place, and he awOke in
Q great tremor.