The Globe-republican., 1894-09-21

continuously. It is calculated that dur
ing the eight months over eleven hun
dred thousand dollars We're spent for
supplies. In the lists of purchases ap-
peared two items of unusual import
lone thousand magazine rifles
eighteen thousand dollars" They
were contracted for in the east by
western dealer ostensibly to be sold on
the plains and were bought in three
lots But they reached the Wash .
bayou without attracting attention,
for they were shipped in pieces at in
tervals and put together in the Laran
works The other item was-''five /
hundred polished nickel steel plates
made to order by the Corinth Steel
company and consigned to bradshaw
& Fenning, Memphis, Tenn" These
plates figured in the mysterious Laport
gun which afterwards caused such
CONSERVATION.
Hendricks, during these eight
months. had evidently calculated 70
offset the increased probabilities Of
exposure in making such vast pur-
chases by the increased security af-
forded when he got his material into
his foftress-and this alone would
show that he had other and vaster
schemes in allegiance, and that. after
all, the fitting out of the Laran cave
was only a provisional step to some
thing else.
Our imaginary Tsit, therefore. at
this time discloses at Laran al entirely
different condition of affairs The
sanitarium looks like rural hotel.
There are several persons on the broad
balcony. but they exhibit only the in
dolence of country boarders. The
warm sun lies peacefully on the lawns,
but there is a simmer in the air above
the big chimney which tells of great
volume of heat pouring into the blue
skv. There are servants about the
| kitchen and there are two Royal Dane
mastiffs with their heads on their
paws asleep on the steps of the main
| entrance.
There is not the slightest indication
| in this quiet hostelry hidden among the
trees and rocks of the g-eat slope on
which it stands of the activity under
meath its foundations.
The moment we arrive in the lower
domain, we find the place lighted as If
with the light of day: the hum of ma
chinerv and the murmur of voices reach
us. The whole area is encircled with
wooden structures, offices, warerooms
and habitations, some of them lastly,
though fimsily, built. In the center
of the area is pavilion and overhead
is big electric sunlight. On one Ut
the walls is the terminus Of Laport's
railway, with its suggestion of little
station and iron steps reaching down
to the stone flooring and a heavy crane
for landing tools. The coal measure
passage has been dug out evidently by
using the coal. But it is when we
Come to the rotunda that we shall be
astonished. This magnificent natural
temple is brilliantly lit and a regiment
of men is being drilled on its cleared
and almost smooth stone flooring. The
Devils Outlet is fenced in by an iron
rail-for one morning Miss EndicOtt
was caught walking on its brink and
looking over with horror pictured on
her face. She was rescued and Hen
bricks ordered the place rallied in.
From the unpainted railway station
which here is twenty-eight feet above
the solid level, Hendricks and three
men are watching the cvOlutions OF
the regiment which are in some re
spects wholly unlike anything ever
before seen in military tactics.
The vast spaces beyond the refunds
and quite up to the lake itself are
packed high with stores. 1t looks like
q series of endless warerooms or mon
strous depots and smells heavily like
one of those streets where all the com
modities of man obtrude themselve:
upon the sidewalks and impede travel
If we penetrate to the hog back area
we shall find that in its passages arr
stables and that there are not only
horses but mich COWS there and tina,
the great chasm in the south wall ha:
been converted into a magazine and
has heavy wooden doors across Its en-
trance. The mouth Of this chasm, i
will be noticed, owing to turn in thu
wall. faces directly north. The benches
of the Laport railway are only tw'
feet above the tops of the woode1
doors.
Vague rumors were in the air abou
the Tennessee sanitarium. The secre
service Of the government was in pos
session of the facts which set then
searching for the man known as tn
captain and they had traced him to tn
Mississippi. Vast quantities OF gol'
; had been paid out for goods sent t.
Laran. One fact elected another. Blu
inquiries failed to Identity Hendrick
, with the description given Of Kent a
t he appeared on the San Pedro and tn
4 Memphis bank said that he had gol
4 on deposit there prior to the robber
t of the Corinthian. The moment thl
a sort of inquiry got into the paper:
o facts were elected that could lead t
d but one conclusion in the end an
e events began to PORT Significant
y toward Laran.
: No one followed the slow develop
r ment of public suspicion so careful