The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-06-06
BEHIND THE ROCK.

M
BEHIND THE ROCK.
Here on the mountain side. with the
rough wagon trail passing the door and
winding upward among the trees and rocks
in an undecided way, a. II fearful Of losing
itself In the solitude. IL mountaineer's
rude cabin. An old blanket answers for q
door. There 10 Mother sash nor glass in tho
places Ont for windows. u
On q log at the door are q woman and a
boy-mother and son. She il tall and Qaunt;
she il wrinkled and gray. The boy 10 not
over twelve years Of age. She 10 smoking
her pipe. while both gaze into the woods
opposite and are silent. II has been 30 for
an hour.
tits time, TOMB said tho woman at
Last, az sha knocked the ashes from her pipe
and rose up.
!. II il four o'clock in the afternoon OF a
July day. The boy follows her into tho
house without q word. There ID ! bundle
lying on the aarthen ioor and ! gun stand
ing in the corner. She lifts up the bundle
and he shoulders the gum. The bundle
contains a couple Of hoeoakes and some
meat; the gun has been loaded with buck
~ #sE E I'
shot.
The woman passed out and the boy fol-
lowed. They did not walk side by side as
they descended the trail, but she led and be
followed. They did not look to the right
or left, but straight ahead. There was no
haste, no lettering. Squirrels barked at
tbem from the tree tops. but neither looked
up. A fox crossed the trail only a few feet
-. - 49, -sAk = vuch h~k kbn~ .n>a.
no comment.
ut was right we're, TOMB
They had descended the trail about a
mile and halted whore the east and west
trail CROSSED. It was a lonely spot. with
only rocks and trees for surroundings.
1T was right yere!' she whispered. as
found him lyin' dead. shot through b The
head by Abe Taylor, who was ambushed.
That vas q long six Vars ago. I've bin
yxaitin' fur 70 to grow and aie'. The time
The boy leaned on the gun and looked
around him. He had seen the place many
times before. 1t was called Dead Mans
Crossing" Away back in the past he could
remember of 4 dead body being broughtd
into the cabin-of tears and vows-of =
burial scarce twenty feet from the door.
eyes every day for six years.. Never a night
but what the mother had said:
'lts n day nearer, Iom-one day
For five minutes they stood at the CROSS
ing and looked up and down and about.
behind that rock. Tom; that's whar' |
Abe Taylor ambushed!
An hour later the echo of an iron shoe
striking against the stone wal heard, and q |
minute after horse n rider came into
view.
ITS only Steve Bailey,' whispered the
woman az she put q wrinkled hand on the
boys shoulder.
The sun went down and night came on.
At nine O'Clock more echoes were heard |
from the rocky trail. and for a minute the
tree toads and cricksts hushed their music
in alarm.
Its Jim Wharton on his white mewl!'
whispered the woman, and mar and beast
passed on into the deeper darkness Of the
trail to the east without suspicion.
An hour later the boy slept as no leaned
against the great rock. At sunrise the boy
opened his eyes to find his mother looking
at him with a smile on her face.
Him will pass to-day, fur shore!'' she
said, a. she brought out the bread and
meat for luncheon.
''Then him will be a dead manv' an.
swered Tom. as he began eating.
At seven O'Clock they were watching and
waiting. So at 8, 8, 10. IL. Now and then
they looked at each other, but not a word
was spoken: There was NO need of speech.
A thousand times in the six years named
as she was now. On thousand different
occasions she had said to the boy:
ABB Taylor ambushed, yer pap down at
the Crossin'. Pm CROWN ye up to ambush
Abe the same way"
The summer sun was drawing near the
MONDAY mark when a merry whistle echoed
from the eastern trail and the mother
raised her hand in warning. The boy !
showed the barrel of the gun over the rock
for a rest: He did not turn pale; he did
not breathe faster.
cts Abel" whispered the mother behind
him, as the footsteps we're heard on the
trail.
The man WAS in a merry mood. His
whistle ceased and he began singing. Six
years ago that very day he had been hiding
his heart. As he pulled the trigger 4 mar
pitched of his mule and gaspsd two or
three times aud was dead. He had stood
and looked down as him without regret or
pity, and had gone away to boast of his
bloody deed. Did no warning come to him
now! Was he singing TO break the terrible
solitude Of the spot until he had passed by?
Now, Tom"
There was a fash. q report. a shout and
the echo of the horses footsteps grew
fainter and fainter and finally died away
altogether down the trail.
VAL AS"b
They moved out together from behind the
rock and stood looking at a corpse on the
trail. The distance had not been over
twenty feet. and the heavy charge of buck
shot. striking the man in the side, had al
most cut his body in two. He was dead be-
fore he left tho saddle.
'Him's wiped-come on!"
So said the woman after a couple of min
utes, and she started up the trail with the
boy following 40 they had come down.
Never a word between them as they walked
homeward--nsver q glance behind to SEQ il
ne followed. Az they. came TO the log at
woman filled her pine and began smoking.
The boy laid ths gun across thu log, claspea
his hands over his knee and looked into tho
woods. The woman said:
YVES dun got even now!"
"Yes, dan got even" he ansvered.-M
Quad. in st. Louis Republic.
A Little Girls Experience In = Lighthouse,
MI. and Mrs. Loren Trescott are keepers
Of the government Lighthouse at Sand