Connecticut western news., 1893-08-24
CONN, THURSDAY AUGUST

the larger share of her earnings, bore his blows with meekness and would have driven a stiletto into the man who con- quered him in an encounter. But Hall was saying:
 "We learned at San Angelo yesterday that Brown was at the cattle ranch. Sergeant Watson got quite thick with the girl Press, but she knew nothing about Brown or pretended ignorance. We intended to reach the ranch at sun- set, but the mortimer stopped us.
 "That girl Press is devoted to Brown and would raise money some way to bribe Mexican to warn him, but money would not hire Mexican, or any other man, to face this mortimer, so there is no danger that he will be on guard. He cannot escape unless he was caught out on the range in the storm and is now at some other ranch"
 There was only a faint glow in the east when we mounted our horses next morning. The mortimer had spent it's fury, and the promise of a pleasant day was borne on the soft winds of the south. Only faint tremor, lingering chill in the early air, as if the trees and grass were shaking off the coldness of the night. A sharp ride to the westward, sun was seen in the horizon we drew rein in the wood some hundred yards from the house where Jack Brown was supposed to be hiding. The ranchhouse was wretched thing constructed of up- right poles, the cracks being filled with mud. At the rear shed with 8 sloping roof. The house had been built within 8 few feet of the stream where the bank was some 12 feet high. A door in the front room opened to the southwark one in the shed to the north.
 Like Indians surrounding the cabin of the settler, the rangers stationed them selves in the form of horseshoe around the house, the points" or "heels" of the shoe resting on the bank of the stream when the rear door could be commanded by cross fire. I confess I felt, as l watched these preparations, very much as I imagine robber must feel while he reconnoiters a dwelling when intent upon some unlawful undertaking. Ev- erything was ready. Captain Hall, Lieu tenant Ward, Caswell and four rangers rode to the front of the house and stopped some hundred feet from the door. Then, for the first time, we saw horse tied to post near the doorway. Steam was rising from it's sides; low dropping head and hollow Hanks showed that the brute had been ridden long and hard.
 "One of the men has just got home," whispered Captain Hall as he dismount- ol mi 6x,@ 0f %lo gers, while the fourth held the horses, he walked to the door.
 'Hellol" was the response to his knock. A short barley, demand for admittance, profane reply and then the sharp re- port of a rifle. One of the rangers turned his back toward the house, took one step and fell heavily on his face. Crashi A dozen winchesters sent dozen bullets into the house. Some struck the poles, but few found their way through the mud mended cracks. No order to seek shelter of a tree was needed now. In two minutes Lieutenant Ward and Cas- well had added their rifles to the fire, and after it was all over I found that the magazine of my own winchester was empty.
 The passion of man hunt conquers, as it always will until in the evolution of time the intoxication of battle is out bred from human nature. don't know how long we fired or how long the answering shots came from the shanty, but suddenly the door was flung inward, and man stepped boldly out.
 An instant the rifles cooled. I saw Jack Browns gaudy sombrero, its wide rim and massive crown glistening with silver ornaments. Black hair hanging to the shoulders, the leather ''chaps'' of a cowboy, and then-straight outward shot two arms, gleaming black eyes sighted two heavy colts, and at their report ranger dropped his rife because a bullet had shattered an arm. Then a volley.
 The broad hat slipped downward over the black eyes, straight up in the air two pistols sent their harmless lead and to the ground in heap sank the body. The rangers on guard at the rear ran toward the front when their ears told them the outlaw had braved his fate. We gathered around the fallen man, all honoring in our hearts the hopeless daf- ing of his death, and Captain Hall lifted the sombrero from his face.
 1.-The devilP' he yelled. "Run to the rear, boys!''
 Too late! Idle to beat the bush. Use less a nasty hunt through the timber. Long afterward we knew that from the ] limb. of an oak, around which wild i grapevine had woven it's dense foliage, Jack Brown saw sight which would I have redeemed a being worth, in the broad economy of eternal time, the trou- ble of redemption.
 Love had faced that awful storm. | Love had done it's best to bring a warn | ing. Love laid down it's life that mis- erable and worse than worthless man might spring out of door, plunge over ! an embankment and hide in tree. l AS tenderlJ as if her life had been all | purity and her soul all untouched by sin we bore her body to the fort, and the next day, decently dressed in the gar ments of her sex, the body of Press was consigned to an unmarked grave on 8 barren hill not many yards from the spot where Brown used to beat her. | And no larger funeral had been seen 1 on the frontier.-C. w. Hunter in Short | Stories.
 The Cornerstone Was Not Laid. I