Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1895-07-25
CHAPTER XVII.
PREY.

Ridgeton had something new to talk
about next day.
The oma who had been called by
Ralph Prescott to attend upon Ruth.
had told her story with dawn, and the
villagers were consequently treated to
q new bit Of gossip.
Her story was q remarkable one. She
had been summoned by Prescott to the
house OF the recluse, to find the pre-
tended nurse, the real Ruth, in a dead
faint, she said.
She extolled Prescott for his kindness
to the sufferer, as did the attendant
physician.
Later, Paul Dalton had appeared,
and had left hurriedly. She returned
to the sick-rOom to find the patient in q
worse swOon than before. She left her
. few minutes to 60 to her own home.
When she returned Ruth Elliott had
mysteriously disappeared.
Ralph Prescott fitted about town the
next day, apparently terribly anxious as
to the Whereabouts OF the missing girl.
He craftily circulated the story that
Paul Dalton had welded Ruth only to
gain her grandfather's fortune, and,
securing that, would disappear; that he
had undoubtedly secretly removed her
to some friends home, away from the
village.
Farmer John Elliott heard all this
gossip in silence, but with q lowering
brow.
What was Ruth to him now? What
Paul Dalton? What cared he for their
doings and intentions? They were
strangers to him henceforth and for
ever more!
SO several days passed by. The false
Paul Dalton either kept closely to his
room at the hotel, or did not appear in
town at all.
He visited Lawyer Drew several times,
and tried to hurry up the settlement Of
money to purchase som land to be had
at q bargain.
Ralph Prescott kept pretty clear track
OF his movements. The impostor sat
awaiting his arrival early one evening.
Affairs were about to m~aterIalize, the
schemers felt sanguine. The impostor
was anxious to secure the money and
escape, ere some new complication
baked his projects. Ralph Prescott was
determined to be on hand at the finish,
and insist on a fair division of the ILL
gotten booty of crime.
The false Paul Dalton had grown
terribly nervous Of late. That there
al q mystery about his past history;
that he might. il he would. explain many
q dark passage in the life Of the man he
personatei; that his own career had
been closely linked with that OF the i'm
prisoned man, Ralph Prescott was posi-
tive. but his new colleague In craftiness
refused to divulge his secrets.
The latter had been q changed man
since he received that warning misstve,
that menacing note that was signed
Isabel"
He started at his own shadow; he
rarely went out ON the streets until after
dark, and then his movements were un-
easy and watchful. The man was
haunted. He had bribed Ralph Pres.
colt to silence; he had closed the lips OF
Ruth Elliott, but there was another foe
that he feared, and he alone realized
why he SO dreaded her.
"6he means what she says" he mutt
tered c~OnceUlH, but she has made
no move yet-Sk16 made no effort to APP
pear. Oh! / must get the money. II
will buy comfort, luxury in = foreign
clime-it VIII place me beyond the reach
OF the law I fear. Why, Prescott! What
IL the natter"
The man he had been waiting for had
burst into the Q abruptly.