Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-03-14

on fire. They were windows rejecting
the red madness of the soul on fire. Be
fore noon Jesse had left town. Perry, the
hOtel-keeper, gathering moss-agates Oh
the buttes, saw him, like a wolf upon
tail, steal off among the ravines along
the Santa Fe road. Two weeks afterward
4 Mexican train arrived in town, and the
wagon-master reported the following Oc-
tcurrence. Near the crossing of the Pur-
gatory his men, while grazing the oxen,
came upon two dead bodies thus grotes-
quely situated:
There was an old feed box for table,
and on each side sat corpse-Ore of
woman, the other of a man. Evidently
placed in sitting posture after death,
their heads had fallen close together, and
the hands, which lay upon each other,
covered Catholic prayer-bcok. The
work OF murder had been bunglingly
done IN the case of the girl, as if the STAY
er's hand had half refused the task. The
wagon-master even thought, from the
clotted blood on her hair and the charac-
ter of the wounds, that she might have
fallen while warding off from her compan-
ion the blows of the sudden night
attack. 1t was CHASTITY marriage which
the murderer had performed, in uniting
the stlffening fingers of the sorrowful
couple while Death stood by as priest.
The dreadful GOODNESS of the avenger who
could thus slay, and then arrange the
dead IN mlmicry of marriage, belonged
peculiarly to the plain.
1t was month or more before Jesse
returned to Sheridan. Interest in the
matter had died out and / do not know
hot IL
asked. The dwarf drank and fought and
gambled, and was one of the characters"
as before.
The most remarkable man, as a speci-
men of plain-craft, that ever met OH the
frontier wasComstock. Learning the ru-
dlments of his future pursuits while yet a
child, his playthiDgs had been revolvers
and knives. Unlike the great army of
pretenders who have flashed across the
pages of the plain-land fiction, he was an
Indian scout and soldiers guide after the
pattern which went out of fashion with
Boone and his ilk. From the sole of his
nervous foot to the locks of his raven
hair he stood out bold man in council
and a sleuth-hound on the trail. He was
at Fort Wallace, and for a short
period preceding his death at Fort Hays,
in government service. This one was the
only enc [ ever knew who would execute
the daring task of riding into hostile In
dian camps with messages from United
States officers. Was a request for coun-
Gil with the tribes to be sent, he bore it.
Alone, on the back of feet mule, COM
promise himself between the Indian and
the pale-face, he would take his way out
into the wild waste, and fade against the
horizon on a mission the further end of 1
which seemed to lie at the feet of death. |
Comstock's mother was said to have been
a Delaware. Small and sinewy in person !
and dark in feature, this mans power lay |
in his grand eyes. Large and wild in |
their light, they seemed to flash over and |
around you as if searching for revolver |
1T your back. / saw him first while stand
ng in the door OF a stage ranch at Pond
Creek. He paused for an instant in front
While on his way with message from the
at Wallace to a hostile
ribe on the Republican. Stopping but
moment to speak with Nichols, the ranch
leeper, he leveled those shining eyes at
ne with the precision a man would
lave used with field-glasses. It was but
N instant yet felt as if 1 had been pho
ographed, and could be hunted the world
,ver by him did he ever have occasion. I
bought of it afterward as the most I'M
pleasant optical experience of my life
This mans unpretending exploits would
urnish volumn of really valuable his
DRY, all the more to be priced from GER
ainty of being under rather than over
lrawn. And it would be refreshing to
AVE one tale of genuine border expert
nee, after the food OF stuff which has
,orne forward to fame our bUckskin hero
g. Yet COmstock had a full share of
hose blemishers which are held by all
,ut ideal Misunderstanding. To revenge
swindle of few dollars he shot an m
rmed man In the suffers store at Wal
ace. The victim was a former partner
nd twisting in and ont among the bar
els and boxes in an agony of fear, he
pleaded for life piteously and vainly
This murder, however. darkened and
lung over the slayer's life like cloud.
Hitherto his reputation had been fair:
low he felt the blot upon it. ALWAYS
by virtue of his mothers
,lood, he brooded in silence, and fancied
vii influences existing in certain signs
nd days. But he was the man of all
thers for military necessities. His know
oNSC VI LbbloLi Sllll caClCl du0 udDlIS WAS
erfect. [ remember one instance in
7hich he foretold to day the death of !
ONE wood-choppers. These men had |
zen cutting down small grove of trees
"A patch of foliage On hundred miles !
f desert. Comstock told them to beware t
tating that it had been the resting-places
Or the dead of the tribes crossing there. !
'hese red rovers never bury a corpse, but 5
ash it to the limbs of tree, or stretch it T
ut on high platform underneath. Not $
the well meant warning. the a
hoppers piled their axes, and the scout Q
ffrmed that the at the next full moon the $
avages would avenge the sacrilege. The i
laughed: No Indians had
cen in the country for months APPARENT
:, and the wood could be safely housed
/ the fort before they knew that the first
xe had sounded its alarm among their
cad.
When the next full moon shed its light =
own among the fallen trees the beams :
IL on the pale faces of two dead chop
ers. Some wandering savage, fitting by
ke shadow, had seen the white men at
leir task, and carried the news to his dis
mt village.
Nok ,,o1x ,,oookbe oe4a- A. ...------- ! y