The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1896-10-29

ened or smoldering surface, which at |
times struck out spark and fame from |
their heavier footprints as they passed. |
Their boots cracked and scorched be- !
meath them Their shreds Of clothing
were ON TIRE. Their breathing became
more difficult until providentially they
fell upon an abrupt, fissurelike depres-
sion of the soil which the fire had leap
ed and into which they blindly plunged
and rolled together. A moment Of relief
and GOODNESS followed as they crept
along the assure. filed with damp and
rotting leaves
why not stay here:'' said the ex-
hausted prisoner.
And be roasted like sweet potatoes
when these trees catch?" returned the
sheriff grimly mo" Even as he spoke
a dropping rain of fire spattered through
the leaves from a splintered redwood
before overlooked that was now blazing
fiercely in the upper wind A vague
and undefinable terror was in the air.
The contiagration no longer seemed to
obey any rule of direction. They scram-
bled out of the hollow and again dash
ed desperately forward.
Beaten, bruised, blackened and smoke
/ grimed, looking less human than the
/ animals who had long since deserted
the crest, they at last limped into a
wind opening" in the woods that the
fire had skirted. The major sank ex-
haustedly to the ground. The sheriff
threw himself beside him. Their strange
relations to each other seemed to have
been forgotten. They looked and acted
as if they no longer thought of anything
beyond the present And when the sher-
if finally arose, and, disappearing for
several minutes, brought his hat full of
water for his prisoner from a distant
spring that they had passed in their
fight, he found him where he had left
him, unchanged and unmoved.
He took the water gratefully and
after a pause fixed his eyes earnestly
upon his captor. 81 want you to do q
favor to me, he said slowly. 'I'm not
going to offer you bride to do it either
nor ask you anything that isn't in line
with your duty. l think / understand
, you now if / didn't before Do you
, know Briggs restaurant in Sacrament
! top
! The sheriff nodded.
; "Well, over the restaurant are my
, private rooms-the finest in Sacrament
, to. Nobody knows it but Briggs, and
i he has never told. They've been locked
, ever since left. I've got the key still
) in my pocket Now, when we get to
, Sacramento instead of taking me straight
. to Jail want you to hold me there as
your prisoner for day and a night.
' don't want to get away. You can take
r what precautions you like-surround
, the house with policemen and sleeI
1 yourself in the anteroom. l don't want
to destroy any papers or evidence YOU
can go through the rooms and examine
0 everything before and after. l only
: want to stay there day and night
: l want to be in my old rooms, have my
meals from the restaurant as used tt
and sleep in my own bed once more.
want to live for one day like gentle
man, as l used to live before cam,
here. That's all. 1t isn't much, Tom
You can do it and say you require t,
do it to get evidence against me or tina
you want to search the rooms.
The expression Of wonder which ha,
come into the sheriff face at the begin
ming of his speech deepened into his oil
look of surly dissatisfaction. San
that's all you want" he said gloomily
"You don t want no friends-no lawyer
For tell you straight out, major, ther
amt no hope for ye when the law ono
gets hold of you in Sacramento.
"That's all. Will you do it?"
The sheriff's face grew still darker
After pause be said: II dom say no
and don't say yes. But" he adde
grimly, sit strikes me we'd better wa
till we get clear Of these woods befol
you think of your Sacramento lodgings.
ID The major did not reply. The day ha
II worn on. but the fire, now completed
h encircling them, opposed any passage
re- or out of that fateful barrier. The smoE
X of the burning underbrush hung 10
rs around them in bank equally impen
le trable to vision. They were as alone
l. shipwrecked sailors ON an island girdlt
NJ by q horizon of Clouds
at ITO Be CoNTINUED.)