Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-03-14

''HULLO, SHERIFF, WHEN'S THE TRIAL
COMING OFF?"
they could not always even give away.
The strikes and riots ended, it sudden
1y occurred to Col. Rand that he hadn't
shot bear in years, SO he went up
around by the all-rail route, taking a
couple of friends, and such was his en-
thusiasm that he could not hear enough
about what other parties had been do
ing in that line. Game laws did not
obtain on Indian lands in those days,
except such as the indian and his keep
ers agreed upon, and even late in May,
it seems, some eager sportsmen had
come out from the Missouri and gone
into the Tomahawk range, guided by
clerk in the agency and Lame john
n.y." haf-bred Sioux. For man so
interested at the start, it must be
owned that Rand tired rather soon of
the sport. He left his friends at the
agency after a day or two of desultory
shooting, and went back to headquar-
tiers.
Then the troops began to reappear at
their station, as their services were no
longer needed; and the August suns
were beating hot and dry on the valley
and the Eleventh were once more re-
stored to Ransom. and began the work
of Strengthening out their quarters
and stables, and the new first Heuten-
ant of Troop D saluted his predecessor,
its present captain, and Schramm
blushing1y invited his brother non
commissioned officers, all that could be
spared, one evening after their duties
al hn N at VS.
restaurant in town, where a bountiful
supper was provided, and where each
man was RECALLED with such drink as
he most fancied, and where Schramm
in very effective speech proposed the
health of their new captain, which they
drank with cheers, and the memory of
their gallant comrade Schultz, which
| they honored in soldier silence.
Nothing like this had happened in the
annals of the regiment. ''Why, it must
| have cost him sixty or seventy dol
| lars" said Sergt. Bowman, as they
rode back to the post that night. One
| of their number in a jocular mood
thought it appropriate to ask Schramm
had he been holding up" another pay
master, or was this what was left of
| the last one? whereat Schramm looked
his interrogation full in the face for a
few seconds without as much as chang
| ing color or saying a word, and then,
| turning calmly away, resumed his chat
with their first sergeant, who as the
| senior guest at the feast was placed at
the right hand of their host. It was
| evident that Schramm would have no
| witticism on that head.
But if Schramm took it in dignifed
| silence, the sheriff did not. It grew to
be the popular thing for the troopers
just then to hail this magnate with the
query: ''Hullo, sheriff, when's the
trial coming off?' The "boys," as they
sometimes called themselves, had much
resented it that the officials and the
public were so ready to accept the
theory that only members of the Elev-
| enth cavalry could have planned and
perpetrated the deed Hence, as time
| wore on and the evidence against
Schultz and Schramm wore off and the
sheriff seemed drifting further from a
solution of the mystery, the boys took
keener delight in chatting the civil
authority on the public streets and In
spring him to mighty blasphemy and
| portentous threat.
"You fellows had better keep civil
tongues in your heads" said he, with
many lurid expletive, the night after
the Schramm supper. you may think
it id smart to chaff about this. Per
haps you soldiers can turn to now and
catch the fellers that ran of with your
money. If it wasn't soldiers that die
it, by =, I'll lay any bet no soldier car
say who else done it."
Aweek later, however. when the story
OF the sheriff's wager, with weeping
and with laughter" was being told a
Ransom in connection with the lveli
est episode In Ransom's annals, there