Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-08-09

mo. fla fellow could catch him
he would make pretty good wages.
Let's see." And the second speaker
began to read the postal card that the
postmaster at Hard Scrabble had just
tackled to the door of the store that
constituted the office so that every
one might read:
TAKE HIM IN!
Five hundred dollars reward will be
paid for the arrest and delivery of
RUDE White to the Sheriff of Yavapia
County. He is about 25 years old,
6 feet tall and slim, with light COM
plexion and has a big scar on the
right side of his face. He is wanted
for robbery and other crimes. If
killed in resisting arrest the reward
will be paid on satisfactory proof OF
his identity. When last heard from
he was making for the Tonic Basin
country.
BY the time the reader had finished
crowd of a half dozen or more men
surrounded him.
NOW, If that Teller is headed for
the Tonic Basin country it wouldn't
be much of a trick to take him in, /"
said the first speaker, reflectively, as
if debating with himself the advisa-
bility Of making the attempt.
IF you hear me, he amt going to
be taken in, and the Teller that tries
it is going to have his hands full.
They have been after him for two or
three years and amt got him yet.
They say he is right on the shoot, I"
remarked another of the crowd.
well, Teller ought to know him
as soon as he sees him from that de-
scription," hazarded the first speaker,
''if he got up close enough to see the
scar; and then all he'd have to do
would be to turn loose at him il he
didn't throw up his hands when you
told him. Besides, nobody but him
would try to cross over the mountains
into the basin with the snow on the
ground. Blamed if don't think I'll
go after him."
"Well, somebody ought to round
him up" asserted someone in the
crowd; ''he's been foolin' 'roun hyar
long enough, jes' havin' his own way,
sorter as il the country belonged to
him. Blamed if / wouldn't go with
you, Hi, if l didn't have to take this
grub over to the boys in camp"
"Well, if any of you want to go,
all right. Pm going" replied the
man addressed as Hi.
1t was not the first time that Hi
Lansing had been on such expedi-
tions. He was one Of those men for
whom danger seems to have fascina-
ton. At his remark Frank Crandall,
q young fellow who had been stand
ing quietly by, volunteered to ac-
company him. The crowd turned to-
ward him with more interest than
they had thus far evinced during the
entire proceedings. 1t was but a few
months since he had come among
them, fresh from the east, to take
charge of one of the mines which had
been closed down by the winters
storms. For weeks he had been
cooped up in the isolated settlement,
and he longed for something to break
its monotony.
"Well, get your horse and gun and
come" replied Hi, and in an instant
the two men had left the room to arm
and equip themselves for the chase,
while the loungers gathered about
the stove to discuss the probabilities
of their success. In a few minutes
the men rode past the door, each
armed with a rifle and six-shooter
and the crowd, stepping out, babe
them good. by, with the oft-repeated
warning: BE keerful, and don't let
him get the drop on ye."
The crust of the unbroken snow
cracked crisply under foot as the two
men rode on, fast leaving the little
settlement in their rear. For some
time neither spoke, but at last the
silence was broken by Lansing ask
ing his younger companion: "Did
you ever try this kind of thing be-
fore?'
mo" replied the young man; Il
never have"
"Well, then, you want to be keer-
full. IL you don't lose your head
you're all right. The only danger is
that we may run on him before we
know it.
"And IL we do, what them" asked
the young man.
"Well, he will probably commence
shooting, and If he does and you
aren't hit the first rattle out Of the
box, why, you want to git Off your
horse and git behind something and
shoot back. IL ther amt anything
to get behind, keep your horse be-
tween you and him, and keep a-shoot-
ing. Whatever you do, don't let go
of your gun. But what we want to
do is to see him first, and then we've
got the play on him; and all you
have to Is to tell him to throw up"
"And IL he don't throw up?" asked
Crandall.
"Why, then you let him have it.
The reward will be paid just the
same"
The apparent Indifference with
which Lansing spoke OF the entire
matter, much as il he were discuss
ing the best method of hunting a
wild animal, shocked the young man I;
but he had committed himself too far
to withdraw.
They had been riding for several
hours in silence through the snow,
unbroken by aught save the scattered
pines that here and there dotted the