The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-11-02
CHAPTER Xxx

CHAPTER Xxx
The one man who seemed to have
the clearcst comprehension of all this
was Hendricks, who, from his retreat
underground, watched by some in
scrutable process every move that was
made. Gen. Waterson reached Laran
on the Goth of July. He left New
York just six hours before the police
began to look for him, and he found
that four hundred and fifty of his men
had preceded him to the Laran. Dur
ipr his absence the sanitarium had
| been burned to the ground. This took
place on the Sth. On the 9th Gen.
Luscomb's party had been attacked in
the rear. The general had been killed
and his men routed. Those that es-
capped got in at Covington and re-
ported the sanitarium burnt and the
gang gone eastward. In the public
mind this appeared to explain the APP
pearancc of the regiment in New York
on the 18th.
About ten miles east of the Laran
snugly perched on the side of wild
glen is a solitary Swiss cottage. 1t is
built of stone and looks down upon a
rugged but beautiful country. 1t is
just three miles from the town of
Hoxie on branch of the Tennessee
railroad where there is post Office
and telegraph station. The people in
the town understand that an eastern
literary woman who has an enormous
mail has hired the place on account
of its seclusion and salubrity. She
has a pony and two servants, one
of whom is a man, and she comes to
town frequently with her pony to
mail her letters, get her papers and
meet an occasional visitor from the
east whom she takes back with her.
This literary woman is Mrs. Hen
bricks In her pretty little boudoir
on the secoud floor she has a tele-
graph instrument built into the wall,
and she communicates constantly with
Hendricks in the Laran by an under
ground wire that has been laid with
great care and expense through the
widest and most unfrequented part
of the intervening country and which
enters the cave through an artesian
drill that is hidden by four feet of soil.
In fragment of a preserved letter
of Hendricks he says: This wire cost
me more trouble and labor than any
thing else. 1t had to be laid at inter
walls after careful survey in order to
avoid observation. and it had TO follow
the unfrequented ways and escape the
possible surface water courses, for if it
had been barred and discovered my
enemies would have had the iron clew
that ran to the heart of my mystery"
The man servant in this establish
ment is none other than Fenning. The
room in which he and his companion
toll at their mail is tastefully furnished
vided with steel blinds. The two Royal
Dane mastiffs that have already been
seen at the sanitarium lie at full
length on the rug. They can be de-
pended upon to hear football on the
mountain side before it gets within a
hundred feet of the house.
Il this comfortable and secluded re-
treat Mrs. Hendricks is at work during
the latter part of July. The mails are
kept SuarCeOlE COVE 70 q correspond
ence of necessity and to the daily pa
pers from the large cities.
We can thus see how indifferent Hen
bricks was to the prospects of a siege.
He could safely and secretly direct the
movements of vast organization scat
tered through the country while he
and his immediate forces were safe
from molestation or disturbance while
their supplies lasted.
On or about the 2Sth of July,
Fennirg succeeded in getting Mrs.
Hendricks to send for Miss La
ports assistance. But that young
woman refused to leave Laran volun-
tarily. Fenning suspected the in
fuence of Stocking. Mrs. Hendricks
was sure of it. Preparations were then
made at Jennings suggestion to send
her at night under a strong guard to
meet him somewhere on the route,
when they were interfered with by the
news from Laran. This was ON the
S0th and Hendricks telegraphed;