Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-11-21
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CHAPTER, I-tContinued.)

Meanwhile, the men who were walt
Sny for Dixon's return became a little
FESTIVE as the minutes dragged along
and he did not appear. Even the
ready means of beguiling time, COM
mon TO men of their stamp-the tell
Ing of highly seasoned and apropos
etories. in~terspersed with frequent IL
hations-began to pail. Some OF them
stole away to their neglected dinners,
returning shortly with a new sense
OF wonder as they still found him
absent.
And the dark figure lay there In
their midst, itself for the time for
gosten In the stories and conjectures
les presence had evoked, the faint
emile frozen on its unshaven lips, the
half open eyes fixed seemingly upon
che door with a terrible i~ntentness.
At last one OF the men who was
near a window overlooking the street
Uaid:
~He's COMM" and a moment or two
later, II swear he's paler'n the dead
man hlsself."
.Mebbe it's his long lost brother"
Neelarcd another. "They's men as
can't look at a corpse without turnin'
white around the gills, and Dixon's
one on 'em. I've see him afore. An
he Amt no coward, neither"
.No. he amt 10 coward" chorused
The others, and a moment or W later
Dixon pushed open the doer and came
kn- Every mans eye was drawn 10
his face. but he saw no me-. He
hooked straight before him into space.
Buckley" he said, addressing that
- Bsa YanVY ~ fttnC
f~I know this-man. Make arrange
tnents to have the-the body brought
20 my house at once, and to have the
Funeral from there tomorrow morn
fng."
He paused a moment, a kind Of click
Tn his throat, and then added, Let
me be present"
he turned and went out, and they
nav him with his head sunk on his
breast, walking homeward.
At the appointed hour the small
front room of Dixon's cottage was
oiled with men and women, drawn
thither in part through Difference to
Ais expressed desire, In part through
curiosity excited by the rumors which
had filed the air since the day before.
vie bouy VI nv c'tah-Sib wv
Ehrouded and coffined, rested upon a
bier in the center of the room. At
Sts head sat the minister OF the one
schurcs, of which the town could boast.
The people were very silent, even
more SO than the occasion seemed to
warrant. but they studied each others
faces furtively, as If each sought In
che other some clew 10 the mystery
which was to himself impenetrable.
They were plain. Woodworking peo-
ple, and, for the most part, decent,
Iaw-abidlng citizens. The man In
whose house they were assembled had
been with them for years. What he
had been before he came among them
they had never asked. 1t may be
that some OF them had some thing In
their own past they would have fam
FORGOTTEN. He had Won their respect
and confidence, and In time their af-
lection, for, as has been said, he was
generous, brave and helpful. He had
been their chosen leader. They had
hanared him with such small honors
as the Y had to Destow, and as h!s
reputation as n political writer n
speaker spread, other and higher
honors were more than limited at.
To-day they were disturbed and rest
-ss as II under the shadow of some
Impending change or calamity. At
Slgth a door opened n~oiselessly n